[Q] While You Were Sleeping [WINTER]

[Bloody Anubis]

Intro Post
Keeper
Plague

 

[Bloody Anubis]

XXXCharacter name: Jahi Thothotepsi
XXXAge: 21
XXXRegion: Originally from Achaem (our world's Egypt) in Dalae, into a woodsy part of Imisus.
XXXAppearance:

Of an average height and appearance, Jahi stands about 5'7 and possesses a thin physique. His skin is almost golden in color, a good tan that sets him aside, easily, as a foreigner. He has short, black hair, a little fluffy in texture, and brown eyes. Occasionally, on a day he expects to be outside, he will wear eyeliner. His facial features, such as his jaw and nose, are sharp, and while his cheekbones are mildly pronounced, he is still a little soft with youth. A boy's face, then, with large, almond-shaped eyes and long lashes. Yes, he plucks his eyelashes to be rather shapely and not so thick. As far as clothing goes, he's rather simple in his dress, nothing more than a shirt and perhaps and open vest, along with slacks. His sleeves are, more often than not, rolled up. He prefers to be barefoot, but will wear a set of comfortable shoes if he must. No visual scarring. His ears are pierced twice, but he wears no jewelry aside from a necklace, which is very simply an ankh of metal on a strip of leather.

XXXPersonality:

Jahi is jovial young man, polite and smart as a whip. Just don’t ask him about what he does for a living! A little off-kilter, Jahi is more than a little content to be wrists-deep in a body one moment and shaking your hand in the next. Where others may have become acclimated to death due to the plague, it’s a way of living for Jahi. He’s working on his social filter, though! He’s just so happy to do what he does! No bones about it, though, he’s a real sweetheart. Some people just don’t understand that, where he’s from, you hold a person’s gaze as long as you can (it’s the sign of an honest man) and touching is a sign of familiarity. Really, it's not sexual harassment, he's just being friendly!

Despite being very well close to a genius for his age, Jahi, more often than not, still looks and acts the child. He enjoys childish things, such as street-games, collecting toys, and sugar. On the subject of collecting, he’s something of a hoarder, too. While he could claim that HE knows where everything is, he is very rarely organized outside of his lab (Where he isn’t even allowed to take his lunch! Whaaaat?). He just lives in too small a space, really!

There are only three things that Jahi gets serious about: competition, funerals, and snakes. So far, this has worked for him pretty well. Being playful by nature (And perhaps a bit proud- he’s a man, is he not?), he welcomes any sort of test of strength or intelligence and, unfortunately, can likely be lead into many ridiculous positions for the sake of winning. This is something he will impress upon his Plague, who takes things a step further and into a whole new world. Jahi can stand to lose, though it’s likely he will always be trying to remedy it in his mind somehow. Whether that means cracking open a cadaver or assaulting a public house remains to be seen.

Jahi's sense of morality is... loose, at best. As a scientist, he considers morality as subject to a time frame. While he is not malicious at all by nature, he is not above questionable activity (see: stealing from the foreign dead, buying illegal wares, hunting for sport, sex without marriage, etc.) if he can get away with it. He is, for the most part, an upstanding citizen and good samaritan. If evil is being perpetrated, however, he is more likely to do what he needs to in order to survive, rather than the 'right' thing. When it comes to Akilaru, he will teach him what he considers important, but by the same token will want to make sure he is more capable than any other Plague (competition, again). He considers his Plague to be more like a prize-winning pumpkin than he does a child, so he will nurture Akilaru more than he will dissuade what he believes to be the Plague's nature. Oh, did Akilaru pick on your Plague? Well, Jahi will make sure he's a little more subtle about it in the future, but really, isn't it your Plague's fault for not being able to mount a defense? Come on- boys will be boys! Right? If anyone tries to scold Akilaru themselves, however, they will have an angry Jahi to deal with.

Some other notes on Jahi: he is working toward being a surgical doctor, he is a voluntary insomniac, he has a great hand at sketching (not art, really, just accurate anatomical drawings), and he's mildly addicted to coffee.

XXXHistory:

Originally from Achaem (based on our world's Ancient Egypt), Jahi and his brother, Baraca, were raised as children of privilege. Their parents were largely responsible for preparing the dead, a sacred task which granted them quite a lot of wealth and resource. While the boys were not allowed, at their age, to help or watch embalming processes, death was a normal circumstance and a topic of discussion in their home as well as their religion. They were provided everything they wished for, including an education and an easy lifestyle. As was the custom in their land, the boys were apprenticed in becoming workers themselves when they came of age. However, both boys expressed an interest in traveling while they were still young and Jahi, for one, would rather like to try his hand at surgery. Seeing as this was not a step down, his wishes were acknowledged and an apprenticeship was arranged for him.

Jahi trained for four years to be a surgeon locally, in a school that focused on things ranging from medical cures to healing spells to anatomy. His mentor trained two others, and the three students were perpetually trying to outdo one another, which instilled a deep-seated competitive streak in the young man. It helped him to be not just good, but excellent at learning a body's various ends and outs. It became something he lived and breathed to know. In his final year at the facility, he was stitching up wounds and mending broken bones. However, he was not yet allowed to work internally himself, instead watching and assisting with those surgeries in which the odd cyst was removed.

As a present, Jahi's parents had secured passage for he and Baracas to travel to Panymium, which they believed was the most tame part of the world. The two would be allowed to stay for a month, after which they should return home and complete their studies. This was 1404, nearly a month prior to the death of Diefendorf. Joyously, the boys wished their parents good-bye and boarded the ship to the new land, which would offer them SNOW and FUNNY-TALKING, PANYMESE PEOPLE.

By the end of December, however, the Black Plague became a formidible horror and the boys were not allowed to leave for home. Having some money, they relocated to Imisus, where they chose to settle for good until the tide blew over. Jahi charmed and convinced a local doctor to take them under his wing as assistants, and all together, they lived in a house out near the woods. Every morning, they would make the journey by horse into town. This is where they are now. Jahi considers the Plague a great opportunity to learn about... if only the thing weren't so contractible!

 

[Bloody Anubis]

XXXName: Akilaru (Ah-keel-AH-ru) Jahisi

XXXItem History:

One fateful morning, Jahi and his brother, Baraca, went into the forrest to check their traps. The boys were eager to see who had caught the most game and made bets along the way. Was it a hare? A squirrel? Most definitely, claimed Baraca, his had caught the finest stag!

Neither would have suspected what they had found, a great commotion through the trees. A fight! The two rushed along to see a most peculiar spectacle: two owls and a fox quarreled around the foot of a cage, a cage which Jahi had proudly built to be the finest mesh of metal for an unknown quarry. Inside that cage, there was a rabbit, petrified with fright as the three predators squabbled.

The explanation was simple; the rabbit, lured by the bait set in the cage, had bounded in and shut the trap behind itself. An owl came by and saw the rabbit sitting in only one place and took its chance. However, one of its talons had become badly tangled in the wire- not only could it not take off with its prey (the cage was staked to the ground) but it could not escape either! Its shrieks and the screams of the rabbit filled the wood, attracting the attention of a few, but not all forces benevolent.

It is uncertain whether or not the fox or the owl's mate came along first. When the brother's approached, there was only a flurry of feather and fur. The free owl defended its mate while the other fought to tear itself free, going so far as to gnaw at its own foot as well as the metal. The fox was clearly rabid in some manner- the owls were much bigger than it, though it had the advantage of the ground. Jahi and Baraca gathered things to throw at the quarreling animals and they beat the fox away, but to no avail: the owl was dying, if not dead. No bird was meant for the forrest floor, but the unique circumstance had called them both down.

Together, the boys pinned the last owl, who had about exhausted itself with the struggle alone. They clipped away the wire, rather than dealing with the claw, and withdrew. The owl flew away, leaving behind its fallen mate in the wake of the larger creatures. Jahi gathered the owl's corpse while Baraca retrieved the rabbit, and they went home.

After debating whether or not he would dissect the owl, Jahi decided to simply leave the bird stretched on the sill of the window in his room. As he suspected, the surviving owl returned that day, but it was... different. Its feathers seemed matted and heavy, darker than they were when it had first been seen. Perhaps, Jahi thought, it had found the fox after all and exacted its vengeance. The mesh was still stuck to its claw, but it rested, lopsided, on the sill by its mate. Jahi became disturbed by its presence, and shoo'd it away after he considered its mourning proper. He disposed of the body, not wishing to be stricken with a disease if the fox did, indeed, have something that could pass to a human.

Later, that night, he woke to a loud, crashing sound. The room was pitch black, save for the moonlight filtering through the window. He had closed it before he decided to catch an hour or so of rest. Everything was still in the house, and so was he. Feeling a mounting sense of doom, he crept out of his bed and inspected the window. Nothing. Shuddering from the cold, he quickly shut the sill, turned... and saw it.

Two lights, a set of void, fathomless eyes, stared at him from atop his wardrobe.

The owl was back and it would not leave.

XXXPersonality:

Akilaru is a subtle, enigmatic creature with megalomanic tendencies. From his lofty perch of pride and budding intellect, this Plague has a nasty habit of looking down on his peers on principle. Colleagues? More like those he must one-up at every opportunity. Friends? They're just company that he can stomach for more than an instant, or things that he can use for favors, money, or status should the need arise. He prefers to hold everyone at a distance (though it's nearly impossible when concerning his Grimm) so that he can form no silly emotional attachment, and amuses himself by preying on those he perceives as weak, either in intellect or physicality. He justifies his own ability by comparing himself to others, thus he will seek to be condescending as a general rule, a game in which the object is to see how long it can take his victim to realize that he is insulting them. Generally, unless his temper or safety is otherwise challenged, he considers himself above physical confrontation.

Akilaru would never have you think that he was sweet, but he can be pleasant enough in conversation. Perhaps the best way to get him to behave is to be labeled his inferior or someone he respects. He has a dry, cynical wit when he chooses to use it, and he's highly observant if not smart. However, he hardly helps anyone unless he sees it as a benefit to him to do so. Anyone who manages to befriend him will find out, sooner or later, that he can also be rather moody, which makes him more cantankerous and candid than normal.

He subscribes to order and the law of the land, at least in the sense that he can use it to protect himself and his. He himself has code of conduct that he follows to the letter, and considers himself noble even if he is not necessarily good. He will keep promises, or is at least loathe to break them, and thus rarely issues them. He is obedient to those he serves (his Grimm) though he would choose to lead, given the chance. Akilaru thinks that he is made for great things, and thus will never do anything that could jeopardize his rise in power or intellect, even if that means having to bite his tongue or resort to taking/finding help.

He depends on Jahi largely as a teacher and (as an Excitos) a protector. While he is generally disapproving of the young man's need to make him meet (and gods forbid, be nice to) others and his clutter, Jahi is largely responsible for reassuring him emotionally and procuring anything Akilaru might desire. They will quarrel over Akilaru's conduct, at times, but Jahi will eventually acknowledge his methods of getting what he desires as effective, even if they are not completely moral.

Loves: Power and intelligence, above all else; books, a marginal helping of caffeine, staying up late, intelligent conversations, intelligent arguments, winning, flattery, people-watching, organizing, high places, darkness, quiet, chilly weather, sneaking in a nap...

Prejudices: Criminals- most of them are a filthy bunch without principles; Addicts- also generally filthy, they are untrustworthy and just annoying, definitely weak-minded; Notorious Do-Gooders- they preserve the weak and are, themselves, weakened; Overzealous Evil-Doers- crazed and unstable, mucking up everything, even that which is worth something; Weak-Minded- to be eradicated, eventually, though they may serve some worth if pointed in the right direction; Weak-Bodied/Crippled- fodder that weighs down society

XXXConcept ideas:

Ear tufts! Some form of claws... perhaps just some sort of metal attachment to his hand, removable. Chaotic alignment. Bit of a lordly appearance, perhaps with some sort of feathered, single-shoulder cape?