[hider=Rhys Lockhart] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/LOROzKA.png[/img] [img]https://i.pinimg.com/236x/77/a1/c2/77a1c2de914768a710116e2ff14d66de.jpg[/img] [color=ffd9a8][sub][i]Faceclaim: Matthew Clavane || Color Code: #ffd9a8[/i][/sub][/color][/center] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Name:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Soren Rhysande Lockhart[/i] [color=ffd9a8][sub]Usually they go by Rhys (pronounced “reese”) though they have a plethora of nicknames based off their first name.[/sub][/color] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Gender / Preferred Pronouns:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Genderfluid (they/them)[/i] [color=ffd9a8][sub]Sometimes it changes between binary pronouns, too – they wear a leather cord necklace with a color-coded pendant for anyone who cares.[/sub][/color] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Age:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Eighteen.[/i] [color=ffd9a8][sub]Being a smartass, four and a half.[/sub][/color] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Birthday:[/b][/u][/color] [i]29th February.[/i] [color=ffd9a8][sub]Leap-day babe![/sub][/color] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Sexuality:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Pansexual[/i] [color=ffd9a8][sub]They like everyone and anyone, what else can be said?[/sub][/color] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Appearance:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Tall and gangly at six feet, two inches, with knobbly limbs and a slender frame that lacks muscle definition entirely, Rhys perpetually conducts themself as though they have no idea where their limbs are. Their hair, brown and curly and almost always tamed into a bun, falls to their shoulder blades when it is freed from its prison. Well-defined brows and a delicately pointed, clean-shaven jaw frame soft lips, a strong nose, and expressive dark-brown eyes. Their face and the rest of their body are covered in a healthy sprinkling of freckles, and though their skin is of a shade that could tan easily it remains rather fair from a general lack of sunlight. Regarding attire, the short answer is "it varies". They're usually clad in some hybrid of comfort and style, usually to about a business-casual standard, but what comprises the wardrobe varies tremendously in shape and cut. Much of it is comprised of solid color sweaters over white or cream button shirts, or sometimes a vest in place of the sweater, and a variety of trousers or knee-length pleated skirts. Overall, their silhouettes could best be described as somewhat old-fashioned. They're fond of neutrals and soft, desaturated warm colors, preferring brown and beige and warm grey over black or cool blue. Brown leather loafer shoes and a classy, gold-faced watch (a graduation present from their almost-twin) are staples of their wardrobe. As mentioned above, they wear a thin leather cord necklace with a simple acrylic circle pendant threaded through it, for at-a-glance reference about preferred pronouns - a peach-pink one for feminine pronouns, pale green for neutral ones, and dark red for masculine ones. Most often they wear the green one, or none at all; if they have to go in public they rather like confusing strangers about their gender.[/i] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Personality:[/b][/u][/color] Soft-spoken and gentle would be the first words most would use to describe Rhys. They're gently outgoing and very supportive of their clanmates, especially the younger ones. Growing up their whole life in a small town, they're quick to consider everyone as a friend or like family, and this has spilled over into the coven, though they've hardly been a part of it for very long. They're incredibly slow to anger and quick to forgive. Stubborn and deep-set in their non-confrontational patterns, others have said on occasion that it is impossible to get a rise out of them, save for when they're actively panicking. Generally, Rhys is fairly assured of themself, moving through the world with the grace and confidence of someone unaware of the dark. There is little that has happened in their fairly insular world that has shaken their sense of self, and they've always been met with love and acceptance in their appearance and presentation. Because of this, they can seem a little bit naive or oblivious to how cruel the world can really be. Magic, similarly, has only ever been viewed through a positive and altruistic lens by them; they're entirely unaware of how badly it can be corrupted. Moving so far across the world has turned their life upside down, but they confront the new situation optimistically and courageously all the same. After all, they've never had an experience like this that's turned out badly, right? And having a friendly face amid all the chaos certainly helps, too... [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Biography:[/b][/u][/color] Raised by a young single mother and an unknown father, one would have expected Rhys to have a hard early life. This could not have been further from the truth, however. They were born into the loving and tiny community of Tide Mills, a believed ghost town in England, to their parent Saige Lockhart. Saige was a first-generation witch, she believed, though had the lineage been traced back through several mundane generations there would have been clear ties to the still-powerful Lockhart family of the midwestern parts of Britain. The town of Tide Mills had once been deemed unfit for human living, and evacuated, but by the time of Rhys's birth there was in fact a thriving miniature coven. After years and years of thankless tending, cleaning up the remains of human waste and expending an incredible amount of energy, it seemed the earth chose to give back. A sapling that had been planted in the foundations of the old mill had bloomed into a glistening wellspring, leaves of iridescent silver set on a trunk of bronze, the plant shaded from curious humans by the crumbling brick walls and general apparent squalor of the region, and from magical beings by the remoteness and small size of it. While some wellsprings could support several hundred members, theirs was clearly not one of such note, and left all but the most desperate eager to pass it by in pursuit of other targets. By the time of Rhys's birth, the Miltide Sisterhood had drawn up about a dozen members, all of whom lived a very, very close-knit circle. Life was good, amid a glowing and brand-new village glamoured into apparent squalor. Rhys had a lovely, nurturing, doting upbringing, though they were dreadfully lonely as the only child for most of their early years. The witches of the sisterhood did their best to provide what they could by way of play and stimulation, and Rhys had no shortage of lovely charmed toys and things to experience and explore, but they still craved the contact of another person their age. Their prayers for a playmate were answered when they were seven, with the arrival of a new witchling. Kai, they were called, and like Rhys in that they didn't have much of a fondness for roles and standards assigned at birth. The children formed a fast friendship, catalyzed by their matching given names, and further solidified when they realized that their birth dates matched to the hour. For seven years, all went well, and then they didn't. The not-twins (as Saige had taken Kai in like they were her own child) got in trouble for going too far, exploring a forbidden part of the coastline. Kai had nearly drowned after a bridge had collapsed under them, which angered the coven elders as a needless and foolish injury. When they finally made it home and were faced down by the elders, Rhys accepted the punishment they were given quite placidly but Kai did not. The resulting argument and escalation to powers had the foster witchling expelled from the sisterhood and sent on to another. After that, things were never quite the same; Saige grieved for her lost second child - as that had been what Kai had seemed to her - but was not allowed to publicly show it. It manifested, though, not in cruelty but in an almost smothering kindness both to Rhys and to the other children (of which there were by now three, ranging in age from two to six). Still, it wasn't enough to sate Saige's wandering maternal instinct. Privately, Rhys believes that their parent went mad with the desire to search for Kai. About five months after their not!sibling was expelled, they quietly left the coven in the dead of night, too, turning their back on the only family they'd ever had. The following three years were spent on the road, dwelling a few days or weeks with a variety of covens throughout the United Kingdom - usually small sisterhoods; they knew better than to get involved with the biggest, it seemed. As they went, Rhys had the opportunity to dabble in many, many different kinds of magic, beyond the ones they'd been able to practice in the limited time and resources their tiny coven had had. They quickly fell in love with the art of threadwork, which they learned from a kindly old lady they'd briefly stayed with during their time in London. Just two months ago, Rhys and Saige's paperwork for America came in, and they made the journey - Saige's intuition had said that they would find Kai across the ocean. And they did, in the arms of the Sisters of the Dying Branch. With no money, no power left from their wellspring, and their family reunited, they threw themselves upon the mercy of the coven, though its a far larger community than either of them have ever been involved in before. [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Notable Rumors:[/b][/u][/color] I: Rhys's mother killed a member of their old coven in a fit of jealousy, and that's why no one else has taken them in. [sub][color=ffd9a8](This one is untrue, and Rhys is quick to defend their mother, always, though Saige seems to have just accepted it.)[/color][/sub] II: Rhys and Kai are actually dating. [sub][color=ffd9a8](They're not. That's like dating your twin sibling. Ewwwww.)[/color][/sub] III: Rhys can talk to animals, and that's why they adore the bird flocks and so on so much. [sub][color=ffd9a8](They're working on it, okay? It's a new skill and a new use of magic, as far as they know.)[/color][/sub] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Greatest Fear:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Drowning.[/i] [sub][color=ffd9a8]Rhys is terrified of drowning (ironic, considering that the wellspring is a lake, and all of that.) Having watched their notsibling fall off the edge of a waterfall and nearly drown was the most traumatic experience of their life. Their anxiety around any body of water larger than a bathtub or deeper than a puddle is debilitating, or around any sort of ruunning water, to the point where they often need to ask one of the other coven members to retrieve the water they need for their recipes and charms.[/color][/sub] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Magic:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Rhys is overall very fond of domestic applications of their skills. They care little for curses or flashy displays of glamour, and do not even practice the former. The latter they do with some minor charms, however.[/i] [indent] [color=ffd9a8][b]Best Skill:[/b] Kitchencraft[/color] [i]The skill that comes easiest to Rhys is absolutely kitchencraft. It's their term for an intersection of enchanting, charms, and potionsmaking, in a sense, or more accurately the amalgamation of all of the above into the production of consumable goods. They make breads and crackers that are enchanted to provide a day's energy, herbal teas with all manner of calming or energizing effects, and beverages and dessert cakes that, at will, morph into whatever the consumer would like them to be. Other skills related include making a broth of scraps to be as tasty and filling as a hearty stew, and notably they have also worked with transmuting plant-based foods like tofu into animal-like ones, because they do not really have the heart to kill a living creature for food.[/i] [color=ffd9a8][b]Favorite Skill:[/b] (Needlework) Charms[/color] [i]While others might find it tedious and attention- and energy-sapping, Rhys revels in the time they are able to spend in the library or in a well-shaded part of the garden, spinning threads drenched in wellspring water and stitching them carefully into intricate and layered designs with a variety of threadwork techniques. They've chosen to specialize in needlework charms, which few others do on account of the time commitment and attention to detail required. Because of the possibilities of layering and wide nuances of effects (colors of threads, material of threads, spun clockwise or counterclockwise, types of stitches, and so on) in addition to the incredible time commitment each charm takes, Rhys's work is remarkably powerful and intricate. Due to the absorbent nature of the materials, as well, it is simple enough to recharge a spent charm with a generous sprinkling of wellspring water.[/i] [color=ffd9a8][b]Neutral Skill:[/b] Elemental Casting[/color] [i]Rhys is remarkably average at elemental casting. They don't have great destructive power, but they're accurate enough when they choose to use it and have decent mastery over the four elements. Fire is their strongest, followed by earth, water, and lastly air, though the difference in their control between the four is rather minimal.[/i] [color=ffd9a8][b]Least-Favorite Skill:[/b] Astral Projection[/color] [i]If Rhys could be said to HATE any magic skill, it would be anything to do with projection or teleportation. They get incredibly nauseous from the process and often end up laid-up with migraines as a result. The fear of the process and its effects have rendered them loathe to even try it unless it's life-or-death.[/i] [color=ffd9a8][b]Worst Skill:[/b] Anything Divination[/color] [i]They can make awesome loose-leaf teas for anyone who asks, but - actually reading the remnants left in the cup? Ha. Hahahahaha. No. They managed to give themselves a papercut on every finger the last time they tried to use a tarot deck, and dropped a pendulum (and shattered it into thirteen pieces) the last time they tried THAT. The long and short of it is that they SUCK at divination, and will likely hurt themself and anyone else who's watching if they continue to try to master it.[/i] [/indent] [color=ffd9a8][u][b]Other:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Rhys does not have a familiar; however, they are quite fond of feeding the birds and other small wildlife in the vicinity of the coven house. Most mornings will find them out in the front garden with a satchet of birdseed and several sparrows perched on or around them - it's one of the only times they enjoy being outside.[/i] [/hider] [hider=Kai Gallagher] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/DFIQUYq.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/uXnqrYZ.jpg[/img] [color=a570e0][sub][i]Faceclaim: Lachlan Watson || Color Code: #a570e0[/i][/sub][/color][/center] [color=a570e0][u][b]Name:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Seren Nikaia Gallagher[/i] [color=a570e0][sub]They go by Kai or rarely Nik, never ever EVER their first name.[/sub][/color] [color=a570e0][u][b]Gender / Preferred Pronouns:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Nonbinary (they/them)[/i] [color=a570e0][sub]They have been known to not correct people, for fear of retribution or misunderstandings, but if you use the right ones it'll make them VERY happy.[/sub][/color] [color=a570e0][u][b]Age:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Eighteen.[/i] [color=a570e0][sub]They've told people that they're four before, to make them fuck off, though.[/sub][/color] [color=a570e0][u][b]Birthday:[/b][/u][/color] [i]29th February.[/i] [color=a570e0][sub]Leap-day births are cool and magical![/sub][/color] [color=a570e0][u][b]Sexuality:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Sapphic Asexual??[/i] [color=a570e0][sub]They think girls are the most beautiful and graceful thing to exist on the planet, but have no interest in ...[i]canoodling.[/i][/sub][/color] [color=a570e0][u][b]Appearance:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Whether or not it's true, one would be forgiven for thinking Kai is of fae descent. They're positively diminutive, standing a mere four feet and eight inches, with the slightest of gentle points to their ears and canine teeth that could as easily be a normal human mutation as a result of some other influence. Despite their tiny stature, however, they carry themself with a boisterous and optimistic energy; they're easily one of the most notable people in a room. They have an impish grin and prominent dimples in both cheeks, a button nose, and wide set blue eyes, set under rather thin, high-arched brows. Their hair is curly and kept in a pixie cut or buzzed off entirely, usually swept away from their face and rarely pinned in place, more often gelled. It's a dark brown naturally, but depending on their mood they often glamour it to a tint of violet or blue. Their eyes naturally are a light blue, but they similarly will glamour them, for fun. Their attire is all over the place, mostly favoring oversized and generally loose-fit sweaters and hoodies, vibrantly colored and often with some witticism or political statement emblazoned on the front. When they must dress up they have been known to wear dresses or suits with equal ease.[/i] [color=a570e0][u][b]Personality:[/b][/u][/color] Kai is a spunky and determined young person who is never afraid to speak their mind and make their voice heard. Fun-loving and stubborn, they're incredibly outgoing and are easily excitable by nearly any matter. While elders have named them argumentative and confrontational, they just consider themself self-assured and aware of what they want. They would say they are wise and well-adjusted to the world for their age, having lived in so many different places and traveled so much. They have an insatiable thirst for adventure, and can make the most mundane things seem magical. It would be said that Kai has an infatuation with human cultures and politics, having had glancing contact with a HUGE variety of normal humans in the foster system and finding them altogether too fascinating to leave alone. They crave independence, having bounced between foster homes and never been given the freedom to choose their future or family for themself. Even now being eighteen, they’ve had no opportunity to spread their wings and they’re chomping at the bit to get out of the coven house; hopefully, once one of the elders decides they’re ready for fully fledged witchhood, they’ll be allowed to go and explore more freely. [color=a570e0][u][b]Biography:[/b][/u][/color] Kai's story began with them a swaddled infant on the doorstep of a human orphanage, with only a birth certificate that had at first been deemed forged for the fantasy-like names of both mother and infant, signed from a hospital not in the city. Kai never knew their biological parents, and that was fine - they were in a busy home, for their first few years of consciousness, before the foster system swept them up. For the most part, it suited them well enough, and their early childhood was fairly uneventful, if scattered among several different families and lifestyles. When they were seven, that changed dramatically. Their most recent placement was not a particularly great home, with a tense relationship between the biological children and the fostered ones. When one of the older children punched the youngest sibling for not surrendering a toy, Kai rushed to his aid. They held their grade-school recorder in their hand, having been practicing - music homework was the only thing they were motivated to do without prompting, even at this early age - and brought it to their lips, initially intending just to make the loudest squeak they could to hurt their older sister's sensitive hearing without touching her. But before they knew it, she was on the floor [i]screaming[/i] in pain, blood trickling down the sides of her face from her ears. After this, the foster family sent Kai away, and within a week, a young woman who said she was from the town of Tide Mills came seeking them by name. Eager to get rid of the troublemaker, paperwork was quickly signed and their custody was turned over to the Miltide Sisterhood. It was the single-best thing that could have happened in Kai's life; they were suddenly surrounded by people who - though wary at first - supported and loved them and were completely understanding of what had happened. They were, in fact, a witch, and it had been the first manifestation of their magic when they had felt threatened by the older child. Under the watchful eye of the Sisterhood, they began to learn traditional forms of magic in addition to honing their skills (mostly self-taught) with voice and instrument. More importantly, they formed a fast bond with their foster mother and (effectively) twin, settling easily into family life, though they chafed at the matriarchal and oligarchical leadership of their little coven. There was a friendly rivalry between the two young witchlings - with matching names, matching birthdates, and a similar role as the only two children, it was an easy leap for them to be competing in regard to all things magical. The tensions with coven leadership came to a head when the twins were fourteen. Ignoring strict rules to not go beyond the coven's claimed and carefully-patrolled territory, Rhys and Kai went on an adventure. As misadventuring teens are prone to, an accident happened. A bridge over a slow-moving river collapsed, and Kai - who had never learned to swim - fell in, nearly drowning before Rhys got to them. Upon arriving back at home, strict punishment duties, and a removal of their magic privileges for a week, were placed on them. Kai, feeling all this was unfair, tried to argue and ended up escalating to an (exceptionally short-lived) duel with the coven elder. As per the charter, when magic was turned upon an elder, the wrongdoer was to be cast out. Kai's mother had no say in the matter, and they were swiftly returned to the system, who now had NO idea what to do with them. They were belligerent and devastated at the loss of their found family, and were deemed difficult. They bounced around too many times to count, notably to a very, very wealthy do-gooder mundane family in London - upon seeing Kai's talent with the recorder (yes, the same school one they'd been issued nine years previously), they placed them in lessons with a very prestigious historical music school and commissioned custom instruments for their performing. The family seemed enamored by their foster child, and fully supportive of Kai's music, unknowing of the magic they practiced in secret. Their secret couldn't last, of course, and when the family eventually discovered Kai's peculiarity they were whisked off again to be replaced by a child who would be less of a liability. However, they were allowed to keep the instruments, and they're their most treasured possessions. When their next foster family moved to America, dragging a hapless Kai along until the familial relationship inevitably fell through, they were left kicked out and stranded, figuratively, up a creek without a paddle in a tiny town in the midwest. Like any plucky and resourceful teen, they began to try to hitchhike to a larger city, thinking they could somehow enroll themself in a music school and make a life that way with their magical heritage more on the side. They didn't get very far, of course, before they had to use their powers to defend themself, and in doing so were swiftly tracked down by a member of the Sisters of the Dying Branch. Since then, they've lived in the coven house for the last eight months, both incredibly grateful for the rescue and seething that they fucked up their opportunity for freedom. With Rhys and Saige's arrival in the area, however, they're hoping to turn over a new leaf, having been reunited at long last with the closest thing they've ever had to family. [color=a570e0][u][b]Notable Rumors:[/b][/u][/color] I: They are a pureblooded fae of some sort, and to disguise this, their entire appearance is an elaborate network of glamours. [sub][color=a570e0]This one is false, but has a grain of truth. They might well be part-fae, they're not sure, but not more than half if they are (considering the human surname and being left with humans and all.) While their height and ear points and so on are natural, they glamour their frame into a more slender and androgynous shape than even the best affirming garments can. Also, they have been known to use glamours to alter their hair and eye color for fun.[/color][/sub] II: They fled England after committing an unspeakable crime. [sub][color=a570e0]Not true, at all. Any crimes committed there were petty teenage misdemeanors.[/color][/sub] III: Kai leaves the coven house for hours at a time to practice [s]nefarious things[/s] in secret. [sub][color=a570e0]True, ish. They do their best performance when surrounded by the sounds of nature, and there's less chance of something going wrong. Regarding nefarious things... no? usually, at least.[/color][/sub] [color=a570e0][u][b]Greatest Fear:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Abandonment.[/i] [sub][color=a570e0]Their greatest fear is probably abandonment, closely followed by losing control of their magic again. Having seen their family torn apart too many times before, they're terrified that something will happen that will make the coven get rid of them (for all they wish they could leave of their own accord, this rebelliousness =/= not ever being able to come back.)[/color][/sub] [color=a570e0][u][b]Magic:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Kai's favorite application of magic is sonomancy, most often played through their recorders, though rarely they'll sing or speak, depending on what the application is.[/i] [indent] [color=a570e0][b]Best Skill:[/b] Glamours and Illusion[/color] [i]The skill that most naturally comes to them is anything to do with visual illusion, ironically. These spells are the ones which they'll speak or sing - articulation, tone, and even the words they choose to use have subtle effects on the shape of the spell, so they'll have a more nuanced cast if they plan out their words ahead of time. Every day they practice on themself, shaping their form and styling their hair, but they can cast on inanimate objects or other people, too, altering shapes, colors, or even making someone or something appear nonexistent. Steadily developing is their ability to create sounds and distort sounds with the same skill - for creation they prefer to use their recorders to generate the base pure tones, as its easier to modify a pure tone into more diverse other sounds. They're going to try using these skills if and when they get a chance to hop into a recording studio, also, but that's ages down the line.[/i] [color=a570e0][b]Favorite Skill:[/b] Sonomantic Evocation[/color] [i]Kai's favorite application of magic is using evocation spells within the context of their music. With their already great nonmagical control over their instrument, it is easy for them to create sounds that can be shaped into a variety of force or elemental-adjacent attacks. Force spells are infinitely easier, of course, ranging from high notes that literally stab or slash to low ones that can rattle the ground or slam an opponent to the floor. With considerably more energy, they can additionally channel a mild elemental effect in alongside, though they're still experimenting with that.[/i] [color=a570e0][b]Neutral Skill:[/b] Charms and Potions[/color] [i]Neither great nor awful at charms nor potions, their biggest limiting factor with the creation of them is their lack of patience. Generally, non-spontaneous crafting or creating in the context of magic has no interest for them.[/i] [color=a570e0][b]Least-Favorite Skill:[/b] Mental Manipulation[/color] [i]While they could be good at mind control or manipulation of emotions, what with music already being a vulnerability for most people, Kai refuses to even try to unless it is literally life-or-death. Even then, they find it morally reprehensible to influence another's way of thinking directly.[/i] [color=a570e0][b]Worst Skill:[/b] Herbalism / Ecomancy[/color] [i]They CANNOT keep a plant alive to save their life. One foster parent gave them a succulent garden as a stress relief / zen thing. They killed it (a succulent array that was supposed to be near impossible to kill, remember) in about four weeks. Trying to revive it with magic (using their best guess on how ecomancy was supposed to work) resulted in a half-animated tiny cactus that continued crawling along by the root ball even after it had been split in half with a trowel. Legend says the animated, decaying cactus still crawls beneath their old foster-mom's house... and they are NEVER trying that again.[/i] [/indent] [color=a570e0][u][b]Other:[/b][/u][/color] [i]Kai owns a partial consort of custom-made recorders - They own a sopranino, soprano, and alto of the same style, and for all intents and purposes these seem to be fairly standard baroque instruments, if carved from a peculiar reddish-purple toned wood (Purpleheart wood, for the curious) that produces a distinctive sound to the trained ear. Their goal is to get into a human conservatory and receive a performance degree; they wish to be known not as a witch but as a performer. Their hands are too small to play tenor or bass recorder, so they'll be hard-pressed to make up for that come audition time. They DO have a record of misdemanors from their teen years in London - mostly graffiti and one trespassing charge - but they haven't had any such records in America. They enjoy creating art, especially abstract art (the kind made with spray cans and other less classy media) but they're fairly mediocre at it. They have no familiar, having moved far too many times to take an animal with them.[/i] [/hider] [hider=NPC: Saige Lockhart] A witch in her early 40s, who became a parent very young due to recklessness but was able to create a good life for her child all the same thanks to the support of her coven. She's soft-spoken and well-mannered, kindly and warm-hearted, and very skilled at divination and futuresight. Currently resides in the coven house while she figures out housing in her new place of residence.[/hider]