Ink City Application

Mun Name: GrayGriffin, or Gray for short
Journal: graygriffin
Contact Info: doom.griffin@gmail.com
Other Characters: None

Name:  Lune
From: Aywas/NaNoWriMo novel/Original Character
Appearance:

(He also has a silver ring on his tail, right beneath the "blade.")
Age: Technically he's only one year old, but mentally he's probably around 20-30
Gender: Male

Personality: Lune is generally friendly and good-natured, despite his imposing appearance. He speaks in a friendly tone to almost everyone, although he tends to be very formal no matter who he is speaking to. However, anything he perceives as injustice will instantly arouse his ire, and he will definitely speak out against it. He is also very protective of his friends, and hurting or threatening them is a good way to get on his bad side. Lune is a fighter, considering the world he comes from, but he prefers friendly spars, not fights to the death. However, if he senses that his opponent isn't holding back, he won't either.

Despite being more or less a zombie, Lune doesn't really have any morbid interests. As a matter of fact, he prefers the more normal things, such as watching the sun rise, or walking in a park with his friends, or sharing a drink with his beloved. However, he is a bit self-conscious of his undead state. He doesn't really care when he's with his "family," but even among them, there are those who are nervous about him. So when he goes out in public, he tends to act a little shy, doing his best not to appear threatening.

Backstory: In the land of Ay, where Lune comes from, there's a strange forest that only appears every October, where all manner of strange, lurking creatures dwell. The Mystical Undead Lunaris is one of the most mysterious of those creatures-normally, Lunaris are born from the stars, but these creatures come from the twisted light of the moon. Now, being so rare, there were naturally many people who wished to capture one of those creatures.

And there were plenty of ways to capture one of them without having to submit yourself to their dangerous claws. Ay was a place that served those would-be hunters well, and you could usually find a whole bunch of items in the stores that were intended to keep people safe. There were special "aynips" that would attract creatures of a certain species. There were powerful nets that could capture almost any creature, no matter how large it was. There were tranquilizer darts that could subdue almost any creature.

Gray, the woman who ended up capturing Lune, used all of those things, along with her pet companion, Maia. Lune had been wandering aimlessly through the forest, when he suddenly caught a whiff of something he had never smelled before. Finding himself attracted to it, he approached, and found himself suddenly set upon by a whirlwind of feathers and rage. Yes, the creature was much smaller than him, but she was quick enough, along with commanding the powers of thunder. With those abilities, she managed to drive him into a corner, where Gray was waiting with a tranquilizer. She quickly subdued him, and when he woke up, he was in her house. There, he was greeted by the little bird who had defeated him. After a brief discussion, she started showing him around the place.

However, it just happened to be Gray's birthday, and as he and Maia watched, a beautiful Lunaris descended from the heavens. It seemed that Aywas residents who watched the skies carefully would be blessed with a Lunaris based on their star sign coming to accompany them. Seeing her beautiful pelt, Lune immediately felt inferior. She was, after all, born from pure starlight that had not been warped. Maia, too, felt forgotten and abandoned, and then frustrated. Together, the two decided to return to the Haunted Forest, Maia in hopes of finding opponents who would actually challenge her, and Lune as a guide. They were joined by Ojo, an easily frightened creature hoping to find his courage.

The forest turned out to be nearly too much for them. Lune had to use his teleportation abilities to get them in, since it had automatically sealed itself at the end of October, and that drained much of his power. Not only that, but the forest itself seemed to be moving against them. All three of them were nearly killed in a fight, and while Lune could give them some mild healing, his teleportation powers had been disrupted, and the couldn't escape. So, they ended up heading to a strange, dark mansion in the forest, in hopes of finding medication. However, there, they only encountered even more monsters, and nearly died again. In the end, while they did find the medicine, they almost ended up getting killed over it. Lune actually fell into a coma, and nearly died in there, but Maia and Ojo managed to somehow enter his mind as well and bring him out.

Meanwhile, Gray had discovered the disappearance of the three, and had immediately set out along with the rest of her "family." They met at the entrance to the mansion, and there, were confronted with two shadowy figures, who turned out to have been manipulating the entire forest all along. However, they had not expected their victims to actually meet up again. Despite the fact that a direct confrontation should have killed them all, Lune managed, somehow, to teleport them all out of there. He was out of commission for a long time after that, but awoke to a hero's celebration. Gray apologized profusely for making him think that he was unwanted, and he soon found himself settling into the new life, as well as slowly falling for Maia. Yes, she had electrocuted him when they first met, but still...he had somehow begun to find her endearing.

He finally confessed, and they began dating. It was a time full of turbulence and various emotions, but somehow they made it through. He even proposed to her! (Yes, that's the ring he's wearing on his tail) However, this happy time was cut short when, one night, he stepped out their door and found himself falling into darkness.

Moral Standing: Good
Dreams: To be loved
Fears: Letting down his new friends, accidentally scaring someone
Extra: Aywas is a kind of a cross between Pokemon and a virtual pet game, and about half of this backstory is headcanon that I made up in my NaNoWriMo. The world is also very magic-driven.

Lune's tail disk can change "phase." It generally reflects his emotional state. Darker=more upset, etc.

Lune has mild teleportation abilities. However, when he's teleporting, it's more like seeing a tunnel of light that pierces all obstacles-so he can't really use it to save time. However, it can bypass magical barriers, but usually even using it tires him a lot.

Also, he can absorb the life energy of other Lunaris (their tail disks) to heal himself and others, but...yeah, that's probably not going to come up.

Samples: See below.
Writing Sample: 

The inkwell bubbled and heaved, and a large blob of ink rose out. Slowly, it began to take on a quadrupedal shape, although it seemed to retain most of its darkness. The last part to form was the hovering disk near its tail, which remained black as ink.

"What just happened?" it growled, slowly rising up. Quickly, Lune realized that he was nowhere near his home. The ink well, for one, was a big clue.

"Oh no..." he growled, quickly spinning his head around. Thankfully, the ring on his tail was still there. The sign of the bond between him and Maia...as long as that hadn't been lost, he knew he would be fine. But...he couldn't feel her. The connection that their rings gave them had been severed.

"Dearest Thunderbird Maia?" he called, quietly. There was no response.

"Thunderbird Maia? Maia? MAIA?" he cried, his voice growing more and more desperate, less controlled and cool. How could they have been separated like this?

---

He stirred slowly. The last thing he remembered had been facing off a human who had apparently set out some sort of trap for him, and then…some creature had descended from the sky, it seemed, beautiful in its rage, like the legendary Thunderbird…had it been a Thunderbird Reve? They were rare, he heard, but he would not put it past a trainer to obtain one for the express purpose of paralyzing creatures so they couldn’t fight back…
        “Oh, so you’re awake,” said a voice. He nearly leapt into the air at the voice, disarmingly human. Gazing back at him was another woman-not the last one, he was sure of that, for her hair was bright green, and much longer, spilling around her shoulders. Blinking, he could swear that he saw vines and leaves tangled within the mess as well.
        “Don’t stare,” she muttered. “I’m supposed to be here to welcome you to our family, but I’ve got to cook breakfast for everyone, and I’m only half done. Maia will show you around instead. If you want breakfast, just ask her to bring you to me-my name is Bleedingheart, but everyone calls me Beat.”
        “Wait!” he growled, pulling himself to all fours and noticing for the first time the blanket he had apparently been laid out on. “Where am I? Have I been captured?”
        “Of course you have,” muttered Beat. “Now leave me alone, please.”
        “Don’t mind her,” said another voice. He turned around. It was the bird from the forest, he was sure of it. But she looked so small now, compared to him. He could practically take her out in one bite. Yet at the same time, he knew that aura of danger, and he was sure that any attempt to bite her would be met by yet another painful shock.
        “Are you the Thunderbird, little one?” he asked, still staring at her.
        “Little one!” she exclaimed in shock. “I am sure that I am much more powerful than you! Had Gray allowed it, I would have beaten you easily! I need no pathetic size advantage to fight my way past anything that might threaten me, or those I care about!” She had lifted herself into the air so as to be on an equal level with him, and her eyes were flashing dangerously once more.
        “Very well then. I accept your strength. But are you the Thunderbird?” he asked once more.
        “A Thunderbird? Surely you can see that I’m a Snowy Owl Reve!” she exclaimed, spreading wide her white wings, all the better to display their black spots. “I would not give up these colors for anything. If anyone were to suggest that I should change myself into some other form, strange and unwieldy, I would make sure that they regretted that decision!”
        Well, he knew she wasn’t a Thunderbird Reve, as in the species, seeing as how the Thunderbirds were black with dark-colored markings. But he hadn’t meant that, not at all. He decided to try another approach.
        “Are you the one that paralyzed me with your electric shock, when I roamed the woods and happened upon your trap?” he asked. “When I laid eyes on you, I was sure that you were a Thunderbird. What other creature could command the lightning so effectively?”
        “Eh?” she said, sounding shocked for once. “Oh, I guess I was, then. Gray took me to be trained in various arts, and I must say that this was especially useful-I kept utterly knocking out wild creatures with my brute force before I learned them.”
        He stared. Brute force? How could such a tiny little thing actually pose a threat in that field? But at the same time, she did not seem to lie.
        “It was so annoying, in that woods,” she continued. “All the creatures there were so weak, so flimsy. It was all I could do not to accidentally slaughter each one of them. I wish I could actually have a fight, actually do something that would require a creature of my strength!” Her voice had risen to almost a roar. “None of those places hold any challenge for me at all!”
        “Please, bird of thunder-“
        “Don’t call me that!” she snapped. “My name is Maia!” Then she paused. “Oh-I was supposed to introduce you to my family-your family too, now that I think of it-and I haven’t even asked your name!” She paused again. “If you have one, of course. I know some of the wanderers we picked up styled themselves nameless.” Her wings moved up and down in what might have constituted a shrug.
        “I do have a name, then, Thunderbird Maia. My name is Lune.”
       “Just Maia will be fine, please. And Lune, eh?” she said. “That’s an odd name…it just sounds odd, I mean. Lune, rune, moon…” Her voice trailed off. “Who gave it to you, then?”
        It was his turn to do a pseudo-shrug. “I do not know, either. All I know is that, from the moment I was formed, there was a voice whispering in my ear, whispering the name ‘Lune, Lune, Lune’ over and over again. So that is why I chose that for my name. I suppose I could have made a better choice, but at that time all I wanted was to silence the voice. I never thought of really needing to tell anyone my name. I figured I would be able to wander the woods forever-I did not expect your little trap.”
        Maia chose to ignore that last remark, and instead focus on his first. “Formed? What do you mean?”
        “Did not the first Lunaris come from the stars, Thunderbird Maia? Does not one descend from the sky on the birthday of each human, according to their star sign, bearing a single gift, and offering their servitude to that human forever? Well, I, too, was formed from starlight, but it was twisted, warped, barely able to reach the forest floor. Me and all my ilk were all born in this manner, I suppose. The warped light forms odd shapes, indeed…”
        “Well, that was…interesting,” admitted Maia. “But I should really introduce you to the rest of the family. Well, I say ‘family,’ but none of us are really related by blood…except for Ascendant and Chayse’s children, I suppose. I think we’ll be able to meet them all. Now follow after me,” she added, setting off at a walking pace. Lune followed slowly after, gazing at the place around him. It seemed to be a fairly normal house-something he had only heard about, never seen firsthand. Everything was so neat, so orderly, so bright…nothing like the chaos and darkness of the woods. And to his shock, he found he liked it. After all, life in the woods was mostly lonely, since his kind avoided contact with others whenever possible. And most of the other creatures that dwelled in those woods still feared him, even those that appeared more frightening than he ever did. But this Thunderbird, this Maia, Thunderbird Maia, she showed no fear of him at all. Rather, she seemed to treat him like a cub.
        And he liked it. He liked having someone who cared about him, someone who didn’t seem to notice all that was freakish about him. And, well, maybe he could finally fit in.
        “Hey you!” Maia called over her shoulder. “Hurry up! Are all of your kind slow like this? I wouldn’t put it past you, seeing as how you’re undead and all. Do you have to walks low just in case you fall apart or something?”
        “No, no, Thunderbird Maia, I was just…just thinking about some things.”
        “Well, you can think about them later! Right now we have a family to meet!”
        “So this is the newcomer, eh…” came a soft voice from above. Lune tilted his head back, to see a tiny squirrellike creature clinging to the ceiling. Her fur was mainly dark black, with a cream-colored underbelly. However, along her tail were several red stripes, and her markings made her appear to be wearing crimson red gloves, as well as a similarly colored, bat-wing shaped red cape. Furthermore, her toes, inner ears, and nose were all a pale purple color, close to lavender. She scrambled down the ceiling until she was on a wall, on level height to Lune’s eyes. Her eyes glowed yellow as well, he noted, and she had fangs.
        “Well, hey. I see Maia’s showing you around. That’s good-she’s got a good, tough head on those shoulders. I believe she needs it, to deal with all the craziness around her. My name’s Charity, by the way. Gray named me.” All this was said in a very quick voice, and as soon as she was done speaking, she scrambled off.
        “Wha-what was that about?” asked Lune, feeling extremely confused.
        “Oh, don’t mind Charity. She feels it’s her duty to take care of all the other Haunted Forest pets that come by. She takes special care of the other Makis as well-they’re all so small, you know. But they’re a tough, if odd, group.”
        He wondered how well he was going to fit into this group that seemed to have already consolidated itself into its own cliques and friendships, its own connections of loyalties and betrayals. Then again, maybe he was thinking too far. They all seemed to be on good terms with each other so far, after all. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad-it made sense for the same species to stick together, didn’t it? Except…this meant he had no one to stick together with. He would be the lonely one, the outcast from everyone else.