Skinweaver

United Front: The Consolidatory Efforts of the Healer Danielle Obrove; Or, Mixing Things Up; Or, Just the Right Blend; Or, Drag-one and the Same; Or, A Pillar of the Community
Danielle Obrove knew who she was.

She was a healer, mentor, and wanderer. She was a storyteller to any that would hear her, and a guide to those looking to create stories of their own. Above all else, she only wanted to help those who needed her in whatever way that she could. She had spent the first couple centuries of her existence lending her mastery of healing magic to various adventuring parties. Then, when she retired from adventuring herself, Danielle offered renewal and advice to the young heroes-to-be that would seek her out.

She was also a shapeshifter. Strange parentage and stranger magical circumstance at her conception had resulted in Danielle being born with the uncanny ability to change herself into whatever shape she chose. After her time adventuring was through, this allowed Danielle to experience life from multiple points of view, be it by posing as a handmaiden, an aristocrat, or as a common beast of the forest. Thanks to her powers, Danielle has witnessed many of life’s joys, and has attempted to combat life’s sorrows where she could.

Sometimes, it wasn’t enough. There was only so much that Danielle’s magic could cure. Some wounds were beyond healing, some patients too close to death for her to save in time.

After years of seeing the dying taken moments before she could provide the care they needed, Danielle attempted something drastic. In a country consumed by war, a young boy was afflicted by a dreadful wasting curse which was rapidly rotting his body from within. The curse was too elaborate for Danielle to purify in time, and so much of his body was already affected that removing only the blighted, dead tissue was impossible. Even still, there was so much of the boy left unmarred. His heart still beat, at once keeping him alive and expediting the curse’s progress. His lungs still took unsteady breaths in an effort to keep him alive that much longer. His brain, too, remained untouched by the affliction, continuing to harbor a bright and hopeful mind brimming with potential. Danielle couldn’t let the boy just slip away, but the virulent magic destroying his body was leaving her with fewer and fewer options as the seconds passed.

There was one thing Danielle could do to help, though. The boy could no longer sustain himself on his own, but perhaps with a little direct assistance, he could persist in some form or another. Danielle tenderly lifted the child’s body and folded her variant changeling’s flesh over his own, drawing him, curse and all, into herself. With the boy fully enveloped, Danielle could easily isolate the parts of him touched by the curse, and shed them from her own body. Once purified, Danielle could easily reassemble the boy and send him on his way.

Only she couldn’t. What was to keep the boy from becoming hurt again once he was restored to his individual form? Danielle looked up at the other healers in the triage as they waited expectantly for her to return the child. What was to keep anyone from suffering as long as they pursued their separate existences? Danielle couldn’t leave that place knowing that the people, patients and healers alike, would leave to face an uncaring world that would wound, torment, and eventually kill them.

When Danielle did leave the triage, she was the only one to do so...technically. Each patient and healer joined the ailing boy as a part of Danielle’s form. In the coming months, the entire kingdom would be subsumed as well. Everyone, be they peasant or prince, beggar or knight, was swept up and absorbed into Danielle’s body. A country divided by war quickly became a country united.

Since that time, Danielle Obrove has traveled from place to place, bringing not only healing, but unity to all who suffer. The citizens of that forgotten war-torn nation were the first to understand her gift, though Danielle now takes her time and uses less…aggressive methods to coerce individuals to merge with her. Danielle had always been used to taking on variant forms, so she uses that to her advantage by modifying her body to produce attractive pheromones, to give her “patients” the push they need to become ensnared by her body. If Danielle discovers anyone in need of urgent care, she will of course draw them into herself immediately.

The minds/souls/intrinsic vital essences/what-have-you of those Danielle absorbs are usually given a choice of lingering within her, sharing in her thoughts and sensations, or immediately joining with her being completely. Eventually, most individual consciousnesses fade and become one with Danielle, bolstering her considerable mental presence, but there are a few strong personalities who continue to to persist separate from the healer’s whole. None of these are able to take control, of course, but they act as literal voices in Danielle’s head, making daily appeals for what foods she should taste and what sights she should see. She still cares for them, even if they insist on not fully uniting with her, and she will always hear them out.

The excess mass Danielle inherits from the people she assimilates is moved to a vast pocket dimension, a natural byproduct of her shapeshifting abilities. After absorbing so many people, Danielle can now call on the extra material to grow substantially larger than normal, though she will usually default to around six feet tall.

Danielle Obrove knew who she was.

Now, there is no telling what she will become.

The Hither and Thither Expanded; Or, Drawing Back the Curtain!
Danielle Obrove is the alternate universe analogue of the photokinetic prince of planet Glabra, Daniel. She is not his past self, his blood relative, or a close acquaintance. She's the Obrove if Obrove were a healer intent on curing suffering by assimilating all life, whereas the Nephilim is a hybrid celestial wracked with boredom and desperate to leave his father’s kingdom.

Other Obroves can be discovered on their alt list, here.

There are more "Danalogues" to come, eventually, so we kindly ask that you...

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