#'characters' here are my ocs that are represented by my doll collection and i write scenes n stories about them

[lostandbackagain]

trying to straddle the line between having my characters with different ethnic and religious backgrounds than mine celebrate their holidays accurately and not making it look like I'm celebrating them myself is. stressful

[kaaramel]

Algernon Luc Perreault, Baron of Haunted Dolls

(this is my first time doing this specific character creation dance and i’ve obviously not ever played nobilis so i’m open to critique/workshopping and also truly can’t believe i’ve done this.)

In their mortal existence Luc was a banker, moderately well off, with an almost aggressively mundane life. Since being taken under the metaphorical wing of The Longest Furby, relatively recently, they’ve assumed the responsibility of caring for the bizarre wildlife of her Chancel, the Uncanny Valley; peeled the skin off their own hands; and generally been unimpressed with divine life. Still, they have acquired a certain unflappability; they’re exasperated by new and bizarre events, but rarely actually disturbed, not for long.

Haunted Dolls...

...inspire confusion, fear, and alarm (2)

...resemble living things, but aren’t (2)

...have their actual danger exaggerated (2) 

...are collector’s items (1)

Of course I mean this Estate quite broadly, as “any doll-like or stuffed-animal-like object that’s at least a little bit uncanny valley” - taxidermy, figurines, etc. included; and it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the ghostly type of haunting, I just needed a pithy summation and I listen to just enough MBMBAM to not let this opportunity go.

Luc has a lot more Persona than Domain, but they do have The Sovereign’s Gift (Lesser Animation of Haunted Dolls) and can therefore bring mundane dolls and toys to life, granting them unsettling, jerky movement. If I understand the rules (which I don’t) the dolls can then use Luc’s Shine to do stuff for their creator’s sake, which makes them actually kind of impressive. Whenever possible, Luc brings the new creature back to the Uncanny Valley and lets it join the growing population of slightly horrifying living toys there.

The Uncanny Valley

Everything stretches farther than you’d think.

Gardens will be fruitful.

If it looks like a living creature, it can move and speak.

The abandoned have a place here.

Your imperfections are loved.

The Longest Furby’s Chancel, the Uncanny Valley, is a deep crevice, folded in on itself such that it passes outside the mundane world’s notice. It is accessible from almost everywhere if one knows the right mental trick; it involves a sort of gradual approach to any mundane, constructed doorway, but not actually going inside. The Chancel itself is bursting with lush growth, cultivated gardens, and beautiful babbling streams, and it’s populated almost entirely by living dolls - mostly Furbies and things that resemble Furbies, but not entirely. Besides the better-known mechanical kind, several species of organic Furbylike creature exist here, blending mammalian and avian traits to various degrees; I hope the largest are maybe the size of a medium dog, because anything larger starts distressing me a little to think about, but you never know.

The place has sort of an Island of Misfit Toys vibe, because most of the residents have been deliberately modified, or got broken once and then mended, or were always kind of unsettling. It’s got a little bit of benign Hell-nature to it, I suppose, in its acceptance of oddballs and rejected things. Between the gardens, the guarantee of finding a place, and the ability to metaphorically and literally stretch their supplies, it’s a very hospitable spot, for people able to look past the mild creepiness of their hosts.

Attributes

Aspect 0

Domain 1

Persona 4

Treasure 2

with 8 MP each. Nothing too fancy; I think they prefer to keep out of actual conflicts, and bluff their way out of bad situations with Persona tricks, amping up their own creepiness and/or how dangerous other people perceive them to be.

Their primary Treasure is a pair of magically-imbued elbow-length soft leather gloves made of their own skin, which hasn’t been replaced; Luc just walks around with clean, bare skeleton hands. It’s fine. Both the gloves and the hands are kind of super gross if you think about it too hard but it’s fine. 

The gloves are capable of animating, floating around, and doing simple tasks autonomously, or more complex ones under telepathic mental direction, without anyone actually putting hands in them (I don’t know if I need to ...spend something, somewhere, to give it this ability, or if I get to just declare it?). Mostly they are left behind in the Uncanny Valley and are used for the benefit of all the residents who don’t have proper hands, including The Longest Furby herself. The +1 Tool bonus applies when they’re used for sewing repairs.

Bonds/Afflictions

Affliction: I am always dignified. (3)

Affliction: I can peel the skin off anything. (2)

Bond: My hands are bare and skeletal. (2)

Bond: I’m still connected to my old skin. (Treasure bond) (2)

Bond: I take care of small creatures. (2)

Bond: I always have the perfect outfit. (1)

Bond: I take my Imperator’s commands seriously, even the goofy ones. (1)

... I still have a couple points to allocate but I’ve run dry on ideas; maybe they have a mundane Furby or Furbyesque critter as another Treasure? I guess so. Like a weird stumpy little gryphon familiar. That’s cute, and would probably annoy them, so yes.

Passions/Skills

I’m going super out of order with these, aren’t I? Sorry. Mostly it’s that I’m not confident about this bit in particular, at all, but I guess it’s fine.

Passion: I want an uneventful life. (3)

Passion: A good outfit gives me confidence. (2)

Skill: Accountant (2)

Skill: Express sincere emotion (-1)

Cool (1)

Shine (4) (from Persona)

Why do I keep making accountant OCs? Listen, if I ever figure it out I’ll let you know. Something in my hindbrain insists that Luc used to work for a bank and I’m just rolling with it. Are all the skills and bonds relating to outfits and fashion and dignity overlapping too much? Also a mystery to me. Let me know.

Lifepath

As above, their Estate is Haunted Dolls. Their Keys are Gorse (Something In Thrall) and Oak (Something that Hasn’t Changed.)

Gorse Heart: Held In Thrall

This Furby nonsense.

Disturbing, but I can’t look away.

Nothing exciting to go back to.

I have to figure Her out.

There has to be meaning to this.

Gorse Shadow: Entangled with my Enemy

I can’t let go. 

I’m weak.

Longfurby keeps introducing me to her weird friends.

This Key is strengthened by:

An Estate that’s ‘something you can point to’ (i.e., dolls. Straightforward!)

a Humble mortal life (they were nobody special and preferred it that way.)

A connection to the Cammora (I don’t know what sort of connection! Even the merest shadow of the concept amuses me, though. OOC, a couple folks in the fandom have accused The Longest Furby of being a Mimic or an Actual; maybe she’s discreetly under investigation in-universe too and the Cammora have approached Luc?)

Song of the Light (I’m not suuuuure about this one but I’m not sure which of the other Affiliations it’d be, either. I don’t think they’re independent enough for for rejecting an allegiance altogether, or for the Wild. There’s arguments that could be made for all four of the others, so I just went with the one that strengthened their Key... I guess it’d make sense that, ultimately, they’d favor humanity over everything else, even as they feel increasingly disconnected from it (see below). I don’t know if it’s possible to change this later but maybe as they progress along their character arc they’ll get more sympathy for the weird stuff and start listening to Hell instead?)

and weakened by: 

a connection to Aliens (all the weird Furbies and Furby-adjacent creatures Luc keeps befriending with deep reluctance, from the Imperator-level ones all the way down to the mundane ones they animate with their own powers. A quirk/blind spot is that they don’t really differentiate between a mechanical, magically animated Furby that used to be totally inanimate and the ‘natural’ ‘’’organic’’’ ones native to the Uncanny Valley.)

Oak Heart: My Identity

Sensible and distinguished.

Calming influence.

Exasperated but unfazed by strange events.

Former banker.

Oak Shadow: Crisis

Privately, I’m deeply unsettled by the changes in my life.

This Key is strengthened by:

More than anything else, they are Something Cool (they’re nothing grandiose, nothing especially weird in and of themself, not deeply passionate - they just roll with the punches a little Too calmly.)

An Estate that represents the dark side of the human experience (to be pretentious a moment: not really the uncanny qualities of the dolls themselves, but the judgement we collectively render on things that don’t fit an accepted mold. does that work...)

a Humble mortal life (again)

and weakened by:

the Legacy of their humble life is Alienation (Luc doesn’t feel especially connected to humanity anymore - per Song of the Light they still care about humans, in the abstract, but, for example, they don’t have strong ties to their mortal family (no outright falling-out, I don’t think, just drifted away). They can’t get that emotional connection going, and that freaks them out if they think too hard about it. They’re trying to think of themself as above all this change and upheaval in their life, and fundamentally unchanged as a person, and outwardly sure, maybe, but underneath that they’re really kind of not.)

This is so fucking much. This game is wild. Technically I think I should be writing Domain and Persona difficulty charts - let’s be real, I probably will - and probably some other little details, but I’m leaving it here for right now! I was going to put a disclaimer on this like “I’m not taking this too seriously, I don’t have plans to use it in a game or anything,” and I don’t, but listen, people keep saying they want to incorporate Longfurby into their games. I am helpless before this tide, and if anyone does in fact put their money where their mouth is on this one, you’re certainly welcome to include Mx. Perreault as well, if she needs Powers.

All credit for actually making the original Longfurby and bringing her into our physical world rests with @furbyfuzz​, who is wonderful and excellent.