Shin
Appearance
“I’ll have you know that I’m taller than my sister.”Topping out at five and a half inches, Shin is short, even for a pixie. And, though she likes to think she is much taller than she is, her small frame does her no favors. What little bulk she possesses manifests in the form of the lean muscle padding her limbs, which gives her a deceptively athletic appearance. Said deception is only furthered by the pixie’s delicate facial features and sleek pointed ears.
A relatively young pixie, Shin possesses all the telltale signs of her youth. Still visible atop her light blue skin, the young woman’s white Alunkara’ (tattoo-like markings that disappear with age) wind around her body like small vines. Interestingly, the only place one will not find the white Alunkara’ is on the set of translucent wings that hang from her back bearing some resemblance to those of a dragonfly.
Much like her brethren, the young pixie is a minimalist when it comes to attire. A leaf wrap here, an acorn or two there, and maybe the odd twig woven into her dark blue hair; Shin, more often than not, draws on nature to serve as her wardrobe and protect her modesty. Deep down, however, the woman wonders what it would be like to wear the long flowing dresses she so often sees the humans around her wear, and one day hopes to find someone able to craft her such a luxury.
Skills and Abilities
Flight“You really should try it, it’s the only way to travel.”
Able to fly since before she could walk, Shin is an expert in aerial acrobatics and maneuvers. She can hover in place, zip up, zip down, and all around with ease. Flying in high winds and heavy rains can, however, give her trouble. Consequently, she is often grounded during such weather and seeks shelter in the closest tree.
Inner Light
“Um…sometimes I glow, what’s it to you?”
Triggered by both strong emotions and random chance, the young pixie will often give off a soft blue light that seems to come from within her body. This is, of course, very natural for fae creatures like pixies who, as they age, are able to exercise more control over such bodily functions. The young Shin, however, finds her lack of control exceedingly embarrassing and wants nothing more than to prevent herself from lighting up like a torch in the night.
Empath
“I feel that.”
A natural empath, Shin’s use of the magical discipline is wild and unrefined. While she understands that she often feels different around others, she does not know why. As a result, her use of stored emotions is sloppy at best. To truly realize her powers, she needs a teacher; both another empath or more experience would do the trick. Either way, the young woman has a long way to go before she can even be called competent.
Personality
“Why the long face? It’s only a bit of rain.”Ever the optimist, Shin has the uncanny ability to find the silver lining of even the darkest clouds. While certainly a positive, such an ability comes off as naiveté on her part as she has yet to be exposed to the harsh realities of life. Consequently, the young woman seems to have an endless amount of courage stemming from her ignorance of the world at large—living in a small logging town all your life will do that to you.
Now, none of this is to say the pixie is lacking in intellectual ability. She undoubtedly has a quick mind and an even quicker tongue, but neither tongue nor mind is all that well informed. Luckily, the woman’s insatiable curiosity works in her favor in that regard as she will indulge it to an extreme, affording her the opportunity to become knowledgeable in whatever her fixation becomes. That said, more often than not, she can come to fixate on the relatively insignificant things in life like the shape of clouds or the song of a bird—focus is not something she does well.
The darker side of Shin’s normally carefree personality comes as a result of her status as an empath. Sometimes—often when she has not been near another emotionally complex being for a few days—she will fall into a deep depression. Her optimism disappears and the whole world looks a little grayer to her eyes. Indeed, it seems the only thing that can ‘recharge’ her is being around another emotional being and even then her recovery is not instantaneous, it takes time.
Biography & Lore
“I never knew my parents. I think my dad wilted in the sun and my mom was eaten by a deer.”Born from a lily and sired by a rose, Shin came into the world like any other pixie, among flowers. Birthed along with eight others, Shin and her ‘siblings’ lived a charmed early life. Deep in the woods they never once came in contact with anyone who would want to do them ill. Days were spent dancing in the rain, bathing in the sun, and singing to the trees, while nights were spent stargazing.
And then instinct ruined innocence.
Caving to hardwired wanderlust, the nine pixies drifted further and further apart. Their daily activities took them further and further from the heart of the forest. Some nights each ‘sibling’ would sleep alone as opposed to before where they all slept under the same leaf. This continued until one day Shin found herself alone; she no longer had anyone save for the woodpecker who seemed to frequent her hollowed out tree and soon even he did not return.
At this point in her life, though the sun still shone and the birds still sang, Shin felt no joy. She whiled away the days moping about the same place she had known all her life. Indeed, she probably would have continued to live out her life had fate not intervened. For, one day the deep woods became neither so deep nor so wooded with the arrival of a man. Dressed in plaid and wielding an ax, the man proceeded to chop down one of the tallest trees in Shin’s home.
Over the course of a month, the pixie watched as the man removed the tree piece by piece and for a long while she simply ignored it. However, soon she began to watch the man intently; she came to know that he favored his right hand, ate some kind of meat for lunch, and sang while he worked. On the final day of work, and with her depression long forgotten, Shin finally surrendered to her curiosity and followed the man after he had finished for the day.
This was how she found Pernrith.
Pernrith, a small logging town to the west of Alliria, was home to roughly seventy-five homesteaders when Shin first arrived. However, she watched each day as the industrious humans worked to expand the town one log cabin at a time. More time passed and soon a school was erected in the center of town. It was here, watching the children and their overworked teacher, that Shin felt most at home and most alive. Of course, unbeknownst to her, she was feeding off of the volatile emotions of the children therein.
And so it went on like this.
From time to time the people of Pernrith caught glimpses of her, but never anything definitive. A flash of blue in the night, her slender form in the rafters, and the sound of her wings as she flitted past were all things that lead to the rumor of the haunted woods. Children were warned not to wander after dark for fear of abduction and superstitious old women hung herbs over their hearths to ward off evil all on account of a single elusive pixie. Shin, for her part, took it all in stride; she didn’t mind the rumors, they made her feel involved in the small town in some small way.
Pernrith was home.