Abryn
From The Yuriban Encyclopedia
| Abryn Rihwin | ||
|---|---|---|
| IC Information | ||
| Nicknames: | Abby/Kero/Kerosene | |
| Race: | Human | |
| Gender/Sexuality: | Female/Bisexual | |
| Age: | 185 | |
| Birthdate Standard: | November 11, 1824 | |
| Birthdate Home Realm: | 22nd of Valnuary, 276 years after the fall of the Seleucarian Empire. | |
| Birthplace: | Ashtan, Sapience, Achaea | |
| Height: | 5'7" | |
| Blood Type: | Blue-blooded | |
| Hair: | Silver (Like metal in lustre) | |
| Eyes: | Sapphire Blue (With latice textured iris) | |
| Religion: | High Priestess of Twilight, Shadowlord of Darkenwood | |
| Residence: | Living with Leona and Flame in Leona's apartment | |
| Marital Status: | Divorced Twice, once before the island. | |
| Romantic Status: | Currently Commited to (Feanor, Flame, Juliet, Kayla, Leona, Mika and Mirabelle) | |
| Romantic Identification: | Polyamorus and Open | |
| Preferences | ||
| Hobbies: | Inscribing tarot cards, Ritualism, Tattoo artist (Traditional), Drinking, Cooking, Reading, Anime, Sewing, Tailoring, Weaving | |
| Likes: | Love, Eyes, Moonlight, Rain, Polearms, Merlot, Poptarts, Sushi, Playing Pool, Play acting | |
| Loves: | Philosophy, Teasing (Both Sides), Connections | |
| Dislikes: | Most cooked meats (Bacon is a condiment, not a meat), Bickering, Sulking, Senseless violence, Guilt, Petty actions, Guns, Blood, Needles, Death, Tethers | |
| Phobias: | Death, Soliude | |
Abryn is a former occultic magic user, skilled in shadowlore, and well-trained in other ancient magics. All of which she has given up practicing since settling down as a resident.
Contents |
Physical Description
General
She is a human and is rather unkempt at the moment. One notices her frosty-white skin first. Almost pristine in tone, her skin reflects light ever so slightly, giving her an almost innocent appearance. Her silvery hair has been carefully pulled up and strung up behind her head, pinned there with a pair of slightly tarnished sterling chopsticks. The ends of each of the two parted braidlets hang free from the side, draped a little like pigtails, and wrapped, or rather woven into her hair is frosty white ribbon, tied at the end to hold her braids together. Her silvery bangs tumble gently over her eyes, yet take nothing away from the brilliance of the deep sapphire-blue orbs beneath. Her thin, pale lips are pulled naturally into a sort of cynical smirk, a smile often thought of as charming by human standards. Long slender arms extend gracefully from her thin, yet well-framed torso, toned and supple. Her legs are long and well-shaped, curving ever so slightly and giving the impression that she does a great deal of walking.
Style
Typically the woman wears much more formal looking gowns and dresses than most of the islanders; they tend to be of various colours with matching corset and stockings. She says she gets them from 'her other halfs' fiancee which is a seamstress. She seems to favour the dark midnight, silvery and icy gowns the most. She seems to lack any affinity for lycra or modern swimwear and opts to go nude in the public pools, even if it means she has to run dripping wet in the winter cold. Occasionally she can be seen wandering around in a robe kindly donated by her dear Flame.
Soon after deciding to settle on the island, and not just visit, Abby had her other clothes transfered over from her home. It took her until well after moving in with Leona and Flame to unpack those materials, and shes been steadily wearing more and more varieties of clothing ever since. Part of the issue was with her halloween costume last year, it required body-dye and well, the blue took quite a while to leave her skin, causing her to clash with much of her clothing.
She seems to have a slight obsession with clothing, quite liking to spend nights planning new outfits with Flame, and discussing styles. The impact of this can be heard the most if anyone ever speaks of how much of the small closet Abryn takes up, much less how many garments and spools of clothing she has in storage over at Flame's house, as she has about nine differing gown sets, along with a few dress shirts she wears as pajamas around the bar. She also broke out her winter coat and hat due to the cold and can be seen running around town in that when she leaves the comfort of the indoors.
Other than clothing she tends to wear her hair in a very bed-headish look, though has been growing it out substantially for some reason as of late. This has lead to a much wider variety in her daily hair-primping, though she generally seems to prefer it up and out of the way of her shoulders when not wearing it down for a special occasion. She very rarely wears cosmetics other than lipstick, and even then she opts for lip-gloss due to it tasting a bit less vile. When she is in a special mood, or wishes to go out, she has been known to use silver glitter on her face and exposed skin, some cut into the shape of small moons and stars. She keeps quite an array of rings, pendants and other pretties. From a simple worn charm bracelet on her wrist, right down to an anklet of roses. She has been known to explain them from time to time, each piece holds a dear memory to her, one of the giver and of a time of her heart in bloom.
Personality
About as multi-faceted as anyone on the island, Abryn seems to know a little of just about everything. In her long life shes seen a lot done a lot, and heard a lot and she most often puts it to use to help those around her. She can often be found striking up casual conversation, attempting to get to know the various women she meets.
At her core, she is a compassionate and kind woman. It is not the kindness that comes naturally, from a simple giving heart, but the kindness of one thats lived roughly, and truly knows the blessing that a true heart can give. She very rarely denies a friend in need, often setting her entire life aside for the time it takes to help said friend through whatever issue it is. One could say that she does the same for strangers and be fairly accurate. She'll help feed and clothe just about anyone, again giving of herself to help them back onto their feet.
Often though this kindness is abused. Either people guilt her when she can't drop everything, can't be everything for an individual, or they seem utterly incapible of learning and growing and find themselves repeatedly in need for the same mistakes. Both of these issues deeply hurt the woman, and are perhaps one of her deepest weaknesses. Many a time her friends and lovers have to physically pry her away from bad situations, and admonish her for caring too much.
She is extremely accepting of pretty much anything. It takes a lot to shock or surprise her, she lived through gruesome wars and atrocities and has been to the primal planes of chaos and darkness. As a result simple lesbian tendencies, strange relationship habits, and personal quirks don't really measure up to world-shattering drama to her. She tends to take it in stride and expects others to do the same. As a form of respect for others, if not herself, she feels every sentient creature should possess.
When she encounters closed-minded people, or those that tend to abuse her kindness her basic solutions are passive, she tends to avoid them or avoid contact. She refuses to run from her problems, but rarely really meets them head on. She tries to be extremely forthright, but due to strange habits picked up from years as a politician she can sometimes be overly obtuse and not get to the point about the most simple of subjects.
One of the great pleasures of her life stems from control, and releasing control. She adores little mind games and teases, though she attempts to avoid the sorts of toying that causes drama; she's far from a cruel woman. Flirting seems to be one of the most basic outlets of this, and apparently shes quite good at most styles of teasing.
Now, flirting is a sexual subject, and as such it can be quite hard to put labels on. Some of Abryn's tactics can become a little excessive for the tame, from tasteful public groping and talk best left to the bedroom to outright exibitionism, Abryn can be quite the little minx if the mood strikes. She feels she can read people fairly well and steps up with what the people in close proximity can handle, and keeps the modesty to an acceptable level based on that. She adores pushing people's limits, but not pushing them over and tends to become very upset if she does that.
Some of Abby's actions could be measured up as slutty, as can some of her behaviour, but that all depends on opinion. Some of it comes from her ability to switch from dominant play to submissive play in her flirting, some of it comes from her ability to accept situations others may feel odd in and generally. In such situations she looks for the positive side, and often watches with a bemused look or impishly decides to stir up a little more trouble.
Despite all of her more casual actions, Abryn is really a lover. Her kindness finds her many good friends and occasional lovers, all of whom she treasures. She makes the commitments she can, at times over-extending herself, but tries to only make those that the other person can keep up with as well. Given a string of failed relationships and marriages due to her near-militant polyamory she shys from women that fall to quickly, are prone to jealousy, or seem to want all of her, and all of her time.
Lifestyle
Habits & Family
Currently the woman's life is quite full and rich. She has found herself living with Leona and Flame above Leona's Bar and Girl. She has since moved all of her belongings either into the small apartment there, or into Flame's traditional house over on Water Lily road.
Her love for both Flame and Leona continues to grow, they are more than obviously her highest priority, and her family, along with her own daughter Amber and their daughters. She tries to make time for her other friends, and girlfriends, but seems to be doing a rather bad time of it, entirely too busy to keep up in a way that'd make her feel entirely without guilt. Quite a few of them have started to jokingly call themselves members of the 'harem', which is possibly the furthest thing from Abby's wishes for them to feel.
She can primarily be found looking after Leona's bar when the owner is absent, spending time with Leona cleaning and talking when she is around, or taking a break to walk around the island and socialise. She rarely minds company, unless is explicitly alone on a date, and even then that depends on her date's preferences generally more than her own.
The Lily
At the turn of the year one of her dates with Flame and Kayla brought her to find that Flame's favorite local restaurant, The Ocean Lily was closed, having been left idle and abandoned. After some investigation and inquiries, Abryn put in a bid to have the place re-opened and to her surprise it was accepted.
She has since spent quite a large amount of time restoring the place to its former state of readiness, as well as revamping the menu and attempting to expand the eating space to the beachfront deck. These tasks are mostly completed, though some rough edges still show now and then. She is constantly experimenting in the kitchen, looking to add more food and drinks to the menu as she develops them. She recently met and hired a young girl named Miyabi that seems to be a popular addition to the staff.
It seems that after around a year after taking the 'Lily haws done Abryn well, and the restaurant better. From the slowly changing menu, though always keeping the old favorites, to the differing holiday decor, the Ocean Lily seems to still be a favorite date spot, even growing in popularity through 2008. Aya even appears to be having a bit more fun now and then, and is basically left to run the place most of the time. She added her own special to the menu and even put in an entry for one of the recent cooking contests. Abryn's own hand in it really is left to things like encouraging ideas to flow, such as how the costumes ended up for halloween, with wach one seeming very much to belong to the person wearing it.
Hobbies
Abryn adores cooking over most other activities, and can easily be lured into talking about food prep, recipes or even just making food. She seems to be rapidly running out of new cookbooks and cuisines to sample and is now starting to specialise on the flavours she and her loved ones seem to prefer. Shes always at home with an apron and a kitchen to work in, and quite often takes over various of her girlfriend's kitchen to cook them a quiet meal, or slave over the 'girl' in Leona's bar making food to order for everyone present.
The clothing Abryn wears is rather unique and fancy, she used to be in a rather intimate relationship with the tailor that designed some of them, and picked up quite a few trick of the trade from her. She now designs the majority of her newer outfits, and seems to adore talking with islanders about this or that outfit idea. Shes been known to spend her hours with Flame talking and designing and actually fabricating new outfits, contentedly gabbing away with her beloved.
Where her focus earlier on was more native to her own birth realms, she now seems to be dabbling in formal clothing from several regions of what seems to be the more common world to Yuribans. She apparently has a rather large, and ongoing, kimono and priestess' robe project she is getting a few friends help with.
She spends her idle time either reading arcane books on magic, philosophy or various world histories, or from her collection of manga and pulp fantasy. This has lead her to spend time at the yuriban library now and then, where she made the aquaintance of its maintainer, Fujiko, whom has become a friend to the girl. She seems to love absorbing all of the knowledge she can, but has a need for a certain emotional content in her daily life. She is and will always be a fan of manga and anime, possibly allowing it to grow to the point of an addiction that rivals her love of women (no, not likely).
Biography (Extended)
She is human, well, one would assume if there was a genetic breakdown of her, she'd be as human as the next earthborn yuriban, even if shes not earthborn herself. The world she is from seems to drastically differ from earth in some regards, well more along the lines of differing from typical modern earth, by being quite magical. This magic is so common where she is from that almost every living person has it, and can channel it. Its also, due to this, not as dependant on modern machinations, having developed some, but without the same sort of demands industry hasn't really caught on over there, nor electricity in most locations.
Where she isn't one to flaunt her somewhat exotic origins, prefering to blend in with the less exotic masses of the island, she will occasionally speak on it when prompted or reminded about something that relates. Its not that she hides her past, its just not important to her, or as important to her these days given she came here to relax.
Its relaxation shes gotten, having turned her initial vacation, into settling down permenantly on the island, and nesting with Leona and Flame. Her intial months were as varied as any girl that didn't get caught up in something fairly monogamous right away, that is to say she had quite a handful of experiences, lovers and girlfriends. Thats tapered off a little, one would almost say signifigantly since her pregnancy and settling down to nest with her beloved ones. Having had Amber and the trio having time to adjust to the little bundle of joy and trouble, Abby has had more time to spend on her own things again.
Her time at the bar has been shorter, lately, in an attempt to get away from the bustle of the island's new blood a little. She has been cherishing the time alone with Leona, though letting one newcommer, Morrigana, squirm her way into their collective lives. One could suppose that Abryn's focus inward since the start of November could be due, in part, to the year anniversary of her relationships with her two beloved girlfriends, and that she could be trying to dedicate a bit more to take it to the next level.
At the start of 2009, Abryn officiated the first wedding that she's done on the island. Kayla and Angela were married in style, though the ceremony was on the spur of the moment. She wishes the couple a very happy life together, and hopes they enjoy life as much as she has lately.
Relationships (Extended)
All in all, Abryn is generally open to new people, as she meets them. She tends to put no real bounds on how any given relationship will grow, being truly poly herself, though one of the more crucial issues with anyone seeking time, or to deepen their bond with the woman will find is that she puts a priority on existing relationships, especially with her near constant companionship of Flame and Leona. She is generally very warm and open, though sometimes excessive violent, or manipulative personalities will put her fairly on guard.
She has several girlfriends of a variety of age, species and personality. Each is very special to her, and each one has been nurtured, and even at times left to let grow as they will. This has left a few to mellow with time, some into less passionate friendships, others into almost stalker-like persistance, and well, two notable ones into near marriage-like loyalty and comfort. If its not obvious to those that know her, she seems to pick or more fall into more comfortable things primarily with couples, either due to the comfort of not being relied on as someone's one-and-only, or just some other, deeper mental draw.
Abby's time tends to mostly be spent with either of, or both, Flame and Leona, though its not always the case, really! She'll also spend time with Mirabelle and Juliet, Kayla, Feanor and Mika. More recently, shes been having some small dates with breisleach and been seen harassing and flirting with Ada and Fujiko.
It could be said that the time Abby has been spending leaning on breis lately is growing. Its not a result of tension, but more just her need to help out and curiosity of the island itself. Abryn, breis, Flame and Morrigana have started a very loose pattern of sharing meals here and there and discussing the island's traditions, some philosophy and well, the subjects of food and clothing tend to come up a lot as well (go figure). Abby has also happily been stealing a moment here and there to visit with and be with Feanor now that she seems to be back from her trip, its very good to see her again.
Powers and Knowledge
In Abryn's fairly extensive history shes been many things, from an ice princess, to a warlock-like ice mage and fighter hybrid, then sort of towards paladin, though at times more anti-paladin, and finally with a more dedicated lean towards knowledge an occultist and shaman. Shes been through a lot, shes done what most would consider 'it all', but what remains of it?
Her noble blood was always strange to her, never felt her own, but that heritage gifted her with a few things. One was ice magic, as her complexion has always hinted at, ice ran through her veins. She seems to feel its from her father's side, an unknown part of her past, but really it could have come from anything, whatever contributed along with her mother, to her birthing. She gained the powers of the tundra, along with the abilities for survival in those harsh conditions if she ever bothered to test it. The other side of her heritage is that of her mother's secret. A secret not uncommon in the land she was born, though not overly popular, at times viewed as a stigma. Shes always hidden from it, possibly due to her stubborn nature, maybe even possibly in some sort of denial of it entirely.
Shes fit, rather unnaturally fit still, even so she does exercise and take care of the body in a way that stems from a long history of training. She trained as a warrior most of her early life, though with a natural dislike for blood and violence, she ended up avoiding blades for most of that time. Its not to say shes unskilled at them, she would just prefer a staff or spear to them any day. Her favorite weapons would be even fancier than that, a ceremonial halberd, or more elaborate polearm. She fights to disarm, not to kill, as compassion has always been deeply rooted in her nature, and is more often known to pull her blows, taking damage to herself, if she can't manage a disabling blow, thats not a killing or maiming one.
Its not to say she won't kill, shes done that plenty, but plenty enough to have a massive distaste for it, and most anything that reminds her of it. She only bears it be cause of her faith, knowing that she had no choice but to do so to defend those she loves and cares for, among other ideals. One would suppose most of these came from her own rather amusing morals, but they do give her a heroic, or paladin like stance at times. Part of the loyalty and honour she holds herself to comes from that training, and that seeking of faith, be it the ethics of keeping up Freedom or Compassion, or any of her other religious beliefs.
Her beliefs in Freedom stem from two things, one the beliefs in Free Will, taught in her religion, and the other came from her pursuit of knowledge. She came to a point where most of what she needed to know was lost in time, lost in the times of people burning books, locking away knowledge forever, controlling it. She came to believe in knowledge as a living, breathing, communal thing, to which she dedicated the later part of her life in her birthplace towards.
This lead her to some of the darker magics, some of them even things her family had traditionally dabbled in, and she had been brought up on. She looked at them with new perspective, seeing the healing and life magic as it was, but also viewing the magics that manipulated the essence of the soul with distaste, and the taint of what some would do with life-magic, dealing with deeper blood magics and necromancy were looked upon as the revolting things they were. She stepped aside from it there, knowing quite a few of the darker tricks, and places where her own magic grazed the edge of that line, she drew a line never to harm another and made a vow of pacifism which lasted a century. During this time she researched the other skills her family taught, and the Guild of Occultists that her family was a part of. She learned more about Tarot, and dealing with other planar creatures, mostly from the chaos plane, though she had a few run in with others, and learned about pacts, and the good and bad things one could do, and how to deal with the costs in an ethical manner.
There was a fissure in her guild, a minor war between cabals that splintered over necromancy, and an evil religion, breaking away from the true occultist researchers. In the end those became demon worshippers, and were cast out into an unholy group, where the remaining people were truly dedicated only to the arcane arts. Through most of that she was one of the members which held the deepest secrets, and kept track and policed the internal policies of the guild. She finally learned exactly where that line inbetween freedom and consequence is, and how knowledge should be free, yet had to be tethered equally with experience in order to prevent great atrocities, even when not working with the darker magics.
In time, politics got to her, some from the city she lived in, and quite a lot from the Guild was left over from her work policing, and from the splitting of the Guild into two Houses. She left, or was tossed out, or was betrayed somehow. Its not something she talks about, at all, but in the end she split and walked her own path, focusing both on her inner self, and her religious and ritualistic magics. She studied more containment circles and magics first, not having had much work with them in the past, due to her use of active magics, like freeze touches, little fire flares and personal shielding and wards. She learned how to speak with the other planes without being there, how to summon and protect those rituals, and then moved to the highest ritual and containment magics, such dealing with aspects of culture and humanity, as well as the embodiment of past fears, hopes and anxieties of the masses.
This magic, and this school of thought eventually propelled her to more shamanistic rites, and into the House of the Spiritwalkers. There she was accepted and allowed to gain status with her contributions to the belief system and teaching systems within the House. She learned to better ward, to spiritwalk, to focus her energies, and to deal with more natural spirits. For once in her life, a long life of a city-girl, she learned to respect and be at one with nature instead of following her deep metaphysical belief system and fairly metropolitan skillset. She learned to very lightly speak with the spirits of the passed, the concentrated spirits of the forests and animal protection spirits, though never gained a great talent with any, besides the walking as a spirit. She already knew how to Astralwalk, something that was more in tune with the ethereal plane of magic, than the plane of the spirits. The former was done with the body, converting it and taking it with in a complex set of wards and transmutations, the later was done in spirit only, and left the body behind in a sleep state.
In the end, either way, her gifts lay more towards communication and healing, and less towards damage, though most healing arts can be used with dire consequence. She has cast her oath aside, after a century, but hopes not to have to deal with violence in her future. Her true talent is in foresight, prediction and as a sybil, or seer. She was a religious oracle for many years, as well as a politician that learned to watch the machinations of people, both as individuals through body language and psychology, as well as culturally through experience and some of the same things. She correctly predicted quite a few major cultural revolutions, as well as the fallout of them. People still call her wise beyond her years, and well, considering her years, thats pretty unique. Shes the ability to assess a threat or situation in an instant, and a person in a few moments, though due to learning to relax and take herself and life less seriously she often intentionally does the opposite of what she should in most situations, a thing which often lets her learn of others a lot more deeply than they intend.
[See also: Relationships | Biography and Little Amber]
