#kayincanon

Questions:

What’s your character’s IQ (guess)? Are they smart? In what way? Do they value intelligence in themselves and others?: I am not good at guessing someone’s IQ, I don’t even know what the average is, but I would say that she’s below average. Kayin’s main trait isn’t her intelligence. She doesn’t carry knowledge, she doesn’t even have street-smarts. She knows a few things only and she does them. And that’s it. Never hesitates. That’s all that matters to her. When it comes to other people too. She doesn’t care if someone is smart, only that they’re brave. One doesn’t need to have advanced technical knowledge to be able to pick up a sword and fight for what they believe in.

What languages can they speak/read/write?: She can speak, read and write in Rivaini, as well as speak the Common tongue, which she learned once she trained in the ways of the Spirit Warrior for travel reasons, but doesn’t speak it very well. Her sister was the one that taught her how to read and write, but Kayin never showed any interest in it. She also knows a bit of Antivan from when she crossed to the mainland, but it’s not exactly enough for her to speak it.

Are they more left-brained or right-brained? Are they creative? Artistic? Musically inclined?: I’d say that she’s more right-brained, but only by a little. She’s not the smartest, like I said, and she doesn’t delve in numbers and language. She lacks reason more often that she does not. She mostly goes with her gut and her moral code, even when logic opposes it directly, but she can come to a logical conclusion in a conversation. She is not the most creative, she knows like five approaches to something and she uses them indefinitely. And she’s not exactly the person for art and music. Nuh-uh.

What’s their education level? Where were they educated (if anywhere)? Do they pursue intellectual interests on their own? How do they learn (visually, kinesthetically, auditorially)?: Her education is inexistent. Kayin never went to any school and she was never tutored at home, aside from the few things she learned from her sister. And that was all she learned, because she never had any interest in intellectual pursuits. What she picked up through the years was practical skills, which she learned through trial and error, repeated them till she got them right. Fishing, fighting, hunting, cooking, foraging, etc.

Mental advantages and weaknesses?: I wouldn’t say that she has many advantages. Like I said, she’s not the smartest, she doesn’t know the world like others do and she lacks literary and historical knowledge, other than what she’s heard in her travels. She’s merely simple. She can be very easily coerced into making a bad decision, especially if the question of bravery is brought in the foreground. She doesn’t rely on her smarts, but on instinct, which is only amplified by her connection to the Fade. She can be really stubborn though. If she suspects that something is wrong, or it goes against her morals, she will oppose it with every fiber of her being. If it gets to that, there’s no moving her. She’s unyielding.

What do they think about, most often? What sorts of thoughts trouble them? What do they avoid thinking about?: Not much. Everyday stuff mostly. She thinks a lot about how much further her destination is, if there will be a creek nearby for her to catch fish for dinner, if the weather will be good enough or if she will have need for shelter. And her worries are limited to that too. What she avoids thinking about is the past. She doesn’t want to think about the family she left behind, or the loss she had to suffer. She trained for years to suppress those memories. She’s not just avoiding those things, she went to great lengths to forget them.

What’s one subject they know a lot about?: She knows a lot about the Spirit Warrior training and how one person can reach inner tranquility. She knows how to focus and hone her fighting skills, how to keep a perfectly calm mind in battle. She doesn’t know much about spirits, other than what she needed to know. They’re of a singular way of being. Just like her.

How good is their memory?: Really, really dodgy. She remembers random things from her childhood, things that elicited an emotional reaction from her, but she’s not exactly the best at remembering details about things. In order to remember something, she needs to feel it.

What sorts of things do they dream about at night? Do they have nightmares?: Her dreams are strange, in lack of a better word. They are mostly unreal, erratic, but in the midst of them she sees something that seems remotely normal, feels familiar, yet isn’t. It may be a city, it may be a person, or some sort of location that actually exists, yet she has never seen before in her life. She is not even sure the dreams are hers or Valour’s, or if she’s just traversing in the Fade in her sleep. She can never explain them. Sometimes, these dreams are nightmares, fights happening, swords clashing, people dying before her eyes. And the weirdest thing is that if she goes to whatever place she recognises, she ends up in situations that closely resemble those in her dreams. So, she’s unsure about whether these dreams are just dreams or callings.

Are they guided more by their head or their heart? How does that work for them? Are they a quick-thinker?: Well, from what was said above, it’s clear that her heart is what drives her in the end, and that ends either in glory or in trouble. Instinct, pure instinct. But it is quick, oh it is quick. In battle, she thinks fast, moves faster. Outside battle, it slows down a little, but if she notices that she’s being played, she notices it immediately. It’s a yes/no situation. She either thinks fast or not at all. And it’s not quality thinking either.

“Pet peeves? I find it irritating when someone is picking something their teeth with their tongue and make that sound. It’s driving me up the wall. I dislike it when I ask people to do something that needs to be done right now, and they diminish its importance. It needs to be done right now, I can’t do it myself at this given moment because I am doing something else equally important, so it’s only polite of you to do it. That glance that men throw to women passing by... It’s one that most don’t notice, but I do. It’s dirty, it’s demeaning, it’s wrong. They usually chuckle afterwards and make some subtle-not-subtle comment and it makes my blood boil in my veins. See? Like that one there, just now. Look at him laughing with his friends about the shelf supporting her skirt. I would give them a piece of my mind, but my sister told me to not cause trouble...”

She grabbed her fishing spear and stood up.

(there was a mistake from the control, it’s better to just ignore it and carry on, thank)

She will never admit to it, but her hero is her ex-husband. That man held on when she couldn’t, and even though he failed to help her, years later, when she reflected on the events of that time, she appreciated what he did for her, how he stood when she was down, showing more bravery than she had back then. She appreciated how he stayed behind without bitterness, taking care of their two daughters. She admired that he would never ask for any credit. She knew him well enough to be sure of that. That man never did anything for praise, but out of love and she loved that about him. It took her a long time to understand that, but she loved him, as a man and as a person, and he was probably the best thing that had ever happened to her, even though it ended badly.

He became an example for her, and his way of life guided her through her training. He had values that she didn’t, but eventually adopted: Humility, compassion, bravery beyond her foolhardiness. Her ex-husband would never become a hero for anyone else, but he was her hero.

3. Do they have siblings? How do they get along with them? If they don’t have any, would they want to?: Kayin has a sister, Onyeka, goes by Onya. She is 13 years older than Kayin and is actually her half-sister. The two of them have the same father, but different mothers. Their relationship had always been tumultuous at best, because they were of a different age group and completely different people personality-wise. Kayin never understood her, never understood why she worked as a prostitute, and while Onya actually understood the youngling frolicking around in the house, she could never find a way to get through to her, because Kayin never listened to any of her warnings. Kayin interfered with Onya’s business, thinking that she was protecting her if she hurt her clients, instead hurting her profits without a real result. The two of them finally became estranged, their final encounter being the one in which Onya told her to leave and never come back to her house in Llomerryn.

6. The worst experience with a family member?: Once, a client came by, insisting that her sister saw him. He thought that they were in a relationship, but Onya laughed it off, telling him that if he doesn’t have the coin, he won’t get to see her. He was enraged, but when Kayin addressed the issue, Onya told her that it was alright and that she had nothing to worry about. However, he showed up again, and Kayin, angered by his presence, pierced his hand through with her spear. She considered her intervention brave, but Onya was enraged, told her to watch what she’s doing and that that wasn’t right. The sailor came by to find her, a young girl still, and kill her. Onya insisted that she stayed inside, but Kayin went outside, and drunk as he was, it was easy for her to kill him. And she did, and they tossed him off the pier with a rock. Onya was angry. She shouted at Kayin, told her that she needs to understand that things aren’t so simple, they’re not black and white. Told her not to mess with her business again. And Kayin didn’t understand what she did wrong. She just cried all night. From that day, she rarely tried to talk to her sister. From that day, their relationship only got worse.

9. Do they have children? If not, would they want them? If yes, what’s their relationship?: Yes. Kayin had children at a young age. In fact, she was 16 when she got pregnant with her first daughter. It was an unexpected conundrum, but the lover responsible for making it happen offered his support, which was only accepted once he asked for her hand in marriage. The second daughter followed only two years later. There would be a third... But fate had it so that it wouldn’t happen, and almost had Kayin killed in the process. That traumatic experience can haunt even the bravest, and Kayin couldn’t bear it. She left a year later, when she accepted the Seers’ offer of training to become a Spirit Warrior, the only way she knew out of grief. So, she doesn’t have a relationship with her daughters. She is not aware that they grew to be two amazing women. She only remembers pain in relation to children.

12. Thoughts on adoption?: Not many thoughts on adoption. She does admire those that take in abandoned children, but she’s not interested in adopting herself, or having her children adopted. They were taken care of by her ex-husband.

(I looked up the french, if that’s french, only to find that it meant the same thing as the first sentence. D’oh. I know a new thing now though!)

Kayin’s mindscape has been shaped into something more restrictive, as it was demanded in her training. Her way of thinking grew to be rather singular, almost to an exaggerated point. And then she housed a Spirit of Valour, which made the road a narrow, straight line, very difficult to deviate from.

Of course, she still has a mind on her own. No one controls her or forces her, coerces her through supernatural means or magic to do anything, that would be crazy. Valour doesn’t control her, she makes the conscious choice not to deviate from the path she has to walk on, because she was taught that the consequences will be severe. Her actions and decisions are her own, always. It’s just that Valour fortifies her on a physical and mental level and it has become so that the only whisper she hears in her head is its own.

So, no, strange as it might be, she has no invasive thoughts. Either they are stopped on their tracks by Valour, or she has done such good work with her mental training that nothing passes her filters. Either way, the result is the same.

Her manner of speech is actually rather stoic and the person she uses to refer to herself is interchangeable. Sometimes it is first person, sometimes it is third and in the latter case, sometimes, you can feel that something is amiss, you feel strange talking with her. She tends to analyse things as if she needs to to understand them. It is a bit unsettling. Her accent is strong, you know where she’s from before she tells you, even before you see her.