Inskora Bournvadus

A watchful and dangerous lady.

@Inskora is an in-character account, used for role-play and exposition.
@Cunthorse is the actual gameplay account - there isn't much #ebz content here apart from action refreshes.

Here is a little collection of documents going into further depth about Inskora (companions, lodgings, story progress etc.).

They say...

Sometimes known as Inky. (Stinky Inky if you're unkind.) Inskora is a human woman of no obvious ethnicity or heritage, and she's changed her face at least once. Maybe she's Eastern European, judging by her name. No matter how many times her overall appearance changes, the only thing that never does is her rostygold-coloured hair. People who've seen her without her radium goggles say her eyes are grey, and they're sure they didn't used to be...
She is a friend to the downtrodden and tries to befriend most Rubbery, Tomb and Clay folk she encounters. She isn't terribly fond of either Hell or the Church, associating with either only so far as it'll help her with her soul-shepherding ventures. She bandies her shepherd's timepiece around rather readily, almost as though she's using it to compensate for something.
Inskora also has connections to the Docks, where Black Thunder (her swift Zee Clipper) is stationed.

Bournvadus is always seen with her goggles. A pretentious affection made in an effort to be endearingly eccentric? Aniridia? The result of an injury in her exploits as a Zee captain or scholar of the Correspondence? Or maybe it's the result of a mishap with those insatiable gloves she hardly ever removes either.

Inskora's consort is a mysterious and untalkative gentleman known as Carruthers. He's an odd choice for Inskora, given that her previous partners have mostly been women notable for their artistic or intellectual acuity. Carruthers doesn't appear to fit any of these criteria. Perhaps he's an expert on Inskora's quarry the Vake and their alliance is mere convenience?

Bournvadus's favourite pet is her monkey, who probably has a proper name but is usually called Gerroffyabastard. She also has a Hound of Heaven, called Thomasina. Inskora's preferred weapons are her Vake-killing club, coupled with her spiked rosary held in the off-hand. The Insatiable gloves probably help too. Her minions are a talkative LB, and an alluring human accomplice called Ginty.

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Character sheet

Age: Early 40s
Gender: Female
Eyes: You'll be lucky to find out.
Hair: Medium-length, and the colour of rostygold.
Face/Complexion: Looks eager, knowing, and usually as though she's just about to lunge forward and bite you.
Build: Average height. Pleasantly padded, thick in the leg and round in the belly. Held together by a large ribcage and pelvis. Cuddly brawler.
Dress Style: Fourth-City rags, cannibalised into a newer and more durable garment. Eyes are always covered, usually with goggles (may be with smoked glasses if the dress code demands something more elegant). Big arse-kicking boots; never anything with high heels. Insatiable gloves are rarely removed. Likes dark greys (almost black but still grey) and browns.
Possessions always on her person: Shepherd's timepiece, Vake-killing club (just in case), spiked rosary, chunk of amber, snacks, dice.

Manner of Speech: As though she's just thought of something really funny but circumstance prevents her from laughing about it. Often in a startled 'wait, what?' manner.
Manner of Movement: Strutting, coffee-fuelled hurry-the-fuck-up. When standing at ease, she usually has ber arms folded behind her back.
Physical Health: Rude. (This word is used advisedly.) Short-sighted and needs eyeglasses.
Mental Health: Usually on the brink of nightmare-induced madness, kept just under control with laudanum. Otherwise neurotypical.
Goals/Dreams: Inskora's ambition is to kill the Vake and claim the bounty. If it'll advance the cause of science too, so much the better.
Quirks/Habits: Laughs like a hyaena with its head stuck in a drainpipe.
Hobbies/Interests: Inskora's Shepherd's timepiece is a modified one, with an amber and rostygold fascia. She tinkers with it in an attempt to improve its efficacy, but so far the results of this are inconclusive. (What would increased efficacy for a soul shepherd even mean?)
Vices: The Parlour of Virtue, duelling the Black Ribbon (if potentially killing people counts as a vice). When she's faced with a pudding trolley, you can tell she's resisting pushing everyone else out of the way and troughing it.

First Impression: Not a refined lady, not one to cross.
Philosophy of Life: The law is a tool rather than a set of obligations.
Occupation: Soul shepherd, Correspondence researcher. Great Game pawn: bounty-hunting, scientific study. She'll happily thump people for money.
Education: Educated in botany, chemistry and falconry on the Surface. In Fallen London, Inskora became a Correspondence lecturer at Benthic before being thrown out.
Home: A cottage by the Watchmaker's Hill Observatory.
Finance: Enough for regular visits to the Parlour of Virtue. It tends to all go on that and trinkets before accumulating to any great amount.

Marital Status: Unmarried, in a possibly-open relationship.
Sexual Preference: usually other women, makes an exception for Zailors with massive beards. Seems to treat sex as a competition to see who can please the other one more, rather than as an act of loving union.
Turn-ons: enthusiastic consent, beards
Turn-offs: shaved pubes, anyone considerably weaker than she is (she's scared of hurting them)

Favourite:
Animal: owl, hyaena, lion
Color: the colour of money
Drink: peach nectar, darkdrop coffee, potato and cabbage soup
Food: mushroom pretzels, cheap sausages with too much bread and onion in them, cake (not fruit cake)
Scent: deep amber
Thing to Do: rescue souls from the Brass Embassy

Least Favourite:
Animal: horse
Color: white
Drink: milk
Food: fruit cake
Scent: lamplighter beeswax
Thing to do: talk to urchins, especially having to ask them for help (she doesn't like children and they don't like her)

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History and past exploits

These are all things you couldn't be expected to know about Inskora just from looking at her, and they're not often alluded to in the Twitter feed. Skip this section if you prefer to go in cold when RPing. Predictably, there are Echo Bazaar spoilers in here.

Inskora was born in Philadelphia, PA to immigrants from what is now Albania. They moved to England when Inskora was very young, and she doesn't remember much of her pre-England life. She thinks of herself as British (to the extent that any Fallen Londoners do - it's practically its own nation), and doesn't feel any particular allegiance to Albania/the Ottoman Empire or America. The only thing she really misses from the Surface are Pennsylvanian soft pretzels.
Bournvadus was raised Muslim but currently has no religious affiliation. (She will resort to using 'you do know I'm Muslim, right?' to get out of accepting sausages she doesn't like the look of, though.) She's probably Hell-bound, but says she'll just use that as a way to continue her ongoing soul-shepherding. She was admitted to the House of Chimes by being a dangerous individual.

Inskora is a former spirifer who now regrets her actions. This goes some way to explaining the zealousness with which she now collects souls for the other side. She used to number among the 11%, giving her soul to a quiet she-devil in the belief that such a move would enable Inskora to better re-capture others' souls. It didn't particularly, and Bournvadus is now re-souled.
Inskora has worked for the Cheesemonger twice - the first time she resigned out of weariness at the nature of the work, and the second time she ended the Cheesemonger's life, believing such a thing to be for the best.

Her former minion the disgraced Rattus Faber bandit-chief is now missing. He... ran away, presumably.
Yes, she is stormy-eyed. She doesn't want anyone to know. Yes, Carruthers is really a Rubbery in disguise. (And a woman, if Rubberies have men and women at all.)
Inskora's peculiar personal enhancement is a set of ivory-coloured fan-like spikes behind her ears, concealed by her hair; and a pair of long, thin tentacles the same colour as the rest of her skin, one erupting from each rotator cuff (part of the back muscle).

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