[OOC] The Hidden People

[Lemons]

So, question: given the somewhat simple nature of nymphs in this setting, what kind of names would they have?

[Brasslazer]

Hello there! Is there room for one more?

[Sylverblu]

Alason Campbell

Appearance:

Photograph

Seeming by most accounts unremarkable, Alason is but another face in the crowd to most, the only distinguishing features being the beginnings of a fine beard and a rather geometrically defined nose. Beyond this, however, Alason is nothing beyond a brown-haired, brown-eyed white guy scuttling about in a suit with some rather plain, black glasses. Speaking of the suit - for those of you who actually care - on a nearly daily basis Alason wears a suit grading from grey-blue to black, always worn with a sense of business and professionalism. The beard? Perhaps four steps away from pathetic. It hardly covers the face and only barely escapes judgement as mere stubble. Still, none of this is to say that he is particularly unattractive, rather, as aforementioned and as surely will be mentioned countless times more, Alason is neither attractive nor unattractive, neither this nor that, not anything; he merely is, and is quite content in anonymity.

Full Name: Alason Iver Campbell

Nicknames/Alias/AKA: N/A

Age: 31

Gender: Male

DOB: 20 August 1984

Occupation: Civil Litigation Lawyer

Race: Quaestrum Witch

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Brown

Height and Build: About 5'10", and ideally proportioned for a human. That is not to say that he has an optimized, hyper-athletic build, but rather that he is neither overweight nor underweight and is by all accounts an average, unremarkable, healthy male.

History/bio:

The first thing one must notice is the air of calm about her, an air which hardly dissipates when she beckons me over and dismisses the attendants.

"I want you to see everything. I want you to understand properly the things that you never could." Cryptic, but after a moment I understand. I take her hand, splay it with her palm to the ceiling, and begin to run my fingers down the fine wrinkles of her hand. I close my eyes.

The serene black is stolen from the inside of my eyelids and is immediately replaced with a blinding white. Pain, a pain that I've not felt before; it is as though my innards are retching about, churning and switching positions in some horrific game of musical chairs. A hospital. Doctors. More pain. A child. As the pain begins to give way to the sweet relaxation of endorphins, I hardly notice the passage of time before the newborn is presented to me. I know the face, and yet it is new to me. I love it. It almost takes away the bitter tinge of knowing that my husband is not here, but off doing God knows what in some filthy alley. Almost.

Sift through the fluff.

A toddler. Cute, but without identity. With the superfluous baby fat gone and the cheekbones beginning to set in properly, one can begin to see the resemblance between him and me. He plays in the yard, but again: where is the father? I head back inside and begin to brew some tea. Oh, I'm crying. My husband hasn't been home in four days, and I don't know where he is. I can't explain to the child though, no, he mustn't know that his father is a deadbeat. He mustn't know that his father is a traitor. He mustn't know that his father has all but abandoned us. He mustn't know that his father drinks, and runs off with human women, enamored by his parlor tricks, to forget. He mustn't know that his father hates his own kind, hates his own self, hates his own wife, hates his own son. He mustn't know that his father is a bastard that deserves nothing short of the stake. Oh, dash, I've accidentally torched the kitchen. I promptly put it out, of course, but cleaning it up in front my son should prove a bit awkward. Ah well, some candy and he'll forget in due time. Some day... some day I'll explain it to him.

Sift through the fluff.

My son is gone now, off studying English at a university. I'm in a hammock, reading, when I hear footsteps behind me. They do not sound unfriendly, so I turn slowly and with a smile on my face, assuming it to be a neighbor. Shock. Fear quickly bleeds into confusion as I look upon the well-groomed, nervously happy visage of my child's father, my... husband.

"Why are you here?"

"I know that I haven't been good to you. I know that. But... Lorna, I want to be a part of your life again. I want to see my son.'

I'm torn. On one hand, I can see that he means it. In proper clothes, groomed, apologetic and empathetic... How can I say no?

"No." Oh, that's how. "I'm sorry, but you had your chance. We haven't seen you in seventeen years; you chose to not be a part of his life and now you have to live with the consequences of that choice."

"But-"

"No."

Sift thro-

I'm jerked out of the memoryscape, sweaty and hyperventilating. With my mother's hand on my wrist, I slow down and, after a moment, stand straight. A pause. Eye contact. I head for the door.

"Where are you going?"

I pause again. Where am I going? No sense in merely storming off because I'm angry at my father for his negligence and my mother for her stubbornness. But, after a moment of thought, that's not all I'm doing.

"I'm going to look for my father's phone number. The healer gets back from his vacation today; the flight should be in by 4:50. He'll be here by the end of the day to take care of your lung problem." I exit my mother's home without contest. She knows it would be futile.

— Two years ago

Family/Relationships:
Father: Mr. Douglass Campbell - Distant, in regular contact
Mother: Dr. Lorna Campbell - Local, in regular contact
Grandparents: All deceased
Paternal aunt: Ms. Moira Smith - Distant, in holiday contact
Maternal aunt: Mrs. Saundra Wilson - Distant, in holiday contact
Maternal aunt: Ms. Roberta Brown - Local, in holiday contact
Maternal uncle: Mr. Robert Wilson - Distant, in holiday contact

[Emma]

@Brasslazer Always room for more!!

@Lemons Depending on when and where they are born, their name could be anything from your typical Mary, or John, to a more traditional nymph names like Eudora, Daphne, Nysa, Rusalka, Taygeta, Mab, Jerisavlja, Tryamon, Azinza, Kleena, Eiluned, and so on. Surnames are typically taken from there surroundings, or copied from their parents. For example Oona Grotto, Johnny Appleseed, or Lilith Tigris.

[Lemons]

Annnnd finished!

Anwen Oakbough

Appearance

Anwen appears as a young woman in her mid-twenties, with smooth, pale skin and long, dark, red-brown hair that trails messily for a good way down her back in a twisted, tangled mess. It culminates in an overflowing mass of curls that sits in the small of her back. She has a very long, narrow face, with large, closely set eyes that are a bright, warm green filled with childlike enthusiasm and excitement. They are positioned underneath extremely thin (to the point of being called barren occasionally) eyebrows, and above a slightly large nose and small, narrow lips colored pale pink. While very slim, she still has an overall feminine body shape. In particular, it must be noted that she has very thin, fine-boned shoulders, giving her a somewhat fallacious appearance of fragility. This is kept consistent with similarly delicate hands, narrow and very long-fingered. In fact, Anwen is very practiced in bouncing back and can take in stride injuries that are far worse than one would think.

Her legs are a bit disproportionately long, in that particular area when people notice that something is just slightly off about her proportions but can’t completely pinpoint it until it’s mentioned. Her arms and the bridge of her nose are covered in freckles which, when coupled with the chaotic joy in her eyes and the tangled mess that is her hair, gives her the impression of being younger than she actually is.

Anwen never wears makeup. She finds the concept completely alien and confusing, looking at it with mixed amusement and disgust. The fact that people would cover their faces with chemicals simply doesn’t make any sense to her in the slightest.

Full Name

Anwen Oakbough

Nicknames/Alias/AKA

Oak, Leafy, Ann

Age

1,275 years old

Gender

Female

DOB

Sometime in early spring, 741 A.D.

Occupation

Waitress at The Tipsy Dragon

Race

Nymph

Hair Color

Deep auburn

Eye Color

Bright green

Height and Build

Anwen is 5’5” and very slim.

Other Appearance

A great deal of the time, Anwen doesn’t actually wear clothes. At all. While this is somewhat more agreeable in light of the fact that she lives out in the woods, it grows awkward when someone decides to take a walk through the woods and crosses her path. When she does wear clothing, it’s always very light. Heavy clothing feels hot and oppressive to her, and her skin is easily irritated. Generally, she wears some shade of green, as well as clothes that are flexible and easy to move around in. Most often, she wears some variation on a tank top and shorts.

History/Bio

Anwen has been very alone for a very long time.

At 741, the world she was born into was one of war and chaos. It was bathed in bloodshed for many years, and she and her nebulously defined family (that is to say, the loose nymph clan-esque structure that she lived with) spent a great deal of time deep, deep inside of the oak forests in what is now Wales.

It’s true, nymphs are naive and airheaded, and Anwen is no exception. What they are not, however, is stupid. As long as they could, Anwen’s pseudofamily stayed far away from all humans, spending much of their time learning about the world outside through the use of pixies. They couldn’t hide forever, though, and eventually, a hunting party happened upon one of their temporary settlements. Upon their hips, they carried cold iron blades. In their quivers, they carried cold iron arrows. Upon their bodies, they carried cold iron armor. The nymphs scattered. Suspicious, savage men, they had been hunting for a gathering of evil spirits. Though in that age, the nymphs were strong fighters, they couldn’t near the men for the branding blades of cold iron. On that bloody day, everybody in that family died.

Everybody but Anwen.

Always a bit of a wildcard, Anwen had been far out in the forests, searching for strange rocks and twisted bits of branches, set on collecting them back in her small backpack. As she neared the settlement, she stopped short. Everything was perfectly quiet. Distressingly so. As she edged ever closer to the clearing, she began to feel a strange twisting in her stomach. An innate feeling of nausea and disgust. She had never felt iron sickness before, and bursting into her home and finding everybody she loved impaled on cold iron-tipped arrows didn’t help. She ran, taking nothing, hiding herself deep within the Welsh woods and not emerging.

For a long time, Anwen despised humans. And rightly so. During that time, many nymphs died, hunted down as more evil spirits and changelings. Centuries later, though, they began to change. Few even remembered the existence of the “evil beings of the forest” anymore, and those that did told of them only as children’s stories. For the first time in many years, Anwen felt safe enough to step out of her forests. She became a wanderer, not staying long enough in any one place for people to realize that strange things happened to plants around her, and through her wanderings, she began to learn of human culture. While she doesn’t like them, she recognizes their progress and no longer feels vengeful. For now, she is content simply to exist near them. Her bubbly, one-track-mind exterior hides a mind that, while awful at multitasking and simplistic—almost childlike—in emotions, contains centuries of memories and incalculable sadness.

Family/Relationships

Ceridwen Leafstep, mother (deceased)
Brant Oakbough, father (deceased)
Aeronwen Oakbough, sister (deceased)
Cloud, a red squirrel that she spends a great deal of time having conversations with

Extra/Other

Due to the centuries spent wandering in Wales, she's fluent in Welsh. Any languages other than that and English tend to make her head hurt. She very often travels back to Wales since, as a nymph, she's very attached to the forests where she was originally born.

[Alina13]

@TheIrishJJ

I was hoping our characters could interact. The one that said he needs friends that would stay up at night with him would be perfect with my Deseraei. PM me and let me know what you think. My character is currently wandering around to find her classes for the next morning.

[Emma]

@LemonsPost Anwen up in the Characters Tab!! :)

[Emma]

@Sylverblu Post him into the characters Tab!!

[Brasslazer]

I'm interested in making a dragon character, and I just had some question I wanted to clarify about them:

1. How does the family structure of dragons work? If they are newborns when they regenerate, who take care of the newly regenerated dragons, since their parents are likely dead since they can only reproduce in their 10th life.

2. Since the dragons are immune to poison, how are they affected by drug use i.e., alcohol, cigarettes, Fairy Blood?

3. In dragon form, can dragons breath only fire, or can they breath other things like poison gas or frost breath? And if they can, is it D&D style rules where certain scale colors mean certain breath types, such as red dragons breathing fire and white dragons breathing frost?

4. Can you explain the elasticity power with some more detail? It's confusing me a little.

[Nightfury Kat]

I have a bunch of errands to run, but will post openings for my characters tonight.

[TheIrishJJ]

@Alina13 That sounds good! PM me, and I'll get back to you when I wake up. :)

[arca9]

Julian Marino

Appearance:


Full Name: Julian Marino

Nicknames/Alias/AKA: (He calls himself Julian, but he's known as "the big guy" around Whitecross.)

Age: 20

Gender: Male

DOB: May 13, 1996

Occupation: Student / Part-time stocker and cashier at Oryana Grocery

Race: Shifter

Hair Color: Dark brown

Eye Color: Gold

Height and Build: 5'11", muscular yet lean.

Other Appearance: Julian uses hair gel to keep his hair spiked out of his face. He likes to wear well-fitting thin hoodies and T-shirts that show his athletic build, along with skinny jeans and worn black Converse.

History/bio:

Family History

It is mythologized that King Lycaon of Arkadia infuriated Zeus, the god of the sky, by wanting to serve him a slaughtered child, his son Nyctimus being one of the options. Zeus' angry response was to bring lightning bolts upon fifty of Lycaon's sons and turn Lycaon and Nyctimus into wolves. The descendants of Nyctimus became Shifters, able to shift in and out of their wolf forms at will, while the descendants of Lycaon found themselves as Lycanthropes, cursed with uncontrollable transformations under the full moon. Shifters hated the Lycanthropes and still do, having the goal of demolishing the race.

Nyctimus' daughter, Phylonome, gave birth to twin sons, one of whom founded and populated Rome. Among his descendents were shipbuilders, who joined the trade business and sailed in the modern-day Mediterranean Sea. These people gained the family name Marinus ("of the sea"). In the 1500s, the Italian Wars resulted in the Italian city states spending a period of time under Spanish rule. A few families named Marinus immigrated to Spain and changed their names to Marino. When news came of a new land discovered, a few Marinos set out on ships the Americas. One family began their new life in what is now known as Florida.

Julian's personal history

It was known from the moment Julian was conceived what he might be. Julian was born in a private hospital in Ocala, Florida, on May 13, 1996 to specialized doctors. DNA tests confirmed that Julian was indeed a shifter, although his bright golden eyes, differentiating him from non-affected brown-eyed family members, was enough indication. Appropriate personal and medical arrangements were made.

Julian was an only child and lived with his parents in Ocala. His father, Edward Marino, was the senior manager of a company that sold furniture and household appliances. He received discounts as well as a good salary, and filled the entire apartment with furniture and appliances from that specific brand. Being loyal to his work, yet quite the proud person that he was, one of Edward's favourite things was when guests noticed the uniformity of everything in the house. He would often position the items so that the brand name was visible, and try to drop subtle comments into conversations about how much he liked using such-and-such an appliance from this brand. If guests were so interested as to ask about it, the resulting conversation would often revolve around how Edward worked for such a great company. He wore brown contact lenses to change the colour of his eyes, even though they were hardly an unnatural shade of golden brown. His mother, Roisin Wilson-Marino, was a second-generation Irish-American. She used to teach general science in a middle school, known among the students for giving out relatively simple assignments for easy marks while still being somewhat of an effective teacher. When Julian came, she decided to work from home and provide science lessons online, available to the middle schools of Ocala. This gave her time to give Julian her undivided attention.

Julian seemed like a regular temperamental child in his youth. He attended Maplewood Elementary School and developed a knack for appearing to befriend loners. He loved to talk and was seen as a natural leader. He was overly-sensitive to criticism, throwing tantrums in class and expecting people to comfort him. He was also a jealous child, getting angry if he perceived someone as better than him at something and arguing if he lost a game. Although he was small and skinny no matter how much he ate, he had above-average strength and speed. He excelled at all sports and never seemed to get hurt. He also had a suspiciously good sense of hearing and smell, sometimes making him feel overwhelmed. It was decided that music lessons would help him control his attention to at least sounds, and he took up guitar lessons. It took four tries to find a guitar teacher patient enough not to drop him. Perhaps picking up from his father, he was proud of his heightened abilities and senses and liked to show them off.

His first shift conveniently happened in the summer between elementary school and middle school, in the middle of an intense dream. When Julian woke up the next morning, he felt different in the bed. He screamed loudly when he saw what he had become. His mother ran into his room with a worried face that was immediately replaced with relief, confusing Julian. That day, his mother told him the legend of the Shifters and the Lycanthropes and his family history. Since Julian had no clue about any of this, it took him a few years to fully understand everything, but this only served to confirm his belief that he was special. He was sworn to secrecy, only deciding to keep this oath after Roisin explained the family's potentially doomed fate if the secret was let out. He didn't want to bring any negative reputation and harm to himself. His father revealed his own wolf form and took to training Julian how to control it, taking him to the Ocala National Forest to practice hunting and wolf behaviour.

Out of fear for revealing the family secret, Julian's parents hired several tutors to home-school Julian through middle school and high school. Most of the tutors grew to dislike Julian for his arrogance, but kept coming for the pay. His friends from elementary school, the young loners, had had enough of Julian's controlling ways and happily cut off connections from him when they stopped going to the same school. Julian denied his isolation and simply dismissed these old classmates as unworthy of his friendship. He selected new, worthy "friends" in online chats and video games, meeting up with the ones in his area to attend events and party. He had a girlfriend for his last two years in high school, a tall blonde named Lily Flynn. She lived with an abusive family and was used to neglect enough to be with him, using her time out with him more as an escape from her home than anything else.

A plan long in the works, Julian's parents sent Julian off to Whitecross to attend Gringore Academy after high school. They explained to him that he would not only received a college education, but would learn about his powers as well. Infatuated by the opportunity to finally show his powers to the world, Julian promptly broke up with Lily. He moved alone to Whitecross two months after he turned 18 and took residence in the dormitories of Gringore Academy. He hardly needed any time to adjust to this new isolation. Being outgoing and an extrovert, Julian had no trouble busying himself with studying, parties, events, and a part-time job at Oryana Grocery, socializing whenever and however he pleased. He has developed a crush on a same-aged floor-mate, a witch named Susanna Lim, who he has tried unsuccessfully to seduce by talking about how special he is.

Family/Relationships:

Family/Relationships

Edward Marino - Father. Shifter. 52.
Roisin Wilson-Marino - Mother. Human. 49.
Lily Flynn - Ex-girlfriend. Student at Hillsborough Community College. 20.
Susanna Lim - Crush. Witch. Student at Gringore Academy. Floor-mate. 20.
Sam & Alex - Students at Gringore Academy. New floor-mates. 18.

Other/Extra: Julian is aware that Lycanthropes are the enemy, but hasn't had much to do with them yet. Julian enjoys talking to people (about himself), working out at the gym (especially in front of the mirrored wall), playing all sports, and being in situations where he can take the lead. Julian also tends to give people nicknames no matter how well he knows them, especially if they're also called Julian.

[TheIrishJJ]

@arca9 If Julian gets accepted, I think he'd be able to be good friends with Séamus.

[Emma]

@arca9 Accepted! Post him up in the characters tab. (Silas!!!)

[arca9]

@TheIrishJJ Good idea! I think there could be a sort of friend/mentor relationship where Julian can learn sadistic ways of using his powers from Séamus, since Julian hasn't really used his powers for anything yet.

[TheIrishJJ]

@arca9 That sounds great! Could you have him meet him in assembly or somewhere else?

[Nightfury Kat]

@vietmyke Sorry, my internet cut out last night. I'm working on the posts, but it's taking a while using my phone. I'm not great with touch screens.

[Emma]

I have a case of food poisoning at the moment. (Basically I am dying) *Cries*

Anyway I will most likely be MIA for the rest of the day. I will never eat domino's pizza again!

I've been assured that food poisoning is a 24 hour thing, so I'll be around tomorrow, with another post for Alice, and some fun stuff to make the IC pop. I encourage all of you to have your lovely characters meet and mingle! The Fitzroy party is going to be amazing FYI! :D

[vietmyke]

D: but domino's is my preferred pizza place.

@Nightfury Kat, no worries, I'm at a convention this weekend so Im just chilling anyway

[Gunther]

I have a case of food poisoning at the moment. (Basically I am dying) *Cries*

Anyway I will most likely be MIA for the rest of the day. I will never eat domino's pizza again!

I've been assured that food poisoning is a 24 hour thing, so I'll be around tomorrow, with another post for Alice, and some fun stuff to make the IC pop. I encourage all of you to have your lovely characters meet and mingle! The Fitzroy party is going to be amazing FYI! :D

@Emma

Emma, I am very sorry to hear about the food poisoning. I do hope you get well soon.

@Sylverblu@arca9 Please read these observations. Let me know if there is anything we can collaborate on. I just posted my character, Stig Jörgensen in the Character tab.
Alason Iver Campbell (Sylverblu) - As Attorneys, Stig has regular contact wtih Alason Campbell. They have worked both together and against each other in court.

Julian Marino (arca9) - The family has frequent contact with Julian at the grocery store. Malin and her elder children believe Julian is overly arrogant. Stig however sees another side to Julian. He views his behavior as confident. He appreciates the younger man's outgoing expressive behavior. He views it as being similar to his own. Stig has the ability to change into any creature or human, he is not limited to one type of creature, he still empathizes with Julian's shifting ability. He has changed into a wolf for Julian on occasion. They have developed into a mentor/mentee sort of relationship.