Fencien is a personable, bubbly, frequently scatterbrained woman who is viciously living in the moment. She assumes the best in people and assumes the best-case scenario all the time. Sympathetic to a fault, she accepts apologies far too easily. These aspects make her easy to manipulate but also easy to make friends with.
Her self-esteem is wobbly and extremely easy to bruise. With her past of being bullied and working under Stem Tower, she's internalized a lot of the awful things she's been called and is always trying to rectify her actions by doing good deeds whenever she can.
She has a good grasp on her temper, but mean-spirited, stubborn, or pessimistic people seriously get under her skin quickly. Besides the rare scenarios in which she loses grip on her emotions, Fencien can surprisingly keep her head straight in stressful scenarios.
She has a very skewed outlook on romance from the period in her teens she spent isolated on the STEMNET. She's never kicked off the awful thrills of viewing degenerative content that she developed during that period.
She has a genetic disposition on her father's side for obsessive tendencies.
Fencien is interested in all forms of creative work but rarely gets time to partake in them.
After one of her lungs was removed, she's began to run out of breath very quickly and has been practicing for a long time to get back to where she once was.
Fencien works as a part-time Lawman Enforcer for Stem Tower. Blema sends her out on patrols in the Outlands weekly and responds to violent threats within Stem City's walls. Fencien attends parties, goes out with Clara Kalstein once a week, and spends the little other free time with her family or online.
Fencien was born into a very standard, noble middle-class family. She had two loving parents; her mother stayed home while her father went to work as a janitor in Stephill Frie's manor. Nobody at Shroom's Academy really liked Fencien's hyperactive energy besides her best friends, the Kaset siblings (Turbina and Wheels.) Alongside playing with them, she also frequently hung out with her half-sister, Lunch Armeldia.
Fencien's inability to pay attention worsened to the point where she flunked a year of secondary school. Distraught that she would never be able to go to specialization school with her friends, Fencien made art, venting out her frustrations, and posted it online. Her father decided to sign up his daughter for fencing classes; practice is now her priority.
It was around this time that Lunch Armeldia went missing. Fencien didn't understand at first why her father was suddenly being so clingy, but him spoiling her with a ton of outings made her happy.
Over the next few years, Fencien became the top of her class. She was a natural at it amongst her peers, with her sporadic fighting style and hours of practicing paying off. However, as she stagnated, the unchallenged young girl started slacking off on practice and began exploring the online world of the STEMNET more.
She played SLIMEWORLD, browsed the forums, and kept posting art on NOBLECREATE.STEM. She was exposed to awful things as she delved deeper and deeper into the web, her curiosity leading to disturbing things.
Each week, Fencien sank deeper and deeper into perverted online circles as she posted her art online. Groups of malicious users found her and began harassing her for her lackluster art skills and weird behavior. Fencien tried to defend herself, but her immature and overtly prideful reactions simply drew more eyes.
Their words got in her head and led her to enter a depressive rut. She was powerless to stop them, and that drove her mad. Fencing lessons and hanging out with the Kaset siblings were no longer priorities; the only thing she could do was sit on her computer and read over what everybody was saying about her passion projects. The normally cheerful girl started getting snippy with her parents whenever they called for her.
Mr. Armeldia had enough and started down with her to chat. Prodding at her enough, Fencien couldn't help but to explain it all. She was a tad offended that her father found some points funny, but he was both understanding and firm. Even with her irrational protests, he took away her computer "for the greater good" and promised that she'd get it back one day.
When Fencien turned 15 in XX810, her swordplay instructor requested that Fencien come alone to the dojo. With a nervous spring in her step, she made her way into the training room early one morning to find her instructor and Stem Tower's administrator, Blema Von Voldark. Fencien genuinely thought she was in trouble and considered sprinting, but knew that it wouldn't be pretty if she upset Stem City's leader.
A special exam was held where Fencien fought against specialized dummies. Blema cheered and applauded as the girl kept kicking. After three straight hours of extreme demonstrative training, her master dismissed Fencien.
When Fencien told her parents what happened over dinner that night, they were both flabbergasted. It took a few weeks for anything to come of it, but eventually, Blema Von Voldark invited herself into their home one day.
The ruler explained to the Armeldia folk that the Outlanders had been raiding the Stemrails and the off-world companies were grilling Blema to do something about it. So, Stem Tower needed more proactive deterrence than Lawmen and was trying to find Lawmen Enforcers to back up the robots. Blema was impressed by Fencien. The young girl's handle over a blade was far more refined than those in the advanced physical education classes back at Shroom's Academy.
There was a long discussion as there were a lot of things to hash out, but the Armeldias decided that the amount of Marks being offered would keep Fencien settled for life along with providing her proper direction in life.
Fencien became Stem Tower's youngest Lawman Enforcer.
Fencien went through months of training under Blema and her master's watchful eye, learning all the required protocols and strategies for controlling the city's Lawmen. When Fencien was officially announced as joining Stem Tower at that quarter's Ahsonov Ball, Weenlette Kaset, the mother of Turbina and Wheels, tried to flirt with her father. The two families cut off all contact. Though devastated by this, Fencien simply kept pushing herself to train.
In Q3 of XX810, the 15-year-old girl was given her task. She rode with squads of Lawmen on Stemrail trains that were frequently robbed by Outlands raiders. She wasn't there to fight; she was simply a deterrent.
She was one of the rare Stem Rams who seemed to have glimpses of the outer galaxy. Huge docking ports in space loaded and unloaded goods off of the Stemrails. Space's size overwhelmed her; she grew homesick incredibly easily. Returning to Stem City was the most relieving part of the trips for her.
In Q4 of XX810, a fateful day arrived; she met Clara Kalstein.
Time and time again, Fencien was on the rails that the Kalstein Tribe descended upon. Only one of them had the gull to attack her. Her swordplay was unrefined by its potential. Her dirty and wild figure was cute in Fencien's eyes; it wasn't long before Fencien went home and began fantasizing about the mysterious woman.
Getting her STEMNET access back from her father as a training graduation gift, she started to post art pieces containing the red rabbit girl. The attention that she still received bothered her, but she had a job that she could focus on now. Thankfully, she had grown past caring.
Until XX812, Fencien and Clara met time and time again. Fencien tried to banter as the raider fended her off, but there wasn't much of a response. She could see Clara's fencing mistakes in real-time and tried to give her a helpful critique, but it appeared to just make the offensive Kalstein sloppier.
One day, Clara lashed out. The clashes between their blades weren't mere play anymore. Fencien was unable to calm her down.
Fencien's armor was pierced. Her lung was pierced.
Her life flashed before her eyes as blood spilled.
She had been fatally wounded. She should've defended her own life, but...
She couldn't. She couldn't hurt the girl whom she fantasized about so much.
By the time the Stemrail train had gotten back to the Nexus, Fencien was proclaimed dead.
Incomprehensible words spiraled around her unconscious head. An ancient swordsman long forgotten reached out to Fencien through the insanity. Their blood was one in the same; he warned her of the blue bunny, of the nun and of the blind ram she served. He blessed her with the last of his life.
Fencien abruptly awoke in a hospital room. She gasped for air from a single lung, her drugged mind unable to comprehend the world around her correctly. She could hear distant cries from beyond curtains and windows that shifted around her.
According to the medical Lawmen on site, she had been dead for 7 hours. Blema insisted that she be kept on life support; it worked.
She got out lucky; the only thing that she lost was her lung. Now, with only half the breath that she used to have, Fencien was dismissed from work and was stuck at home. Her mother and father smothered her in love; Blema paid all of the family's expenses.
A bounty for the "Red Rabbit" was posted all over the STEMNET by Stem Tower. Bounty hunters funneled out of the city and into the Outlands in an attempt to capture this criminal and bring her to justice.
Fencien didn't want that. She didn't blame Clara. In fact, she blamed herself; if she hadn't been so obsessed with Clara, poking and prodding at her for information, then maybe she would have never connected a lethal blow. Her online STEMNET became depressing and dark; her childlike creativity and deep interest in off-world media were gone. The few of those who used to bully her online and were still around had grown up and simply ignored her.
Fencien's mind never let go of the Red Rabbit. Her heart ached. She did anything to ignore her feelings.
Her father saw what was happening to his daughter and offered to help her. Without their mother's knowledge, Fencien and her father went out and practiced fencing. Bit-by-bit, her old confidence returned as her body was reconditioned to a physical street.
Eventually, she came to the point where she refused to stare at the STEMNET all day like she used to; after two quarters of recovery (6 months), Fencien decided it was time for her to return. Her parents argued with her, but Fencien wouldn't budge. She needed the purpose and freedom it gave her.
However, even as Blema stationed her for part-time hours and sent her around Stem Island to do various chores, Fencien was empty. The challenges were different, sure, but there was rarely something that ever challenged her like the red rabbit.
Fencien met Bally Backster during an Ahsonov Ball in XX814. He started to invite her out after work, asking for fencing lessons. She gave them to him, and, for the first time in a long time, she felt challenged. She taught him the best swordsmanship she possibly could.
Bally Backster's carefree attitude rubbed off on her, her childish inner sunshine crawling its way back to the surface.
Four years after last meeting Clara, Fencien was patrolling the Outlands. The Gunker Gang ambushed her and held her hostage. She was horrified; however, her worries were washed away as the elderly man, Yank Yenderson, took to feeding her. He promised her that Blema would soon be on her way to nab her.
A few days passed, but eventually, there was a commotion from somewhere inside the bunker. Yank handed Fencien her armor under the pretense that he wouldn't be arrested, informing her that Stem Tower's rescue team had arrived. Equipping her gear and dashing to meet with them, Fencien's heart almost stopped.
Gunker Garrison held the Red Rabbit, Clara Kalstein, in a chokehold.
A rage, unlike anything she had ever felt, overtook her. She subdued the already exhausted Gunker in a fit of righteousness before tending to the now unconscious Clara's wounds. It had been so long, yet Fencien didn't have any doubts. It was the face of the woman who had been lodged in her head for so, so long.
Heading back to the Nexus' hospital, where she was once operated on, an exhausted Fencien fell asleep outside of the doctor's office. When she woke up, the Red Rabbit was gone. Fencien marched up to Blema's office and demanded an explanation; surprisingly, she was given one. Operation CHAINEDSLIME, Clara's involvement with the Gunker Gang, Clara's fugitive life in Stem City for the past year, Operation GUNKSPLAT, and the fact that Clara was now a free woman.
Fencien took a long time to process it all. So many mixed feelings rose up; anger at herself, anger at Blema, anger at Clara...
Blema dismissed Fencien with the curt request to not track Clara Kalstein down.
For the first time in her entire career, Fencien didn't obey orders. She was so close to knowing who Clara Kalstein really was.
Fencien hired several PIs and bounty hunters with her Stem Tower paychecks. She soon realized why nobody had gotten ahold of her. She was hard to find and impossible to catch.
As the years went on, Bally Backster mysteriously disappeared. Her one remaining friend vanishing made her worried, sick, and only more desperate to find Clara.
In XX818, it happened. Investigating a report pertaining to possible Stem Slime smuggling, Fencien stumbled into Clara at the Under the Tower club's entrance. Both of their days were put on hold as she chased after Clara. Unfortunately, her lack of stamina caused Fencien to quickly lose her.
However, she now had a lead of her own. Fencien bought cheap disguises and stalked Clara for weeks, tracking her every time she came to Under the Tower. Several times, she tried to reach out, and the same chase scene was played out again and again. Fencien knew deep down that she was being a creepy stalker; at that point, she had to convince herself that she simply wanted closure. Her heart knew what she truly wanted: Clara's attention after so long.
It took months, but Fencien eventually managed what her PIs couldn't figure out: she found Clara's home. It was a maintenance closet on a rooftop. After so long, she had an indirect line of communication.
A duel, like old times. The first one to disarm the other won. That's how she wanted to settle it.
When Clara was out, Fencien taped a note to her door. A time and a place were written down along with the conditions: the reward for Clara winning would be that Fencien would leave her alone; the consequences for losing would have to be not running away.
In an empty lot behind a Walrus-Burger, it happened. Their old childhood blades clashed for one last time.
She needed this. Her mind was obsessed with this woman. She didn't know why; all she knew was that this woman was important to her. If she didn't even get a chance to shoot her shot, then there was no point.
Her body's missing lung was offset by the time that Fencien kept active. Keeping her thoughts sharp and her hands sharper, Fencien claimed her victory.
It was silent for a long time after that. A thousand questions bubbled into her mind. Everything about Clara drew Fencien like magnets.
Her mouth ran a million miles a minute, Clara getting visibly overwhelmed and running away. Fencien beat herself up over letting her more crazy thoughts out, but she wasn't hurt. She had won, so it was official: There was no more running.
Fencien set aside free days to go and bang on Clara's door. Time and time again, Fencien begged Clara to go out with her. It took a long time, but eventually Clara started to come along. It was everything Fencien had ever dreamed of; she began truly understanding who Clara Kalstein was.
Her heart beat against her chest. Fencien's obsession was satisfied; it tapered off into a child-like form of love. She forgave Clara for everything in the past.
Surprisingly, Fencien's parents were not happy at all about their daughter bringing home the person who stabbed her. Oh well!
Clara Kalstein - Fencien is in love with Clara Kalstein and thinks about her all the time. She admires everything about Clara to an obsessive degree: her fighting nature, her ability to keep it cool under stress, her fashion style... Fencien hides her fluttery feelings as best she can. She forgives Clara for what she did in the past and sees them as equals; all Fencien wishes is that Clara would be nicer to her.
Blema Von Voldark - Fencien is fiercely loyal to Blema. The way Blema constantly coddles and validates Fencien's work makes her extremely happy and feel cared for. She tries to plug her ears whenever she hears people speak poorly of Blema because she believes she knows her far more personally.
Juke Clorentine - Fencien used to want to be friends with Juke, but over the years, she realized that it was never meant to be. Fencien can't bring herself to hate her outright, but Juke is certainly the person Fencien is the least happy to see during working hours.
Bally Backster - Before Bally's disappearance, Fencien saw Bally as an older brother. When she was feeling down, he would give her a noogie and some vague advice about life. She misses him deeply and hopes that someday, he shows up okay.
Turbina Kaset - Fencien misses Turbina. At parties, Fencien has thought about approaching her, but the cold looks from her old bestie have extinguished those thoughts.
Wheels Kaset - Fencien always thought Wheels was silly and cared for him. After their families stopped talking, she found herself frequently hoping he was okay because the rare times she spotted him with Turbina at parties, he looked absolutely horrid.
Lunch Armeldia - Fencien has fond memories and really hopes that one day she shows up safe and sound.
Tessa Chielcott - Her hairdresser. Fencien feels comfortable around her, gossiping with her as much as she possibly can.
Mistress Gwino - Fencien is a huge fan of the robot's music and gushes whenever Blema tells her to keep guard at one of the monthly concerts.