By all appearances, Keyshia is an... honestly bland young woman. She's mild-mannered, trustworthy, and hardworking, seemingly doesn't have a mean bone in her body, and has a perpetual smile on her face. Those that see her that way would be mostly right — but she's smart as a whip and stubborn as a mule underneath that demure demeanor. She's surprisingly quick-witted and perceptive, with keen eyes and a sharp tongue, and fiercely protective of those around her. Too bad almost no one sees that side of her — she's terminally anxious and insecure, rendered paranoid by her time in the Fae realm, and she keeps everyone at arm's length as a result. She also has a tendency to be absorbed by her work, so simply getting her attention may be a fool's errand by itself.
strength | ⚫⚪⚪⚪⚪ | wisdom | ⚫⚫⚪⚪⚪ |
agility | ⚫⚫⚪⚪⚪ | willpower | ⚫⚫⚫⚪⚪ |
dexterity | ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚪ | charisma | ⚫⚫⚪⚪⚪ |
constitution | ⚫⚫⚪⚪⚪ | magic | ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚫ |
intelligence | ⚫⚫⚫⚫⚪ | luck | ⚫⚫⚪⚪⚪ |
Keyshia Fields spent her formative years in a small house in a small mining town. Her father, Marcus, was a hard-working, reliable man who was the pillar of the community. Her barely-seen mother, in contrast, was a flighty, erratic person who flitted in and out of her life at random, often disappearing for months or years at a time. Marcus did his best to eke out a living for his only child, and the two led a peaceful, humdrum life together. The peace was shattered when Keyshia turned 16 — he died of a mysterious illness, leaving Keyshia to get his final affairs in order.
On the eve of Marcus's funeral, her mother appeared on their doorstep once again as if nothing happened. Seemingly unconcerned with the death of her child's father, she instead announces that she has "great news". She reveals her true identity as Naseile Allwood, Archfae of the Seelie Court, and with Marcus's death, she was free to take Keyshia to the Realm of the Fae to raise her as she saw fit. Keyshia barely had enough time to say "wait, what!?" before Naseile had whisked them both away to the Realm.
Thus began several years of hell. The magic of the Realm was noxious and overripe, and she went from healthy and hale to sickly and lethargic in almost no time. Her father's death weighed heavily on her, but Naseile either never noticed or never cared. Instead, Naseile stole Keyshia's name and used it as leverage to force her to do whatever she wanted, christening her with a fae name in its stead. She turned her child into a living power source and used her child's "fresher" magic whenever she wanted, leaving said child perpetually exhausted. It crossed the captive teen's mind to try to reach out for help, but between the naked contempt of the other nobles and a dead-eyed doppelganger ordered to watch her every move it was apparent she was shit out of luck.
Things only got worse once her healing ability showed itself. The formerly disdainful court suddenly scrambled to get into her good graces, desperate to ease their pain and halt their bodies' decay. Naseile jumped at the chance to use her daughter's ability to her advantage, dangling the promise of relief over their heads and twisting their arms to get what she wanted. Naseile never stopped siphoning her daughter's power, either, and the suddenly-designated healer nearly became bedridden under the new stress.
With Naseile now motivated to keep her golden goose upright, the teen ended up spending most of her days shotgunning antidotes and panaceas in her mother's workshops and laboratories, and came to know them like the back of her hand — or so she thought. On a rare day on her own, she snuck to a little-used laboratory in the deepest part of Naseile's mansion and discovered a fairy ring, a portal to Earth, inert but fully intact. Bolstered by her discovery and her simmering hate of the Realm and everyone in it, she decided to do everything in her power to activate the ring and escape.
Every scrap of time she could get to herself became an opportunity. She tore through Naseile's notes for any morsel of info she could use. Dodging her doppelganger let her devour any and every spellbook she could. She was able to worm her way into Naseile's storerooms, pocketing whatever would help her, with no one the wiser... or so she thought.
When the young girl's chance came, she leapt for it — while a massive ball was happening on one end of the grounds, she was making a beeline for the fairy ring on the other end. A few magic words and a ritual would be all she needed to escape...
...if it wasn't for Naseile and the doppelganger strolling in while she was putting the finishing touches on the ritual. Naseile had gotten wise to the ransacking long ago, but didn't fully put the pieces together until the doppelganger oh-so-helpfully spilled the beans.
Thus began a struggle over the ring the teen seemed destined to lose. Naseile handily restrained her without breaking a sweat, condescending to her the entire time. But Naseile had left herself open, allowing the girl to summon one last great burst of magic and skewer her mother with the largest tree she could muster. With Naseile bleeding out and the doppelganger shaking in a corner, the teen finished the ritual, activated the ring, and quickly jumped through it.
Now settled in Vivariiium, Keyshia lives her life as normally as any other citizen... but with a constant gaze over her shoulder, expecting and dreading the day one of the Court comes to avenge their Archfae. But she's not the naive little kid Naseile kidnapped anymore. All she can do now is wait.
Thalifea Allwood ☆☆☆☆☆Enemy. Why the fuck are you here. Keyshia has absolutely no interest in even holding a conversation with them, let alone build a relationship with the person that helped make those seven years hell. Why Thalifea still tries is a mystery to her. |
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Cordelia Nejem ★★★★★Soulmate? Okay, but how. Keyshia lost her mark ages ago, and she's sure it wasn't her name she had. There has to be a mistake somewhere... Friend, queerplatonic partner (eventually). Okay, so she isn't so bad. Cordelia is legitimately charming and has a relaxed yet mischievous aura that's pretty endearing. Also she has gorgeous eyes and a wide smile that crinkles them at the corners and wait a minute. |
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Lorelei West ★★★☆☆Friendly acquaintance. Whenever Keyshia needs more... esoteric ingredients, the mermaid is usually her first stop. Lorelei somehow always has a fresh pot of tea ready whenever she comes by. |
A god, lone and alone in the wastelands, yet already on their last leg: found battered, bruised, and left for dead, hands tight around the weapon pried from their would-be-killer's hand.
A god still so fresh and new to the world that basic knowledge — the state of the world, what their domain is, how to read — have all eluded them.
And the remnants of resistance, the descendants of the last god-worshipers that found them — who nursed them back to health, who helped them awaken their magic, who patiently listened to them stumble over the written word — nurture and attend to this renewed hope for the future, unaware of the murderer they have welcomed with open arms.
And this murderer, this monster, this villain-in-plain-sight that helped kick the world's pillars out from under it shies away from all this... this softness the worshipers insist on treating him with. He knows the lower rungs of his corporation tried to treat him with care when he was younger, before the CEO found out and put a stop to it. His last proper kill (the one that cursed him with their power, with the knowledge of what he was truly doing) had gently cradled his face and told him they forgave him through welling blood and a slit throat. But those malice-less moments were fleeting, momentary, almost accidental — this sustained effort to throw themselves into fulfilling every small little whim he makes the mistake of putting a voice to has him on edge and permanently on the back foot, waiting for the next pin to drop.
One of these people is eventually going to realize what he is. All it would take is someone going through an archive and stumbling on an old interview. Or questioning why he would guard and maintain a hunter's blade so zealously and not letting a simple answer satisfy. Or watching as he crosses paths with another hunter and the fellow killer looks at him with any measure of recognition.
Alas, there's nowhere else for him once he's found out: his corporation is long gone, his CEO was in the middle of turning on him before he dropped the headquarters on them, and the few contacts he had stopped checking in ages ago. So he simply... doesn't say anything. Let the worshipers continue to put their faith in him. Let the guilt and regret that drowns him be mistaken for innocence bearing the burden of duty.
And while he's at it, let Heavensunder out for maintenance more often. When the worshipers finally come to him to take their vengeance, it wouldn't do to give them a dulled blade.
Seven Sails LLC was a johnny-come-lately to the god-killing gold rush, yanked from its original travel focus with little warning by a mercurial manbaby of an owner who bought the whole thing on a whim. So haphazard was the corporation's entry into this arena and so ill-prepared were their internal departments for the switch that most of their attempts at hunter-rearing failed right out of the gate, with Brilliant being the only known exception.
Brilliant's entire tenure was mired with controversy, most of which was caused by the CEO putting their foot in their mouth regarding his efficacy and inflating his stats to shareholders. Thankfully, reputable sources had witnessed a few of his kills, so rumors of Brilliant being some reckless poseur or an overhyped marketing stunt were at least somewhat quashed. But Brilliant was no stranger to kicking the controversy beehive all on his own, as he did not interview well at all and tended to give answers that reflected poorly on his company when not given a script beforehand.
Seven Sails fell when the last Harmonic did — into obscurity, bankruptcy, and the abyss that opened up underneath its headquarters. It is assumed that Brilliant died around this same time, as no one has heard from him since.