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Hey peeps: Shi-ru is being withdrawn from submission while I work on a second character concept. Those of you who were considering bards should go crazy. ;) Not that you shouldn't have applied a bard anyway, but now you have no competition for your major cool bardy thing!
*snrk* She's going to have a pipe, and down the road is going for dirty tricks. I just like to imagine her blowing noxious smoke into people's faces with an unimpressed grumpy grandma scowl...
I AM UTTERLY CONFIDENT IN MY AWESOMENESS AND REQUIRE NO FEEDBACK. (No, I'd love any feedback or questions you have, but I'm pretty sure you have a ton of other people to give feedback to already, so don't worry about me unless there's something you're burning to say.)
(Dien here.) Okay, so after saying I'd wait and see what other people have, lol, I've decided to brush off Shi-ru from my stable of abandoned characters (rather than Sanjay...) Shi-ru is best described as 'your meddling Tien grandmother'. Human Monk, Sensei archetype. If anyone else wants to play a bard, let me know. There's considerable overlap (that won't stack) between bardic performance and the sensei's advice, and I don't really want to make a bard feel like the bardiest thing they do is already being covered. I could easily go with something else if someone is really aching to play a bard. Backstory:
Shi-ru is a middle-aged woman of Tien descent, who has dwelt in Kenabres for several years now. A long, long time ago, Over the years, Shi-ru absorbed a little bit of the monks' regimen by osmosis and observation-- copying the stretches the initiates did in the courtyard, for instance, in order to keep herself spry and limber. The monks had a library, and when she had time from her duties, Shi-ru would read the scrolls of gathered knowledge, learning more about the world than her peasant origins would have ever allowed. News of the Worldwound reached all the way across Golarion to the monastery. Several of the younger monks, filled with the desire to test their skills against foes not of this world, voiced a desire to travel to the Worldwound and join the battle against the abyssal forces. The masters said that this was unwise and arrogant, but that they would not stand in the way of the young would-be heroes. In the end, seven monks set out... with Auntie Shi-ru an unofficial eight, because, as she pointed out, 'someone has to go along and make sure they remember to eat, and wash their clothes, and keep them out of trouble.' It was a long and arduous journey, but ultimately the monks, and Auntie, reached Kenabres. The monks set out to make their name on the front lines of the battle, and Shi-ru settled into what she expected would be a quiet life within the walled city-- assisting with the many unglamorous tasks that go on behind the scenes in a city such as Kenabres. When 'her' monks returned from the front lines, she was ready for them with a cup of tea, a bowl of soup, a listening ear for their struggles, and bandages for their wounds. But one-by-one, the monks fell to the horrors of battle. Shi-ru mourned the first of 'her children' to fall, and has endured the loss of several others now as well. Yet, though she is bitter over the loss of the promising students, her heart is not yet hardened. She will stay in Kenabres as long as 'her' children need her: there to give them a home, and something worth fighting for. Personality:
Shi-ru is, at heart, a caregiver, and fiercely protective of those she cares for. I see her as having a strong maternal streak. Mind you, she also subscribes to the 'tough love' school of things: she won't hesitate to read the riot act to a disrespectful youngster and tell him or her everything she is doing wrong with her life and what she SHOULD be doing! The core of caring is covered by a frequently kinda-abrasive exterior. We've all had a relative like that, right? Stubborn, grumpy, don't talk politics or religion around them...
She doesn't really consider herself a 'fighter', just someone who'll tag along and make sure nobody else gets hurt. If that means she has to wrestle someone to the ground to keep them from hurting one of her charges, well, she'll do that. I have her alignment written as lawful good, because as a monk she mechanically has to be lawful, but I really am not seeing a classic LG paladin here. Her heart is definitely in the right place, but Shi-ru doesn't see anything wrong with a lie here and there, or sneaking some booze from her hip flask, etc. (If this is going to be a problem for you, GM, let me know.) Appearance:
Picture a little old lady doing tai chi and you pretty much have it. She is five feet tall, wiry, with gnarled hands and nondescript, sturdy clothes. She doesn't appear to be armed beyond a simple walking stick. Shi-ru's black hair is streaked with gray, and she has deep crow's-feet creases at the corners of her alert, black eyes. Sometimes she wears a rice hat. Stats are in the profile, although I need to tweak them back to level 1 and full accordance with campaign rules. Also, may I just say it is painful to have only 35 GP to start with...? Stupid monks.
Shi-ru saunters forward into the room with her paintbrush/quarterstaff slung over her shoulders, still yammering away quite unconcernedly. "Oh, it's a dog... well! Circle around the little uglies, yes? Knock them hard, that is how you do it! No no-- not like that-- must old woman come show you how?"
Before, apparently, the beginning of hostilities, Shi-ru the doll blinks at the words of the other dolls. "Tcha, perhaps you are right, and these are friends: will you be calling out, to see? But the wise road perhaps is to watch a little while, so we are seeing what they are doing."
"Hmpf," Shi-ru sniffs, unimpressed, to Lanariel's battle-plan and words aimed at her specifically. As he sidles off to start shooting his makeshift bow, she promptly crosses her arms and leans back against the edge of the windowsill. Disrespectful insolent youth, telling her what to do!
Once violence inevitably erupts, Shi-ru will cup her hands around her mouth and start yelling... helpful suggestions. Yeah. Really. "No no no! Hit HIGHER! On the head! What are you doing?! Shi-ru is old woman and could do better! Move your feet! Pretend you are doing the dancing! One-two, hit hit!"
"Tsstt," Shi-ru murmurs, waving one of her doll hands at the others to hold them up. As quietly as she can, she whispers, "A thing, animal maybe? Furry! Not moving. But there are moving little ones! More dolls, evil dolls? You all, go fight-- Shi-ru will stand where it is being safe, yes yes."
Shi-ru makes a rude scoffing noise at Lanariel's quip, then makes an overdone shussssshing gesture at both him and Nicu. "See? Now listen to this other! It is important business, no wagging your jaws so much! Shi-ru can be more quiet than you in my sleep!" And with that, the little stone lawn-gnome hops onto the sill and sets out first along the ledge, as if she were ignorant of any dangers that might wait ahead. In truth, Shi-ru has considerable confidence in her own sharp eyes, puppet-form or not. But she will not insist on leading if another wishes the position.
"Ha! Person with Shi-ru's body is lucky! Person with your body gets skinny little sneaky body, Shi-ru is betting!" Shi-ru retorts cheerfully.
Shi-ru listens to the man speak with her head tilted attentively, or as much as her head can. She chuckles when he finishes. "Big words! You speak like a fire. Well, I have nowhere else to be, tcha? Shi-ru will follow you. I wonder if these doll bodies are needing food... I can cook." Shi-ru follows along on the windowsill, holding her paintbrush over her shoulders like she might a pole to carry water, with her puppet-hands dangling over the brush. "Needles and dolls. It is all very strange cursing, yes? I am a stranger here. Why these bad men take me for this, I do not know. I am having no enemies. Tcha... "Wait. This means, someone has Shi-ru's drinking jug? Someone who made this happen? No! This cannot be allowed. I will swear the oaths too! Death and dolls, they will not stop Shi-ru from her drinking jug!"
"Yes, you are very scary," Shi-ru says amiably to Lanariel's words about striking from shadows and disappearing into darkness. (Of course you are, dear! Now would you like tea?) She peers over the table's edge towards the other puppet holding his tiny weapon. "Friends, yes. We are all small together! But we can be big together also, maybe, heh. I do not remember a needle, only eating a sausage. But all together, we will go. I am new to this place. Are any of you being born here?"
"What can I do?! A hundred things! I can fish, and tell stories, and cook, and sew, and clean! Disrespectful young man, asking old lady what she can do! Tcha!" Shi-ru says, waving her paintbrush around and looking truly ridiculous if she could only see her doll self. "What can you do, eh? Poke paper into locks!"
Shi-ru ambles over to the tool-box. Past her initial shock, she is seemingly wholly unbothered by the fact that she's been transformed into a doll. They say customs are different in the west. Perhaps all visitors become little dolls, here. Perhaps she really does believe it's a dream brought on by indigestion. Perhaps she's just very accepting of strange twists of fate. A paintbrush catches her eye. She chuckles and picks it up, examining the bristles on the end. Good for jamming into a cat's eye, should Gatto stop being Cinder's friend. "Tcha. Now. We have the problem, yes? Perhaps we all will be awake from bad dream, perhaps not. I am not knowing any of you, and you are not knowing me, but it seems we are, how do you say, in the same raft? And I am too old to be doing the leap and the fight and the climb. We put the little wooden heads--" she raps with her knuckles on her doll-head, "--together, maybe we find who is thinking we are dolls! Then you can go hit and punch and stab. And I can have nice tea. Will you all stay with old Shi-ru, help nice old lady who is lost in your land?"
Awww, cats. I'm probably going to adopt one this weekend. <3 Lanarial, you get an automatic +8 to stealth for now being a tiny creature, not sure if that's figured into your stats. :D
"Tcha, now that thing will follow you around forever," Shi-ru grouches as Cinder makes friends with the cat. (There is just no pleasing some people.) Shi-ru, who looks rather like an apple-cheeked lawn gnome, clambers out of the box and blinks around the cavernously huge chamber they all stand in. Well, huge to her, anyway. Painted eyes scan their surroundings, then-- ahh, monsters! Or monkey spirits? Or more souls like themselves. "Ho-ah!" Shi-ru calls to the other group of dolls, her tiny unbending hands cupped around her jointed mouth. "You also were eating the bad sausage? Well, a fierce lion is with us, monkey spirits, so you be careful or we will eat you all up!"
Sweeet. That means the evil doll wearing Shi-ru's body has access to her Tengu Drinking jug, and all the free sake they can guzzle. SHI-RU DOES NOT APPROVE.
"Plain-fires? Under-glowings? What are you *Tien word excised* *Tien word excised* *Tien word excised* talking about?" Shi-ru grouses, tossing her piece of paper to the floor of the box in irritation. It's not rice paper. If it were rice paper, she would be able to fold it, clearly. What sort of barbarians don't even have rice paper? "I am only an old woman looking for a foolish boy. Tcha," she grunts, and sits down on the bottom of the box to see if this body allows her to sit cross-legged. Stupid pork sausage. She should have listened to old Nen-Nen who said that all meat was poison. Tasty poison, though. She squints up at the doll that says she will talk to the cat. "Works better with fish," she observes with a low chuckle.
"Hssst! Be quiet!" the doll that is trying (horribly) to fold paper says in alarm to the one that just let out a high, thin, scream. Shi-ru tries to clap a hand over her fellow puppet's mouth...
With a tiny hand over an equally tiny mouth, Shi-ru says-- "Peace, peace! Yes, it is not your skin! We all eat bad sausage tonight. But careful and quiet, yes?"
Shi-ru looks around completely bemused at the little... doll? That has freed her. And at herself. Also a doll. What madness is this? (in Tien) "Tcha! I should not have eaten that vendor's meat pie!" she mutters to herself. Clearly this is all a bad case of indigestion. Grumbling beneath her breath, she squints down at the paper sheets. An idea strikes her, and she picks up one of the papers.
One of the monks had loved to fold little pieces of paper. Cranes. He had decorated his cell with hundreds of little white birds, and tiny paper frogs that jumped when you pressed on their behinds... now how had he done this.... "You standing in the light," she says testily at the doll-thing who had freed her, as she tries to see what she's doing in the dimness of the box.
"Be minding your manners," Shi-ru says rather crossly to the mystery speaker, because being afraid always makes her feel cross.
"...what is the noise? It sounds like-- cat? Why is cat on roof?" she hisses, and tries to twist out of the ropes once more.
No luck so far.
LUUUUUUUUCHAAAAAAAAAAADOOOOOOOOOOOOORE i possibly own a luchador mask I bought in Mexico >___> crappy tourist souvenirs for the win. *coff* anyway, the stone figurine i linked for Shi-ru is basically how I envision her in doll form-- someone's little cutesy, stone, garden ornament-lawn-gnome thing. I can't find a darn thing in the avatars that is anything close, but we have our imaginations. If that's too specific, just having her look like a lawn gnome amuses me.
Shi-ru blinked several times to clear her eyes, but it didn't help. Everything remained dark. What's all this...? Everything's wrong. No lungs, no heartbeat-- no sense of herself. Dizzy. Hmrf. This is not an amusing joke, no, not at all.
And her body is totally uncooperative. Bah! A voice, though-- she hears an odd, high voice speaking that makes her brows knit... well, except that her face doesn't really seem to cooperate. "Jun? Is that you?" The voice sounds nothing like him, but the tone... that's a little bit like him. Impatient, eager. But no, surely not. Remembering that she is far from home and that people here do not speak the language of golden heaven; they speak their Taldane. So, in Common, she says, "Ah... a moment..." Wait, is that squeak really her own voice? Oh, this is all passing strange. She tries to nudge closer to the sound of the other voice, to fumble hands together. No soft flesh, but only wood and metal and cloth.
I left the young man fairly open-ended in the rough bio so that we could work that stuff out, so I'm open to whatever works for the story. But, loosely, yes, I was thinking he could be the NPC tie-in as used and abused by you. Definitely capable of great evil (imagine the martial arts trope of the one arrogant student who goes off and comes back evil having gone to the dark side, or what not) but maybe not past redemption, either. Shi-ru definitely cares for him more than he cares for her-- to him, she's just an old lady who he's maybe fond of but he doesn't take all that seriously, whereas, she is projecting onto him all the 'failures' of her past (with her biological children), and is desperate to save him. And yes, he could have been headed to meet someone at the Piazza, or something, and therefore Shi-ru follows right along on puppet strings... Appearance: Shi-ru stands five-foot even, and is somewhere around fifty years old, with a stocky build. If you've ever known one of those women who has worked her entire life at manual labor, raised ten kids and worked her fingers to the bone doing other people's laundry and cooking and cleaning, you have an idea of the sort of pragmatic weathering that such a life imparts. Callused, hard, knobby hands and feet. Round-faced, with black hair turning grey (usually worn in a bun) and lots of laugh lines and crow's feet. The outfit of the woman in red is a good idea of what she's wearing, although hers is probably not red but a nondescript greyish-beige with a traveling cloak. And I was totally looking for THIS PICTURE earlier to be a doll form, haha, but I couldn't find it at the time. |