Breisleach
From The Yuriban Encyclopedia
| breisleach | |
|---|---|
| |
| IC Information | |
| Gender/Sexuality: | Female/Lesbian |
| Species: | Kitsune, storm touched |
| Place of Origin: | Underhill, Yuriba |
| Birthdate: | Uncertain, believed late April or early May in 1250 CE |
| Height: | 5'0" |
| Hair Color: | Black, lightning touched |
| Eye Color: | Dark Grey |
| Romantic Status: | Labels are hard |
| Romantic Identification: | Polyamorous, Open |
| Occupation: | High Priestess of The Lady, Guardian, member of the Town Council, medic, entrepreneur of all trades |
| OOC Information | |
| Source: | Original Character |
- The title of this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. The correct title is breisleach.
breisleach is a nine-tailed kitsune woman, approximately 750 years of age. (She claims to no longer be able to recall the exact date of her birth.) She is native to Yuriba, and one of the very few active citizens who have never set foot off of its shores.
Contents |
Physical Description
Unlike most in Yuriba, breisleach is formed in a more old fashioned vein, heavily curved and somewhat plump. Her height is on the far short end of the scale but she tends to carry herself as if taller. She considers her facial features unremarkable; her hair is dark and laced with lightning. The length of her hair has fluctuated over her history on Yuriba, having ranged from longer than she is tall to a bare inch or so from her scalp; she changes and plays with the style far more often than most other Yuribans do. (Currently, it's gotten fairly long again.) Most would consider her defining characteristics to be her ears, the same as any other fox's, and the fact that she possesses no fewer than nine fox tails.
Her wardrobe is widely varied, although she's most often seen in clothing that might be described as 'sensible, if attractive'. Most of her outfits are casual or business casual, and while she presumably possesses more formal clothes for her work, she is rarely seen in them. She often describes herself as a 'clothes horse' and seems to delight in the acquisition of more garments.
Personality
While polite when approached, breisleach does tend to hang back a bit, enjoying watching people and getting a hang on their personality through observation before introducing herself. She is, in fact, rather shy and is reluctant to make the first move for fear of irritating others. Generally, she's polite but maintains a sense of distance until she knows someone, being somewhat formal in many social interactions. This can come across as being very quiet or even uninterested, although once someone catches her attention it often becomes clear that a quite animated conversationalist lurks under the surface waiting to be drawn out.
Like most kitsune, she often seems to find things funny that aren't immediately obviously so and she loves drawing out an explanation or tantalizing people with tidbits of information. Despite her fondness for teasing, in situations she considers to be serious or important she can rapidly becomes very businesslike and almost brisk. To her, there is no contradiction between the two, just a belief that you have to have the right attitude for the situation.
She's aware that many people find her intimidating – a fact that tends to baffle her, as her somewhat cool and reserved approach to first meetings is based heavily in her cultural background. To her, the lack of immediate openness is a question of propriety, not of friendliness. She can, however, have a rather nasty sarcastic bite when faced with what she considers to be severe examples of stupidity or a lack of common sense; she has a very low tolerance for overly dramatic attempts to gain sympathy, for the excessively timid, and for those she feels are falsifying their behavior. Unsurprisingly, she also has strong opinions and ethics in general and what reserve she has can disappear quickly when she sees someone acting in a way that offends what she holds dear. She can, however, be reasoned with if someone responds in an intelligent manner and has been known to be talked around to opinions she once disagreed with by a skilled debater.
breisleach is deeply devoted once she gives her loyalty. It takes fairly extreme acts for her to break off a friendship and she tries hard to see the good points in everyone, including those she's not close to. Once she has become comfortable with someone or with those introduced through mutual friends, she is often warm and even goofy from the start. In general, she is far more relaxed among those she knows well, with her rather formal demeanor being shed for a tendency to giggle and tease a great deal, even if she's still more reserved about physical contact and the sharing of personal information than many.
She is prone to occasional sulks, particularly when she feels that a project she's been working on has gone poorly or when she feels like the ever-changing Yuriban environment is currently swinging too far over to the side of apathy and a lack of community. These tend to be countered by an intense enthusiasm for new projects and ideas; she throws herself into a variety of activities and interests with dedication and glee.
More private than many realize, breisleach rarely talks at length about her past or her current life. In addition, she tends to submerge and hide some aspects of her personality even among those closest to her, especially the intense religious mysticism that helps define her role as a priestess. For her, aspects beyond her surface friendliness and minor annoyances tend to be reserved for close friends or those who she believes might become such.
Biography
Early Life
Born in the Yuriban Underhill, breisleach was removed from her family at a very young age by the druidesses in service to The Lady who stated that the child was one touched and claimed by the deity – Although never clearly stated as such, it's been hinted that this happened on her first birthday when her parents took her to Harumeku's seers to have her true name divined. While uncommon, such instances were not unknown and thus the young kitsune was raised in the religious community, there beginning her training in druidic magic and abilities. As such, her primary maternal figure in her youth was the previous high priestess, a kitsune who went by the name Fern. While she is aware of the background of her birth family, breisleach has not revealed more than the most minimal specifics of it to anyone at this point.
This training was what taught her to be as comfortable in the material realm as Underhill, as she was required to tend to and interact with both. She trained intently for approximately 300 years and during that time met another young kitsune woman who went by the moniker Slacker. She and Slacker became friends and eventually were romantically involved - Although the young kitsune had, like most Yuribans, a variety of other relationships in her youth, her involvement with Slacker was the most consistent. Shortly before the start of her fourth century of life, the former High Druidess retired, confident that breisleach's training was adequate to take over her role.
Another close friend and lover from this period her life was Sior, a kitsune priestess of Zokutou and later Tenteisei.
After Yuriba's Founding
breisleach and Slacker were eventually married, and after Phil-chan discovered the island of Yuriba and began to build a town there, the pair were among the very first to arrive in the town. In breisleach's case, she came from Underhill and in short order she and her wife settled in comfortably in the material plane, fascinated by all of the new arrivals. For some months she and her wife settled into a threesome with the tigercoon woman FurrySaint, but the three eventually parted ways.
While breisleach was fairly active in the town from the start, Slacker never adjusted well to the transfer from Underhill to the material plane. As the months passed, she grew more and more reclusive and eventually disappeared. breisleach originally had assumed that her wife had merely returned to Underhill, but on being unable to find her there or any trace of her, she eventually came to the sad conclusion that she was, for all intents and purposes, now a widow. Since the summer of 2007 she's come into occasional contact with a woman who she briefly believed to be her wife, but who she now believes to be a relative from the other kitsune's extended family. There is, however, still a great deal of murkiness about the issue.
In the spring of 2004, breisleach herself disappeared as well, when she attempted to flee from a magical attack. The details of this incident remain strongly shrouded in mystery, as she has refused to speak of them with anyone except in the most general terms. While her magic proved sufficient to move her body away from the island, her connection to The Lady allowed the deity to rip out and pull the consciousness from breisleach's body, trapping her in the very land of Yuriba. For nearly seven months, she existed only as a sort of ghost, partially conscious, but unable to act.
Reappearance, 2004 and 2005
| OOC Notes |
| For IC purposes, nothing in the last paragraph of the previous section nor the first of this one should be considered available; the information is known only to breisleach's most intimate confidantes. The exception, of course, would be the dates of her disappearance and reappearance. |
Some months later a woman named Ahe'ssta arrived on the island. She was a psychic and able to perceive the residual spirits lingering on the island. Detecting the constant presence of breisleach's spirit, she told the dragoness Atara of her findings. Eventually, the two were able to pull breisleach's mind free through a ceremony that mixed magic and psionics, allowing the kitsune woman to once more return to full consciousness. However, breisleach was now partially merged into the substance of the island, and her natural state is that of an incorporeal, living thought. Breisleach uses a special focus to maintain a solid form unless she chooses to do otherwise. (Usually for the purpose of avoiding the rain.)
In the early months after her return, breis found herself exceptionally busy, including officially adopting Amy Kou'ai as her daughter. Breisleach also began taking on apprentices in the druidic arts and has become more open about teaching aspects of her religion to other immigrants. Although she remained stubbornly single for some time after the death of her wife and her return to the island, breisleach was briefly involved with Kitsune Inari; the relationship when she found herself unable to reconcile the vast age difference between the two kitsune. After the fall of 2005, she was involved with the half-demoness Irriel. The two settled in to live at the Woodland Retreat after breisleach completed a renovation of the home, although the kitsune maintains a room at the Maison Yuriba.
2006 and 2007
On September 3rd, 2006, breisleach and Irriel were married by Moriko. A few months later, on December 12th, Irriel gave birth to the couple's daughter, named Caileadair. The kitsune was openly troubled throughout this time by the apparent permanent disappearance or possible death of Atara, once her closest friend, and its impact on the dragoness's friends and loved ones left behind in Yuriba. After the sudden arrival of her former lover Sior from Underhill, breisleach had begun to relax and try to let go of her turmoil. In fairly short order, she and Sior fell back into their old relationship. In the meantime, the nine-tail was largely busy dealing with her apprentice Lyra, and various events in the life of her close friends Hokuto and Kashiri.
The stress of her personal life at the time was, unsurprisingly, powerfully magnified by the discovery of a major new fault on Inishie-san by Eimi. In the end, while the eruption went off without too much damage to land or people due to the efforts of volunteers from the town to help in preparation of buildings and first aid, the kitsune ended up so drained that she spent just over a week unconscious in bed, recovering from the loss of energy and a still unhealed injury she acquired in dealing with the volcano. Among the many, chaotic events of the quake, one other bears particular mentions – her original apprentice, Genesis Magite, withdrew from training due to events in her personal life as well as from the role of a Guardian, leaving breisleach with only one current apprentice.
The events preceding the eruption had brought breisleach into closer involvement with Kashiri, Nisa, and Hokuto once more. In particular, the efforts to work to address the threat of Inishie-san's destruction of the island brought breisleach closer to Kashiri, awakening an attraction between the two. For some time, breisleach attempted to balance her relationships with Irriel and Sior while trying to determine where her attraction for both Kashiri and Seishi Sakurazuka would lead her, particularly as the latter possessed a violent hatred for the former. In the end, the crux of the answer to that question would hinge upon that fact. When Seishi finally demanded that breisleach chose one or the other she regretfully made the hard decision and chose Kashiri.
As time and events passed among the various women in the relationship web, Hokuto and breisleach began dating in slightly awkward circumstances, although the relationship gained strength over time. With breisleach's feelings for the optimistic, determined Nisa rapidly growing, a relationship with her developed and deepened as well. After a few months, breisleach and Sior parted ways again, the two finding that their relationship no longer had the spark it originally did. The field of her love life narrowed again soon, in a manner; in June, Irriel departed with the couple's daughter Caile on a trip to visit the half-demoness's family. Already prone to disappearing for days or weeks at a time to visit her old home, after the half-demoness remained in absentia for over six months, including through the couple's first wedding anniversary and their child's first birthday, breisleach had reluctantly and painfully come to the conclusion that her former wife has taken Caile back to her homeworld permanently and abandoned the kitsune. After that point, the marriage was regretfully considered to have ended in a divorce.
Not long after this, the oft expanding circle of her friends and relatives had begun to include Iessica as the young woman has been more or less adopted by breisleach's mate Hokuto, then became romantically involved with breisleach's mate Nisa. Near the very end of the year, there were two further significant shifts in her life; she became engaged to Hokuto and Nisa while her other mate, Kashiri, left Yuriba. It seems that this is expected to be a extended departure, and while breisleach still holds strong feelings for the other woman, she seems to consider that the departure is a functional end to their relationship as it had been.
2008 through 2010
Fairly early in 2008, Hokuto disappeared from the island as well, the kitsune eventually being informed of the permanency of this change in a rather hasty letter; both she and Nisa considered the departure a formal disavowal of their engagement and relationship to the onmyouji and began to try and cope with the change and move forward with their lives. Eventually, however, it seemed that the lingering remnants of the situation simply couldn't be resolved effectively and breisleach made the choice to break things off with Nisa as well and step away from serious relationships for awhile.
The kitsune kept herself busy on various fronts; projects included the planning of the Anniversary Festival and Matsuri and the opening of her own clothing store. She also assisted in updates to the Yuriba Clinic and a B&B project named the Apex Inn opened by her apprentice, Lyra. Some time in the spring of 2009, she began to occasionally show evidence of a new, storm-influenced form; as time went on, this became more common, to the point where it now seems that it might be permanent. When asked, she has always simply demurred and stated that she was stuck by lightning and is sure that must be why. Since this incident, she's steadily spent more time on her Guardian and priestess duties, taking a small step back from the more organizational parts of the town business.
Socially, she expanded her circle more, spending time with Abryn and Flame more regularly and trying to meet other new people. She and Abryn have developed a particularly close, flirtatious friendship, breisleach finding the woman relaxing and comforting to be around. Visits from Mirabelle O'Shea and the other members of her household, most notably Meichen Long, are another social diversion that the kitsune particularly enjoys. Throughout all this, the friendship between breisleach and returned dragoness, Atara, strengthened; the two now share the Retreat, and while she's not prone to speaking openly about it, the common assumption is that the pair is now functionally mated.
Jobs
In addition to being a druidess, as an active member of the Town Council breisleach organizes festivals, landscaping, and new settlements in the village. Beyond these formal duties, she engages in a wide variety of other fields of work, among them nursing/midwifery and tailoring, including ownership of a clothing store named Ethereal Apparel. At present, she serves as the primary medical practitioner in Yuriba, as she has taken over administration of the Yuriba Clinic since Genesis's departure. At present, the clinic is apparently hiring again – really, it usually is.
She also teaches Yuriban History and Native Religion classes at Rinkei Gakuen.
She is one of Yuriba's Guardians, and often seems to organize the others, or at least tries to boss them around (mostly successfully). Indications show that she is closely tied to the Sentries as well; it is almost certain that the kitsune woman is the one who crafts the pendants that mark the station of both groups.
Relationships
Breisleach is the adopted mother of Amy Kou'ai. She identifies Merin and Yuriko as her sisters and Kula and Ruriko are her adopted nieces. She has a very close, strong relationship with Atara that reflects a distinct attraction between the two; the exact nature of their relationship is often somewhat confusing to outsiders and neither of them seems to be particularly prone to clarifying it when asked. That said, it'd be hard to miss that they're near constant companions of one another.
Historically, breisleach's love life has often been complicated. Like most Underhill natives, she has had a great many mates in her life, some more serious than others; to most in the current time the most notable related to the early period of her life are her first wife, Slacker and Sior, her on-again, off-again lover for over 500 years. Since living in the village of Yuriba, she has also had an extended formal relationship with Furrysaint and shorter or less serious relationships with others, most notably Kitsune Inari. The past few years have seen her involved with several individuals, including a short-lived and ill-fated marriage to the half-demoness Irriel Jalrys, a long, tumultuous involvement with Hokuto Sumeragi that ended shortly after they became engaged, and a nearly as tumultuous and unlucky, though intense, involvement with the wolfgirl Kashiri. After her engagement to Nisa Pycroft was broken off, she's gone from being dubious about the merits of marriage for herself, personally, to being staunchly against it. Possibly because as all this tends to suggest, she's someone who falls in love a little too easily and strongly for her own good sometimes.
The nine-tailed kitsune actually tends to like (or at least be amused by) most people she meets, even if they can't always tell. She maintains friendships with a fairly wide variety of people and enjoys time spent with all of them. In current times, Abryn, Ella, Flame, Iessica, and Mirabelle are among her closest friends, although far from the only ones.
