30 Days of Character Development – Day 2

Appearance

How do they usually dress?
Layers. Lots of layers. It varies on where he is, the climate, etc. but usually he always has a red scarf around his neck/shoulders, some sort of hood, and looser clothes held close at certain points so it’s less likely to be grabbed. After he and Maarzi met his style has improved somewhat, but it usually doesn’t stray too far from practical. He tends to dress in dull/dark reds, browns, oranges, and greens, though he has worn brighter colors on occasion. It largely depends on how the province he’s in dresses.

What do they wear to sleep?
Again, depends on where he is. While he’ll usually just go to bed with an oversized shirt on, in Skyrim he hardly dresses down at all if he’s traveling. In inns and at the College he’ll just wear the shirt and occasionally pants if it’s too cold. In hotter provinces he’ll usually just curl up with a blanket.

Do they wear jewelry?
In 3E 427, he only wore his ring when he needed it, otherwise it was just the necklace Sees gave him as a child. He gave the necklace to Jeer when they passed away, so he doesn’t wear any anymore.

Is there anything about their appearance they wish they could change?
1) less scrawny
2)

taller
3) more Saxhleel

How would they look as the opposite sex?
Not much different. He’d have small boops and a little bit wider hips/narrower shoulders, but the difference would be so minuscule that unless he was naked you wouldn’t be able to really tell.

What do they smell like? Why (do they wear the scent or does it occur naturally)?
He smells like fur and whatever wilderness he’s been in, occasionally like booze/fish/blood depending on what he’s been doing. Vampires and therianthropes would be able to smell a sort of musky scent from him too due to his beastblood, but with normal people it’s too faint to notice. Because of his sensitive nose, he’d never wear a scent specifically because dear gods it makes his nose numb and he feels scent-blind or in pain until it fades away.

Do they have an accurate mental picture of their appearance (how they see themselves versus how the world sees them)?
He sees himself as scrawnier and shorter than he really is due to distorted self-image and low self-esteem. On his good days he sees himself almost like an odd blend of Khajiit and Argonian, though not consciously, and on his bad days it feels alienating to be in his own skin. It’s something he tries not to focus on for the latter reason.

What are your characters most prominent physical features?
Dark fur and bright eyes it seems. He’s sort of an odd androgynous bony/wiry noodle, with scruffy fur and big eyes/ears, and a long tail.

Taken from here!

30 Days of Character Development – Day 1

Basics/Relationship with Parents

Name: Marsh-Eyes
Age: 227 (as of 4E 201)
Date of Birth: 8th day of Sun’s Dusk, 3E 407
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Green
Race: Khajiit (Suthay-raht)
Height: 5′09″ (175 cm)
Weight: 130 lbs. (58.8 kg)
Scars: Lots. Just…lots… I tried making a short and sweet list five times now and it’s still ending up as a paragraph and a half. Absolute major ones: corprus discoloration over half his face, left arm, and partway onto his ribs, a cauterized stab wound over his stomach and back, a werecroc bite on his right leg, and large burns just below his shoulderblades and on his left leg. These are only a small fraction of them. Jfc. Thank the gods he’s got all that fur to hide them.

Do they have any nicknames? Where did they come from?
J’hasi was the name he was given by a Khajiiti slave that worked at his first master’s plantation, since he refused to tell anyone his Black Marsh name and he didn’t know enough Dunmeris at the time to translate it. Even after he knew how to translate it, he stuck with introducing himself as J’hasi for two reasons: 1) he was dealing with the whole ‘what the hell I’m really not Saxhleel’ bit and 2) it would mean fewer questions as to why he has an Argonian name vs Khajiit and all that business. After the Nerevarine thing, it was only reinforced by his desire to remain inconspicuous. He’s only told one person his Black Marsh name since his kidnapping.

Describe your character’s relationship with their mother or their father, or both. Was it good? Bad? Were they spoiled rotten, ignored? Do they still get along now, or no?
J’hasi never knew his birth parents, and never really thought about it. Sees adopted and took care of him, that was what was important. Sees was firm, but fair, and had a loving and caring relationship with him. The only thing he ever felt like he couldn’t forgive Sees for was lying to him about being Saxhleel, but over time he has come to a point that, while he understands why they did it, he doesn’t agree with it. The two of them still get along, though the last time they saw each other was almost 200 years ago.

Taken from here!

8, 10, and 14

8:Who was your muse’s first crush?

There was this cute Khajiit girl that Maarzi had feelings for when she was still pretty young yet. At the time she didn’t really know why out of all her friends she felt that weird tingling excitement in her stomach and thought of this one friend in particular so much, and it was something she didn’t realize was a crush until she was much older. Said friend had moved away by then, but it’s still a fond memory Maarzi has of her childhood.

10:Most problematic thing your muse has ever done?

Inadvertently destroying an entire culture’s basis of faith, destabilizing the region religiously and politically (and by extent, temporarily tightening the Empire’s hold on them), and setting them up for a natural disaster that made most of their homeland damn near uninhabitable and killed thousands of people. But hey, Azura gets her cult following back from false gods, so it’s cool right?

14:What is your muse’s deadly sin?

It took me a bit to understand this question, so according to here: wrath. This dummy can hold a grudge and don’t even get me started on his temper. Plus the whole, y’know, self…everything thing. J’hasi’s grudge against Azura is something that will probably last as long as he does tbh.

[ Chest ]

image

J’hasi has the sort of body type that he’s scrawny, but he does have some muscle (though the fur tends to hide all of that, esp since it’s been getting thicker since he’s set foot into Skyrim). If he didn’t have the fur hiding it all, you’d be able to see the bit of a 6-pack he’s got (though not really defined, as it’s from working/fighting/etc.), and his ribs stick out a bit. When he was hanging around with Maarzi in Elsweyr, he got a lil bit of a tum on him, but it flattened out once he was on his own again.

His shoulders are a little narrow, and his pecs aren’t really that big, average-ish. His nipples are small and a darker color than his skin, but they’re (thankfully) protected from the cold by all the fur surrounding them. They’re not perfectly round, a little ovalish. He has thicker fur on his lower tum and on the middleish area of his chest. He has a long torso.

TL;DR he’d look fairly toned but scrawny if the fur wasn’t in the way. So he just looks scrawny until you dunk him in water.

Hair [Fur?]

image

No shortage of that here. J’hasi’s hair can get ridiculously long, as he doesn’t like cutting it very often. It usually runs from midback to past his waistline. Currently at the college, it’s in need of a cut very soon, as it’s well past his waist. He usually ties it back or keeps it tucked inside of his clothes if he’s traveling or if he’s in class (especially if it’s a class with a certain someone, or a class involving fire). His mane is a darker grey/blackish color, and his fur is made up of dark/light greys, some blacks, and bits of white. It grows fairly quickly, which is good considering a lot of time while on contracts, people seem to really gravitate towards setting him on fire.

Depending on how stressed he is, his hair can run from super soft and fluffy to a bit rough. When he’s in a relatively safe living situation he can give some time to brushing it nicely, but when he’s frequently drinking and not caring for it properly, it’s less pleasant to touch. Similar story with his fur. Far as management goes, it’s alright. Usually it likes to stick up every which way, but given some brushing and some water, it’ll behave fairly well for the general look he has. Neat and orderly appearances are not something J’hasi can pull off, hair being a big reason.

Styling is pretty simple: brush it, then either tie it back in a tail of some sort, or braid it. As braiding takes time, it’s something he doesn’t do often, unless he knows it’s going to be windy and he doesn’t want to feel hair against his back under his clothes. Back when he traveled with others and it was of suitable length, he’d let them do it for him if they felt like it. Strands too short to fit into the tie lengths will eventually rebel and stick up whichever way they like, but as J’hasi doesn’t often look into a mirror and they don’t really get in his face, it doesn’t bother him.

♡ :Is there a certain scent that brings about nostalgia? If so, describe a memory this scent brings back.

There’s lots of scents that give that feeling, but not a lot of them have specific memories attached to them. The tickling, almost acrid warm scent of Sees’ smudge stick, the damp, old-growth scent of a long rain in Black Marsh, the bitter, dry scent of trauma root growing in the Ashlands all have unspecified memories attached to them, mostly just being in the places the scents are associated with.

There’s only a few scents that trigger specific memories. The smell of warm, caramelized sugar usually brings up the night of a bar brawl in a tavern in Elsweyr, followed by the usual generalized memories of traveling with the source of that scent, the Redguard who saved his ass from said bar brawl. In general, the scent brings back those good days traveling in a dry wasteland that was nine kinds of ‘oh fuck me, sand’, but made less awful with a quick grin and good-natured teasing.

(2, 4 and 13 :>)

2. Do others like you? Do you want others to like you?

J’hasi frowned, ears flattening a little.

“Seems like some people do. Or they at least tolerate my presence. I’m…not exactly sure someone likes me unless they come right out and say it, and normally people don’t do that.” He sighed, rubbing at his jaw as his eyes flicked to his boots.

“Wanting people to like me, though… That’s… …I do and I don’t… I’d like that, because…I miss familiarity. I miss having friends. But…” ‘I’m afraid of hurting them. I’m afraid of messing everything up. I’m afraid they’ll be in danger because of me. …I’m afraid that they’ll turn on me…’

“…I’m a fugitive. I can’t afford to get attached.”

4. How do you know when you’re in love? (romantic or platonic)

“I don’t.” The answer was abrupt, ears flicking back as his gaze lowered.

“At least…I don’t think so… …when someone I cared about…really cared about was in danger…” J’hasi sighed, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away off to the side.

“I don’t know… I never asked Maarzi about that. Part of me wishes I just would’ve. I still don’t know what I felt about her… It was different than with Baht or Brynring, even Jeer-rah.” A long sigh issued from his nose before he shook his head.

“I don’t know. If they’re my friend, I care about them. That…that should be enough…”

13. What could make you break your own moral code?

The Khajiit’s expression hardened.

“Ask the Thalmor. Or anyone else who hurts or kills those who can’t defend themselves. Any who abuse their power over those without…they don’t get mercy.”

☆ = Character’s best dream?

I’ve been sitting here trying to think of ‘the best one’, but I’m drawing a blank so we’ll settle for ‘a good one’.

He was swimming in murky water, you couldn’t see too much ahead other than occasional bits of moss or debris that managed to fall into whatever body of water he was swimming in, but rather than most swimming dreams that end up badly, he was faster, smoother in the water, more streamlined. There wasn’t any feeling of holding his breath, either, just…breathing the water, but it felt like air, which was confusing when he thought back on it, but in the dream it didn’t occur to him enough to draw much attention to it. J’hasi realized he was fishing, and by the make of his spear and the fish he was finding, he was back in Black Marsh, and wow would you lookit that, he had scales!

The dream was pretty calm and not much happened in it other than hunting fish and occasionally checking out his Argonian body, but just the feeling of ease of movement and not feeling the drag of water in his fur made this dream a good one. And he didn’t suddenly change back or drown at the end, so even better. He had a cheerful spring in his step the next day, which seemed to amuse Maarzi.

☁ and ❖?

☁ = How often does the character dream?

Pretty often, it’s rare that he doesn’t, really. He’ll usually remember one or two dreams when he wakes up, depending on when and how he wakes up. Nightmares are more likely to be remembered than the ‘filler’ dreams of running after something in the forest, chasing down unseen prey that became irritatingly frequent after his infection with lycanthropy. Certain dreams he still remembers to this day, but like with most of his dreams, he’s reluctant to talk about them with anyone.

❖ = Does the character lucid dream?

Yes, but not often enough for his liking. Even if J’hasi realizes that he’s dreaming, he rarely had control over much more than what his dream-self does, and even then, he doesn’t have full control. It’s more than a little frustrating when you realize you’re dreaming, you choose to sit still and let whatever happen, happen, only for your body to suddenly move of its own accord to prevent your ‘death’, which one would assume would end the dream.

There’s been more than one occasion where he has managed to ‘die’ in his dreams, only for the dream to continue with him still witnessing everything from the point of view of whatever’s left of his corpse. After the first few times he’s more likely to just avoid the ‘death’ part, just because it leaves him with a bad feeling in his stomach and throat whenever he wakes up.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started