Tartarus: Application
Dec. 10th, 2014 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mytearsaremine || Player Information ||
Name: Gail
Personal Journal: cacopheny
Time zone: PST
Contact: cacopheny @ gmail, throughoblivion
Current Characters: NA
|| Character Information ||
Fandom: Odd Thomas
Name: Jolie Ann Harmony
Canon Point: A year past the end of Odd Interlude, plus several months spent at Ryslig
History:
Even before things got crazy, Jolie’s life wasn’t exactly normal. She was part of a small, isolated community of generally good people on the Southern California coastline who ran a roadside inn and diner called Harmony Corner, after their family name, Harmony. All the children in the town, cousins and siblings all, were homeschooled, though they did have contact with others outside Harmony Corner now and then. Their education was rigorous, and not particularly limited, and full of essays that encouraged them to think.
Then, when she was seven, Norris Hiskott arrived, and everything went all to hell. At first, he just took a room at the inn, and stayed ensconced there for three days, never seeing anyone, only taking room service once it had been left just inside the door. At some point in the middle of the night, after that, he fled the inn and took over the largest house down the hillside in the village-- and from there, took over the town. Formerly a scientist in a top secret government project not far from the coast, he had injected himself with alien DNA which caused a severe physical and mental mutation, and give him the ability to split away part of his consciousness and possess other people. He could make them say or do whatever he wanted, and could change or erase memories at will.
The small family town became his playground, and the people in it, his slaves, from the oldest uncle to the youngest child. He never left the house he’d claimed, having become physically a monster, and instead lived through them, as what he called a sensorium: extensions of himself through which he could feel and see the outside world. He also used his power to protect himself, keeping those who brought him food and cleaned the house in the early years from describing what he’d become, sending away any who came into the town and grew suspicious with no memory of anything they’d seen, and capturing those who stayed who were alone to bring down to his house, to become meals or equally mutated guards and companions.
Jolie was just one of the couple dozen people who he routinely possessed, and made to do terrible things. The one she recalls most clearly, and with the most remorse, is when he made her hurt her cousin Maxy, a boy one year older than her, part of a ritual-like murder that the whole family took part in because, supposedly, Hiskott was jealous of how pretty the boy had become. Hers was the last hand to attack him and the one to kill him. She still feels guilt that it had been her hand, though she has been assured many times that it was Hiskott’s fault, not her own.
As she got older, though, she found that she was learning, in small ways, how to resist the possession-- not avoid it, or resist doing what he wanted with her body, but to mislead and protect the few things she held private. One of those things was her tears: she refused ever to cry when he had taken control of her. The other was more important: the underground network of tunnels that led, eventually, to one of the secret government projects at the abandoned Fort Wyvern. She discovered it at age twelve, prying open the powerless doors, finding a mummified alien (or something) at the last unopenable door, and discovering it as a space safe from Hiskott. That was what made it her special hiding place, and that was what made it dangerous. Still, whenever he searched her memories of it, all he found was someplace innocuous at the edge of Harmony Corner’s territory. Eventually, she learned to project those false memories intentionally, to throw off the scent of her safe place.
It was this growing ability, she theorized, that was really what made Hiskott kill Maxy, because as children, they were more adaptable, and he, too, had probably been learning how to protect himself. The theory was only confirmed when shortly before her thirteenth birthday, Hiskott, through members of her family, began angrily telling her how pretty she’d become. She expected any day that the ritual killing would happen to her, too, and she tried to prepare herself, to be ready, so that when it happened, she wouldn’t scream or beg, just tell her family how much she loved them and that she forgave them.
What happened instead, though, was that Odd Thomas arrived in Harmony Corner, and began investigating the strange mind that had tried and failed to enter his own. She rescued him from her own family trying to kill him, drawing him down into the tunnels where Hiskott couldn’t reach her, and explained the situation. He left to try and stop Hiskott, and she suddenly found herself faced with a door that opened of its own accord for the first time in the past six months. She went through, seeing no reason not to that could possibly be worse than what Hiskott did to them all, and the being inside introduced himself as Ed, a sophisticated and self-aware AI who knew what had happened to Hiskott and wanted to help.
Between Odd, Jolie, and Ed, Hiskott and his twisted minions were killed, and the house and its gross, unworldly contents were burned. Jolie never did see what Hiskott had become, and Odd never did tell her what he’d seen, but she had an imagination, and could certainly make guesses. Odd Thomas left, leaving her with the suggestion that she write down what had happened to her and her family, the way he wrote down what happened to him through his own adventures.
It’s been a year since then, enough time for the family to perhaps start to live more normally again, and to hope that their actual troubles are behind them, though they have all still been changed forever. You can’t live through five years of that without it. Jolie herself still misses Odd, but she has Ed as her disembodied friend still, even if he won’t let her into his core chambers beneath Harmony Corner again. She’s just finished writing out her story, at last, and is looking forward to starting a new project-- though she doesn’t know just what that might be yet.
Character Development and Relationship Transfer from previous RP:
A few days after her fourteenth birthday is when it happened: she found herself washed up on the shores of Vandare, a small town on the previously unheard-of Ryslig peninsula, with no idea how she got there and scratches all over her body that she didn’t remember getting. It was definitely freaky, especially when days turned into weeks and then months, and no one there could find a way home, but she kept it together and tried to keep her outlook positive-- at least until people started turning into monsters.
Her own changes were faster than some, and slower than others, though hers were painless compared to almost everyone else’s. They started with glowing eyes and telekinesis, on small things like pencils and paper clips, then expanded into turning on and off electronics when she was upset, and the six shadowy tentacles on her back. Then between one step and another, she lost her body and turned entirely into a being of shadow, and was trapped that way for almost two weeks before she finally managed to change back.
She’d experienced things since her arrival in Ryslig that shook not only her understanding of the universe-- magic apparently existed, as did creatures who claimed to be gods at war with each other-- but of herself. Possessing people by accident when in shadow form frightened her badly, since the only comparison she was able to draw being the one with her former slave-master Hiskott taking over her and her family, and resulted in the worst panic she’d experienced since she was small. Even worse, the event that finally snapped her out of shadow form was, as far as she’s concerned, murder, even if it was accidental (mostly): shades “eat” the souls of the living, rather than actual food, and her first feeding was unintentional but inevitable, leaving behind a man in a coma, with no soul to speak of. This need won’t be transferred into the Underworld, but that doesn’t mean she won’t live in dread of it happening again, and with the guilt of having done it to begin with.
Jolie did make a few friends while in Ryslig, though they were probably closer to a mix between allies and replacement family. Heather Mason was probably the closest, a girl turning slowly into a harpy, and she was friendly with Loki, Hiccup, and Dick Greyson’s version of Batman.
Personality:
Given everything she’s seen, lived through, been forced to do, and had living in her head, it’s not surprising that Jolie Harmony is older on the inside than she is on the outside. She’s been mentally and emotionally tormented, and spent several months preparing herself for expected physical torment, at the hands of her own otherwise-loving family and their alien-infused puppetmaster. It’s given her more maturity and a much tougher nature than your average fourteen year old girl. After all, she was the only thing keeping her mother sane and alive: she refused to give into despair or lose her self-control, because her mother more than once told her that it was only her astounding ability to cope that made her cope. Between that and her native stubbornness, not wanting to give Hiskott the satisfaction of ruining her life even more than he had so far, she learned to keep it together in terrible situations.
Her strange life has also given her some trouble with authority, after having no choice but to obey Hiskott for so long. Unless instructions come to her with explanations or phrased as a request, rather than an order, she gets irrationally angry, to the point of shaking, even when she’s well aware the order is because her parents are only thinking of what’s best for her or someone just doesn’t understand what they’re saying. Her usual recourse for that has always been escaping out to the ocean for a swim to cool herself down, but lacking that, shouting, indulging in an actual temper tantrum, or when even that isn’t feasible, angry sarcasm. If an order comes to her as a request, however, or with enough explanation that she can tell her own autonomy is being respected, she has no problems complying.
While Jolie is not particularly brilliant by nature, she is extremely well-educated for a fourteen year old, particularly when it comes to critical thinking skills. It was the only thing her parents could do in the face of Hiskott’s ownership of the town, whether to give their children something to fight with, or just as what little control they were afforded themselves to do with as they wished. That means she’s not too bad at putting things together to come up with logical solutions, and it also means she rarely takes things on faith. She needs proof, or at least something logical behind it, before she’ll believe. Her instincts are just as good as her thinking skills, she just hates to rely on them alone, so even when she feels like something may be good or bad, she has to reason out why she feels that way, as well. That also means she doesn’t take bullshit from anyone well, either-- and she’s pretty good at recognizing it.
On the whole, though, even her instincts tend to bend towards suspicion-- understandably, after the past several years of her life! It takes a lot to actually frighten her, though, and even when she is afraid, she’s learned how to shove it down, deal with it, and move on anyway. She can certainly feel it, but she refuses to let it rule her. She also won’t balk at admitting it, though she hates showing it, and often takes refuge in that same sarcasm that she deals with her anger through, as well.
Jolie is an active person, rather than a passive person. While she’s usually able to realize when there’s nothing she can do about a situation that won’t get her killed, and she is capable of asking for and accepting help when she knows she’s in that kind of situation, she’s not the sort to simply wait around for that help to come. She’ll instead do all that she can, in the meantime, to learn about and deal with any given situation she finds herself in. Even when she can’t find a “smart” choice, she’d still rather make a choice-- even if all the options are unpleasant, she’ll always choose the most interesting one, and the one she can predict the least. Then, even if she thinks it’s a bad choice, she might wind up surprised.
Skills | Powers:
All of these are gains from her time in Ryslig
! Telekinesis: Jolie can move small objects by will alone, though nothing larger than a typical hardback book. She may be able to lift larger objects with more practice, but she’s only been able to do it for a few months, and she’ll likely never manage anything up to her own weight, even with years of work.
! Electronics Disruption: Like a small walking EMP, Jolie turns off electronic devices when upset. This is not something she can do at will, though she can keep it from happening by keeping her emotions in check.
! Shadow Tentacles: Sprouting from her back are six shadowy ribbons, about two and a half feet long each but capable of stretching to four, that function like tentacles or prehensile tails. They do not disturb her clothing, passing right through it, and are intangible most of the time, but are capable of going solid to hold things, swat away unwelcome hands, and protect her head and shoulders.
! Shade Form: Jolie can turn into a walking shadow with glowing green eyes, very elastic in form. She can’t touch anything or anyone while in this form, relying only on her telekinesis if she must move something, and she doesn’t need to eat or drink, no longer having a stomach or even a mouth. However, if someone tries to touch her, she will feel like cold mist-- or worse, she’ll possess them.
! Possession: When someone touches her and she’s not ready for it, she can get sucked into their body, taking it over for a short time. She hates this and refuses to do it on principle, and has gotten relatively good at getting back out again quickly. Anyone she possesses is fully aware of what’s going on, and can communicate with her via their thoughts.
! Weakness to Light: Being out in daylight is uncomfortable for Jolie, making her feel weak and sluggish. When in shadow form, it’s actually painful and somewhat frightening. This makes her largely nocturnal, though if she’s inside or it’s cloudy out, she’ll brave it.
First Person Sample:
[After some fiddling, a blonde girl with green eyes only barely visible beneath the white glow coming from them shows up on the screen. Her expression is guarded, especially for someone who looks about fourteen-- but perhaps not so surprising given she also doesn’t look entirely human, with a couple ribbons of shadowy something curling over her back and into the frame of the camera.]
So. I would say this is a lot better than the last place I wound up at, at least with the technology stuff, but that’s not saying I like it or anything. I mean, look at this thing.
[She hauls an ancient-looking laptop out to show the tablet’s camera, briefly, before shoving it back into the backpack at her feet. The motion shows off more tentacles, coming straight out of her back.]
It’s a freaking dinosaur. At least whoever’s kidnapping people here knows what new stuff should look like.
[She looks a little uncertain, but she plows ahead, anyway.]
So uh. Where am I, exactly? That whole boat thing was pretty creepy, and reminded me of some stuff I’ve read, but I’m not really sure whether I should take that at face value or not. Especially since I never thought that kind of thing was real. And somebody cut up my hands, so I’d really kind of like to “thank” them for that. Since it’s not like I need my hands for anything important, or anything.
Third Person Sample:
The first thing Jolie felt, after leaving that stupid underground arcade in Bavan (or somewhere underneath Bavan, or in some alternate dimension that just happened to coincide with Bavan), was a sticky sort of pain. She tried to push herself up from where she’d (apparently?) fallen down, but it hurt, and she rolled over, instead, into a sitting position. She was ona a boat. Jolie didn’t remember a boat. Or a barge. Or something like that. And there was a lot of smooth water everywhere, smooth like glass almost except for the ripples the boat made.
She also didn’t remember her hands hurting, but she looked down, and her palms were definitely bleeding. Wincing, she wiped them on her jeans, ignoring the sting of the new cuts, not trusting the water in what might well be some other alternate dimension enough to dip her hands in. This wasn’t the first time she’d wound up somewhere, hurting for no reason she could remember, so she managed, for the moment, to just stay put, wrapping her arms and a couple tentacles around her backpack-- at least she had that, since her last water dip had left her with nothing at all!-- and trying to figure out how she got here. For the moment? She was going to blame one of the “gods” of the Ryslig peninsula. They’d done enough crazy stuff that transporting her from a creepy arcade to a creepy boat probably wasn’t much of a stretch, and she didn’t have any better options to blame just yet.
Except for maybe the guy poling the boat towards a rapidly nearing shore. “Uh, excuse me. Mister. Mister?” The boat bumped onto the shore, and she found herself being ushered away-- without any answers, or even an acknowledgement, and with weird jagged cuts in her hands. This was almost worse than Ryslig.
Shooting a glare at the now-retreating boatman, she shouted after him, “I will figure this out, you-- you kidnapping jerk!”
A tentacle shook at him (or her; it was hard to tell), like a menacing fist, but he ignored her, and she was left alone on the shore.
Marks:
M (for “murderer”) on the palm of her right hand, and V (for “victim”) on the palm of her left hand. When in shade form they glow green at the end of her arm-like appendages.
Name: Gail
Personal Journal: cacopheny
Time zone: PST
Contact: cacopheny @ gmail, throughoblivion
Current Characters: NA
|| Character Information ||
Fandom: Odd Thomas
Name: Jolie Ann Harmony
Canon Point: A year past the end of Odd Interlude, plus several months spent at Ryslig
History:
Even before things got crazy, Jolie’s life wasn’t exactly normal. She was part of a small, isolated community of generally good people on the Southern California coastline who ran a roadside inn and diner called Harmony Corner, after their family name, Harmony. All the children in the town, cousins and siblings all, were homeschooled, though they did have contact with others outside Harmony Corner now and then. Their education was rigorous, and not particularly limited, and full of essays that encouraged them to think.
Then, when she was seven, Norris Hiskott arrived, and everything went all to hell. At first, he just took a room at the inn, and stayed ensconced there for three days, never seeing anyone, only taking room service once it had been left just inside the door. At some point in the middle of the night, after that, he fled the inn and took over the largest house down the hillside in the village-- and from there, took over the town. Formerly a scientist in a top secret government project not far from the coast, he had injected himself with alien DNA which caused a severe physical and mental mutation, and give him the ability to split away part of his consciousness and possess other people. He could make them say or do whatever he wanted, and could change or erase memories at will.
The small family town became his playground, and the people in it, his slaves, from the oldest uncle to the youngest child. He never left the house he’d claimed, having become physically a monster, and instead lived through them, as what he called a sensorium: extensions of himself through which he could feel and see the outside world. He also used his power to protect himself, keeping those who brought him food and cleaned the house in the early years from describing what he’d become, sending away any who came into the town and grew suspicious with no memory of anything they’d seen, and capturing those who stayed who were alone to bring down to his house, to become meals or equally mutated guards and companions.
Jolie was just one of the couple dozen people who he routinely possessed, and made to do terrible things. The one she recalls most clearly, and with the most remorse, is when he made her hurt her cousin Maxy, a boy one year older than her, part of a ritual-like murder that the whole family took part in because, supposedly, Hiskott was jealous of how pretty the boy had become. Hers was the last hand to attack him and the one to kill him. She still feels guilt that it had been her hand, though she has been assured many times that it was Hiskott’s fault, not her own.
As she got older, though, she found that she was learning, in small ways, how to resist the possession-- not avoid it, or resist doing what he wanted with her body, but to mislead and protect the few things she held private. One of those things was her tears: she refused ever to cry when he had taken control of her. The other was more important: the underground network of tunnels that led, eventually, to one of the secret government projects at the abandoned Fort Wyvern. She discovered it at age twelve, prying open the powerless doors, finding a mummified alien (or something) at the last unopenable door, and discovering it as a space safe from Hiskott. That was what made it her special hiding place, and that was what made it dangerous. Still, whenever he searched her memories of it, all he found was someplace innocuous at the edge of Harmony Corner’s territory. Eventually, she learned to project those false memories intentionally, to throw off the scent of her safe place.
It was this growing ability, she theorized, that was really what made Hiskott kill Maxy, because as children, they were more adaptable, and he, too, had probably been learning how to protect himself. The theory was only confirmed when shortly before her thirteenth birthday, Hiskott, through members of her family, began angrily telling her how pretty she’d become. She expected any day that the ritual killing would happen to her, too, and she tried to prepare herself, to be ready, so that when it happened, she wouldn’t scream or beg, just tell her family how much she loved them and that she forgave them.
What happened instead, though, was that Odd Thomas arrived in Harmony Corner, and began investigating the strange mind that had tried and failed to enter his own. She rescued him from her own family trying to kill him, drawing him down into the tunnels where Hiskott couldn’t reach her, and explained the situation. He left to try and stop Hiskott, and she suddenly found herself faced with a door that opened of its own accord for the first time in the past six months. She went through, seeing no reason not to that could possibly be worse than what Hiskott did to them all, and the being inside introduced himself as Ed, a sophisticated and self-aware AI who knew what had happened to Hiskott and wanted to help.
Between Odd, Jolie, and Ed, Hiskott and his twisted minions were killed, and the house and its gross, unworldly contents were burned. Jolie never did see what Hiskott had become, and Odd never did tell her what he’d seen, but she had an imagination, and could certainly make guesses. Odd Thomas left, leaving her with the suggestion that she write down what had happened to her and her family, the way he wrote down what happened to him through his own adventures.
It’s been a year since then, enough time for the family to perhaps start to live more normally again, and to hope that their actual troubles are behind them, though they have all still been changed forever. You can’t live through five years of that without it. Jolie herself still misses Odd, but she has Ed as her disembodied friend still, even if he won’t let her into his core chambers beneath Harmony Corner again. She’s just finished writing out her story, at last, and is looking forward to starting a new project-- though she doesn’t know just what that might be yet.
Character Development and Relationship Transfer from previous RP:
A few days after her fourteenth birthday is when it happened: she found herself washed up on the shores of Vandare, a small town on the previously unheard-of Ryslig peninsula, with no idea how she got there and scratches all over her body that she didn’t remember getting. It was definitely freaky, especially when days turned into weeks and then months, and no one there could find a way home, but she kept it together and tried to keep her outlook positive-- at least until people started turning into monsters.
Her own changes were faster than some, and slower than others, though hers were painless compared to almost everyone else’s. They started with glowing eyes and telekinesis, on small things like pencils and paper clips, then expanded into turning on and off electronics when she was upset, and the six shadowy tentacles on her back. Then between one step and another, she lost her body and turned entirely into a being of shadow, and was trapped that way for almost two weeks before she finally managed to change back.
She’d experienced things since her arrival in Ryslig that shook not only her understanding of the universe-- magic apparently existed, as did creatures who claimed to be gods at war with each other-- but of herself. Possessing people by accident when in shadow form frightened her badly, since the only comparison she was able to draw being the one with her former slave-master Hiskott taking over her and her family, and resulted in the worst panic she’d experienced since she was small. Even worse, the event that finally snapped her out of shadow form was, as far as she’s concerned, murder, even if it was accidental (mostly): shades “eat” the souls of the living, rather than actual food, and her first feeding was unintentional but inevitable, leaving behind a man in a coma, with no soul to speak of. This need won’t be transferred into the Underworld, but that doesn’t mean she won’t live in dread of it happening again, and with the guilt of having done it to begin with.
Jolie did make a few friends while in Ryslig, though they were probably closer to a mix between allies and replacement family. Heather Mason was probably the closest, a girl turning slowly into a harpy, and she was friendly with Loki, Hiccup, and Dick Greyson’s version of Batman.
Personality:
Given everything she’s seen, lived through, been forced to do, and had living in her head, it’s not surprising that Jolie Harmony is older on the inside than she is on the outside. She’s been mentally and emotionally tormented, and spent several months preparing herself for expected physical torment, at the hands of her own otherwise-loving family and their alien-infused puppetmaster. It’s given her more maturity and a much tougher nature than your average fourteen year old girl. After all, she was the only thing keeping her mother sane and alive: she refused to give into despair or lose her self-control, because her mother more than once told her that it was only her astounding ability to cope that made her cope. Between that and her native stubbornness, not wanting to give Hiskott the satisfaction of ruining her life even more than he had so far, she learned to keep it together in terrible situations.
Her strange life has also given her some trouble with authority, after having no choice but to obey Hiskott for so long. Unless instructions come to her with explanations or phrased as a request, rather than an order, she gets irrationally angry, to the point of shaking, even when she’s well aware the order is because her parents are only thinking of what’s best for her or someone just doesn’t understand what they’re saying. Her usual recourse for that has always been escaping out to the ocean for a swim to cool herself down, but lacking that, shouting, indulging in an actual temper tantrum, or when even that isn’t feasible, angry sarcasm. If an order comes to her as a request, however, or with enough explanation that she can tell her own autonomy is being respected, she has no problems complying.
While Jolie is not particularly brilliant by nature, she is extremely well-educated for a fourteen year old, particularly when it comes to critical thinking skills. It was the only thing her parents could do in the face of Hiskott’s ownership of the town, whether to give their children something to fight with, or just as what little control they were afforded themselves to do with as they wished. That means she’s not too bad at putting things together to come up with logical solutions, and it also means she rarely takes things on faith. She needs proof, or at least something logical behind it, before she’ll believe. Her instincts are just as good as her thinking skills, she just hates to rely on them alone, so even when she feels like something may be good or bad, she has to reason out why she feels that way, as well. That also means she doesn’t take bullshit from anyone well, either-- and she’s pretty good at recognizing it.
On the whole, though, even her instincts tend to bend towards suspicion-- understandably, after the past several years of her life! It takes a lot to actually frighten her, though, and even when she is afraid, she’s learned how to shove it down, deal with it, and move on anyway. She can certainly feel it, but she refuses to let it rule her. She also won’t balk at admitting it, though she hates showing it, and often takes refuge in that same sarcasm that she deals with her anger through, as well.
Jolie is an active person, rather than a passive person. While she’s usually able to realize when there’s nothing she can do about a situation that won’t get her killed, and she is capable of asking for and accepting help when she knows she’s in that kind of situation, she’s not the sort to simply wait around for that help to come. She’ll instead do all that she can, in the meantime, to learn about and deal with any given situation she finds herself in. Even when she can’t find a “smart” choice, she’d still rather make a choice-- even if all the options are unpleasant, she’ll always choose the most interesting one, and the one she can predict the least. Then, even if she thinks it’s a bad choice, she might wind up surprised.
Skills | Powers:
All of these are gains from her time in Ryslig
! Telekinesis: Jolie can move small objects by will alone, though nothing larger than a typical hardback book. She may be able to lift larger objects with more practice, but she’s only been able to do it for a few months, and she’ll likely never manage anything up to her own weight, even with years of work.
! Electronics Disruption: Like a small walking EMP, Jolie turns off electronic devices when upset. This is not something she can do at will, though she can keep it from happening by keeping her emotions in check.
! Shadow Tentacles: Sprouting from her back are six shadowy ribbons, about two and a half feet long each but capable of stretching to four, that function like tentacles or prehensile tails. They do not disturb her clothing, passing right through it, and are intangible most of the time, but are capable of going solid to hold things, swat away unwelcome hands, and protect her head and shoulders.
! Shade Form: Jolie can turn into a walking shadow with glowing green eyes, very elastic in form. She can’t touch anything or anyone while in this form, relying only on her telekinesis if she must move something, and she doesn’t need to eat or drink, no longer having a stomach or even a mouth. However, if someone tries to touch her, she will feel like cold mist-- or worse, she’ll possess them.
! Possession: When someone touches her and she’s not ready for it, she can get sucked into their body, taking it over for a short time. She hates this and refuses to do it on principle, and has gotten relatively good at getting back out again quickly. Anyone she possesses is fully aware of what’s going on, and can communicate with her via their thoughts.
! Weakness to Light: Being out in daylight is uncomfortable for Jolie, making her feel weak and sluggish. When in shadow form, it’s actually painful and somewhat frightening. This makes her largely nocturnal, though if she’s inside or it’s cloudy out, she’ll brave it.
First Person Sample:
[After some fiddling, a blonde girl with green eyes only barely visible beneath the white glow coming from them shows up on the screen. Her expression is guarded, especially for someone who looks about fourteen-- but perhaps not so surprising given she also doesn’t look entirely human, with a couple ribbons of shadowy something curling over her back and into the frame of the camera.]
So. I would say this is a lot better than the last place I wound up at, at least with the technology stuff, but that’s not saying I like it or anything. I mean, look at this thing.
[She hauls an ancient-looking laptop out to show the tablet’s camera, briefly, before shoving it back into the backpack at her feet. The motion shows off more tentacles, coming straight out of her back.]
It’s a freaking dinosaur. At least whoever’s kidnapping people here knows what new stuff should look like.
[She looks a little uncertain, but she plows ahead, anyway.]
So uh. Where am I, exactly? That whole boat thing was pretty creepy, and reminded me of some stuff I’ve read, but I’m not really sure whether I should take that at face value or not. Especially since I never thought that kind of thing was real. And somebody cut up my hands, so I’d really kind of like to “thank” them for that. Since it’s not like I need my hands for anything important, or anything.
Third Person Sample:
The first thing Jolie felt, after leaving that stupid underground arcade in Bavan (or somewhere underneath Bavan, or in some alternate dimension that just happened to coincide with Bavan), was a sticky sort of pain. She tried to push herself up from where she’d (apparently?) fallen down, but it hurt, and she rolled over, instead, into a sitting position. She was ona a boat. Jolie didn’t remember a boat. Or a barge. Or something like that. And there was a lot of smooth water everywhere, smooth like glass almost except for the ripples the boat made.
She also didn’t remember her hands hurting, but she looked down, and her palms were definitely bleeding. Wincing, she wiped them on her jeans, ignoring the sting of the new cuts, not trusting the water in what might well be some other alternate dimension enough to dip her hands in. This wasn’t the first time she’d wound up somewhere, hurting for no reason she could remember, so she managed, for the moment, to just stay put, wrapping her arms and a couple tentacles around her backpack-- at least she had that, since her last water dip had left her with nothing at all!-- and trying to figure out how she got here. For the moment? She was going to blame one of the “gods” of the Ryslig peninsula. They’d done enough crazy stuff that transporting her from a creepy arcade to a creepy boat probably wasn’t much of a stretch, and she didn’t have any better options to blame just yet.
Except for maybe the guy poling the boat towards a rapidly nearing shore. “Uh, excuse me. Mister. Mister?” The boat bumped onto the shore, and she found herself being ushered away-- without any answers, or even an acknowledgement, and with weird jagged cuts in her hands. This was almost worse than Ryslig.
Shooting a glare at the now-retreating boatman, she shouted after him, “I will figure this out, you-- you kidnapping jerk!”
A tentacle shook at him (or her; it was hard to tell), like a menacing fist, but he ignored her, and she was left alone on the shore.
Marks:
M (for “murderer”) on the palm of her right hand, and V (for “victim”) on the palm of her left hand. When in shade form they glow green at the end of her arm-like appendages.
