Username:
- .kaede
- 林爱辰 [ líng ài chén ]
林 means “from the woods”, 爱 means “love”, 晨 means daybreak / dawn
Is usually called and referred to as Ai.
- Cisfemale
- “From the woods a single kit is born, with feathers for a tail that radiates peace and a voice that sings of happiness.
‘Who says that the feathers spread peace, and the song brings joy?’ a traveller calls out.
‘Alas, perhaps the Immortal Guardian isn't all that she appears to be.’”
Ai is a peaceful Kalon who spreads good fortune and happiness with flicks of her mystical tail. She had been raised to guard the walls of her hometown, and other Kalons would start to slowly trust her, despite her alien features. She had always been self-conscious of her looks, and instead keeps to the trees to avoid suspicious villagers combing through the village and the forest in pursuing her peacock-like tail. As the immortal guardian of the village and forest, Ai dedicates much of her energy to ensuring the well-being of both if the places. To put it simply, she is well liked in her community and strives to look for more ways to better it.
However, very few Kalons are aware of who Ai is on the inside. She has a second personality, or an alter ego. When faced with a triggering event similar to ones that she has experienced in the past, the outer Ai will fall into pieces, letting the inner Ai take her place. Inner Ai is more sinister and enjoys dark humour, often sneaking up on unexpecting travellers and surprising them and taking their belongings later, justifying her actions through the fact that they had intruded on her territory. Kalons who are wary of outer Ai had most likely encountered inner Ai at some point of their lives, as outer Ai can be literally described as ‘an innocent cinnamon roll who can do no wrong’. On the contrary, those who are aware of inner Ai's existence described her as ‘the spawn of the devil’.
Inner Ai is also much bolder and less reserved than outer Ai is. Wherever outer Ai lacks, inner Ai makes up for it, even though most of those traits are fairly negative ones. When the two manage to converse without burning down a tower during their arguments, inner Ai would always comment sneakily on outer Ai's shyness and quietness. Nevertheless, the two do have various similarities, as both of them are huge gluttons and are always notoriously paranoid of other Kalons (although inner Ai does a better job at hiding it).
However, despite their differences and similarities, one fact still rings true. Both of them are technically 'Ai', and their songs represents the state of their souls and their wishes for the land. Both enjoy singing, and while outer Ai sings more loving, cheerful songs that shows the enthusiasm to how the world is progressing, inner Ai has a habit of singing darker and slightly more depressing songs about failed love, crushed dreams, and broken minds. This shows just how demented inner Ai truly is, and how it is always an neverending battle between the two personalities to gain control over the physical body.
“Oh, what a wreck the beautiful mistress really is! Who would've even considered the thought of her having a second personality?
One sings of hope, the other of despair;
But they don't seem to realize that the world wouldn't be quite the same without one or the other!”
Not surprisingly, the two personalities also harbour different tastes in their likes and dislikes, even among their similarities. Outer Ai is a sentimental and passionate lover who wouldn't hesitate to wait a thousand years for their beloved to return. On the other hand, inner Ai is a flirt, but for her to fully embrace her feelings and to find someone to settle down with is difficult. Outer Ai only ever had one lover, but after witnessing a triggering scene that she wasn't supposed to see, she slipped away and inner Ai took her place, effectively scaring off the poor lover as well. Angered that the other Kalon had ran away, inner Ai grasped her magical affinity with nature and commanded the roots to wrap themselves around the throat of the other Kalon to strangle him to death. When outer Ai finally came to, she realized what her alter ego had done and mourned for her lover, although she could never bring herself to completely hate inner Ai, despite all her ulterior motives and wickedness.
“At dawn, you can just barely see the light of the morning sun glinting off her feathers as though they were precious jewels.
The Immortal Guardian fights a battle that none of us are aware of, and she will let no one assist her.
Pray tell; why does she slip from personality to personality so effortlessly? It can't possibly be because of the visions she sees.”
At the beginning of time, Ai had found herself to be in imprisonment when were was still a mere kit. During her tines of imprisonment, she saw other Kalons being sentenced to death and being resurrected as mindless puppets afterwards. For that reason Ai cannot stand the sight of puppets and marionettes, especially those who control the toys with a skillful hand, paws entwining with the string. One would think that she would've forgotten such trivial memories after what seems to be a millennia, but that is not the case. If anything, the memories stay strong. After all, everyone knows that the memories that hurt the most are the ones you keep closest to your heart.
Inner Ai was created from those memories; while outer Ai has experienced the pain of being a puppet, inner Ai would be the puppeteer, doing everything that outer Ai would deem to be unthinkable.
“Are we to be the little marionettes that are controlled by the string around the puppeteer's paws?
Who is the puppeteer? Surely not our Immortal Guardian, not our beloved Ai.
No, none of this is her fault. Our ancestors have forced her to suffer, and now, it appears that it is simply our turn to plead for mercy.”
[ 1000 words ]
- Blue
