Miriyan "Manticore" Tiranna

you can't wake up, this is not a dream

Miriyan grew up in less-than-ideal conditions, calling the poorer outskirt kettles of Octo Valley her home. An adopted child, her fathers loved her quite dearly, and despite the dilapidated walls and broken ceilings, they took tender care of her, always believing in her even if jobs were sparse and conditions were poor.

As soon as she finished high school, she aspired for higher learning, figuring she would fund her endeavors in sociology by joining the militia. While the idea was frightening, Miriyan held on close to the future, encouraged by her dear dads and her love of history and the people. Things would end up wonderful, she knew it.

At least, until she was brutally wounded in a shootout two years later. Tasked on guarding the operations behind developing the Octoweapons, her taskforce was successful and drove the intruding agents off.. but Miriyan suffered near-fatal damage to her upper half in the chaos. She was swiftly rushed to the hospital on the grounds of having severe injury to her lungs, stomach and liver, and spent over a year in slow recovery.

It couldn't continue like this. Just staying in Octo Valley wasn't going to help anything.. she couldn't just leave all those hopes behind.
Sending a letter home promising her parents that she would make them proud, she left for the world beyond the kettles.. and as she settled into Inkopolis, she found herself appalled. The slums here were almost as bad as the ones back home.

She was going to change that. Her name came first, of course, as to make the past less fragile; she took ideas from old human legend, pondering the venomous man-eating monster called the Manticore. It rather fit her, with the deadly toxins she called her own.
But that wasn't it -- she began to take others like her under her wing, and she grew clever, using force and intimidation to establish a dominance on the streets.
Even as she stands at 5'3", Manticore's height isn't worth laughing over -- she has a fearsome and terrible streak. Her skin is the color of cocoa, and her eyes are a bright yellow that lightly matches the warm gold of her four tentacles. Each of the sucker-cups on her tentacles have distinct black and blue rings, and her facial markings are similar. Like other Octolings, she has jagged sharp teeth, but they hold a deadly secret: her bite is extremely venomous, possessing a neurotoxin that acts on the respiratory system in minutes. Thankfully, her ink is completely harmless, even if she's fond of bottling it up in explosives.

Her shape fits her reputation as a ferocious gang leader; she is rather fit, quick and lithe on her feet even if not particularly strong. It's not like she has to be, when her non-lethal weapon of choice is a Luna Blaster Neo, or, if it calls for it, lightweight knives loaded with cartridges of her venom. Freedom of movement is what matters to her the most.

Manticore's choice of attire are typically whatever she can find, preferably covering much of the body and offering adequate protection from both the elements and the attacks of others. No matter the outerwear, she always wears a bulletproof vest beneath, as well as a single hairclip bearing the Omega symbol that her gang uses as a defining symbol.
QED, or "Quod" for short, is the street gang that Manticore calls her own. It's characterized by a blue-and-black Omega symbol, usually accompanied by shades of gold, navy, black and white. Higher-ranking gangsters tend to have the colored Omega symbol as a tattoo, and Manticore is no different, bearing it between her collarbones. (Why the Omega symbol, some ask, and Manticore says that it stands for "the goal and the end all in one, so it's perfect".)

Originally formed between her and a few less-than-fortunate squids on the street, she took her time and let it grow as a group that would protect the impoverished and downtrodden, regardless of their species or background. She showed no interest in more illegal things like drug trafficking or the abuse of others -- in fact, Manticore fancies it to be more of a "self-help group" that runs mostly on theft, threats, extortion, and smuggling of both weapons and refugees alike.

Even after about five years and a couple hundred members later, Manticore still uses QED as a support group for the needy, a surrogate family for the mistreated, and a vigilante mob against injustice. She rules with a surprising amount of concern for her underlings, and cracks down viciously on conflict between her own.
Support and interaction with the needy outside of Quod is commonplace, such as small donations to the poor or larger donations to charities.. while still leaving plenty of means to take care of their own. It would be ignorant to say that QED is fairly successful in the monetary sense, but it rarely presents such a front, quickly distributing wealth as to push its members and their families out of poor situations.

QED rarely calls a select region of Inkopolis its own, with its members scattered in pockets and typically operating like that. It does control a good chunk of the Daggertooth District, however, including four or five neighborhoods and some abandoned factories. The boundaries are ferociously defended and buildings tagged boldly; any intruders are quickly confronted, and potential threats swiftly dealt with.

Favored weapons among Quod are Carbon Rollers, Dynamo Rollers, Octobrushes, Luna Blasters, Octoshot Replicas and E-Liters; there is no designated clothing code. New recruits typically get a set of warm protective clothes, their choice of one of the cheaper weapon models, and an ink tank. It all serves as self-defense, and a means to make money from turf war if need be, but of course, loyalty and community come with the package.

@Manticore / all art by marine