TERENTIA A. MARCH [WIP]

TERENTIA ;; pre-Solastella

She was like water, flowing and graceful as a slow-moving stream. Her steps were light yet deliberate, her hips were swaying, her posture was relaxed but upright. Her smiles came regularly, effortlessly quirking her full lips, and her long, thick, wavy lavender hair never seemed to hide her even, patient glances or determined frowns. It blew behind her like a flag, and billowed along with her long skirts and dresses made of bright materials with interesting patterns and designs; all of her outfits were loose and flowed freely. On her feet she wore soft things, moccasins or cloth boots with cotton lining, muffling her steps -- although the jangle of bracelets and necklaces would give her away instead.

Perhaps her looks weren't conventional, but she was beautiful. Her Grecian nose could have been sculpted, her big blue-green eyes were expressive and framed by short pale lashes, and her face had round cheeks and a narrow chin. Her tanned skin had a pleasant flush to it, her thick eyebrows were typically quirked with interest and amusement, and her body was soft, curvy; her shape could have been likened to that of a pear. Her fingers were long, her nails were painted, and her feet were small. She was of average height, not quite five and a half feet at the top of her head, and relatively plump. To set her apart from a typical human, her ears were huge and wide and fan-like, coated in feathery lavender-and-tan fur and with one long lobe which hung down and formed a curl. Her sides, her shoulders, and her arms to the wrists were lavender with velvety fur, and a white cotton tail, usually hidden by her baggy clothing, was sprouted from her lower-back where a human's tailbone would be flat and non-protruding.

Most notably, though, was that she shone, glimmered -- literally sparkled. Her hair and fur had a glittery sheen to it, her skin a faint, sunny glow. In daylight, she dazzled. In moonlight, she was nearly composed of stars herself.

Her softness, her grace, her beauty --

Incredible.

NOVA ;; changes

Then, spontaneously, all her softness was gone. Her smiles turned to scowls, the calm pools of her eyes became tumultuous and piercing, and in a fit of impulse she snipped off her hair, leaving only an inch-long mess of curls where there had once been hair down to her waist. Her nails had grown out, and their paint had chipped; now they were like claws, long and sharp. Her walk no longer suggested peace. Her saunter was as slow as before, but the purposeful steps were too hard, and the sway of her body was predatory. Her neutral stance was hunched a little, wary of the world, ready to strike out if the need arose.

She was no longer well-groomed. Dirt under her nails and darkening her face, scrapes on her knees and palms, rips in her clothing -- none of it bothered her. Holes were forming at the heels of her moccasins. Her jangling jewelry remained, but with the additional accent of flower necklaces, a halo of dandelions around her head, a vine bracelet. This almost innocent display clashed alarmingly with the sheer material of her still-billowing clothing; the dresses which flowed like angry rivers were grays and whites and blues, and bore holes and tears, and were not quite thick enough to fully hide her undergarments with their dark colors, black and navy and violet. She had gone wild, it seemed.

Her soft edges had become needle-sharp.

TERENTIA ;; pre-Solastella

She was no fool, but the trust she placed in others was perhaps foolish. To her, there was a positive to every negative, and every person had qualities which made them likeable, admirable, and worthy of trust. Surely all they needed was a little kindness? Surely even the most rotten of men could be healed with some tenderness and faith. She believed in the innate goodness of all, and with this belief came a sort of naivete, a willingness to ignore the bad and magnify the good so as to prove her point.

Knowing, then, that there was good in everyone, Terentia aimed to bring it out in everyone who "needed" it. Someone who had lived their lives doing evil deeds was no more than misunderstood and in need of help, in her opinion. She meddled, perhaps, and fussed over the safety and health of near-strangers, but she always intended to help. She only wanted to save the world, one person at a time. Terentia was the type to involve herself in the business of others, and to intervene for what she felt was "their own good." Whether she knew best or not, she was good at uprooting folks from lives of poverty or crime and setting them on a new path, for worse or -- commonly -- for better.

She meddled, yes. Her meddling was done in the calmest, most direct way possible, with knowing glances and smiles and a few choice words, spoken softly and with feeling, which hit all the marks. She was never one for lectures or speeches, and in fact spoke very little. Every word she uttered had been mulled over and selected carefully; what point was there in beating around the bush and watering down the strength of a good, well-felt word or two? Talking too much would drown the meaning of a sentence. Using flowery language would only mask true intentions, or confuse, or otherwise prove absolutely useless. No, Terentia never minced words, and very rarely used more words than were necessary. She knew how to lie by omission, so if she felt something would offend too much if spoken, she would leave it out -- unless it was of vital importance. But she never danced around a topic or stammered. She would either say or not say what she meant, and that was that.

Terentia could be difficult to get along with for those who didn't appreciate her forcing her way into others' business, and for those who simply refused to accept her ideas of right and wrong. She frowned at this or that, and whether she said it or not, she was always hoping to fix what she saw and disapproved of. Despite her good intentions, she was only human. Her ideas were subjective, and what she saw as bad could have been a lifesaver for someone else. She was stubborn, too, and rarely would budge on her beliefs despite attempts to change her mind. Good intentions could only redeem her so much in the eyes of some.

She was kind, though, and when it came down to it, she was a good friend to have. She would listen when an ear was needed, she would comfort when a shoulder to cry on was needed, and when a situation got bad, she would eagerly step in to fix and tweak and right what was wrong. She meant well. She did. Her own health, even, was secondary to that of others. It was almost inevitable that she would eventually put herself in danger for the good of someone else -- and be unable to escape from it.

NOVA ;; changes

She got hurt -- and instead of breaking, instead of being consumed by horror at what had happened and what she'd done, her mind wiped itself nearly clean. She found herself in a foreign region with no name or memory, and thus she began anew as "Nova."

Terentia had been kind, giving, trusting, and eager to sacrifice for the good of others -- whether they wanted her to or not. Nova, on the other hand, wants nothing to do with people, period. She is wary of their motives, quick to lash out when angered or frightened or upset, and her personality has become volatile. Her emotions run haywire constantly, and certain things or things that make no sense at all will trigger fits of fury or sadness or a joy that she doesn't understand and therefore doesn't like. She doesn't trust, she doesn't put others before herself, and she behaves in a manner reminiscent of a cornered animal much of the time.

And, as though she were truly an animal, Nova feels drawn to Pok?mon, her would-be kin. She may not be capable of transforming into an Audino, but perhaps her traces of Pokémon blood are enough to create a sort of understanding between herself and Pokémon. She does not need to speak to convey what she wants, because body language is enough for most creatures. She knows the opportunistic nature of hunters and scavengers. She sympathizes with the herding and self-preservation instincts of herbivores. She, like most Pok?mon, knows the strength of nature and the elements. She sees as well that most humans do not know these things, and she scorns them for it.

It's a hypocritical sort of scorn with which she regards fellow humans. They are selfish, she reasons, though she would throw anyone to the wolves to save herself. They destroy, she rationalizes, while she would not hesitate to be like those wolves and to kill for her dinner, or for her safety. They don't understand, she protests, but she cannot comprehend the reasoning or rationale of humans. She is nearly feral in her behavior and thoughts, and because she is thus, she believes her way, the way of Pok?mon, is superior -- but she scoffs at the human belief that their culture and society is best.

Yet, despite her seemingly repulsed feelings towards humans as a whole, she finds herself strangely conflicted at times. She is quick to save her own hide above all else, but on occasion, an event will strike a nerve with her; she sometimes has strong compulsions to help, to protect, to fix. Often she will ignore these impulses, too confused by them and frightened by their implications to follow through. These feelings, as well as the rest she sometimes gets and does not understand, could presumably be linked to who she was before she lost her memory, and she knows this to an extent. She doesn't care much for reclaiming the memories she has lost, and is in general apathetic towards the idea of having a life before what she can recall, but the idea of remembering is terrifying to her. The unknown does not bother Nova as long as it stays well away, but once it creeps up on her, envelopes her, threatens to destroy her very being and replace it with something foreign... Well, she worries very much that she won't like who she was, or who she would become if she remembered.

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• She primarily speaks Nital, which is the Pok?mon-world equivalent of Latin and the language spoken in her native region of Clarusica. She does know a little English, and is learning Solastellan English as time goes on, but it's tough getting by at this point. She has to rely on body language and charades a lot.
  
• As an Audino morph, her sense of hearing is pretty phenomenal. Whispering in her presence is a very unwise thing, assuming she can understand the language you're speaking.
  
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