Taphrino

Unremarkable, the very picture of unassuming, yet persistent enough to leave an impression anyway.

Very close with Jinna and Era.

Often called Taffy by friends.

Some time ago, Project received intel of a clan in the Starwood Strand said to house a few members of FL/GHT, and soon sent a team of field agents to do reconnaissance in the area.

When this first team came back, they had failed to find even a trace of this mysterious clan. Their navigation and communications equipment had short-circuited, rendering most of the components unsalvageable, though no one could quite remember when or how the equipment had been damaged. The team was reprimanded for improper handling of equipment and for attempting to continue the mission with unusable equipment, and a second team was sent out.

The second team returned five hours behind schedule, heavily disoriented, with their navigation and communications equipment neatly disassembled. Not one member of the team admitted to tampering with the equipment, and like before, no one could remember when the equipment had been disassembled. Strangely, despite every disassembled component appearing perfectly undamaged, they would not function when reassembled or integrated into another device. The team was reprimanded for improper handling of equipment and for returning so far past the scheduled time.

The pattern continued with each new team Project sent to explore the area. Strangely, the equipment was never damaged in the same way twice. Once, it overheated enough to melt a hole in a field agent's pack, yet the team still insisted they had no recollection of how or when the equipment had been damaged. Once, the equipment returned looking as though it had been stabbed by needles on all sides, despite no damage to the pack the equipment was carried in. Each time, the field team returned with no information on the mysterious clan that allegedly made that section of the Strand their home.

That is, except for a single field agent in the third of five teams: Taphrino.

Taphrino, a moderately experienced field agent, reported that they became separated from the rest of their team and began wandering the forest to attempt to reunite with them. They sighted three unidentified dragons over the course of their wanderings, but were unable to approach any of these dragons for information. When Taphrino reached a point in the forest where the trees began to thin, however, they reported a sensation best described as something digging hooks into their very being, attempting to draw "something like roots" out of them and into itself. Taphrino was then spontaneously transported to the edge of the Strand, near where their team entered the forest from. (The official report theorized that Taphrino had merely blacked out from a surge in magical radiation.)

Of course, no one remembers these events. Shortly after the fifth failed mission, all records of the clan in the Starwood Strand were wiped from Project's archives, and the memory slipped from their employees' minds like water through a mesh grate. This included Taphrino.

That is not to say the incident did not leave a mark.

Even without the memory of what had happened in the forest, Taphrino would sometimes feel a calling towards something, though they had no clue what that something could be. It was always strongest when they felt unsatisfied with their place in life, when they wished for a change in scenery or a new adventure, or when they questioned their mission working under Project. Those feelings themselves became more frequent. Some nights, they would jump awake, heart racing, with the phrase "You have been invited." imprinted in their mind. Each time they questioned their future or loyalty, they felt their metaphorical roots holding them in place. Each time, they pictured those roots straining just a bit further.


Taphrino was not so naïve as to think that Project was good. No company that large could be. Still, working for them paid better than any other job in the area, and for many years, Taphrino had thought that they were too far down on the totem pole to do any real harm. After all, it wasn't like they were being asked to hurt anyone. Just robots. Empty, unfeeling robots.