Vriska Serket

 Vriska Serket and the Homestuck series are the Property of Andrew Hussie, all rights of the author reserved. Vriska Serket is a mysterious female who has been seen giving aid to User Zev during his struggle with Jack Noir, and likewise to a female called the "Pedigree Mendicant" (though with a degree more subtlety in this case) who seeks revenge on the same being for as-of-yet unspecified reasons.

She appears to have a bit of a checkered past, and is helping User Zev out of a debt she owes for him assisting in reviving her. From a hidden computer lab at a simple PC, Vriska either converses telepathically or sends typed messages to her would-be allies.

She's also accompanied by Sollux Captor, who was essential to User Zev reaching God Tier when Jack Noir killed him. It seems that Sollux and Vriska are helping individuals like User Zev and "PM" out of either begrudging debt or some ominous connection to the being which wrecked the immediately previous Session of BZPB's current story.

Like all members of her race, Vriska has a number of quirks with how all of her dialogue is typed. Bold and colored a deep blue, "8" is used to replace "B" and "eight-sounds"; she tends to draw out words, shown by eight of the same letter in one place; and uses textmoticons with the eye-portion repeated four times in a row, thus creating an effect of eight eyes on the "face."

Appearance
As revealed in her physical introduction, Vriska has a generally humanoid appearance, but is clearly not a human being. What can be said for sure is that she is of the same race as Sollux Captor and "Maid of Time" Aradia. Her skin is a pale gray, her long, wild mane of black hair possesses a lustrous sheen, and behind her roundframed glasses, only her right eye - A yellow sclera and regular pupil, no iris - Can be seen, as the left lens is shaded to cover that eye. However, based on her flashbacks, Vriska's left eye used to have seven pupils; the extra six arranged around the center pupil. She lost this eye in a disastrous, mysterious accident on Alternia.

Otherwise, she has full, azure blue lips, and slightly curved, upright yellow horns; one with a pincer-like crescent at the end, the other with a barb pointing outward and reversed from the main tip. It is worth note that the ends of her horns resemble both the stinger and one of the pincers of a scorpion, respectively - Matching with Vriska's general Scorpio theme - And that she has pronounced fangs that allude to her many spider themes. Beneath her gray jacket she wears a black t-shirt with the symbol for Scorpio in blue, as well as blue jeans and ratty sneakers. Notably, however, while her right arm is perfectly normal, her left arm is mechanical.

Personality
Pretty much a huge 8####, Vriska is an unstable individual with a penchant for letting her whims eclipse reason, loves meddling with events while calling out others for doing the same, is prone to belittling and picking fights with others she really should know better than to trifle with, and has done things in the past which she considerably regrets and - Compounded by the bleak nature of her upbringing - Have left her significantly unhinged.

One of Vriska's more troublesome qualities is her love of instigation. Even against individuals whom she clearly knows as dangerous - Namely "Maid of Time" Aradia and Sollux Captor - Vriska gladly hurls insults for the sheer fun of it, and in the former's case, has paid for it. Upon User Zev playing the major role in reviving her from death, Vriska has sworn to use the chance he gave her to make up for actions she still feels remorse over.

It remains to be seen whether she will stay true in becoming a morally upright individual, however. She has serious issues with controlling her emotions, and seems to be an amoral individual with a poor sense of what others find acceptable.

Nonetheless, Vriska's core motivations are most noble, even if she's incredibly misguided in reaching her goals. Vriska has shown a love of dramatics, and her rather distinctly over-emotional and volatile nature seems to make her a difficult case for her allies to deal with.

Subtle at first, Vriska's part in the storyline has made it entirely clear that she's possessed of deep-seated emotional issues; Vriska herself admits that she still has a lot of work left towards overcoming these, her immaturity, and her ego. Due to a necessity for how she grew up, Vriska has become almost suicidally brave even when staring down what most would view as a hopelessly stronger opponent with no real chance of actually emerging victorious. She also reacts quite irascibly to what she views as "pity" from others.

Other facets of her personality first shown in flashbacks while in a coma give Vriska a certain depth. Mainly, at least in her youth, Vriska loved a game on her home planet of Alternia called "FLARP" - Essentially a very detailed version of Live Action Roleplaying that has/had what can/could be very lethal consequences for losing to players like Vriska.

As well, if her interests from then have carried over into today, then Vriska has a keen interest in doomsday theories, building doomsday machines, and artifacts of fortune-telling.

History
Initially introduced sending User Zev a telepathic message regarding his coming back to life shortly after Jack Noir killed him a second time, a short conversation followed in which it was revealed that, sometime in the past, said enigmatic User played a key role in reviving Vriska from death.

It seems that she and Sollux Captor have been assisting User Zev distantly in preparing to win the current Session of BZPB, and Vriska at the least has knowledge of the game's ins and outs which only User Zev himself and Jade Harley (a player from the Session immediately prior to the current one) can be said to meet. This is seen where said User used his powerful "Blue-Sky Godspanker" bombs to slow down Jack Noir, and shortly thereafter, Vriska was revealed to have given him the code vital to their creation.

Later, Vriska was introduced physically, in a dark computer lab while sitting at a visually normal PC. After informing Sollux that Jack Noir had seriously injured Juracule Mihawk and left a planet in ruins, she sent a message to the "Pedigree Mendicant"; giving her directions to her "final delivery." However, when she witnessed the appearance of LORD ENGLISH and the near-death of Jade Harley and User Sarge, Vriska flew into a rage that User Zev had not informed her nor Sollux Captor.

While Noodle was preparing to track down a "target" on Fanrong, Vriska attempted to interfere for unknown reasons by taking control of Noodle psychically. Soon after this failed, Vriska was approached by Aradia Megido, who viciously called her out for dragging Noodle "back into [their] problems" despite her many claims about how she's working towards maturity.

In response, Vriska went into a tirade where she tried to attest that Aradia's and her own motivations for their actions regarding Noodle were hardly different. Aradia did not agree. A short battle followed, in which Vriska was critically injured and left on the lab's floor.

Following this, it was implied that Vriska has come close to dying many times before, excluding the mysterious previous death which User Zev helped revive her from. Once Aradia had left, Sollux patched her up with a first-aid kit and left Vriska to slowly heal the rest of the way on her own.

During the coma induced by her injuries, dreams of flashbacks to Vriska's past gave clues as to the roots of her psychological issues today. At the time her dreams started, Vriska was getting to the age she'd have to feed her lusus - An apparent caretaker/pet for all youths of Vriska's race. Being a giant spider, it seemed to be put in a quandry as to how to deal with her.

As Vriska was much different from today (a crybaby, compared to her present demeanour and almost idiotic level of bravery), it found the task of coaxing her into feeding it exceedingly difficult. Regularly, it would go too far with its attempts at intimidation, and then would have to awkwardly comfort Vriska and lay her down for a nap so that she wouldn't become too direly upset.

Later in life, around Vriska's adolescence, these tactics worked for the lusus: Vriska began delivering slain youths of her own race for the lusus to devour, and hardened into a much more casually brutal individual. Further replaying of her memories explained that Vriska would use a game called "FLARP" to kill young members of her own race, so that she could deliver them to her lusus for consumption. It also seems that the relationship with her lusus would eventually settle down soon after growing out of childhood and her very early stages of adolescence.

At some point, an unknown disaster would result in Vriska losing her left arm and eye violently. Upon these grievous injuries being dealt her, she approached Equius Zahhak in order to be healed. The intimidating young man of her own race proceeded to tend to her injuries and fashion a mechanical arm for her. Years after this, but not many, disaster was striking Alternia. Meteors fell in droves, and the planet burned. In the disaster, Vriska's Catenative Doomsday Dice Cascader caused an explosion that rained boulders upon her.

Using all of its strength, Vriska's lusus shielded her with its body. For this act, it laid beneath the rubble in agony, slowly dying. Rather than let it die like this, Vriska used her Fluorite Octet to kill it out of mercy. Afterwards, her hive and its entire mesa disappeared. This is the point where Vriska awoke from her dreams.

Soon after attempting to rise and being stymied by her injuries, Vriska slipped back to sleep. It seems that after her hive was teleported, she ended up at the Land of Maps and Treasure. There, she would meet Equius Zahhak again later and begin exploring with him. At different times, they ended up exploring part of Equius's planet, the Land of Caves and Silence, and visited Nepeta Leijon in the Land of Little Cubes and Tea.

After waking up again, Vriska failed in trolling "indoorScholar", and paid witness to a message from Sollux Captor's Ancestor. Soon afterwards, she meandered off to Equius's workshop, where her mechanical arm got an inspection before the STRONG tinker had to leave. Later, after Equius returned and finished the diagonistics, Vriska found herself assailed by a potent telepath calling herself "Sledge Mama".

What ensued was a tense conversation in which it was revealed that Sledge Mama existed at the same time as Vriska's and Gamzee Makara's Ancestors, yet had been sealed in a tomb outside of time and space in case the "subjugglators" needed a new leader. This effectively erased her from history as Vriska and her allies know it. Before Vriska was allowed to wake, they came to terms, and Vriska agreed to free Sledge Mama.

Vriska would end up using a teleporter of Sollux Captor's to head to a stormy planet, where she descended into an underground passageway. The undead she had met seemed to be no match for her Fluorite Octet; or at least, those she initially encountered were no issue. Ghouls and other beasts in deeper parts of the tomb would proceed to become more and more difficult, but Vriska reached the final room just fine.

However, she would not find great riches and weaponry. Rather, she would be struck by an immense psychic attack, and met with Sledge Mama's revelation - After vacating her stone coffin - That Vriska had been deluded in thinking she could detect Sledge Mama's intentions. Sledge Mama had always intended to betray her upon being freed, which she did and promptly left Vriska deposited outside the vanished complex's former location.

With a final, exhausted explitive, Vriska fell into complete unconsciousness. Almost immediately after, Aradia Megido appeared nearby. Mulling over the events that had just transpired for a bit, Aradia levitated Vriska, placed the Fluorite Octet in her grasp, and teleported both Vriska and herself back to their base so that Vriska could rest.

Upon waking up, Vriska would storm towards her laptop - Only to become truly furious when she stepped on one of her d4 dice on the floor. Following a conversation with her "auspitice" Kanaya Maryam that threatened to go south very quickly, Kanaya managed to get through to her; so, Vriska decided to try and calm down.

Relationships
Lusus: As Vriska was incredibly meek and fearful compared to her present state, it seems that the daunting task of having to care for her monstrous lusus led to a series of changes resulting in the young woman seen today.

At first, the creature would repeatedly have to calm her into sleeping after scaring her into almost or completely crying out of her sheer distress. This was because, in apparent typical fashion for such guardians, the gigantic arachnid used intimidation in a bid to toughen her up for the job.

Then again, it seems that this harsh parental strategy worked for the lusus in due time - As Vriska later began killing fellow youths of her own race to feed the behemoth.

It also has been implied that the two never really liked each other much once Vriska grew past needing the spider as a consoling figure; outside of the lusus itself depending on Vriska for sustenance due to it being ill-suited for hunting by itself, and Vriska needing to keep the beast alive else she be "culled" for failing to care for it, Vriska's own words suggested it was more of a massive burden than a companion to have around. Vriska's words also implied that it was prone to misbehaving and was rarely there for her emotionally when she needed it.

Despite this, it has also been seen that Vriska and her lusus were able to cohabitate peacefully most of the time after a certain age. It seems that around the onset of mid-adolescence, Vriska and her lusus managed to find a happy medium in interacting with each other - And even though the two were still clearly more tied to each other by obligation and threat to their lives, the lusus still protected Vriska and made attempts to care for her. It died by shielding Vriska from a rain of boulders with its body, when Vriska was forced to kill it to end its suffering.

User Zev: On quite friendly terms, Vriska has emphatically stated that she only helps User Zev to repay the debt incurred from his reviving her from death. However, this does little to hide the fact that - Even with her fury at not being told of the circumstances regarding LORD ENGLISH's release - Vriska holds the User important to her, both as a friend and as the inspiration to better herself as a person.

Equius Zahhak: Vriska's neighbour while they were on Alternia, the two are friends to some unspecified degree. Equius would come to Vriska's aid after the unknown disaster that destroyed her left eye and arm, and crafted a prosthetic arm for her. As well, Vriska convinced Equius to explore the Land of Maps and Treasure, and explored Equius's own planet and that of Nepeta Leijon afterwards.

Kanaya Maryam: By Vriska's words, Kanaya Maryam is her "auspitice" and is a frequent target of the avid roleplayer's foul temper, due her "meddling" ways. While Kanaya has to seriously hold back in her urges to mother Vriska due to the latter viewing this as pity at times, she can't help but give such advice as tidying up her room so as to not step on things. In the end, Vriska admits that her irritation comes primarily from poorly grasping the concept of unconditional friendship due to life on Alternia.

Weapon(s)
Vriska's weapon of choice are the Fluorite Octet, a set of eight dice, rhomboid and eight-sided (Referred to in tabletop RPG shorthand as 8d8) which are colored a vibrant blue and have white pips of unique patterns. According to Equius Zahhak, they were won through an extremely difficult "FLARP campaign" Vriska engaged in. They are undoubtably powerful; their "code" when combined with a set of User Zev's handbombs created his personally-named Blue-Sky Godspanker bombs, which are capable of stunning a being of Jack Noir's level, if only for a few moments at a time.

However, while they hold great combat potential, the Fluorite Octet are a notoriously fickle weapon. Each dice roll produces an effect in combat - As one outcome produced a gigantic guillotine which Vriska used to kill her lusus out of mercy, and another produced twin automatic pistols. There are a total of eight to the eighth power - Or 16,777,216 - Possible results of these dice rolls. This would mean that, in a dice roll, each number is counted as a separate part of a sequence; meaning, it would be counted as, say, 65521333, not 28. While this would be a great advantage for sheer variety, every diceroll comes down to luck and luck alone. As Vriska has been said to possess notably bad luck, her use of the Fluorite Octet could backfire disastrously at any roll.

As mentioned, the dice have unique pips as compared to Earth dice. While the one- and two-sides are fairly normal, beginning with the three-sides of each die of the set - Arranged in a triangle matching the side's profile - Their arrangement changes. The four-sides' pips are arranged in a parallelogram; the five-sides' pips have a small dot added to the previous arrangement, below and to the right, creating an arrow-like shape; the six-sides have a hollow hexagram; the seven-sides a filled hexagram; and the eight-sides, a final dot added to the lower-left of the previous arrangement.

Abilities/Skills
Thus far, Vriska has primarily displayed the ability to speak telepathically from incredible range. However, just as The Absolution prevents beings like Jade Harley from tracking User Zev and anyone else inside, it also blocks any sort of telepathic connection with her. However, judging from the situation, it appears that Vriska's telepathy encompasses a range that extends between planets and most likely further.

Additionally, Vriska possesses insight on the mechanics of BZPB that matches or surpasses that of User Zev, who Beta Tested the previous Session. An example is where she explained to said User how God-Tier characters are immortal unless their death is heroic or just. This suggests that she was either a fellow Beta Tester, or a player in another Session who gained much knowledge during her playthrough.

As seen with Noodle on Fanrong, Vriska is able to exert her psychic powers to try and hijack an individual's mind. Once again, this ability has an incredible range, even by BZPB standards. However, the only case it has been seen used, Vriska was stymied by a protective force.

Quotes
- Vriska informing User Zev as to why she's been acting so helpful to him. - Vriska's rant towards Aradia after trying to control Noodle.
 * "8eing in de8t to you is hazardous, and I just prefer to keep a 8alanced 8ook."
 * "Shut up!!!!!!!! Y8u think you're so much 8etter th8n me???????? Y8u think you're so gr8 and m8ghty, and you think y8u're so am8zing 8ecause you saved that girl, 8ut let me tell you something, Princess!!!!!!!! Just 'cuz y8u h8ve y8ur highfalutin' morals w8rn on your sleeve doesn't m8ke you any 8etter than me! You knew s8ving that g8rl had a ch8nce of t8tally wrecking the timestream in this Session, 8ut let your he8rt lead the w8y the s8me mine is n8w!!!!!!!!"

Trivia

 * As far as her name's origins go, "Vriska" is either a shortening of "Vrishchika," the Hindi name for Scorpio, or is tied to "Vṛścika," the Sanskrit word for scorpion.
 * Additionally, "Serket" was the name of the ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the scorpion, and who was also the goddess of healing poisonous bites and stings.
 * While FLARPing, Vriska refers to herself by the character name "Marquise Spinneret Mindfang." Other than sounding totally awesome, it has been confirmed at this was the name of her Ancestor, and that Vriska has spent a significant portion of her life trying to emulate this individual.
 * Vriska and User Zev mentioned in conversation that the latter's "Blue-Sky Godspanker" bombs were created thanks to Vriska sending him the code for her weapon, the set of dice referred to collectively as the "Fluorite Octet." It is unknown specifically what this code refers to, but it seems that it was combined with an existing set of handbombs to create a set of incredibly-powerful grenades, which the User would come to name himself and use against the likes of Jack Noir.
 * In Vriska's room in her hive on the planet of Alternia, she had a Roman augur's wand and a tarot deck. It is unknown as of yet how she was able to get artifacts from such wildly different time periods on a planet like Earth, especially if Sessions change drastically between each other.
 * In a new turn for BZPB, the chronology of introductions leaves Vriska as either the very first non-human being to be a User, or the first non-User being outside of the main scope of play to communicate with in-game characters via a computer (and a homely computer at that).
 * Much like how Sollux Captor's blood is the same ochre hue as his shirt's Gemini symbol, Vriska's azure blood matches her shirt and her text color.
 * When enraged, more and more "8"s pepper Vriska's text patterns and in places that don't make much sense at all phonetically.