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Note: Numerous pictures are in this thread. As I am a rather mediocre artist, readers shouldn't take them as literal interpretations. Think of them more as guidelines.

Full Name: Kennedy Carpio (Car-pi-oh)
Nickname: N/A (might answer to 'Nedy'. Daydreams about being called 'Lincoln'.)
Reason for Such a Name: I found a girl named "Kennedy" in my yearbook. She would have been Dakota Kennedy, seeing as there are plenty of Kennedys unrelated to the deceased President and the still-living politicians, but then I decided that she would be Filipino-American. Carpio is my grandmother's maiden name.
Sex: Female
Age: 23
Height: 5'2 in tennis shoes
Weight: 144 lbs.
Hair: Very dark brown, looks black when wet.
Eyes: Very dark brown, look black except from about a foot away.
Ethnicity: Mixed. Filipino-Caucasian.
Dominant hand: Right, like most of the world.
Physical weaknesses: Needs glasses, has nasty mown grass allergies.

Physical Description: Kennedy is fairly short and stocky, with relatively short, thick legs and arms. Her hands and fingers are rather small, or so she believes, and usually wrapped around something, be it a book, a camera, or just the straps of her purse. Her face is squarish and compact, with thicker-than-fashionable eyebrows; the corners of her mouth are naturally a bit downturned. Her hair is oily, slightly longer than shoulder-length, and usually tied back.

She looks something like this:



As a Filipino-American, Kennedy bears a slight resemblance to other Filapinas such as Vanessa Minnillo and Cristeta Comerford. Her bust size is fairly average, but she has almost no other curves. Kennedy hasn't got much patience with fashion, so she tends to favor boy's outerwear, T-shirts and cargo pants in particular. On her feet are usually bulky sneakers and thick white socks.

From day to day she wears contact lenses and wireframe glasses to correct her nearsightedness(anything more than six feet away might as well be a Surrealist painting otherwise), a single small gold earring in each ear, and a coat of lipgloss where appropriate. Unless there is a special occasion, she rarely wears any other jewelry or makeup. Her nails are cut as short as she can manage, and both toe and finger nails are painted indigo blue, her favorite color.

Occupation: Camera(wo)man. She helps with filming and sometimes film editing at the campus news station. Also volunteers now and again with the Humane Society.

Residence: A small city built around an equally small college near Chicago, Illinois.

Likes: Fiddling with cameras, swimming, sharks, cats, reading science and psychology-related books and magazines(fiction or non), sci-fi, classical music, standing in the wind, history, and feeling secure.

Dislikes: Being stared at, overt rascism/sexism, obsessive people(religious, political, musical), being forced to care for small children, obnoxious music(meaning screaming stuff, loud rap, and whining songs, as well as anything overplayed or too noisy), celebrities, people who deny the existence of global warming, people who jump to conclusions and/or will not stop talking. She also hates the insult "retard" more than just about any other.

Phobias: It's worth noting that Kennedy has no true psychological phobias, but she becomes very anxious when confronted with long-legged spiders(tarantulas are okay), heights, and public speaking.

Skills: Can work a camera, can manipulate video. Is a runner; endurance, not sprinting. Can climb trees and weave a basket. After some coaxing and a few false starts, anyway.

Hobbies: Making a montage set to music, reading about space travel, caring for animals, going on mild hikes.

Personality: Kennedy is quiet and generally shy at first, and will let someone else do all the talking with no argument, but she can be loud and boisterous if someone else doesn't take the lead or gives her enough of an opening. She leans slightly towards "optimist", but is realistic enough to know that things will generally go wrong. When angry, she tends to bottle up and go unresponsive; if someone else has been dominating conversation this may not be noticed.

A stickler for honesty, Kennedy is reluctant to blame someone whom she doesn't think is at fault. She tends to favor logic over emotion and is fairly easygoing. When alone she may rage and weep quietly, but in company she tries to appear unemotional and collected. She prefers getting out of the way and watching(and recording!) to leading or following. "Wish I could be a fly on the wall," is a common thought of hers.

She isn't too good at body language cues; she notices them, but doesn't always know what they mean. Kennedy is also quite blunt, to the point of seeming rude. Often when someone is upset or angered by her she becomes confused, not seeing why her behavior would provoke such a response.

Finally, Kennedy shows a few kleptomaniac traits. She won't shoplift, but she tends to pick up and carry off things that catch her eye, mostly rocks and sticks and string. She'll handle things that aren't hers, but only rarely will she take them.

Defining characteristics: She's a bit paler than she could be, due to spending so much time at the camera and the computer, but her heritage still makes her appear tan. Her glasses make her eyes look somewhat smaller. Someone speaking with her might notice that her gaze is sometimes kind of fixed, and her facial expressions are often either frozen or slightly exaggerated. Socially inept, she has been diagnosed with very mild Asperger's Syndrome, itself a form of high-functioning autism.

Religion: Kennedy's father was Catholic, like most people in the Philippines, but converted to a Protestant branch when he married her mother. Kennedy herself is nominally Protestant, but not devout by any stretch of the imagination. She disagrees with several parts of the Bible and hates it when people interpret it literally.

Things on her: A T-shirt(white) reading "Same shirt, Different Day", a loose and pocket-laden set of boy's shorts, white cotton socks, a digital watch whose face would doubtless crack at some point, and battered gray tennis shoes. Kennedy would have had her contacts in when she came to Athlaias, and they would have gotten lost in transition. Her glasses would have been in her purse, but at some point they might be lost, stolen, or broken. Her purse(sturdy and inexpensive) also contains an old handkerchief tied around a bit of green clay made useless by detrius, lipgloss, a little hairbrush, keys, a flashdrive and a DV(digital video) tape, her wallet, a paperback edition of "Good Omens" with a coupon for tomato ketchup as a bookmark. Various folded pieces of paper, mostly old brochures and a scattering of plans for filming, might be in her pockets. Smooth rocks that are pretty when wet and a good deal of assorted knotted-up strings round out her collection.

Creature: Joysweeper

That's the same word as your username.

Yep. I use "Joysweeper" on nearly every site that I can. It doesn't let anyone identify me, it's never taken by anyone else, and it's simple.

"What the heck is that? A broom with a smiley face?"

Not exactly. The simplest description is "fairy with dragon wings and a tail".



"So why not just say "dragonish fairy" and leave it at that?"

Because that's too simple. Too human, and in pictures a fairy's wings, even when draconic, are too wispy and sprout out of the small of its back, which isn't very practical. Joysweepers are more like little human-faced dragons, physically. They look relatively human, but...

So, here goes. Full description.

A Joysweeper has two wing-arms and two humanlike arms. The wing-arms are positioned exactly like human arms are, opposite of each other on either side above the ribcage. The human arms are positioned like a Tyrannosaurus Rex's arms, closer together and in the front.

Wings bear a similarity to those of pterosaurs; there is a visible arm, and the last finger is dramatically long and thick, attached to the wing membrane. Numerous thin struts, like bat fingers, run through the membrane, stiffening and strengthening it. The fingers near the wrists, the ones not attached to membrane, are long and thin and bulbous, tipped with slender, curved claws. One finger on each wing is fully opposable; winghands are somewhat less dexterous than secondary hands, but they are well adapted to climbing and defense.



Bulbous fingertips on winghands house venom glands; Joysweeper claws are hollow like hypodermic needles. The venom is no more potent than that of the average honey bee, painful for a short time but neither debilitating nor deadly. The wings usually bear muted colors of brown and green; like an anole, they change occasionally, but are unable to produce the complex colors and patterns seen in chameleons.

They fly well. Hovering is exhausting and only possible for short periods; soaring high in the air is also tough. Flight would most likely be in a series of flutters and swoops, and it wouldn't be much faster than a human sprinter. Joysweepers are more agile than fast.

The chest of a Joysweeper, proportionally larger than that of a human and boasting a bigger ribcage, bears a massive, protruding keelbone anchoring flight muscles. The humanlike secondary arms are on either side of this. Structurally and proportionally they are identical to human hands and arms, except that the smallest finger has thickened and become almost opposable. Shorter than the wingarms and soft and clawless, secondary arms are placed well enough for most uses but cannot get at the entirety of the back, mostly due to wings being in the way.

They've got birdlike respiratory structures; lungs are a bit smallish, but coming off the lungs are air sacs, anterior and posterior; they take up a great deal of chest space and occupy portions of the hollow bones. Joysweeper air sacs, like those of birds, allow much more efficient breathing- a good thing, because a lot of oxygen is burned in flight. No gas exchange occurs in the sacs; an inhaled breath goes into the lungs, then into the posterior air sacs, then into the lungs where oxygen is exchanged with carbon dioxide, then into the anterior air sacs, and then it is exhaled, fully spent.

My Joysweepers are omnivores. Metabolisms are pretty fast, though, and digestive tracts are shorter and less efficient than human ones, so high-energy foods are pretty much craved. And something with considerable mass and little nutritional value, like translucent iceberg lettuce, could make them sick.

Joysweeper necks are proportionally just a bit longer than human necks. Their faces appear to have human proportions from the front, but they are actually slightly elongated; a look at the skull in profile reveals a small, catlike muzzle and protruding eyebrow ridges. Nostrils are a bit larger and more prominent, the better to suck in more air more quickly. Joysweeper "hair" is usually short, light, and downy, but heavier, longer humanlike hair does occur. It comes in all the standard human colors; as in humans, darker hair is dominant, lighter hair is recessive.

Joysweepers have slightly longer, sharper canines than humans do. Irises are somewhat larger and the pupils of a Joysweeper are vertical ovals, sometimes looking like slits. Eye colors aren't too exotic, and vary between individuals. The "third eyelid" or nictitating membrane is fully functional in a Joysweeper, closing to cover the entire exposed surface of the eye and opening to tuck away in the eye's inner corners. The third eyelid appears white and opaque from outside, but can be seen through from within. It is protective in function, closing when in flight or fear.

Joysweeper ears are stereotypically elven, long, slender, and pointed sharply, reinforced with a great deal of cartilage. The ear tips are almost level with the top of the skull when upright. Muscles at the base of the ear point, swivel, cup, and flatten it according to whim or emotion.

]ear, Joysweeper-human

In this case, Joysweepers are tailed, and thus have a posture that is less vertical than a human's. The tail would probably serve a balancing function, particularly during flight. Tails wouldn't quite be prehensile (although they would be able to curl around things) but neither would they be entirely stiff. How long and thick the tail would be, and whether or not it's forked or tipped with anything, isn't decided..

Although the wings and tails would both be covered in tiny keratinous scales, the individual scales themselves are difficult for the human eye to see unaided. Body and facial scales would be smaller still; the ones on forearms, shins, keel, and forehead would be somewhat larger, more visible than any others. The body scales, like those on wings and tail, also change color from brown to green, but they are paler in shade. Joints, fingertips, eyelids, and parts of the ears would appear scaless, but still change color with the rest of the body.

They would be oviparous, infrequently birthing large, leathery eggs one at a time after five months of gestation. Like birds(again), Joysweepers would have all-purpose cloaca instead of individual orifices. Mating is a "cloacal kiss" instead of the mammalian way; males can't pee standing up. Which might have made a male character fun... ahh well. I don't plan on spending any more time on the reproductive system.

In terms of the senses, Joysweepers have hearing that's pretty close to human-norm, although due to size and the outer ear structures it's a bit more sensitive. Eyesight is similar; perhaps a little sharper and marginally more color-sensitive, but night vision isn't as good. Taste and smell are severely diminished in comparison to humans, but Joysweepers still have preferences.

Touch is perhaps more unusual, and highly developed. On most of the body there are fewer touch receptors than on a human. The tiny scales over most of the body harden the skin, making it less sensitive. Touch receptors are clustered in the scaleless fingertips of all four hands, the membrane of the wings, and the ears. These sensitive areas function similarly to cat's whiskers or the lateral lines in fish, detecting currents, vibration, and temperature changes. (Of course, fish don't lat-line temperature. But you get the picture.)

Sizewise, Joysweepers vary. Anywhere from seven to fourteen inches of height is "normal", with males usually being slightly smaller than females. Legs are a bit small in comparison to torsos, but not extremely so. Wingspan isn't much more than twice height, and no less than one and a half times said height. Tails are no longer than height.

In this case, Joysweepers have small, decorative bony-cored horns. These may be two slightly larger ones in the classic draconic position on the sides of the head, three tiny points framing the base of the ear, a short, thick spike at the corners of the jaw, a sharp point in the center of the forehead, or any combination therein. Possibly this would also come with a row of small spikes running down the spine.

Feet and lower legs are likely to be extremely birdlike or draconic, probably digigrade and clawed, although these claws would lack venom glands. They would be adapted for grasping and climbing, like the primary hands.

Magic: It's true that Small People tend to develop magic, almost as compensation for their diminished size, but Kennedy is also in the Drake category. Any magic she gains access to would be very minor- slight empathy and a weak healing factor, perhaps.

Over the course of the transformation, Kennedy's eyesight would improve, maybe all at once, maybe a little at a time. If it's not all at once, there would likely be a point where her glasses and her naked eye were equally blurred and confusing.

Mental: The transformation would gradually make Kennedy more outgoing. More likely to initiate conversation with strangers, mostly, but also less reluctant to ask for help and admit when she's in trouble. She'd become a bit more gregarious around people who feel friendly but, on the converse side, she'd start to take it more personally when they don't. Fortunately, although she might become quicker to take offense, she'll also become quicker to put things aside once they aren't as fresh in her memory.

Alterations that don't involve interacting with others include a certain degree of claustrophobia - at 100%, if she's put in a drawer or a chest she'll probably freak out - a near-inability to stand still if she's not reading, sleeping, or listening to someone, and cravings for honey and fish, although she'll quite happily eat just about anything put in front of her.

Kennedy's kleptomania would not necessarily get much stronger, but she would begin to steal. Not often and not from anyone that she likes, but if she doesn't think she'll get caught and sees the chance, she will take it. If she ends up getting to know and sympathize with her victim, the stolen item will probably find its way back.

Why a Joysweeper? There is no great irony in Kennedy becoming a Joysweeper, but doing so would do interesting things to her quirks. Kennedy prides herself on the appearance of self-reliance, but deep down she's very aware of just how much she needs others. Becoming a Joysweeper would mean becoming very obviously dependent on others, particularly at 75%. 100%, conversely, would allow her to be almost fully independent. Kennedy also likes to claim to be entirely asocial, and the change would bring out her gregarious side. Finally, as a human Kennedy really dislikes being touched, but as a Joysweeper she craves physical contact.

A somewhat better picture.