#still gotta work on the memory snippets but here we go with Character Rambles (tm)

[sycamorre]

Ledo 💋 🍑 🥝. Remind me who the healer was who was dating Tural in the shipyard? 💙 💜. AND my beloved Oriana, 🌸 🌷 📀

[ Jumbo OC Asks ]

Yeeee thank you (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)

Ledo —

💋 How affectionate are they with their friends? Their family? Their romantic partner(s) (if they have any)? Are they more physical or emotional when it comes to displaying their affection? Why?

Ledo, despite being a bit rough around the edges, is plenty affectionate to those closest to her. She genuinely tries to put effort into showing that she cares to family and good friends, as well as crew that she's on good terms with. Her affection does tend to be on the emotional side rather than the physical, though mostly because she knows metal arm hugs are not exactly the most... comforting. Most physical affection is minimal at best (a hand on the shoulder, fixing something that's out of place on the person's clothes, etc.). But she's generally honest with her words and she goes out of her way to show she cares in whatever way she is able to, whether it be a small gesture like sitting with them just to provide company, offering to fix some of their equipment, or even making entirely new things for them.

Her old crew on the ships were a bit different, just because there was a level of professionalism expected of her in the navy, especially once she reached senior officer status. But in the last few years of her service before she ended up on Orianth, she was definitely putting effort into learning how to become an effective leader. Perhaps not perfect, but her efforts were genuine.

Romantic partners... well let's just say her hesitation toward physical affection does go away once she's content in a relationship like that. Unfortunately she was not in a position to be publicly affectionate in this way (gotta try to keep rumors down to a minimum, because nobility/navy politics), but she makes up for it when alone.

🍑 Where is your OC’s favourite place to relax or calm down? Recount a story of their time spent in this place! What makes it so special to them?

Back in Twalan, this would easily be her small workshop at her uncle's manor (though it's more a large shed that was converted into one when she moved in with him). It was the one place she could feel somewhat normal again after losing her arm, and it was the place she felt that she didn't have to be "proper" in order to win approval from the other nobles. It was also the one place the housekeeper wouldn't touch so she could organize it the way she wanted to, or let it be messy while she worked on things. And it served as a great spot for privacy when she wanted someone over without having others hovering around them.

It was a different situation when she was having to spend months at sea. On the ships, her usual favorite spot was either down on the lower decks where the only noise she would have to deal with were the hums of the arcane engines, or on deck after dark when most of the other sailors were asleep. One of her favorite memories is standing on the deck on a clear night, watching the moon reflecting against the crashing waves while she and her closest friend, Killian, talked well into the night.

🥝 What does a bad mental health day look like for your OC? Walk us through it with them. What kind of things can help them out of this slump and what kinds of things comfort them when they start to feel like this?

The biggest sign of Ledo having a Really Bad Day in general is if you ask her something and she either doesn't answer, or she answers in a gruff, monosyllabic way. She is pretty good about keeping a straight face when she is struggling either mentally or emotionally (life on a ship where duty and the safety of the crew often comes before self care can do that do you), but she is certainly not immune. Normally she counters it by minimizing her interactions with others to give herself a chance to recharge or straighten herself out first, as she knows good and well that trying to talk while her mind is racing with negative thoughts almost always ends with her putting her foot in her mouth. Easier to deal with someone grumpy about you being a bit unsocial for a few hours than having to apologize for a miscommunication.

Drache is also a comfort for her when she's having a rough time. He is very much in tune with her (quite literally through arcane means since her magic is basically his source of power), and can recognize when something isn't right. If she's getting tired but stubbornly trying to finish something, he will come over and put his head right over what she is looking at to tell her she needs to go rest. Or if she's upset about something, he finds a way to get her attention so she is no longer thinking about it.

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Nidhel (aka that healer fretting over Tural) —

💙 What did your OC want to be when they grew up and why? Did they have any lifelong dreams or ambitions they never got to work on or are they currently working to achieve this dream? Has their life taken a very unexpected turn and put all these plans on hold for a while or have they given up on any dreams?

If you asked this of anyone in her family, they would say her dreams as a child changed like the wind: constantly shifting and never really settling on one thing for a long time. She was apprenticing under her mother as a healer from the time she was old enough to, but the main thing she had even more desire to do was to grow her skill with other types of magic, though she had little resources to do so.

Fortunately, this is a case where she was able to pursue this eventually! After the Great War between the Dominion and the Empire ended, Indes was able to talk to a retired enchanter she was familiar with to take Nidhel on as an apprentice, giving the sisters a chance to be closer again and to give Nidhel a chance to not only expand her horizons with magic, but also see a bit of the world outside Valenwood.

Her current ambitions at this point in their story, however, are a bit murky at best. She wants to find a new goal, but that is becoming a bit more complicated between trying to stay close to her sister, her relationship with Tural, and wanting to pursue even more magical studies. She's sort of feeling things out for now, seeing where things go, and she's okay with that. Thankfully, she has plenty of patience.

💜 Music or Silence? Swords or Spells? Cities or Nature?

The first two are easily music and spells respectively. While Nidhel isn't much of a singer, she loves to dance for fun and genuine silence makes her feel uneasy (probably a side effect of being raised in Valenwood, where the jungles were always noisy unless there was something very wrong). And the spells are because that is absolutely her strength between the two. She wouldn't know what to do with a sword if her life depended on it.

She would probably feel bad saying it, but at this point in her life she definitely prefers the cities to pure nature. She is a wood elf, and she still holds an appreciation for nature, but she is so used to being in cities where everything is much more convenient and all of her people are close by, so going back to the villages of Valenwood or any other place that doesn't have a city near it would probably not be as enjoyable for her compared to how it would be for others in her family.

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Oriana —

🌸 What does your OC’s voice sound like? Their laugh? Are they good at singing? Do they have an accent?

Oriana's voice is generally pleasant to hear, she speaks gently and rarely raises her voice unless she has a good reason to. She definitely has a noticeable Tyadosan accent, which absolutely gets stronger when she's around her family, Ranna, or specifically when she's having a sibling argument. Years of practicing in both the temple and the monastery have made her a good speaker in formal environments, though she still falters if put on the spot in front of too many people.

When she's nervous, she practically stops talking altogether. If she laughs, it's either a soft chuckle or this light, airy, sometimes almost nasally laugh that she thinks sounds silly so she gets self-conscious and will often try to cover her mouth to hide it a little. And despite not having any true formal training, years of attending temple services have made her into a pretty decent mezzo-soprano singer! She struggles with high notes and doesn't have the lung capacity for drawn-out notes, but she can hold a tune at least.

🌷 In what ways would your OC alter their body if they could? How would they do it using mundane means (hair dye, surgery, make-up?). What is their ideal look for themself?

If you asked Oriana this before the campaign, she would want to change absolutely everything that made her stand out. She would have made her hair darker, made her eyes look normal, possibly a shade of blue like her father's... Anything that would make her look like she fit in, at least with her family. She has actually tried hair dye in the past back when she was a teenager, but that attempt went horribly and almost made her self-consciousness worse. Thankfully, she is trying to be more accepting of herself after all that has happened, but some days are easier than others. She does occasionally use the thaumaturgy spell now that she has access to it to change her eyes. Sometimes just to see how they would look if they were normal. Other times just to make it so she doesn't have to deal with questions when she is meeting certain new people.

I don't think Oriana at this point has an "ideal" look for herself. She is not against using the occasional bit of makeup to enhance her features that she does like, especially when a certain bard is around, but otherwise she is rather fine with herself at this point and getting better as time goes on in that regard.

📀 How easy is it to shock your OC? To confuse them? To lie to them, to manipulate them? How are they with feelings of trust? Can your OC be trusted?

Oriana has a fairly healthy wariness about her. She is certainly not going to trust most folks at face value for the most part, but she's not rude about it. A lot of this is the result of hearing stories from the clergy at the temple and from the warnings of other Sun Soul monks when she first started doing outside work after finishing her training. I would say that overall, she is good about not being manipulated by those she does not know well. Tricking her would require spending a lot of time building up the trust first. It would definitely be easier to show or confuse her in a general sense, but she would still be wary from the get go.

Trust is something that is actually very precious to Ori in a sense. She has a lot of weirdness going on, and absolutely does not want to give the details to someone she does not trust. Her magic and appearance has earned her a lot of strife over the years, and it makes it hard to share those struggles with anyone who has not earned her full trust. Feeling like she can trust someone with that kind of information is one of the greatest reliefs she can have. And she certainly hopes those same people feel that they can trust her as well.