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 Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:45 pm
 Niki's Quest for a Thestral
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:46 pm
The Child
Name: Leila
Gender: Female
Race/Species/Element: Thestral
Personality from baby to adult:
--Baby
Leila's a rather fussy baby. Not an easy kid to care for at all. She doesn't like it when her diaper is wet or dirty for very long. She has to have things her way. If you even so much as touch one of the things she's playing with, she'll flip. She hates it when people touch her wand, above all other things.
--Toddler
Ah, now that she's able to move about on her own, you'd better watch out! Leila has a mind of her own and doesn't like to listen to others. Sharing is a concept beyond Leila's comprehension. What's hers is hers. What's yours is hers. If she wants it, it's hers. If she decides she doesn't want it now, but then decides later that she does... it's hers.
--Kid
She's getting worse! Now she hardly ever listens to what an adult says and just does whatever she wants to do anyways. Major disciplinary problem here... She's still very touchy about her things. Even if they're not her things.
--Teenager
Oh great! Now she has hormones AND an authority issue... Where did I go wrong?!
--Youth
Good luck getting her to pay attention to you now. Unless she deems it worthy of her attention, you might as well just be talking to a wall. In fact, you might get more of a response out of a wall...
-Adult
Responsiblity seems to have finally caught up to her and she's learned when she needs to listen to others and when she can ignore them.
Hair and eye colors: Black hair and white shining/glowing eyes (no pupils)
Physical description From Wand-Adult:
--Wand
Thick black wand with ridges, looks almost like skin drawn over bones...
--Baby Ghost
Greyish fog.
--Baby
Finally, something resembling a person! She's got dark grey, almost black skin.... and she's rather sickly looking. She appears to have almost no muscles and be just skin and bone. No fangs yet. She does have these huge black wings coming out of her back, though... What an ugly baby!
--Toddler
Now she has fangs! Watch out, she will bite you. No matter what her mother tries, the girl just won't gain any weight. She still looks very unhealthy and is practically just skin and bones. She's forced into these very frilly pink dresses by her mother, which she hates.
--Kid
Leila's hair has been growing out rather long. No bangs, she tends to let it drape in front of her face as her eyes tend to creep people out. Finally her mother has given in and she's allowed to wear the torn jeans and stained and ripped t-shirts that she wants to wear.
--Teenager
Ah, the wonderful teenage years. Unfortunately, the goddess of beauty has not blessed this girl. Practically flatchested and still a skeleton with skin tossed over it, Leila is far from beautiful. She still has very long hair, which she doesn't do anything with.
--Youth
Finally the girl gets boobs.... very small ones. But she wears low cut tops to try and show off what little she does have. She has also dyed metallic blue and purple streaks in her hair.
--Adult
Leila hasn't changed much, though she's finally cut her hair to a medium length and has given up on dying it. She also wears more conservative clothing, a simple blouse and skirt.
Distinctive Marks: Fangs, Black leathery wings
General likes and dislikes:
--Likes
Creeping out people. Music. Flying. Meat. People who take her flying (especially in her early stages before she can fly on her own).
--Dislikes
Frilly dresses. Pink. Ribbons. Her wings being tugged on. Being told what to do.
Hobbies: Staring back at people who stare at her. Freaking people out by commenting about the death they've seen. Listening to music. Flying.
Personality, appearance, and likes/dislikes are subject to change through RP. This is rather tentative right now.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:47 pm
The Abilities
--Keen sense of direction - She'll be able to tell in what general direction home is. Then narrow it down as she grows older. Plus, once she learns about north, south, east, and west, she'll be able to know where those are as well. [Starts at baby]
--Flight - She can fly. Eventually... And while she can sustain quick flight for short periods of time, she seems to use up energy from later and has to rest for a while to gain it back. [Probably like kid/teenager]
--Scent blood over great distance - She can smell fresh blood from a greater distance than normal people. The distance will lengthen as she grows older and she'll also gain the ability to smell older, almost dried blood as well (though from a shorter distance than fresh blood). One disadvantage: Menstrating women. Enough said... XD [Starts at toddler]
--Witness to death sense - She can look at someone and tell if they've witnessed a death before. As she grows older, she can start catching bits and pieces and after she's even older the entire scene from that person's point of view. Leila, however, has problems controlling this, especially early on and is often bombarded by sad feelings and, as she grows older, images of people in various stages of death. [Starts at toddler]
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:48 pm
Past Life
Viraelia loved her forest. She's lived there for some time, seperated from her herd many years ago. The forest was the perfect home. Until one day these strange creatures arrived. They'd made their home on the outskirts of her forest, chopping down some of her trees to make their homes. Such strange creatures, to take the life from things to make a home instead of living among the trees themselves.
She was curious about these strange beasts. They walked upon two legs, upright. They had no hide and not all of them had manes. None had tails or wings like she did. Viraelia observed them from the safety of her forest while they took the dead trees and chopped them up before making their strange homes.
The air carried the odor of these strange beasts to Viraelia. They smelled nothing like she'd ever scented before. There was a salty and unpleasant tinge to them. As the wind blew towards her again, Viraelia noticed that the odor was stronger this time and she turned to see one of the creatures not too far from her.
This one had a long mane and looked more delicate than the ones that had come to kill the trees. Viraelia carefully crept closer to study this one as it didn't seem armed or as dangerous as the tree-choppers of her kind. The woman didn't notice the thestral's approach.
Suddenly, a twig snapped from behind Viraelia and she turned her head to see another of the creatures, this man one of the tree-chopper kind, coming up behind her. He stopped, terrified, at the sight of Viraelia. He said something that caught the woman's attention and got her to come to him, protectively herding her back to the rest of the creatures.
Viraelia sighed, for she was still curious about these strangers. Her wings fluttered a bit and she retreated further into the forest as the sun fell from the sky and the world grew darker as the moon started it's reign of the sky.
She had been sleeping in her clearing when a noise awoke her. It was the sound of the creatures. Viraelia shook her head, getting her hooves underneith of her and rising. It was still dark, the moon's light was all that illuminated the forest in her clearing and the woods beyond were dark where the branches halted the moonbeams from reaching the forest floor.
The wind brought to her that distinctive scent of the creatures and she could tell that there were many of them. They all seemed to be lurking just beyond her sight. Suddenly, the male that had taken the female away from her earlier walked into view, in his arms, a long stick that held a sharp, pointed rock at one end. Viraelia was trying to figure out what this thing was for when the man rushed towards her, raising it.
Startled, Viraelia flapped her large wings and took to the air, recognizing a threat when she saw one. She watched as more of them came out into the clearing, many of them throwing their pointed sticks into the air to try and hit her. She gave a few great flaps and dodged the projectiles easily.
It took her a while before she realized that there were no other birds in the air. And the air itself was changing. The wind was picking up. Panicking, Viraelia flew off, hoping to put plenty of distance between herself and her attackers. She needed to get out of the air. A storm was brewing and she had been distracted by the strange creatures trying to attack her, so she hadn't realized it.
Clouds were starting to block out the moon's light and the storm was almost upon her now. She started to descend, hoping that the creatuers were slower on foot than she was on wing. Viraelia was among the trees when the wind suddenly changed on her.
The thestral was knocked off course and slammed into a nearby tree. Flapping her wings frantically, Viraelia managed to get herself steadied and started to descend once more. She could feel where the tree had bruised her side and her wingjoints were hurting from the effort of flying in the strong wings.
As Viraelia glided earthwards once more, the wind hit her broadside and knocked her into another tree, hard. Only this time there was a loud CRACK as she hit. Several other smaller cracking noises could be heard as well.
Viraelia panicked as her hind legs went numb. More accurately, she lost complete feeling in her hind half. Struggling against the pain in her wingjoints and ribs, she flapped her wings, trying to get to land. The wind dropped suddenly, causing Viraelia to fall to the ground, her hind legs breaking with the impact. At the snapping sound, Viraelia turned her head, thinking that the creatures were upon her again.
Blood was oozing from her hind legs were the bone had snapped and broken through her hide. Viraelia tried to stand, but fell. She tried again and again, but failed both times. The blood oozed quicker out of her legs and the thestral began to feel dizzy and lightheaded. Viraelia knew she was dying. She only felt slight pain in her back where her spine had snapped and greater pain in her sides from where ribs had been cracked in her collisions with the trees and her hide bruised from the impacts.
Sighing, she lay her head down. Slowly, the world around her turned darker and darker as blood continued to flow from her body. Rain beat down upon her body, drenching her hide and causing Viraelia to shiver whenever the wind blew. Finally, the lack of blood caused Viraelia to lose conciousness and the world went black.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:50 pm
The Parent
Name: Reign Ledell
Gender: Female
Age: 20-23 years
Animal: Black-tailed Marmoset
Hair Color: Dark grey
Eye color: Green.
Skin color: Normal human color, but mostly covered in white fur.
Personality: Reign isn't as quiet as she used to be. She's gotten into a more sophisticated look now that's she's grown up. Well, that and because it's impossible to find a frilly dress for an adult. She still loves her ribbons, though.
Likes: Climbing, fruits, veggies, pink, ribbons, frilly dresses
Dislikes: ugly things
Journal: X
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:51 pm
The Creature
Yes, from the wonderful world of Harry Potter, it is the Thestral! They are described as "fleshless" horses with a "dragonish face". They have "long, black manes" and "great leathery wings".
While some people take fleshless to mean skinless, I take it a bit differently, as do some places online. To me, fleshless means no muscles, just skin and bones.
This creature did not make an appearance until the fifth book, where Harry sees them for the first time. I'm curious as to how they'll be portrayed in the movie this summer (if they don't get cut out, of course... which would be rather hard to do, but it is the movie industry...)
Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thestral
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/bestiary/thestrals.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Muggles'_Guide_to_Harry_Potter/Magic/Thestral
Pictures
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/fanart/picture/view/102
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/fanart/picture/view/862?verify=true (Kinda gross looking one, so weak-stomached people beware!)
http://pictures.fanart-central.net/w/WynaHIros/251241.jpg (Also kinda creepy. Just warning ya.)
http://www.neothera.com/thestral.html
http://mugglenet.com/gallery/albums/movies/ootp/inttrailercaps/fulltrailer_large/Picture_173.png Screencap from an OOTP trailer, but you can see some details...
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:52 pm
The Relationship
Reign is at first rather excited to become a guardian, having helped her mother raise her younger twin brothers. Now she gets to do it again, but for a child of her own. However, personalities clash once Leila arrives.
Reign has problems with Leila as a baby, mainly because the kid doesn't seem to like the frilly things that Reign's bought. Reign doesn't seem to notice this (or ignores it, whichever) because she loves buying the frilly dresses.
Things only get worse as Leila ages. Reign often seeks help from her mother with Leila's lack of discipline and they continue to fall apart as Leila fights to pick out her own clothes (which are far from pink and frilly). Reign finally gives in to this.
Eventually, however, something will happen that will either drive them apart forever or bring them closer together. Reign has always tolerated Leila's attitude and struggled to be in control of the girl while Leila has ignored her mother as much as she possibly can. I'm not sure what will happen, but it will change them both.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:53 pm
 Concept sketch by Tara_Nepion.
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 7:20 pm
Hmm. I see that you've got a good start, but that's just it. It's a good start. Not to make any puns, but it feels like you've got a skeleton here. Where's the rest of the meat? I'm getting a vague sense of Leila's personality, but not a really solid sense of it. The descriptions seem more like general statements.
Also, I'm a bit curious about where that artwork came from for your guardian? It was borrowed with permission, right? I saw it up in another breedables shop. I actually think that I got to the shop through your sig so that might've been your mule account that I saw^^;
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:01 pm
XD The artwork is from a breedables shop, yes, but she's my character from that shop. *nods*
No puns, eh? XD Thanks, I'm starting to get more of a grasp on her personality, though I'd like to leave a lot of the stuff for her older stages up to changes due to RP and such.
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Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:18 pm
Niki, I really like it. You definitely have something good going for you here.
Just a few things I would comment on:
1. I'm understanding her basic personality, it's a "my way or the highway" philosophy on life. However, I'm curious is to why she is like this. I'm not familiar with the Thestral, yet, I can imagine it is not the most tame of creatures. How much of her personality is from the Thestral and how much is personal taste? It seems like she doesn't get along with most people, is there anyone she gets along with? I like the spunk you've given her, but at the same time, I wonder if she has a soft spot no one knows about. Is her like, such as flying, something she doesn't share with anyone else? Sometimes having an attitude can alienate you from others, how does Leila handle this? One of those solitary by nature types, eh?
2. What's Leila's relationship to her guardian? Is Reign a protective loving mother or will the little "angle" drive her up the wall? As time goes on I can tell that their relationship will drift apart. Does the relation deteriorate to nothingness or will Leila keep hold of it, for that matter will Reign want to keep hold of it? Furthermore, who holds the power here? It sounds like as a little kid Reigns love of pretty things will conflict with Leila's creepy nature , I can only imagine how much fun it would be to play out getting dressed in the mornings. Yet, you never express this. I think a bit more detail would really help here. I understand not wanting to add more until you've RPed your character, however, you can always change things you don't like in the future.
I hope that's the type of critique you were looking for. No need to answer my questions here, just giving you some stuff to think over. :<
Keep up the good work.
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:22 am
*glomps Gabs* Thanks!
Her personality is part Thestral-derived and part just her. Thestrals are very hard to tame, but it can be done. However, Reign goes about this the wrong way and starts to push Leila even further away.
I'm not quite sure what Leila's soft spot is quite yet... *ponders on that*
Yes... There was a reason for Reign to be the guardian... it'll be loads of fun and I'll probably do some sort of mini-example-RP thingie if I get the time. But I'll be sure to add in some stuff about their relationship.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 4:03 pm
~Update~
Okay, so I did this all the other day, but it's for those who like to know what exactly's been changed lately.
-Personality has been added to.
-Guardian/ghost relationship has been added. *cackles*
-Added a link to Reign's journal for those who want to know more about her.
I'm also working on sketching out Leila, but I gotta zoom off to work, so those'll be posted up later. XD
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:31 pm
hmm looking good.
I'd suggest changing the death though, there's nothing there to make us really feel for Viraelia , she made a mistake that lead to her death but it wasn't really unjust ,painful yes, I sure as heck wouldn't want to die that way but I find it hard to really feel for her because it's something that could happen to anyone.
Perhaps combine this death and your past one, have her hunted down and forced to fly through a storm which leads to crashing and death.
The only other concern I have is Reign's apparently inability to control Leila at all. I realise Leila's gonna be a right pain to raise but Reign has experience raising and the advantage of the fact that leila being at least remotely equine should feel somesort of herding instinct and have respect for who would be her leader.
Also we've got several wildish listen to no one children already and one ornery bitey horse boy in Leith. I'm not saying you should change leila's personality but perhaps you should rethink or adjust a few things.
Finally not a criticism but just a question, it's noted that thestral's are dead clever creatures why haven't you thrown that in somewhere. If there's one thing we don't have ( as far as i know) is a genius or a kid who intends to put their intelligence into something other than studying or training.
On the flip side I really like her powers and Reign seems like an interesting guardian to work with.
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Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:44 pm
Yeah, I've been meaning to add to the death lately as I got some more ideas for it to expand it and all, but I've lacked the inspiration to sit down and type it all out... >.< But it was basically her getting hunted down, yeah... XD
Well, from what Wikipedia says about Thestrals, they're the least horse-like breed of magical horse. Which, since it obviously isn't about their appearance, I take to mean their personality. There's not much description of how herds act, though they do stay in herds. So I'm not sure how it might affect Leila. And Reign's had experience with a bit easier kids, especially one of them. True, Aiden's a royal pain in the butt, but he at least minds... most of the time. The main problem is just that Reign's not used to having to discipline as much...
True.... though it's Hagrid saying that and he thinks that dragons make good pets and that three headed dogs are harmless.... XD Though I suppose I could make Leila clever in the sense that she's always coming up with creative ways to get into trouble.... *snickers*
Thanks, Umbra.
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