Willow Windstrum
Willow Windstrum
A manic seeker of knowledge thrown into a world with magic. Here she seeks to document everything she can about it and discover the true secrets of everything.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Fairly scrawny and having not subsisted on the healthiest fare for a few years.
Body Features
Well, there's the horns and tail, but I'll assume you already know about those. She has little that any other young woman wouldn't have.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Willow is from a well-off family that lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, but has a good amount of influence in several places in the country. Her brother, Joshua, is twelve years older than her and already has a family and career of his own, but her sister, Camille, is just three and a half years younger.
From a young age her interest in science has been very apparent and her parents indulged her with tutors, chemistry sets, and a telescope that costs almost as much as a car. Social issues and creative ability has always slipped past her, but she's never met a mystery she hasn't wanted to solve.
The only reason she wasn't put on a faster schooling track earlier is that her Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder masked her impressive intellect through her earlier years. Once it became apparent, her parents fast-tracked her through high school and into Berkley where she survived (for a while at least) on instant meals and energy drinks.
Gender Identity
Willow identifies as female and doesn't really put much thought into the matter. Other than curiosity about such matters. Certainly she's relish the thought of being able to try out being male in order to experience it for posterity.
Sexuality
Willow is heterosexual, but keenly interested in other forms of sexuality in a purely intellectual manner. She tends to view her own arousal as an enjoyable way to relieve tension when her schedule has her stressed out, and has never had a fulfilling relationship. Due to this, her interest in sexual relationships tends to be low until her pent up horniness gets the better of her.
Education
A series of distinguished private schools, eventually finishing high school two years early and quickly starting college in the US. She was only a month away from getting a dual-major in Chemistry and Physics.
Employment
Never held a job.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Several academic achievements in her lower schools. Scholarships and the occasional regional accolade in college.
Failures & Embarrassments
Despite being smart, Willow has not at all been immune from the typical teenage certainty that she knows better than everyone else. One particularly stinging occasion was when she was freshly entering a math class in high school at thirteen and smugly tossed a math proof that she came up with on her teacher's desk. After a few minutes the teacher then informed her that that particular math proof had been well known since 1820.
Mental Trauma
Other than a barely-remembered incident where she was bitten by a dog at the age of five and needed stiches, nothing really.
Intellectual Characteristics
Willow is quite smart and she knows it. She pursues knowledge with a manic eagerness and will theorize about just about anything. When unable to access information that she needs, she'll grow frustrated, and sometimes grows enraged when denied something that she feels she deserves by intellectual right.
Morality & Philosophy
Very loose. She tends to be concerned with morals in so far as she knows that acting moral will bring better results in interpersonal interactions. Her personal view is that properly documented knowledge is forever, and that there is little that should hold back its pursuit.
Taboos
She would be appalled at any destruction of knowledge or information. Willow would be less concerned about destroying literature, but even though art isn't strictly scientific, she'd does recognize that it has value.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
To discover the secrets of how everything works. Currently her focus is magic.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Very good at making theories and adapting to new situations. She's bad at accepting when she's wrong unless there is clear evidence to look at, and is also just a rather wimpy girl.
Likes & Dislikes
Willow loves learning things, using said knowledge to develop theories, and being able to be smug when she's right about something. She also enjoys horror, classical forms of artistic expression, swimming, and observing the night sky.
She is not fond of animals too big to be considered cute, labor, trash and pollution, social niceties, or having to wait for things without something else to occupy her mind.
Virtues & Personality perks
Willow is very willing to work on something until she makes a breakthrough, and is good at scheduling her time. She is also quite temperant, able to resist the call of the quick and easy in order to do things the right way.
Vices & Personality flaws
She can be obsessive to say the least. When presented with a mystery that she can't figure out, Willow tends to beat her head against it until she finally figures it out or she wears herself out and collapses in a dark mood. When it comes to relaxing, she sucks at it; she will try to schedule her leisure time to the point that there's no real leisure involved anymore.
Personality Quirks
She has an annoying laugh, and gets distracted easily when speaking with people. She also has little reluctance to discuss matters that most consider to be taboo, like sexuality.
Hygiene
Willow likes to be clean and prefers her surroundings to be tidy as well.
Social
Religious Views
Scornful of religion in general.
Formerly a student from South Africa, studying in California. Woke up in a strange land and soon turned into a ram girl. And she can cast magic now, which is just another area of study for her.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Chaotic Neutral? Might actually be lawful, hard to say.
Age
19
Date of Birth
12 May 2002
Birthplace
Johannesburg, South Africa
Children
Current Residence
A bed she sleeps on.
Gender
Female
Eyes
Scarlet
Hair
Pale pink
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale
Height
5' 8"
Weight
131 lbs.
On Traveling
Travel by foot on hard-packed roads between distant communities is certainly unpleasant. I knew this before, but having experienced it firsthand now, I have a better appreciation for how difficult it is. There are the obvious things like getting blisters on one's feet, having to walk on uneven dirt, and the way even the best clothes will chafe on you when you're walking literally all through the daylight. But there are also the less immediately obvious things like having to personally carry all of your things, dealing with annoying insects, and being a potential victim to whomever claims a portion of road. And then there are the things that one wouldn't generally even think about until doing it: having the sun in your face in one spot for a long length of time as you walk on a straight path, the uncertainty you feel for if you're even making any progress when all you see around you are trees, and the sheer mental agony of knowing that the only things you'll be doing for hours upon hours is taking steps.
And there are wolves. They stalked us all through the first day showing both caution and conviction, then attacked us at night. It was unpleasant. I've always been cautious around animals, as from a young age I've recognized how very dangerous they can be if they grow hostile. Having now been personally attacked by them, I feel that such an outlook is entirely justified. Perhaps what gets to me the most was how completely pointless the whole thing seemed. The wolves attacked a rather difficult target, a small lodge we were staying in. It seems unlikely they were after food, as we would hardly be a good target for them if that was the case. It didn't seem to be motivated by an interest in protecting their territory, as they followed us for hours. I can think of no instinctual motivation behind it. This leaves the probability that the wolves were being influenced by another party. It was mentioned that fey haunt these woods, and they could certainly be a possible cause. Some of the wolves showed evidence of magical enhancement, biting with the force of cold somehow. And when I brought up the possibility of hostile druids, the idea was brushed aside.
Regardless we are out of the woods now, literally if not figuratively. We've passed by an extremely wide river spanned by a rising bridge. There is no evidence of a community that the bridge serves, let alone any sort of river traffic that would necessitate the mechanical rising function. In order to build something so invested there would have to be something big upriver. A city of some sorts. But there was no evidence of anything like that. And the bridge certainly leads to a road on the forested side of the river, but there was no traffic on it and no communities other than the druids who seem to lack any population density. Either the bridge was built back when trade was much more common, or it's a prelude to expansion as the Romans used to do with their armies. No one builds a bridge like that for no reason.
More travel will happen in the morning. Sleeping is grand after a full day of walking, but knowing that I have to do more later makes sleep the only respite I get from it. It's been said that we will find a town soon which might at least be similar to what I'm used to, but I feel it may be a far stretch from what I'd like. I do look forward to having an intellectual discussion with someone at some point, and the Kuvael might be what I seek. I don't like to assume things due to racial stereotypes, but around here they seem to be very common. So not much has changed, even if the differences here are tails and horns instead of skin color and epicanthal eyes.
Transforming from Human to Kytos Sarie
Being a Sarie of the Kytos variety, I'm finding my new coloration somewhat strange. I am paler than I once was, and I worry about the effects of direct sunlight even moreso now. My hair is also very pale almost pink where it was formerly a light brown. It might also be finer. Certainly it's harder to notice on my body, but I feel that I will keep shaving simply because it is what I'm used to. My eyes are now scarlet, which combined with the lighter skin and hair makes me wonder if I'm an albino now. Is this coloration usual for Kytos Sarie, or am I going to be considered striking and odd? Moreso than my personality would have me already be. As for the rest of my body, I have noticed little further coloration changes. My nails continue to be translucent, my lips remain a pale vaguely pink color. I haven't tried tanning yet, but I assume that if I will tan I will notice it in short time. Teeth, tongue, and mouth all seem the same.
Also brushing my hair is extremely annoying now. The horns are placed oddly and I cannot imagine they would be easy to use in a fight. Perhaps it's dimorphism in that my horns might not serve a purpose on a female and that males might have them more prominently or more forward-facing.
Likewise my pointed ears don't seem any more sensitive than my formerly-rounded ears. I should say sensitive to auditory input. They are slightly more sensitive to touch, but it's hard to picture that being useful at all. I haven't experimented yet much with increased rubbing of them. There might be something erogenous that I didn't pick up on with my initial inspection.
I'm finding I don't mind the tail. It seems to serve no purpose, but it's at least novel and interesting to have. Perhaps it has something like glands on it or the hairs pick up pheromones so that a female like myself might attract a mate during ovulation? Uncertain, but I suppose I'll have to devise a way to experiment with that.
There seems to be nothing else different that I have noticed. If I do find behavioral or physiological changes to myself in the future, I will document them here.
