Her first name, while an actual name, is also a creation from her parents' first names.
Birth date: February 24
Astrological sign: Pisces sun Aries moon Taurus rising
Age: 17
stars -- the stars are calm, soothing, dependable; Ruadh likes starry skies and moonless nights. It was something she introduced Gwyneth to.
children -- They're so cute and interesting and playful and sweet and ... yeah.
sparkly stuff -- *_* shinies! Oh, wait, that's probably Tara's phrase. But Ruadh likes them too. Generally in the form of gifts of jewelry. Her knights have to display interest somehow!
people who babble about nothing at all -- granted, this is rather cliche, but in Ruadh's case it stems from her ability to listen well ... and it can get damn boring listening to someone babble! She would listen for hours to a child tell stories, but the repetitive gossip of her peers bores her to tears.
being completely ignored -- mind you, this doesn't mean Ruadh always has to be the center of attention; she's no Drama Queen. But she was The Queen of Camelot, and some of that will always be in her bearing. She expects to be noticed, if not fawned over, and takes it very hard if she walks in a room and no-one says hi.
old farts -- the complete opposite of her enjoyment of children, Ruadh finds old people, especially old men, dry, boring, useless, often smelly, and generally distasteful. An older man who has kept himself up well is interesting to her, but anyone who would normally be found in a nursing home would trigger distaste.
photography -- Ruadh likes to remember events and people, and she especially enjoys having pictures to look at and talk about. However, she knows that the best way to have the exact scene she wants is to take it herself. This is the same hobby that she met Gwyneth in.
gardening -- Ruadh doesn't really have a green thumb, but she enjoys seeing things growing under the care of her own hands. She's very fond of flowers, and they make good gifts as well.
astrology -- a sit-still hobby that not only allows her to interact with people and indulge her mystical bent, but also indulges her interest in stargazing.
anything that allows her to sit quietly -- while this is a fairly broad category, it's more intended to cover the fact that she far and away prefers sitting still to activity, and will complain much less about any activity that permits her to stay put, even if it's not something she would typically be overjoyed about.
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Ruadh's most outstanding feature is her eyes -- they are some astonishing colour between amber and violet. Whenever she is feeling petty, vindictive, or angry, they are quite amber, almost yellow; but if she is feeling particularly strongly good they are quite violet; for the most part they waver between. Her lashes are rather short and stubby, but her eyes are huge and wide and give her a rather innocent expression.
Her hair partakes of some of the same intermediacy, wavering between black and auburn, but mostly it's auburn. It's straight to her shoulders, but refuses absolutely to be confined and swirls in a cloud all around her face. In order to keep it out of her eyes, she wears short bangs. Typically, she doesn't even attempt a style.
Ruadh has the typical creamy skin of the redhead, dotted with tiny freckles which look like bits of gold stuck to her skin. Her nose is quite snub and doesn't match the aristocratic rest of her features at all. She smiles a lot and has a lot of laugh lines. She has a mostly round face, which is fortunately softened by her unruly hair.
At 5'1", Ruadh is tiny, heightwise. However, she doesn't have the excessively slender build typical of the anime heroine. She is fairly well-developed in the chest area. Because of this, she likes to wear loose and flowing clothing, wide-legged trousers and bell-sleeved shirts and the like. Her favourite colours are spring-like pastels.
Ruadh is a lady of many contradictions. What is within differs significantly from what is without, and yet it is rare that she seems indecisive ... which is, after all, just another aspect of what is without. Within herself, Ruadh is rarely ruffled. Calm, at peace, she is not easily shaken or surprised. However, her reactions are volatile, and she is quite impulsive and even aggressive. Spirited and with a driving wish to be independent, she desires fame, or at least some level of recognition for herself, but is crippled by a lack of self esteem.
Not that this lack is readily visible. Ruadh, in some ways, puts on a show for the world around her, adapting with the ease of flowing water to the demands of those around her. Her feelings are strong, but she will easily suppress her true reaction in order to conform at some level to what she thinks people want to see. Much of her nature is based on hunches and intuition, and lack of logic is a strong characteristic. All the same, her decisions usually manage to be the right ones, despite their erraticity.
Ruadh absorbs ideas as easily as she breathes, and love of learning is strong with her. Her favourite subjects are those around her, and she is very observant of her environment. It is difficult to surprise her in any way; and she has no chance at all to lie to herself. Though she may give a false reaction to the outer world, inwardly she must admit the truth to herself. So observant is she that she has been known to detect burgeoning love before either of the pair were aware of it, and her familiar circle has forbidden her to play poker any longer; she's too good at reading others.
Empathic almost to a fault, Ruadh can't stand the pain of others, and will go out of her way to ease someone else's pain. She will take anything in the service of protecting people from being hurt. Her cause, if she could be said to have one, is to save people from themselves. She is easily taken in by a hard-luck story. Very much the sucker, Ruadh often leaves herself open to be used. She is always there with a shoulder to cry on for her friends in need, and she has a lot of friends. Her warmth is something people are drawn to.
This level of empathy leads into another of her important qualities: her expression. Ruadh may put on a face to the world, but in her photography the truth is always told. Being creative is extremely important to her, and she takes it very hard when someone criticises her without a good reason that she can see. Although she can appear very shy and unassuming, she cares deeply about her stature and succeeding in her endeavors. She feels vulnerable and anxious when she is unsure of her status and circumstances.
Ruadh takes pains to keep from seeming prideful, but like any other person she possesses her share of it, and then some. She has a fierce desire to be independent and self-reliant. She thinks for herself at every available opportunity, keeping her true opinions to herself. This desire can be so strong, at times, that she overworks herself into a collapse. She is very passionate, and despite her inner calm doesn't do enough to feed that calm, pushing herself beyond her limits often. She lacks a certain element of control, becoming almost flamboyant and at the same time a mysterious person.
The real Ruadhnait is not easy to discern. She can seem aggressive, competitive and determined, but in actual fact, she's not nearly as positive and sure of herself as she appears. Her real feelings and opinions remain hidden even while she is observing those around her to the point of knowing their feelings before they express them. Deep and mystical, driven and passionate, there is nothing simple about Ruadh.
Ruadh is intensely curious about this aspect of herself, and would willingly experiment if she found anyone mutually agreeable. She has a habit, however, of chasing after the unattainable, and just generally being interested in the sorts of people who wouldn't reciprocate. She falls in love with boys and girls equally.
Guinevere's garb consists of a floor-length lavender medieval dress with rose embroidery on the hemlines. Sleeves are long and belled, with the back coming to a point underneath the hand. A rose-coloured scarf goes around her shoulders with the ends tucked into the neckline. She has a cloak in pale yellow which also has rose embroidered hemlines. Guinevere, being the reincarnation of the Queen of Camelot, has a coronet, a simple gold band around her head. Her shoes are delicate little velvet slippers, completely unsuitable for running in.
inspiration : like genteel ladies inspiring medieval knights to battle, Guinevere's very presence can inspire her knights to greater power & skill. Any knight of Arthur's court who catches her gaze for more than 2 or 3 seconds will feel refreshed and less tired. They will regain any skills or powers lost due to exhaustion or wounds, and will be able to ignore the effects of any superficial or flesh wounds for the length of the battle. If she actually picks a knight to focus on and prays for them to be inspired, that one knight will recieve the benefits of this ability whether or not s/he can see Guinevere.
The power for this ability doesn't actually come from within Guinevere. What happens is that her personal power encourages her knights to look within themselves and find reserves of power they couldn't access before. All Guinevere really has to do is stand there and look inspiring (dodging arrows, spells, swordthrusts, and the like), and the knights themselves actually do the rest. However, it's not particularly inspiring if Guinevere's hopping around in pain from a wound of her own, so this only works if she's hale and healthy and can be seen. Whether or not the effects will work multiple times actually depends on the knights' own reserves of energy, since that's what she's invoking.
the Scream : Guinevere has a scream that can be heard by any knight of Arthur's court within a two mile radius. Arthur and Lancelot can hear the scream within a four mile radius. The scream is magical in nature, and she has to actually invoke the reach effect; her just screaming incessantly in Legend form is not going to be The Scream. That means she actually has to be able to concentrate somewhat in order to invoke the effect, and she can't be muffled, since it is carried on an actual scream. Knights of Morgan's court can't hear the magical scream; all they will hear is Guinevere screaming like a ninny, and that's only if they're within normal human hearing range.
Like many other sonic attacks, using this too often can result in losing it entirely. Using it more than twice in two minutes or more than five times in an hour causes Guinevere to grow hoarse or lose her voice entirely until her throat heals. >< This effect of overuse carries over from her Legend form into her numdane form as well.
Weapon: the knights. What other weapon would Guinevere need?
Ruadhnait is an only child, and never even wanted siblings. Her father spoiled her rotten and her mother attempted to mitigate the effects of being spoiled, with the result that Ruadh grew up in a fairly typical home life. She was born in Cardiff city, but when she was about ten Ruaidri bought a sheep farm in the hills near Aberdovey and the family moved there to enjoy the country life.
Back in Cardiff, Ruadh had been the softspoken center of a large group of friends, and she resented a bit being uprooted to move into the middle of nowhere. Hilly, sheep filled nowhere at that. She became a bit withdrawn for the first few months, then, when school started back, became almost explosively emotional, outgoing, and a bit of a troublemaker.
When even her beloved father took her to task for causing trouble, she started avoiding people and roaming the hills, where she met Gwyneth. The two had been inseperable ever since, until Gwyneth went to college. Gwyneth did a lot toward shaping Ruadh into the kind of person she is today, subtly forcing her into a more controlled personality.
Having the example of her cousin Gwenhwyach in front of her helped somewhat too; Ruadh could see in Gwen exactly the kind of withdrawn and distant person she didn't want to become. Oddly, even though her parents expected her to resent Gwen's intrusion into their home, Ruadh welcomed Gwen wholeheartedly and spent almost as much time with her autistic cousin as she did with Gwyneth. She found somewhat of an ease helping her cousin open up to the world.
After Gwyneth graduated and went off to college in Cardiff, though, Ruadh found that she was horribly lonely even with her cousin around. So she talked to her parents and together they decided that the best thing for her to do was go back to Cardiff and get a job. Lucky for Ruadh, this plan actually worked and she is now the youngest and most junior photographer on the Cardiff newspaper staff.
