Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2016 16:26:35 GMT -6
||| Katydid |||
#Name; Katydid
#Age Group ; Nymph (changeling equivelant to Filly)
#Orientation; Whoever is willing to give her love!
#Gender ; Female
#Species; Changeling
#Cutie Mark ; N/A
#Occupation ; Changeling things
#Powers and Abilities ; She has most of the regular powers a changeling has, though her powers are weaker due to being a nymph. She can disguise; but only as other creatures around her size (mainly fillies). She can fly; but not very high, or for very long.
Her one abnormal power is that her whistle has a slight hypnotism effect. It is fairly miniscule and hardly noticable, but when she whistles she tends to draw attention to herself. She has little control over this effect currently, as she was never taught how to do so. The reason she has this effect is due to her biologically being a gatherer, though she has not grown into the role nor is she aware that she is that kind of Changeling.
#Physique ; Surprisingly resilient for a nymph, but still fairly small and fragile.
#Mane and fur color and style ; Black and black.
#Eye color ; Light Blue
#Other appearance details (optional) ; Her most common disguise is of a filly version of Sweet Serenade.
#Personality ;
In general, Katydid is a normally good natured nymph with an occasional mischevious streak. Though she is a Changeling, she was never around her own kind when she was younger so all that she knows about them is second hand knowledge from ponies, and little of said knowledge paints them in a good light. As a result, Katy is very hesitant to reveal her true form unless she is confident that it is safe to do so. Being only a child, Katydid does not understand the full implications of her powers and the effect they have on ponies. She figures it's what a changeling does, so why bother not doing it?
Katydid manages to stay surprisingly upbeat in spite of everything that's happened to her. She's usually energetic and positive, though sometimes lacking in self-control. Due to her living on her own she's also fairly independent and considers herself more mature than most children her age. She has a smart mouth to back that up, and she tends to talk like she knows more than she actually does. Though normally she acts confident, in the face of danger she's much more likely to run away or curl up in a ball than face that danger head on. One could describe her as being more bark than bite.
Something one would probably not know immediately about Katydid is that she's a hopeless romantic. Despite her young age, love is a topic often on her mind and she often sees it even in place where no love exists. Considering its what she feeds on it could simply be gluttonous thoughts on her part, but she has a habit of pairing ponies who she believes have chemistry with each other. In terms ponies loving her, she is good at feigning affection for the sake of feeding, but if she actually falls in love she has a habit of making a game out of it, perhaps to test the other pony's conviction. Since she is a child she also doesn't fully understand love beyond the "true love" type of romance one could see in nearly any romance novel or radio drama.
One thing to note about Katydid is that she has a thick southern Equestrian accent due to growing up in Dodge City, but she tends to hide it. Even when in her true form she'll use her magic to alter her voice to make it sound more 'normal'. When she traveled to other places most colts and fillies made fun of her accent, so she is incredibly embarrassed by it and avoids letting ponies know about it even more than she avoids letting ponies know she is a changeling.
Last but not least, Katydid LOVES bugs. By bugs, I mean most arthropods; insects, spiders, scorpions, millipedes, etc. She is absolutely fascinated with them, largely in part to her own insect physiology, and she loves collecting and researching them. She's prone to talk the ears off of anypony willing to listen to her whenever bugs become a topic of dicussion. In a way she can also relate to them as most ponies detest bugs similar to how they detest changelings. Her connection to bugs is rather close, possibly even borderline supernatural.
#History ;
Katydid's story starts several years ago when she was born into a relatively modest sized changeling hive located somewhere in between the Everfree Forest and Rambling Rock Ridge. The hive had been suffering from famines so the queen of the hive forced the hive's gatherers to step up their efforts of collecting love. This however had the unfortunate side effect of attracting the attention of a much larger hive. Experiencing a shortage of food as well and wanting to get rid of their competition, the larger hive attacked Katydid's. Most of the hive was killed and their queen went missing, but one nymph survived. Whether it was a stroke of luck or an act of mercy on part of an older changeling is unknown, but the day after the raid a hollow log washed up on the side of the river north of Dodge City with one small nymph inside.
It could be considered fortuitous on Katydid's part that of all the ponies who stumbled upon the log, it was a young farm pony by the name of Sweet Serenade. A young unicorn in a family consisting mostly of earth ponies, the young filly was awestruck when she found the tiny nymph, still practically an infant, within the hollow log. She had heard of Changelings before, and her father had warned many times about how dangerous they were, but this changeling was only just a baby. She took the nymph with her and hid her in a tree house on her family's property; her siblings, all older than her were too busy working on the farm to ever play in the tree house, and her parents tended to let Serenade play on her own since her unicorn blood unfortunately did not make her very helpful on the farm.
The young nymph fed on Sweet Serenade's love instinctively, feeding only in tiny amounts due to her small size. Serenade visited the nymph often, and as time passed by and the nymph began to grow, she would teach the nymph the things she learned in school. Eventually the nymph became old enough to play outside with Serenade, but the two of them were always careful to avoid detection from the unicorn's family. Sweet Serenade had a hobby of collecting bugs; a hobby which caused many of the fillies her age to avoid playing with her, but she was able to pass her interest of bugs onto the nymph. The nymph took so much of an interest in her friend's hobby that the previously unnamed nymph gave herself the name Katydid, after an insect that disguised itself to avoid detection like changelings. At one point Sweet Serenade took a picture of the two of them together and bought two fake gold lockets with her allowance money; one for Katydid, and one for herself. She couldn't wear it very often; lest her family find out, but the gesture further solidified their relationship, and at this point the two of them considered themselves to practically be sisters.
One day, when Katydid was about as old as Sweet Serenade was when she first met the nymph, Serenade came to the treehouse with tears in her eyes. Her father had sold the farm, and the family was moving somewhere else to help out on a relative's farm. Katydid reassured her that she would be able to come and that they'd "figure something out". A few days later at the family loaded up a wagon Katydid hid among their luggage, but just before they were about to leave was discovered by Serenade's father. Serenade tried to explain as best she could, but her father would not listen to any of it and forced Katydid to run away, calling her a pest and threatening to kill her if he ever saw her again. With that, the wagon left, while a crying Katydid stayed huddled up inside the old tree house.
She had never asked Serenade where she was moving to. And even if she did, Katydid wouldn't have known where it was. She hid for several days, but ultimately her hunger drove her to leave her shelter. She was old enough to use her disguises now (she had learned along with Serenade as she tried practicing her own magic), and at least somewhat knew how to live on her own thanks to ventures she would take away from the tree house during the night. With or without her only friend, a filly she considered close enough to be her sister, she would survive.
And survive she did. A few years have passed and through thick and thin Katydid managed to get by, usually by playing the 'lost filly' card to earn affection from kind hearted but naive strangers. She tends to not stay in one place in order to avoid suspicion or getting taken in by a family only for them to kick her out for being a changeling.
The Roleplayer's Corner
#Nickname ; Billy Mays
#Age ; INFINITE
#Gender/Preferred Pronouns ; Mentlegen
#How did you find us? ; Planetary wobble
#Sample RP ;
"Here, catch!" Katydid threw the red frisbee with all her tiny child might, sending the disc a modest distance in the direction of a pegasus colt. The young nymph was wandering the streets of Baltimare prowling for her next meal when she came upon a group of fillies and colts playing in a nearby park. She wasn't actually sure how much of a prospect these foals had of feeding her, but she was bored and they looked like they were having so much fun, so she joined them! She was "wearing" her favorite disguise at the moment, that of an old friend of hers. Though the group of kids didn't recognize her they were eager to allow the filly to join them while they played frisbee.
It was times like this that Katydid wished she could play like this more often. Being a stranger often meant that closer groups of friends tended to avoid playing with Katydid, not to mention she couldn't help looking somewhat dirty and messy considering she fended for herself. All that on top of needing to feed herself meant she didn't get to play as much as she wished she could. With all the fun she was having now though it was easy for the nymph to forget about most of her worries for the moment. If only she was here, then Katydid could enjoy this moment even-
*THUNK!*
It was at that moment that Katydid got knocked in the side of the head by the frisbee being thrown back at her. She was so caught up in wishing she could play more often, that she had forgotten to play right here and now! Katydid quickly recovered and picked up the frisbee, but when she looked at the other kids they were all staring at her wide eyed.
"Whuh?" Katydid asked, mouth full of frisbee.
"IT'S A CHANGELING!"
"IT'S GONNA EAT US!"
Then all of them turned tail and fled, screaming all the way. The blow had apparently caused Katydid to lose her disguise, revealing her true form to the kids. The nymph dropped the frisbee then immediately ran to the nearest bush and jumped inside it, hiding in case somepony heard the screaming and decided to investigate.
Katydid sighed and put her disguise back on. Looks like she wasn't eating tonight...