Shanti

[shanti]

russell 'shanti' sutherland !



SHE SAYS I'VE GOT THE BEST
beating heart in the world

HEY THERE, MY NAME IS MIRI
AND I'VE BEEN AROUND THIS PLANET A WHILE
TIMES, BUT I'VE BEEN ROLE-PLAYING FOR EIGHT YEARS.
THE OTHER CHARACTER I PLAY HERE IS RANIA BURKE
AND OH, WAIT, ONE LAST THING. THAT PHRASE IN THE RULES IS CHEAT AND DIE;;!

IT MAKES HER WANT TO TWIRL AROUND
until she hit’s the ground

[/b] Russell Sutherland
NICKNAMES: Shanti. It's all he ever goes by, however, so it might as well be his real name.
AGE: ninety-two
GENDER: male
RACE: wyvern
CLASS: A
PLAY BY: Daryl Yan[/size][/ul]

I SWEAR TOGETHER WE'VE BEEN
here before but we never looked away

[/b] lavender
HAIR: blond
SKIN: a pale cream color
BODY: tall and well-built, but not thin
UNUSUAL: when he becomes angry, Shanti's eyes turn red-brown, and they glow. When he turns his head, his eyes leave a faint trail of light behind them. He also has slitted pupils instead of round ones.
OTHER FORM: a green forest wyvern

APPEARANCE:

In his human form, Shanti is relatively attractive. He stands about five foot eleven, and is athletically built due to his sudden interest in wrestling and sports. With blond chin-length hair, large violet eyes, and high cheekbones, his face is strikingly sculpted. Unlike regular humans, he is quite cat-like in his appearance and in the way he acts: his ears are slightly pointed at the ends; his pupils are slitted instead of rounded; he makes a quiet humming noise in the back of his throat when he's pleased, just like purring; etc. His most striking feature is probably his eyes, which are violet when he's in a good or a neutral mood, but turn red-brown and begin to glow when he gets upset. They've been described as mocking, and they seem to follow you around the room, judging you. His small, pert mouth is often smiling -- whether sarcastically or genuinely -- but it is still difficult to determine his mood just by looking at him. Thus, Shanti can be seen as very intimidating. As far as clothes go, he usually prefers something that's comfortable over something's that attractive. He is fond of scarves, jackets, and layers, and can rarely be seen without long sleeves.

Shanti's true form is something that he is intensely proud of, mostly because it is unique from any other wyvern's. Equal parts bird, cat, dragon, and snake, it is difficult to even describe. First, the statistics: he has a wing His head and muzzle have a highly sculpted bone structure that emphasizes his huge yellow eyes and their slitted pupils. These eyes can see in the dark, like a cat, and are accurate enough to see small prey from high above the ground. Instead of having a mouth, like many other wyverns, he has a curved black beak, like that of a hawk, that is perfectly shaped for tearing meat or carrying small objects. At the very back of his head, near where his skull meets his neck, Shanti has two cat-like ears. They are nearly a foot long, and are the reason why his hearing is so acute in his wyvern form. His skeleton is very prominent, especially near his haunches, where his muscles and bones can be seen through the tightly-stretched skin. His wings are supported by a number of bony projections that have sharp talons on each end. And, while his clawed hind legs are powerful, and are what propels him when he climbs or walks, his front legs are practically nonexistent: they exist only as a set of three claws near the center of each wing. This means that Shanti can fold the larger appendages up in order to make himself small, but it is difficult for him to pick anything up. He is forced to use either the prehensile tips on his tails (see next paragraph), his beak, or his hind legs.

Instead of scales, Shanti has thick, leathery skin, like that of a bat. It allows him to crawl through tight spaces without worrying about his scales being torn off, and to hide in the canopy without his scales reflecting light and giving him away. For the most part his skin is the same dark green as the leaves, but his wings, the insides of his ears, and his underbelly are a lighter tan so that he does not stick out too much when seen from below. In the winter, his green skin starts to pale, and eventually blanches to an off-white color; the tan skin lightens a little, but remains mostly the same. The only part of his coloring that remains the same all year long is a line of blue spots that starts at his forehead and runs all the way down his spine, ending near the tip of his tail. There, where the spots end, his tail splits into two. One ending looks like a feather, but it is in fact a number of brightly-colored and flexible quills that Shanti can shoot as projectiles. Inside each one is a small amount of deadly poison that can easily paralyze a small animal. It would take several of them to kill one, however, and it would take so many to kill a fully-grown fox that, if he really wanted to kill one, it'd be more productive to engage it in one-on-one combat.

[/ul]
[/size]

TWO SEATS INSIDE AN EMPTY ROOM
with one more night what’s left to lose

[/b]

[li]treasure / jewels / anything pretty

[/li][li]forests / trees / flowers
[/li][li]singing / music / playing the piano
[/li][li]literature / writing / reading
[/li][li]debating / flat-out arguing
[/li][li]comfortable clothes
[/li][li]meat / spicy foods / sweets
[/li][li]acting / theatre
[/li][li]people who don't conform to rules
[/li][li]freedom[/blockquote]
DISLIKES:

[/li][li]small animals / small children / small things in general
[/li][li]stealers / liars / cheaters
[/li][li]work / being busy
[/li][li]opinions other than his / not being the one in control / being told what to do
[/li][li]non-class A students
[/li][li]vegetables / bland foods
[/li][li]being called anything except Shanti
[/li][li]rules / self-discipline / strict regulations
[/li][li]losing / bad losers
[/li][li]parties / romance / homophobes[/blockquote]
STRENGTHS:

WYVERN FORM

[/li][li]excellent climber
[/li][li]has heightened senses, so seeing in the dark and hearing quiet noises are easy tasks for him
[/li][li]can fly because of his large wings and hollow bone structure
[/li][li]can shoot poisoned quills out of one part of his tail
[/li][li]has prehensile tendrils on the other end, and can use them to grab ahold of things or to strangle small prey
[/li][li]has thick skin that protects him from most injuries
[/li][li]can regenerate the two ends of his tail (i.e. can produce more spines and more prehensile tendrils)
[/blockquote]
HUMAN FORM

[/li][li]excellent climber
[/li][li]charming in his own peculiar way
[/li][li]willing to do anything for his friends, even if it doesn't benefit him
[/li][li]is very good at finding ways to do well for himself
[/li][li]has both a passion and a talent for theatre and music
[/li][li]highly motivated: hates losing, so he works very hard not to
[/li][li]intelligent and genuinely interested in learning, both about his classes and about people in general
[/li][li]good hand-to-hand fighter, and an excellent strategist[/blockquote]
WEAKNESSES:

WYVERN FORM

[/li][li]susceptible to injuries caused by lightening, high winds, or any other kind of bad weather
[/li][li]has heightened senses, so loud noises, bright lights, and extreme temperatures have a negative effect on him
[/li][li]has the same type of hollow bones as birds, so strong impacts can easily shatter his skeleton
[/li][li]his wings can be cut, thus preventing him from flying
[/li][li]highly territorial and protective of his treasure
[/li][li]is unaccustomed to being challenged, so does not know how to fight other wyverns very well
[/li][li]eats only meat, so it's hard to find enough food[/blockquote]
HUMAN FORM

[/li][li]in stressful situations, is more likely to take care of himself than anyone else
[/li][li]loses his temper easily
[/li][li]cannot read social cues nor figure out what to do in delicate situations
[/li][li]cannot abide rules or authority of any kind unless that authority earns his respect somehow
[/li][li]does not know how to deal with stress or with losing
[/li][li]does not separate his wyvern personality from his human one (i.e. the instinct to hunt weak prey becomes an instinct to bully)
[/li][li]highly protective of anything he owns -- including his friends, since he sometimes feels like he 'owns' them
[/li][li]unwilling to do anything if it doesn't benefit him in the end[/blockquote]
SECRETS:

[/li][li]that he abandoned his parents after they were shot in the California woods[/blockquote]
OVERALL:

One of the most important things that people need to understand about Shanti is that he tries to be nice. He really does. But, after having spent most of his life holed up in tropical forests, he understands little about what is socially acceptable and what is not. To him, people other than his friends are just playing pieces, and he can use them to get whatever he wants. Still, being mean is not his modus operandi.

Instead of respecting life, or good, or rules, or authority, Shanti respects freedom and disorder. He does not believe that there is any higher force dictating his actions, nor any conscience dictating his thoughts, beyond chance and fate. He follows whatever whim strikes him and it rarely occurs to him to think of whether that whim might lead him to trouble or not. He's completely unreliable; having not figured out just who he is to other people means that Shanti can be whoever he wants to at any given point in time. One day he might be cheerful and greet everyone with a smile, and the next he could go and sulk in his dorm and not say a single word. He self-indulges: if there's a pretty thing in a shop, he buys it. If there's a certain food he wants to eat, he eats it. His side of the dorm is pretty much a complete wreck: there are trinkets and baubles and shiny stones there. And, to be honest, Shanti would rather sleep on top of all that than on a bed.

Personal amusement means a lot to him. In the past he has always done whatever pleases him, and so that remains true at the Academy. Granted, Shanti is intelligent enough to understand that, while rules and teachers may be boring and inflict unnecessary rules on him, it is in his better interests to obey, but he still finds ways to remind the staff at the school that he is his own person, and that they can't dictate what he does. This means he gets into a lot of trouble, but that doesn't deter him unless he's threatened with expulsion. He gets good grades, however, since it does amuse him to be the best at whatever he does, and works hard. Having a full schedule is terrible, but having nothing to do is equally bad, since he's spend enough time doing nothing.

Shanti lives by a personal code that he applies to everything he does. It is all right for him to lie, to bend rules, to ignore imposed authority, to cheat, or to fight dirty. He distrusts people and authority, but will only betray a friend or family member if it meant he could save them from harm. He will not kill another person under any circumstances, but giving them a black eye is fair game. Failing to place his own interests over those of an authority is not acceptable, but putting himself before someone he actually cares about is absolutely unacceptable. If a fight's going poorly, it is unheard of for him to leave, since abandoning the hope that he can win means that he admits that he's not the best at something. Being at someone's mercy is worse than death, but surrendering is not an option. He's not concerned with other people's desires, values flexible relationships, and generally thinks people are narrow-minded bigots. And despite the fact that it often amuses him to make sarcastic comments or to play pranks on people, Shanti genuinely makes himself try to be nice. It's just very hard.

One of his main strengths is that his species -- the wyvern -- has been evolving to survive in jungles for millennia. An apex predator and a killing machine, in his wyvern form Shanti could kill you at least ten different ways without using anything except his beak, his claws, and his tail. In human form, he has shown a talent for acting, and he would very much like to continue with it once he has left the Academy. He attributes his skill to years spent alone in the forest with no one but himself to talk to any nothing but his thoughts to occupy him. Similarly, he is a very good writer -- although his style is unpolished, and could use work -- because his imagination was never crushed by society or the school system. Beyond the fact that his wyvern form grants him extra speed, extra strength, and heightened senses, Shanti is intelligent enough and strong enough in both forms to be a good climber. The farther off the ground he is, the happier her is. Also, something about his awkward personality is just a little endearing, and people seem to like him for it.

The more strengths you have, however, the more weaknesses you have as well. Shanti can't keep his temper, in either his human or his wyvern form, and cannot for the life of him understand subtle nuances in the way people act and talk. Being an apex predator has its advantages, but it also means that he's unaccustomed to being anything but the best at what he does. He never learned how to deal with stress or failure as a child. Also, it is hard for Shanti, who spent a lot of time in his wyvern form up until he came to the Academy, to separate that personality from his human one. Still, he does try -- just like he tries to be nice -- but it is hard to do. His friends are certainly a weakness: although he couldn't care less about most people, he will do literally anything for his close friends. If they are in danger -- or if he perceives that they are in danger -- he will do rash things to try and save them, even though he usually only thinks in terms of how he himself will benefit from any given situation.

Since his arrival at Akashibai Academy, Shanti has grown fond of a number of activities. Naturally, he does few of them well, since he did not even know that things like the theatre or epees existed until he arrived there, but he has enough determination for it not to really matter. Reading is a favorite of his, especially science fiction and fantasy, and he tries to write short stories and poems in his free time. Shanti is, obviously, very fond of meat, as he is a dragon and primarily a carnivore. Though he has no particular interest in fashion or in dressing up, he enjoys the theatre very much, especially if he gets to act in it. He has the right kind of Shakespearean intonations and expressions for him to be a genuinely talented actor. As the son of two very reclusive dragons, he likes staying physically separated from other people, though he's happy to talk to them provided they don't touch him. Also, Shanti likes anything classical, such as singing, drawing, the piano, and gardens. The Forbidden Forest holds a particular fascination for him, because, like his father and his father before that, he is a forest dragon. If there was any student well-equipped enough to dash off into the woods without any supplies or intentions of coming back, it would be Shanti. He thinks people are amusing, however, and so would rather stay at the Academy.

There are many things he dislikes in the world, and among the first of these are rules. He cannot abide being told what to do, mostly because that has never happened to him before, and breaks rules in a casual, no-big-deal kind of way. Freedom is the most important thing anyone could have, and luck dictates all actions. Shanti hates vegetables, although fruits are all right, and would rather have a steak than a sandwich. His more petty dislikes are things like homophobes -- because why waste your energy complaining about something that's not a problem? -- and having stuff to do -- because out in the forest, there's never an agenda you have to follow. He disapproves of violence and of hurting the innocent, but it is not uncommon for Shanti to break a promise or tell a lie if it's in his own better interests to do so. It bothers him to no extent when people make loud noises, get drunk, or try to flirt with him, mostly because he hasn't reached the point where he can understand that sort of interaction yet.

Shanti has a number of goals that he would like to achieve while at the Academy. For one, he wants to understand these people and how they interact. Right now he sees them as pieces in a chess game that he can manipulate in order to make his own life easier, and looks down on anyone that isn't strong-willed enough to view the world the same way. He would, however, very much like not to be the awkward one who doesn't understand a joke or a reference just because he has spent most of his life in a jungle. He would also like to perfect the few activities he is interested in, and to land the leading role in one of the plays put on by the school. As far as fears go, he has a number of those as well. Shanti fears that someday one of his fights will get out of hand and that he will be on the losing side of it. He fears thunderstorms and lightening, just like any sensible flying creature would, because they can knock him out of the air and send him spiraling down to his death. He fears ruining his chances at this Academy with all his rule-breaking -- but not enough to really stop. He fears turning into the same kind of person as the ones who shot down his parents back in California -- but what he fears, more than anything, is making a mistake that will cause him to abandon the people he cares about, like he did with his parents.

[/size][/li][/ul]

WE LAY WITH NOT A WORD TO SAY
alone we’ll wait ‘til something’s wrong

[/b] Sofia Sutherland, one hundred and sixty. Deceased, as far as Shanti knows.
FATHER: Nicholas Sutherland, two hundred. Deceased, as far as Shanti knows.
SIBLINGS: none that ever grew old enough to be named.
OTHER PEOPLE: Samuel Delechi, unknown.

HISTORY:

Shanti was born some time after his parents, Sofia and Nicholas, settled into the redwood forests in California. Growing up as the son of two old-fashioned wyverns, he lived a fairly different life from most other fantastical creatures. Instead of mainly using in his human form, he spent most of his time as a small wyvern, hiding in the uppermost branches of the trees in the deepest parts of the forest. His parents were nearly always absent, since fully-grown wyverns require a large amount of food and they had to be away nearly all day long to feed themselves. There was no reason for Shanti -- he was actually just Russell back then, but we'll just use Shanti so things don't get confusing -- to be sad, however: wyverns are very independent creatures. By the time he was a month old, he could crawl fast enough to catch a small squirrel. He learned how to hunt, how to fly, and how to find food in the woods around him. He chose to spend some time as a human each day, learning how to walk and how to talk from his parents, and sometimes he would read all day long in his human form, then change into a wyvern and use his night vision to keep on reading.

When he grew older, he was free to travel farther and farther away from his parents' nest. It was during this time that Shanti really began to fall in love with his true form. Before, he had been more indifferent about it -- it didn't really matter to him what form he was in because he could survive in either shape or form. He saw very little of the world, however, since one of his self-imposed rules was that he would not go outside the bounds of his forest. His favorite pastime was to turn into a human and walk along with the tour groups. This was really the only time he talked with humans, but the real point of blending in with them was just to give them a fright by disappearing halfway through the tour. In fact, much of his childhood was spent amusing himself, since there was nothing else to do.

The only really important thing that ever happened to him is something that he rarely speaks of. Shanti was traveling with his parents from one end of the forest to another due to the construction of some new tourist trails going right past their old home. Together with Sofia and Nicholas, he took off -- in wyvern form -- from the uppermost branches of one of the taller redwoods. The three traveled for a little while, cruising slowly, confident that they could not be seen from the ground and that they would blend into the trees if seen from above. They lost track of time and started flying aimlessly, enjoying the rare chance to spread their wings and truly soar. In a clearing below them, however, a tour guide was showing a number of tourists through an untamed part of the forest. Just as the three wyverns passed over a gap in the trees, flying relatively low now because they were nearing their destination, the tour guide looked up. Not knowing what to make of the three monsters in the air, he pulled out a gun and shot twice.

The world froze for Shanti. The first bullet struck his father, and the second struck his mother, since they had been so startled by the loud noise that they had failed to flee. They shivered in midair and their wings started to fail. Slowly, using their wings to keep them gliding instead of crashing, they began their descent into the woods. Shanti was so terrified, however, that he reverted to the one instinct that drives him above any other: the instinct to protect himself. Flying away as fast as he could, all he could see of his parents were their falling bodies. He assumed that they landed far enough away for them to die, but never looked back to find out.

Things moved very quickly after that. After a few nerve-wracking days spent flying with no particular direction in mind, Shanti landed, tired and emotionally drained, somewhere in the Caribbean. The island where he landed was uninhabited, and had plenty of fish and small game, and was warm enough to be comfortable. Slowly, he let himself relax and mourn his parents, but he was by no means the same person as the one he had been before. Now Shanti withdrew completely from humans. For a long time, he did not even so much as fly, instead crawling on the ground or climbing up trees. When he felt like it, he would practice singing and fighting in his human form, but for the most part he remained as a wyvern. He had a lot of time to think about what he had done; generally, those thoughts weren't positive in the least. Thus, he was reduced to wallowing in self-pity and guilt. He called himself 'Shanti', which he thought at the time meant 'peace', because he wanted to bring peace to himself and to stop his guilt from tormenting him. What saved him from this was a man -- actually another wyvern -- on another island. This wyvern, whose name was Samuel Delechi, landed on Shanti's island to hunt somewhere far away from humans. They encountered each other, and Delechi told Shanti of the Akashibai Academy. Feeling like it would be a chance for him to reconcile himself with his parents' memory, since they had emphasized learning even though they did not believe in hiding in human form, Shanti flew up to Colorado and enrolled.

[/ul][/size]

WITH FACES PRESSED AGAINST THE
wall lets show the world what we are about

[/b] None~
RP SAMPLE:

"I suppose you're right, Legolas, but that doesn't make it any easier to live with."

[/i]

"I said those words to Aragorn once," the elf said slowly, "after the War. I wished to forget what had been done in those days, to erase the images from before my eyes. Though his reply was long, for he was angry with me, and mine is short and I am not so with you, we have the same thing to say, essentially. I do not think anything will make it easier to bear, Doctor." That was his honest opinion: that no idea or recollection or object could make a memory like that any simply to live with. It was something he had found to be true over the years. Time was the only exception. "Just because nothing can help, though," Legolas added, "does not mean to say that no one can help as well."

"All right then," he said, "If you were stranded on a deserted island..""[/i]

Legolas was little disappointed that the Doctor had barely reacted to the kiss, as least from his perspective, but was overwhelmingly glad that he had not felt compelled to make some kind of comment about it. However, he focused on the question that was put to him. It was an odd one, since, while to the Earth humans the inquiry was fairly common, the Elves did not tend to think along that kind of pattern. As such, it took him a few moments to think of an answer, during which time he glanced at the Doctor. "I need no books nor instrument, for my memory and the sound of my own voice serves well, nor should I require trinkets to entertain myself," he said. "So what I bring would be things I could not lose, not ever."

What he 'could not lose' were the big things, things you couldn't take with you on an island: Mirkwood, the War, his friends... So he would have to settle for something that represented them, instead, so that every time he looked at it, he would remember. "I would take my bow first, but no quiver, for it was a gift to me from the Lady Galadriel, and not even death itself may part me from it." The workmanship on his bow was astounding; equals to it were few and far between. As he spoke, Legolas shifted his shoulders unconsciously, adjusting the way his prized possession lay across his shoulders. "To answer 'why': because I carried it with me when I strode alongside the Fellowship in times of war; with it, I rode with them in times of peace; and with it, I take them, too."

The elf raised his eyebrows as he thought; it was difficult to imagine what he would want to have on such an island. Knowing that having food and water provided for him was implied in the question, he did not need to worry about choosing supplies -- even though it would have made it a much easier question to answer. Finally, he knew what he would take second. "A leaf, from the tree outside my window." It was a silly thing, but Legolas had passed centuries staring out at that great oak, and it was as more a sign of home to him than his own crown and throne. "I have such a thing -- an oak leaf, set in crystal, made for me by Gimli, son of Glóin, as a sign of peace between our realms. Stone never fades or fails; and so my fair wood will last. I take this for the same reason as the last."

He paused and looked down at their intertwined hands. The third thing he would bring was easily thought of. "And had I it with me, I would take with me the book written in the Shire, by Frodo and Bilbo, which tells of the War." There was no need to say which war he referred to; there was only one in the minds of many inhabitants of Middle Earth. Legolas nodded slowly to himself, as if confirming what he had just said. "The prince who returned from those long battles was much different from the elfling who had left for them. Much graver was I, and wont to think of what battles were lost rather than those that were won. So, it does well to recall the joy of the world!" Legolas brushed his hair back behind his ears again, the faintest hint of smile still on his lips.

"This reminiscing -- I show my age!" he said with a laugh. "Valar forbid that I am becoming an ancient scholar, one of those who cannot move from the library for all the dust that has gathered on them! When I was young, I was sometimes very exasperated with them, especially the scholar who taught me history. I do believe I ran away from his class once, though Ada corrected that soon enough." It was an especially fond memory for the elf since he had grown up to be so rule-abiding and polite. With his excellent Elvish memory, he could recall it clearly, and did so, smiling. Even the Elves were children at some point. "That makes two questions I have for you, Time Lord. Firstly: what would you take, on your island? If I might add, the TARDIS is not allowed; she is a creature, and not a thing. And, secondly..." Legolas's smile broadened cheerfully. "Did you ever do that, Doctor? Did you run away from lessons, too?"[/blockquote][/size][/ul]

- - - - - -
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[KATSUMIKI]

approved! - !

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