The Headstrong Harpooneer

Info: Even in his surface dwelling days, there was nothing ordinary about Yevgeniy. Growing up as an urchin, concepts like a home or a stable job were completely foreign to him. Instead, he much preferred living life like the protagonist of a penny dreadful. Before he was even old enough to drink, he was already stowing away on mercantile ships, seeking the adventurous life he so intensely craved. Of course, more often than not, all he would find would be a harsh beating and a quick escort back to the closest port. However, the few times where he would be allowed to stay on board in exchange for his services as a deck scrubber were formative to him. Those years at sea nurtured an intense fascination for anything maritime in him, especially for what lurks below the surface. Before he even realized, he had already turned into a seasoned sailor, nimble on the Jacob's ladder, yet ferocious in a fistfight. Witnessing the shift from sailing ships to steamships, his travels brought him all around the surface and made him into an asset that any captain would be glad to accept on their vessel. His life, however, would be forever changed in a fatal whaling expedition in the Northern Atlantic. His vessel was overturned by the wrath of a colossal sperm whale and he found himself lost in the frigid ocean with his head cracked on one of the ship's metal railings. When he came to, he was lying on a surgical table, enveloped in the complete darkness of the arctic night. As he felt around, trying to find his bearings in the pitch black room, a sharp pain pierced his collarbone. What once was his head was now encased in copper, securely bolted to his chest and collarbone. As he would later come to learn, he was now aboard a steamer transporting a noted Neathy Surgeon by taking advantage of the long polar night. The vessel had run into the wreckage of the whaling ship by pure chance and, against all odds, found him still alive. He was, however, not long for this world, his head in much too pitiful of a condition. It was only thanks to the Neathy Surgeon's expertise that they were able to perform an impromptu surgery to remove his mangled cranium and host his brain, eyes and other organs into a spare diving helmet they had lying around on the ship. He spent close to a year being shown around universities in North America by the Neathy Surgeon (or by his assistants when the sunlight would prevent him from leaving his subterranean abode) before they decided to part ways. Now finding himself stranded in the eastern United States, for the first time in his life Yevgeniy had no idea what to do with himself. His brush with death had changed him, both physically and psychologically, but not enough to thwart his plans to live like an adventurer. Almost perishing at the hand (fin?) of a monster, Yevgeniy had a realization: he couldn't be the only one. The continent was bursting at the seams with legends of beasts that defied human comprehension and, while most of them turned out to be hogwash, some of them had some truth to them. For the next decade, he leveraged his physical strength, his intellect and the funds left to him by the Neathy Surgeon to become a veritable Monster-Hunter, earning a crust by offering his services to those endangered by the beasts. While the job was rewarding and the pay was good, the "monsters" he hunted often turned out to merely be ordinary animals. He had certainly gained an appreciation for the natural world and a fervent interest in animal anatomy, but even when he eventually set his sights on the ocean once again to hunt for the horrors lurking in the depths, he couldn't help but think there was something missing. It was in one of the frequent missives that he and the Neathy Surgeon exchanged, that he first caught wind of a chiropterous monstrosity lurking in depths unknown even to him. The Vake. Leaving everything behind, he journeyed to Fallen London, hoping to confront a creature the likes of which no one on the surface had ever seen before.

after several months and way more grind than id care to admit, i DID it. of course, yevgeniy spared curator veils. being a monster-hunter often fosters a certain fascination for your quarry and, being the kind of guything he is, yevgeniy realized it would be much more interesting to tame a curator rather than killing one. some say it might have had something to do with him yearning for the thrill of BEING a monster. but surely not.

how it feels to research an impossible theorem

finally managed to get an iremi destiny!