[hider=The Black Sheep] [center][img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f6/e0/b1/f6e0b13b95fa592c099fb335d3e6d8ae.jpg[/img] [h3][color=c5b1b1]Lyrah Maximus ⋆ 18 ⋆ Woman ⋆ Avian[/color][/h3][/center] ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [color=c5b1b1][b][u]Appearance[/u][/b][/color] [color=c5b1b1][b]Height:[/b][/color] [indent]5'6", 167.6 cm[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Weight:[/b][/color] [indent]110 lbs, 50 kg[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Hair Color:[/b][/color] [indent]Charcoal[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Eye Color:[/b][/color] [indent]Dark Brown[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Skin Tone:[/b][/color] [indent]Pale, clammy[/indent] ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [color=c5b1b1][b][u]Psychology[/u][/b][/color] [color=c5b1b1][b]Likes[/b]:[/color] [indent] ⋆ Reading ⋆ Puzzles/things to work out ⋆ Harp music ⋆ Recognition [/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Dislikes[/b]:[/color] [indent] ⋆ People ⋆ Promises ⋆ Restrictive roles ⋆ Patriarchal inheritance [/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Fears:[/b][/color] [indent] ⋆ Good intentions ⋆ Showing emotion ⋆ An unimportant death ⋆ Being close with people, physically or emotionally [/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Sexuality:[/b][/color] [indent]Doesn't know, doesn't care.[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b][u]Personality:[/u][/b][/color] [color=c5b1b1][b]Treatment towards others[/b]:[/color][indent] At heart, Lyrah is a cynic. The circumstances of her childhood have led her to become very introverted and selfish. She will happily step on others' heads to preserve herself, reasoning that because others haven't cared for her, she has no obligation to care for others. She usually stays silent until it benefits her to speak up. When she does speak up, she speaks meekly and with apathy, and can be anywhere from kind to mean as suits her. When she [i]is[/i] mean, she hits where it hurts. Insecurities and old wounds are never too far for her. Furthermore, Lyrah fundamentally believes that everyone either cares nothing for her, or is trying to manipulate her for their own ends. Therefore, she relentlessly distances herself from others, and trusts nobody. [/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Reaction in situations[/b]:[/color][indent] When reacting to stimulus, Lyrah is harsh and apathetic. She isn't afraid to react quickly with ruthless and hurtful words. She does so without showing anger, fear, or much of anything else: an act of appearing brave out of fear of being perceived as weak. It should be mentioned that Lyrah is useless in a fight, and will do anything she can to de-escelate a situation before it reaches that point. Should a fight break out, she will run and hide. In essence, she provokes and bullies others, but will not stand up for that in a fight. All that being said, she still prefers to remain quiet and distant. To her, speaking is more effort than it's worth 9 times out of 10. [/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]What's in the brain?[/b][/color][indent] Ironically, more than anything, Lyrah simply craves recognition. A self-destructive thought loop at once causes her to want it, while pushing her away from any healthy sources of it. This leaves her unable to make proper friends, starved of connection, and resentful. For all these flaws, Lyrah is an intellectual prodigy. She can comprehend new concepts, understand situations, and analyse systems with ease. While this does make some situations easier for her, it can often further alienate her from others. Additionally, it feeds a "curiosity killed the cat" issue, where challenging concepts ignite an insatiable desire to get her head around them. In these situations, her typically lethargic attitude switches entirely as she ravenously studies to uncover as much as she can. AN: Depending on events in the narrative, Lyrah may or may not undergo a corruption arc involving sanity. She is currently sound of mind, but there is also a aeons-old demon manipulating her for its own ends. So we'll see how that pans out. [/indent] ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [color=c5b1b1][u]Background[/u][/color] [color=c5b1b1][b]Occupation[/b][/color] [indent]Library curator[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Living Immediate Family Members:[/b][/color] [indent]Mother - Sylvia Maximus (40) Father - Augus Maximus III (47) Brother - Augus Maximus IV (14) Brother - Linus Maximus (12) Grandmother -Linaea Maximus[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Dead Immediate Family Members:[/b][/color] [indent]Grandfather - Augus Maximus II[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Current Companions:[/b][/color] [indent]None (poor girl)[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Current and Past Lover(s):[/b][/color] [indent]None[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]History:[/b][/color] Lyrah has been out of favour with her parents since birth. Her father was stone-cold, disappointed she wasn't his son; and her mother (Sylvie) developed severe post-partum depression, completely dropping her passionate career in music. Every time Lyrah tried to open up to them, these efforts would be met with stone-faced stares, defeated sighs, or vague dismissals. Her father was always making more time for his work than he did for her, and her mother had little enough energy for herself. The birth of her brother, Augus IV, only made this dynamic more severe. Her father practically doted on him, and began putting more effort into his relationship with his wife, who began seeing an alleviation of her PPD. Neither of them found new energy to bond with Lyrah, though. To her, it seemed like she came into the world and ruined their lives by being born wrong, only for it to be put right by the child they genuinely wanted. She attempted to deal with this by acting out, but this only further damaged their relationship. A few years after her second brother was born, her mother re-started her musical career, and Lyrah began to understand that she was simply not a priority. The reality of the situation was quite different. Her father's work was at a particularly stressful point in time, and PPD is nobody's fault. The alleviation of both of these only correlated with her brothers' births, and were by no means caused by it. All that being said, several key years of bonding were missed out on. No effort was made to fix this, and Lyrah's relationship skills have permanently suffered. Heading into adolescence, Lyrah completely withdrew into herself. She barely spoke to anyone for years, and made every effort to remain independent and distant. She used her family name to get access to a library, where she tore through tome after tome to escape dealing with her own emotions. At about age 13, she actually made a friend. Her father was invited to a work-related ball which encouraged the invitation of family. Lyrah was forbidden from bringing books and told she had to mingle and make an impression. She spent most of the party standing awkwardly by the snack table, eating just so she had something to do with her hands. At some point, a young parrot avian named Ivy simply attached herself to Lyrah's side and began prattling about how her parents were pressuring her into mingling. The two of them bonded over their shared conundrum. They quickly became friends, and started making pans to see each other regularly. The two of them complimented one another nicely: where Ivy was talkative and open, Lyrah was more than happy to remain quiet, only adding things when she felt she wanted to. The two remained friends for several years, becoming ever closer. Though, Ivy being a social butterfly, was obviously not content with only Lyrah as a friend. She continued to meet new people and branch out into new circles. This caused Lyrah to feel threatened and insecure: as far as her experience was concerned, new people meant no more attention. Group activities only caused her to feel more alienated and resentful, as Ivy's new friends found themselves unable to get past her guarded demeanour. The last time they spent time with one another was with the group. Lyrah was reluctantly tagging along behind the others as they got up to no good. To make a long story short, Ivy had a lethal fall after her wings were damaged on a double dare from Lyrah. The rest of the group ran from the scene out of fear of being caught with a body, leaving Lyrah to try move the body. Ultimately, she wasn't strong enough, and the corpse got left behind. Not long after, Ivy's father began an inquisition into her disappearance, and Lyrah was pinned as the guilty one. The situation was met with nearly no punishment from her father. After a stern chat and a week being grounded, she was let off the hook. This only drove Lyrah further into her belief that she meant nothing to her family and the world. After that week, on her first trip back to the library, she was rustling through a donation box. Some poor old collector had recently died, and willed all their books to the library. Among all the drivel, she found an ancient black wood bound codex. Small citrine gems were set into the wood, joined by circles of wicked looking runes burnt into the cover. Black steel hinges allowed the codex to open, and a clasp ensured the vellum pages within didn't warp. These pages were unlike any she'd seen. They did not have a bristle side, and the ink never feathered. The book was written in an ancient language which Lyrah couldn't read. Naturally, she immediately set to work trying to decipher it. This codex occupied her for several years. She learned the code, pored over the pages, and learned more than she could ever hope. She learned of an ancient evil which walked Avalia, bending scores to its will with fearsome and unknowable powers. She learned new ideas about divisions of power, and who deserves it. She learned new perspectives on many events through history, revealing things that had previously been kept from her. Perhaps most notably, she began hearing this being in her mind - whispering to and instructing her. Pages she had once dismissed as nonsensical began to click into place. She was offered a deal: her inherent demihuman senses and powers for a seed of magical ability. She accepted. Nobody around her noticed this obsession, nor did they notice the turning of her thoughts. She learned to keep that to herself long ago, and this power within her only encouraged that. But the events of last night sent [i]it[/i], that power, wild with excitement. There was a new call to action, and Lyrah would be an integral part of its plan. It wants to return. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [color=c5b1b1][b][u]Combat and Magic[/u]:[/b][/color] [color=c5b1b1][b]Strength:[/b][/color] 2 [color=c5b1b1][b]Speed on Land:[/b][/color] 4 [color=c5b1b1][b]Speed in Air:[/b][/color] 6 [color=c5b1b1][b]Magical Ability:[/b][/color] 7 [color=c5b1b1][b]Dexterity:[/b][/color] 5 [color=c5b1b1][b]Weapon Proficiency:[/b][/color] 0 [color=c5b1b1][b]Stealth:[/b][/color] 4 [color=c5b1b1][b]Species of Demi-Human[/b][/color] [indent]Avian[/indent] [color=c5b1b1][b]Best Ability from Beast Side:[/b][/color] [indent]None, her ability was taken from her by the demon in her codex. In exchange, it offered her the below ability: - Masques of Morbidity: [indent]Lyrah's demonic connection has granted her the power to inscribe runes around the face of a corpse. These runes twist the face of the deceased off and bind it to the soul of a demon in the abyss. The twisted faces look like old theater masques - caricatures of tragic emotion. Should a living person wear one these masques, it would contort their body to resemble the former owner of the face while the demon trapped within attempts to eat their soul. Demons brought forth in this way owe their Avalian form to Lyrah and are mostly subservient to her. This dominance she holds over them is backed by the demon in the codex. Its strength and authority flows through her, cowing any dissenters. Please note that I have no intention of or interest in using this ability on PCs without prior planning from both parties. Until another player wants to see this happen to their PC, this ability is for use on NPCs [i]only[/i].[/indent][/indent][/hider] [hider=And, the Demon] [center][img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d1/0d/0a/d10d0abd1c67ff081f363a9fc8e1a1e4.jpg[/img][/center] The demon who is trapped within the book is ancient and terrible. It hailed from Lilith’s first brood and walked Avalia for millennia, before being defeated by the demon hunter Eurai Malaurie. Ancient lore tells of this yellow-clad demon bending scores to its tyrannical will for unknown or unfathomable reasons. Cities, even nations, were built and razed at the will of this being. In modern-day Avalia, this demon is near-forgotten. Only clandestine myths remain, passed down by occultists and demon hunters to tell of what would happen if it returned. Even in these circles, the demon’s name is never spoken. Whether this is out of fear or respect is indeterminate, as even all these eons later, mere tales of it carry a power which commands reverence. The spell that sealed it away bound it in every way to a special codex and sealed its body deep within the abyss. To read this codex is to expose oneself to the power, will, and pain that was left to stew, twisting one's mind into knots. Beyond that, there is no telling of the consequences. That is, until a young Avian girl found it in a donation box. Now, we only have yet to see. AN: I will be playing this demon as an NPC that compliments Lyrah's posts. Depending on where the narrative goes, I may write it up as a PC at a later date. Who knows?[/hider]