Muses

[willow]

It has come to my attention that my muses are a little bit confusing at times. So I'll write what I know about them here, and feel free to ask questions if you want...

[willow]

Marienna

She's a witch in her early twenties, but she's still learning. She has a memory like a sieve and can't control her powers yet, but is very good at party trick style magic. She's a bit vain and very easy to offend, but underneath it all she's nice, honest!

Now that's not very nice! *huffs*

I'm trying to help people understand you, it's just the truth! Anyway, her magic's a sort of combination of Trudi Canavan's The Magician's Guild an The Amulet of Samarkand if you want to look it up.

No one's bothered about that, they just want to know how "vain" I am.

I'm sorry. There, are you happy now?

Yes.

While I'm out, she goes to her tutor's house, a warlock, and practices her magic. We have yet to meet.

You wouldn't like him. And besides, it's more the other way round. Most of my days are spent with him but when you turn up I leave sharpish.

*throws a cushion at her*
The type of witch that Marienna is means that she doesn't have learning curves - every now and again she will have an Awakening, where here powers flow freely and the only thing she can do about it is channel them. They flow from the orb that is their store in her mind to the outside without any hindrance, and it is when she masters controlling it that she'll be a true witch. Unfortunatley her powers have a mind of their own and don't much like being harnessed.

Her magic involves necromancy type things with candles and herbs and chalk on the floor, but also channeling power through her body to spell things.

Her voice is almost accentless, if anything slightly upper class, but she's tried to hide it so much that it's imperceptible. She wears threadbare and burnt robes, and a thick if badly damaged cloak. The way she sees it is she'll just ruin anything nice so may as well wear something old. Her robes are midnight blue and her cloak a brown so deep you couldn''t tell the difference between it and black. She wears a pointed hat, but it too is threadbare and the point has sagged down so it's level with her right ear. The brim has what looks like - sorry, are - bitemarks taken out of it. Her skin is very, very pale, and her eyes are bright, piercing blue. Her hair is brown, with a streak of white near the front. It's shoulder length and hangs freely, framing her face.

She's very forgetful and proud, on account of her slightly-better-off-than-everyone-else upbringing, and it was a shock to the system when she was billeted with a second rate warlock as her tutor (the family were going through hard times).

She's a Scorpio, so always wants to be the best, and always wants to win.

She's a very nice person, honestly, though her pride makes it hard for her to show it. She loves kids - they appreciate her magic and she gets on really well with them, she loves playing with them and they love her too. In the past she's made an excellent babysitter. But she kicks up a fuss when she wants attention or when she's annoyed. I think really she's just misunderstood - you have to spend time and effort to get to know the good side so it's all too easy to dismiss her as proud and easily offended. On her own she laughs off her own weaknesses, but if a stranger addresses them she'll go for the throat.

She can be a bit childish at times, and swings between that and extremely serious - if you get her in the right mood she's a perfect confidant. Sometimes she'll even change mood for you - depending on how good a friend you are. That means she doesn't hold grudges for very long.

And yes, her and the Professor are together, albeit slightly nervously.

[willow]

The Professor

(Not a nod to The Doctor etc, just he hates his surname. It's Grenwich, so can you blame him?)

Let's start with his occupation. Unlike the name suggests, he's not a University lecturer. His job is to travel the earth, investigating varioius historical occurences or alien sightings, dealing with the paranormal and trying to make sense of it, all under the umbrella term of psychic studies. A modern day Indiana Jones, if you like.

He's 34 and very clever, with a slightly arrogant upper-class english accent. He has disshevelled brown hair, already showing an odd fleck of grey, and is fit and healthy; probably from all the running down corridors he does. He wears geography-teacher-style jacket, leather elbow pads and all, complete with cordouroy trousers, brown leather brogues, and a cream shirt (no tie, top button undone). Actually, his clothing is one of the most interesting things about him - he has seemingly bottomless pockets, like Mary Poppins' bag.

A little something I picked up from a druid in the Welsh hills.

Oh, you're here. I thought you were-

I'll be quiet I promise.

His profession has gone a long way to shaping his personality. It's made him a bit of a lady's man, although ever since meeting Marienna the only part of that that's showed is his ease with people and his overconfidence. He loves adventure and danger, but is more wary if it involves someone he cares about. He has a few odd quirks because of his job as well - he dabbles in mind control through the voice and carries a gun. He also has a tendency to speak to himself - or rather to a small cassette tape recorder he uses to record his thoughts.

He's a bit arrogant, and very protective - but thank god not the type who'll order for you at a restaurant. I don't think we'd get on if he was. He likes to be helpful, and will always be the one to break the silence or reconciliate people - although I'm not sure how he got that from his background. He's always had everything on a plate, so it doesn't really make sense.

It's simple really. My parents were not the type for children, so I spent more time with the servants.

Oh? Well... I'm sorry for bringing it up... (for the benefit of the tape, he nodded)

He doesn't believe in star signs, so I won't put his down.

It was all a bit of a conspiracy, you see, a cover-up for a personality changing experiment gone wrong.

And I can never trust whether he's telling the truth or not - it's all very plausible but every now and then he comes back, months later, sits me down with this huge grin on his face and tells me he was lying.

About him and Marienna. He really cares for her, but I think both of them are scared in their own ways that it'll go wrong, so we're still in those stages where neither of them really know what to do or say, and both of them are very nervous around the other, in case they say the wrong thing, but I really think it'll work. I'll keep you posted on that.

[willow]

... so I said I'd keep you posted and I am... Marienna and the Professor are now very definitely a permanent fixture... it's all moving on well cos they're PERFECT for each other!

...and Eumelia updates coming soon... >< keep forgetting

[willow]

Eumelia

(really awful at this updating lark And exactly how many months have I been your muse? Sorry!)

Eumelia is, as far as I can work out, around nineteen, but they don't really keep track of birth dates where she comes from. She has a strange, thick, Mediterranean accent. She wears a loose white robe with a satin-y black hooded cloak over it, sandals, and various ceremonial daggers strapped to her person. And just because they're ceremonial doesn't mean they're not sharp.

She comes from the Temple, in her world's equivalent of the Mediterranean. It's actually a huge, city-sized complex of different places of worship surrounding one main temple, where people come to worship their Gods or Goddesses. Any religion you can possibly imagine is catered for there. The Priestesses see it as their sacred duty to appease all Gods to keep the world in balance, so every now and again they send Priestesses out to look for new ones, which is why Eumelia left.

Eumelia was found by the Priestesses as a baby, an orphan, and brought up by them, so she sees them as her family. But a lifetime in the Temple failed to equip her with a sense of perspective, and her inherent shyness verging on sociophobia meant she hardly interacted with people, only watching from a distance. This had two effects. One being that she is in a mental state verging on clinically insane that loves sacrificing animals. The other that at times she is exceedingly perceptive with people, at others she is completely lost. And she doesn't much enjoy large areas full of strangers.

She will always get what she wants, no matter what the cost, especially if what she wants has something to do with her mission. She can be violent, but she has a way with children, since she used to look after the other orphan girls of the Temple.

She was sent out on her mission to find new Gods mainly because the High Priestesses were getting very annoyed with her, since they're not all nutters.

I'm not that bad. And please don't mention it. They sent me away because I have unique talents that I can use to find information.

Hmm. Really. Anyway, they taught her all the skills they thought she'd need. She turned out to be unexpectedly good at self defence. And that's about it, except the fact she has no powers whatsoever. She can pray for miracles, but that doesn't mean they'll necessarily happen.

[willow]

Nyala

So I finally allowed her to be a muse...

Nyala is a dryad, so I have absolutely no idea how old she is, except she's ancient. Her life began before humans evolved, if that helps any. Her spirit is tied to one Tree, where she gets her power from, but when the tree begins to die she completes the Rite, a complex transferral of soul to another tree, which allows her to live indefinitely. She cannot die while the Tree is alive, though if it dies she dies. Another dimension is also tied to the Tree; her home.

Being a dryad brings Nyala other powers as well, she can move through trees to anywhere in the world. She can control any type of vegetation, and can enter any living thing's mind. She regularly taps into the Forest - the shared conciousness, or bank of knowledge, of all trees. She's not cruel, though, and would never try to control another's mind, or to gather more information than she felt was her due.

Nyala holds herself like a queen. She's got long, hair and it's a rich, deep shade of red. Her eyes are bright green, and the only part of her that looks older than 25. Her features are quite angular and she's extremely thin and 7ft tall. Her lips are a bright, dark red. She walks barefoot and carries a bow and arrow and a knife, all made from wood. Don't be reassured, though, her weapons are as deadly as those made from steel. She can poison or heal with a teardrop. Where she steps, flowers spring up; thistles if angry, roses if pleased.

Nyala has seen the destruction of the forests around her and refuses to let it happen again. She trusts no one to protect her home, and as an extension of that she sees herself as a crusader for the protection of nature. She is a well of knowledge and advice, and skilled and creative, because of her age and experience. She has inhabited many different trees over the years, so has a roundness of character that that brings. She can be reasonable, but changeable as the wind that blows through her hair. She is instinctive and quick to judge, and altogether dangerous to be around. In the deep past, she fell in love with a naiad, which tarnished her reputation and caused a group of dryads to hate her. When the forest broke up, due to humans farming, she was accused by the faction who hated her of helping the humans to learn to farm, and punished by being forced to stay in her forest and protect it.

All Nyala's relationships so far have either ended badly, or with death. She has a terrible track record, through no fault of her own, but this combined with her severely rusty social skills mean the fates are conspiring against her relationship with Rebecca. She's determined to make it work, though, as she's head over heels in love, and I for one think that it won't end because of her.

At best, Nyala is a wonderful person to be around. Loyal to the bitter end, a keeper of her word, the best giver of advice and mentor you could ever want. At worst, she is a little violent, frightening, and harsh. She has yet to discover the depth of her powers. She hasn't needed them all yet. So, fear for yourself if she takes a dislike to you. And be thankful if she's your friend, because she's the best you could ever ask for.