A sequel to the first batch of cubs (always following my hcs about charr cubs).
A cub's baby fur is often different in color (lighter, darker and/or duller) and more homogeneous than what it's going to be in their adulthood.
However, within their 6th month of life their new coat has usually grown in place of the baby fuzz, and their actual colors and markings start coming in. Some pelts remain more or less the same since birth, while others change a lot.
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Trivia time!
Both Remus and Ellara grew spikes on their face at the start of puberty, and until then one could kinda see and definitely feel the tiny, bony protrusions just under their skin.
Both of them were born almost fully white-gray, with only the darker markings on their face and spine being a well-defined gray. Their fur immediately started to grow darker under the baby fuzz and kept going after their first shed, reaching their final colors around puberty.
The progression was really visible in their mane, which their dam tied it back in 3-4 tiny ponytails. Once the 4-years-younger Ellara joined the same fahrar as Remus, they braided each other's mane whenever possible.
"Lupin" was a farily scrawny cub, all ears and scruffy fur, so much he was eventually nicknamed a rat or skritt. Ironically he grew into the nickname in an unforeseeable way.
His fur stayed pretty much the same since birth, only sleeking out with age.
Farka was a quiet and timid cub, one seldom seen away from parents as she preferred to observe them work rather than play with other cubs her age. She rarely smiled, usually when her dam and sire allowed her to "help" with artillery assembling.
She was a very fuzzy baby and the supersoft fur matched her paler color. She was still not done losing it by her sixth month of life.
Adamas took a lot of his face from his dam's side, with only the colors reconnecting him to his sire's. The spiky fluff around his eyes is all his mama's though.
As a newborn his markings were less defined and a lighter gray, but they got lighter and more defined pretty fast.
Most of Deryn's memories around this age were of her dam, who fell ill due to complications during her birth and died within the year. As sad as those times were, she mostly remembers the warmest memories.
Her markings were less defined and her pelt lighter, but within a couple of years they settled on their final color.
Favian was a very shy cub who rarely left his dam's side, always asking her to tell more stories about the Black Citadel and their old enemies.
His fur started out as fully sandy and muted, only darkening and becoming shinier as the years went by and he grew more outward.
Up until the event that disfigured his arm and sobered him up to the reality of the Flame Legion settlement where he was born, little Daunte was actually a pretty sociable and cheery cub, finding joy even in that suffucating environment and sneaking out of the fahrar to go show his loving dam and uncaring sire his developing magic.
His fur stayed pretty much the same since birth, and its bright colors were something the shaman noted as a sign of great potential.
Born and raised on a pirate ship, "Bob" was a certified little shit from a young age. He was an unmannered menace with a huge attitude from the moment he learned his way around the ship's rigging, but the crew were so fond of him that they kept him around even after he became an orphan.
He was born solid brown with just a stripe of lighter fur across the back of his neck and muzzle, then he roaned out and developed some darker markings.
We're heading towards North Africa for the third instalment in my series about music from Africa to meet Tinariwen, a Grammy Award-winning group of Tuareg musicians from northern Mali.
It's impossible to describe their history properly in only one short post, or to place it within the political conflicts that have torn the Tuareg community apart. Very briefly: the group was founded by Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, who, as a child, built his own guitar out of a tin can, a stick and bicycle brake wire. He formed a rock group with his friends in the 1970s, and in the next ten years they made music and fought in various rebel movements.
They attracted the attention of French world music ensemble Lo'Jo and their manager Philippe Brix at a music festival in Bamako, the capital of Mali. Since then they've toured regularly in Europe and North America; they won a BBC Award for World Music in 2005 and a Grammy in 2008; and they represented Algeria in the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Their music is characterized by their blend of instruments: guitar, shepherd's flute, one-string fiddle, lute and tindé drum; as well as the interplay of male and female voices. They were also influenced by traditional Mali musicians, especially the famous Ali Farka Touré.
Tinariwen has retained their nomadic roots: the group has never consisted of exactly the same line-up during its international tours. Some of their members tour regularly, but they remain a loose collective of musicians who get together whenever life in the Sahara permits.
- Her in-game markings aren't accurate: the white mark on her face extends to most of the right half of her head and her ear, and she has other big patches and spots on the left side of her body, with the biggest one covering most of her arm. [I still have to play around with the exact placement]
- She's non-binary!
She likes her feminine appearance in spite of being a tomboy, but at the same time she doesn't feel defined by her own body and sees her personal golems as an extension of herself. It's one of those things about herself she considers too complicated and in flux for her to really care, but if her golems are in the picture, using neutral pronouns gives her the good vibes.
- She's openly poly, pan and demiromantic.
In spite of that, maintaining relationships is actually a hard thing for her, as dealing with anyone long-term eventually brings out things she finds extremely off-putting (specifically the kind of petty/backwards priorities and mentalities she was traumatized by) and immediately loses interest.
After a bunch of bad experiences, she learned to keep her expectations low and sleeps around a lot, shamelessly enjoying intimacy whenever she feels like it and keeping a net of loose friendships with benefits (which comes in handy for her job, as it gives her plenty of places to crash at and a lot of people to exchange favors with, all of which she will pay back in kind). That said, she is not afraid of commitment and she loves her extended pod to bits, with Nuvly being her platonic anchor and Farka the romantic one.
- Her parents had a precise idea of the type of genius they wanted her to be and were very strict, starting her education earlier than usual and sending her to progeny school as soon as possible. Too bad she wanted to be a golemancer instead, so she took advantage of being ahead of the program and started skipping classes, "borrowing" parts from school to build her first golem in a small cave, all in secret to avoid reprimand.
She became friends with Tocchix after he saw her run off with some components taken from the class they were having and followed her to her rudimentary lab.
- Bunnie is not her birth name.
The day they met, Tocchix had called her a variety of improvised names as he attempted to get her attention while chasing her, and the one that worked was "bunny ears" (due to her ears having rounded tips). She liked the sound of it and told him to call her that when he later asked her name, and over time it progressively got shortened and its pronunciation distorted (sounds like "boonie" more than "bunny"). Officially changing her name was one of the first things she wanted to do after she was de facto adopted by Alyt!
- While Bunnie got officially mentored by Alyt, she actually had the Prostech krewe to thank for her early education, as Alyt was just the prosthetics tester and sort of lab assistant of the krewe. While the ex-Peacemaker's technical knowledge was quite limited, Alyt was actually the one who allowed her to bloom into the golemancy genius she became, standing up for Bunnie against her father and taking charge of her, even though she was just that one hyperactive progeny that was often glued to her "nephew" whenever Alyt had to look after Tocchix.
They were and still are really close (though in an "aunt and niece" sort of way) even after they went their separate ways, with Bunnie still coming up with new upgrades for Alyt's prosthetic arm as an excuse to go visit her at the Priory. When her friend Nuvly wanted to join the Priory, Bunnie immediately went and convinced Alyt and (specifically) her partner Favian to take her in as their novice, trusting they'd look after the shy and soft historian and elementalist without pushing her too hard.
- Bunnie and Nuvly are "friends with cuddle benefits", "cuddlebugs", "smooch-friends".
They met when Bunnie was still in Dynamics: she always liked Nuvly yet never made a move (her initial flirting was frequent yet never registered, then eventually Nuvly developed a complicatedly unrequited crush towards Tocchix) and Nuvly considered her her best friend, but they only got together after the first offhandedly offered to be the second's first kiss. Things didn't last long as Nuvly quickly realized she didn't like girls (and otherwise non-guys) in that way, but her awkward attempt at a break-up had them stumble their way into being queerplatonic partners, because they still platonically love each other a whole lot.
- She dated Flom for a very short yet intense time! The two really hit it off after meeting by chance, but after witnessing how he was a total doormat with his krewe and offering him a chance to break away from them, his answer and overall behavior pissed her off.
Still, years later, she was the one who recognized him and vouched for him after he was rescued from Rata Primus, and in spite of being a lil' mean with him (mostly to in hopes of getting any reaction from his doormat-ty self), she really does want him and "his extra" to get a better chance in life, like she had offered him. Thankfully most of the awkwardness is gone by the time they're part of the same pod (he becomes Nuvly's primary romantic partner), and he does clumsily return some of the teasing.
- Farka still doesn't know how she ended up dating Bunnie. Like, yes, her warband was assigned to machinery repairs under Bunnie's command in Eye of the North, and the asura somehow got under her fur enough that she wanted to be around her more than what her duty demanded, which still feels a bit unbelievable. As for Bunnie, she loves her giant girlfriend who is many times her size, her warband is fun to hang out with and they taught her a ton of things about charr machinery, and sleeping next to a fluffy rumbling engine is actually pretty cozy and comfortable (Farka desperately tries to keep her purring to a minimum (Bunnie spurs her on)).
- She's an old friend of Zojja, though their friendship had a rocky start.
After a class he held during her Dynamics days, Bunnie approached Snaff with some highly interesting questions, and he took an immediate liking to the brilliant young golemancer, offering her to use his lab to work on her UNK project under the guise of a part-time internship, both to observe her progress and to keep the college from taking proprietorship of it, as she had casually complained about during their talk. Zojja, being already his apprentice at the time, saw her as competition and used to be extremely petty with her, jealous that her mentor's attention wasn't fully on her, but Bunnie paid no mind to her since the terms of her agreement with Snaff didn't include any form of apprenticeship.
After hearing of Snaff's death, Bunnie was one of the first who went to check on Zojja, genuinely concerned for her, and the first she didn't succeed in turning away. Eventually they became friends, and Zojja was particularly happy that Bunnie got to earn the title of Snaff Savant, as it meant a lot to both of them.
- Bunnie adored and doted on Aurene from the first time she saw the dragonling in Tarir.
She used to bring her gifts of all kinds back when she ran supply lines around the Maguuma jungle, and still went out of her way to sneak her treats both around Elona and in Eye of the North. Being part of the Crystal Bloom was an obvious part of the course for her, especially as over the years she had become close friends with Ethanryel and even got quite friendly with Caithe.
- Bunnie became friends with Taimi after she brought to Rata Novus her ordered parts for Scruffy 2.0, both as part of her job as supply line manager for the Vigil/Pact and as fellow golemancer with a couple of ideas to pitch. They mostly just talk about golems when they hang out, and Bunnie miiiiight make sure that Taimi's supply requests are fulfilled first and slip in some extra comforts for her friend if she can help it.
- She used to be a champion in golem throwdowns, winning a ton of tournaments with P-UNK and making a name for herself. She doesn't look for fights and if necessary she lets her golems fight for her, either using her firearms from a safe distance or using them as suits.
- Her personal golems run on the UNK (Utility Neural Kernel) system she's been developing and updating throughout her life. Other than making the Val-A for her Dynamics' admission, her first golem was F-UNK (Functional-UNK), a small lab golem who was caught in the crossfire and blown apart during the Inquest attack on her krewe's lab while they were trying to save Doxa.
With the prize funds from the Snaff Savant contest, she made a fully accessorized combat golem named P-UNK (Punching-UNK) and a heavy-duty transport golem named H-UNK (Hulking-UNK), and they both had the option of serving as golem suit.
They were her babies and she kept them in perfect condition for years, until they were destroyed by Kralkatorrik's final attack in Thunderhead Peaks. Heartbroken (in more ways than one), she salvaged their parts to make PH-UNK-1 (Punching-Hulking-UNK-One, read: funky) to distract herself from what had happened and channel her grief into defiance against doom, and it served her well since Dragonfall.
During IBS she made a new golem called Sp-UNK (eSsence-Powered-UNK) that ran on icebrood's essences, which later was upgraded to Sp-UNK-2 to deal with destroyers as well.
She made more of her UNK series golem over the years, mostly to aid the Pact and the Crystal Bloom, and is now having fun with making jade-powered golems as well and developing a dedicated system, though the finnicky issues with jade irk her to no end.
- In spite of being a lil' ADHD gremlin, she's extremely efficient at keeping things organized, especially when there are others who can deal with things that'd ruin her focus.
- She has a lunar maned skyscale, Nyx. She was one of the second batch of skyscale hatchlings that Gorrik hatched (following the one Aurelia took as her own and the first smaller batch that continued the experiment), and Bunnie was there the moment they hatched, ready to get one after having missed the first ones. Nyx is pretty laid back and calm, keeping to herself unless she wants cuddles or to play, though she can sometimes act "like a princess". She doesn't mind Bunnie's golems too much and mostly stays with the Crystal Bloom's skyscale glory when Bunnie is not around. She and the other skyscales were extremely helpful as the Crystal Bloom helped make Elona safe after Aurene's ascension.
7. What's their approach to romance? Do/did they have any partner? How do they behave with partners/potential partners? Are they more interested in stable long-term relationships or in more casual flings? Is the option of having cubs on the table?
Farka was entirely convinced romance is too much trouble for what it's worth.
Too bad for her that it doesn't work like that.
The idea of a partner isn't necessarily bad, but she never found any charr that piqued her interest and made her want to upkeep a relationship.
Being ace, she isn't swayed by mere looks, and the idea of flings for pleasure's sake doesn't really interest her, but all in all it worked well for her since she never wanted cubs (too much trouble).
She did feel something towards Adamas, because he was nice to have around, reliable and efficient even in spite of his issues (depressed af and weakened by an infected wound in his leg that made him limp), but at that point he was so miserable she confused her fledgling crush with just pity.
Still, that was enough to push her to some sort of not-entirely-passive action to save him from the warband, which is something Vitka endlessly teased her for, but the crush died down for her soon after he left, since he was reasonably gone forever (even after they met again, the only things she felt were embarrassed annoyance at being teased for it and a sense of relief that she hadn't doomed him or something).
So, well, Farka was not prepared when she fell for Bunnie.
Like it happened with Adamas, working closely with someone reliable and efficient for a time lowered Farka's guard a bit too much, and she grew fond of the spunky asura. Everyone else noticed she was letting Bunnie get away with a lot more things than anyone else was allowed to and how much she smiled at it, but it took Adamas pointing it out before it actually dawned on her. Oh the dreadful horror.
Luckily Bunnie picked up on it too and was down for it, because Farka would have been pining forever if left to her own devices.
Their first months together were kind of a disaster on the charr's part, as she had to figure out a whole lot of stuff about herself, relationships and asura real quick, but Bunnie considers all her fumbling "hilariously cute" and her warband was very supportive of it.
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12. What's their opinion on humans and the treaty? What about the Renegades?
The Guard warband trained specifically to go join the siege of Ebonhawke, but Farka never really felt strongly about the war with humans.
When Kralkatorrik awoke, the warband was a couple of years away from graduation from the fahrar, and the subsequent talks of ceasefire bristled their fur badly. That was part of the reason why Adamas was welcomed with bullying and abuse from them, since he was a survivor of the branded massacre and as such perceived as a "symbol" of the thing that screwed them over.
Adamas's desertion resulted in the warband being penalized and forced to stay in Ashford to fight ghosts for a time, and by the time they were clear, the treaty was signed.
With their "dream" shattered, most of the warband followed their Legionnaire Darva in an attempt at joining the Renegades, which failed miserably. Darva's sire's influence kept them from getting executed, but they still went to do prison labor for around a year.
In all of it, Farka didn't really care about the changes (if anything she liked the comforts of the Black Citadel and surrounding areas, especially compared to living on the frontline + she had seen the number the siege had done to her uncle) and was only annoyed by the increased nastiness of her own warband.
She did feel a bit responsible for the penalization of the warband, since she had technically set things up for Adamas, but she never brought it up since no one even suspected her it (Vitka had connected the dots but kept her mouth shut). She reasoned it wasn't her fault the warband wanted him dead and that she had only warned him about what she had heard from them and a passing merchant.
Farka only got a bit of a wake up call when her, Vitka and Krym were left behind after the desertion and she was promoted to Legionnaire by virtue of being the most efficient.
The year spent with just Vitka and Krym was admittedly peaceful (they were assigned to work under a larger repair team inside the Citadel), but she crashed into the reality of things when the rest of the warband returned. She was almost thankful for the break from them, but after their return she grew to dislike Renegades by proxy.
1. Do they fit well into charr society or do they prefer to live outside of it? Would they change anything about it? [valid for both Legions and Olmakhan]
Deryn wasn't an outcast (though her fire magic was a rarity looked at with caution), but she kept pushing the boundaries of the Olmakhan's way of life, as she deeply wanted to experience more than what was within their shores.
She grew up with a fascination for the old ways and the stories of war and warbands, but she wouldn't have changed anything about her people beyond their isolationist ideas.
Farka was okay with her life as a cog in the Iron Legion machine.
No real complaints other than being in a warband that was not exactly functional, but even that was good in some ways, since she was generally ignored by proxy.
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3. What do they think of their sire and dam? Did they like them? Are they still around/in contact? Are there any expectations coming from them?
Deryn's dam, Verena, nearly died during delivery and got progressively weaker and sicker until she died around a year later. Despite the sad memories, Deryn vividly remembers the feeling of her pale fur and the gentle light in her differently-colored eyes from before her condition worsened.
Her sire, Kartu, was only himself with Deryn after his mate's death, and he spent all of his free time with his cub, teaching her how to hunt from a very young age. Eventually he died while trying to bring down the hydra Starcaller, and at only 12 years old Deryn took up his duties as a hunter.
Farka's relationship with her parents was pretty average: they made sure to teach her and love her as parents should, then only kept tabs on each other once she joined the fahrar.
Her dam is Daphne Palespur, an artillery specialist, while her sire was Kyril Rigmaker, a builder specialized in artillery and tanks. The two weren't a couple for long, and last time Farka met her dam was after her sire's death in a Flame ambush. Farka only knows she's still alive.
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9. What's their role/job in the warband? Do they enjoy it? Do they wish for more?
Not applicable to Deryn, since she only played warband with her pets (that's where the "last name" Skylight comes from) and went on various pretend adventures.
~
Before becoming Legionnaire, Farka's job in he Guard warband was just to build and maintain machinery and firearms along with Vitka, plus the occasional shooting when it was needed (the rest of the warband). Despite being treated by her warband as a step above a scrapper, it was a very okay job for her, as she just wanted to do her tasks and be left alone.
Then she was promoted to Legionnaire after most of the warband was punished for insubordination and desertion, including her cousin Darva who came back so much more bitter and angry than before. She never wanted to become Legionnaire and the extra responsibility weighed on her hard, especially given the general antagonistic vibe towards her.
Since reforming the warband with Vitka and Terol once she found the strength to own up to her role, things have been going much better. Crazy what happens when you're not herding ornery cats who think you're a nuissance, and instead work together with a small group of friends.
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14. What's their opinion on the Pact and the Pact Commander? Would they join them if given the chance?
Deryn is full of admiration towards Aurelia and a little giddy that such a hero is her "dam-in-law".
Admittedly, she had a bit of an instant-crush towards her when the massive lady waltzed into Atholma, but her son was much cuter.
Deryn was one of those who strongly supported joining the Pact, being the first to volunteer to show the outlanders around and help them out.
~
Farka's opinions on them were... conflicted.
She mostly ignored the Pact and what they did, since it was so far away, but then it became active avoidance on her side when Adamas turned out to be part of it and his dam as its Commander. There was only so much vitriol she could stand from her warband on a good day, and that fact made it an explosively toxic topic for years, and being the one de facto responsible for Adamas's desertion made her feel ways she didn't want to analyse.
Ironically, she was forced to work with the Pact after the All-Legion Rally.
Her cousin and half of her warband had followed Bangar, so Farka and her half put themselves to work to prove their loyalty to the Legions and do something about that. Not a lot at first, but in Drizzlewood they were put to work closely with the Pact, and later sent to Eye of the North to handle repairs on-site.
Farka and her warband still preferred not to officially join the Pact, but they're in the Alliance now as volunteers from the Iron Legion.
Legionnare of the former Guard warband and not so by choice, she and the two other surviving members opted to change the warband name to Keeper, after the charr civil war dismantled any illusion of unity she pretended ever existed.
A new beginning for the three of them and the friend who helped them make that choice, but she will keep the name of the warband she failed.
It's been years since the doubt spawned, and I'm still grumbling and groaning about whether or not Farka opts to change her warband's name after the civil war >:/
Like, should she change the name of the warband from Guard to something else to get rid of the stain on their name, or should she keep it in order to reabilitate their name in spite of the deserters' actions?
"Quick" [lmao when?] context about her and her warband under rm
The Guard warband was not the most united and healthy from the start, but both Farka and her best friend stuck around because of family (Farka because Darva is her cousin, Vitka because of her half-brother Ravik) despite not being treated nicely by them.
Despite their skills, neither of them had the drive to make their own warband, and the environment + certain events (including the accident that messed up Vitka's face) cemented that early on. They were fine with being cogs into someone else's machine as long as they got to do what they liked, and as much as Darva was more of a jerk than a competent Legionnaire, her pedigree meant advantages and passivity meant reaping those benefits.
Adamas being dumped into their warband after Kralkatorrik's awakening shook things up a bunch, starting a landslide for Darva and her loyal possy.
For starters, they had trained specifically to go to Ebonhawke and man the siege, and now they had to stay back and deal with stupid ghosts while better troops tacklet the new Branded problem. The younger, limping and traumatized cub was an easy target to vent their anger on, but he also posed an inherent challenge to Darva's leadership just by not quietly falling in line immediately, shining as a previous prospect-Legionnaire with skills to boot in spite of his pitiful state.
Surprisingly, Farka felt bad (and maybe a little more) for the poor guy who was nothing but helpful, kind and a good worker when not harassed by the others, and after overhearing something she shouldn't have known about, she might have tipped him off about a merchant duo willing to smuggle things and people out of the Black Citadel.
Then, when the Renegades started popping out like daisies after the Treaty between charr and humans became a likely future, most of Guard attempted to go and join them, save for Farka, Vitka and Krim who were intentionally left out of it.
Shit went south FAST, and when they were captured they got their tails saved first by Ravik's "cowardice" and then by the intervention of Darva's sire, only getting shipped to the mines for about a year instead of executed for their treacherous insubordination.
More things pile up, including Farka being appointed as Legionnaire in Darva's place, making the latter furious when her cousin proved to be more efficient than her in spite of hating the role.
Still, Farka was too passive to do more than annoyedly keeping the warband in line, and she's not surprised when at the Rally they deserted to follow Bangar. However, while Terol opted not to follow them that time around for her own unrelated reasons, Ravik had a (finally complete) change of heart and willingly remained, being found in a sorry state after a massive argument with Darva in which he tried to stop her and she threatened to kill him if she saw him again.
Farka almost begins to like being Legionnaire with only Vitka, Ravik, Krim and Terol under her command, but the civil war quickly takes its toll and makes any confidence she had crumble.
Krim and one of his marmox are the first to die in an ambush, Vitka and Terol are badly wounded during the preparations to assault the Frost Citadel, and she gets saved by Adamas and Ravik against Darva's mate who intended to kill her.
Then, just before the assault, Ravik saves Adamas but gets sniped by Darva with a corrupted bullet, and Adamas has to mercy-kill him when Farka can't do it.
She still participates in the assault from the backlines, and after their win Adamas confronts her about everything he had bottled up, leaving her trapped and unable to warn anyone as he gives in to the whispers and leaves to deal with Darva himself.
Despite his failure, all the deserter other than Darva and maybe her mate are confirmed dead at that point, and the experience shook Farka to her core. To keep herself from fully cracking, she just slaved away on machinery for days on end with little rest, and only the return of Vitka and Terol from the infirmary improves things a bit.
Farka eventually resolved to be a better Legionnaire over the course of Champions, between talking it out with a more levelheaded Adamas and Bunnie wedging herself in between her stupid feelings for good, to the point she's voted into the warband as a honorary member.
