Persimmon

[Persimmon]

Player Name: Candace
Character Name: Persimmon. One more reason not to let faeries name themselves.
Age: Indeterminate, looks (and acts) more or less like an 11-year-old girl.
Race: Fae
Height: 4'6" (137 cm.)
Weight: 78 lbs. (35 kg.)

http://i996.photobucket.com/albums/af82 ... 465788.jpg

Physical Description: Persimmon presents to the eye a short but slight figure. Her skin is naturally without pigment; it's stark white and slick, like candlewax stretched over her bones. Bulbous monochromatic black eyes peer out from behind a mass of long, dark, lank, and tangled hair (a rat's nest if there ever was one). Her fingers, innocuous at first glance, can distend to twice their normal size, becoming claw-like and threatening. The majority of her teeth are sharp and serrated; others are blunt, and better suited to chewing than tearing. Most people find Persimmon's appearance surreal if not outright discomfiting.

When it comes to clothes, when she opts to wear any at all, Persimmon sports the bare minimum: a simple hemp dress that a human peasant girl might wear, for instance, or a man's shirt cinched with rope beneath the bust or at the waistline. Nothing too cumbersome. She eschews footwear of any kind, and has no qualms about being seen in the nude -- though she's come to realize that plenty of other folks strongly object to seeing her in such a state, hence the clothing.

She's filthy. There's no way around it. She has no knowledge of how to maintain dental hygiene (nor any desire to learn), and no interest at all in propriety. Like a twelve-year-old boy, Persimmon frequently belches, farts, picks her nose, spits, and makes obscene gestures at people for no other reason than because it amuses her to do so. Dirt, blood, and worse has accumulated under her nails to the point that they've become a veritable breeding ground for bacteria. Likewise, her mouth is one toothy cesspool of decaying meat and plant matter. There may or may not be creepy-crawly things living in the little fae's hair, and she's quite comfortable with all this. You could say she wears her filth like a second skin.

Possessions: The clothes on her back, and whatever meager funds she could pilfer from the unfortunate people she's met on the road.

Strengths and Weaknesses: Persimmon has extremely limited visual capabilities, the product of having lived in a dark, lifeless environment for most of her life. She has some light perception, which allows her to distinguish light from dark, and the general direction that the light is coming from (she can tell that the sun is positioned more or less overhead, for instance, or that the person next to her is carrying a torch or candle). This lack of ability is common amongst her people, the Bouden, who long ago migrated far west of Thar Shaddin when their dietary needs began to differ significantly from those of their brethren, the other faeries.

More often than not, Persimmon relies on the combination of a rather keen sense of hearing and an acute olfactory sense (both comparable to a wild dog's) to navigate her world, as well as careful attention to and memorization of the most minute details of an environment. She also practices her own version of scent-marking, which usually involves spitting into her hand and smearing it on something (including people -- yuch). This way she can quickly discern where she is, who you are, and whether or not she should try to get the hell away.

Due to her, erm, unique upbringing, she has only a very rudimentary understanding of the world outside her front door. She's also illiterate, due to her blindness. She is painfully tactless, which could cause all sorts of problems, what wih potentially offending the wrong people, or worse, scaring the right ones away (for example, she won't hesitate to let you know that she's hungry and you're starting to smell tasty, which is rather unsettling to think about even if you could pulverize her with your pinky).

Her skin is highly resistant to cold and wet weather, but equally vulnerable to fire and heat. Her claws, when they appear, are long and menacing, tipped with sharp nails that together serve as an effective hunting tool and defense.

Persimmon mostly lives on carrion, which is where her sense of smell REALLY comes in handy -- it's great for scavenging. She'll eat the occasional live beastie, as well, provided it's not too dangerous (those claws of hers go a long way, but she'd rather not be impaled, thanks much).

Ah, and she'll do just about anything not to be captured and made a slave again.

History: In the isolated hamlet of Persimmon's youth, if you were born with shimmering hair or luminescent eyes, a comely face or sweet-sounding voice, you were free to join society. The Yeas were thought to have been gifted with more of the magical ability so essential to the lifestyle of most fae than the Nays, and as such were treated as first class citizens within their small community. If you were born with fangs, claws, or other offensive indelibles, you were a Nay, and would be a slave subject to the whims of your master until the day you died.

In the spring and summer months, Yeas will happily seduce other creatures for their own amusement...and sometimes for food. The illusory magics available to them are considered innate, and humans especially are so easy to fool; they're willing to do just about anything for a pretty face. But in the autumn and winter months when people are scarce, it is the Nays' job to venture out and drag some miserable wretch -- sometimes kicking and screaming, often unconscious, and occasionally dead -- home to the hearth. What happens from then on is up to the individual fae, but one standard that is always maintained is that when it comes to partaking of the bounty, the Nays are always last in line, regardless of their role in procuring the poor sod.

(The two aren't separate races by any means, but rather function as castes within their isolated culture. The primary difference is, If you smile at a stranger will they smile back? or If you smile at a stranger will they run away?)

Naturally, Persimmon (born The-Smell-Of-Blood-In-Running-Water, which is unpronounceable in most tongues), with her knife-edged nails and deadly incisors, was born in captivity, and spent most of the spring and summer months of her life doing menial chores in and around the locale where she was kept. She considered this the worst, the most boring, the least fun time of the year, and always looked forward to the turning of the seasons, when she and others of her ilk were ordered to obtain...fresh supplies. This work, which had a tendency to be very, very messy, was the one task Persimmon undertook with enthusiasm. As she became more skilled at this endeavor, it became common for her to be sent out on these errands alone, and with no supervision it was only a matter of time before Persimmon wised up and made a run for it. One happy day the slave realized that if she didn't take her kill back to her masters, she got to enjoy the whole thing herself! Oh, sure, the folks back home are furious, but they'll only be able to take that out on Persimmon if she goes back -- so she's been on the move ever since, worriedly glancing over her shoulder for signs that her newfound freedom is at an end.

(That said, Persimmon is not evil, per se. She's violent and chaotic and unpredictable, yes, but because she doesn't recognize her behavior as bad, and is herself subject to laws of morality which most humans find incomprehensible, she can't be held responsible for defying conventional wisdom. Some see the world in black and white; Persimmon sees an entirely different spectrum of color and has no reservations whatsoever about dabbling a bit in every one.)

[Niabi]

I'm interested to know how her vision thing works. I'm assuming that she can only look through the eyes of one person at a time and she can only see as well as the person who's eyes she is using. So if the person was partially blind or had another vision problem that she would have to see that as well. I'm also assuming that she can't see beyond the normal ability of the person who's eyes she is using, so no seeing things miles away or through walls or anything like that. What I want to know is, how close does this person have to be to her for her to use their eyes? Does she have to go into some state of heavy concentration or meditative state to be able to use this ability? Does using this ability leave her feeling dizzy or weak afterwords as she is shifting her perspective around?

I saw your note on the bottom about your character not believing what she does is wrong and that is fine, I have a character that commits murder and doesn't view it as a wrongdoing, but I want to point out that others will. Even if your character feels that there is a justifiably reason to do the things that she does, those that enforce the laws will not see it from her perspective and they will try to capture and bring her to justice if they catch on to what she is doing. It really doesn't matter what her reasons are, killing another person except in self defense is illegal and the Guards will see her as a criminal.

[Persimmon]

You're spot-on with the vision thing. Persimmon can only see through one person's eyes at a time, and can only see as well as they see. So if they're colorblind or near-sighted...well, so is she, for that period of time. She can't see miles away or through walls (meaning also that she can't see through somebody's eyes if they're across town, or even in the next room if there's a wall separating them), and she can't use another person's sense of smell, hearing, etc. Only their vision. As for distance, she can only utilize someone's vision if she's in their line of sight. So, as long as they're in reasonable distance, whether directly in front of her or across the street, if they can see her, she can see through their eyes. And if she thinks she's alone but she's not sure, she'll start poking around for glimpses of herself -- because she knows that if she can see herself, somebody's watching her.

Normally, it doesn't leave her feeling dizzy or weak. For her, switching perspectives is as simple as adjusting to the change in light in a dim room versus the sunshiney outdoors. It might take a couple of seconds, but it's nothing strenuous.

About her morality...ohhhh no, I don't expect there to be no repurcussions. She's careful enough not to go around murdering people in their homes, and she really does like people...it's just, she likes to eat them, too. But trust me, if I knew there was a psycho cannibal freak running around my neighborhood, I'd be the first to whip out my pistol and call the popos. Actions have consequences.

[Niabi]

I've been thinking about it and I would like to know a general location of where she is from. Why is vision not important? Why have they developed a sort of vision through hearing? Do they live in some underground cave?

I'm also curious as to her combat ability or lack thereof. You have stated that she is likely to make a scary face or run away if faced with danger, but it also says that she is willing to do anything to keep from being captured again, so my question is: Can she hold her own against a skilled assailant? And if so, how?

[Persimmon]

My brain says her people migrated to some very dark, very dense forest far west of Thar Shaddin long ago when their, err, dietary requirements began to strongly differ from those of their brethren. I imagine that in the absence of light, conventional vision became such a useless trait that eventually it was bred out of them entirely. Evolution, and all that. And since faeries generally have the ability to "mess with the mental state of less magical creatures" (from the Races page), I figure it's not so much of a stretch to assume that they'd adapt if it were necessary, and find some way to "borrow" another creature's sense of sight. They had to hunt to survive, after all.

Can she hold her own against a skilled assailant? Probably not for long. Her method of fighting isn't really advanced, and generally goes something like... Sneak --> Slice --> Eat if it's going good/Run away if it's not. Her claws and teeth really are formidable; they're sharp, and I'm willing to bet they'd cause a nasty infection (she's not exactly known for her cleanliness). The problem is she's got no real technique or finesse. She's lived a primitive life. She's only really dangerous if you're some kind of beastie in the forest or just some schmuck on the roadside. If, however, you know how to use that sword that you're carrying...

And yes, she'd attempt to fight if it meant staying free. But first she'd try intimidate them, and if that doesn't work she'd try to run away, or hide behind other people, because she's lame like that.

[Persimmon]

Sorry for the billion and a half replies here. D: But I added a little more to her Physical Description and Strengths & Weaknesses.

[Niabi]

I this being a difficult character to play, but if you are up for the challenge I won't stop you from playing it. You might have some trouble finding a good place for her, but if you know what you are doing and find the right people I am sure you could make her fit in somewhere. Approved.

[Niabi]

Unlocked to be edited.

[Persimmon]

okay i think i got it

[Niabi]

Okay, re-approved.