Information

[Áine Líadáin]

Out of Character

Name (or Nickname): Ash, I’ve gone by various others, but Ash will be the easiest to get my attention with It’s short for Ashley. Ashley also works for attention-getting.
Age: Just turned 20!
RP Experience: Many… I’ve been RPing on boards for about five years, and there was an additional three years of chatroom RP before that. >3 I remember y’all on LoM. Although I was only on there for a short-ish time.

In Character

Full Name: Áine Líadáin
Gender: Female
Faction: Mage
Occupation: Representative/Apprentice Assembly-an
Race: Human
Age: 21
Allegiance: Myridian Patriot

Appearance:

Áine is of an average height, about 5’7”. She is very slim, but not at all in an athletic or muscular way; she just doesn’t have much in the way of breasts or hips. Even at the age of 21, she looks reminiscent of a gawky teenager, with more limb than she knows what to do with, although she has returned to the grace she possessed as a younger child, and was more than happy to lose the awkward movements of her teenaged years. She has hazel-green eyes, that can shift in color to become more tawny than pure green, but it mostly depends on her surroundings; for example, when surrounded by green, her eyes tend to look greener, and when surrounded by brown, her eyes tend to have a more hazel cast. Her hair is somewhat long, brown in color. It lightens in the summer and darkens in the winter, thanks to the amount of sunlight exposure she’s currently dealing with. Although it can be tamed, and is when she’s working as a Representative, it’s often messy, since she tends to run her fingers through it when she’s nervous, fidgety, or bored.

Her face is an odd mixture of delicacy and heaviness. She has a prominent forehead that she doesn’t bother to cover up with bangs, and a chin that almost lends her a masculine air. However, her nose, mouth and eyes are well-proportioned, so she doesn’t look completely unfortunate, although she knows she is not a raging beauty by any stretch of the imagination.

She tends to walk and hold herself with a straight back and a raised chin, unless she’s very relaxed around close friends, and she moves purposefully with big, sweeping gestures. She walks like a country girl, forsaking the meandering, tiny steps of the average city girl and instead choosing to stride long and walk efficiently. Although she enjoys walks, she’ll simply walk over a greater distance rather than force herself to take smaller steps. Her emotions tend to show clearly on her face and in her body language, making it very difficult for her to lie or conceal her emotions. Typically, one can tell when she is trying to conceal something, because she takes an enormous amount of effort into keeping her face stoic and her body more still than it usually is. She likes friendly eye contact with her friends, but tends to avert her gaze uncomfortably otherwise, although she covers this up when she’s working as a Representative by pretending to look at something else of interest; her notes, her hands, or someone else’s face.

When she’s relaxed, she smiles easy and big, and a friend can usually tell when she’s being mischievous because her smile goes crookedly to one side. Her smiles and laughter reveal big teeth, but she just thanks Luna that they’re straight big teeth.

Avatar Claim: Kristen Stewart

Sample Picture:


History/Background:

Áine was born out of wedlock, and her mother died in childbirth. Tragic, right? Nah, not really. Born in the agricultural plains of Myridia, she was simply put into the care of the priestesses of Luna, as most orphans in those parts did. Her early childhood was happy and carefree in the village surrounding the small temple to Luna, and she spent much of her time with one priestess or another, and the rest of it playing with children from the village. She was an adventurous kid, rambunctious and wild, and although she clearly had an excess of energy, the priestesses loved her as they loved all the children they came to care for.

Even as young as five, Áine had a fascination with the sky, often looking at it very intently, as if willing it to part its secrets to her. Most of the time, she demanded that the nearest priestess explain why the sky was doing something it did – manifesting clouds, rain, or turning the pretty pink-purples of the sunset. She seemed fairly comfortable in extreme weather, ranging from intense heat to freezing snow, and liked to spend her time outside.

As she grew a few years older, her adventurous spirit put her towards the lead of the herd of children in the village. She was always the first to climb the tree, the first to cross the river over a felled tree trunk, and the first to climb the hills and rocks nearby. She got her fair share of scrapes and bruises from the endeavor, but she was rewarded with the general respect of the village children, irreverent and oddly-portrayed as that might be. As she came upon the ages of ten, eleven, and twelve, Áine felt pressured to keep doing crazy things, often convincing herself that if she didn’t keep surprising and wowing her peers, she might fall from her precariously balanced position of favor. Her new, slightly more extreme wild streak put the priestesses into a right frenzy, and soon they were reeling her back harshly, trying to get her to focus more on her studies.

Basic learning was a common thing at the temple, with more extensive knowledge gained on Luna and her children. Although Áine had a good enough memory for the Gods and history, and could read and write well enough, a studious nature had always eluded her. She slipped away to the outdoors whenever possible, and thus slipped towards the bottom of the learning curve. At the age of twelve, though, the head priestess yanked her in sharply, reminding her in no uncertain terms that part of her life was learning, whether she liked it or not. It may have been a coincidence that the days Áine spent inside often yielded cloudy weather, but it is just speculation. Those that remembered it attributed it to her magic when she was able to manifest it, and she likes to personally believe it to be true. Still, the world may never know.

Her early teens were a trial for her. The leader-like position she’d struggled and fretted over maintaining suddenly disintegrated; the ragtag band of children she counted as her friends suddenly had more interesting, adult-like things to do. It was a disappointment to her at first, and she spent the ages of thirteen and fourteen wondering what was wrong with her to make her so uninterested in the pursuits of her friends. Especially at fourteen, it was as if the whole world had turned crazy; girls her age and older were suddenly increasingly interested in the opposite sex, and she could only assume likewise for the boys (once they’d hit puberty, their interest in keeping her on as a friend had dropped to zero). At fifteen, she finally got a taste of the fever, but it only served to make her more wretched. While her female friends seemed to have blossomed into pretty young teens, she felt awkward and terrible in her new body, and began spending more time alone.

Of course, Áine had no way of knowing that every kid her age goes through the same thing, although she guessed as much later in her life. Perhaps it wouldn’t have made a difference, and her self-imposed solitude would have happened anyway. She still couldn’t bring herself to be studious, although she had a newfound love of stories and myths. The girl still spent much of her time outdoors.

At sixteen, she was given the choice to go to the town of Reza to become a novice priestess at the temple there. Although she was pretty sure she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life devoted to Luna in that capacity, she jumped at the chance of going to a larger settlement. In reality, she longed for adventure, and wanted to find and learn the trade of merchanting from someone in the town. She thought that traveling to the big empires on either side of Myridia would be very exciting. Nonetheless, she was shipped away to the temple in Reza, and had to undergo vigorous mental training to make sure she was up to the task – mostly it had to do with the priestesses asking her sudden questions about what she was supposed to have learned back in her village. Her answers were right two-thirds of the time, and often she wondered if that dismayed the priestesses or just fired them up to teach her all the more. Whatever happened, she spent much of her first months in Reza inside, studying up on everything she was supposed to know already. It was pure torture, but she got through it, and was gifted with a trip to the town square once she’d proven herself.

It was a psychic in the square that had first told her of her magical abilities. Then, she’d laughed at the notion of it; after all, she’d spent much of her life without so much as a smidgeon of magic. The psychic had been unable to tell her what sort of magic she carried, and Áine had just given her some coin and walked away.

Later that day, however, she was increasingly curious. Did she have magic? She wanted magic, dearly. She knew that it wasn’t uncommon for kids to show their first signs of magic as late teens, but as every day had passed, she’d eventually begun to believe that she would never be magical. It made her feel somewhat outcast from society, even knowing that there were plenty of other people without magical ability in Myridia. So, on the same day that she’d met the psychic, she decided to consult with a priestess she’d come to especially like during her time in Reza. The priestess was a wise soul, almost fifty. Although she bade Áine wait, the girl was anxious for some sort of knowledge, and so the priestess sat down with Áine to meditate.

The priestess herself had water magic, and tried to explain how the magic felt, and where she felt it in her body. Áine tried hard to find the same feelings within herself, and tried not to show how disappointed and frustrated she was when she felt no different than before. The priestess merely patted her knee and asked Áine to come back the next day, after supper. They would keep meditating, and perhaps something might happen; after all, the girl had a restless soul and had always had trouble meditating properly. Áine agreed, and so the weeks began to pass.

Áine was already seventeen when her magic manifested. It was summer, and the priestess had begun taking their meditations outside to take advantage of the good weather (and in the hopes that Áine would meditate easier in an environment she enjoyed). Although no sign of magic had shown in the girl yet, she still found that she enjoyed her sessions with the priestess, and the peace and silence of meditation. She heard, vaguely, the priestess take her through the same exercises she took her through every day, and felt herself lulled deeper and deeper into a meditative state by the old priestess’ voice. The wind around her picked up a little, blowing her hair across her nose. Irritated, she lifted out of the meditative state to swipe the hair out of her face, barely aware of the fact that the wind had died down to the soft breeze it had been before. As she slipped back into meditation, the wind picked up again, and Áine realized that she felt a curious feeling in her lungs – a sort of pressurized, tingling feeling.

Curiosity got the best of her, and she focused her mind on that feeling. She prodded it mentally, somewhat hard, although she didn’t realize she’d done it so hard until the wind picked up to a near roar for just a second. Her eyes snapped open in surprise and excitement, and the wind promptly died.

Laughing, the priestess merely said that perhaps they should end the meditation for the night. Disappointed, Áine tried to convince her to keep going with her, but the old priestess insisted that she was too old to sit through gale winds, and bade Áine to go study up on Luna some more. Frustrated at having to leave her new discovery so quickly, the girl fell into a ferocious pout, but the priestess insisted, promising that they would have a session again the next day. Finally, Áine relented and followed her mentor inside, too excited to be upset: she was a wind mage!

The wind was the easiest for her to tap into, although she discovered that she had a mediocre control of it, at best. She could guide it, somewhat, but she never had the expert control that a true wind master had. The priestess was confused as to why Áine was never able to make any headway on her wind mastery, although she never said so out loud. However, she didn’t need to, because Áine eventually heard it from someone else. It had become a bit of gossip with the other novices, that Áine wasn’t making half the progress she should have been making – at nearly eighteen, she had gotten only a little better than the first time she’d done anything. Upset and hurt by her ineptitude and the old priestess’ decision not to inform her of her own failings, Áine skipped a full week and a half of sessions with the priestess without telling her. Finally, the priestess was forced to seek her out.

It was a rainy day outside. The rain had persisted for the past week or so, usually a light drizzle but sometimes almost a torrent. Since it was spring, it was hardly that unusual. It was only a bit odd because the sun had been shining so vibrantly just before the episodes of rain had began.

When the priestess found her, Áine confessed to everything she heard, trying not to cry openly and failing a bit miserably. It wasn’t just sadness that fueled her tears, but frustration, anger and self-pity. Feeling sorry for her, the priestess asked if Áine might consider just having a few more sessions with her, starting that day. Áine relented, but didn’t want to start until the rain had stopped, so the priestess just stayed and talked to her a while, talking about her childhood and some of her own experiences when she was younger. Quickly becoming absorbed in the story, the teenager was able to put her own frustrations and fears on the backburner, and soon her misery seemed to lift. About an hour later, the rain lightened to a mist, and a few hours after that, it had dissipated entirely.

The priestess found it curious, because it had seemed as if the rain was going to keep going strong for at least another three days. It made the priestess begin to suspect that perhaps Áine was more than just a wind-mage, although she kept her suspicions to herself.

After a few more sessions in which Áine tried to control the wind better, the priestess asked her to do something different. Confused, Áine asked what she meant by different, but the priestess declined to say. So, she tried, and nothing came of it. The session ended, and both went to bed. The next day, the priestess made the same request of her, and nothing came of it. So it went, for weeks, and as the weeks passed, Áine began to grow increasingly frustrated. Obviously there was nothing “different’ to glean from her meager abilities, so why did the priestess insist upon it? Spring fell into summer, and storms became more common. It was not due to Áine, however, as there was always a time in early summer in which storms seemed to go into a frenzy for a bit and then die off into warmer days. However, it was probably what gave Áine the anchorage to finally realize what she could do.

The storm was some miles off as they began their session, and once again the priestess asked for something “new”. Frustration had long since left Áine, and now she was simply angry. What was it the priestess wanted of her? She had nothing more to give. Finally, she decided that it was enough, and asked the priestess why she was wasting everyone’s time with this when she could be mastering the winds. The priestess remained calm during Áine’s anger, which only served to anger the teenager more. The storm crept closer, attracted to the sparking energy in the girl. The priestess watched it warily but said nothing of it, choosing only to bade that Áine continue trying to reach for this “different” thing.

“There is nothing!” Áine yelled, furious and frustrated. There was a loud crack of lightning behind her, startling the girl. As the lightning had reached downwards, thankfully still some way off, she had felt an answering spark within her own body. The hairs on her skin raised at the electrical current in the air, and a part of the girl realized that she was, in part, responsible for the lightning manifestation. The priestess quickly ushered her inside before she got electrocuted.

She turned eighteen a few weeks later, beaming with the knowledge that she was not a wind mage, but a full-blown weather mage. The priestesses collectively decided that someone with that brand of magic could do much better than their temple, and arranged for her to travel to Myridia City, where she would meet her master teachers, hopefully. In actuality, they would all test her and her abilities, and may or may not keep her on. Although a part of Áine was scared that they would reject her, she resolved to put those fears behind her. Weather mages weren’t a dime a dozen, and she just had to have faith that the brand of her magic alone would speak for her if the extent of her abilities couldn’t. The priestesses arranged for her to travel with a small band of friendly merchants, and at the tender age of eighteen, she was off.

The trip there was a lot of fun for the adventurous girl. She listened to tales told by the merchants and traders, wide-eyed with awe at their spectrum of knowledge concerning the surrounding empires – however, no matter where they wore their allegiance, every story about Kalen and Ashar only served to reinforce Áine’s conviction that Myridia was the best of the three. After all, Myridia didn’t seek to conquer everything in its path, only to maintain what it always had. She felt that that was the most admirable way.

The travel to the city only took two days and a single night, but for Áine, it was the most fun she’d ever had. Camping out under the stars (well, okay, within the wagon but she had a clear view of the stars) and listening to the sounds of the crickets filled her with a heavy, slumbersome sort of peace. Of course, she wouldn’t know of the sorts of hardships that come from longer expeditions; the sweat, the fatigue, the boredom, the lack of time that could be spent towards proper hygiene. All the same, she knew that she’d have to try something like it again, even though she was aware that much of her time in Myridia City would be spent studying over the next few years, at least, and from what she knew of her priestesses back home, she didn’t hold much hope out for a vacation. Yet, she looked towards the City with a bright-eyed eagerness that can truly only be achieved by simple farm children.

She parted from the merchants sadly, and although she insisted that they meet soon, she knew in her heart that it was unlikely that they would see each other again, let alone within the year. One of the merchants gave her directions to the dormitory, figuring that whoever would be sharing the quarters with her would tell her everything she needed to know about her potential new life.

She was given the quarters that were given to a potential apprentice, a bland room that had no personal affectation to it; over the coming weeks, it would become a constant reminder that she may very well be sent home. There were two bunk beds in there, but only two other roommates to share the room with her. She came to form a tentative friendship with them, although all were aware that the day may come when they’d have to part ways. She met with just a few Assembly men and women at first, and tried her hardest to seem good enough for them. She answered their questions as best and completely as she could, but the mages were apparently good at hiding their reactions, for she couldn’t tell how they took her news. Finally, it seemed she had passed the first trial, and she was paired off with a middle-aged female Mage to conduct a more thorough testing of her capabilities. This was the part that Áine was secretly dreading, because she felt as though she wasn’t as far along as she should have been in controlling her particular brand of magic. What little control she could hold over the weather-related elements seemed to come and go without much notice, and she entered the first session with the teacher frightened to death that she would be able to show her nothing.

The woman asked her what the easiest aspect to control was, and Áine told her that it was wind. However, it wasn’t entirely true, as her hold over the wind was tenuous at best, but she knew that the chances of wind-magic manifesting were significantly higher than rain or lightning. The woman took her to a yard attached to the dormitory, and asked her to sit. Recognizing the meditative pose the woman took, Áine followed suit, although she was so nervous her fingers were shaking. All she could think about was what would happen to her if she couldn’t do it. The tension and anxiety must have shown on her face, because the woman gently and kindly suggested that she relax, and told her that she understood the challenges that young mages faced. Although a little heartened, Áine was convinced that she would still not measure up. Trying not to think further on it, she closed her eyes and forced herself to concentrate.

To her chagrin, she was unable to do a thing. Perhaps it was nerves or the pressure, but she couldn’t locate the once-somewhat-familiar hum within her lungs; her connection to the wind had faltered. Tears of mortification sprung to her eyes, and she dropped her gaze to the ground to hide them. However, the blush that always accompanied her tears made an appearance as well, and the woman knew what was going on. Seeming as relaxed and gentle as ever, the women suggested that they wait until the following day.

Áine spent the night wondering miserably how she was going to live with herself if she had to go back to Reza… and to a life as nothing more than a boring old priestess. She loved Luna, and wanted to serve her, but she didn’t want to serve her so… well, boring-ly. She wanted adventure and excitement, something more to her life.

The next day, Áine’s nerves were no better than they’d been before, and it took a little extra time to get into a meditative state. The woman began speaking softly, seemingly just nonsense-words at first, but Áine soon recognized them to be soothing, reassuring sentences reminding her that just because she had one fallback didn’t mark her as a failure. Feeling a little better for that, Áine pursed her lips and forced herself to dig deep within herself, refusing to be satisfied with a simple “Oh, well, guess it’s not happening today” again. Frustration built up within the young girl, all the frustration she’d ever felt: she deserved to have this one chance at happiness, surely. The light tone of anger in her soul lent her mind a sharpened edge, and suddenly, the humming connection to the wind was there. Exhaling softly, gently so as not to suddenly lose hold of the feeling, the girl reached towards it gingerly. Faithfully, the breeze began to pick up around her and the woman. Relief flooded the teenager, and her control of the wind dropped, and suddenly the wind was roaring around them for a split second before halting. Embarrassed, Áine ran her fingers through her hair sheepishly, trying to work through the tangles the wind had wrought.

Surprisingly, the woman smiled, even as she worked her fingers through her own hair. Judging that day to be a good day, she ended the session, and told Áine she’d be back the next day to inquire about the further extent of her abilities.

Proving her control of the rain and lightning proved to be a much harder task, but as the months passed, her teachers managed to coax evidence of both out of her, enough to qualify her as a weather-mage. A whole seven months after she’d first arrived, she had finally given them enough evidence to seriously consider keeping her on – and the feeling was wonderful. A part of her knew that they might still decide to decline. After all, she was horribly untrained, and seemed only able to manifest so much as a spark under extreme duress, but just the knowledge that she had been deemed fit for the category buoyed her spirits, and she was sure they would let her stay for at least a little while.

And so they did. She moved to a full-time dormitory room, to her glee. One of her former roommates that had been asked to stay on as an apprentice shared it with her (although she had proven herself a good four months before Áine had), and their friendship blossomed. After her initiation into the world of Assembly Apprentices, Áine met the rest of the Assembly, bit by bit. Many acted as teachers towards the new apprentices, and the older apprentices had special one-on-one sessions with the Mage that shared their power. Although Áine met Jonas, the weather Mage of the Assembly, she did not spend much time with him at first, since it was required that she learn the basics before she did anything else.

She threw herself into her studies at first, wanting to become a model student like her roommate, Ferona. Ferona was an earth Mage, and it seemed as though magic came as easily to her as breathing. Although horribly jealous, Áine never let that aspect of her feelings show, for fear of ruining the friendship. As time passed, it seemed as though Áine was moving at a snail’s pace, only able to get better a smidgen at a time. Horribly frustrated, she spent less time studying and practicing and more time walking about the city with her friends. The pressure to be a good student was overwhelming, and although it shamed the teenager, sometimes she honestly thought about just throwing it all away and running back to Reza. Or becoming a merchant and traveling to far-off places. Still, a part of her was too stubborn to give up, and after one of her teachers expressed concern over her sudden lull in studying and practicing, she was determined to apply herself and really do well.

The city shaped her in ways that the agricultural life never would have. Interacting with other citizens gave her a more sharp-witted humor, the sort of thing that seemed to rise to the surface when she became horribly upset, turning humor into pain and veiled insults. Still, she learned to control that particular volatile side of her as time passed, and resorted to using her tongue in an unpleasant fashion only when she couldn’t take a particular outrage anymore.

Although apprentices are not children, she still felt that she had something to prove to her peers; a reminiscent feeling of unworthiness from her time as a child. She wanted so badly to become a leader again that she learned to bring that side of herself forward, so that it was more dominant in her personality. Upon first arriving, Áine had been shy, although not meek. As the year anniversary of her time in Myridia approached, Áine had somehow formed herself into the cheerleader of the apprentices. Ruthlessly optimistic, she was not fond of defeatist attitudes in other people, although she sometimes entertained such attitudes herself, when she was alone and there was nobody to watch her. However, it was still true that apprentices are not children, and they did not seek a leader – therefore, there was no role for Áine to fill. On a subconscious level, this spurred her on to even more desperately seek it, but to no avail.

She was with five other apprentices, learning about Myridia’s history and the history of the Mages that had first defended Myridia’s walls, when she perceived and seized the role she’d been waiting for. The teacher also taught fire-magic to one of the apprentices on a one-on-one basis, and when the teacher left for a few moments to attend to sudden business, it came up in conversation. The student complained half-heartedly that he thought he was beyond what the teacher was trying to teach him, and felt that the teacher was holding him back simply because he didn’t understand the extent of the student’s abilities. The tidbit of information was quickly forgotten as the conversation rolled forward, and then was later interrupted by the teacher’s return, but it set Áine’s mind running.

Perhaps most of the students suffer from that problem, and they chose not to speak for themselves… or they were afraid to. It was shortly after that that Áine decided that if they weren’t going to speak for themselves, she was going to speak for them.

She enacted this by hurling herself deeper and deeper into her own studies, not wanting there to be anything that the teachers she might confront to nitpick at, should they want that option. Finally, she decided to broach the subject of the fire student’s learning with the teacher, who simply refused to speak about it with her. The teacher felt it was somewhat rude that she was being spoken of behind her back, and wanted Áine to trust her to know best. Not content with the answer, Áine began a sort of protest against her teachers to listen to what she and the other students wanted to say. It was hardly violent and didn’t disrupt classes, so the teachers seemed to bear it, giving her the impression that they usually had similar students from time to time. Still, she was going to prove that she was not just some impatient student that didn’t know well enough about her own abilities to confront the Assembly about it (despite the fact that she was just an impatient, somewhat ignorant student).

More than anything, she wanted to learn proper weather magic, wanted to just be finished with basic training, already. Jonas still didn’t teach her, although the wind Mage allowed her to sit in a few sessions with the wind apprentice from time to time. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that she wouldn’t’ go anywhere if she wasn’t given something harder and more difficult to strive towards. Eventually, her blustering won the attention of the weather Mage, who sought her out just a few months after she turned 19. She hadn’t had much interaction with him up until that point, and was almost disappointed to discover that he was a kind man, and disconcertingly sympathetic to her feelings. Feeling the platform of Righteous Indignation being swept out straight from under her feet, Áine attacked head on, demanding to know why she couldn’t learn from him, already, and why she was stuck doing the same basic exercises over and over.

He calmly responded that she had yet to fully master said “basic exercises,” and would not move on until she did so. After all, they weren’t out to build up a mage that would single-handedly bring disaster on the city.

A little stung by the light note of sarcasm in his voice, Áine fell silent as Jonas left. It took the steam out of her sails for a little bit, and the teachers were all relieved when Áine seemed to quiet down, not seeking audience with them outside of class-time to argue her cause. However, she very slowly worked up her steam again, although she was careful to make sure that she had gained a mastery of the basic exercises she was currently working on before she tried to push for one-on-one teaching again. Although it was clear that Jonas didn’t think she was really ready for that step, he agreed to meet with her once a week to check up on how she was doing, although he made no promises to train with her. Still, it was a step in the right direction.

She spent the remaining months of her nineteenth year working as hard as she could, although her progress still felt painfully slow to her – a fact that she knew she couldn’t completely contribute to Jonas’ refusal to personally train her. Despite the teacher’s insisting that it was perfectly normal for her to be progressing at this speed (all students progress at different speeds, and she was hardly the slowest they’d encountered), she still felt mired in her own lack of progress. Still, she worked diligently at it (although perhaps not feverishly – she still had to maintain her sanity, of course, and still spent free time playing with her friends), and after she turned twenty, she was rewarded: Jonas came to his weekly meeting with her and asked her to meditate with him. Elated, she promptly did so, although she was a little disappointed when she realized that was all he was asking of her. Still, it meant that he was working up to seeing her on a personal, one-on-one level, and she was extremely excited.

As the months passed, he began spending more and more time working with her, although he still had to coordinate the schedule between her and his other students. Although progress still felt slow at times, she was so happy to finally be working with him that she didn’t let it bother her too much. However, she made more leaps and bounds forward during the months she worked with him – whether it was because of him or simply because she was finally ready, she didn’t know. Towards the end of her twentieth year, the apprentice that had held the Representative position on the Chorus graduated to the Assembly… leaving the way open for another apprentice. Competition was fierce, and for Áine, she knew that she had to win. She would make sure that the young apprentices would have their voices heard, and she was confident that she could do that better than anyone. Bluntly, she asked Jonas what she could do to get that position, but he just told her to work hard and she might.

Eventually, the choices were narrowed down between her and three others, one of whom was her close friend, Ferona. They were all worthy of being a Representative, and Áine knew it. But she wanted the position so badly, she refused to dwell on them or the fact that they might beat her. She was asked to speak before the Assembly about why she should have the position, as were the three other candidates. She had no idea what the other candidates would say, and although she had begun to prepare a short speech in her head, when she got in front of the Assembly she simply spoke what came to her mind, revealing her idealistic nature and desire to be a proper mouthpiece for her peers. It was a speech spoken straight from the heart, and afterwards, she worried that they might find her too emotional and pass her over.

It was a hard decision, and as they waited, her twenty-first birthday passed. However, her waiting was not for nothing: they announced to all four of them that it was she, Áine, that would be their representative. The other three candidates were very gracious, and seemed genuinely happy for her, and she wondered if she would have been as happy for them if she’d lost. Still, it didn’t do much good to think of such things, not when so much good had happened.

She celebrated by going out that night with her friends and having fun, although she was back at a tasteful hour, still unsure what the rules were for being a Representative. She was cautiously happy after that initial celebration, worried that she would do something that would cause her new position to be stripped from her. As more months passed, however, she was introduced to her duties and no move was made to remove her from the Chorus. Slowly, she fell into the groove of her new responsibilities with the responsibilities she already held towards her learning, although she sometimes daydreamed when she was supposed to be studying, to her teachers’ irritation. As more time passed, she spent less time with the rest of her teachers and more time with Jonas, although she still spent the majority of her learning with someone other than the weather Mage. She came to like Jonas quite a bit once she got over the initial frustration and hurt she’d felt upon their first meeting, and became more of her “true” self with him – more lively and laughing and less Trusted Mouthpiece of the Undervalued-y. Sometimes she still butted heads with him over what she perceived as his inability to take her seriously because she was young, and what he perceived as her being young and willfully, stubbornly ignorant, but their mentor/protégé relationship still held a friendly sort of affection to it.

Now, she does all that is within her power to use her powers as rightly as she knows how, and speaks with her fellow apprentices in mind while in the Chorus.

Personality:

Áine is chiefly, it seems, optimistic, cheerful, and always ready to join in a joke. However, as people get to know her better, they become more aware of the deeper levels to the girl’s personality. Although not mercurial, she can be subject to mood swings, and can go from being a social butterfly to an introverted hermit. She strives not to let herself become depressed, focusing instead on using any sad feelings to think deeply about why she’s sad and how she can fix it. Although jokey and funny with her fellows, she takes her job as a Representative extraordinarily seriously, and doesn’t like the company of Chorus members who don’t do likewise. Although she is often as confident and well-adjusted as she appears, she has times of insecurity and jealousy. A good example of this would be a friend of hers who is naturally gifted with animals – since animals do not give Áine special attention, seeming to neither love her nor hate her, she covets the easy rapport some people have with fuzzy creatures, although she tries very hard not to let it show.

Her insecurity is marked in other ways. There are times when she seems unflappable, able to take the punches as they come, but in reality Áine is very sensitive, and hates the idea of being disliked by someone. She feels a person’s dislike or disrespect keenly, and often can’t help the fact that the hurt caused by that shows on her face. She takes criticism seriously, and is unable to laugh it off, although this does not hinder her ability to improve herself. If criticized, she merely nods and works harder at making herself unworthy of criticism, although she hates the thought of falling short of someone’s esteem, even if it’s only for a moment. People who are cynical may see her as desperately wanting to please, although she knows that it’s not so much other people she wants to please as herself. It’s a very convoluted mixture of feelings.

She takes great joy in simple things, especially time spent with friends and time spent outdoors. She likes walking much more than riding a cart or a horse, although she recognizes the two latter options as necessary for the sake of expediency at times. When she is not working or training, it’s easy to tease a smile out of her and even easier to coax laughter. As for romance, Áine often tries so hard to be friends with everyone that she bars the way for any sort of relationship, casual or otherwise, and still has trouble thinking about herself as even remotely desirable. When confronted with an awkward situation, she usually tries to diffuse the situation with a joke; something that has the tendency to alienate her from people that are trying to be serious with her. The only exception to this is when she is in the role of a Representative, although there are seldom truly awkward moments at such a time.

She is a harsh judge of herself, more so than most other people are of her, although she attributes her own harsh judgment to other people much of the time. She loves pets, especially dogs, cats and rodents, and longs to have the sort of personality that seems to attract animals. Although animals find her likeable enough, they aren’t attracted to her as they are to certain special people – with the notable exception of dogs, who pretty much like anyone so long as they’re not given a reason not to. That’s a good, solid reason as to why Áine’s favorite animals are dogs, and she longs to have a pet dog of her own, but they aren’t allowed in the dormitory. She has a soft heart for animals, often feeding scavengers (mostly birds and rats, although sometimes cats and dogs) when she shouldn’t. She likes children, but finds young ones to be a bit overwhelming to deal with, and doesn’t like to be alone with a child for fear of doing something wrong, like teaching them a bad word.

Other: Áine is a weather mage, although hardly a master of the craft. She works hard at it, though, and is always improving – at the moment, she works best with forces that already are in existence, like the lightning in a nearby storm of cloudy skies to produce rain, and is having a great deal of trouble making weather manifest without outside help. Although her abilities are noticeably stronger when she gets emotional, she tends to lose control of them, and is working hard at putting that to a stop.

RP Sample: Scenario 2: Put your character in a situation in which he/she shows an example of any special abilities your character might possess. Does he have a gift for archery? Is she a mage? Please note that this section is important for us to understand the extent of your talents. (min. 3 paragraphs)

((G-moding Jonas, I’mma asking Nick to look it all over and have me fix what I need to fix and all that ))

Áine sighed softly as she sat cross-legged on the grass of one of the dormitory courtyards. She peeked an eye open to look at the man opposite her to see if he’d heard. His eyes were still closed. As if sensing her scrutiny, he slowly, deliberately raised one of his eyebrows a quarter of an inch, inviting her to begin her tirade whenever she felt it was necessary. Feeling mutinous at the slightly sarcastic air of the older man’s gesture, the young woman fell out of her meditative pose completely, tucking her legs in tighter to her body and slumping her back forward so she could lean her elbows on her knees. Jonas’ eyes opened, and he simply regarded her silently, waiting. Sometimes, she really hated that air of self-actualization that seemed to hang around him like a cloud. It seemed smug to just throw your wisdom in all the apprentice’s faces. Recognizing that her thoughts had taken a dangerously childish turn, Áine forced some cheer back into her expression, although the attempt was lackluster at best. She inhaled and exhaled softly, allowing her features to go slack. ”Jonas… do you think I’m ever going to be able to manifest weather?” Now it was the weather Mage’s turn to sigh; the subject was a tired one between them.

”I don’t know, Áine,” he responded, as he always did. He opened his mouth to speak further, and Áine nodded in time with his words; it would have been clear to anyone that had happened to walk by and was watching that she’d heard the whole spiel before. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he spoke, seeing that she was growing a bit more belligerent than normal this day. ”Everyone’s powers are different, and sometimes it takes a while before you’re able to master what other people have mastered. You just have to practice.” She had been mouthing along with him for the last sentence, and he gave her one of his more potent looks. Dropping her gaze immediately, she pretended interest in the blades of grass around her feet. ”If you know what I’m going to say, why do you always ask?”

She grinned, wrinkling her nose a little, and cast him an affectionate-but-tired-and-a-little-irritated sort of look. ”I’m always sort of hoping the answer will change one of these days. You’ll hand me the key to everything I want to know or something.” The older mage was startled into soft laughter, and Áine smiled wider, having achieved the effect she wanted. But soon her smile faded, and she grew more serious, wanting to ask him a question that he was supposed to answer seriously. ”I feel as if I’m not making any progress. And I know, I know, I am,” she added quickly, raising a hand to stop him from saying the same thing. ”But I hate this whole thing, having to repeat the same stuff over and over until I could recite it in my sleep or something.” When Jonas said nothing, she felt compelled to add, in a small voice: ”And I feel as though you don’t listen to me when I say these things because I’m young and naïve and impatient, or whatever it is you probably think I am.”

”I hear you, Áine, and I understand what you’re going through. Everyone goes through it; even I did, at one point.” Irritated at what seemed to her to be a flippant answer, she tossed her hair over one shoulder and glared into the distance, her mouth pursing into a thin line. Sensing the impending storm, Jonas continued, speaking in a soft, soothing voice. ”I’m not trying to invalidate your feelings or your experience, Áine, but it’s true.”

”Well, I do feel invalidated,” she snapped, and the humming in her lungs rose with her irritation, and a brisk breeze picked up around the two of them, blowing her hair forward and into her eyes. She squinted against the sudden halo of hair, frowning as she tried to calm the wind down. Against her wishes, the wind picked up a little more, and she felt as powerless against it as she’d felt when she first realized she had magic. She felt the wind slacken despite her failed efforts, and since she still felt the steady hum within her, she knew that Jonas had probably quelled the breeze. He looked at her with an inscrutable face, but she felt as though he were disappointed in her. A flush topped her cheeks and she dropped her gaze to the grass again, the corners of her mouth pinched in self-imposed misery. ”I’m sorry, Jonas,” she whispered, and the light remaining breeze carried the whisper easily to his ears.

He nodded in response, and she could only just barely guess what that might have meant. When he spoke, it was as if the small episode hadn’t happened. ”Well, I think we should call it a day for today. I’ll meet you here tomorrow at the usual time.” He stood up, still pretty nimble for his age, and walked out of the courtyard. From her place on the grass, Áine watched him go, and once he was gone, she threw herself backwards so that she was lying facing the sky. Its endless blue always calmed her. She stared at it until her head was throbbing with pain from the exposure of her eyes to such brightness, and then rolled over, stood up, and walked back inside the dormitory.

Footnote: By submitting this application you agree that you have read the rules and regulations and understand the fantasy setting of this board. You also agree to submit to the authority of the Admin of Myridia in any decisions that may or may not affect your character with regards to board matters.

[The Council]

I made Jonas a little younger, so I altered one reference to him being a "kind old man" to "kind man".

Other than that, Accepted! Welcome to Myridia.