Adder, Daughter of Asp

And you know Asp?
11:26WindWolf19Yup!
11:26Proud-DustI think I have a decent hook for his dragonet.
11:26WindWolf19Oh?
11:28Proud-DustI'll name her either Adder (non-aggressive viper) or Asper (extension of Asp) and basically she's this: an naturally empathetic dragonet who was taught all Asp had to teach her in terms of hunting. Observation, poisons, weaponry, patience...
Except, given her better capacity of empathy and her hunter's mind taught by Asp, she's got the potential to be a better hunter than her father.
Given Asp isn't the most empathetic and relies less on intuition and more on rigorous studying and planning for his hunts.
And has taught his daughter to try and shut down her empathy and compassion because "the hunt doesn't need it. The hunter feels no pity for the hunted."
11:34WindWolf19Huh.
Interesting
11:34Proud-DustAnd she can't exactly shut it down naturally. It takes an intense focus to shut it down and not think about the feelings and/or pain those targets will be in when she strikes. And, after every hunt, she digs a little grave for them as if she wants to bury her feelings into the earth.
11:35WindWolf19Hmmm
That's sad
11:36Proud-DustAnd, over time and the years, she's learnt how best to destroy the bodies of prey. How best to insert the poisoned edge to maximize efficiency. Which area of the head to cause concussed and collapse.
Even those of dragonkind, if she should choose.
11:37WindWolf19Uh oh....
11:37Proud-DustBut at the same time, she's a naturally kindly dragon who doesn't enjoy murder for the sake of it.
And doesn't enjoy her father's killings once she fingers onto them.
And, well, someone who doesn't like needless killings is going to object to Asp's hunter-for-hire profession.
11:39WindWolf19Yup. They aren't going to get along exactly
Proud-DustBut that's not going to stop the fact that her father taught her how to hunt. She's learnt hunting skills and she's got the knowledge to break the body down systematically.
She *does* love her father a ton. And her empathy comes in handy with interacting with him and seeing the tells on his face. How his eye can lower just a tilt and convey much sadness and regret.
It gives her a read on her father that no one else can surpass, given that and their time together.
And all that just complicates their relationship. The idea that you commit terrible acts towards others (killing for coin) for good ends (tending to a child).
So she simply chooses to use his skills... but to maximize the efficiency in giving her animal prey a painless death. To strip all the meat from the bones. Make the best and use the most of her resources.
Hunting only when it's absolutely necessary to for food.
And making sure to never forget the lives that died to give her and her father further life as food.
11:47WindWolf19That's kind of a nice thought?
11:48Proud-DustAnd that's where Asp's daughter fits into Asp's and my verse's themes: she's Asp's heart and the foil of Senna with Sotol, another successor of a terrible parent and someone who acknowledges that there are times you have to kill for your life, but that doesn't mean you can't be humane about it or give you the right to treat others as things in the process.
As Asp puts it, "Be good, my daughter. Be better than me."
WindWolf19Awww that's sweet in a way!
11:51Proud-DustAnd Asp's daughter answers that call with trying to respect life through ending it humanely, using her gifts to make it as painless as it must be to give her food.
Swiftly. Gently.
Without cruelty.
Which... is difficult. And she takes every failure to do so hard.
11:54WindWolf19....she's a good person at heart
11:54Proud-DustEven when you try your best, the knife isn't always going to severe the connection between mind and body immediately.
11:54WindWolf19Nope, sadly not
11:55Proud-DustAnd she hates it when she has to hear the gurgle of blood in a prey.
Because that means they couldn't take a last breath and felt death's hold start to grip their throat.
Meaning they suffered in that moment. That knowledge.
And it's definitely going to end up tipping her into ethically/morally grey areas once she starts to use her hunting methodology to get what she wants.
Like, that empathy? We take empathy for granted as a good thing, but it can also be used to understand what a person is feeling. Meaning we have a clue on how precisely, we can destroy them or move them in a way we want them to.
Know what buttons to push, know what words to say, know the blades to stab someone's heart where they're vulnerable.
And she *generally* has the best of intentions with those acts... but at the same time, she knows it. And she's not incapable of shutting down her emotions to a degree.
12:01WindWolf19Yeah....and she's going to feel guilty about that
12:01Proud-DustAnd she's loyal to a fault. Touch her father, regardless of how you feel about him, she *will* end you if you push too far.
She won't make your death painful, but she's not against making threats like that. Nor is a painless death all that much better than a painful one once you're in the grave.
12:02WindWolf19I mean, dead is dead
Proud-DustYup.
What do you think, overall?
12:07WindWolf19I like it! Its a good add-on to the Dustverse given Senna and Sotol
12:08Proud-DustAdder or Asper as a name?
12:08WindWolf19Hmmm....Adder
12:08Proud-DustOh?
Proud-Dust agrees, but why.
12:09WindWolf19Asper doesn't quite have the right sound
12:09Proud-Dust(Aside, does gender matter?)
12:09WindWolf19(Hmmm no?)
12:10Proud-Dust(No preference at all?)