#soyei koren

[the-nymphvallien-universe]

funerals are tense.

[the-nymphvallien-universe]

drawing is going well

[the-nymphvallien-universe]

The Koren Childhood

TW: description of abuse, gaslighting; nothing graphic is described or shown. The following captions are written in Sonwy's perspective.

I don't remember much from my early childhood. It must have been happy, all the photos of us from then have us smiling. Soyei and I looked nearly identical. The only surefire way to tell us apart was to see which side the yellow eye was on. I suppose that's why our parents made us have different hair styles, so they could tell us apart easier. That, and the fact that whenever someone tried to look into my eyes, I'd close them and look away.

My hair was the first indicator of my magic ability, too. Ever since age three, parts of my hair would always 'fwoosh' upwards, no matter how much I'd flatten them. Which, I suppose, is not by itself unusual. What was unusual is that they'd change position based on my mood, the sadder I was, the lower they'd point. It was a subtle movement, I'm not sure how long it took for anyone to notice it.

Looking at the photos again… I always seem to have at least one scrape or bruise in them. Perhaps I must've played rough as a kid. But, we always played together, and Soyei doesn't have a scratch on her…

I still remember the day Mom gave us our channeling orbs. She gathered Soyei and I together, and gave each of us one small, black jewellery box. Inside hers was a pink orb hung on a golden chain necklace. Inside mine was a purple orb attached to a handmade choker- elastic with pale purple fabric around it.

Both of us had been looking forward to this day for ages. Soyei immediately started jumping around in excitement. "Sonwy, Sonwy! Look at mine!!" But I was transfixed by my orb. A purple so deep, it neared black in the center. It sparkled in the light, like glitter was suspended in it. I held it to my chest, and it started to glow. It was right then and there that I decided I wanted to know everything there was to know about magic.

Later we realised Mom had split her orb to make ours. At the time I wondered why Dad hadn't split his as well, so that she could keep an orb for herself. Now I'm older, and I know exactly why he would've never done such a thing.

Not to toot my own horn, but I was very good at magic for my age. I realised early on I would have to teach myself and Soyei how to use magic. Mom didn't seem confident in her abilities to teach me without her own orb. And Dad… Dad wasn't going to teach Soyei anything, that's for damn sure.

Not that I minded any of this. I wanted to learn everything about magic, and teaching myself how to use it was a good place to start. Starting small, of course. Because 7-year-olds barely even have magic. It wasn't until age 8 that I was able to teleport a small orange across my desk. That being said, that's better than most 8-year-olds. By age 12 I could teleport myself across a room.

Teaching Soyei magic was more complicated. As a Mind Bender, she needed a subject to practice magic on. It's… honestly amazing I remember anything from those sessions at all. But that's fine. If either of us were to survive our childhoods, teaching Soyei how to mind bend would be vital.

My teenage years were hell. More and more often, I noticed my memories weren't matching up with other people's memories. I'd be accused of things I didn't do. Every account of events I gave was always wrong, somehow. I saw my father tell others that events they witnessed didn't happen. And they believed him.

The more I learned about mind bending, the more I began to piece together what was going on. Soyei confirmed it one day after a practice session. Dad had been manipulating my memories, and the memories of everyone around me, since I could talk. Making everything fit his narrative. The only reason I'd begun to notice was because Soyei was starting to prevent it. To say I was livid would be an understatement. To think he would limit himself to manipulation once he found out I knew was… foolish.

Eventually my fury gave way to hopelessness. Any person I would ask for help would get their mind washed against me. Any thought I had of defiance, avoidance, running away, getting help, was read. And punished. There was no escape, and nothing I could do. The only relief would come in the form of death. In the end, it was ultimately his. But it came so close to being mine.

I wish I could go back in time and hug my younger self. I wish I could tell him that everything was going to be okay one day. I wish I could hold him and say none of what was happening was his fault. I wish I could make him feel safe in his own home. I wish I could make people believe him. I wish I could heal his scarred and scratched body. I wish I could help him. I wish he didn't have to be in pain anymore. I wish it wasn't me. I wish he wasn't me. I wish I wasn't me.

It's so much easier to look in a photo and pretend he's a different person. To convince myself he's a child who I can still help. Than to look in a mirror. And put together the pieces of my own shattered reflection.

[the-nymphvallien-universe]

Next up we have Sonwy's twin sister, Soyei.

The better, prettier, smarter, wealthier, happier, saner, more successful twin sister of Sonwy. She's everything Sonwy could have (and in their parents' opinion, should have) been. Despite this, he doesn't resent her. And this is in part due to the fact that she hated the comparisons as much as he did. She'd always come to his defense if someone even hinted at the notion that he had any less worth than her. In fact, she was almost always at his defense in general. In adulthood however, Soyei has been happy to get away from it all. Their childhood, the comparisons, even Sonwy to an extent. Because at the end of the day, Sonwy is a mirror, reflecting the life she would have lived if she hadn't been so lucky. And the less she is reminded of that, the better.

Mind bending is the ability to read, influence, edit, create, lock away, and/or delete a person's long term memory. People with this ability are sometimes referred to as "Benders." A Bender's ability to manipulate memory is entirely dependent on the strength of their magic. A weak Bender may only be able read thoughts, while a strong Bender may be able to do very subtle things, such as remove a person from a scene in a memory.

Name: Soyei Yukata Koren Aliases: None Date of Birth: 07/02/1999 Age: 32 (Flickering Out) Gender: Female Sexuality: As of yet, undetermined Status: Alive

Hair Colour: Brown Eye Colour: Yellow (left); Green (right) Height: 172 cm (5'8) Heritage: Yipanian Keitoro: N/A Country of Birth: Green County, RV Currently Resides: Tyoki, Dadao, YPN (Flickering Out) Occupation/Career: Accountant Spoken Languages: English, Yipanian

Magic type: Channeling Ability: Mind Bending Lineage: N/A Strength: 90th Percentile Aura Colour: Pink

Mother: Aisha Koren (deceased) Father: Sutome Koren Siblings: Sonwy Koren (brother) Children: None Other Family: Tanaku Koren (uncle), Unnamed Grandparents (deceased) Partner: None Friends: Unknown

For the time being, just ignore the 'Keitoro' and 'Lineage' fields. They're only relevant to Chanarati heritage characters, and 'lineage' is only relevant to characters with embedded magic. Spellcheck is telling me those aren't words, which probably means that explanation didn't help. Don't worry about it, I... might explain it later.

[the-nymphvallien-universe]

Alright so I hate Instagram with a burning passion so fuck it, I'm gonna start posting OC content over here now. Starting with the OCs cause if I start with the universe they live in, I'd be here all night.

Unfortunately starting with the OCs means some of the following information might not make a lot of sense.

Name: Sonwy Sutome Koren Aliases: None Date of Birth: 07/02/1999 Age: 32 (Flickering Out) Gender: Male Sexuality: Heteromantic Demisexual Status: Alive

Hair Colour: Brown Eye Colour: Green (left); Yellow (right) Height: 172 cm (5'8) Heritage: Yipanian Keitoro: N/A Country of Birth: Green County, RV Currently Resides: Glamour, Tamie, NY (Flickering Out); Kaeyo, Orange County, RV (post Flickering Out) Occupation/Career: High School Magic Studies Teacher (Flickering Out) Spoken Languages: English

Magic type: Channeling Ability: Teleportation Lineage: N/A Strength: 90th Percentile Aura Colour: Deep Purple

Mother: Aisha Koren (deceased) Father: Sutome Koren Siblings: Soyei Koren (sister) Children: None Other Family: Tanaku Koren (uncle); Unnamed Grandparents (deceased) Partner: Atsume Sakana (post Flickering Out) Friends: Todoroki Amene (Flickering Out); Atsume Sakana (Flickering Out)

Actually just so anyone reading this isn't completely lost: All the countries listed above are made up. RV = Rainbow Valley, NY = New Yatyosh 'Flickering Out' is a story I've hypothetically written, but practically is only half finished. The important part is 'Flickering Out' takes place in 2031. And if any of this reads like a Fandom wiki page... that's cause it's meant to, I'm doing this in lieu of creating a wiki for like, two people.