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c.i.v.i.l.i.a.n.
.f.o.r.m. |
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Name: Dusa. Czech unisex for "soul, spirit" Kingdom: 5th Kingdom, Northern Age: Created 14 years ago,
Dusa looks 25 and has thought independantly for 3 years People with Aquarius Suns are broad thinkers, easy to get along with and fiercely independent. They need their personal space but can also work quite well alongside a group as long as they are allowed room to work on their own. Those with Sagittarius Moons are always seeking something new, and while they tend to get along with everyone they have few intimate relationships. Sagittarius Moons have a tendency to speak before they think, but have a strong resiliency and bounce back from setbacks, though they might not learn from their mistakes. They often make many changes in their lives seeking new adventure and experiences. Together, this pairing combines the friendliness, originality and independence of Aquarius with the honesty, sincerity, directness and enthusiasm of Sagittarius. There is an instinctive and deep-rooted love of truth and knowledge that endows them with a noble and sincere nature. People with these signs play the Game of Life (and Business) by the rules, and are never willing to compromise their principles in any situation. Combined, thse signs allow a person to have a broad view of world affairs and see the Big Picture. Occupation: currently working undercover for das Spiegelbild as a chief handmaid to Queen Goldilocks. Mostly as a hairdresser. Likes:
other likes - beeswax, chocolate, arts & craft fairs, feather beds Dislikes:
Other dislikes - mushrooms, cloudless skies, white flowers Hobbies:
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.f.r.i.e.n.d.s.
.&. .f.a.m.i.l.y. |
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.h.i.s.t.o.r.y. |
| The sorceress Victalynn was obsessed with her magic. She left home as
a child and secluded herself in a tower on the edge of the 5th kingdom,
and there she spent all her time researching new spells and refining her
talents. For years she was left in peace until her abilities grew enough
to merit attention from the rest of the kingdom. Every once and a while,
people who had heard of her skills would seek her out. She had no interest
in the workings of the world, or the petty disagreements of men, and would
turn them all away. Yet despite her best efforts her reputation of power
outweighed her reputation of fear, and people continued to make the long
trek to her tower only to be turned away at the door. Sometimes she drove
them out with frightening spells, or if she were in a benevolent mood she
would seduce them only to have them wake the next day far from her tower
with no recollection of why they had come to this spot - or why they had
no clothes on. By the time Victalynn was 26 she had had multitudes of men
and women in her bed, but still she was content with her hermitage and sought
no permanent human companionship.
So when Pavla was born as a result from one of the soceress's many affairs, Victalynn didn't know what to do. She did not know how to raise a baby and while she did try her best, a part of her hated the child for keeping her away from the magic she craved. Her frustration grew as the child aged from Bumbling Babe to Terrible Toddler and Victalynn vented her anger at anyone who came to her door. She was on the verge of snapping completely when a midwife and her daughter Marna showed up seeking help. A shtriga had come to their village - a type of vampiric witch that has a particular taste for children - and the midwife's own grandson was one of the victims. Those who fell victim to the shtriga would only get better if the creature was destroyed, but all prior attempts had failed and slowly the children were dying. The two women laid out their pleas before the powerful sorceress, but she was indifferent to their plight. Victalynn was about to turn them away in her usual violent manner when something changed her mind. Perhaps it was the way mother and daughter clung to each other on her doorstep, or the way that Pavla perked up and waddled to the door to meet the strangers, or something completely different. In any case,Victalynn let them enter in a rare form of courtesy. The midwife explained their village's plight while Marna played with Pavla on her lap. Truthfully,Victalynn was less interested in the problems of the village and far more intrigued by the manner in which the daughter kept Pavla from constantly screaming. In fact, Pavla seemed utterly delighted to have new company and for the first time, the enchantress could begin to understand why people would want to start a family in the first place. In the end, Victalynn proposed a trade. Marna would stay and help rear Pavla in exchange for the enchantress's services in getting rid of the shtriga. Unfortunately for her, the midwife and her daughter refused. Though they may have been frightened of the consequences, their affections for one another outweighed any bargaining that might have been done. This troubled Victalynn, who was unfamiliar with such intense displays of emotion. So she bargained again; she would take the daughter's pinky and keep the girl for a week to duplicate her memories, and from that built a sustained homunculus of the girl who would help raise Pavla. This new proposal was reluctantly accepted. Thus Dusa was created. A body was built around the pinky taken from Marna, and her mind was filled with all the memories and knowledge to ensure her immediate use for raising Pavla. Since Marna had a young son of her own and had helped her mother with multitudes of births both in and near their village, Dusa had all the secrets of child-rearing at her fingertips. Victalynn altered her most recent memories slightly to ensure compliance on the new homunculus's part. She was made to believe that her son was taken by the shtriga and had not survived, and heartbroken, went to the sorceress and her daughter to heal her emotional wounds. This ensured that Dusa would have no desire to leave her new home and seek out any aspects of her Marna's life. Marna herself left just before Dusa awoke, and neither girl nor homunculus saw one another. Few homunculus prior to Dusa survived longer than a month or so, since the amount of magic needed to sustain their functions proved to be too much for their creators and could not be taken from the surrounding world at a quick enough pace.Victalynn was able to get around these difficulties by delving into the oldest and most dangerous form of magic - blood magic. Each night Dusa drank a mouthful of the sorceress's blood to be replenished and kept under Victalynn's thrall. After seven years all the original blood in Dusa's body had been replaced by an adapted mutated strain of Victalynn's own, and Dusa could sustain her own system. Though nightly feedings were no longer necessary, they continued out of habit and Victalynn's primal need for power and domination. Despite the strange and sometimes disturbing facts of her life, Dusa was never unhappy living with the sorceress and her daughter. Beyond her nightly feeding, Dusa rarely saw the sorceress and ultimately was free to raise Pavla almost as a surrogate child. Dusa made sure that Pavla had a strong education but still indulged the child's whims, and the two grew to be as close as any mother and child. However, when Pavla turned eight this slowly began to change.Victalynn decided that Pavla was old enough to learn her mother's trade, and began to teach the young girl the principles of sorcery. Unfortunately, while Palva had certainly grown up and become less bothersome, Victalynn still wasn't cut out for social interaction and would become exceedingly angry when the child did not immediately grasp her lessons. Pavla, like everyone else, feared and respected her mother though she held no love for her like she loved Dusa. Still she wanted to please Victalynn and prove herself worthy of her true mother. So while at first Dusa spent her nights soothing the young child's tears after lessons gone wrong, slowly Pavla began to break away from her. She would throw everything into her lessons, though it was clear she showed no aptitude, and as she spent more and more time with her mother she became less attached to Dusa. Victalynn filled her mind with ideals of status and power, and Pavla began to realize that Dusa, much as she loved her in her childhood, was far below the station of a Sorceress' Daughter. The two grew apart, and while Dusa still offered her motherly services she slowly took on the role of servant instead. It was a sad time, but Dusa was still bound to the sorceress and her daughter through the blood-bind, and so she stayed despite her loneliness. By the time Pavla turned 13, she had still shown no aptitude at sorcery
and Victalynn was bored with throwing her efforts into a fruitless battle.
As far as the sorceress was concerned, the experiment of having a daughter
turned out to be a complete failure. So she decided to send Pavla away
to be married and make a way for herself. Granted, the child was still
a bit young but given the influence of her mother she still had plenty
of choices.Victalynn wanted someone who could provide for her daughter,
and finally settled on the son of a count that lived a few leagues north.
Preparations were hastily made for her departure, and Dusa was to go with
her. In her way, Victalynn was trying to look out for her daughter's best
interests. Before she left, she gifted Pavla with a handkerchief stained
with her blood. Since Dusa was kept bound to the family through the sorceress's
blood binding, this ensured that Dusa would protect Pavla both on the
journey and after. Victalynn was careless in her overeagerness to return
to sorcery, and shortly after their departure was struck dead by a backfired
spell. The handkerchief remained the only binding over Dusa and her false
memories. They covered the remainder of the journey quickly. The waterhorse Vanora tried unsuccessfully to barter for it's freedom, promising the ladies the fulfillment of any number of wishes they might have. Pavla remained unresponsive after her near death experience, and Dusa knew enough not to trust anything it might say despite her new and desperate need for self-discovery. When they reached the Count's lands, Dusa's first act as bride-to-be was to order the horse beheaded. If it remained alive she knew it would continue to whisper wickedness to both her and Pavla to gain its freedom. With the horse's temptations out of the way and a new husband to compliment her new life, Dusa finally began her road to discoverying who she was. How much of Marna remained true for her, and how much was lies? She was free to try almost anything and everything, and since everyone supposed she was really Pavla - that is to say, the daughter of an extremely powerful and eccentric sorceress - no one questioned some of her stranger requests. As for Pavla, she took on a job tending to the geese and began to make her very first friends. For her life seemed grand, because there were no longer and expectations to live up to. Homunculus and Sorceress' Daughter both found the first seeds of contentment there. Unfortunately, not all was as well as they presumed as if often the case. Being a magical creature, Vanora did not die upon beheading but was merely weakened and wanted its body back, with a little bit of revenge on the side. About a year after the incident, Pavla took her geese close to where the waterhorse's head had been buried and there she began to hear whispers. Convinced it was just her imagination, she did not stop her visitations to that particular spot until it was too late. Vanora weaseled her consciousness into the dark spaces in Pavla's subconscious mind, and there began to weave its devious tricks. For the next three years while Dusa learned about herself and the ways of the upperclass with her new husband, Pavla learned trickery and deceit with her new mental parasite. Pavla became convinced that Dusa had robbed her of the privileged life she was supposed to lead, forgetting of course that it was her own idea in the first place. Pavla decided that she needed to win back her social station and right all of Dusa's wrongs - this included of course, the beheading of Vanora. During the next two years Pavla began to plant herself into the minds of the Count's household. She would hint at a dark and noble past but refuse to speak out when asked about it, playing herself up as sweet, innocent and demure. This trickery grew exponentially until nearly everyone questioned whether Dusa truly was who she claimed to be. Dusa, meanwhile, was too engrossed in trying as many new things as possible to notice the growing distance between her, Ezven, and the Count's people. By the time Pavla was ready to make her final move it was too late for Dusa. Pavla had effectively wrapped the entire household around her finger. The takeover barely lasted a day. Pavla painted a story before the court containing tales of Dusa's disloyalty and selfish desires. She put it in their minds that the only way to right her wrongdoings would be to have Dusa executed, though of course she would never say such a thing out loud being such a SWEET and KIND girl. Dusa was locked up that night to await her death while Pavla married Ezven and laid claim to everything that Dusa had grown to hold dear. Echoes of Victalynn's initial deceit about her identity echoed doubly so in her bones as Pavla betrayed everything she and Dusa had shared. Angry, hurt, and determined to live Dusa managed to make an escape. She went as far and as fast as she was able, deciding that the only thing important in her life anymore was finding out about herself. She wandered the countryside trying as many odd-jobs as she could. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't find many in the countryside, and she began to discover that spending long periods of time in the city where all the interesting jobs were made her feel weak and nauseous. It wasn't until she heard rumors about technology draining all magic in the area that she realized why. After making a few discreet inquiries she learned about das Spiegelbild and sought them out. The twins were more than happy to add her to their little crew, and found her a position working under Queen Goldilocks. |
.a.p.p.e.a.r.a.n.c.e. |
| Dusa stands at 5'4" with straight, glazed cinnamon
hair hanging down to the curve of her lower back. Given the amount of free
time she has during the day in court, she frequently changes her hairstyle
- almost as much as Queen Goldilocks herself. Her face is full and square,
with a strong and sharp jawline. Given her positions through her life, she
has mastered the technique of constantly appearing demure and subservient.
Her eyes are a dark brown and always contain a passive, non-judgmental look
even at the height of her emotions. In fact, she is so good at hiding her
emotions that she often comes off as cold and distant. She would look the
same if told her best friend was getting married as she would if she was
told her favorite pet had been killed. It's not that she doesn't care one
way or the other because she does, but she doesn't want her emotions to
act as any influence upon those around her. They are hers, and they are
private.
Dusa's appearance is at the height of normality, with an honest and hardworking appearance she owes entirely to Marna's life before her creation. Her smiles are reserved and rarely show her teeth, which are small and slightly crooked. Her mouth is perhaps a tad too wide, her lips thin and undefined. Her eyebrows are well shaped but on the bushy side. She has a definite pear shape with a small top and wide hips, which is emphasized in court apparel and by the fact she wears her corset tight. Her fingers are long and nimble and she keeps her nails trimmed short so they don't snag on anything. In public she likes to wear gloves to conceal the distinct discoloration of her right pinky - her own skin being a shade paler than Marna's. While not terribly noticable to anyone not specifically looking for it, Dusa remains self conscious of her "birthmark". Another thing to note is that as a homunculus, Dusa does not age. She does not tell anyone her age, partly because it is difficult to decide on a proper response. Is it how long since she was created? How old Marna was? Some combination? If anyone comments upon how young she appears, she claims to pay a sorceress to keep her appearance sustained. It's the closest to the truth that she can figure. |
.p.e.r.s.o.n.a.l.i.t.y. |
| Dusa is a girl with serious personality issues. For
11 years she remained blissfully unaware of her individuality while under
Victalynn's charms. She acted like Marna would act, thought like Marna would
think, and spoke like Marna would speak. When Palva lost the handkerchief
in their struggled with the waterhorse, the final threads of the blood binding
shattered and Dusa realized for the first time that she was not, in fact,
Marna. This triggered a fierce rebellion against every falsehood she perceives
within herself, and often leads to her second-guessing her own thoughts
and decisions. Those who met Dusa prior to the incident would have met a happy, gentle girl who likes babies, keeps a clean house and has excellent bedside manner. She treated everyone like extended family and often put others before herself and was sensitive to their needs. Her magically enhanced intelligence would be put to use trying to make life a little easier for those she cared about. Dusa carried her heart on her sleeve and was so invested in Pavla and Victalynn that any hurts they might have done her showed painfully clear. Still she forgave them every time, believing them to be the salvation from the pain of her past. She would content herself with housework and other mundane tasks and never wanted more than she already had. She opened herself to everyone she met, and loved to talk about anything and everything. Dusa post-handkerchief is a horse of an very different color. The most noticeable difference is that she rarely speaks her opinions to anyone. She no longer trusts her instincts and emotions and bottles them all deep inside for further inspection on a later date. She constantly second-guesses herself, always wondering if her thoughts really belong to her or not. It makes her prone to frequently changing her mind, though since she often doesn't *speak* her mind those unfamiliar with her might not realize that she's already changed her stance at least half a dozen times before voicing it out loud. This also makes her very unpredictable as she tries on various personalities like Robert tries on clothes (though only of course after due consideration). If she laughs at awkward moments, or rages over something she's never been bothered by, or bursts into tears over a papercut when she never cried over a broken rib or two -- it's not that she's crazy, honest. She's just wondering if it's the right reaction for her. Thankfully, few people are actually close enough to see the full gamut of her personality amassment. For the most part the Dusa that the main populous sees is passive, quiet and unopinionated. It is not in her or her employer's best interests to have a handmaid that is vastly unpredictable and so Dusa tries to leave much of her emotional experimenting for her private time. Where Marna cared deeply about what others thought of her, Dusa cares nothing. She has earned a reputation in Goldilocks' court of being cold and distant, but whenever anyone tries to verify this they find themselves surprised by her receptiveness to anything and everything. Just because she is silent about herself and her past doesn't mean she has no desires to be with people. It is only through her interactions with others that she can discover anything about who she is. She is entirely selfish in her interactions with others where Marna had been selfless - though this doesn't mean she isn't willing to help out those in need. Most often doing something for someone helps her on the road to self discovery and she goes along with no problems. She is always eager to try new things, but usually only once unless she discovers a passion for it. Dusa doesn't much like giving advice since she feels unqualified when she can't even figure herself out, but her quiet nature somehow draws people to tell them their woes in hopes that she might actually speak up. It's not entirely unreasonable of them either, for on the rare occasions that she does offer her opinion it seems to be the best course of action. Otherwise, she simply makes a good sounding board for ideas and issues. Dusa stands in the sidelines but isn't out of the game. She joined the das for her own survival but isn't particularly loyal to the members themselves. She is more like a stray cat that stays because it is fed regularly. She isn't directly manipulative of those around her, but having fought dirty with Pavla and indirectly with Victalynn she has lost her trust in people and goes to all lengths to keep anyone from controlling her again. This does mean in some instances that she will be the first to attempt the manipulation, if it is in her best interest. For all her dislike of lies and dishonesty she is incredibly ego-centric and ignores everything she might do herself. The shame she feels about her creation and the general misgivings the populous has about magical creations keeps her from telling anyone save the twins that she is a homunculus. Add it to the list of things she is guarded against. Strengths - patient, receptive to new ideas, extremely introspective Flaws - unpredictable reactions, selfish, no loyalties, untrusting |
.s.p.e.l.l.s.
.&. .m.i.r.r.o.r. |
Element: Reversal
Mirror: Dusa's mirror is a simple compact design that she can carry with her everywhere. The cover is engraved in a kind of Art Nouveau style with two women's faces in profile, facing away from one another and their hair meshing together and framing their duality. There is a a light coat of enamal painting, enough to pick out flowers in the hair and the fact that the two women are colored one light, one dark. While not having as strong a tie to her mirror as the das that were imprisoned, her mirror remains vital to her work and survival. By reworking some of the techniques Kriemhild the twins were able to configure the mirror so that it would absorb excess magic and transfer it to the holder. Without the mirror Dusa would not be able to function in the castle or cities, since her body cannot reproduce enough magic quick enough to sustain her under the constant drain. Therefore she keeps it on her person at all times and is extremely careful with it. Abilities:
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.m.u.n.d.a.n.e. |
name: Wils |