Cheyenne (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
illusional) wrote2020-07-07 11:53 am
illusional) wrote2020-07-07 11:53 am
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prismatica
▶ PLAYER
HANDLE: Sarah
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
randomsnarfle
OVER 18? Yes
CHARACTERS IN-GAME: Ranpo Edogawasweetsleuth
▶ CHARACTER
NAME: Cheyenne
CANON: Original
CANON POINT: After escaping captivity in Stendrion
AGE: 211, but physically appears around 15 years old.
BACKGROUND: Cheyenne was born in a nation known as Aregania, where a powerful monarchy had kept the lands and their citizens at peace for centuries. In the lowlands of Aregania, a different species of human known as Elemen lived. In this world, there were two kinds of humans: the minority Arganians, who lived in the north and controlled the monarchy, and the Elemen, groups of people, each with a single unique elemental power that flows through a separate circulatory system in their body (fire, water, electricity, (plant) life, wind, and light).
The differences in culture between the Elemen clans and the Areganians sparked a number of skirmishes over the years. In an attempt to bridge peace between the groups, the young prince of Aregania was to be betrothed to the young princess of the Light Elemen clan. But it was not meant to be, and the night before the engagement ceremony, a group of rebel Flame Elemen stormed the castle and slaughtered the royal family.
The young prince only barely managed to escape, fleeing into a sacred forest said to be the birthplace of the gods. There, he begged the gods to take revenge on the Elemen for their betrayal, before dying from his wounds.
But unbeknownst to him, the forest he fled into was a special place called the Enchanted Forest, where all worlds and dimensions intersect. It was not the gods his people prayed to that heard his plea, but a force that was far more sinister. And with their power, they granted his wish.
The young Elemen princess, still only a child, had just heard about the rebellion, and sought out her father to put an end to it. But when she reached him, the curse of the gods overtook her -- and when she looked her father in the eyes, he became overwhelmed with hysterical fear, before dying on his throne. The princess sought help, but everyone she approached suffered and died in the same horrible manner. The curse had transformed her, turning her into a monster that tears the souls out through the eyes and feeds on the blood of the living.
As decades passed, the princess never aged, and driven mad by the curse, she became a vampire queen whose subjects lived in constant fear of being her next victims. But the curse had another aspect: no one could get with a few hundred feet of her without suffering inexplicable mental anguish. Unable to foster any sort of human connection, she was lonely. And so, she decided to try and recreate creatures in her own image. These would become known as the illusionists.
Cheyenne was just a six years old when it became to known to her people that they were the last remaining settlement of Light Elemen in Aregania, the other clans having fled to another world entirely using the Enchanted Forest. She lived alone with her mother and had just begun attending the local school. She knew little of the world, having spent most of her life cooped up inside the safety of her mother's one room house.
But that all changed when Cheyenne found herself being kidnapped by the vampire queen, along with all the other children of her village. The queen performed horrific experiments on them, shredding their souls and systemically replacing their blood with her own, before tearing out their eyes. Then, utilizing her own regenerative powers, she'd replace them with a set of her own eyes. Only the young girls survived the process, taking on the queen's curse and becoming emotionless monsters that devoured souls at an alarming pace, aching to find their own and become whole again.
When Cheyenne next awoke, she remembered nothing of her past as an Elemen. She didn't even have a name anymore. And the only thing she felt was pain, as if she hadn't eaten in days. Sent into the Enchanted Forest with her fellow illusionists, they arrived in the same world the other clans had fled to, and began their reign of terror.
The Elemen knew they had to deal with these monsters before their kind was exterminated. Eventually, the only solution they could find was to lure them into a city and burn it to the ground, destroying everything inside. In one campaign, over half of the illusionists perished. Cheyenne, one of the first, was now one of the last. While many of them returned through the forest to their queen, Cheyenne stayed in this new world. Unlike her sisters, who ate continuously until no Elemen were left, Cheyenne never took more than enough for the hunger to go away. It never lasted more than a week, but that week was one spent in solitude and peace, until she'd have to feed again.
Nearly a hundred years passed before there was a change. Cheyenne stopped a group of travelers on the road for her usual weekly meal, a married couple and their young daughter. Quickly knocking out the father, Cheyenne was prepared to attack the child when the mother suddenly dove in between them and cried out, "I won't let you hurt Cheyenne!"
And she stopped. And the illusion that the mother saw was not fearful at all. Instead, the memories of Cheyenne's past flashed before her eyes as the illusionist began to recall the life that was taken away from her so long ago. Confusion overtook her, and she fled.
Soon, pieces of her old life began to haunt her. She'd close her eyes to fall asleep and hear the soft humming of a mother who wasn't there, singing her child to sleep. But what was this feeling? Nostalgia? Sorrow? Guilt? She couldn't put a name to it, but she knew it was there: she had feelings. For the first time since she became an illusionist, Cheyenne felt something other than hunger. Unfortunately, these feelings were not a one-time thing, and guilt was not a beneficial emotion for a creature that needed to kill to survive. Cheyenne could no longer bring herself to end the life of another creature by sucking out its entire soul. And so, she began to improvise.
She struck deals with the Elemen she ambushed after that. Sacrifice one of their own and the rest would be unharmed. It only took one group to agree to her terms peacefully for her to reveal her true intentions: not only was the rest of the group unharmed, even her victim walked away with little more than a headache. Tales of the "tamed illusionist" who allowed her victims to live were passed along throughout cities. Eventually, those stories made their way to a City of Flame Elemen known as Stendrion, which had long been under rule by a family of dictators. The idea that illusionists, long believed to have been mindless monsters, could be tamed was a very appealing idea to the current leader. And so he sought to capture her.
And he did. Fooling her into believing one of his men was offering himself to her, he overwhelmed her with his firepower and enslaved her as his family's own personal torture device. For decades, Cheyenne was forced to feed on spies and traitors alike, and was kept isolated for months at a time between meals. And for each week of clarity brought on by finally being fed, she was overwhelmed with guilt in exchange. The memories of her origins still haunted her, making her all too aware of the fact that she was killing her own kind.
After living this way for a long time, she finally saw her chance to escape. Only a few days after her last meal, she was offered another -- and with her mind clear, she used her illusions to strike up a deal with the victim. He would pretend to have died, and when the guards came to remove his corpse, they would both make their escape. The plan worked -- but during the escape, Cheyenne found herself cornered, and had no choice but to jump out the window of their prison tower.
And then, she wound up here.
PERSONALITY: Despite being a creature that is considered to be a monster by many in her own world, Cheyenne is far from a monster in her behavior. She speaks very formally, carrying herself in a manner befitting a girl raised in high society, just like her queen was before she was turned. She's very considerate of the needs of others, and is prone to putting their well-being above her own. But this is not necessarily because she is kind. Rather, she views other creatures as more worthy of consideration, and believes herself to be incapable of suffering because she can't feel it.
But that's far from the case. Unlike most illusionists, Cheyenne has the ability to feel and understand emotions, though to a very limited degree. Over the years, she has managed to pick up on the easiest to identify: happy, sad, and angry. However, even those simple emotions are difficult for her to comprehend. If she is at a loss, she may ask out-right what a person is feeling, or ask for their help in deciphering what she herself may be feeling instead. She feels no shame in addressing her own limited emotions, and prefers to be upfront about it. Once she's learned an emotion, she's more prone to recognizing it when she feels it, and may feel it more strongly as a result.
Given the opportunity, Cheyenne would prefer to never display her emotions on her face, if only because it's bothersome. However, since she knows other creatures aren't capable of reading how a person is feeling by looking at their soul, she's learned to force herself to show how she's feeling on her face. If she's in a good mood, she'll smile once or twice so others around her can tell she's happy. If something makes her feel sad, no matter how terribly, she'll only frown. However, if the feeling is genuinely strong enough, then she may emote without even thinking about it, or show other signs in ways she can't control, such as trembling when she's afraid.
Another major part of who Cheyenne is involves guilt. On one hand, she doesn't find any pleasure in bringing harm to people. On the other, Cheyenne knows she must feed on them if she wants to keep on living. Usually she rationalizes that if she doesn't feed now, she'll lose her mind and go on a rampage, possibly killing dozens of people as opposed to injuring one. The guilt of what she has to do to stay alive is what keeps her peaceful. Should she ever lose her sense of guilt, she'd go back to being a monster who feeds constantly.
While Cheyenne has never had anyone in her life who she felt close or attached to, she does have a very complex relationship with the vampire queen who created her. The horror of what she experienced caused her to suppress most of her memories regarding her own creation. If pushed to try and recall any of it, her body will start to react as though she's afraid, even though Cheyenne herself wouldn't be able to explain what emotions she's feeling. Despite this, like all illusionists, Cheyenne feels a sort of loyalty towards the queen, and may even appear fond of her on a surface level.
In contrast to this, Cheyenne is not at all fond of her fellow illusionists. She considers them to be nothing but mindless monsters, and believes the world would have been better off if they had never been made. Notably, she also carries opinion about herself, but doesn't consider it to be a negative way of thinking. Rather, it's simply logical that monsters shouldn't exist.
POWERS/ABILITIES:
Feeding: Cheyenne is an illusionist, a type of monster that feeds on souls. But in reality, the construct they refer to as a soul is comprised of four parts, one of which is more akin to a person's stamina or energy levels. This is the only part Cheyenne feeds on, which is harmless and naturally fluctuates throughout the day. As long as she feeds at least once every three weeks, she'll retain her sanity. If she goes too long without feeding, her hunger will become unbearable, and she won't be able to feed safely. In game, going too long without feeding will also cause her to crystallize.
Illusions: When feeding, Cheyenne projects illusions into the mind of the one she is feeding on through eye contact. These illusions can be anything, even things she's never seen before. But she can't produce illusions in this way without feeding, nor can she use her eyes without projecting illusions. And while she is technically capable of producing illusions outside of the mind, she's never trained herself to do so.
Fear Illusions: If someone were to look at her eyes without giving her time to prepare, the "default" is to have their worst fears reflected back at them, and will cause her to begin feeding on the vital part of the soul, which stores a person's emotions and personality. Doing this for more than five seconds is dangerous, and may cause someone to become temporarily emotionally unstable. After ten seconds, the victim will be left without emotions for one week. After a minute, their soul is irreparably damaged, and will not return to how it was unless Cheyenne is killed, returning to portion of their soul. In game, her ability to feed on this part of the soul is severely limited due to the amount of chroma required. Anything less than thirty seconds will cause no harm, and beyond that, she can only drain enough to remove their emotions for a week.
Regeneration: Illusionists are infamously difficult to kill, due to their accelerated regeneration. Only burns can slow them down, making fire the only viable means of killing them. Outside of this, they have no additional strength or fighting prowess. In game, her regeneration will be significantly slowed down and require large amounts of chroma to heal grievous wounds.
Curse Aura: Illusionists are cursed beings. Their skin is cold to the touch, and even being near one can cause severe anxiety and paranoia, created by the lingering agony of the souls they feed on. Due to the way Cheyenne feeds, this effect is limited to touch only, with the effects being stronger the more intimate the touch. However, the curse can be temporarily lifted the stronger the emotional attachment she has for the one touching her. In game, the curse will only activate when she feels threatened or when her chroma levels are higher than normal, and may spontaneously deactivate should another player not wish to have their character experience the effects. Characters who are otherwise immune to curses, have vampire heritage, or are exceptionally powerful in some way may also be immune.
Sight: Cheyenne's eyes are not designed for sight. Instead, she sees by sensing the souls of living things, and uses their light to illuminate the world around her to an extent. Every soul is unique, with specific parameters to define what they look like. Because of this, she can't be fooled by disguises or illusions, and can also sense people on the other side of walls and buildings. Additionally, she can learn a lot about a person, their emotions, life experiences, and how much energy they have through their soul, but her own limited understanding of emotions makes this difficult for her to explain. In game, she will only be able to learn things from a character's soul if the player has given permission for her to do so.
Age: While not an ability per se, Cheyenne only physically ages after going without feeding for more than three months. As such, in the 200 years she's been alive, she's only physically aged from six to fifteen.
INVENTORY: Just the clothes on her back and her blindfold
MOONBLESSING: Iris
▶ SAMPLES
link #1
link #2
HANDLE: Sarah
CONTACT:
OVER 18? Yes
CHARACTERS IN-GAME: Ranpo Edogawa
sweetsleuth▶ CHARACTER
NAME: Cheyenne
CANON: Original
CANON POINT: After escaping captivity in Stendrion
AGE: 211, but physically appears around 15 years old.
BACKGROUND: Cheyenne was born in a nation known as Aregania, where a powerful monarchy had kept the lands and their citizens at peace for centuries. In the lowlands of Aregania, a different species of human known as Elemen lived. In this world, there were two kinds of humans: the minority Arganians, who lived in the north and controlled the monarchy, and the Elemen, groups of people, each with a single unique elemental power that flows through a separate circulatory system in their body (fire, water, electricity, (plant) life, wind, and light).
The differences in culture between the Elemen clans and the Areganians sparked a number of skirmishes over the years. In an attempt to bridge peace between the groups, the young prince of Aregania was to be betrothed to the young princess of the Light Elemen clan. But it was not meant to be, and the night before the engagement ceremony, a group of rebel Flame Elemen stormed the castle and slaughtered the royal family.
The young prince only barely managed to escape, fleeing into a sacred forest said to be the birthplace of the gods. There, he begged the gods to take revenge on the Elemen for their betrayal, before dying from his wounds.
But unbeknownst to him, the forest he fled into was a special place called the Enchanted Forest, where all worlds and dimensions intersect. It was not the gods his people prayed to that heard his plea, but a force that was far more sinister. And with their power, they granted his wish.
The young Elemen princess, still only a child, had just heard about the rebellion, and sought out her father to put an end to it. But when she reached him, the curse of the gods overtook her -- and when she looked her father in the eyes, he became overwhelmed with hysterical fear, before dying on his throne. The princess sought help, but everyone she approached suffered and died in the same horrible manner. The curse had transformed her, turning her into a monster that tears the souls out through the eyes and feeds on the blood of the living.
As decades passed, the princess never aged, and driven mad by the curse, she became a vampire queen whose subjects lived in constant fear of being her next victims. But the curse had another aspect: no one could get with a few hundred feet of her without suffering inexplicable mental anguish. Unable to foster any sort of human connection, she was lonely. And so, she decided to try and recreate creatures in her own image. These would become known as the illusionists.
Cheyenne was just a six years old when it became to known to her people that they were the last remaining settlement of Light Elemen in Aregania, the other clans having fled to another world entirely using the Enchanted Forest. She lived alone with her mother and had just begun attending the local school. She knew little of the world, having spent most of her life cooped up inside the safety of her mother's one room house.
But that all changed when Cheyenne found herself being kidnapped by the vampire queen, along with all the other children of her village. The queen performed horrific experiments on them, shredding their souls and systemically replacing their blood with her own, before tearing out their eyes. Then, utilizing her own regenerative powers, she'd replace them with a set of her own eyes. Only the young girls survived the process, taking on the queen's curse and becoming emotionless monsters that devoured souls at an alarming pace, aching to find their own and become whole again.
When Cheyenne next awoke, she remembered nothing of her past as an Elemen. She didn't even have a name anymore. And the only thing she felt was pain, as if she hadn't eaten in days. Sent into the Enchanted Forest with her fellow illusionists, they arrived in the same world the other clans had fled to, and began their reign of terror.
The Elemen knew they had to deal with these monsters before their kind was exterminated. Eventually, the only solution they could find was to lure them into a city and burn it to the ground, destroying everything inside. In one campaign, over half of the illusionists perished. Cheyenne, one of the first, was now one of the last. While many of them returned through the forest to their queen, Cheyenne stayed in this new world. Unlike her sisters, who ate continuously until no Elemen were left, Cheyenne never took more than enough for the hunger to go away. It never lasted more than a week, but that week was one spent in solitude and peace, until she'd have to feed again.
Nearly a hundred years passed before there was a change. Cheyenne stopped a group of travelers on the road for her usual weekly meal, a married couple and their young daughter. Quickly knocking out the father, Cheyenne was prepared to attack the child when the mother suddenly dove in between them and cried out, "I won't let you hurt Cheyenne!"
And she stopped. And the illusion that the mother saw was not fearful at all. Instead, the memories of Cheyenne's past flashed before her eyes as the illusionist began to recall the life that was taken away from her so long ago. Confusion overtook her, and she fled.
Soon, pieces of her old life began to haunt her. She'd close her eyes to fall asleep and hear the soft humming of a mother who wasn't there, singing her child to sleep. But what was this feeling? Nostalgia? Sorrow? Guilt? She couldn't put a name to it, but she knew it was there: she had feelings. For the first time since she became an illusionist, Cheyenne felt something other than hunger. Unfortunately, these feelings were not a one-time thing, and guilt was not a beneficial emotion for a creature that needed to kill to survive. Cheyenne could no longer bring herself to end the life of another creature by sucking out its entire soul. And so, she began to improvise.
She struck deals with the Elemen she ambushed after that. Sacrifice one of their own and the rest would be unharmed. It only took one group to agree to her terms peacefully for her to reveal her true intentions: not only was the rest of the group unharmed, even her victim walked away with little more than a headache. Tales of the "tamed illusionist" who allowed her victims to live were passed along throughout cities. Eventually, those stories made their way to a City of Flame Elemen known as Stendrion, which had long been under rule by a family of dictators. The idea that illusionists, long believed to have been mindless monsters, could be tamed was a very appealing idea to the current leader. And so he sought to capture her.
And he did. Fooling her into believing one of his men was offering himself to her, he overwhelmed her with his firepower and enslaved her as his family's own personal torture device. For decades, Cheyenne was forced to feed on spies and traitors alike, and was kept isolated for months at a time between meals. And for each week of clarity brought on by finally being fed, she was overwhelmed with guilt in exchange. The memories of her origins still haunted her, making her all too aware of the fact that she was killing her own kind.
After living this way for a long time, she finally saw her chance to escape. Only a few days after her last meal, she was offered another -- and with her mind clear, she used her illusions to strike up a deal with the victim. He would pretend to have died, and when the guards came to remove his corpse, they would both make their escape. The plan worked -- but during the escape, Cheyenne found herself cornered, and had no choice but to jump out the window of their prison tower.
And then, she wound up here.
PERSONALITY: Despite being a creature that is considered to be a monster by many in her own world, Cheyenne is far from a monster in her behavior. She speaks very formally, carrying herself in a manner befitting a girl raised in high society, just like her queen was before she was turned. She's very considerate of the needs of others, and is prone to putting their well-being above her own. But this is not necessarily because she is kind. Rather, she views other creatures as more worthy of consideration, and believes herself to be incapable of suffering because she can't feel it.
But that's far from the case. Unlike most illusionists, Cheyenne has the ability to feel and understand emotions, though to a very limited degree. Over the years, she has managed to pick up on the easiest to identify: happy, sad, and angry. However, even those simple emotions are difficult for her to comprehend. If she is at a loss, she may ask out-right what a person is feeling, or ask for their help in deciphering what she herself may be feeling instead. She feels no shame in addressing her own limited emotions, and prefers to be upfront about it. Once she's learned an emotion, she's more prone to recognizing it when she feels it, and may feel it more strongly as a result.
Given the opportunity, Cheyenne would prefer to never display her emotions on her face, if only because it's bothersome. However, since she knows other creatures aren't capable of reading how a person is feeling by looking at their soul, she's learned to force herself to show how she's feeling on her face. If she's in a good mood, she'll smile once or twice so others around her can tell she's happy. If something makes her feel sad, no matter how terribly, she'll only frown. However, if the feeling is genuinely strong enough, then she may emote without even thinking about it, or show other signs in ways she can't control, such as trembling when she's afraid.
Another major part of who Cheyenne is involves guilt. On one hand, she doesn't find any pleasure in bringing harm to people. On the other, Cheyenne knows she must feed on them if she wants to keep on living. Usually she rationalizes that if she doesn't feed now, she'll lose her mind and go on a rampage, possibly killing dozens of people as opposed to injuring one. The guilt of what she has to do to stay alive is what keeps her peaceful. Should she ever lose her sense of guilt, she'd go back to being a monster who feeds constantly.
While Cheyenne has never had anyone in her life who she felt close or attached to, she does have a very complex relationship with the vampire queen who created her. The horror of what she experienced caused her to suppress most of her memories regarding her own creation. If pushed to try and recall any of it, her body will start to react as though she's afraid, even though Cheyenne herself wouldn't be able to explain what emotions she's feeling. Despite this, like all illusionists, Cheyenne feels a sort of loyalty towards the queen, and may even appear fond of her on a surface level.
In contrast to this, Cheyenne is not at all fond of her fellow illusionists. She considers them to be nothing but mindless monsters, and believes the world would have been better off if they had never been made. Notably, she also carries opinion about herself, but doesn't consider it to be a negative way of thinking. Rather, it's simply logical that monsters shouldn't exist.
POWERS/ABILITIES:
Feeding: Cheyenne is an illusionist, a type of monster that feeds on souls. But in reality, the construct they refer to as a soul is comprised of four parts, one of which is more akin to a person's stamina or energy levels. This is the only part Cheyenne feeds on, which is harmless and naturally fluctuates throughout the day. As long as she feeds at least once every three weeks, she'll retain her sanity. If she goes too long without feeding, her hunger will become unbearable, and she won't be able to feed safely. In game, going too long without feeding will also cause her to crystallize.
Illusions: When feeding, Cheyenne projects illusions into the mind of the one she is feeding on through eye contact. These illusions can be anything, even things she's never seen before. But she can't produce illusions in this way without feeding, nor can she use her eyes without projecting illusions. And while she is technically capable of producing illusions outside of the mind, she's never trained herself to do so.
Fear Illusions: If someone were to look at her eyes without giving her time to prepare, the "default" is to have their worst fears reflected back at them, and will cause her to begin feeding on the vital part of the soul, which stores a person's emotions and personality. Doing this for more than five seconds is dangerous, and may cause someone to become temporarily emotionally unstable. After ten seconds, the victim will be left without emotions for one week. After a minute, their soul is irreparably damaged, and will not return to how it was unless Cheyenne is killed, returning to portion of their soul. In game, her ability to feed on this part of the soul is severely limited due to the amount of chroma required. Anything less than thirty seconds will cause no harm, and beyond that, she can only drain enough to remove their emotions for a week.
Regeneration: Illusionists are infamously difficult to kill, due to their accelerated regeneration. Only burns can slow them down, making fire the only viable means of killing them. Outside of this, they have no additional strength or fighting prowess. In game, her regeneration will be significantly slowed down and require large amounts of chroma to heal grievous wounds.
Curse Aura: Illusionists are cursed beings. Their skin is cold to the touch, and even being near one can cause severe anxiety and paranoia, created by the lingering agony of the souls they feed on. Due to the way Cheyenne feeds, this effect is limited to touch only, with the effects being stronger the more intimate the touch. However, the curse can be temporarily lifted the stronger the emotional attachment she has for the one touching her. In game, the curse will only activate when she feels threatened or when her chroma levels are higher than normal, and may spontaneously deactivate should another player not wish to have their character experience the effects. Characters who are otherwise immune to curses, have vampire heritage, or are exceptionally powerful in some way may also be immune.
Sight: Cheyenne's eyes are not designed for sight. Instead, she sees by sensing the souls of living things, and uses their light to illuminate the world around her to an extent. Every soul is unique, with specific parameters to define what they look like. Because of this, she can't be fooled by disguises or illusions, and can also sense people on the other side of walls and buildings. Additionally, she can learn a lot about a person, their emotions, life experiences, and how much energy they have through their soul, but her own limited understanding of emotions makes this difficult for her to explain. In game, she will only be able to learn things from a character's soul if the player has given permission for her to do so.
Age: While not an ability per se, Cheyenne only physically ages after going without feeding for more than three months. As such, in the 200 years she's been alive, she's only physically aged from six to fifteen.
INVENTORY: Just the clothes on her back and her blindfold
MOONBLESSING: Iris
▶ SAMPLES
link #1
link #2