Post by Lilliana Nariko on Apr 1, 2014 5:39:05 GMT -5
Character Image:
Image/Face claim: Nastya Zhidkova
Name: Lilliana Nariko Morthena | Illynana Pelta Lunata
Gender: female
Age: 22
Occupation: Tinker/fix-it | village hero/paladin
Family: Cecilia Sasha Morthena (deceased), Sibylla Marie Morthena (deceased), Jack Ray Morthena (deceased)
Friends: N/A
Enemies: N/A
Strengths: intense focus (when she does pay attention), determined, strong-willed, passionate, intelligent, physically strong and durable, high pain tolerance bordering on masochistic enjoyment, merciful, honorable, savant, honest, some knowledge of herbalism and medicine, inventive, quick learner, brutal fighter, great at fixing things, fiercely loyal, would sooner die than break a promise, sincere, independent, perceptive, extremely detail-oriented, courageous, tenacious, clever, powerful lightning magic, has potential for healing magic, fights with strategy when not angry, highly literate, bioluminescent can see in complete darkness, can detect some changes in weather (particularly storms), highly resistant to electricity, excellent hearing. ((In moth form can spit silk and acid and absorbs electricity damage.))
Weaknesses: hot tempered, often forgets her own strength, 6 out of 10 times she will shock anything she touches without meaning to ((I'll be using random.org to figure out when the shocks happen IC in regards to other characters, so watch out until she figures it out!)), picks too many fights, not very adroit, refuses to back down, overconfident in her own abilities, daydreams too much, zones in and out of conversations, socially awkward, likes to call bluffs (especially if they aren't), loses rational thought when angered, self loathing, works herself until exhaustion, has no knowledge of how to control or use her magic whatsoever, extremely easy to taunt, workaholic, self harming, brutally blunt, albinism, hopeless romantic but denies it vehemently, chases people away, easily manipulated with noble lies, will suffer her own problems silently, keeps most relationships on an arm's length basis, extremely obsessive, forgetful, has a lazy pseudo-accent that is sometimes difficult to understand, foolhardy, headstrong, brash, stubborn, socially graceless, Napoleon complex, eyes glow in the dark and give her away easily, easy to stun with loud noises or bright flashes of light, extremely susceptible to the cold (she starts getting very lethargic in cold conditions), if she gets too angry the monster inside her breaks out and goes berserk, any knowledge Carnatine has absorbed cannot be accessed by Lily. ((In moth form water reacts similarly to acid against her and freezing temperatures shut her body down. In moth form, Lily is berserk and will attack friends and foes alike; she is also extremely susceptible to fire and drawn to light.))
Quote: I don't care what it takes, I'll be unforgettable even if I have to write my name in FLAMES!
Personality: Lily is a spunky little go getter who hates showing signs of weakness to others. She seems daft as a doorpost at first, but she openly displays a warm heart and a ready hand to help others. A genius she may be, people are a mystery to her in habits, culture, and customs. She thinks with her heart more than her head when she's given a sob story and can be easily taken in by crocodile tears. She's fairly easy to fool when it comes to getting her to do something; anything with “two-bit hero needed” subtly attached to the pitch and she'll toss her eggs in the basket and ask what needs to be done and when. She'll only start an in-depth investigation after she's accepted a quest in most cases, but sometimes she'll refuse a deal if it sounds too fishy without details first.
She seems to spend most of her time in a hazy sort of daydream, as if she's thinking about so many other things than what's going on in front of her. That wouldn't be even half wrong. She's always over thinking everything and often daydreaming of better days. Most times when she talks, she gets loquacious to the point of prattling inanely, but nothing gets her monologuing like witnessing some form of injustice. Once it comes to intimidation or entering a fight, Lily seems to cast off every bit of her supposed airheadedness for a delusion of grandeur few understand. She not only takes her job as a hero seriously, she enjoys it quite vociferously with taunts and threats to villains and bullies alike. While Lily usually seems to be one of the most unassuming and bright spirited travelers in general, when given the slightest reason to throw herself into a fight or make a show of her strength, she will happily bring the house down just to prove her point.
When she doesn't feel very open and talkative, she can come across as cold and plain callous, often to the point of cruelly chasing away many would-be friends. While it could and should be easy to be friends with her, she likes to keep friends at more of a distance than anyone else because of the things that trouble her and the constant threat of danger from herself. She keeps secrets the way they should be, quiet. She is wont to brood easily and, it seems, can brood over anything and nothing. She often uses the happiness of others to chase away her own feelings of insecurity and worthlessness. She also tends to grind herself to the bone helping others. She views herself more as a burden to others even when they offer kindness out of gratitude and she often rejects such offers several times unless the person insists.
While she seems very largely unfocused most of the time, she becomes scarily obsessed with a task once she sets herself to it. When presented with a problem, she will work tirelessly to solve it and will focus on the task to the exclusion of all else – including eating and sleeping. She loses track of time easily when working and forgets meals almost entirely, often even passing out in the middle of her work. Fighting is one part of her job, but much of the other parts are preparation and knowing what she's up against. When it comes to accomplishing any goal, Lily isn't one to cut corners or mince words; it gets done or she will die trying. Lily puts her pride in every promise, she would sooner die than be made a liar by breaking her word.
It seems as though the only time Lily understands subtlety is when she isn't angry and really wants to get a job done without having to use the storm the castle approach; otherwise she's like a bull in a china shop for the most part. Her favorite solution for most problems when she doesn't have her temper leashed is “punch it in the face”, even if said problem has no face. While she fights more with passion and fury than anything, if she isn't all fired up she often also fights smartly (or, in many cases, dirty). Unfortunately, if she's taunted enough, she'll toss strategy to the wind and just go for the beat down. If she gets too angry however, she runs the risk of going berserk and the darkest secret she carries getting out and going on a rampage. She is highly honor-bound even so and will not fight any opponent she believes to be weaker than herself unless they attack her with intent to kill.
Notably, Lily fights every battle while avoiding killing strikes. She never aims to kill her opponents unless she can be fully convinced of the need to slay them. She seeks justice but not blood anymore; she will sooner subdue an adversary than kill them, less from mercy and more for the honor of handing them to pay their penance by those they wronged. She dislikes taking credit from others and lying on such a delicate topic as one's reputation is a punch-out offense in her books. She strives to be a living symbol of courage, honesty, and kindness everywhere she goes, though her short-fused temper often leaves her the symbol of righteous bar room brawls more often than not.
While Lily dedicates much of her time to helping others, she hides several deeply-rooted fears and worries that she simply covers up. She is extremely self-deprecating, blames herself entirely for the fate of her home and family, and feels that she will never truly measure up to a true hero. As a result she rarely lets people in to see the real her behind the fake smiles and foolhardy bravado. Deep down, she is a fractured person who wants to be adored and loved for who she is and not her deeds. She is a very fearful individual, but hides it well behind her bravado. Her greatest fear of all is being forgotten. She considers every good deed she does as simple penance for everything she blames herself for.
Lily tends to be easily distracted by little things and details, often forgetting the bigger picture unless she has a goal solidly in mind. If she has no goals for the moment she could most easily be likened to a teenager with ADHD trying to play pick-up-sticks with a bag full of marbles; distracted by anything that seems fun and about as graceful as a square rock being rolled down a hill. She is secretly a hopeless romantic who constantly dreams of a happily ever after she feels she'll never have. She also has a rather inane habit of judging every person she meets by heroic/villainous archetypes and can get a bit upset when others fail to live up to the titles and expectations she has given them in her head. She tends to be the daftest person to flirt with and understands nothing short of cliché romantic gestures and direct statements; either way nothing gets her to clam up and give someone the cold shoulder more than finding out they have feelings for her. She is no stranger to breaking hearts because of this, even getting belligerent to drive any would-be suitors away.
While Lily may seem to always be in competition with the world she is actually in competition with nobody but herself. She seems incapable of letting herself be bored and will go through every pain to keep herself busy as possible more often than not. She is a dynamo of energy and little seems capable of dousing her fiery spirits except for boredom. She almost always strives to improve herself one way or another, whether it is physical or mental activity. She gives herself over to training and practice with abandon. While she rarely sits still, she does on occasion enjoy solitude and quiet with little else to distract her but nature.
While Lily is noble in her own character, she isn't a foolproof judge of character and can easily be swayed by the right words and tone. Any deed dressed up as an act of heroism can have her bounding all too eagerly into a trap. Were it not for the fact that she's “smarter than the average bear”, she'd have died long ago because of this alone. Luck can't save a person forever though; it is only a matter of time before she bites off more than she can chew or walks into an ambush with a few too many men. She can be incredibly stubborn once she makes up her mind and deterring her from anything once it has been decided can be like pulling teeth from an angry crocodile.
One thing that sets Lily apart from everyone else is the fact that her memory seems to be deteriorating. Sometimes she'll introduce herself a second time; sometimes she'll forget a name or a face, but the longer someone is around her the more they might notice her memory lapsing. She sometimes seems to forget what age she is as well; there are times she can be seen playing with and talking to a stuffed cat toy as though she were a child. More concerning might be the fact that Lily's memories from her youth are little more than a blur with a few shadows of emotion left behind. She couldn't tell anyone much of anything about her childhood even if she tried; the memories simply aren't there anymore.
Lily has a rather disconcerting reaction to facing down death – she smiles maniacally. She also seems to get a bit disappointed by anyone being unable to follow through such a threat. Whether it is because she feels she deserves to die or because it adds just that much more challenge to a fight can't be said for sure. Giving Lily the promise or threat of death seems to make her fight all the harder in the end. When it comes down to such threats she becomes brutally vicious and seems to enjoy throwing punches far too much after being threatened.
Being beaten also has a less common effect on her. Lily likes most blunt pains and a kiss with a fist is better than none. Hitting her with an open palm or closed fist means she's not going to experience pain in the conventional way. It does very little to try and deter her with blunt damage besides make her start to flirt shamelessly and spew compliments. A warning to anyone who goes toe to toe with Lily; punching her in the face is tantamount to a passionate kiss for her, and she will respond in kind most eagerly.
While Lily tends to push people away, she isn't entirely incapable of forming strong bonds with others and building camaraderie. She can be difficult to get close to but those tenacious enough to do so will find in Lily one of the truest friends they could hope for. She is fiercely loyal to those who have earned her trust and anyone she trusts enough with her life she may trust with her secrets as well. Once her trust is earned by someone, Lily drops the constant bravado and will allow them to see her as she truly is, even though she will often still keep them at a distance.
History: Lily was just like any other human child in the Enchanted Forest... except she wasn't. She and her twin, Cecilia, were both found abandoned on the edge of one of the smaller villages when they were only a few years old. Frightened, cold, and clinging to one another, they wailed and wept in the night with beasts drawing near to see the source of the noise – some looking for a meal, others looking out of curiosity. A few villagers, awoken by the ruckus, ventured from their homes to see what was happening, and the two were brought back safely into the village before they became a meal for something else in the forest.
Once washed and dried, the girls exhibited their oddity rather plainly; milk white skin and hair as pale as the moon. Whispers surrounded them, questions roared, and the girls began to cry in terror as they were pried for information of where they had come from and what they were. Neither of them remembered anything much but their mother telling them to wait where they had been and not move. Lily's last memory of the event was being told to protect her sister. Their lives previous to this seemed to be gone; neither knew where they'd really come from or even where they were.
They were in a fringe town with barely even a name to remember and little to really do besides work or run about the bordering forest every now and again. The girls couldn't even run about as it were; “the children of the moon”, as they were sometimes called, found that the sun's burning light was anathema to them. The village medicine man and his wife took the girls in and the couple raised them with as much love and care as if the girls were their very own. The twins grew up wanting for very little even while what was available was meager at best. They had an almost picture-perfect life even if they had little in the way of material possessions. Both girls showed great creativity and Lily especially showed unrivaled ingenuity when it came to learning and creating.
Lily and Cecilia began to grow up into healthy young girls, finding ways to best their burning aversion to the sunlight so that they could begin to play their part in the village. While Cecilia adored people and animals, Lily was busy with other matters. She proved to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and learned absolutely everything she could from everyone in town. When Lily wasn't busy helping the weaver with her crafts and learning the process of making socks and nets, she was helping the blacksmith and learning his trade. She bounced between every profession in the village and simply learned as much as she could of their jobs even if she couldn't perform their tasks herself. All she wanted was to know how it all worked and how it was all done. Every tool, every trade; all she wanted was knowledge.
Even with Lily's voracious appetite for knowledge and the time she spent with most of the villagers, Cecilia was the shining star between them. She was as graceful and gentle as a summer breeze and as careful with people's feelings as a saint. That, and Cecilia had a voice that far outshone Lily's, and she had wit and charm that went unrivaled in their little slice of the world. Cecilia could always be counted on to have the right words to say when someone was sad. She always had the gentle touch to console the brokenhearted and a warm heart to soothe the lonely souls. She seemed to gain an entourage of friends while Lily grew distanced from others socially. The twins loved each other and could always rely on one another, but Lily could never quite get it out of her head how much more graceful her little sister was.
Where Lily was far overprotective of her little sister, she was also rather jealous of her sister's simplistic existence in the village. Cecilia was the one who knew how to comfort and care for people; Lily only understood tools and knowledge. No matter how hard she tried, Cecilia was simply more charming and she found herself always overshadowed by her twin's charisma. Her mental acuity meant little if she wasn't liked very much and she tended to be a bit brackish when anyone preferred talking to her sister over her. She grew moodier and colder until, finally, she barely spoke to anyone else at all. She picked more and more fights only to be beaten soundly and sent home with cuts and bruises she would in turn be scolded for. No matter how she tried to make anything right, she always seemed to be in the wrong and it drove her batty.
As time wore on, the girls grew into the first bloom of adulthood – puberty. The twins had become quite friendly with their fellow villagers even despite their differences. Where Lily had grown quiet and withdrawn, Cecilia had become a vibrant and exuberant young lady who was very good with social graces in every way that her sister was not. Lily's short temper and willingness to scrap with the boys was only one reason she was often shrugged off. She was considered too much of a tomboy to truly be attractive anyways as far as most of the boys were concerned.
Lily's growth was slow and stunted while Cecilia developed very well and more than a few people took notice of it. Lily became more and more temperamental and began to shut herself away from others to brood alone. She was always trying to help and always trying to do the best she could for the village, but at every turn she would hear praises for her sister's efforts more readily than her own, perhaps because Cecilia was better at winning hearts than Lily was. Lily still received praise of course but it did little to balm her sore ego. However awkward it may have been, Lily and Cecilia both fancied the same boy and soon Lily's moods turned for the worst when she approached him timidly to confess, only for him to reject her sheepishly and admit he had feelings for Cecilia instead.
Lily became a wreck after that. She began to eat less and less and barely maintained herself as Cecilia blossomed beautifully. Her sister soon began to gush happily about how the boy she liked liked her back and Lily's moods became all the darker. The chatter of her sister's future, weddings, children, all of it drove the knife deeper into Lily's heart. She tried and tried to ignore her own feelings and simply be happy for her sister but all her life she'd already felt like a shadow. To her, this last betrayal seemed to almost prove that she would never be as noticed and adored as her sibling. Lily had never so much as raised her voice to her sister before. One evening as Cecilia gushed to their parents about her plans to start a family with her suitor once his parents gave their blessing and they came of age, Lily could not keep her temper any more.
She stormed off into the woods alone without so much as a candle to light her way in the dark and left her family at the dinner table in shock. She went as always to the one secret place she had shared with her sister when they were young – a quiet glade not far inside the woods by a stream. Cecilia followed her sister as always concerned with her well-being, and soon the fight began. Every pain and perceived slight of the past was drudged into plain view, even the most secret of Lily's own turmoils were thrown at her sister with such vehemence Lily didn't even notice her sister was weeping, let alone trying to make amends. Tearfully, Lily raged and finally screamed the last words that would set her life on its ear – “I hate you.”
For the first time she berated her sister, raised her voice and raised her hand. She stopped short, the motion seeming to jolt her to her senses before she truly struck her sister across the face. She hovered, her hand inches from the face of the one person she could never imagine living without and then watched as her twin fled in terror from her, deeper into the woods. Cecilia wept bitterly and ran as far and as fast as she could. With all of Lily's hurt feelings out in the open, she finally understood her sister's demeanor and the betrayal she must feel over things she couldn't help. She ran and ran and it was not long before she ran into something far more frightening than her elder sister and revelations of her percieved betrayal.
The beast was huge and as pale as she; it towered over her with slavering mandibles that dripped an acid that wore away tree bark as though it were paper put to a flame. It stared a moment into her eyes with boundless, lurid orbs that gleamed with madness. Cecilia stared at it, transfixed, before it moved to reach for her and she bolted. Adrenaline pounded and Cecilia bounded toward the village in fright. She couldn't possibly outrun it, she found, as it swooped down upon her as soon as she was out of the trees. Its wings, though soft and vibrant, beat with the sound of thunder. Its claws sparked with the lightning of a storm and within moments it had everything it desired from her. Cecilia could not defend herself against such magics and no sooner was it done with her than it dropped her twisted form onto a house as it took a liking to the other villagers.
Ravenously, it tore the simple village folk apart as they roused from their suppers to see what was about. The hunters they relied on to stave off the beasts of the forest were ill-matched for such a monster. It ripped through them mind after mind and devoured their thoughts and memories like a spoiled child shoving its mouth full of sweets. Lily arrived barely in time to throw her lot at attacking the beast as it crashed into her own home and snatched her mother up. In horror, Lily watched her parent scream and she threw herself at the beast, mindlessly trying to make it stop. Every effort was simply brushed aside by the beast until it finally flung her through the wall in annoyance.
Lily awoke covered in dust and debris, dug out by the few survivors of the night's bloody feast. The bodies lay piled, faces twisted and distorted in terror so badly that while they could not spare enough linens to cover the bodies, they covered the faces with anything they could, simply to avoid the gruesome sights. The faces of the dead were too grotesque to bear for many. Her father was never found amongst the bodies and Lily stared out over the carnage as if it simply didn't register anymore. The shock ran deep and she stumbled toward the forest. She was pulled back by the blacksmith, who refused to let her go, and even resorted to tying her to a bed so she could have her injuries tended.
She spent almost a month being nursed back to health. Even when her senses returned, she didn't cry. The remaining villagers became worried of this and most kept their distance as she went through the motions of life as numbly as a puppet merely trying to mimic a person now. When at last she was healthy and capable, she gathered what meager things she had left and set out without a goodbye to anyone. As everyone tried to rebuild and get on with their lives, she was hardly missed once the shock of her departure passed. Only a few who remained were truly concerned for her now. Everyone had enough work ahead of them to distract them from a single missing “moon child”.
She spent years hunting it and every scrap of knowledge about it. She would find it and find out what it was. When she did, she would destroy the beast. Its name, as she discovered, was Carnatine. He was a mind-devouring moth demon whose origins were as shrouded in mystery as the records of him were inconsistent. In some of the stories he was a sorcerer gone mad from consuming too much knowledge in his search for power, in others he was a demon summoned from a place darker than imagination whose ate the thoughts of others but was mindless himself. What little knowledge Lily managed to glean and decipher from the sparse scripts she found was slightly helpful at best. Details such as his unquenchable thirst for devouring the knowledge of sages and the fact that he was a beast that thrived upon the element of lightning were about the most helpful things she learned. There was no known way to destroy or defeat the monster but that would not deter her. She trained her body and her mind to be as sharp as possible. She was one of the smartest and hardest fought heroes of her small region. Year after year, she put an end to many beasts plaguing small villages and became a champion of the people. She earned a minor reputation as Lily the Bandit Bane, and a smattering of other names that barely gained much recognition outside the string of small villages and towns she passed through, but she didn't much mind people not knowing who she was. She rather preferred they didn't know her too well before she knew them.
For once, she was adored and recognized without anyone overshadowing her, but it was a bitter victory to that end. There was no one left for it to matter to but the people she had saved. Bandits, beasts, and bullies of every shape, she hunted until she felt she was strong enough to find and face the monster that had taken away her home and family. She studied the ciphers and scripts again and again, filling her mind to the brim with knowledge about the monster she sought and she soon set out to find him. When she thought there was nothing more to be gleaned from the books and scrolls she stumbled across one small detail she had missed that could mean the difference between victory and defeat. Carnatine's one weakness was water, which was said to have burned him like acid.
Lily rode long and hard; she hiked trails goats could barely traverse, and she climbed mountains as though they would deter her as much as mole hills. Every foe that stood in her way, she brutally destroyed with little concern for their life. Between bandits and foolhardy monsters trying to make a snack of the sensitive-skinned human, she fought her way through like a bloody whirlwind and with every victory she seemed to come out all the more viciously determined to see her task through to the end. She would put an end to the monster once and for all. All she had to do was find him and lay her traps. He would fall like a house of cards and he would feel the agony he had caused her throughout the years with his final end. She swore this oath to herself as she smashed her way toward the beast's lair.
The traps were set. His lair was in her sight. All she had to do was lure him out now. The one thing she never expected was for her father to stumble out instead. He smiled at her and whispered sweet words to her; he spoke of how happy he was to see her alive and well. He told her all the words she had ever wanted to hear and lured her slowly towards the demon's vile web. The demon speaking through her father's mouth made one mistake with his words: he told Lily that he had loved her more than Cecilia. Lily's heart turned to stone with the bluff. Their father had always been careful never to favor one girl over the other – he had always spent time with them equally and never had he shown favoritism. Lily bolted as quickly as she could and the trap was sprung. They fought and he caught her with his hands sparking of lightning, his mouth splitting into a smile far too wide for a human face.
They struggled and tussled for long hours, Lily engaging him just long enough to keep him on her tracks and then slipping away into the thin mountain scrub using every skill and trick she had learned along the way. They fought in minor scuffles for what seemed like an eternity, until finally Lily led him to the final leg of their little race. She begged for the scrolls to be true and she leaped with a prayer on her lips that whatever her fate was that day, she could handle it. He rushed her as she had hoped and the ropes came around his neck and wings as planned. She smiled into the leering face of Carnatine and whispered that she was sorry to her father if he was still able to hear her. They plunged together into the icy waters of the basin lake below as the demon struggled to unwind himself from the many lengths of rope Lily grappled him with. The more he jolted her with his lightning, the tighter her grip became as she fought through the agony of his magic.
The waves rose high, towering over the lake's surface, and then the geysers the two had sent up came down upon them like a ton of bricks. Lily smirked as his hands wrapped around her throat and he began to squeeze. She smiled at him, she could feel his strength draining, but hers too was ebbing away and soon the world fell away into a black abyss as they sank to the bottom of the lake together.
She awoke on the sandy shore, coughing and sputtering. The world spun and she felt as though her head had been stuffed full of cotton. She couldn't remember anything; every time she tried to get her bearings, a sharp pain stabbed her between the eyes, though there was no visible source of her agony. She screamed mindlessly until her voice gave out. She stumbled disoriented through the forest until a large hand pulled her up roughly and put a knife to her throat. She didn't even wince as she was patted down and found to have nothing of value under her clothes. She was bereft of weapons and supplies, her only known possession a copper necklace which was quickly confiscated by her attacker.
She didn't struggle against anything that was done to her. She stumbled numbly, mindlessly along after him when he told her to follow. She did exactly as she was told. She sat when he said to sit, she jumped when he said to jump. The rest of the man's companions found his new pet to be quite the gaff, though the bandit was quite possessive of her. Lily the Bandit Bane was his toy now and he hadn't even had to fought to make her so! Of course he never told his buddies that; she didn't even seem to have a voice anymore to object. She followed him like a lost puppy that just kept coming back no matter how many times it was kicked. She followed him everywhere and he was all she knew for a few more years. He took dark pleasure in abusing her and using her almost ruthlessly for whatever end he desired. It seemed as though she didn't even feel pain as he laid her body with bruises and lashes for sport. He pushed her to exhaustion for enjoyment. She only stopped when he told her to, after all. He would work her almost to death, like a dog, only to nurse her back to health and start it all over again. She was little better than a useful dog and treated similarly.
One night after the campfire was doused and she lay next to his slumbering form, something stirred within her. She sat up without being told; her fingers curled and uncurled in front of her face. She sat in awe as memories fluttered through her mind, bare flashes of who she was and who she had been. She sat there for long hours, flexing her hardened muscles, reacquainting her mind with her body and feeling the aches and pains for the first time since she had faced the demon. As quickly as the memories came, they fled as something dark and twisted wrenched her mind apart once more. This time it was not her that curled her fingers, but something much crueler. She watched herself almost as if she was now in the back seat of her own mind as another creature used her body in a way that overshadowed any previous violations.
One small hand curled about her owner's shoulder and he stirred in shock and stared up at her blank face. His hand smoothed over her cheek in some mild effort to comfort her, and she smiled. He froze in shock at seeing her stoic countenance broken by a grin. The screaming came soon after. She left his tent singing, her thin voice broken and rusty. It was a sound one might describe like butterfly wings being torn by daggers. She stumbled lazily about the camp with the words of her heart being written on the wind by a beast she could not fathom in a voice she wished wasn't her own.
One by one, she watched helplessly as “she” ripped their minds apart and twisted their faces into macabre caricatures of what they had been in life. The smell of burnt hair and cooking flesh wafted through the night as the last bandit's eyes burst and he slumped lifelessly to the ground at her feet. Uncomprehending, she watched fearfully as she walked through the woods back towards where the final confrontation had begun. Smalls glimmers of memory came back to her slowly as her body moved on its own accord. Memory guides the muscles, child. A voice like death cackled in her head. She screamed without ever moving her lips as she found her pack, the scrolls and ciphers, everything she had stashed away before she had gone to face the beast. Every tome and scrap of parchment was burned soon after.
It wasn't the end yet. One last journey she made with her memory being used against her. Her body disobeyed her every desire as memory took precedence and at last she returned to her own village. The job had been left undone. The villagers were given no quarter until at last only the blacksmith remained. He laid down his weapons and sank to his knees before the horror that was the moon child his people had once loved as one of their own. Resigned to death, he waited; her hands curled about his face and the final jolt readied to lance between his ears. His thoughts, his memories, all of his knowledge would soon flow into her and be absorbed by the ravenous monster inside her.
Memories fluttered across her mind like translucent moths with gossamer wings, brushing at the edges of her thoughts. A few snatches of conversation filtered through. Memories of the days she had laid there broken and wounded, in shock and dismay at the loss of her family. A man who had cared for her when nobody had been left to see to her. He had lost his wife and son, three sisters and a brother as well an uncle. He had set his grief aside to nurse her back and see her through. He had not been perfect but he had done as needed to ensure she stayed alive. She remembered his name, Garrant, a man who had always smiled through her life and even enjoyed her company when few others cared for her brackish snapping and jealous tantrums. He had shoed their horse, forged her father's medicinal equipment. He had done nothing to deserve this fate. She screamed inside her own mind and a ringing grew in her ears before rising into a sudden crescendo. All at once, the ringing stopped.
“No,” she whispered. Her lips moved, the word came softly in her frail voice. “NO!” louder now. Her hands uncurled and her victim took no further goading. He would not get another chance. He struck her soundly and knocked her cold in a single stroke. When she awoke, she was tied to an iron post and he was long gone. At last she had control of her body again and she quickly burst the bonds. She was much stronger than before, she found. Her body was rippling with hidden power – raw energy both physical and magical coursed through her. She felt alive and all at once she felt whole in a way she hadn't before. She barely remembered anything of before, as if the cotton had been stuffed into her ears again until her head could burst from it.
She picked through the wreckage of the village and salvaged what she could. With her meager possessions, she set out once again. This time, she set out to look for answers to everything about herself. With only a few tools and plenty of tricks she managed to cobble a broken cart back together to serve for carrying whatever it is she needs on her journey. Armed with only flashes of her previous knowledge and an assumed name she began her quest for something she hardly remembers.
Likes: helping others, plants and flowers, fighting, winning, power, animals, singing, dancing, some pain, pickles.
Dislikes: being called any version of “short”, bullies, being/feeling helpless, seeing people suffer or sad, overly sweet treats, not having control or choice.
Roleplay Example: Can be an old roleplay.
Lastly... Where did you hear about us? you guys were affiliated with my previous forum before I had to shut it down lol.
Image/Face claim: Nastya Zhidkova
Name: Lilliana Nariko Morthena | Illynana Pelta Lunata
Gender: female
Age: 22
Occupation: Tinker/fix-it | village hero/paladin
Family: Cecilia Sasha Morthena (deceased), Sibylla Marie Morthena (deceased), Jack Ray Morthena (deceased)
Friends: N/A
Enemies: N/A
Strengths: intense focus (when she does pay attention), determined, strong-willed, passionate, intelligent, physically strong and durable, high pain tolerance bordering on masochistic enjoyment, merciful, honorable, savant, honest, some knowledge of herbalism and medicine, inventive, quick learner, brutal fighter, great at fixing things, fiercely loyal, would sooner die than break a promise, sincere, independent, perceptive, extremely detail-oriented, courageous, tenacious, clever, powerful lightning magic, has potential for healing magic, fights with strategy when not angry, highly literate, bioluminescent can see in complete darkness, can detect some changes in weather (particularly storms), highly resistant to electricity, excellent hearing. ((In moth form can spit silk and acid and absorbs electricity damage.))
Weaknesses: hot tempered, often forgets her own strength, 6 out of 10 times she will shock anything she touches without meaning to ((I'll be using random.org to figure out when the shocks happen IC in regards to other characters, so watch out until she figures it out!)), picks too many fights, not very adroit, refuses to back down, overconfident in her own abilities, daydreams too much, zones in and out of conversations, socially awkward, likes to call bluffs (especially if they aren't), loses rational thought when angered, self loathing, works herself until exhaustion, has no knowledge of how to control or use her magic whatsoever, extremely easy to taunt, workaholic, self harming, brutally blunt, albinism, hopeless romantic but denies it vehemently, chases people away, easily manipulated with noble lies, will suffer her own problems silently, keeps most relationships on an arm's length basis, extremely obsessive, forgetful, has a lazy pseudo-accent that is sometimes difficult to understand, foolhardy, headstrong, brash, stubborn, socially graceless, Napoleon complex, eyes glow in the dark and give her away easily, easy to stun with loud noises or bright flashes of light, extremely susceptible to the cold (she starts getting very lethargic in cold conditions), if she gets too angry the monster inside her breaks out and goes berserk, any knowledge Carnatine has absorbed cannot be accessed by Lily. ((In moth form water reacts similarly to acid against her and freezing temperatures shut her body down. In moth form, Lily is berserk and will attack friends and foes alike; she is also extremely susceptible to fire and drawn to light.))
Quote: I don't care what it takes, I'll be unforgettable even if I have to write my name in FLAMES!
Personality: Lily is a spunky little go getter who hates showing signs of weakness to others. She seems daft as a doorpost at first, but she openly displays a warm heart and a ready hand to help others. A genius she may be, people are a mystery to her in habits, culture, and customs. She thinks with her heart more than her head when she's given a sob story and can be easily taken in by crocodile tears. She's fairly easy to fool when it comes to getting her to do something; anything with “two-bit hero needed” subtly attached to the pitch and she'll toss her eggs in the basket and ask what needs to be done and when. She'll only start an in-depth investigation after she's accepted a quest in most cases, but sometimes she'll refuse a deal if it sounds too fishy without details first.
She seems to spend most of her time in a hazy sort of daydream, as if she's thinking about so many other things than what's going on in front of her. That wouldn't be even half wrong. She's always over thinking everything and often daydreaming of better days. Most times when she talks, she gets loquacious to the point of prattling inanely, but nothing gets her monologuing like witnessing some form of injustice. Once it comes to intimidation or entering a fight, Lily seems to cast off every bit of her supposed airheadedness for a delusion of grandeur few understand. She not only takes her job as a hero seriously, she enjoys it quite vociferously with taunts and threats to villains and bullies alike. While Lily usually seems to be one of the most unassuming and bright spirited travelers in general, when given the slightest reason to throw herself into a fight or make a show of her strength, she will happily bring the house down just to prove her point.
When she doesn't feel very open and talkative, she can come across as cold and plain callous, often to the point of cruelly chasing away many would-be friends. While it could and should be easy to be friends with her, she likes to keep friends at more of a distance than anyone else because of the things that trouble her and the constant threat of danger from herself. She keeps secrets the way they should be, quiet. She is wont to brood easily and, it seems, can brood over anything and nothing. She often uses the happiness of others to chase away her own feelings of insecurity and worthlessness. She also tends to grind herself to the bone helping others. She views herself more as a burden to others even when they offer kindness out of gratitude and she often rejects such offers several times unless the person insists.
While she seems very largely unfocused most of the time, she becomes scarily obsessed with a task once she sets herself to it. When presented with a problem, she will work tirelessly to solve it and will focus on the task to the exclusion of all else – including eating and sleeping. She loses track of time easily when working and forgets meals almost entirely, often even passing out in the middle of her work. Fighting is one part of her job, but much of the other parts are preparation and knowing what she's up against. When it comes to accomplishing any goal, Lily isn't one to cut corners or mince words; it gets done or she will die trying. Lily puts her pride in every promise, she would sooner die than be made a liar by breaking her word.
It seems as though the only time Lily understands subtlety is when she isn't angry and really wants to get a job done without having to use the storm the castle approach; otherwise she's like a bull in a china shop for the most part. Her favorite solution for most problems when she doesn't have her temper leashed is “punch it in the face”, even if said problem has no face. While she fights more with passion and fury than anything, if she isn't all fired up she often also fights smartly (or, in many cases, dirty). Unfortunately, if she's taunted enough, she'll toss strategy to the wind and just go for the beat down. If she gets too angry however, she runs the risk of going berserk and the darkest secret she carries getting out and going on a rampage. She is highly honor-bound even so and will not fight any opponent she believes to be weaker than herself unless they attack her with intent to kill.
Notably, Lily fights every battle while avoiding killing strikes. She never aims to kill her opponents unless she can be fully convinced of the need to slay them. She seeks justice but not blood anymore; she will sooner subdue an adversary than kill them, less from mercy and more for the honor of handing them to pay their penance by those they wronged. She dislikes taking credit from others and lying on such a delicate topic as one's reputation is a punch-out offense in her books. She strives to be a living symbol of courage, honesty, and kindness everywhere she goes, though her short-fused temper often leaves her the symbol of righteous bar room brawls more often than not.
While Lily dedicates much of her time to helping others, she hides several deeply-rooted fears and worries that she simply covers up. She is extremely self-deprecating, blames herself entirely for the fate of her home and family, and feels that she will never truly measure up to a true hero. As a result she rarely lets people in to see the real her behind the fake smiles and foolhardy bravado. Deep down, she is a fractured person who wants to be adored and loved for who she is and not her deeds. She is a very fearful individual, but hides it well behind her bravado. Her greatest fear of all is being forgotten. She considers every good deed she does as simple penance for everything she blames herself for.
Lily tends to be easily distracted by little things and details, often forgetting the bigger picture unless she has a goal solidly in mind. If she has no goals for the moment she could most easily be likened to a teenager with ADHD trying to play pick-up-sticks with a bag full of marbles; distracted by anything that seems fun and about as graceful as a square rock being rolled down a hill. She is secretly a hopeless romantic who constantly dreams of a happily ever after she feels she'll never have. She also has a rather inane habit of judging every person she meets by heroic/villainous archetypes and can get a bit upset when others fail to live up to the titles and expectations she has given them in her head. She tends to be the daftest person to flirt with and understands nothing short of cliché romantic gestures and direct statements; either way nothing gets her to clam up and give someone the cold shoulder more than finding out they have feelings for her. She is no stranger to breaking hearts because of this, even getting belligerent to drive any would-be suitors away.
While Lily may seem to always be in competition with the world she is actually in competition with nobody but herself. She seems incapable of letting herself be bored and will go through every pain to keep herself busy as possible more often than not. She is a dynamo of energy and little seems capable of dousing her fiery spirits except for boredom. She almost always strives to improve herself one way or another, whether it is physical or mental activity. She gives herself over to training and practice with abandon. While she rarely sits still, she does on occasion enjoy solitude and quiet with little else to distract her but nature.
While Lily is noble in her own character, she isn't a foolproof judge of character and can easily be swayed by the right words and tone. Any deed dressed up as an act of heroism can have her bounding all too eagerly into a trap. Were it not for the fact that she's “smarter than the average bear”, she'd have died long ago because of this alone. Luck can't save a person forever though; it is only a matter of time before she bites off more than she can chew or walks into an ambush with a few too many men. She can be incredibly stubborn once she makes up her mind and deterring her from anything once it has been decided can be like pulling teeth from an angry crocodile.
One thing that sets Lily apart from everyone else is the fact that her memory seems to be deteriorating. Sometimes she'll introduce herself a second time; sometimes she'll forget a name or a face, but the longer someone is around her the more they might notice her memory lapsing. She sometimes seems to forget what age she is as well; there are times she can be seen playing with and talking to a stuffed cat toy as though she were a child. More concerning might be the fact that Lily's memories from her youth are little more than a blur with a few shadows of emotion left behind. She couldn't tell anyone much of anything about her childhood even if she tried; the memories simply aren't there anymore.
Lily has a rather disconcerting reaction to facing down death – she smiles maniacally. She also seems to get a bit disappointed by anyone being unable to follow through such a threat. Whether it is because she feels she deserves to die or because it adds just that much more challenge to a fight can't be said for sure. Giving Lily the promise or threat of death seems to make her fight all the harder in the end. When it comes down to such threats she becomes brutally vicious and seems to enjoy throwing punches far too much after being threatened.
Being beaten also has a less common effect on her. Lily likes most blunt pains and a kiss with a fist is better than none. Hitting her with an open palm or closed fist means she's not going to experience pain in the conventional way. It does very little to try and deter her with blunt damage besides make her start to flirt shamelessly and spew compliments. A warning to anyone who goes toe to toe with Lily; punching her in the face is tantamount to a passionate kiss for her, and she will respond in kind most eagerly.
While Lily tends to push people away, she isn't entirely incapable of forming strong bonds with others and building camaraderie. She can be difficult to get close to but those tenacious enough to do so will find in Lily one of the truest friends they could hope for. She is fiercely loyal to those who have earned her trust and anyone she trusts enough with her life she may trust with her secrets as well. Once her trust is earned by someone, Lily drops the constant bravado and will allow them to see her as she truly is, even though she will often still keep them at a distance.
History: Lily was just like any other human child in the Enchanted Forest... except she wasn't. She and her twin, Cecilia, were both found abandoned on the edge of one of the smaller villages when they were only a few years old. Frightened, cold, and clinging to one another, they wailed and wept in the night with beasts drawing near to see the source of the noise – some looking for a meal, others looking out of curiosity. A few villagers, awoken by the ruckus, ventured from their homes to see what was happening, and the two were brought back safely into the village before they became a meal for something else in the forest.
Once washed and dried, the girls exhibited their oddity rather plainly; milk white skin and hair as pale as the moon. Whispers surrounded them, questions roared, and the girls began to cry in terror as they were pried for information of where they had come from and what they were. Neither of them remembered anything much but their mother telling them to wait where they had been and not move. Lily's last memory of the event was being told to protect her sister. Their lives previous to this seemed to be gone; neither knew where they'd really come from or even where they were.
They were in a fringe town with barely even a name to remember and little to really do besides work or run about the bordering forest every now and again. The girls couldn't even run about as it were; “the children of the moon”, as they were sometimes called, found that the sun's burning light was anathema to them. The village medicine man and his wife took the girls in and the couple raised them with as much love and care as if the girls were their very own. The twins grew up wanting for very little even while what was available was meager at best. They had an almost picture-perfect life even if they had little in the way of material possessions. Both girls showed great creativity and Lily especially showed unrivaled ingenuity when it came to learning and creating.
Lily and Cecilia began to grow up into healthy young girls, finding ways to best their burning aversion to the sunlight so that they could begin to play their part in the village. While Cecilia adored people and animals, Lily was busy with other matters. She proved to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and learned absolutely everything she could from everyone in town. When Lily wasn't busy helping the weaver with her crafts and learning the process of making socks and nets, she was helping the blacksmith and learning his trade. She bounced between every profession in the village and simply learned as much as she could of their jobs even if she couldn't perform their tasks herself. All she wanted was to know how it all worked and how it was all done. Every tool, every trade; all she wanted was knowledge.
Even with Lily's voracious appetite for knowledge and the time she spent with most of the villagers, Cecilia was the shining star between them. She was as graceful and gentle as a summer breeze and as careful with people's feelings as a saint. That, and Cecilia had a voice that far outshone Lily's, and she had wit and charm that went unrivaled in their little slice of the world. Cecilia could always be counted on to have the right words to say when someone was sad. She always had the gentle touch to console the brokenhearted and a warm heart to soothe the lonely souls. She seemed to gain an entourage of friends while Lily grew distanced from others socially. The twins loved each other and could always rely on one another, but Lily could never quite get it out of her head how much more graceful her little sister was.
Where Lily was far overprotective of her little sister, she was also rather jealous of her sister's simplistic existence in the village. Cecilia was the one who knew how to comfort and care for people; Lily only understood tools and knowledge. No matter how hard she tried, Cecilia was simply more charming and she found herself always overshadowed by her twin's charisma. Her mental acuity meant little if she wasn't liked very much and she tended to be a bit brackish when anyone preferred talking to her sister over her. She grew moodier and colder until, finally, she barely spoke to anyone else at all. She picked more and more fights only to be beaten soundly and sent home with cuts and bruises she would in turn be scolded for. No matter how she tried to make anything right, she always seemed to be in the wrong and it drove her batty.
As time wore on, the girls grew into the first bloom of adulthood – puberty. The twins had become quite friendly with their fellow villagers even despite their differences. Where Lily had grown quiet and withdrawn, Cecilia had become a vibrant and exuberant young lady who was very good with social graces in every way that her sister was not. Lily's short temper and willingness to scrap with the boys was only one reason she was often shrugged off. She was considered too much of a tomboy to truly be attractive anyways as far as most of the boys were concerned.
Lily's growth was slow and stunted while Cecilia developed very well and more than a few people took notice of it. Lily became more and more temperamental and began to shut herself away from others to brood alone. She was always trying to help and always trying to do the best she could for the village, but at every turn she would hear praises for her sister's efforts more readily than her own, perhaps because Cecilia was better at winning hearts than Lily was. Lily still received praise of course but it did little to balm her sore ego. However awkward it may have been, Lily and Cecilia both fancied the same boy and soon Lily's moods turned for the worst when she approached him timidly to confess, only for him to reject her sheepishly and admit he had feelings for Cecilia instead.
Lily became a wreck after that. She began to eat less and less and barely maintained herself as Cecilia blossomed beautifully. Her sister soon began to gush happily about how the boy she liked liked her back and Lily's moods became all the darker. The chatter of her sister's future, weddings, children, all of it drove the knife deeper into Lily's heart. She tried and tried to ignore her own feelings and simply be happy for her sister but all her life she'd already felt like a shadow. To her, this last betrayal seemed to almost prove that she would never be as noticed and adored as her sibling. Lily had never so much as raised her voice to her sister before. One evening as Cecilia gushed to their parents about her plans to start a family with her suitor once his parents gave their blessing and they came of age, Lily could not keep her temper any more.
She stormed off into the woods alone without so much as a candle to light her way in the dark and left her family at the dinner table in shock. She went as always to the one secret place she had shared with her sister when they were young – a quiet glade not far inside the woods by a stream. Cecilia followed her sister as always concerned with her well-being, and soon the fight began. Every pain and perceived slight of the past was drudged into plain view, even the most secret of Lily's own turmoils were thrown at her sister with such vehemence Lily didn't even notice her sister was weeping, let alone trying to make amends. Tearfully, Lily raged and finally screamed the last words that would set her life on its ear – “I hate you.”
For the first time she berated her sister, raised her voice and raised her hand. She stopped short, the motion seeming to jolt her to her senses before she truly struck her sister across the face. She hovered, her hand inches from the face of the one person she could never imagine living without and then watched as her twin fled in terror from her, deeper into the woods. Cecilia wept bitterly and ran as far and as fast as she could. With all of Lily's hurt feelings out in the open, she finally understood her sister's demeanor and the betrayal she must feel over things she couldn't help. She ran and ran and it was not long before she ran into something far more frightening than her elder sister and revelations of her percieved betrayal.
The beast was huge and as pale as she; it towered over her with slavering mandibles that dripped an acid that wore away tree bark as though it were paper put to a flame. It stared a moment into her eyes with boundless, lurid orbs that gleamed with madness. Cecilia stared at it, transfixed, before it moved to reach for her and she bolted. Adrenaline pounded and Cecilia bounded toward the village in fright. She couldn't possibly outrun it, she found, as it swooped down upon her as soon as she was out of the trees. Its wings, though soft and vibrant, beat with the sound of thunder. Its claws sparked with the lightning of a storm and within moments it had everything it desired from her. Cecilia could not defend herself against such magics and no sooner was it done with her than it dropped her twisted form onto a house as it took a liking to the other villagers.
Ravenously, it tore the simple village folk apart as they roused from their suppers to see what was about. The hunters they relied on to stave off the beasts of the forest were ill-matched for such a monster. It ripped through them mind after mind and devoured their thoughts and memories like a spoiled child shoving its mouth full of sweets. Lily arrived barely in time to throw her lot at attacking the beast as it crashed into her own home and snatched her mother up. In horror, Lily watched her parent scream and she threw herself at the beast, mindlessly trying to make it stop. Every effort was simply brushed aside by the beast until it finally flung her through the wall in annoyance.
Lily awoke covered in dust and debris, dug out by the few survivors of the night's bloody feast. The bodies lay piled, faces twisted and distorted in terror so badly that while they could not spare enough linens to cover the bodies, they covered the faces with anything they could, simply to avoid the gruesome sights. The faces of the dead were too grotesque to bear for many. Her father was never found amongst the bodies and Lily stared out over the carnage as if it simply didn't register anymore. The shock ran deep and she stumbled toward the forest. She was pulled back by the blacksmith, who refused to let her go, and even resorted to tying her to a bed so she could have her injuries tended.
She spent almost a month being nursed back to health. Even when her senses returned, she didn't cry. The remaining villagers became worried of this and most kept their distance as she went through the motions of life as numbly as a puppet merely trying to mimic a person now. When at last she was healthy and capable, she gathered what meager things she had left and set out without a goodbye to anyone. As everyone tried to rebuild and get on with their lives, she was hardly missed once the shock of her departure passed. Only a few who remained were truly concerned for her now. Everyone had enough work ahead of them to distract them from a single missing “moon child”.
She spent years hunting it and every scrap of knowledge about it. She would find it and find out what it was. When she did, she would destroy the beast. Its name, as she discovered, was Carnatine. He was a mind-devouring moth demon whose origins were as shrouded in mystery as the records of him were inconsistent. In some of the stories he was a sorcerer gone mad from consuming too much knowledge in his search for power, in others he was a demon summoned from a place darker than imagination whose ate the thoughts of others but was mindless himself. What little knowledge Lily managed to glean and decipher from the sparse scripts she found was slightly helpful at best. Details such as his unquenchable thirst for devouring the knowledge of sages and the fact that he was a beast that thrived upon the element of lightning were about the most helpful things she learned. There was no known way to destroy or defeat the monster but that would not deter her. She trained her body and her mind to be as sharp as possible. She was one of the smartest and hardest fought heroes of her small region. Year after year, she put an end to many beasts plaguing small villages and became a champion of the people. She earned a minor reputation as Lily the Bandit Bane, and a smattering of other names that barely gained much recognition outside the string of small villages and towns she passed through, but she didn't much mind people not knowing who she was. She rather preferred they didn't know her too well before she knew them.
For once, she was adored and recognized without anyone overshadowing her, but it was a bitter victory to that end. There was no one left for it to matter to but the people she had saved. Bandits, beasts, and bullies of every shape, she hunted until she felt she was strong enough to find and face the monster that had taken away her home and family. She studied the ciphers and scripts again and again, filling her mind to the brim with knowledge about the monster she sought and she soon set out to find him. When she thought there was nothing more to be gleaned from the books and scrolls she stumbled across one small detail she had missed that could mean the difference between victory and defeat. Carnatine's one weakness was water, which was said to have burned him like acid.
Lily rode long and hard; she hiked trails goats could barely traverse, and she climbed mountains as though they would deter her as much as mole hills. Every foe that stood in her way, she brutally destroyed with little concern for their life. Between bandits and foolhardy monsters trying to make a snack of the sensitive-skinned human, she fought her way through like a bloody whirlwind and with every victory she seemed to come out all the more viciously determined to see her task through to the end. She would put an end to the monster once and for all. All she had to do was find him and lay her traps. He would fall like a house of cards and he would feel the agony he had caused her throughout the years with his final end. She swore this oath to herself as she smashed her way toward the beast's lair.
The traps were set. His lair was in her sight. All she had to do was lure him out now. The one thing she never expected was for her father to stumble out instead. He smiled at her and whispered sweet words to her; he spoke of how happy he was to see her alive and well. He told her all the words she had ever wanted to hear and lured her slowly towards the demon's vile web. The demon speaking through her father's mouth made one mistake with his words: he told Lily that he had loved her more than Cecilia. Lily's heart turned to stone with the bluff. Their father had always been careful never to favor one girl over the other – he had always spent time with them equally and never had he shown favoritism. Lily bolted as quickly as she could and the trap was sprung. They fought and he caught her with his hands sparking of lightning, his mouth splitting into a smile far too wide for a human face.
They struggled and tussled for long hours, Lily engaging him just long enough to keep him on her tracks and then slipping away into the thin mountain scrub using every skill and trick she had learned along the way. They fought in minor scuffles for what seemed like an eternity, until finally Lily led him to the final leg of their little race. She begged for the scrolls to be true and she leaped with a prayer on her lips that whatever her fate was that day, she could handle it. He rushed her as she had hoped and the ropes came around his neck and wings as planned. She smiled into the leering face of Carnatine and whispered that she was sorry to her father if he was still able to hear her. They plunged together into the icy waters of the basin lake below as the demon struggled to unwind himself from the many lengths of rope Lily grappled him with. The more he jolted her with his lightning, the tighter her grip became as she fought through the agony of his magic.
The waves rose high, towering over the lake's surface, and then the geysers the two had sent up came down upon them like a ton of bricks. Lily smirked as his hands wrapped around her throat and he began to squeeze. She smiled at him, she could feel his strength draining, but hers too was ebbing away and soon the world fell away into a black abyss as they sank to the bottom of the lake together.
She awoke on the sandy shore, coughing and sputtering. The world spun and she felt as though her head had been stuffed full of cotton. She couldn't remember anything; every time she tried to get her bearings, a sharp pain stabbed her between the eyes, though there was no visible source of her agony. She screamed mindlessly until her voice gave out. She stumbled disoriented through the forest until a large hand pulled her up roughly and put a knife to her throat. She didn't even wince as she was patted down and found to have nothing of value under her clothes. She was bereft of weapons and supplies, her only known possession a copper necklace which was quickly confiscated by her attacker.
She didn't struggle against anything that was done to her. She stumbled numbly, mindlessly along after him when he told her to follow. She did exactly as she was told. She sat when he said to sit, she jumped when he said to jump. The rest of the man's companions found his new pet to be quite the gaff, though the bandit was quite possessive of her. Lily the Bandit Bane was his toy now and he hadn't even had to fought to make her so! Of course he never told his buddies that; she didn't even seem to have a voice anymore to object. She followed him like a lost puppy that just kept coming back no matter how many times it was kicked. She followed him everywhere and he was all she knew for a few more years. He took dark pleasure in abusing her and using her almost ruthlessly for whatever end he desired. It seemed as though she didn't even feel pain as he laid her body with bruises and lashes for sport. He pushed her to exhaustion for enjoyment. She only stopped when he told her to, after all. He would work her almost to death, like a dog, only to nurse her back to health and start it all over again. She was little better than a useful dog and treated similarly.
One night after the campfire was doused and she lay next to his slumbering form, something stirred within her. She sat up without being told; her fingers curled and uncurled in front of her face. She sat in awe as memories fluttered through her mind, bare flashes of who she was and who she had been. She sat there for long hours, flexing her hardened muscles, reacquainting her mind with her body and feeling the aches and pains for the first time since she had faced the demon. As quickly as the memories came, they fled as something dark and twisted wrenched her mind apart once more. This time it was not her that curled her fingers, but something much crueler. She watched herself almost as if she was now in the back seat of her own mind as another creature used her body in a way that overshadowed any previous violations.
One small hand curled about her owner's shoulder and he stirred in shock and stared up at her blank face. His hand smoothed over her cheek in some mild effort to comfort her, and she smiled. He froze in shock at seeing her stoic countenance broken by a grin. The screaming came soon after. She left his tent singing, her thin voice broken and rusty. It was a sound one might describe like butterfly wings being torn by daggers. She stumbled lazily about the camp with the words of her heart being written on the wind by a beast she could not fathom in a voice she wished wasn't her own.
Sing a song of six pence
we're all going to die
something in the air
makes the children start to cry
walking through the darkness
walking through the weeds
enter now the heartless
a variety of seeds
walking through the shadows
going through the slums
high above the wind blows
something wicked this way comes
here the soul is rotten
here the heart is stone
I belong forgotten
I belong alone.
we're all going to die
something in the air
makes the children start to cry
walking through the darkness
walking through the weeds
enter now the heartless
a variety of seeds
walking through the shadows
going through the slums
high above the wind blows
something wicked this way comes
here the soul is rotten
here the heart is stone
I belong forgotten
I belong alone.
One by one, she watched helplessly as “she” ripped their minds apart and twisted their faces into macabre caricatures of what they had been in life. The smell of burnt hair and cooking flesh wafted through the night as the last bandit's eyes burst and he slumped lifelessly to the ground at her feet. Uncomprehending, she watched fearfully as she walked through the woods back towards where the final confrontation had begun. Smalls glimmers of memory came back to her slowly as her body moved on its own accord. Memory guides the muscles, child. A voice like death cackled in her head. She screamed without ever moving her lips as she found her pack, the scrolls and ciphers, everything she had stashed away before she had gone to face the beast. Every tome and scrap of parchment was burned soon after.
It wasn't the end yet. One last journey she made with her memory being used against her. Her body disobeyed her every desire as memory took precedence and at last she returned to her own village. The job had been left undone. The villagers were given no quarter until at last only the blacksmith remained. He laid down his weapons and sank to his knees before the horror that was the moon child his people had once loved as one of their own. Resigned to death, he waited; her hands curled about his face and the final jolt readied to lance between his ears. His thoughts, his memories, all of his knowledge would soon flow into her and be absorbed by the ravenous monster inside her.
Memories fluttered across her mind like translucent moths with gossamer wings, brushing at the edges of her thoughts. A few snatches of conversation filtered through. Memories of the days she had laid there broken and wounded, in shock and dismay at the loss of her family. A man who had cared for her when nobody had been left to see to her. He had lost his wife and son, three sisters and a brother as well an uncle. He had set his grief aside to nurse her back and see her through. He had not been perfect but he had done as needed to ensure she stayed alive. She remembered his name, Garrant, a man who had always smiled through her life and even enjoyed her company when few others cared for her brackish snapping and jealous tantrums. He had shoed their horse, forged her father's medicinal equipment. He had done nothing to deserve this fate. She screamed inside her own mind and a ringing grew in her ears before rising into a sudden crescendo. All at once, the ringing stopped.
“No,” she whispered. Her lips moved, the word came softly in her frail voice. “NO!” louder now. Her hands uncurled and her victim took no further goading. He would not get another chance. He struck her soundly and knocked her cold in a single stroke. When she awoke, she was tied to an iron post and he was long gone. At last she had control of her body again and she quickly burst the bonds. She was much stronger than before, she found. Her body was rippling with hidden power – raw energy both physical and magical coursed through her. She felt alive and all at once she felt whole in a way she hadn't before. She barely remembered anything of before, as if the cotton had been stuffed into her ears again until her head could burst from it.
She picked through the wreckage of the village and salvaged what she could. With her meager possessions, she set out once again. This time, she set out to look for answers to everything about herself. With only a few tools and plenty of tricks she managed to cobble a broken cart back together to serve for carrying whatever it is she needs on her journey. Armed with only flashes of her previous knowledge and an assumed name she began her quest for something she hardly remembers.
Likes: helping others, plants and flowers, fighting, winning, power, animals, singing, dancing, some pain, pickles.
Dislikes: being called any version of “short”, bullies, being/feeling helpless, seeing people suffer or sad, overly sweet treats, not having control or choice.
Roleplay Example: Can be an old roleplay.
The wind whistled peacefully through the trees above as her horse plodded along steadily. She kept her hood up and head down, though she seemed out of place no matter what she did. The heavy clothes that covered almost every inch of her already drew enough attention, the mask and dark lens goggles that hid her face from the sun drew even more. She had a quiet to her like she was far away in a world of thoughts entirely different from that around her. The thud of hooves over the loose packed dirt lulled her into a senseless daze as she leaned forward in the saddle and just tried to get as comfortable as she could.
Her haunches were certainly sore from the amount of riding she'd done today and she was grateful when a village finally came into sight over the grassy hills. She could do a few odd jobs if they had no need of a hero, earn a meal and a place to sleep, and be back on her way soon as morning if all went without a hitch. She hoped for their sakes everything went without even a slight hiccup. She was always nervous around populated areas, it was as good a reason as any to stay the humble hero of the village people to keep loss of life minimal if she lost it again. If he got loose again it would spell doom for so many innocent lives. She hated putting them at risk, she shouldn't even be stepping into this town but there wasn't much else she could do for now but try to keep the temper that came with him in check. She still had nightmares about it. The entire reason she still passed through inhabited lands was to look for an answer that might have eluded her.
A wail cut through her thoughts like a knife and she spurred her steed onward with a bit of urgency. Hooves thundered against the dirt and she dismounted at a run just at the first line of houses, her sable mare nickering as it slid to a halt and tramped a circle in annoyance. She didn't need to mind the horse for now, the yelling was more concerning than small time horse thieves. She barely even stopped for a second as she bolted straight for the sound. The door to the tavern slammed open and promptly fell off the hinges as she entered almost exhaling steam from her irritation. Where was it?
Her eyes scanned the room of shocked faces slowly, every inch of her calmness restraining her fury. Her body sang with tension, poised and ready to strike, and she only needed to know where to aim the first punch. The hush that had fallen over the tavern seemed to have also stilled most of the patrons, except for a couple who were still having their little scuffle albeit much more quietly in the shock of her party crashing.
She didn't need much prompting beyond seeing the man being held onto by his scalp. It wasn't her place to get involved but she wasn't going to just watch the poor fool squirm now that she had made her entrance on his behalf. She strode purposefully toward the two and stepped almost toe to toe with the aggressor. She could feel the eyes of every patron following her, probably trying to figure out who she was as she pulled the cover off her face so she could speak clearly.
“Drop 'im or I drops you like a fat sack'o tatos.” She whispered venomously to the man who still held his writhing victim. He stared at her momentarily, the whispers and laughter finally beginning to rise through the room as the tiny woman squared off against a man easily twice her size. She glowered at him like a cat with hackles raised and back arched trying to make itself look bigger than it was. Several chuckles rose from the back at the tiny lady who seemed to be so full of herself she thought her ego could make her bigger. She stared into the man's beady eyes and raised her fist above his table making the motion as obvious to the rest of the crowd as to the man who clutched his prey by the ruddy hair.
CRACK!
Her fist came down like a hammer and any eye that hadn't been on her before was probably on her now. She grinned menacingly and removed her fist from the splintering remains of the table, a quiet crunching the only sound in the room for a moment as she pulled off her heavy gloves to reveal milk white knuckles underneath. Her posture bespoke the same malice that laced her words, small she might have been but she had enough attention now and not all of it was particularly the kind she'd want come morning. “Or I's cin crack yer skull loikes I jus' cracked yer table. Ya gots dat?”
She scowled at the man and made a dropping motion with her fingers, he seemed too daft to understand. “Ya drops 'im or I's a gonna climb yer arse like a bean pole an' pluck yer fat head offa yer shouldahs an' toss it ovah da moon! DOES YA GOTS DAT?!” She shrieked in aggravation before grabbing one half of the table and lifting it threateningly over herself. Hands went to weapons in several spots. Several had readied for the draw when she'd entered and she was making a bit more of a stir now. Bodies shifted and people whispered to one another, she thought she heard a few bets being laid in the back with chuckling.
She was not playing around and if she had to give this man's ears a boxing to straighten him out then so be it. She'd probably be gone before sunrise anyways, no trouble making enemies here if they didn't need a hero. If nothing else, to one person today she would be the hero and that was all that really counted wasn't it? She grinned and readied for the first blow if the man didn't back down.
Her haunches were certainly sore from the amount of riding she'd done today and she was grateful when a village finally came into sight over the grassy hills. She could do a few odd jobs if they had no need of a hero, earn a meal and a place to sleep, and be back on her way soon as morning if all went without a hitch. She hoped for their sakes everything went without even a slight hiccup. She was always nervous around populated areas, it was as good a reason as any to stay the humble hero of the village people to keep loss of life minimal if she lost it again. If he got loose again it would spell doom for so many innocent lives. She hated putting them at risk, she shouldn't even be stepping into this town but there wasn't much else she could do for now but try to keep the temper that came with him in check. She still had nightmares about it. The entire reason she still passed through inhabited lands was to look for an answer that might have eluded her.
A wail cut through her thoughts like a knife and she spurred her steed onward with a bit of urgency. Hooves thundered against the dirt and she dismounted at a run just at the first line of houses, her sable mare nickering as it slid to a halt and tramped a circle in annoyance. She didn't need to mind the horse for now, the yelling was more concerning than small time horse thieves. She barely even stopped for a second as she bolted straight for the sound. The door to the tavern slammed open and promptly fell off the hinges as she entered almost exhaling steam from her irritation. Where was it?
Her eyes scanned the room of shocked faces slowly, every inch of her calmness restraining her fury. Her body sang with tension, poised and ready to strike, and she only needed to know where to aim the first punch. The hush that had fallen over the tavern seemed to have also stilled most of the patrons, except for a couple who were still having their little scuffle albeit much more quietly in the shock of her party crashing.
She didn't need much prompting beyond seeing the man being held onto by his scalp. It wasn't her place to get involved but she wasn't going to just watch the poor fool squirm now that she had made her entrance on his behalf. She strode purposefully toward the two and stepped almost toe to toe with the aggressor. She could feel the eyes of every patron following her, probably trying to figure out who she was as she pulled the cover off her face so she could speak clearly.
“Drop 'im or I drops you like a fat sack'o tatos.” She whispered venomously to the man who still held his writhing victim. He stared at her momentarily, the whispers and laughter finally beginning to rise through the room as the tiny woman squared off against a man easily twice her size. She glowered at him like a cat with hackles raised and back arched trying to make itself look bigger than it was. Several chuckles rose from the back at the tiny lady who seemed to be so full of herself she thought her ego could make her bigger. She stared into the man's beady eyes and raised her fist above his table making the motion as obvious to the rest of the crowd as to the man who clutched his prey by the ruddy hair.
CRACK!
Her fist came down like a hammer and any eye that hadn't been on her before was probably on her now. She grinned menacingly and removed her fist from the splintering remains of the table, a quiet crunching the only sound in the room for a moment as she pulled off her heavy gloves to reveal milk white knuckles underneath. Her posture bespoke the same malice that laced her words, small she might have been but she had enough attention now and not all of it was particularly the kind she'd want come morning. “Or I's cin crack yer skull loikes I jus' cracked yer table. Ya gots dat?”
She scowled at the man and made a dropping motion with her fingers, he seemed too daft to understand. “Ya drops 'im or I's a gonna climb yer arse like a bean pole an' pluck yer fat head offa yer shouldahs an' toss it ovah da moon! DOES YA GOTS DAT?!” She shrieked in aggravation before grabbing one half of the table and lifting it threateningly over herself. Hands went to weapons in several spots. Several had readied for the draw when she'd entered and she was making a bit more of a stir now. Bodies shifted and people whispered to one another, she thought she heard a few bets being laid in the back with chuckling.
She was not playing around and if she had to give this man's ears a boxing to straighten him out then so be it. She'd probably be gone before sunrise anyways, no trouble making enemies here if they didn't need a hero. If nothing else, to one person today she would be the hero and that was all that really counted wasn't it? She grinned and readied for the first blow if the man didn't back down.
Lastly... Where did you hear about us? you guys were affiliated with my previous forum before I had to shut it down lol.