"So, erm... you? Sorry I threatened to murder you, you seem rather alright. What *is* your name, anyway?" - Elariah @ Yuni (presumably at some point on the way to Valnaheim)
Yuni blinked out of his thoughts, having taken a second to realise she was addressing him and not a member of the rest of the party. The distraction was welcome - he’d been worrying about Springer again, her heading back to Mythelean amidst the chaos, amongst what felt like a thousand other things all demanding his attention the closer they travelled to Kastacil. Or, home, perhaps would be the word for it. Why did that still feel out of place?
He shot her a brief half-grin as he reached to give his horse a soft stroke down its neck. It flicked a pair of long, fey ears in response.
“Nothing to it. You’re not amongst even the first 50 or so to threaten me upon first meeting.”
Honestly, it was probably the most normal thing to have happened to him that day - and had Elariah not shown up in the first place.. He took a short, sharp breath as he remembered the crackle of purple bursting out from that mechanical creature, the swarms of its minions shrouding them like flies, the sheer, violent force of the blow that had struck him in the dark.
He shrugged a shoulder. “Side-effect of showing up unannounced in a fancy uniform, I reckon. I’m Commander Buteyuni. Call me Yuni.”
A pause. Yuni suppressed a yawn and shifted in the saddle, stretching his arms and flexing the cramp from his fingers before holding the reigns steady once more. After a moment, he spoke again:“And you. You’re rich, you’re magic, and you can pack a punch.” A useful combination. Yuni quirked a thick eyebrow at her. “What brought you to Mythelean, of all places? Didn’t seem like you were there to represent your house, eh?”
1. How do they move and carry themselves? Pace, rhythm, gestures, energy?
So a lot of these answers are going to begin with ‘it depends on the situation’. But for the most part, quite carefully. He’s aware of what holding a badge of status can do to people’s perception of you and while he doesn’t actively mistrust a good portion of the population, he watches carefully for the first signs of trouble. Ready for it, but not seeking it out.
The image I keep getting of him when I’m getting in character is if he’d shown up to arrest or investigate some corrupt noble. They’d open the door and see him standing there perfectly at ease and with a sort of wry smile, hands behind his back as he gives a lowkey ironic respectful gesture, never taking his gaze off of their face. He doesn’t lose his cool and in a very friendly tone, orders his people to check around inside while probably communicating a bunch of other nonverbal stuff to them by the by. Meanwhile, while he’s placating this noble with ‘official speak’, he’s probably also focusing a section of his mind on sensing any magical activity nearby, and seeing if he can use that as a pressure point to draw them out. He doesn’t ignore a single aspect, especially if he’s told it’s not important. Thorough, while taking pains to maintain a laid back exterior to lower their guard.
If it’s someone he knows is innocent or vulnerable, he won’t necessarily try hard to make friends with them. This is because 1) he’s not overly affectionate, and 2) Again, the official uniform. Usually the way he gets through to the more closed-off people is by asking them directly, no-nonsense attitude, listening to them and following up on things they suggest in order to make them feel more valued. Judgements can be applied from there. He’s not overly expressive when doing this, but often he can’t help giving a friendly smile or relaxing a little when the rest of the crew is around.
Around personal friends, he’s a hell of a lot more expressive and high-energy than in his professional life - and back home he was a pretty hyper kid and teen. Things kinda happened to dampen that a bit, and his energy became applied toward a long-term goal in the form of perserverance and belief in I guess something he’s not entirely sure is even possible.
With the party? It’s tricky. They’re not friends, they’re not colleagues - at the moment, they’re sort of charges? But charges that are more powerful than him and run in circles he hadn’t even thought existed. For the most part he’s professional but doesn’t feel incapable of deferring to them, or even acting a little more uninhibited than he normally would on a job. He’s not trying to maintain a veneer of perfection or unshakeable cool where he ordinarily might. Besides which, the party’s already seen that break down multiple times. The first session he was in, he talked about his own dilemma back home because you earned his personal trust so quickly even I was taken aback. The second session the party saw him physically and literally brought to his knees by some heckin’ strong magic that the rest of you barely felt. The third, they saw him try to get Qir out of the room and get one-shotted by the Quarut. The fourth, you saw him challenged and frustrated when Nija began to state theories that undermined Yuni’s own judgement of a situation he’d thought to be rock solid.
You’re past the point of a professional facade, but not at the point of true honesty and connection like that which exists between Yuni and his crew members. So for the most part, still medium energy, careful pacing, but some moments of levity. In terms of gestures, Yuni learned to be formal and mostly holds his hands still when he talks - the most expression usually comes through on the face.
Movement? I guess he walks fairly deliberately and surprisingly gracefully, actually. He walks like he acts in combat with his dual blades - one after the other in one smooth motion and as though he practiced it for years.
2. How much physical space do they use, active and at rest?
Not much when active, moreso at rest. When active, he likes to remain noticeable but unobtrusive if possible, as per his initial training as a guard. Unofficial training, but training nonetheless.
When at rest, he stretches out. In the most casual setting, he’s the guy who would use the entire couch and point you to an armchair. I mean obviously he’d move if you asked, but a part of him is still a little shit tbh. It also depends what the day entailed, how tired he is, and the company he’s with.
With the party, he tends not to do this and instead only truly relaxes when alone or with Springer.
3. How do they position themselves in a group? Do they like to be the center of attention, or do they hang back at the edges of a crowd?
Depends on the context of the crowd. He’s trained to keep an eye out, so if it’s something good or neutral he’ll probably be content at the sidelines. If it’s something bad, he’s putting himself between it and anyone else without a thought. If it’s something that directly pertains to him or someone he knows, he’s at the front anyway, probably walking right up to it and demanding to know what’s going on.
4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does?
He’s lithe and not extremely tall. I believe he’s about 5′9′’ or 5′10′’, and he’s pretty in-proportion, though perhaps his limbs are a little longer relative to his torso. This combined with his high dexterity and his lightweight (but sharp) shortswords, allows him ease of movement when following one attack with the other, or switching targets mid-battle, dodging and retaliating, moving quickly to get another attack in before the enemy’s hammer blow falls. He’s good at controlling his movements, especially at high speeds which, as mentioned above, influences the way he walks.
5. How do they dress? What styles, colors, accessories, and other possessions do they favor? Why?
At home he mostly wore purples, blues, and whites, with really no other accessories. Simple but fitted clothing, practical boots, stuff you could very suddenly hop onto a horse with and not ruin them. I can’t say he puts a lot of thought into his appearance - I think the only time he does is with his hair, keeping it in tight, relatively short tied-back dreadlocks partly for style, but also to keep it out of the way.
Now that he’s working for the Scholars, he wears the same armour every day, so it’s usually just a cheap dark purple shirt from home underneath.
6. What are they like in motion–in different environments, and in different activities? What causes the differences between these?
I’ve already kinda covered this above, I think. Usually it’s a sense of duty or professionalism that determines how he moves. On the battlefield he’s quick, smooth, and decisive. In a social situation he typically stands relatively still, and what few gestures he makes when talking often are small, quick, and deliberate, but he does look around as though surveying the area quite frequently. If someone is directly addressing him, he’ll give an almost intense amount of attention to them.
Sometimes when it’s cold he can walk with an ever so slight limp which interrupts the rhythm of his pace a bit but doesn’t seem to cause him any pain.
7. How do they physically engage with other people, inanimate objects, and their environment? What causes the differences between these?
In general, Yuni’s not a physically interactive guy except with like, one or two people in the entire world. This goes for new environments, typically he lets his vision, hearing, and magic sense do the exploring while often reminding one of his crew not to touch anything before he’s looked at it. He doesn’t initiate contact but will often acknowledge it with a small gesture in return, like if someone pats him on the shoulder he’ll nod or pat their arm/hand very briefly. He doesn’t dislike physical contact, it’s just not something that occurs to him to do very often.
8. Where and when do they seem most and least at ease? Why? How can you tell?
With his best friend and basically sister, with his crew, and…..that might actually be it. He stops putting on graces and gestures more, his accent can even get stronger depending on the company (especially sister person), he smiles a heck of a lot more. In other company Yuni might look amused quite often but he rarely actually gives a genuine smile.
9. How do they manifest energy, exhaustion, tension, or other strong emotions?
Tension, by going quiet and excusing himself for self-reflection. I literally tried to imagine Yuni shouting or lashing out in anger and I could not. I mean, I can but it would take a lot. A lot.
Energy and exhaustion, actually he does the same things for. Yuni basically pretends he’s not exhausted and thinks that works. It does, to a point. Jaya and Springer both have had to put up with his bullshit at times where it wasn’t really enough to pretend he wasn’t fricking exhausted or injured. He’ll usually try to shift the focus off of himself. Similarly when he’s highly energized he’ll focus on others rather than himself.
The guy actually needs to be more self-absorbed sometimes like jfc too selfless for his own good.
10. What energizes and drains them most?
Sparring, folk music, being around crowds and being with Jaya energizes him.
Magic, magic, magic, magic, and people who don’t care about other people drain him the most. He’s very used to the Aacroan magic intolerance stuff so that doesn’t bother him as much as it probably should, as that only physically drains him and these days it’s much easier to manage. When he started out he had to be extremely careful but was taken under a mentor’s wing to strengthen his constitution. Not his literal CONmod, I mean. But trying to explain or having to explain his motivations to people who don’t really care about other people is frustrating and will end up going in circles.
11. How are they vocally expressive? What kind of voice, accent, tones, inflections, volume, phrases and slang, and manner of speaking do they use?
I sort of imagine a mixture between an upbeat Krem from DA:I, Trevor Noah, and just my own voice at its lowest. I can’t quite imitate it as well as I’d like, but I’m happy with the voice and accent I give him in-session. It sounds vaguely like a strong Johannesburg SA accent (but probably slips into NZ from time to time for unknwon reasons). And what his physicality lacks in energy, his tone usually makes up for. Undercurrent of amusement most of the time, but a downbeat tone of professionalism. Can get very high in pitch when scandalized or incredulous.
I can’t use a SA accent and not use ‘eh’ from time to time, so he does that (”We’ll figure it as we go, eh?”), but other than that I can’t think of any, like, signature phrases or slang that he uses other than like the names for a few things and his pronunciations of certain cities like Kastacil or Valnaheim. His accent has a tendency to strengthen briefly when speaking Common or Elvish right after having said a Telma word or sentence, Telma being his native language. But only for like a second.
12. How are they bodily expressive? How do they use nonverbal cues such as their posture, stance, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and hands?
Eyebrows, my dude. He has thick and expressive eyebrows which often work in tandem with the corner of his lips to express amusement, disbelief, and derision. With negative emotions, his face just tends to go blank except for a slight frown. He also does a sort of subconscious tell when he’s getting frustrated with a person and that’s looking away and putting them in his blind spot, like facing his eyepatch towards them - always that side.
His posture is okay. It’s not great, but it works. He’s never been one for a ramrod straight spine. Usually his hands will find their position behind his back when addressing a person of nobility, but otherwise he’ll fold them or have them loose and ready by his side.
Due to both his striking eye colour, eyepatch, and decisive and steady attitude, Yuni can hold a pretty intense gaze on a person when needed, and rarely looks elsewhere throughout as he’s able to listen and attune his magic sense without shifting his gaze a milimeter. Given this, his crew can pick up on any small gestures he makes on his face or behind his back, and have done so in the past.
Lab partner: Yuni. See, Ori and Mello would mean well and they’d sure as heck be entertaining….but both would probably end up getting twitchy and be looking around for things to do within 5 minutes of starting. Don’t even get me started on Mello and preparation. I’m sure Mello would try their best, but they’d end up derailing and losing focus. Ori would approach the practical tasks with gusto but perhaps not quite grasp the theory behind it, and thus sometimes make huge errors. In a lab partner, especially at university level, you kind of just want to get on with it and get your data and go home and figure out what you need to learn next, but still bond with your partner if possible. Yuni would be the type to read up on the protocol beforehand extensively, message you out of lab hours to clarify points and analysis w/ the data afterwards, suggest ideas to optimize the protocol, make plans a month in advance, all the while bantering with you and getting to know you during the actual lab time. Yuni would probably be the ideal lab partner - organized, sensible, still has a great sense of humour.Employee trainer: Ori.Ori would be the most inspiring and upbeat trainer are you kidding me. Ori can make a job at McDonalds seem like an adventure and would be very forgiving of mistakes made by new trainees. They’d probably even take the blame for any made by younger or inexperienced employees, personally sort out problems they’re having, chat with them, make sure they remembered the fact that the new girl is called Linda and she has 5 dogs and a brother in uni, etc. They’re also very good at positive reinforcement, clear explanations, and have excellent social skills. In their modern verse, they’re literally a park ranger who does a ton of community engagement. Stuck in an elevator for 10 hours: MelloMello is unbothered by most things and would probably view this with a shrug of the shoulders. Personally if I were trapped with someone for 10 hours, I’d feel that surpasses the threshold where you can no longer ignore them like any other stranger. So I’d appreciate Mello’s likely questions and mad hatter thoughts and occasional (excellent) singing. If they had their instrument with them there’s that too. You could even start learning how to play it. Ori would start to get antsy being kept still for so long, and Yuni would probably just be so calm as to be boring. Mello would make a point of palling up with you and by the end you’d either be best friends or you’d fuckin hate each other. Either way - more interesting than the other two.
21. What kind of relationships do they tend to intentionally seek out versus actually cultivate? What kind of social contact do they prefer, and why?
Yuni is an extremely easy guy to get along with. One of the reasons this is true is because he’s super not picky about his relationships and sees almost any decent person as friend-shaped. If you have respect, a sense of humour, and a drive to better yourself, he’ll respond positively to you and welcome you with open arms. In terms of romantic relationships, he basically seeks out the same thing but with more *clementine voice* kissing stuff. He prefers camaraderie first, closeness second. He’s not a very physically affectionate person but he likes someone who he can easily check up on. That said, his most recent relationship with Corvyssikovo (’Kovo’) was a very physically affectionate relationship - cuddling, playfighting, kissing, random touches and gestures. This was not Yuni’s plan, but he found himself enjoying it.
Kovo had no qualms about taking the piss out of Yuni, but Yuni returned it with equal affection. But after the worsening of the Corvyss curse and the incident at Mari’s Tribune where Yuni ended up seriously, almost fatally hurt, and where he lost an eye on Kovo’s behalf, things got…less familiar. Kovo didn’t notice, for reasons. Yuni did, and it hurt. Before that, Kovo had been the guy he’d planned to spend the rest of his life with.
29. What kind of activities, interests, and hobbies do they have? What significance and impact do these have in their lives, both positive and negative?
Interacting with Jaya reminds him to take a load off and appreciate the ‘underling’. He may never have experienced a life living from bread crust to apple core, but that doesn’t mean he can’t help. He connects with Jaya on a basis of inherent loyalty, kinsman-ship, and a deep shared pain of loss that cannot be helped nor cured. Until, quite possibly, now.
Other than that, he’s a dab hand at most tactical card games; his mind works on a level wherein he can, in many situations, sit there and reel off the cards you hold in your hand and be absolutely correct. Other than that, he plays a small set of pipes. He barely remembers why they’re relevant. But he knows they are; they were given to him.
36. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions? What is their opinion on this?
Yuni trusts his gut a lot, but it doesn’t have the final say. First and foremost his mind will take precedence and establish a reason for potentially believing a theory, and his gut will let him know how to proceed. It was his gut that told him to trust the party, and his mind that told him to trust his gut. His interest in faith and spirituality can be put down as solely academic. He knows the deities exist, but has never really cared for them or assigned meaning to their teachings. His emotions don’t come through often, but when they do they come through strongly and he often has to reconcile his thoughts when things change quickly against expectation. Before certain events, he might have been a dreamer. But then he got a lot sadder and a lot more cynical. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a ray of sunshine (in a totally different way to Ori, oddly), but you should’ve seen him before. He was a lot more home-based and a lot more optimistic and less thrill-seeking.
