CRITS PLEASE?
Things will be prone to tweaking as I go, but basically everythings there to be crit'd, C:
Name: Zeylla CrypsiZeylla from Haemadipsa zeylanica, a type of blood sucking leech
Crypsi from crypsis, which is the ability of an organism to avoid observation or detection by other organisms, be this for protection, hunting; including methods like camouflage, nocturnality, subterranean lifestyle, transparency, and mimicry.
Blood colour: Blue blood #005f8e
Gender: Female
Age: 6.46 sweeps(14 years)
Symbol:
, a ring with a row of teeth all around the inside. GRAY ON PURPOSE. Zeylla prefers to be HEMOANONYMOUS. Personality:
Zeylla doesn't exactly have the most colorful personality. Actually, it's rather drab and maybe a little too straight-forward. This tends to leave her a little lacking in any meaningful social interaction. Not that she minds this, actually, she prefers it that way.
She reasons that if no one's talking to her, she can do what she likes to best- watching other trolls. No, not a troll, but several, or better yet, all trolls;any troll that happens to be around, doing what ever it is they might be doing. She likes watching them and learning their habits, thinking up stories for them and sometimes assuming their lives for their own benefit in her head. She figures she could run anyones life better then they could themselves, anyways. This large imagination has fueled the writing of her own book, which she won't share with anyone anyhow.(No one would get the dry humor and crassness of it all, obviously.) This is the time when one could assume that Zeylla is happy, though her lackluster appearance does little to reassure anyone of that fact.
And since she's quiet the knowledge hound, Zeylla spends any of her very, very little interaction time with other trolls trying to squeeze as much juicy information as possible from them. Honestly, if Zeylla begins a conversation with you, she's in it for something. Sometimes she will let you know what she wants, other times she might play another troll with out ever asking a question. She also enjoys books, obviously. But not fanciful, whispy fairyland books. No, Zeylla likes biographies, especially the sour and bitter ones, or the ones that have sudden unexplained deaths. She also reads and occassionally attempts poetry, but is utter s**t at it.
But her love of the arts stops there. Or better yet, it stops at music. Zeylla completely hates music, or any meladious, symphonic sound or vocal wailing. This trait can be traced back to her hyperacustic lusus. Any type of music will instantly put Zeylla on edge, and if it is not stopped, she will end it. She's too stubborn to leave, especially if she was there first. Which, just so everyone know, is almost always. Zeylla is first in everything, always. She knows this in her head, and honestly she doesn't care about your opinion. Guess why.
Because your opinion is wrong.
Honestly, the only one Zeylla will really relent to is Leechmom(and perhaps the occassional survival retreat when encountering a highblood who isn't afraid to question her hemoanonimity). This is because Leechmom is, in a sense, not only Zeylla's lusus and caretaker, but almost like a god to her. They have an extremely tight bond, and if Leechmom asked Zeylla to jump, she'd ask how high. If Leechmom asked her to jump off a bridge, she'd ask which one. If Leechmom said kill the Queen, Zeylla would do just that. Not that she's out there preeching the Leechmother or something. She has never once thought to disobey her lusus; the idea, utterly disgusting.
Because of this tight bond, Zeylla has obviously picked up many of her lusus' traits, but the biggest one is her hemocomplex. A mental tangle of rules and fears and urges that Zeylla must struggle with every day, which she willingly rests upon her back at the request of her lusus. It's the reason for her hemoanonimity, her dull personality, her heavy dress and need for control and complete utter awareness.
Strengths:
DECISION MAKER
Because of the way she was raised by Leechmom, Zeylla has never been much of a pouncyfooter. When the time comes to make a decision, Zeylla usually has already come up with the answer. She's a hard pre-thinker and planner, even if she comes off as less then capable of just being there, let alone pre-thinking situations.
This makes her hard to stump or befuddle, and puzzles, problems and daily struggles are a breeze. Zeylla can't think of a day in her whole life that she has ever had a hard time deciding something. As such, she is constantly confused as to why others often struggle with such petty issues.
If a troll can muster advice out of Zeylla, which sometimes isn't completely impossible, they may also find that her decision making abilities could make her a wonderful quadrant guru.
SELF-RELIANT
There is no one (besides Leechmom, of course) that Zeylla trusts more then Zeylla with anything. The young troll is completely confident in her own capabilities and judgement, and you can trust that she won't be looking to you for direction any time soon. She is actually profoundly insulted by people offering her help. Zeylla feels it should be obvious that she can handle herself.
Of course, this independent, autonomous attitude could be a serious downfall, except for the fact that Leechmom is good at keeping Zeylla in check. She may be capable of taking care of herself and making her own judgements, but Leechmom knows she is still young, and as such can be misled by many different things. Zeylla doesn't mind though. Leechmom has given her everything she might need to survive, so Zeylla feels it's for the best to listen her.
HARDY
When looking at her, one would suspect that Zeylla isn't the strongest or hardiest of trolls. Her tired-looking apperance and lack of life gives her the aura of weak. As it is, Zeylla is far from pathetic. Leechmom was never the best nanny, preferring to give orders from their hive and let Zeylla handle the rest. As such, the young troll as become rather hard-skinned. Her pain tolerance is high, and she's hardy enough that almost nothing can stop her from doing what she needs to.
On top of being physically tough, Zeylla's upbringing has made her a rather emotionally tough-skinned troll. She doesn't react to most prodding and poking or button-pushing and can easily shrug off most insults or slander. It takes a lot of her to be emotionally affected by something. This makes her a bit of an emotional zombie, not that she honestly cares about that. No one's opinion (so far) has shaken her reserve, and Zeylla figures it's going to continue that way.
AUDIOGRAPHIC HEARING
Zeylla has a distinct knack for memorizing conversations, speeches and any string of words she hears-- this may be another reason why she hates music. Could you imagine hearing the lyrics to a song you hate all the time, no matter how hard you try to forget them?. She often uses this to her advantage as she finds that sometimes the conversations she overhears, on her many outings to watch others disdainfully flail about in their dismal lives, make for good fodder for her unfinished book. Not that she'd dare let anyone know that!
Honestly, she doesn't use it for much else then that. Sometimes Leechmom will ask for a daily reports when she feels something is wrong, but Zeylla doesn't really speak to anyone else, so has never found that this ability could be rather useful to other trolls who might be able to recruit her to their plans and missions.
Flaws:
HEMOCOMPLEX
By far, Zeylla's hemocomplex is her biggest flaw, but in ways it is also one of her strongest traits. The best way to look at it is to narrow it down into subtraits of the general flaw itself.
ACTUE HEMOPHOBIA ----< HEMOANONIMITY & BLOOD RAGE
ACUTE HEMOPHOBIA is the base of Zeylla's complex. It is called ACUTE because Zeylla's fear of blood only extends to the blood of herself, other trolls and their lusus. At the sight of any troll or lusus blood, Zeylla experiences sweating palms, shaking, heavy and panicked breathing and a rapid and erratic heartbeat. If she is physically placed in/touched with small quantities troll blood, Zeylla is known to become stiff, stop breathing all together for a moment and experience rapid pupil/iris growth, along with occasional nausea.
This fear was installed in Zeylla from a young age by her lusus, who fanatically insisted that the blood was a very important, almost sacred, thing. Leechmom has, since beginning to raise Zeylla, imparted this wisdom onto her troll through a list of rules and regulations. Her lusus' convictions were so daunting, so serious on Zeylla's mind as a young troll that the rule of not spilling the blood of another troll became a phobia. She, however, is not frightened by the sight of her own lusus' blood, and she is capable of spilling her blood or others if Leechmom requests it. This may have something to do with their long history. This phobia does not reach to the wildlife that Zeylla eagerly hunts for her and her Leechmom.
Along with rules over the spilling of blood Leechmom also believe that knowing the color of another troll's blood can give one power over that troll. This may just be Leechmom's skewed view on how the hemospectrum works, but either way Zeylla believes deeply in this hoodoo and as such participates in HEMOANONIMITY to protect herself, along with going to other measures to cover up her color. Her hemoanonimity feeds of her hemophobia, intensifying the fear of spilling her own blood. She also refuses to give up her blood color to any troll, no matter their rank compared to hers. To willingly give up her blood color would be like giving up a part of herself, and Zeylla refuses to do that for any troll. Of course, upon her maturing to adulthood, she will have to face that issue. For now, Zeylla prefers to not think about it, and often dodges the subject when it is brought up- just as Leechmom does when Zeylla asks her.
As such, Zeylla does a lot of emotional stuffing and secret keeping. She rarely thinks about the quadrants(honestly, she can't think of a time where she's honestly pondered them for herself), and has to constantly deal with the pestering and violence from other trolls because of her choice. Also, she has to ebb her own nature. Zeylla was not always a distant troll. Why when she was very young, she was eager and focused and violent. But with her overbearing lusus and happenstantial phobia, she had to tuck all that away. Instead, she is apt to bouts of BLOOD RAGE, usually caused by lingering physical contact(unless the case of visual awareness is in abnormally large amounts) to large amounts of troll or lusus blood.
Her blood rage is basically a blackout. She goes into fits of violence and nothing can control her. Even Leechmom struggles to reach her at these times. On rare occasions these fits are less violent, where she is aware of her actions, but gives into the moment. During any of these times, her strength is intensified and her sense of self-survival is second to her need to hurt. She is unaware of it, but there have been several times where her lusus as manipulated her rage to benefit what Leechmom believed to be the right idea. This is because Zeylla rarely remembers her rage fits, and if she does remember something, it's bits and pieces at best.
These fits are yet another reason she fears blood, and all three together create a tangled mess of rules and habits she has to follow to keep her blood safe, and to keep Leechmom happy. It hinders her horribly at times, but has also made her more inventive, more alert and more aware then most trolls in her opinion.
UNFRIENDLINESS
Due to many factors of her personality, Zeylla isn't exactly the friendliest of trolls. She's often rough around the edges, prone to being judgmental and confrontational when she's sick of a trolls company. Along with that, she has no tact, and doesn't bother to try. She rarely says anything nice unless where it is truly deserved, and thinks most other trolls are just running around with their heads on backwards.
Her conversational skills are little to none. Speaking to her often times ends with a troll talking to her while she stares ahead like a statue, and her responses are often one syllable and can be summed up to words like "Hm" or "Hn". When she does speak, she often talks at a sharp pace that leaves no time for response or interjection, and leaves one feeling like they probably shouldn't say anything back.
Basically her whole body language screams 'LEAVE ME ALONE', honestly.
HYPERACOUSTIC
Zeylla has a bit of a problem with music and loud noise. More then a bit of a problem, honestly. She has very sensitive hearing and any noise too high-pitched, too loud, or too bassy will make her feel a variety of uncomfortable feelings. Headaches, stomachaches, tension in her muscles and behind her eyes are the main irritants. This sensitivity to sound causes her to despise all music. Not only does it drown out her thinking, but she feels severe discomfort from it as well.
While usually her sensitivity to noise does not stretch to include speaking voices usually, Zeylla has experienced on more then one occasion a troll who has a terribly loud or high pitched voice that just makes her want to strangle them to death. Loud areas and music easily put Zeylla on edge, pressing the boundaries of her self-control to the point where she might just start doing some serious table-flipping or something just as drastic.
DOMINEERING
Though Zeylla spends little time around other trolls, the time she does have to spend around them brings out her controlling attitude. Anytime she has to work with other trolls for any reason, she becomes demanding and over-powering. She wants to lead, to tell others what to do because she knows best. This doesn't make her very popular, and only adds to her unfriendly demeanor.
Along with being controlling in groups, when Zeylla wants something from another troll, by gogs she will get it. She is very persistent and domineering, and if she asks you to do something you better be happy she asked at all. She hates hearing the word no, and will continue to harp on you until its done. And it's not an exaggeration, there is little to nothing that will stop her from forcing you to do it. The things that might stop her are Leechmom or higher blood, since disobeying Leechmom is foolish, and she isn't stubborn enough to die for it at the hands of a high blood.
This also makes her good at get information out of people, as she knows more then one way to make someone tell her something. And she'll do it with out spilling a single drop of blood.
Weapon: STILETTOKIND Perfect for puncturing the skin of her hunts and piercing the veins. Effective against trolls as well, but less so, since it lacks any sharp edge besides the piercing point.
Appearance: Zeylla wears very boring clothing, made out of fabric that is thick and itchy. She always dresses heavy, from the thick, knee-high black boots she wears to the off-black gloves she covers her hands with. Her hair is wild and tangled, curling around her head in an almost living fashion. Her eyes are dark with the lack of sleep, but she covers up the slight blue-shaded rings with heavy grey cover-up, giving her self rather ugly grey rings around her eyes. She also has a small, four-dot bite wound on her cheek. Courtesy of her lusus when she was young. It almost resembles a fashionable mole near her lip.
Home: INSIDE A TREE SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE FOUR FRONDS.
Zeylla's hive was originally a little hideout dug out by some great beast who was now gone underneath the roots of a tree outside Four Fronds. When she was older, she found a nest of giant termites living inside the tree she was under. She killed the brood and cleared out the nest and made it her new hive. It has several unused catacombs and tomb-like rooms without an ounce of light, but the area's Zeylla uses most often are usually lit with glowing fungus she found out in the marsh near her treehive. Her lusus lives in the highest catacomb, and Zeylla traverses the maze of dugout tunnels with ease, where as others would easily get lost with the lack of proper lighting and seemingly endless tunnels made by the previous tenants.
Lusus:
LEECHMOM
Zeylla's lusus is a GIANT BLOOD-SUCKING LEECH. Her name is SHREHE'SEM, but she calls her LEECHMOM. She is very long, over twelve feet, and at her widest point she is nearly four feet across. Her mouth is filled with four rows of twenty-three teeth, which continue to grow as she ages. She feeds on blood that Zeylla hunts and drains into a giant stone bowl for her. She never leaves the hive, but somehow her and Zeylla act as if they are capable of communicating anyways. This may just be because they know each other very well. Leechmom has raised Zeylla to believe it is because they have shared blood. This also is her explanation for how Zeylla can speak with her, even though she makes no visible noise.
Blood is a very important thing to Leechmom, and her views on blood- it's color, smell, taste, how trolls express it and how it should be respected- are almost religious, and are most definitely fanatical. She has raised Zeylla to be an acolyte of her views, a troll willing to do what ever she wishes.
Leechmom privately thinks that she is far better then any other creature, any other lusus. Even the lusus of higherblood trolls are less then her. She is very vain, selfish and above all wicked. She has many plans in her head and too many secrets too. She is a survivor and a parasite, but Zeylla would kill anyone who would dare to call her such- if Leechmom let her.
While she is rather self-centered, Leechmom does love Zeylla, though her love is highly conditional and rather strangely exhibited. She likes to sleep wrapped around Zeylla's recuperacoon when her troll sleeps. But Leechmom almost never sleeps. She prefers to stay awake and watch Zeylla and the hive or preach to herself when Zeylla's out and about.
