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 Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:12 am
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Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:14 am
USER
Name: Cassiopeia Celestianos
Age: 20
Magic Affinity: Fire magic- can heat things up with the touch of her fingers and hold scalding objects without being burned. Good for burning handholds into large trees and working with small metal objects, as well as for evaporating water quickly and drying herself off.
Appearance: Shortish, but not tiny, and curvy with dark eyebrows and a tangle of dark red hair. Freckly, tanned, with brown eyes, rosy lips, and slender hands and feet. Usually dresses in bastardized versions of the more ornate dress clothes her older sisters wear to suit the fact that she spends most of her time working in jobs that can't afford fripperies and most of her wardrobe is hand me downs, but she's also keen on looking her best, even if her best is, by comparison, not so great. Not to mention, there's a sort of innate satisfaction in ripping up her sisters' former favourite dresses and remodeling them.
Personality: The fourth daughter of a wealthy merchant, Cassi is used to getting the short end of the stick, and then taking that short end and trying to yank it longer until her arms hurt. A jealous person by nature, she has a strong sense of "mine and thine" and if something is thine, she probably wants it merely on the basis that it isn't hers. She collects things like a magpie and completely takes what she has for granted, having held her idea of success up to her sisters' various successes all her life. She's not good at expressing her feelings and often masks discomfort with sharp humour and remarks, pushing people away from her emotionally at the same time as she tries to impress them with her wit and make them want to be near her.
However, she isn't entirely unpleasant. Though she's possessive and somewhat emotionally stunted, she's generally friendly and funny to others, and works hard to impress them with what she does, which often involves doing things for them as much as it involves doing things better than them. Because she's spent most of her life dealing with hand-me-downs, she's a fairly flexible worker and able to approach problems creatively. She can make things just as well as she can hoard them, and she has a good eye for the innate value of things. She's practical and though she's ambitious, if things don't work out for her she finds it fairly easy to land on her feet regardless. She tends to feel sympathy for people who remind her of herself, (which differs from people who actually are like her- her idea of herself is somewhat romanticized) and she'll go out of her way to help them so long as they don't take it for granted.
She tends to make snap decisions about people, and her favour is as easy to lose as it is to win. Little things grate on her, and she's especially critical of people who she views as stiff competition and people who have things she wants. She dislikes feminine girls on principle because deep down she would like to be one, and is constantly on the lookout for braggarts, incompetents, and moochers. When she dislikes someone she doesn't outright attack them verbally, but she'll try to turn her friends against them, usually by whining. She's a moaner, and when things go wrong for her, she likes complaining to the few people who are close enough for her to trust. Though in practice she's practical, if it'll make people pay attention to her and feel bad, Cassi isn't above making mountains out of molehills.
Cassi falls in and out of love easily, mostly with her sisters' current beaus. She tends not to act on her crushes, as she's more afraid of emotional rejection than professional rejection, and isn't good at expressing her feelings to begin with. This often gets her into trouble, as she likes attention, so she's never above flirting, but tends to back the hell out if the other person tries to get serious, even if she really genuinely felt affection for them. People are harder for her to form and keep attachments to, and so she tends to prefer the company of animals or herself- she can acquit herself well in large groups and even entertain large numbers of friends, but it makes her irritable and nervous over time. She also has strong attachments to things, especially things that are hers. Her Guardian sort of falls into this category, as he's not only linked to her, but she made and frequently takes care of his legs. Her strongest rapport is with him, and she's even physically affectionate with him with absentminded kisses and the like, but the relationship is platonic, and her strong affection for him comes from the sense of pride she gets in owning him and taking care of him, like a writer with a character they're especially proud of. He's the easiest humanoid thing for her to form an attachment to partially because she doesn't really take him seriously as humanoid, and spending time working on him or talking to him is a big outlet for a lot of her stress and pent-up emotions.
History: In his youth, Achelous Celestianos gave up pursuit of a magical career. Despite having considerable talent, magic easily bored him, and he dabbled instead in a different challenge, establishing a business for himself in an economy that was still struggling to get back on its feet. He went into the business of selling fabrics, and in this he succeeded mightily- His water magic allowed him to manipulate fabric dyes in interesting patterns and his unusual taste made his fabrics unique and desirable. Achelous Celestianos soon found himself at the head of a wealthy tree of fabric purveyors, with a beautiful wife and four loving daughters. He doted on all his children and bragged about them ceaselessly, spending all his time not devoted to working with his family. Providing them with comfortable lives and the best advantages he could afford, he was eager for his children to have the great success that he did, he challenged them each to surpass him in some way. Once they succeeded, he promised, he would give them each a boon of their desiring.
The eldest, Parthenope, was twelve years older than Cassiopeia, and was possessed of the same extraordinary magical aptitude as her father. Applying herself like he never did, she finished her education and won for herself a mighty Guardian finer than any even the most talented sons of their neighbours had been able to create. With this guardian, she became a scholar, and her intelligence served her well, making her a well known luminary amongst her peers. In this way did she outsmart her father and surpass his ambitions in aiding the community. For her accomplishments she asked for her quarters to be furnished with rare books and instruments with which she might better herself.
The second eldest, Ligeia, was eleven years older than Cassiopeia, and possessed of a great love of the opulence that her father's wealth afforded her. Determined that she would become far richer than he ever was, she quietly, she asserted herself at each of her father's business meetings, serving food and talking to the merchants he met with afterwards. Assessing them and the business schemes that they were planning, when she felt she was confident in the world of trade, she entered a partnership with the most ambitious of these and built their business up between them until it was greater than her father's. For this feat she asked to inherit his business once he passed, so she might ensure that she never had to live in poverty.
The third eldest, Leucosia, was five years older than Cassiopeia, and generally considered to be the most beautiful of the four daughters, for her hair was honey and her eyes were amber, and her lips were plump and pomegranate red. This did not make her vain, for it was generally reckoned that amongst the daughters, her personality was also the pleasantest of all. A talented tinkerer with about as much interest in magical studies, her single flaw was that she had passion for nothing at all. In her distress, her mother hired her a tutor, who Leucosia found a very deep passion for indeed. Giving up her lifestyle, she eloped with said tutor, and thus surpassed her father in love, for though her mother was beautiful and kind, her father would never have given up his wealth to be wed to her. In return for loving more fiercely, her father granted her wish for a small house, which she and her husband lived in happily.
Achelous's fourth daughter had always been more difficult. Living in the shadow of three older sisters, Cassiopeia had always been trying to catch up with girls who were already struggling fiercely to outdo their own highly successful father. Unlike her sisters, Cassiopeia's parents treated her less seriously, since she was born to them so late. To them, she was more adorable than elegant, and more endearing than inspiring. Though they pampered her just as much, they were far less insistent that she make her own way in the world, and at first, Cassiopeia didn't begrudge this from them. She admired her three sisters, but most of all Leucosia, who would tinker up toys for her when she was very young. Having thus enchanted her sister, Leucosia found that Cassiopeia would very rarely leave her side, so much so that people would refer to them fondly as Cosi and Cassi. Cassiopeia began to study tinkering in school once she was old enough, having been inspired by her sister, but seeing Leucosia excel at it with barely any effort, she became frustrated at how long it took her to learn and how her efforts were overpraised by her parents in comparison to Leucosia, who would always get sober, grownup feedback for efforts she had barely bothered to finish.
Eventually, when Leucosia eloped and she realized Leucosia did not even care for tinkering, she gave up entirely, refusing to be beaten by a sister who wasn't even trying. Left without even a goal that she wanted to strive towards, Cassiopeia became bitter. It seemed like her sisters had achieved everything worth achieving, and she was tired of feeling second-best by comparison. The jealousy in her that she was always more or less able to surpress by focusing on her goals began to fester now that her goals were no longer appealing to her, and her habit of collecting little things like the toys that Cosi made her became a nervous tic- as if filling her life with things, especially things that her sisters had or wanted, could make up for the lack of satisfaction she felt. Her performance in the Academy began to slip and she tried to distance herself from Leucosia in general. To her great displeasure, she found that she had been part of "Cosi and Cassi" for so long that away from Leucosia, she had great difficulty conversing with people, let alone opening up to them. She spent a frustrated few years trying to find something she was the best at, but she had lost direction, even failing to pass her assessment upon her graduation. Her parents' lack of effort in trying to encourage her to do something productive again irritated her as well, and she refused to talk about things with them, having convinced herself that they didn't see her as anything but the cute half of "Cosi and Cassi". She withdrew into herself and settled into a period of long silences and meditations as her sisters flourished around her, and finally decided that her sisters had explored every corner of their familiar domestic world. She felt there was no room anymore because they had occupied all of it, and so to outdo them she would have to explore beyond it.
With this mentality, she prepared to become a scout instead, applying herself with all the intensity she had lost when she lost faith in Leucosia, if not all the optimism. When, at 20, she finally passed her assessment, she gave to the forge a vial of mercury, the liquid metal to represent the flexibility she needed to acquire in order to reroute her life, and the shards of her last tinkering project which she had used her magic to melt into a hard slurried ball, representing her determination not to fall into the routines of the familiar any longer.
For all this, Achelous's fourth daughter has yet to outdo him at anything, and her sisters fear that she will not only fail to, but in trying she will drift out of the reach of those who love her.
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Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:14 am
GUARDIAN
Name: Hermes
Magic Affinity: Air magic- He can manipulate air currents to his advantage and increase the strength of the wind to help him glide.
Essence/Animal: Mercury/Martlet
Appearance: A pale and slender guy who always looks a little tired and has blue-black hair. Bit of a lightweight. Sharp, beaky nose, somewhat puffed out chest, wings of some sort to help with scouting. He has no legs, but can make wibbly legs out of mercury that can't really support his weight. To walk he uses artificial legs made out of glass and lightweight metals that Cassiopeia made for him. Inside the legs is a mechanism through which he pumps mercury, thus powering the legs so that they can walk. Initially difficult to use, but they can move quite quickly based upon how hard he pumps mercury through them, and Cassi's always checking up on them and making them better when she can. The only downside is that because they're lightweight, they're fairly fragile, and if they suffer a crack, he starts to leak mercury, which can be hazardous.
Personality:
MARTLET
A HERALDIC CHARGE depicted as a swallow or house marten having tufts of feathers instead of feet. said to be emblematic of a restless soul, a son with no inheritance, or one who seeks knowledge and adventure insatiably.
MERCURY
THE ONLY METAL which retains a liquid form at standard conditions. Heavy, silvery metal which is a poor conductor of heat and was once used in cosmetics, medicine, and alchemy, though is now known to be dangerous to be exposed to and capable of causing poisoning. Shares its name with the Roman translation of the Greek god...
HERMES
THE GOD of transmissions, boundaries, wit, literature, athletics, inventiveness, and trade. Patron of both thieves, travelers, poets, and politicians and messenger to the gods.
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