Post by PELAGIA on May 27, 2017 21:01:41 GMT -5
PELAGIA
NICKNAME(S). Pelagia (pronounced puh-la-gee-ah)
AGE. 3 years
SPECIES. Ocelot
GENDER. Female
APPEARANCE
HEIGHT. 16 in
WEIGHT. 20 lbs
COAT. Golden base with bold black markings
EYE COLOUR. Pale yellow-green, similar to a pear
NOTABLE MARKINGS. The black spots that travel down her back are so close together that they touch, making it look like she has three long stripes that run from the back of her head to the base of her tail. While the rest of her is obviously spotted, these three pseudo-stripes still help distinguish her a little bit from most other ocelots.
PHYSICAL. Pelagia is a lithe, elegant-looking young ocelot with a long box-shaped head. Like all members of her species, she is leopard-like in build and coat color, as she shares their rectangular profile, muscular legs, small rounded ears, big paws, and black-spotted pelt. However, she is obviously much smaller than the average leopard (as well as most other big cats within the genus). In fact, she's no bigger than a red fox, and there are probably even some male foxes of any species roaming around out there that dwarf her, certainly. Regardless of her small stature, she still has her weapons: sharp retractable claws, large pointed fangs, keen eyes that need very little light to see, and powerful muscles that allow her to spring forward for the swift and sudden kill.
She blends in well with the forest floor and canopies thanks to the pattern of black spots and stripes on her golden pelt. Her face has thinner and more intricate lines that frame her green eyes and pink nose, while the back of her ears are entirely black save for the single white spot on each one. Her muzzle, the fur around her eyes, her legs, and her underside are a lighter and more subdued kind of creamy tan, but the spots are still there. They cover her entire body, the ones on her side being the largest. These spots are framed by organically-shaped black lines while the insides of them are a golden-brown color. This pattern gets interrupted by the thick black stripes that travel down her back, though. Truthfully, they're spots, but they're so large and close together that they appear as stripes. Three of them run parallel to each other from the back of her head to the base of her tail, the latter of which is banded with black stripes instead.
PERSONALITY
FEARS. Windstorms (or just severe thunderstorms in general); having vivid nightmares; never finding someone special to fall in love with; dying alone; never having kittens; losing friends or family
VICES. Somewhat conceited; sharp-tongued when stressed or irritated; highly flirtatious sometimes to the point it seems like she has no shame; competitive; sometimes overly protective of others
STRENGTHS. Keeping herself clean; maintaining dignity and a level head even in the most strenuous or terrifying of circumstances; giving orders; being generous (even to strangers)
PET PEEVES. Others not bothering to take care of themselves (and are smelly or unkempt as a result); others who think it's cute (and somehow not tired and annoying) to point out and mock her for her size
LIKES. Ogling at and chatting up handsome young males (regardless of their species); prowling around at dusk (especially during summer); fishing; showing and receiving affection
PERSONALITY. Those who only somewhat know Pelagia probably only see her for her sharp tongue and tendency to be a little suffocating, but those who are able to spend a lot of time with her know that her quips and reprimands do sincerely come from a place of love. She cares deeply for her friends and family, and provided that you don't somehow rub her the wrong way by being consistently awful, she is very generous with whom she considers to be among her list of good companions. She loves rather fiercely (like a mother bear does her cubs), and her maternal side comes out frequently with everyone no matter their age, species, gender, or temperament. (And her inclination to be overprotective often manifests itself as nagging, but again, it's safe to say that it's out of love and not genuine annoyance or malice.)
And with a strong personality such as hers, it's arguably not a surprise to most that she knows how to step up and take charge when a vacuum for leadership exists. She has an overall fairly strong personality, and because she also has a level enough head to take on adversity when need be, she has what it takes to get herself and others out of bad situations. To the chagrin of some, she can be pretty bossy whether or not she's in charge, and it doesn't help that she gets unbelievably stubborn whenever she feels that she knows best (which is often). Regardless, Pelagia just as contently follows, even kind of preferring to let others guide the way (so long as they can handle her backseat driving). She functions best (and shines the brightest) as second-in-command, honestly, although she doesn't really realize yet how much that kind of position suits her.
HISTORY
MOTHER. Ione (pronounced ee-o-nee), deceased
FATHER. Unknown
SIBLINGS. Cyprian (brother), living; Thespina (sister), living
HISTORY. Ione was very young when she gave birth to her three kittens, Cyprian, Thespina, and Pelagia. Her inexperience made her a neglectful and clumsy mother, and while she would return to the den each day before the break of dawn to settle down with her children, there were plenty of nights where she would fail to eat enough to allow them to nurse, albeit sometimes she wouldn't even let them come close enough to her belly that they could even attempt to nurse. The three kittens were weak by the time they reached their third month of life, and when they began venturing out into the territory with their mother, it was nothing short of a miracle that they weren't either allowed to become lost or get picked off by long-toothed predators that lurked in the shadows.
The months crept into the end of their first and then second year. They learned by watching Ione, although she never directly tried to teach them. And while most other ocelot kittens would stay with their mother for another year or two until they felt confident enough to live independently, for Cyprian, Thespina, and Pelagia, it wasn’t really an intelligent or beneficial option for very obvious reasons, seeing as they had the forgetful and unreliable Ione as their only existing parent. Ultimately, Thespina was the first to leave. She slipped out of the den one evening around sundown while her two siblings and mother were still dozing, and she never returned.
Cyprian was next, and his decision to go off on his own came very shortly after Thespina’s own departure. Except, unlike Thespina, he didn’t leave without saying anything to at least one member of his small family. He and Pelagia had been hunting together, the two silently travelling through the undergrowth on a warm spring night. With sunrise soon to come, Pelagia had suggested that the both of them head back to the den where Ione would probably meet them. To her confusion, Cyprian had shook his head, standing there resolutely despite the sun becoming bluer and bluer overhead. He told her that he felt it was time for him to go; their mother had never been keen on them to begin with, and his claws were sharp, and he knew how to kill, climb trees, and defend himself. He said that she should consider leaving soon herself, as the time had come for all birds to leave the nest. He twitched his banded tail, and he prowled away off into the darkness. Pelagia watched him go, and while part of her knew she would have to do the same one day soon, she still returned back to the den, except this time completely alone.
Pelagia stayed with her mother for close to another year. Their relationship never significantly improved, but Ione seemed to tolerate her presence, and Pelagia was given the time to continue practicing her skills, testing her growing urge for independence, and enjoying the security of having a family member nearby who allowed her to share in her sparse wealth. And while Ione probably didn’t feel the same, Pelagia felt loyal to her mother; she felt loyal to Cyprian and Thespina as well, but they were gone, and it was unlikely she would ever find them again, as she knew the world was much too large for reunions like that. And either way if she did, they would probably greet her with hostility, as was the way of most solitary predators. She couldn’t yet bear the thought of all of her family becoming mere strangers to her, and she a stranger to them, so she clung to what she had.
But her mother fell ill. Pelagia helped her as best she could, and while Ione was surprisingly grateful for her daughter’s company, Pelagia couldn’t do anything for her other than keep her from being alone while her sickness inevitably became worse and worse. After several days, Ione was so weak that she could no longer hunt for herself.
As soon as dusk began to settle during one of the following days, Pelagia left her mother behind in their den to search for food for the both of them. When she returned, she dropped the rabbit at the threshold of their den in the crook of a tree's base and peered in, softly calling for Ione to rouse her from her sleep. There was no response, though. Her mother’s body was curled up on the earth, appearing as if in deep slumber, but her sides didn’t move. Ione had passed away while Pelagia was gone.
It didn’t make any sense. Pelagia was in a numb and vulnerable kind of state for a couple days, remaining close to the den but not daring to go inside, finding herself unable to disturb or even look at her mother’s corpse again. She had no plans as to what to do next. She was absolutely lost.
Cyprian found her three days after Ione’s death. He had appeared out of the underbrush, startling Pelagia into a defensive crouch. She hissed at him, baring her fangs in warning, not knowing if her brother intended to attack her. But Cyprian only regarded her calmly. He told her that he had been searching for her, and that he was surprised she was still within Ione’s territory. He inquired about their mother, and Pelagia felt her heart drop. She explained what had happened. After hearing about their mother's fate, her brother had furrowed his brow in confusion and surprise at first, but when Pelagia named the cause of death as a mysterious sickness she had never seen or heard of before, his eyes widened, and a sense of urgency and disgust came over his normally stoic face.
‘Are you sick as well?’ he had asked. ‘How long were you around her?’
his tone of voice made Pelagia defensive, and despite the fear she felt building up in her stomach, she responded sharply that no, she felt fine. And her mother had contracted the illness and succumbed to it over the course of only a few days, but again, she felt fine. Surely, if she had caught her mother’s illness, she would be exhibiting symptoms? She told him all of this, growing angrier and angrier with her brother and his coldness as she spoke.
Pelagia thought that her answer would have resolved all of his ridiculous concerns, but it only made Cyprian look at her with even more suspicion and wariness in his gaze. He took a couple steps back as if being near her would make his very pelt catch fire, and with a serious kind of tone that genuinely unsettled her, he told her the following:
‘You need to look for the Carnicula plant. Black flowers, foul smell. Find it and eat it if you start feeling unwell. It’s all you can do.’
Pelagia threw insults and pleaded with him to listen to her, that she wasn’t sick, that he was being uncharacteristically weird and awful and unreasonably cruel, but he only shook his head in response. He began to leave, and while Pelagia wanted to follow him, something within her told her to stay right where she was, so she reluctantly did.
Cyprian glanced over his shoulder one last time, and he told her that she needed to find a new home, one where she would be alone. And then he was gone, his familiar form swallowed up by the disconcerting dark of that cold and still winter night.
Pelagia has been alone ever since. She begrudgingly took his advice for a lack of anything else she could possibly do, now roaming far away from where she and her family used to live. Part of her yearns to find Thespina, hoping almost desperately that she will find her one of these days in the near future, although she knows that realistically the chances are extremely slim. She also sees the plant that Cyprian had told her about from time to time among the undergrowth. Whenever she does, she eyes it with great disdain, the disgusting plant’s poisonous black petals reawakening memories within her that Pelagia would rather keep comfortably repressed.
PLAYER
NAME. Lutheus
AGE. 21
EXPERIENCE. See Keir's biography
OTHER CHARACTERS. Keir
HOW’D YOU FIND US. See Keir's biography
PREFERRED CONTACT METHOD. PM or email
