Blackwhisker
02-04-07, 09:29 AM
Oh well gosh, new thingy.. anywho yes. Posties!
Uh.. hopefully this is formatted okies n not too hard to read, sorry if it is, I can fix it up if need be n such!
Name: Blackwhisker
Age: 15yrs
Race: Skuugra
Hair Color: -
Eye Color: Red
Height: 4'6 standing, 9ft nose to tail.
Personality: She's young, she's feisty and acts more like a human child (with some rather feral tendencies) than a human youth of the same age. But then she's not human, and her species takes longer to mature. She's ever curious about any and everything, not always in a good way though as she's inclined to try pulling new things apart or chewing on them to see what they taste like. She's personable, enjoying company as long as they don't presume to order her about over anything. She's a strong willed young thing who has very little interest of other's opinions of her, though in the presence of those she finds respect worthy she does try hard to impress and will occasionally actually take advice. Of course, usually it's after trying out the opposite thing first or at least taking time to really think it over and see if it's really what she wants.
She's inclined towards joking and teasing, though in a rather more nasty way than some would appreciate. She doesn't apologize even if she was in the wrong and she doesn't say please or thank you. You did it, well of course you did and why wouldn't you of? There's generally no thinking of anyone or thing as anything more than food or a source of food and really, she's yet to find much reason to think otherwise about all the big two footers. Doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy their company at times, just that well, if they all dropped dead it wouldn't be -too- big a loss as far as she's concerned.
Appearance:
Blackwhisker's an anthro seadragon of your Asian variety.
And we start at the top!
Standing about the height of your average ten year old child, the girl doesn't have much in the way of stature or ability to intimidate past the fact she's well, all scales, teeth and claws. Anyway, as a dragon and lacking the whole mammalian factor there's no -obvious- signs of her being female, well unless one knows the species. There's no dips or curves and she wont be getting any, this is a species that grows from eggs, no need for milk producing on these scales. Anyway. Reptilian head, with a short snout, upturned nostrils, wide maw with two primary canines poking over the edge of the lower lip and two rows of back facing needlepoint razor-sharp ivories within. The sides of her head jut out with three prongs of 'horns', thin fin ears running back from behind the shelf of the 'horns'. Above crimson eyes set wolfishly into her skull is a hard ridge that follows along with the alignment of the top 'horns' of the three to the sides of her head. Her forehead banks at a sharp angle into a half grown blunted horn sweeping back over her head. Last are two little black whiskers sprouting from her muzzle, one each side just before her nostrils, the cause of her namesake.
Then we have a long body with long arms and legs of about the same length, legs being considerably more stocky as they need to be able to support her on both twos and fours. Long arms end in slender dexterous webbed digits with small fish blade claws on the end, three fingers and a thumb per hand. Each foot following similarly, though more distinctly solid with the toes not nearly so malleable, also the 'thumb' dewclaw holds much higher up the leg. Out behind her flows a tail that runs almost as long as she is tall when standing on her feet, solid muscle, scale and bone it ends in a three pronged fin in the flat manner of a whale/dolphin as apposed to the upright of your typical fish. Strong and flexible it packs a fair sized wallop when put to such uses. Her entire body and tail is covered in heavy scale plating, evolved for optimum movement while swimming. Colouring follows as thus; muddied grey/blue for her entirety but for bone yellow/white over her short muzzle, lower half of her face, down her neck, chest, belly and underside until her tail fin, the inners of her earfins and the webbing between toes and fingers.
History:
Blackwhisker's got a bit of an odd history and one that starts before she hatched. The Skuugra are an amphibious race who spend the majority of their time in the more dangerous waters near islands or coastlines where boats can not travel without high risk of sinkage to their vessels (not that the Skuugra improve chances of survival).
A warrior race with a strong disdain for others, they're not exactly the most socialable of creatures outside of their own kind and even with their own they're more what most would deem 'brutes' or at least bullies. There isn't a strong sense of care for one Skuugra to another, be it siblings, mates or children. A Skuugra lives it's own life, possibly has a mate, clan brothers and sisters, but always first will their own situation come first. Groups come together because it is advantageous to the individuals within, not because they care for each other or require good company.
Anyway, just like the rest of her kind, Blackwhisker's young mother had put up with the short weeks of gestation before mating, taken a mate in the typical aggressive violent manner of their kind, split apart and gone to lay her eggs a week later in one of the many isolated inlets near to where the main colony was situated. Bad timing, bad weather and bad choices by an inexperienced mother meant the inlet was flooded and the young unhatched Skuugra drifted free of their safe mooring. Among them Blackwhisker's own unformed self.
So the egg went for a journey, down to the deep, back up to the shallows and floating along the coast. Somehow managing not to be eaten by any number of seacreatures that would be more than pleased to devour such a tasty snack or be caught by those fishermen adventurous enough to go trawling so close to Skuugra territory.
It was some time later that the egg managed to wash upon a shore and to be found by unknowing eyes and hands. (Skuugra breeding practices are things only practiced deep under the water and the young are never seen by landwalkers, or even most water creatures as they remain in small concentrations close to adult colonies in the places the adults can no longer access. Skuugra eggs are something never seen by any but other Skuugra and those watercreatures that eat them.) A very strange oddity, the length of the human's forearm with a distinct curl to the encasement (think like shark eggs) and with a shiny metallic blue colouring they thought it to be some strange foreign treasure from one of the unknown seafolk. A treasure that could bring them much money and riches should they sell it to someone stupid enough to part with the money and risk the curses that it could be given for taking something from the sea. Of course, the man himself could possibly be imparted with such curses but he figured they would only linger on those who continued to hold the property and was much endeared towards the idea of riches he'd had no chance of getting his hands on up until this point of his life.
So the odd 'treasure' managed to get passed between hands, more than once, repeatedly even, as it found it's way all over the place, including over the seas a time or two. Kept beyond the glance of most there weren't any who came into a position to realize there was actually life inside the treasure that was growing and as it didn't manage to stay in anyone's hands longer than some weeks it wasn’t noticed that it was growing.
It was one lucky couple that decided on keeping the strange 'treasure' that got to have the surprise of finding what it really was. Such a lovely oddity it was, from some strange unknown place obviously, the treasure of a long dead king of great renown, not that there was any name to give now or to prove that this was the truth. Either way it did not matter, the wife enjoyed the way the treasure gleamed when put under different lighting, the husband just liked it as something new and different to show off, the likes of which none of his 'friends' had or seen themselves.
Can't say either was very impressed when one morning a maidservant came into the room the treasure was kept in to find it shattered upon the ground in a pool of goop with well, the rest of the room trashed with strange claw and teeth marks all over the place. Furniture was broken, blinds and carpet shredded, antiques smashed, bent and misshapen. It looked almost like when the wife had allowed her high strung lapdogs loose in their bedroom while there was a festival in the streets beyond.. but this was worse, dogs didn't do this much damage, even frightened hunting dogs. But it must of been an animal because there were teeth and claws marks everywhere and the window was broken. The fact they could find no one to accurately state -what- animal it was that made the mess didn't help matters.
Over the next few weeks there were some strange comments from people of the large estate, something growling in the ponds or by the stream, small birds disappearing, less mice in certain areas where the cats would no longer go. It was all very odd and then there were suddenly, just as quickly no longer any more comments of that nature.
Of course there's reason behind all of this.
Blackwhisker had hatched, found herself in a strange environment with nothing to eat and had promptly gone about -looking- for food. To no avail. That is until she saw movement out the window and not realizing it -was- a window had promptly launched herself after it. A smash and crash startled her out of interest in the bird for about two seconds then she was off after the movement until she'd grabbed the thing and promptly devoured it feathers and all. Not the most appetizing thing but she was hungry and she was quickly after another one. She wasn't nearly so lucky the next few times and after a few more failures her other natural desire to find water pulled itself to attention and off she went in search of such things.
So for a couple of weeks time passed in which she wandered around, hunting small vermin of the feathered and furred varieties, scared away cats and commoners who didn't recognize the strange hissing and growling sounds emitted from those areas she resided in and splashed about the few sources of water she found. That is until she splashed into the wrong water source and found herself trapped in a barrel being loaded for elsewhere.
Three weeks in a barrel was not much fun what so ever, though at least it was a barrel filled with the local delicacy, if you could call it that. Some sort of cured meat that she utterly gorged herself on within the first couple of days. To which she felt bloated and uncomfortable and promptly went about shedding her third set of scales. Not the best place to do such a thing but there wasn't much choice in the matter. And this'd be why the last few days were utter torment. Not just having to put up with a tiny confined space, but one that contained so many kinds of horrible shed body stuff that she was sitting cramped in her own filth with unhealthy scales that hadn't been able to dry and harden properly in fresh air. Blackwhisker was most definitely -not- a happy camper when someone finally got hold of the barrel and went about opening it.
It was much hissing, growling, claws and teeth that a very surprised inn keeper found himself dealing with when taking the lid off the barrel that'd been giving him some very odd sounds the past hour after unloading it from the passing merchant. An explosion of frustration was released as the young Skuugra found herself in a wide world once more with fresh air and it all could be damned if she was going to be shoved back into the dark again. So she scrambled and fought to be free of any contact with anything until there was no resistance then she was off like a bolt as fast as she could to a wider freedom.
Lucky for her the inn her barrel had been bartered to was merely a stop over upon a reasonably busy trade route and there wasn't a village to contend with once free of her previous confinement. Also on her side was the fact that her kind had been bred to a harsh lifestyle where well, the young are left to their own devices, to die at the hands of the world, each other and their elders, so being put out here on her own wasn't such a horrible reality, even being only near on three months old. Of course, things weren't quite the proper set up it was supposed to be. Had she been hatched in the right place she'd have brothers and sisters to not just fight with, but to gain protection and a proper sense of who she was supposed to be with from. Ah well.
Anyways, back to history.
So we get some time forest hunting and surviving.. being drawn towards a large water source ever constantly. Not that she realizes it of the time, only finding that she can't seem to stay in one spot too long without something inside her wanting her to move onwards to somewhere else. So seeing no real problems with this, it's what she does.
Things are going fine, she's actually managing to catch and kill things, find shelter when it's needed (not that that's often), avoiding things that want to kill her, mostly out of confusion or anger as apposed to seeing a meal, the Skuugra is a -very- strange thing for a forest creature to come across and there's just something about her that puts most animals off wanting to come near. Anyways, she's going on, living quite happily, finding the occasional pond or small stream to splash around in until it comes to a time when she stumbles upon a group of people.
Now there's a curio she hadn't come across for for some months, not since she fell into that barrel and got trapped in it and the memories before then are more fuzzy than anything else so she sits back and watches for a bit. This doesn't last too long as they're camped and just about to make food.. the smell that accosts her nostrils sends her in a spin and without any thought to the bigger creatures she goes diving into the middle of the camp straight for the boiling pot of dried out meatstuffs. It's with much surprise to those around the campsite that they find themselves in the company of the little feral dragon thing. Really, they're experienced well.. whatever they were, 'adventurers' one would assume and something Blackwhisker's size isn't that threatening, not when you can see it's main weaponry are teeth and claws and well, they're carrying daggers scarier than the size of the pointy sharps she's got. More than one of them is tempted to just kill the strange beast when one decides, nah, he wants a pet and attempts to go about collaring her while she's distracted with the foodstuff.
Now that's an interesting experience, both for the man in question and Blackwhisker herself. She doesn't notice the noose at first and merely gives the human the occasional wary glance as she continues to tear into the meat bits she's chewing down. Then she's done and trying to get away.. and can't. There'd been some good natured laughing between the companions over the whole matter, even after having lost a portion of their meal, that is until the Skuugra goes utterly ballistic trying to get herself free. Then it's time to back off from it as far away as the thing can reach. With teeth, claws and tail lashing out in all directions and she's damned vicious. It's over an hour before she's calmed down, in which time there's been more than one attempt to knock her out, but it's like trying to get a better protected cat, she doesn't stay put long enough and doesn't move in predictable enough movements to be laid out. So they just let her wear herself out and move anything worth worrying about out of her range of fire. Worn out she finally goes to sleep.
Amazingly she doesn't repeat the wildness, not to the same extent again in trying to escape and the man finds himself a 'pet' over the next few days and then weeks. Of course this is brought out with bribery more than anything else. The man quickly finds that his new found pet is very easily encouraged by food and is quicker to pick up on what to or not to do than a dog. Blackwhisker herself doesn't find the entire situation disagreeable, it's a new experience and easy access food, even if she's not allowed to steal and or gorge on the supplies the bigger humans carry about with them. She even loses the leash, not inclined to stay away though she does test the bounds with disappearing for longer periods at a time, but she's always back right on the dot for when food should be ready.
Things change with the fact she's growing and once more needs to shed and it's no manner of persuasion that will convince her to move on, not even food. Which makes her human worry as not even once has it been that she could not be convinced to do something with the temptation of food on offer. She's also more irritable than usual and snaps when he gets too close. Well, he can't just leave her there and he has places to be, his companions aren't going to wait just because his 'pet's' having a hissy fit.. so he picks her up (with much protests on her behalf and what would of been much more pain on his if he hadn't bothered with gauntlets and borrowing some leather wraps for his arms) and carries her, more than a little surprised at just how heavy the little beast is. There's more worry as she seems to start falling apart over the next couple of days, large plates of her scaly hide coming off in his hold to unveil much softer scale underneath. It's only when she's near on bare of hard scale and the soft ones underneath are starting to harden that he starts to realize what's happening. The lil thing is growing and obviously with a hide that doesn't stretch like fur or skin she needs to shed the last one. Ha, odd thing. Well at least after this he realizes what's happening and can deal with it the next time.
Sooo time passes, our 'adventurer' group goes on this or that adventure, with Blackwhisker playing her own occasional part though really, she doesn't care for most of the humans and what not that come and go. Some are fun to tease and hassle, others just to scare at times.. but for the most part there's very little care. She likes 'her' human, he feeds her, he's nice when she's shedding and actually takes time to consider if it's a problem for her, not a favour she returns all that often, but then she's young and it's a species trait.
Months turn to years and she gains size and weight to the point where well, it's not fun carrying her for any length of time, even for the considerably large human she's got as her own and she continues to remain very much a 'dog' sort of companion.. even if she is considerably smarter than a dog, has a mind more like a cat, seems to miss the point on some things and is considerably nasty to certain things and people. She also becomes quite adept at killing larger prey and other people's -actual- dogs are best kept away. Not all places are overly accepting of the strange reptilian creature with it's leery gaze, sharp teeth and claws and little respect for anyone. Her human attempts to keep her in check but really, he's only one man and can only do so much with a creature as willful as she is. More than once they're forced to leave through actions of Blackwhisker's that if they'd stayed would call for her death, after all, she's just a beast isn't she?
More years pass and the human gets tired of his 'adventuring' and wants to settle. He's tried to find a companion over these years and previous but well.. no one ever seems to of fit very well. And well, he's sort of got a child in the strange beastie doesn't he? Smarter than a dog and all, not really as loyal, a mind of her own.. sorta like a willful child. Kind of scaly and with a taste for raw flesh, but well, not every son can be what you dreamed them to be.
So a small home to the outskirts of a village with a river running along the backways is a settlement where for the first time Blackwhisker finds herself settled in one place without all the wandering usually required. An odd occurrence she remains undecided about. Well, at least this time she has chance of wandering around and discovering everything that's about properly in the one area.. and she does. Including every little aspect of the river for some miles each direction and back again. The village folk aren't all that happy with the strange big man and his 'pet' who have set up residence but there's really not too much they can do about it. He's a willing honest worker and he comes to act as the smithy the village hadn't had until that point, so even if his monster pet is an abomination well, they need the steelworker and they'll just make do. Plus, no one's actually seen the monster steal a child yet.
It's here over the next two years that Blackwhisker's human -does- find himself a companion, one the Skuugra takes some time to get used to. Really, sharing her human's attention so evidently is an odd experience and for the first real time she finds herself jealous and exceedingly disagreeable with her human, to the point she thinks maybe she doesn't want him anymore. Something she haltingly goes about telling him!
Now that's a slap in the face that gets his attention. More than once previously he'd thought the strange hissing sounds his 'pet' made were words.. but he'd always taken it as a personal fancy as apposed to reality, but here she was quite obviously saying no, she did not like the human female that took all his time. Sure, she lacked the vocabulary to expand further on the few words she was saying at this point, but there was meaning and knowing in the sound of the words and the look in her eyes. This -wasn't- some dumb pet anymore.
Well now there's actual arguing between the two and though she's considerably smaller the young Skuugra makes her presence and her will quite well known. Finally there's agreement come upon, well, after the shock passes and what not, and Blackwhisker finds herself sharing her human with another. Not exactly what she wanted, but she realizes there's less fuss if she just agrees to him being allowed to have her, he doesn't grumble and complain for lack of company then, and she gets him for other things at set times. Which is fine, as really, she didn't want him around her all the time, she has her own things she likes doing and to be perfectly honest, he's a horrible swimmer. The human woman herself isn't quite as pleased with the arrangement, and once she realizes the 'pet' can talk and actually has some mind of it's own, she's really not that happy with it having been there during nightly visits. Oh well, nothing to do about it now and well, as Blackwhisker’s own human finds such matters uncomfortable now too, she goes about making herself scarce until the noise is nothing more than the sounds of sleep and comes back in again at that point to sleep in the home again.
So it's discovered that Blackwhisker isn't quite just your average beast thing, there's more to her than that, not that her human hadn't been thinking that anyway. But now he had proof, so with encouragement and practice she learnt to hold conversation, and another thing he learnt, with her build she could actually stand and walk on two legs as apposed to four.. He'd always thought it a little odd her front and back sets where such contrasts and that her front 'feet' had the ability to grasp so well. So Blackwhisker learnt to walk too. Of course this was all done in private with only her human's mate's knowledge of what was happening.. really, the village wouldn't of approved of a beast being treated like a man, especially one so -obviously- a beast as the Skuugra.
Now to the fun part!
So time's happy for a bit, Blackwhisker's near on the size of a healthy 10year old child when standing upright, her human and his mate have a yearling child and for the most part things are fine. Sure, chickens disappear now and then and every couple of months the village puts protest for the smithy's pet wandering around the village outskirts on it's own. But otherwise all's good, if a bit dull.
Then we have some less savory sorts come along from the gods know where. They avoid the village for the most part, all they want is the weaponsmith, get him to fix their things and to move on with their journeying to where ever it is they need to go. Blackwhisker's human isn't too impressed about being awoken in the middle of the night by a bunch of no good ruffians as he sees this group of unknowns and promptly states he's not up for business at such a time and to come back in the morning. This doesn't go over well with the group who for whatever reason that's their own don't really feel like hanging around that long, they want their business done and dealt with now and if they have to bully the smithy into doing it then they will. It doesn't seem that the men had listened to the few villagers they had passed had told them the smithy had a pet dragon and barging in and finding merely the half dressed smithy, a wife and small child, well they saw opportunity to exploit and get what they wanted for much less than originally planned.
Now Blackwhisker's human was no push over, but when it came to his new family, well, there wasn't really any metal worth keeping over their safety. So he gave in and did as they asked, something in the back of his mind glad that his 'pet' wasn't in the small home at the time, having not come back yet since being kicked out earlier in the eve.
Somehow things get out of hand and suddenly there's lives in danger of being harmed and there doesn't seem like there's anything that can be done about it to reverse the situation.
At this time Blackwhisker's coming back and it's the strange noises and lots of light that catch her attention, that's not right. So she goes skulking up to the entrance, expecting to just scare some careless villages and instead finds her human, his mate and offspring in various states of defilement and she just goes off her head. The men are caught off guard, they hadn't believed the villages and when a small 'dragon' suddenly casts itself into their midst, two are down before they know what's happening and a third is grappling with a creature all scales, teeth and claws and heavier than he is. Her human, not yet down and out takes the chance to fight back and protect his mate, even if it is too late to truly save her.
The fight is hectic and over nearly as soon as it's started, so many things happening on chance and accident that in the end the only one left standing in any sort of reasonable state is Blackwhisker. Seeing red and little else it's some time before she even realizes the danger is over, that there's no longer anything to fight and by that time the wound her human had sustained in the scramble has nearly killed him. Seeing her human in such a state, one she'd seen many in before she gets her first real feeling of unease about a human. Here's someone she cares about, well, as much as her kind -can- care for another about to die and she can do nothing for them. Moving over to him she tries to gain her own comfort more than give it as she comes to his side and remains close for those last few moments of life before he's dead.
The death, the meat spread out before her.. it's tempting and she makes a meal of parts of those men who'd killed her own humans, but she doesn't touch hers. They're special and for the first time she passes on the chance to eat freshly killed meat. Something that had she not been living with humans for so long she would of had no problem with.
It's the early hours when a voice awakens her from the stupor that'd come over her after a full stomach and hard exercise. A voice screeching and carrying on to the point it's sending pain into her head. As more voices join the chorus Blackwhisker finally pulls herself together just in time to have sharp implements jabbed in her face. Seems the villagers have come, seen the death and destruction, the fact that half the men are missing body parts with perfectly sized goring to her teeth and claws upon them to validate their assumption that the beast has gone crazy and killed it's humans and those that had come calling. And as, well, no sane villager wants a monster like that in their midst, they're out to gut her. The problem is, after seeing -that- much death and assuming she'd done it all, they're all too scared to do much more than just throw things. So while annoying they're not much of a threat with her natural plate armouring as they try to drive her away. Still, this is not a situation she wants to be in and with little reluctance she takes herself away, far away, as far as she's able to go and keeps going. Letting her own desire, the one she's buried the last peaceful years somewhere deep inside her to once more come out. To find that something that's drawing her ever onwards.
Skills:
Water Find: Basic level water magery, it doesn't matter where she is or the distance it's at, Blackwhisker -will- find the nearest water source as it tugs at something inside of her. Main problem so far being that she's yet to be able to distinguish between a river and a stream, a pond and a waterbag, so just because she's drawn to it doesn't mean it's anything impressive or that it's really the one she should be following.
Aqua Play: Basic level water magery. With idle thoughts and/or limb waving Blackwhisker's able to manipulate small amounts of water at a time into shapes and different things as she pleases as long as there's water already there and she has a clear mind for it at the time. A skill found from just playing about in the water that she's not figured to use for anything serious or that could be used for anything other than play.
Swiftswim: An amphibious creature, Blackwhisker swims better than she runs and there are few who are as fast or agile as her in the water, makes catching fish and other things with one's bare hands much easier and whatnot.
Long breath: Being a water type that well, is -supposed- to spend most of her life in the water, Blackwhisker can hold her breath for hours at a time, though she doesn't have the patience to actually achieve this at the moment as it requires complete stillness. At best she can last a couple of hours at a leisurely pace, but it's usually more like an hour of fast activity and back up for air again.
Sink or Swim: Due to a practical function of her anatomy Blackwhisker is able to filter water into her body, cause a chemical reaction and draw out the right bits from it to fill sections inside of her form that can be lightened to cause buoyancy or the reverse, to filter out those bits of lighter gas through miniscule holes between the plating of her scales and to sink once more.
Steelplate Scales: Skuugra are built to fight and fight aggressively, thusly their own scales have grown to a point where it's like they've grown their own plate armouring. Being essentially an infant still as far as the Skuugra are concerned Blackwhisker's own scales aren't to the point where they'll blunt a good sword. But it's still enough to keep your basic metalwork weapons from slicing parts of her off, giving her good sized dents and even cracks when put under enough stress just like real smithed armour would of decent quality. This is an ability that loses it's effect in the two weeks up to and after her shedding and growing new scales. Age will improve this ability, but only gradually and over many years.
Grapple: Blackwhisker is flexible, despite the scales and she's got considerable movement. One of her main ways of attacking/killing something is to jump on it and crush it with her body/limbs/tail in a not so friendly embrace.
Fine Claws: Long thin fingers with fishknife claws mean they're perfect for fine work, even if there is fine webbing between them. Through much practice Blackwhisker is exceedingly adept at gutting, skinning and deboning fish, rodents, birds and other small creatures. Well, the more common ones anyway. Still, put down a freshly killed something and as long as she has the time and is not busy or needing to be somewhere she will sit down and neatly pull the thing apart with as little mess or fuss as possible and eat the more desirable bits before burying the rest. If it's something she's not had contact with before she'll make a go of it using the skills she already knows and adjust as necessary, making the second time easier and the third and those after a breeze.
Sharp Teeth: Well.. dunno if this counts as a skill. Like most of these it's more a species trait than anything else. But think of a shark and how their teeth keep coming through. Skuugra have a similar thing though it's only usually two coming through at a time as apposed to a multitude. Essentially means that teeth tend to break off or come out at different times and there's new ones to replace them.
Equipment: She's a water dragon, she doesn't carry anything as well, she doesn't see the value in any of it.
~Um, I've no idea which area to set this in, so if there's like a most likely place that'd be nice to know. N um, do I need more for like the species definition sort of thing or is that fine? N last! Sorry for making you read so much, I have a habit of overdoing character histories and whatnot ^^;
Anywho, thankies for your time!
Uh.. hopefully this is formatted okies n not too hard to read, sorry if it is, I can fix it up if need be n such!
Name: Blackwhisker
Age: 15yrs
Race: Skuugra
Hair Color: -
Eye Color: Red
Height: 4'6 standing, 9ft nose to tail.
Personality: She's young, she's feisty and acts more like a human child (with some rather feral tendencies) than a human youth of the same age. But then she's not human, and her species takes longer to mature. She's ever curious about any and everything, not always in a good way though as she's inclined to try pulling new things apart or chewing on them to see what they taste like. She's personable, enjoying company as long as they don't presume to order her about over anything. She's a strong willed young thing who has very little interest of other's opinions of her, though in the presence of those she finds respect worthy she does try hard to impress and will occasionally actually take advice. Of course, usually it's after trying out the opposite thing first or at least taking time to really think it over and see if it's really what she wants.
She's inclined towards joking and teasing, though in a rather more nasty way than some would appreciate. She doesn't apologize even if she was in the wrong and she doesn't say please or thank you. You did it, well of course you did and why wouldn't you of? There's generally no thinking of anyone or thing as anything more than food or a source of food and really, she's yet to find much reason to think otherwise about all the big two footers. Doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy their company at times, just that well, if they all dropped dead it wouldn't be -too- big a loss as far as she's concerned.
Appearance:
Blackwhisker's an anthro seadragon of your Asian variety.
And we start at the top!
Standing about the height of your average ten year old child, the girl doesn't have much in the way of stature or ability to intimidate past the fact she's well, all scales, teeth and claws. Anyway, as a dragon and lacking the whole mammalian factor there's no -obvious- signs of her being female, well unless one knows the species. There's no dips or curves and she wont be getting any, this is a species that grows from eggs, no need for milk producing on these scales. Anyway. Reptilian head, with a short snout, upturned nostrils, wide maw with two primary canines poking over the edge of the lower lip and two rows of back facing needlepoint razor-sharp ivories within. The sides of her head jut out with three prongs of 'horns', thin fin ears running back from behind the shelf of the 'horns'. Above crimson eyes set wolfishly into her skull is a hard ridge that follows along with the alignment of the top 'horns' of the three to the sides of her head. Her forehead banks at a sharp angle into a half grown blunted horn sweeping back over her head. Last are two little black whiskers sprouting from her muzzle, one each side just before her nostrils, the cause of her namesake.
Then we have a long body with long arms and legs of about the same length, legs being considerably more stocky as they need to be able to support her on both twos and fours. Long arms end in slender dexterous webbed digits with small fish blade claws on the end, three fingers and a thumb per hand. Each foot following similarly, though more distinctly solid with the toes not nearly so malleable, also the 'thumb' dewclaw holds much higher up the leg. Out behind her flows a tail that runs almost as long as she is tall when standing on her feet, solid muscle, scale and bone it ends in a three pronged fin in the flat manner of a whale/dolphin as apposed to the upright of your typical fish. Strong and flexible it packs a fair sized wallop when put to such uses. Her entire body and tail is covered in heavy scale plating, evolved for optimum movement while swimming. Colouring follows as thus; muddied grey/blue for her entirety but for bone yellow/white over her short muzzle, lower half of her face, down her neck, chest, belly and underside until her tail fin, the inners of her earfins and the webbing between toes and fingers.
History:
Blackwhisker's got a bit of an odd history and one that starts before she hatched. The Skuugra are an amphibious race who spend the majority of their time in the more dangerous waters near islands or coastlines where boats can not travel without high risk of sinkage to their vessels (not that the Skuugra improve chances of survival).
A warrior race with a strong disdain for others, they're not exactly the most socialable of creatures outside of their own kind and even with their own they're more what most would deem 'brutes' or at least bullies. There isn't a strong sense of care for one Skuugra to another, be it siblings, mates or children. A Skuugra lives it's own life, possibly has a mate, clan brothers and sisters, but always first will their own situation come first. Groups come together because it is advantageous to the individuals within, not because they care for each other or require good company.
Anyway, just like the rest of her kind, Blackwhisker's young mother had put up with the short weeks of gestation before mating, taken a mate in the typical aggressive violent manner of their kind, split apart and gone to lay her eggs a week later in one of the many isolated inlets near to where the main colony was situated. Bad timing, bad weather and bad choices by an inexperienced mother meant the inlet was flooded and the young unhatched Skuugra drifted free of their safe mooring. Among them Blackwhisker's own unformed self.
So the egg went for a journey, down to the deep, back up to the shallows and floating along the coast. Somehow managing not to be eaten by any number of seacreatures that would be more than pleased to devour such a tasty snack or be caught by those fishermen adventurous enough to go trawling so close to Skuugra territory.
It was some time later that the egg managed to wash upon a shore and to be found by unknowing eyes and hands. (Skuugra breeding practices are things only practiced deep under the water and the young are never seen by landwalkers, or even most water creatures as they remain in small concentrations close to adult colonies in the places the adults can no longer access. Skuugra eggs are something never seen by any but other Skuugra and those watercreatures that eat them.) A very strange oddity, the length of the human's forearm with a distinct curl to the encasement (think like shark eggs) and with a shiny metallic blue colouring they thought it to be some strange foreign treasure from one of the unknown seafolk. A treasure that could bring them much money and riches should they sell it to someone stupid enough to part with the money and risk the curses that it could be given for taking something from the sea. Of course, the man himself could possibly be imparted with such curses but he figured they would only linger on those who continued to hold the property and was much endeared towards the idea of riches he'd had no chance of getting his hands on up until this point of his life.
So the odd 'treasure' managed to get passed between hands, more than once, repeatedly even, as it found it's way all over the place, including over the seas a time or two. Kept beyond the glance of most there weren't any who came into a position to realize there was actually life inside the treasure that was growing and as it didn't manage to stay in anyone's hands longer than some weeks it wasn’t noticed that it was growing.
It was one lucky couple that decided on keeping the strange 'treasure' that got to have the surprise of finding what it really was. Such a lovely oddity it was, from some strange unknown place obviously, the treasure of a long dead king of great renown, not that there was any name to give now or to prove that this was the truth. Either way it did not matter, the wife enjoyed the way the treasure gleamed when put under different lighting, the husband just liked it as something new and different to show off, the likes of which none of his 'friends' had or seen themselves.
Can't say either was very impressed when one morning a maidservant came into the room the treasure was kept in to find it shattered upon the ground in a pool of goop with well, the rest of the room trashed with strange claw and teeth marks all over the place. Furniture was broken, blinds and carpet shredded, antiques smashed, bent and misshapen. It looked almost like when the wife had allowed her high strung lapdogs loose in their bedroom while there was a festival in the streets beyond.. but this was worse, dogs didn't do this much damage, even frightened hunting dogs. But it must of been an animal because there were teeth and claws marks everywhere and the window was broken. The fact they could find no one to accurately state -what- animal it was that made the mess didn't help matters.
Over the next few weeks there were some strange comments from people of the large estate, something growling in the ponds or by the stream, small birds disappearing, less mice in certain areas where the cats would no longer go. It was all very odd and then there were suddenly, just as quickly no longer any more comments of that nature.
Of course there's reason behind all of this.
Blackwhisker had hatched, found herself in a strange environment with nothing to eat and had promptly gone about -looking- for food. To no avail. That is until she saw movement out the window and not realizing it -was- a window had promptly launched herself after it. A smash and crash startled her out of interest in the bird for about two seconds then she was off after the movement until she'd grabbed the thing and promptly devoured it feathers and all. Not the most appetizing thing but she was hungry and she was quickly after another one. She wasn't nearly so lucky the next few times and after a few more failures her other natural desire to find water pulled itself to attention and off she went in search of such things.
So for a couple of weeks time passed in which she wandered around, hunting small vermin of the feathered and furred varieties, scared away cats and commoners who didn't recognize the strange hissing and growling sounds emitted from those areas she resided in and splashed about the few sources of water she found. That is until she splashed into the wrong water source and found herself trapped in a barrel being loaded for elsewhere.
Three weeks in a barrel was not much fun what so ever, though at least it was a barrel filled with the local delicacy, if you could call it that. Some sort of cured meat that she utterly gorged herself on within the first couple of days. To which she felt bloated and uncomfortable and promptly went about shedding her third set of scales. Not the best place to do such a thing but there wasn't much choice in the matter. And this'd be why the last few days were utter torment. Not just having to put up with a tiny confined space, but one that contained so many kinds of horrible shed body stuff that she was sitting cramped in her own filth with unhealthy scales that hadn't been able to dry and harden properly in fresh air. Blackwhisker was most definitely -not- a happy camper when someone finally got hold of the barrel and went about opening it.
It was much hissing, growling, claws and teeth that a very surprised inn keeper found himself dealing with when taking the lid off the barrel that'd been giving him some very odd sounds the past hour after unloading it from the passing merchant. An explosion of frustration was released as the young Skuugra found herself in a wide world once more with fresh air and it all could be damned if she was going to be shoved back into the dark again. So she scrambled and fought to be free of any contact with anything until there was no resistance then she was off like a bolt as fast as she could to a wider freedom.
Lucky for her the inn her barrel had been bartered to was merely a stop over upon a reasonably busy trade route and there wasn't a village to contend with once free of her previous confinement. Also on her side was the fact that her kind had been bred to a harsh lifestyle where well, the young are left to their own devices, to die at the hands of the world, each other and their elders, so being put out here on her own wasn't such a horrible reality, even being only near on three months old. Of course, things weren't quite the proper set up it was supposed to be. Had she been hatched in the right place she'd have brothers and sisters to not just fight with, but to gain protection and a proper sense of who she was supposed to be with from. Ah well.
Anyways, back to history.
So we get some time forest hunting and surviving.. being drawn towards a large water source ever constantly. Not that she realizes it of the time, only finding that she can't seem to stay in one spot too long without something inside her wanting her to move onwards to somewhere else. So seeing no real problems with this, it's what she does.
Things are going fine, she's actually managing to catch and kill things, find shelter when it's needed (not that that's often), avoiding things that want to kill her, mostly out of confusion or anger as apposed to seeing a meal, the Skuugra is a -very- strange thing for a forest creature to come across and there's just something about her that puts most animals off wanting to come near. Anyways, she's going on, living quite happily, finding the occasional pond or small stream to splash around in until it comes to a time when she stumbles upon a group of people.
Now there's a curio she hadn't come across for for some months, not since she fell into that barrel and got trapped in it and the memories before then are more fuzzy than anything else so she sits back and watches for a bit. This doesn't last too long as they're camped and just about to make food.. the smell that accosts her nostrils sends her in a spin and without any thought to the bigger creatures she goes diving into the middle of the camp straight for the boiling pot of dried out meatstuffs. It's with much surprise to those around the campsite that they find themselves in the company of the little feral dragon thing. Really, they're experienced well.. whatever they were, 'adventurers' one would assume and something Blackwhisker's size isn't that threatening, not when you can see it's main weaponry are teeth and claws and well, they're carrying daggers scarier than the size of the pointy sharps she's got. More than one of them is tempted to just kill the strange beast when one decides, nah, he wants a pet and attempts to go about collaring her while she's distracted with the foodstuff.
Now that's an interesting experience, both for the man in question and Blackwhisker herself. She doesn't notice the noose at first and merely gives the human the occasional wary glance as she continues to tear into the meat bits she's chewing down. Then she's done and trying to get away.. and can't. There'd been some good natured laughing between the companions over the whole matter, even after having lost a portion of their meal, that is until the Skuugra goes utterly ballistic trying to get herself free. Then it's time to back off from it as far away as the thing can reach. With teeth, claws and tail lashing out in all directions and she's damned vicious. It's over an hour before she's calmed down, in which time there's been more than one attempt to knock her out, but it's like trying to get a better protected cat, she doesn't stay put long enough and doesn't move in predictable enough movements to be laid out. So they just let her wear herself out and move anything worth worrying about out of her range of fire. Worn out she finally goes to sleep.
Amazingly she doesn't repeat the wildness, not to the same extent again in trying to escape and the man finds himself a 'pet' over the next few days and then weeks. Of course this is brought out with bribery more than anything else. The man quickly finds that his new found pet is very easily encouraged by food and is quicker to pick up on what to or not to do than a dog. Blackwhisker herself doesn't find the entire situation disagreeable, it's a new experience and easy access food, even if she's not allowed to steal and or gorge on the supplies the bigger humans carry about with them. She even loses the leash, not inclined to stay away though she does test the bounds with disappearing for longer periods at a time, but she's always back right on the dot for when food should be ready.
Things change with the fact she's growing and once more needs to shed and it's no manner of persuasion that will convince her to move on, not even food. Which makes her human worry as not even once has it been that she could not be convinced to do something with the temptation of food on offer. She's also more irritable than usual and snaps when he gets too close. Well, he can't just leave her there and he has places to be, his companions aren't going to wait just because his 'pet's' having a hissy fit.. so he picks her up (with much protests on her behalf and what would of been much more pain on his if he hadn't bothered with gauntlets and borrowing some leather wraps for his arms) and carries her, more than a little surprised at just how heavy the little beast is. There's more worry as she seems to start falling apart over the next couple of days, large plates of her scaly hide coming off in his hold to unveil much softer scale underneath. It's only when she's near on bare of hard scale and the soft ones underneath are starting to harden that he starts to realize what's happening. The lil thing is growing and obviously with a hide that doesn't stretch like fur or skin she needs to shed the last one. Ha, odd thing. Well at least after this he realizes what's happening and can deal with it the next time.
Sooo time passes, our 'adventurer' group goes on this or that adventure, with Blackwhisker playing her own occasional part though really, she doesn't care for most of the humans and what not that come and go. Some are fun to tease and hassle, others just to scare at times.. but for the most part there's very little care. She likes 'her' human, he feeds her, he's nice when she's shedding and actually takes time to consider if it's a problem for her, not a favour she returns all that often, but then she's young and it's a species trait.
Months turn to years and she gains size and weight to the point where well, it's not fun carrying her for any length of time, even for the considerably large human she's got as her own and she continues to remain very much a 'dog' sort of companion.. even if she is considerably smarter than a dog, has a mind more like a cat, seems to miss the point on some things and is considerably nasty to certain things and people. She also becomes quite adept at killing larger prey and other people's -actual- dogs are best kept away. Not all places are overly accepting of the strange reptilian creature with it's leery gaze, sharp teeth and claws and little respect for anyone. Her human attempts to keep her in check but really, he's only one man and can only do so much with a creature as willful as she is. More than once they're forced to leave through actions of Blackwhisker's that if they'd stayed would call for her death, after all, she's just a beast isn't she?
More years pass and the human gets tired of his 'adventuring' and wants to settle. He's tried to find a companion over these years and previous but well.. no one ever seems to of fit very well. And well, he's sort of got a child in the strange beastie doesn't he? Smarter than a dog and all, not really as loyal, a mind of her own.. sorta like a willful child. Kind of scaly and with a taste for raw flesh, but well, not every son can be what you dreamed them to be.
So a small home to the outskirts of a village with a river running along the backways is a settlement where for the first time Blackwhisker finds herself settled in one place without all the wandering usually required. An odd occurrence she remains undecided about. Well, at least this time she has chance of wandering around and discovering everything that's about properly in the one area.. and she does. Including every little aspect of the river for some miles each direction and back again. The village folk aren't all that happy with the strange big man and his 'pet' who have set up residence but there's really not too much they can do about it. He's a willing honest worker and he comes to act as the smithy the village hadn't had until that point, so even if his monster pet is an abomination well, they need the steelworker and they'll just make do. Plus, no one's actually seen the monster steal a child yet.
It's here over the next two years that Blackwhisker's human -does- find himself a companion, one the Skuugra takes some time to get used to. Really, sharing her human's attention so evidently is an odd experience and for the first real time she finds herself jealous and exceedingly disagreeable with her human, to the point she thinks maybe she doesn't want him anymore. Something she haltingly goes about telling him!
Now that's a slap in the face that gets his attention. More than once previously he'd thought the strange hissing sounds his 'pet' made were words.. but he'd always taken it as a personal fancy as apposed to reality, but here she was quite obviously saying no, she did not like the human female that took all his time. Sure, she lacked the vocabulary to expand further on the few words she was saying at this point, but there was meaning and knowing in the sound of the words and the look in her eyes. This -wasn't- some dumb pet anymore.
Well now there's actual arguing between the two and though she's considerably smaller the young Skuugra makes her presence and her will quite well known. Finally there's agreement come upon, well, after the shock passes and what not, and Blackwhisker finds herself sharing her human with another. Not exactly what she wanted, but she realizes there's less fuss if she just agrees to him being allowed to have her, he doesn't grumble and complain for lack of company then, and she gets him for other things at set times. Which is fine, as really, she didn't want him around her all the time, she has her own things she likes doing and to be perfectly honest, he's a horrible swimmer. The human woman herself isn't quite as pleased with the arrangement, and once she realizes the 'pet' can talk and actually has some mind of it's own, she's really not that happy with it having been there during nightly visits. Oh well, nothing to do about it now and well, as Blackwhisker’s own human finds such matters uncomfortable now too, she goes about making herself scarce until the noise is nothing more than the sounds of sleep and comes back in again at that point to sleep in the home again.
So it's discovered that Blackwhisker isn't quite just your average beast thing, there's more to her than that, not that her human hadn't been thinking that anyway. But now he had proof, so with encouragement and practice she learnt to hold conversation, and another thing he learnt, with her build she could actually stand and walk on two legs as apposed to four.. He'd always thought it a little odd her front and back sets where such contrasts and that her front 'feet' had the ability to grasp so well. So Blackwhisker learnt to walk too. Of course this was all done in private with only her human's mate's knowledge of what was happening.. really, the village wouldn't of approved of a beast being treated like a man, especially one so -obviously- a beast as the Skuugra.
Now to the fun part!
So time's happy for a bit, Blackwhisker's near on the size of a healthy 10year old child when standing upright, her human and his mate have a yearling child and for the most part things are fine. Sure, chickens disappear now and then and every couple of months the village puts protest for the smithy's pet wandering around the village outskirts on it's own. But otherwise all's good, if a bit dull.
Then we have some less savory sorts come along from the gods know where. They avoid the village for the most part, all they want is the weaponsmith, get him to fix their things and to move on with their journeying to where ever it is they need to go. Blackwhisker's human isn't too impressed about being awoken in the middle of the night by a bunch of no good ruffians as he sees this group of unknowns and promptly states he's not up for business at such a time and to come back in the morning. This doesn't go over well with the group who for whatever reason that's their own don't really feel like hanging around that long, they want their business done and dealt with now and if they have to bully the smithy into doing it then they will. It doesn't seem that the men had listened to the few villagers they had passed had told them the smithy had a pet dragon and barging in and finding merely the half dressed smithy, a wife and small child, well they saw opportunity to exploit and get what they wanted for much less than originally planned.
Now Blackwhisker's human was no push over, but when it came to his new family, well, there wasn't really any metal worth keeping over their safety. So he gave in and did as they asked, something in the back of his mind glad that his 'pet' wasn't in the small home at the time, having not come back yet since being kicked out earlier in the eve.
Somehow things get out of hand and suddenly there's lives in danger of being harmed and there doesn't seem like there's anything that can be done about it to reverse the situation.
At this time Blackwhisker's coming back and it's the strange noises and lots of light that catch her attention, that's not right. So she goes skulking up to the entrance, expecting to just scare some careless villages and instead finds her human, his mate and offspring in various states of defilement and she just goes off her head. The men are caught off guard, they hadn't believed the villages and when a small 'dragon' suddenly casts itself into their midst, two are down before they know what's happening and a third is grappling with a creature all scales, teeth and claws and heavier than he is. Her human, not yet down and out takes the chance to fight back and protect his mate, even if it is too late to truly save her.
The fight is hectic and over nearly as soon as it's started, so many things happening on chance and accident that in the end the only one left standing in any sort of reasonable state is Blackwhisker. Seeing red and little else it's some time before she even realizes the danger is over, that there's no longer anything to fight and by that time the wound her human had sustained in the scramble has nearly killed him. Seeing her human in such a state, one she'd seen many in before she gets her first real feeling of unease about a human. Here's someone she cares about, well, as much as her kind -can- care for another about to die and she can do nothing for them. Moving over to him she tries to gain her own comfort more than give it as she comes to his side and remains close for those last few moments of life before he's dead.
The death, the meat spread out before her.. it's tempting and she makes a meal of parts of those men who'd killed her own humans, but she doesn't touch hers. They're special and for the first time she passes on the chance to eat freshly killed meat. Something that had she not been living with humans for so long she would of had no problem with.
It's the early hours when a voice awakens her from the stupor that'd come over her after a full stomach and hard exercise. A voice screeching and carrying on to the point it's sending pain into her head. As more voices join the chorus Blackwhisker finally pulls herself together just in time to have sharp implements jabbed in her face. Seems the villagers have come, seen the death and destruction, the fact that half the men are missing body parts with perfectly sized goring to her teeth and claws upon them to validate their assumption that the beast has gone crazy and killed it's humans and those that had come calling. And as, well, no sane villager wants a monster like that in their midst, they're out to gut her. The problem is, after seeing -that- much death and assuming she'd done it all, they're all too scared to do much more than just throw things. So while annoying they're not much of a threat with her natural plate armouring as they try to drive her away. Still, this is not a situation she wants to be in and with little reluctance she takes herself away, far away, as far as she's able to go and keeps going. Letting her own desire, the one she's buried the last peaceful years somewhere deep inside her to once more come out. To find that something that's drawing her ever onwards.
Skills:
Water Find: Basic level water magery, it doesn't matter where she is or the distance it's at, Blackwhisker -will- find the nearest water source as it tugs at something inside of her. Main problem so far being that she's yet to be able to distinguish between a river and a stream, a pond and a waterbag, so just because she's drawn to it doesn't mean it's anything impressive or that it's really the one she should be following.
Aqua Play: Basic level water magery. With idle thoughts and/or limb waving Blackwhisker's able to manipulate small amounts of water at a time into shapes and different things as she pleases as long as there's water already there and she has a clear mind for it at the time. A skill found from just playing about in the water that she's not figured to use for anything serious or that could be used for anything other than play.
Swiftswim: An amphibious creature, Blackwhisker swims better than she runs and there are few who are as fast or agile as her in the water, makes catching fish and other things with one's bare hands much easier and whatnot.
Long breath: Being a water type that well, is -supposed- to spend most of her life in the water, Blackwhisker can hold her breath for hours at a time, though she doesn't have the patience to actually achieve this at the moment as it requires complete stillness. At best she can last a couple of hours at a leisurely pace, but it's usually more like an hour of fast activity and back up for air again.
Sink or Swim: Due to a practical function of her anatomy Blackwhisker is able to filter water into her body, cause a chemical reaction and draw out the right bits from it to fill sections inside of her form that can be lightened to cause buoyancy or the reverse, to filter out those bits of lighter gas through miniscule holes between the plating of her scales and to sink once more.
Steelplate Scales: Skuugra are built to fight and fight aggressively, thusly their own scales have grown to a point where it's like they've grown their own plate armouring. Being essentially an infant still as far as the Skuugra are concerned Blackwhisker's own scales aren't to the point where they'll blunt a good sword. But it's still enough to keep your basic metalwork weapons from slicing parts of her off, giving her good sized dents and even cracks when put under enough stress just like real smithed armour would of decent quality. This is an ability that loses it's effect in the two weeks up to and after her shedding and growing new scales. Age will improve this ability, but only gradually and over many years.
Grapple: Blackwhisker is flexible, despite the scales and she's got considerable movement. One of her main ways of attacking/killing something is to jump on it and crush it with her body/limbs/tail in a not so friendly embrace.
Fine Claws: Long thin fingers with fishknife claws mean they're perfect for fine work, even if there is fine webbing between them. Through much practice Blackwhisker is exceedingly adept at gutting, skinning and deboning fish, rodents, birds and other small creatures. Well, the more common ones anyway. Still, put down a freshly killed something and as long as she has the time and is not busy or needing to be somewhere she will sit down and neatly pull the thing apart with as little mess or fuss as possible and eat the more desirable bits before burying the rest. If it's something she's not had contact with before she'll make a go of it using the skills she already knows and adjust as necessary, making the second time easier and the third and those after a breeze.
Sharp Teeth: Well.. dunno if this counts as a skill. Like most of these it's more a species trait than anything else. But think of a shark and how their teeth keep coming through. Skuugra have a similar thing though it's only usually two coming through at a time as apposed to a multitude. Essentially means that teeth tend to break off or come out at different times and there's new ones to replace them.
Equipment: She's a water dragon, she doesn't carry anything as well, she doesn't see the value in any of it.
~Um, I've no idea which area to set this in, so if there's like a most likely place that'd be nice to know. N um, do I need more for like the species definition sort of thing or is that fine? N last! Sorry for making you read so much, I have a habit of overdoing character histories and whatnot ^^;
Anywho, thankies for your time!