Open post, Ebon goodness
Most Ebon-tagged things are locked to a special readers group, because "oh hey unfinished original fiction on teh intarnetz" but this one is left open.
This is a partial profile of one of Ebon's narrators, Elisaveta.
Name: Elisaveta
Currently Appearing: Ebon, at age 24
Orientation: Chaotic Good, bisexual
Origin: Onyx Country, in Darwin.
Significant Other(s): Onyx Dragon. Kalahari, Diamond Princess, is her adoptive sister/daughter. Shonadi, Aqua Princess, is her friend, and she maintains a polite relationship with Miranda, Brass Princess, and Tsume, Iron Princess, both of whom she has massive amounts of respect for. Spider, Coyote, and the rest of the Animal Archetypes are frequent fliers. Later, after Ebon, Ebon Dragon and Jason, Ebon Princess, pop in to talk a lot. Ebon because he likes her, and Jason because he hasn’t a clue on Earth of what to do, and desperately wants help. Tsume’s son Taki is her husband, and they have three children, Natsuko, Karin, and David.
Quirks: She’s not exactly shy, she’s not afraid of people at all; she’s afraid of the consequences of her interacting with people… but that will be explained later.
Highly intelligent, and tends to think in four dimensions when it comes to problem solving and astral matters. It isn’t natural, Onyx taught her how to think this way. This results in a couple of odd decisions in the physical world, like deciding to put a sofa in the kitchen. She’s also unaware that anything she does is odd, because she lives alone and doesn’t have the reactions of other people to tip her off.
Elisaveta is an escapist, and a fiction-novel junkie, and being a dragon’s Princess and a Shamanist did and did not help with that. It did, in that she has no romantic notions whatsoever about fiction, but it did not in that she has attached herself more firmly to the facets of the physical and astral plane that Shamanists deal with, and very tenuously to the aspects of them that we like to call “real life.” She can feel the earth breathe beneath her feet, understand what the wind whispers, react with insects and animals in ways they understand, understand them in turn, and know what a plant is dreaming (all Shamanist things), but lives most of her life disconnected from the day to day. She keeps highly irregular hours, staying awake for days and sleeping it off, or staying awake for only eight hours and alternating with naps. She gardens and cooks very well, but if Onyx or some spirit or other didn’t remind her, she’d forget to eat. She has forgotten to eat for two days, which is why these creatures, who have a hard time with remembering things like that themselves (as they don’t do it) bother to remind her at all. Being forced to sit in the legislature is actually very good for her.
She’s pathologically unable to work hard without internal drama of some kind about it. This drama rarely makes it to the surface in the things she completes, otherwise somebody would probably have to smother her with a pillow. It’s very key to the things she doesn’t complete, though. Elisaveta is either lazy or a coward. Things come easily or not at all. She wants things, but she’s afraid to go after them directly. Instead, she approaches them sideways and from the backside of the bottom, but when it comes to something she views as an indulgence, or something that is important to somebody who isn’t her, she goes after it efficiently, directly, and usually with success. Elisaveta wants to be strong and take care of other people and accept and carry out responsibilities for others, but remain childlike and be taken care of herself, avoiding simple personal responsibilities like doing her laundry, remembering to feed herself, and while she was still in school, completing any homework.
This contradictory behavior of hers drives her teacher, Spider, nuts, but Onyx likes it because it keeps her close to home and close to him. Elisaveta knows this pattern of behavior (reading for pleasure instead of studying for a test, or researching something interesting instead of cooking herself dinner) is harmful to her, but she’s caught between her own desire for instant gratification and Onyx’s reinforcement of it, and the personal responsibility she wants (most of the time) that Spider is trying to teach and her parents tried to teach her.
In personal relationships, Elisaveta makes friends easily, but has lost sight of how to connect to someone when she initiates the contact, especially if this person is human. She knows extremely well how to deal with Elementals, demons, Animal archetypes/Shamanist spirits, dragons, children, professional relationships, and the insane, but she doesn’t have the faintest idea of how to go find someone to be your friend (instead of people approaching you, and you cultivating some relationships and not others), and she’s completely in the dark when it comes to dating and courting, with Onyx doing his level best to keep it that way. She knows how to act and behave and communicate in a romantic relationship once she’s already in one, thanks to learning from the mistakes of a couple hundred romance novels (as well as the bitching of a hundred thousand acquaintances, and listening to her mother and other family talk); she’s completely helpless when it comes to getting into that kind of relationship to begin with. Again, Onyx likes this dependency and ignorance about courting, and does his best to maintain it.
He doesn’t have to try very hard, because Elisaveta purposefully keeps all her dealings and contacts with other human beings slightly formal and very reserved, because she can feel it when he pouts or is jealous. As she was very young when she became Princess (seven), she reacted to those feelings as being something she did, and grew up doing everything she could do to keep Onyx from having a reason to be jealous. Onyx frequently had to tell a child or teen Elisaveta that it was all right for her to play with the other children and socialize (otherwise she wouldn’t, she’d sit by herself watching), and that’s even before we get into the other kids knowing (or not knowing) you’re Onyx Princess.
Elisaveta’s mother was actually pretty pissed at Onyx over her daughter becoming Princess. Not that Elisaveta was Onyx Princess at all, but that Elisaveta became Princess so young.
Elisaveta chews on things when she’s distracted and not thinking, and loses her internal monologue (thinks aloud) when she’s distracted and thinking.
Post-Ebon: Onyx loves her, and will give her anything in his power to keep her happy and content, so since Elisaveta has been a bit lonely and wanting someone of her own species to snuggle with lately, he’s decided to arrange a marriage for her. Thus the unholy alliance of Onyx Dragon and Iron Princess came about.
Background:
Employment: Onyx Princess, as of age seven, with the accompanying seat in Parliament… which she desperately wishes she could delegate to someone. Anyone. Even a rock, dear God, meetings are boring.
Talents: Shamanist, experienced horseback rider, gardener, good cook, patience of a saint, and able to field eleven astral beings all wanting her attention at the same time.
Appearance: Like most people in the world of Ebon, Elisaveta has a somewhat mixed heritage, with Maori and Aborigine Australian native on her father’s side, and mixed stranded-Russian-tourist and mostly-white Aussie on her mother’s. She has dark skin, dark eyes, and thick, black hair that’s slightly coarse.
Reactions to Sudden Hugs: “Eep.” Startlement and an eventual relaxation into the hug, because YAY HUMAN CONTACT… oh, wait, better untangle because there’s this possessive giant reptile who’s starting to pay a little too much attention… Or, if you’re family or a friend, a brief snuggling back after the initial startled “eep.”
Distinguishing Characteristics: Elisaveta is fairly undistinguishing. Very little about her stands out in public, and as much as she consciously wishes for attention, she’s terrified of attracting the wrong kind of attention (when the dragon gets jealous, crops fail, weather goes apeshit, and PEOPLE WILL DIE OMG… and that isn’t even getting into the demon or any of the other spirits). So she also, consciously and unconsciously, tends to fade into the general mass of humanity or into the occasion (as Onyx Princess, outgoing or not, is always watched by somebody and very useful for ribbon-cuttings). She doesn’t look like everyone else, but she also doesn’t look all that different from anyone else, and she’s very reserved and quiet around all but her inner circle.
Actually, Elisaveta is only noticeable at all for three reasons. One, she is one of the two narrators of Ebon. She is in the best position to see what is happening to her world. Various others can see certain aspects and events of it better than she can, but Elisaveta is the person on Earth who sees the most. She has the dragon perspective, as much as she can understand it; she has the human perspective; and because she’s a Shamanist, she has the perspective of the land and sea and air itself, and the animal and elemental spirits that go with them. She can also hear and sense and reach out for Ebon, but she’s not unique in that. Anyone significantly gifted with the Sight can do this, and that’s almost a third of the population of Earth, as just about every kind of talent automatically comes with the Sight, the ability to see (and often hear) spirits who choose to be seen. Two, she is a powerful Shamanist, and while Shamanists aren’t rare, they’re not common either, and the powerful ones (the ones who can interact with all spirits and nature-related elements on all levels, physical through astral), are even less common. Several kinds of spirits, Coyote especially, love to talk, and Elisaveta is both able and willing to listen to them. Three, Kalahari loves her. She’s what passes for Kalahari’s mother. Like it or not, your mother will be one of the most important and influential people in your life.
If You Could Pick a Theme Song for This Character, It Would Be: “The Way You Are,” by 46bliss
“ I like to look into your eyes where
Water's warm feels like home
Travel fast the seconds last
For days this haze I'm in”
“Put yourself (I like to look into your eyes now)
Put yourself in my place
(Fire’s warm feels like more)
(Take refuge and the flames embrace me)
(Burning fast the seconds last)
(For days this haze I'm in)”
This is a partial profile of one of Ebon's narrators, Elisaveta.
Name: Elisaveta
Currently Appearing: Ebon, at age 24
Orientation: Chaotic Good, bisexual
Origin: Onyx Country, in Darwin.
Significant Other(s): Onyx Dragon. Kalahari, Diamond Princess, is her adoptive sister/daughter. Shonadi, Aqua Princess, is her friend, and she maintains a polite relationship with Miranda, Brass Princess, and Tsume, Iron Princess, both of whom she has massive amounts of respect for. Spider, Coyote, and the rest of the Animal Archetypes are frequent fliers. Later, after Ebon, Ebon Dragon and Jason, Ebon Princess, pop in to talk a lot. Ebon because he likes her, and Jason because he hasn’t a clue on Earth of what to do, and desperately wants help. Tsume’s son Taki is her husband, and they have three children, Natsuko, Karin, and David.
Quirks: She’s not exactly shy, she’s not afraid of people at all; she’s afraid of the consequences of her interacting with people… but that will be explained later.
Highly intelligent, and tends to think in four dimensions when it comes to problem solving and astral matters. It isn’t natural, Onyx taught her how to think this way. This results in a couple of odd decisions in the physical world, like deciding to put a sofa in the kitchen. She’s also unaware that anything she does is odd, because she lives alone and doesn’t have the reactions of other people to tip her off.
Elisaveta is an escapist, and a fiction-novel junkie, and being a dragon’s Princess and a Shamanist did and did not help with that. It did, in that she has no romantic notions whatsoever about fiction, but it did not in that she has attached herself more firmly to the facets of the physical and astral plane that Shamanists deal with, and very tenuously to the aspects of them that we like to call “real life.” She can feel the earth breathe beneath her feet, understand what the wind whispers, react with insects and animals in ways they understand, understand them in turn, and know what a plant is dreaming (all Shamanist things), but lives most of her life disconnected from the day to day. She keeps highly irregular hours, staying awake for days and sleeping it off, or staying awake for only eight hours and alternating with naps. She gardens and cooks very well, but if Onyx or some spirit or other didn’t remind her, she’d forget to eat. She has forgotten to eat for two days, which is why these creatures, who have a hard time with remembering things like that themselves (as they don’t do it) bother to remind her at all. Being forced to sit in the legislature is actually very good for her.
She’s pathologically unable to work hard without internal drama of some kind about it. This drama rarely makes it to the surface in the things she completes, otherwise somebody would probably have to smother her with a pillow. It’s very key to the things she doesn’t complete, though. Elisaveta is either lazy or a coward. Things come easily or not at all. She wants things, but she’s afraid to go after them directly. Instead, she approaches them sideways and from the backside of the bottom, but when it comes to something she views as an indulgence, or something that is important to somebody who isn’t her, she goes after it efficiently, directly, and usually with success. Elisaveta wants to be strong and take care of other people and accept and carry out responsibilities for others, but remain childlike and be taken care of herself, avoiding simple personal responsibilities like doing her laundry, remembering to feed herself, and while she was still in school, completing any homework.
This contradictory behavior of hers drives her teacher, Spider, nuts, but Onyx likes it because it keeps her close to home and close to him. Elisaveta knows this pattern of behavior (reading for pleasure instead of studying for a test, or researching something interesting instead of cooking herself dinner) is harmful to her, but she’s caught between her own desire for instant gratification and Onyx’s reinforcement of it, and the personal responsibility she wants (most of the time) that Spider is trying to teach and her parents tried to teach her.
In personal relationships, Elisaveta makes friends easily, but has lost sight of how to connect to someone when she initiates the contact, especially if this person is human. She knows extremely well how to deal with Elementals, demons, Animal archetypes/Shamanist spirits, dragons, children, professional relationships, and the insane, but she doesn’t have the faintest idea of how to go find someone to be your friend (instead of people approaching you, and you cultivating some relationships and not others), and she’s completely in the dark when it comes to dating and courting, with Onyx doing his level best to keep it that way. She knows how to act and behave and communicate in a romantic relationship once she’s already in one, thanks to learning from the mistakes of a couple hundred romance novels (as well as the bitching of a hundred thousand acquaintances, and listening to her mother and other family talk); she’s completely helpless when it comes to getting into that kind of relationship to begin with. Again, Onyx likes this dependency and ignorance about courting, and does his best to maintain it.
He doesn’t have to try very hard, because Elisaveta purposefully keeps all her dealings and contacts with other human beings slightly formal and very reserved, because she can feel it when he pouts or is jealous. As she was very young when she became Princess (seven), she reacted to those feelings as being something she did, and grew up doing everything she could do to keep Onyx from having a reason to be jealous. Onyx frequently had to tell a child or teen Elisaveta that it was all right for her to play with the other children and socialize (otherwise she wouldn’t, she’d sit by herself watching), and that’s even before we get into the other kids knowing (or not knowing) you’re Onyx Princess.
Elisaveta’s mother was actually pretty pissed at Onyx over her daughter becoming Princess. Not that Elisaveta was Onyx Princess at all, but that Elisaveta became Princess so young.
Elisaveta chews on things when she’s distracted and not thinking, and loses her internal monologue (thinks aloud) when she’s distracted and thinking.
Post-Ebon: Onyx loves her, and will give her anything in his power to keep her happy and content, so since Elisaveta has been a bit lonely and wanting someone of her own species to snuggle with lately, he’s decided to arrange a marriage for her. Thus the unholy alliance of Onyx Dragon and Iron Princess came about.
Background:
Employment: Onyx Princess, as of age seven, with the accompanying seat in Parliament… which she desperately wishes she could delegate to someone. Anyone. Even a rock, dear God, meetings are boring.
Talents: Shamanist, experienced horseback rider, gardener, good cook, patience of a saint, and able to field eleven astral beings all wanting her attention at the same time.
Appearance: Like most people in the world of Ebon, Elisaveta has a somewhat mixed heritage, with Maori and Aborigine Australian native on her father’s side, and mixed stranded-Russian-tourist and mostly-white Aussie on her mother’s. She has dark skin, dark eyes, and thick, black hair that’s slightly coarse.
Reactions to Sudden Hugs: “Eep.” Startlement and an eventual relaxation into the hug, because YAY HUMAN CONTACT… oh, wait, better untangle because there’s this possessive giant reptile who’s starting to pay a little too much attention… Or, if you’re family or a friend, a brief snuggling back after the initial startled “eep.”
Distinguishing Characteristics: Elisaveta is fairly undistinguishing. Very little about her stands out in public, and as much as she consciously wishes for attention, she’s terrified of attracting the wrong kind of attention (when the dragon gets jealous, crops fail, weather goes apeshit, and PEOPLE WILL DIE OMG… and that isn’t even getting into the demon or any of the other spirits). So she also, consciously and unconsciously, tends to fade into the general mass of humanity or into the occasion (as Onyx Princess, outgoing or not, is always watched by somebody and very useful for ribbon-cuttings). She doesn’t look like everyone else, but she also doesn’t look all that different from anyone else, and she’s very reserved and quiet around all but her inner circle.
Actually, Elisaveta is only noticeable at all for three reasons. One, she is one of the two narrators of Ebon. She is in the best position to see what is happening to her world. Various others can see certain aspects and events of it better than she can, but Elisaveta is the person on Earth who sees the most. She has the dragon perspective, as much as she can understand it; she has the human perspective; and because she’s a Shamanist, she has the perspective of the land and sea and air itself, and the animal and elemental spirits that go with them. She can also hear and sense and reach out for Ebon, but she’s not unique in that. Anyone significantly gifted with the Sight can do this, and that’s almost a third of the population of Earth, as just about every kind of talent automatically comes with the Sight, the ability to see (and often hear) spirits who choose to be seen. Two, she is a powerful Shamanist, and while Shamanists aren’t rare, they’re not common either, and the powerful ones (the ones who can interact with all spirits and nature-related elements on all levels, physical through astral), are even less common. Several kinds of spirits, Coyote especially, love to talk, and Elisaveta is both able and willing to listen to them. Three, Kalahari loves her. She’s what passes for Kalahari’s mother. Like it or not, your mother will be one of the most important and influential people in your life.
If You Could Pick a Theme Song for This Character, It Would Be: “The Way You Are,” by 46bliss
“ I like to look into your eyes where
Water's warm feels like home
Travel fast the seconds last
For days this haze I'm in”
“Put yourself (I like to look into your eyes now)
Put yourself in my place
(Fire’s warm feels like more)
(Take refuge and the flames embrace me)
(Burning fast the seconds last)
(For days this haze I'm in)”