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aislingoftheforestMun
Name: Twisted
Contact Info: twistedmidnightdreams @live.com skype: twisted.midnight.dreams
Other Characters: n/a
Character
Name: Aisling
Appearance:
Canon: The Secret of Kells
History: Once, the Tuatha de Danann ruled the land of Ireland with a gentle hand.
Then came humans. The humans worshiped the dark god Crom Cruach to subdue the land under their own rule. Their prayers gave it power they could not control. The Tuatha de Danann fought it, every one; every one was killed, until finally the Queen fought and subdued the dark one at the cost of her own life. The only one that survived was the Queen's daughter, Aisling.
As saints came to Ireland, the worship of the dark one lessened. In the absence of her family, she learns to shift into a wolf and makes them her family.
Cut to a few hundred years later. A young monk-in-training, Brendan, and a cat stumble out of the village of Kells, looking for berries to create ink. She saves them from her pack and is at first reluctant to let Brendan stumble through her forest, but she relents--as long as he promises not to come into her forest again.
She's been alone for so long that she can't resist showing her forest off to someone who's been trapped in the village for all his life. She shows him the beetles, her flowers, the rivers, the birds, and helps him climb the greatest tree in her forest, a massive oak, to find those ink berries. He's impressed by the beauty and miracles he sees, and she quickly grows fond of him.
Brendan discovers the bloody mound of Crom Cruach and accidentally awakens it by saying its name. Aisling uses her strength to push over a great stone idol, keeping dark tendrils from dragging Brendan inside. After, she leads him back to Kells--and decides that he can visit her forest again, if he likes.
Over the summer an autumn, she leaves berries on the Wall that's being built around Kells where Brendan can find them, and he visits and shows her his improving art skills. They grow to be best friends.
On the cusp of winter, Brendan is locked inside a tower by his uncle, the Abbot of Kells. The cat, Pangur Ban, goes into the forest and brings Aisling inside the walls--which clearly makes her uneasy. She rescues Brendan by turning Pangur Ban into a creature of mist and shadows through song and mist to get a key and unlock the door--she couldn't seem to break in. (The lyrics of the song include "you must go where I cannot", which likely means she can't cross boundaries, as a faerie.)
After they escape into the forest, Brendan reveals that he needs the Eye of Crom--a crystal inside the cave. At first she refuses, but he mentions it's for the Book. She remembers that everything was for the Book--their first meeting included. She decides she will help him.
And she does. She lifts the stone she knocked down in the spring, and while Brendan is simple dragged inside, the darkness crawls up her and weakens her enough that the stone falls and crushes her.
...and Brendan defeats Crom Cruach.
She isn't seen in her girl-form truly after that, but she breaks the stone that crushed her, leaves snowdrops as a sign that she still lives.
A few weeks after this, Vikings attack Kells. Kells is almost entirely destroyed, but Brendan and his mentor manage to escape. A pair of Vikings nearly kill them, but Aisling in wolf-form sends her wolves to kill said Vikings, and they succeed.
This is the last time Brendan sees her for nearly two decades.
Around 18 years later, a grown Brendan finds his way back into the forest from where he'd been. A white wolf awaits him. She doesn't turn back into herself but for a flashback, but it's definitely Aisling. Even after so long, she recognizes him and leads him back to Kells.
Canon point: After Brendan flees, but long before they meet again, 18 years later.
Personality: Aisling is a member of the Tuatha de Danann, or rather the member. Her people were wiped out by the dark god Crom Cruach, as shown in the prequel comic, before the Saints of Ireland actually came to Ireland. She was alone for about four centuries (from around the year 400 before the Saints to around the year 800 to the start of the actual year of The Secret of Kells).
She's a child. A somewhat dangerous child, whose loyalty is to what she cares about and only what she cares about.
Powers/Special Abilities: She can call up and dispel mist, as she does when first meeting Brendan in the film, and can sing creatures into mist.
She can lift tons of stone even weakened, which she does to push a great stone idol over and to lift it up to keep Brendan from being taken from the god Crom Cruach and to let him into the cave, respectively.
She can also shapeshift into a white wolf, doe, and salmon. She only mentions and the film only shows single images of her as the doe and salmon. As a wolf, she calls off the rest of the wolves in the forest to save Brendan when they first meet, and she sends them to tear apart some Vikings before they can kill Brendan and his mentor.
She can communicate with nature, as she asks her forest where berries that Brendan needs are and asks wasps not to sting him. Aisling can grow snowdrops (the flower) and presumably other small plants. Aisling can climb amazingly well, straight up sheer surfaces.
In the Black Mist, she's weakened. She can shift into wolf form and keeps some of her super-strength, but only for a few moments before tiring. She can't use her normal mist, can't sing anything into mist, can't grow anything, etc. She can still climb up sheer surfaces, but she's slowed.
Inventory: Her clothes, which are basically grey rags and boots.
Greatest Fear: Crom Cruach. It killed the rest of her kind, the Tuatha de Danann, leaving her entirely alone for centuries. She watched her mother die in front of her eyes to quell it. She fears its form, a great turquoise serpent with a single eye; she fears the hiss-howl it makes when it uses its powers; she fears the creeping tendrils of darkness that swallowed up her people. She fears anything that reminds her of the monster--as the black mist truly does. She isn't sure it's dead, you see. It's gone dormant and vanished for years before, what if Brendan's victory was only another sleep? In addition, Aisling fears being alone. Thanks to Crom, she experienced true loneliness for centuries. She'll do anything to avoid it again.
How is your character appropriate for this game?
She's already been through some terrible things, and she's gotten through them mostly intact. I want to see how much she can take, and how she reacts to things outside of the shelter of all she's ever known: the forest.
Rooming request section Somewhere in Joe West. She'll probably end up actually sleeping somewhere outside, if that's alright.
Year/Position Despite her age seeming about 2nd or 3rd, I think she'd do best in 1st. She has barely any education.
AU Specific Section
Feel free to ignore if you aren't writing a character into the Disney_Academy AU setting
AU history
Everything is pretty much the same, except a) Brendan taught her to read a little and b) she can just barely remember the Mist covering her forest four years prior.
A few months after Brendan left, the Black Mist started appearing again in the far reaches of her forest. She found the letter tucked in a hole within the massive Oak Tree. After puzzling out what it said for a few days, and a few more days of thought, decided she would do best trying to figure out how to protect her forest from there. She knows she can't all alone.
How has it affected them? Not very much directly, although she fears that the Mist is something from Crom Cruach rising again, which motivates her to leave as stated above.
Writing
First Person Sample
[The feed flicks on, showing...flowers.] Look! I've never seen so many different kinds of flowers before. There are some that definitely aren't from Ireland. Does anyone know what kind they are?
[The view shifts to a face, white as a sheet, and a pair of bright green eyes.]
Oh! I'm--I am Aisling. [She stumbles over her words, as if unused to them.] I have a room in that dorm place, Joe West, but this is much better. I think I'm going to stay here in the...bot-tan-ic-al garden. It's a lot greater than being inside--[she sounds positively disgusted]--walls.
The room's still mine though! Don't go in it. Unless you ask me first.
Third Person Sample
Name: Twisted
Contact Info: twistedmidnightdreams @live.com skype: twisted.midnight.dreams
Other Characters: n/a
Character
Name: Aisling
Appearance:
Canon: The Secret of Kells
History: Once, the Tuatha de Danann ruled the land of Ireland with a gentle hand.
Then came humans. The humans worshiped the dark god Crom Cruach to subdue the land under their own rule. Their prayers gave it power they could not control. The Tuatha de Danann fought it, every one; every one was killed, until finally the Queen fought and subdued the dark one at the cost of her own life. The only one that survived was the Queen's daughter, Aisling.
As saints came to Ireland, the worship of the dark one lessened. In the absence of her family, she learns to shift into a wolf and makes them her family.
Cut to a few hundred years later. A young monk-in-training, Brendan, and a cat stumble out of the village of Kells, looking for berries to create ink. She saves them from her pack and is at first reluctant to let Brendan stumble through her forest, but she relents--as long as he promises not to come into her forest again.
She's been alone for so long that she can't resist showing her forest off to someone who's been trapped in the village for all his life. She shows him the beetles, her flowers, the rivers, the birds, and helps him climb the greatest tree in her forest, a massive oak, to find those ink berries. He's impressed by the beauty and miracles he sees, and she quickly grows fond of him.
Brendan discovers the bloody mound of Crom Cruach and accidentally awakens it by saying its name. Aisling uses her strength to push over a great stone idol, keeping dark tendrils from dragging Brendan inside. After, she leads him back to Kells--and decides that he can visit her forest again, if he likes.
Over the summer an autumn, she leaves berries on the Wall that's being built around Kells where Brendan can find them, and he visits and shows her his improving art skills. They grow to be best friends.
On the cusp of winter, Brendan is locked inside a tower by his uncle, the Abbot of Kells. The cat, Pangur Ban, goes into the forest and brings Aisling inside the walls--which clearly makes her uneasy. She rescues Brendan by turning Pangur Ban into a creature of mist and shadows through song and mist to get a key and unlock the door--she couldn't seem to break in. (The lyrics of the song include "you must go where I cannot", which likely means she can't cross boundaries, as a faerie.)
After they escape into the forest, Brendan reveals that he needs the Eye of Crom--a crystal inside the cave. At first she refuses, but he mentions it's for the Book. She remembers that everything was for the Book--their first meeting included. She decides she will help him.
And she does. She lifts the stone she knocked down in the spring, and while Brendan is simple dragged inside, the darkness crawls up her and weakens her enough that the stone falls and crushes her.
...and Brendan defeats Crom Cruach.
She isn't seen in her girl-form truly after that, but she breaks the stone that crushed her, leaves snowdrops as a sign that she still lives.
A few weeks after this, Vikings attack Kells. Kells is almost entirely destroyed, but Brendan and his mentor manage to escape. A pair of Vikings nearly kill them, but Aisling in wolf-form sends her wolves to kill said Vikings, and they succeed.
This is the last time Brendan sees her for nearly two decades.
Around 18 years later, a grown Brendan finds his way back into the forest from where he'd been. A white wolf awaits him. She doesn't turn back into herself but for a flashback, but it's definitely Aisling. Even after so long, she recognizes him and leads him back to Kells.
Canon point: After Brendan flees, but long before they meet again, 18 years later.
Personality: Aisling is a member of the Tuatha de Danann, or rather the member. Her people were wiped out by the dark god Crom Cruach, as shown in the prequel comic, before the Saints of Ireland actually came to Ireland. She was alone for about four centuries (from around the year 400 before the Saints to around the year 800 to the start of the actual year of The Secret of Kells).
She's a child. A somewhat dangerous child, whose loyalty is to what she cares about and only what she cares about.
What she cares about most, at least at the start of the film, is her forest. The first glimpse of her is simply her eyes, and those eyes do not show pure kindness. Her pair of wolf's eyes opening off the side of the path the main character Brendan walks on, startling him and prompting him to run off into the wilder trees. The second is her wider girl's eyes, watching him clamber over stones off the path, while the true black wolves find and stalk him. She doesn't actually move to save him until the cat he's with flees and he's nearly been snapped up by the wolves several times. She jumps to her own conclusions about someone she's just met, gets right in Brendan's face, threatening to sic the wolves on him again if he doesn't leave immediately.
She was royalty, and even though she has no people to rule over, she still gives herself power over whoever goes through her forest. She's irritable and demanding, "What're you doing in my forest? You've come to spoil it, haven't you! You were probably sent by your family to get food, weren't you?" It's her forest, it's her thing, and nothing is going to harm it, not even a boy looking for food. Anyone who tries to interfere are fair game for threatening and possibly killing.
She does soften a bit after Brendan tells her that he doesn't have a family, revealing that she's alone too. She doesn't explain this, though, only fades into the mist--she's only just met the boy, after all. But he makes her think of herself, alone and lost.
She actually seems about to leave until Brendan starts calling her back. She goes from annoyance to sympathy back to annoyance at his loudness and demanding that he leaves again, though she doesn't threaten him anymore. He doesn't act like a threat at all, simply asking for a few berries for ink. She still doesn't trust him right off, though--she offers to bring him to the berries only if he promises to never come into her forest again. When he does, she begins to lead him through the forest.
Going through the forest, her expression changes from boasting when Brendan is amazed what he sees to actual enjoyment. She hasn't had anyone to share her forest with in centuries, and Brendan, having been trapped behind walls his entire life, is truly awed by the things she shows him. And by her, her flower-growing and her quickness. Bit by bit, she starts to trust him and his honesty.
As they climb the most massive tree in her forest to get to the "ink berries", she saves his life again when he slips and starts teasing him about how she thought he could climb trees. She stays close to him instead of going ahead after that, actually being able to show an awestruck Brendan everything from beetles to owls. Finally, she leads him to the top to see all of her forest, as well as finally revealing her name in a gesture of her growing trust. Appealing to what she loves and is loyal to is the best way to get her to open her heart.
Aisling is always moving, constantly popping up behind stones or trees or peering down from the canopy. She has no issues with touching or leaning against or Brendan, or grabbing Brendan's hands and clothes to help him or guide him around. Aisling goes from barely caring about him being devoured to being actively worried about him when he falls again from the tree, so clearly she isn't as hard-hearted as she seems to be at first.
She's honest, never tries to hide her emotions. When she wants Brendan out, she doesn't hesitate in trying to order him out, doesn't pretend the news of him being alone doesn't strike a chord within her, and honestly enjoys showing off her forest to him. When Brendan stumbles upon the mound of Crom Cruach, she doesn't mask the fact that she's truly afraid. Deception wouldn't help anything.
She saves Brendan's life a third time when he accidentally awakens the serpent from its slumber, risking her own destruction to push over a stone idol in order to keep him from being dragged to it inside. Despite the fact that he wouldn't listen to her and nearly got them both killed, Aisling forgives him, and more importantly trusts him enough to let him back inside her forest.
She does indeed let Brendan back, and sometimes leaves little leaf-packages of ink berries upon the wall around Kells. She's delighted in things that relate to her, even if she doesn't quite know them, such as when Brendan draws leaves and things of her forest.
Aisling is brave, though she doesn't go after her fears on her own--she left the mound of Crom Cruach alone for ages, after all. Dying for no reason is pointless. But she'll risk everything for who she trusts, and for what they care about. The isolation she's been subjected to has scarred her--despite her great age, Aisling is a child. She had no form of support but herself. That went well enough, at least enough that she kept her pride and power, but she's been so alone that she cannot bear to lose what little she has. She will do anything for it, and when she loves she loves with her whole heart. She goes behind the wall of Kells to save Brendan from being trapped in the tower by Brendan's uncle, the Abbot. Even moreso, she again risked her own life to Crom's darkness when Brendan needed to retrieve its Eye for the Book he was creating. Even if she died, her forest would be free of the cage Crom keeps it in and Brendan would have what he needed. That matters to her more.
She doesn't actively attack what harms her own, but she has no issue with sending the wolves against her enemies--she sends them to tear apart the Vikings that nearly run Brendan and his mentor through. Despite being kind, she is not pure; she has no problem with destroying threats to what she cares about.
Her loyalty does not fade with absence. Brendan leaves for around 18 years, and when he returns, she still leads him back through her forest to Kells. She can forgive absence as long as there's a return, since that never happened with her people and mother.
Powers/Special Abilities: She can call up and dispel mist, as she does when first meeting Brendan in the film, and can sing creatures into mist.
She can lift tons of stone even weakened, which she does to push a great stone idol over and to lift it up to keep Brendan from being taken from the god Crom Cruach and to let him into the cave, respectively.
She can also shapeshift into a white wolf, doe, and salmon. She only mentions and the film only shows single images of her as the doe and salmon. As a wolf, she calls off the rest of the wolves in the forest to save Brendan when they first meet, and she sends them to tear apart some Vikings before they can kill Brendan and his mentor.
She can communicate with nature, as she asks her forest where berries that Brendan needs are and asks wasps not to sting him. Aisling can grow snowdrops (the flower) and presumably other small plants. Aisling can climb amazingly well, straight up sheer surfaces.
In the Black Mist, she's weakened. She can shift into wolf form and keeps some of her super-strength, but only for a few moments before tiring. She can't use her normal mist, can't sing anything into mist, can't grow anything, etc. She can still climb up sheer surfaces, but she's slowed.
Inventory: Her clothes, which are basically grey rags and boots.
Greatest Fear: Crom Cruach. It killed the rest of her kind, the Tuatha de Danann, leaving her entirely alone for centuries. She watched her mother die in front of her eyes to quell it. She fears its form, a great turquoise serpent with a single eye; she fears the hiss-howl it makes when it uses its powers; she fears the creeping tendrils of darkness that swallowed up her people. She fears anything that reminds her of the monster--as the black mist truly does. She isn't sure it's dead, you see. It's gone dormant and vanished for years before, what if Brendan's victory was only another sleep? In addition, Aisling fears being alone. Thanks to Crom, she experienced true loneliness for centuries. She'll do anything to avoid it again.
How is your character appropriate for this game?
She's already been through some terrible things, and she's gotten through them mostly intact. I want to see how much she can take, and how she reacts to things outside of the shelter of all she's ever known: the forest.
Rooming request section Somewhere in Joe West. She'll probably end up actually sleeping somewhere outside, if that's alright.
Year/Position Despite her age seeming about 2nd or 3rd, I think she'd do best in 1st. She has barely any education.
AU Specific Section
Feel free to ignore if you aren't writing a character into the Disney_Academy AU setting
AU history
Everything is pretty much the same, except a) Brendan taught her to read a little and b) she can just barely remember the Mist covering her forest four years prior.
A few months after Brendan left, the Black Mist started appearing again in the far reaches of her forest. She found the letter tucked in a hole within the massive Oak Tree. After puzzling out what it said for a few days, and a few more days of thought, decided she would do best trying to figure out how to protect her forest from there. She knows she can't all alone.
How has it affected them?
Writing
First Person Sample
[The feed flicks on, showing...flowers.] Look! I've never seen so many different kinds of flowers before. There are some that definitely aren't from Ireland. Does anyone know what kind they are?
[The view shifts to a face, white as a sheet, and a pair of bright green eyes.]
Oh! I'm--I am Aisling. [She stumbles over her words, as if unused to them.] I have a room in that dorm place, Joe West, but this is much better. I think I'm going to stay here in the...bot-tan-ic-al garden. It's a lot greater than being inside--[she sounds positively disgusted]--walls.
The room's still mine though! Don't go in it. Unless you ask me first.
Third Person Sample
Aisling's not stupid. She knows that staying inside is best, even though she hates it. She knows that climbing out of a library window into the mist is a bad idea. She knows that.
But she's entirely alone, and at the moment, that seems even worse.
She clings to the windowsill and peers around. She doesn't see anyone she knows, but she doesn't see any Strangelings either. Just the darkness. She doesn't like it; it's not like nighttime, or her own mist, because she can see through those. This feels heavy. This feels like the opening to Crom's cave.
She hesitates for a long time, thinking. This is dangerous, and she won't pretend she isn't frightened. She doesn't want to die, or whatever happens to people when the Mist or what's inside it gets them. What was it? Why did anything so terrible exist? Humans must've made it. Not her humans, but only humans would create such a power. Or give it.
She shakes her head to try to focus. Her head is fuzzy, and she isn't sure why.
What she does want is her friends. She knows she's fast enough to find them--well, she thinks she is.
...Yes. She has to be, she will find them.
...Yes. She has to be, she will find them.
She takes a deep breath and leaps. She hits the ground hard and stumbles onto her hands and knees, but it isn't enough to make her fall all the way.
Aisling doesn't call out. She crouches low and skitters across the grounds on all fours, ears sharp and eyes wide, making sure that she wasn't going to be caught. Her natural lightness was going to work against her.
She hates feeling like this, like mere prey. But that's what she understands she is.
She isn't going to try to hunt the strange things, she just needs to make sure her friends are safe and be with them. They're probably in their dorms, so that's where she heads.
She hates feeling like this, like mere prey. But that's what she understands she is.
She isn't going to try to hunt the strange things, she just needs to make sure her friends are safe and be with them. They're probably in their dorms, so that's where she heads.
