Character Base

• Character Name: Deva Murphy (previously Deva Byrne)
• Age: 23
• Canon (Date/Year Released)/Canon Point: Original Character / Start of her vengeance quest
• Items Coming Along: Her seal skin, a small mother-of-pearl handled knife, a set of clothes, her fiddle, her wedding ring
• Content Warnings for Character: Attempted murder, near death, abusive relationship

Character Background

• History:
Deva Murphy grew up a hopeless romantic, full of dreams of falling in love, being swept off her feet and into a life of romance and excitement. She was the youngest of two sisters in a close family that included uncles and cousins and grandparents. When she was seventeen, she left her pod to try her luck in the human world. Being a selkie, she chose a coastal fishing town, finding work in a small inn tending tables and providing entertainment in the evenings singing and dancing. She hid her identity as a selkie, living as a human among humans. It was new and exciting, and Deva was young and so naive.

That naivete would have a cost.

It wasn't long after her arrival that Deva met William Byrne. William was charming and magnetic and handsome -- and oh Deva has always been a sucker for a pretty face, male or female -- and Deva fell hard. He told her he was a fisherman, from the North, that his grandfather and great grandfather and great great grandfather had fished those cold waters, but the fish had left and he'd journeyed to this village to carry on his family's tradition. William told stories of the sea and of danger and adventure, and Deva hung on every word.

He proposed only weeks after meeting her. Not wanting to accept his proposal with lies lingering under the surface between them, Deva confessed her true nature as a selkie, but William told her he'd already guessed. Relieved that the warnings she'd been given about humans fearing or hating her kind were at least not true in this case, Deva accepted his proposal, and they were married not long after.

The first year of marriage was a dream come true. They moved into a small cottage on a rocky rise overlooking the ocean. Deva learned to cook and keep a house and William left mornings before the sun had risen, sometimes gone for days or weeks, but always returning with tales of successful hauls. Deva gave birth to their first child less than a year after their wedding (a daughter, Cora) and their second (a son, John) less than one year after that. Both her children were born selkies, with their pelts wrapped around them.

For a few years, the little family lived a happy, seemingly idyllic life. Their children grew, and Deva was happy. But there were small cracks in this perfect picture already. William seemed to want her isolated. He discouraged her from going into the town proper or visiting the friends she'd made around the tavern. He was also insistent that she not take their children to the waves, for fear of anyone else discovering what she and her children were. She wanted to bring her children to her pod, to introduce them to her family, to their family. William convinced her to wait until they were older, which she rationalized was fair. They were young enough that their second forms were not yet second nature, and the waves could be dangerous.

When Cora was three, everything changed. Deva went to sleep one otherwise normal night and awoke to hands at her throat. She couldn't make a sound, and her eyes barely had time to adjust to see that her assailant was her husband. The last thing she remembers is a searing stabbing pain of a blade plunging into her chest before a deep darkness took her.

The next time Deva woke, she was tangled in a mass of kelp, bruised and broken from being torn from her bed, strangled, stabbed and thrown from the cliff by her home into the waiting sea. But the ocean, cruel as it is, merciless as it is, knows its own. William made the mistake of throwing her sealskin after her. Something deep and dark and magical found her then, half alive and half dead. The current carried her for days, cradled and rocked in the waves. Eventually she washed ashore. The woman who came out of the water wasn't the woman who went in. There forces in the deeps that sang to her fey blood, the betrayal and pain and anger there. It changed her, left the marks of its power in her.

By the time she emerged and made it back to her home, the cottage was deserted. William and the children had disappeared. She made her way down to the town, showing up bedraggled and half-dazed. Rose and Darby Leary, the owners of the tavern she'd previously worked at, who had given her a room and a job when she'd first come and become in many ways her surrogate family, took her in and helped her recover enough to be more than a walking ghost of herself.

It took days more to discover the truth, of what her husband really was. That she had been part of his plan. The family Byrne were not fishermen, but hunters, sealers. William had recognized Deva for what she was from the start and planned from there. Now he had two young selkies who barely knew what they were, but would be able to lead him to not only seals, but to the hidden selkie pods as well.

That was when Deva knew the ocean hadn't saved her on a whim, for no reason. It had saved her to find her children. It had saved her for revenge.

Deva plans to make the most of it.

Currently she is traveling along the coast searching for any sign of rumor of William and her children's whereabouts. And when she finds him, she fully intends to drag him to a watery grave. Selkies don't actually drown people, as a rule -- that's bad press. But she's ready to make an exception.

• Core Relationships:
William Byrne (Husband) - Once, Deva was head over heels in love with William. He was controlling and did his best to isolate her, and even then Deva couldn't see past her affection for him and their children. Of course, once he tried to murder her and stole their children away, that has changed. She no longer considers him her husband and has taken back her maiden family name. Now William is an obsession. She will find him, take her children back, and see him fully paid back for the violence he visited on her.

Cora and John (Children) - Deva's daughter and son are her world. They are also the driving force in everything she does. Despite what happened with William, her children are her heart and always will be. Missing them is a torment, and she's always thinking about them. All she wants is to find them and be sure they're safe and happy and loved. They're the best of her, and she wants to protect them from the cruelties of the world that she's had to learn.

The Murphy Clan - Deva loves her family, but at the moment she doesn't feel worthy to go back to them. She feels foolish and ashamed of falling for William's lies. Once she has her children back, she fully intends to go home. But until that time, she can't bring herself to go back or ask for help. Growing up, she was exceptionally close to her parents and her older sister, Clara. It's been years since she's seen them, though she often wrote letters until her murder. Deva believes that she's failed her family and possibly endangered them.

Rose and Darby Leary - The kind couple that own the tavern where Deva first worked when she arrived in town. They saw a young, naive girl and gave her a safe place to stay and a job. In many ways, the older couple became something of a surrogate family to her. Even when she came back changed from the Ocean, they once again took her into care for her until she was back on her feet. This was when they found out that she wasn't quite human, but they assured her that what she was didn't matter so much as who she was. They are one of the reasons that Deva still has some hope and faith in humans and the world in general.

The Ocean - The Ocean isn't exactly a person, but it is an entity in its own right. Selkies know that the ocean is ancient and filled with secrets and power that few can guess at. Deva doesn't know why or how, but she knows that the Ocean saved her, and she knows that it changed her. Sometimes that frightens her, but she doesn't have time to think of that. Instead she's grateful for the chance to put right what wrongs she's allowed to happen. Sometimes she worries about the price of this change really is, but there's no help for it now.

Character Personality Through Key Moments

(2+) Positive Experiences:

Deva is adventurous. Even as a young girl, Deva was always curious about the world beyond the safe, secluded cove where she lived with her family. Selkies keep to themselves, generally, living between the sea and the shore, in both their forms. But still, some members of her family had traveled and explored the world, and Deva always hung on every word of every story told. Tales of cities and humans and adventure caught her imagination, and she was was determined to see the wider world. She loved her family, but there was so much world out there to see. When she met William, it was his stories of sailing and traveling that initially caught her attention.

Deva is loyal. Once Deva has decided she cares about someone, she is fiercely loyal. Anything that one of her loved ones needs, she's quick to do whatever she can to assist. Her family means the world to her -- her children and her pod both. She fully intends to return to her family once she reunites with her children. The Learys who were the first to give her space and a chance at a job are people who still have her trust and loyalty. Deva's loyalty was part of what allowed for William's plan of isolating her to work; she trusted him. He was her husband, and she had no doubts in him. However, Deva's loyalty can be lost. Once that loyalty has been betrayed, that's the end of it.

Deva is friendly. Despite everything that has happened to Deva, she still comes across as friendly and outgoing. Though some of it is a defense mechanism, a desperate attempt to cling to the person she remembers being, there are still authentic pieces of the young woman who had so much hope and expectation in the world. She's easy to speak to and quick to smile, which serves her well in her current travels. People are more willing to divulge information in easy conversation, after all.

Deva loves very strongly. Deva doesn't know if the Ocean spared her for her love of her children or for the newly minted fury in her, but she'd like to believe it's the former. Her love and affection for her son and daughter drive her and keep her from crumbling. Though she's almost ashamed to go back to her pod at this point in time for the mistakes she's made, that is her ultimate goal to reunite with them. The people who have shown her genuine kindness, like the Leary family, are also targets of her affection. They've taken her in twice now when she's had nowhere else to go. She also maintains a softness for children and animals, her maternal nature something she can't possibly hide.


(2+) Negative Experiences:

Deva used to be trusting and naive. When she first left her pod, Deva was a wide-eyed innocent, so in love with the idea of the world that she didn't guard herself against people looking to take advantage of her. She'd grown up very sheltered and loved, and believed that people -- selkie, fey, human -- were generally kind. This unfortunately would lead to a very violent, rude awakening when that trust was so fully betrayed by William. Nowadays, Deva is guarded and suspicious. Though she's still social and outgoing, it's much harder for her to let anyone close and actually trust anymore. And once someone has wronged her, she doesn't forget it.

Deva has a lot of rage. Anger this deep is something new for Deva. She grew up surrounded by love and support, and though certainly she had the usual adolescent fights and family arguments, but she's never felt the fury so deep in her that it drives everything she does. But now, after William tried to kill her and took their children, she's angry in a way that scares her sometimes. In a way, the rage is its own entity, almost overwhelming and sometimes Deva is afraid she'll lose herself to it. At the same time, she believes that the Ocean saved her for a reason.

Deva is vengeful. The other thing that drives Deva is that want for revenge. Yes, her main motivation is recovering her children, but she also wants to see William punished for what he did to her, to their children and what he wanted to do to her people. If she finds William, Deva fully plans on killing him. She doesn't always recognize the viciousness in her, but there's no denying that it is there. If someone wrongs her these days, she can and will fight back and retaliate without hesitation.

Deva is broken. When William betrayed her and tried to kill her, something in Deva shattered -- more than just physically. Everything that she believed about the world has been shaken, and sometimes she struggles to remember the happy young woman she used to be. There's a lot of healing that she needs to do, but she hasn't allowed herself to begin that. She's been so driven on finding her children and tracking down William, that she's always been the move since she she was spared and changed by the Ocean. She hasn't taken the time to mourn or recover or work through her emotions. Eventually this will catch up with her, and deep down even she realizes that.

Deer Country Attributes

• Canon Powers:
As selkie Deva can turn into a seal so long as her sealskin is with her.

Since she emerged from the Ocean after William tried to murder her, Deva comes back changed. Something dark and old in the sea has woken something even darker and older in her blood. She's still learning to control it, but an almost siren-like quality has risen in her, where through music she can charm those around her. Well, charm or torment, depending on her intention. It's a new skill and one she's still coming to understand, but overall by singing she can enthrall someone and bend them to her will. She can also cause hallucinations, like waking nightmares. Generally, she can only do this to one person at a time -- maybe two if it were a simple command and a short burst. (note: I'll be creating a permissions post for any use of this power on player characters.)

• Blood Type: Pale Blood
• Omen: Sea otter, small furry and cute.
• Blessed Day: July 2nd, her birthday.
• Patron Pthumerian: The Reckoning
• Blood Power Manifestation: Generally, the Pale Blood powers will augment her canon siren-like abilities, especially the ability to affect people with hallucinations and to push and pull at their emotions and emotions with her blood as well as her voice.

Writing Samples

One: TDM Top Level
Two: TDM Thread

The Player

• Player Name: Daisy
• Player Age: So, so old. (18++)
• Player Contact: seasided or PM this journal.
• Permissions: Here.

Other Characters

Kaeya Alberich (Genshin Impact)

Link to Character 1 overall AC: Here!

Name: Deva Murphy (formerly Deva Byrne)
Age: 23
Species: Selkie

Appearance:
Deva, at first glance, looks entirely human. In fact, in her human form the only tell is the slight webbing between her fingers and toes, which gets more noticeable when she's in salt water. Deva is petite, just barely 5'2" though she refuses to let herself be lost in the crowd. Her dark hair is usually loose, falling just past her shoulders in waves that always look windblown. Deva's eyes are an oddly dark color green, sometimes only giving up a hint of color when the light hits them right and other times simply appearing dark and colorless.

Even in her human form, her sealskin is never far, the furred pelt worn at her hips or draped over her shoulders. When she isn't wearing it, it's likely within reach or else cached somewhere safe and secure.

In her other form, Deva is a speckled gray harbor seal.


History:
Deva Murphy grew up a hopeless romantic, full of dreams of falling in love, being swept off her feet and into a life of romance and excitement. She was the youngest of two sisters in a close family that included uncles and cousins and grandparents. When she was seventeen, she left her pod to try her luck in the human world. Being a selkie, she chose a coastal fishing town, finding work in a small inn tending tables and providing entertainment in the evenings singing and dancing. She hid her identity as a selkie, living as a human among humans. It was new and exciting, and Deva was young and so naive.

That naivete would have a cost.

It wasn't long after her arrival that Deva met William Byrne. William was charming and magnetic and handsome -- and oh Deva has always been a sucker for a pretty face, male or female -- and Deva fell hard. He told her he was a fisherman, from the North, that his grandfather and great grandfather and great great grandfather had fished those cold waters, but the fish had left and he'd journeyed to this village to carry on his family's tradition. William told stories of the sea and of danger and adventure, and Deva hung on every word.

He proposed only weeks after meeting her. Not wanting to accept his proposal with lies lingering under the surface between them, Deva confessed her true nature as a selkie, but William told her he'd already guessed. Relieved that the warnings she'd been given about humans fearing or hating her kind were at least not true in this case, Deva accepted his proposal, and they were married not long after.

The first year of marriage was a dream come true. They moved into a small cottage on a rocky rise overlooking the ocean. Deva learned to cook and keep a house and William left mornings before the sun had risen, sometimes gone for days or weeks, but always returning with tales of successful hauls. Deva gave birth to their first child less than a year after their wedding (a daughter, Cora) and their second (a son, John) less than one year after that. Both her children were born selkies, with their pelts wrapped around them.

For a few years, the little family lived a happy, seemingly idyllic life. Their children grew, and Deva was happy. But there were small cracks in this perfect picture already. William seemed to want her isolated. He discouraged her from going into the town proper or visiting the friends she'd made around the tavern. He was also insistent that she not take their children to the waves, for fear of anyone else discovering what she and her children were. She wanted to bring her children to her pod, to introduce them to her family, to their family. William convinced her to wait until they were older, which she rationalized was fair. They were young enough that their second forms were not yet second nature, and the waves could be dangerous.

When Cora was three, everything changed. Deva went to sleep one otherwise normal night and awoke to hands at her throat. She couldn't make a sound, and her eyes barely had time to adjust to see that her assailant was her husband. The last thing she remembers is a searing stabbing pain of a blade plunging into her chest before a deep darkness took her.

The next time Deva woke, she was tangled in a mass of kelp, bruised and broken from being torn from her bed, strangled, stabbed and thrown from the cliff by her home into the waiting sea. But the ocean, cruel as it is, merciless as it is, knows its own. William made the mistake of throwing her sealskin after her. Something deep and dark and magical found her then, half alive and half dead. The current carried her for days, cradled and rocked in the waves. Eventually she washed ashore. The woman who came out of the water wasn't the woman who went in. There forces in the deeps that sang to her fey blood, the betrayal and pain and anger there. It changed her, left the marks of its power in her.

By the time she emerged and made it back to her home, the cottage was deserted. William and the children had disappeared. She made her way down to the town, showing up bedraggled and half-dazed. Rose and Darby Leary, the owners of the tavern she'd previously worked at, who had given her a room and a job when she'd first come and become in many ways her surrogate family, took her in and helped her recover enough to be more than a walking ghost of herself.

It took days more to discover the truth, of what her husband really was. That she had been part of his plan. The family Byrne were not fishermen, but hunters, sealers. William had recognized Deva for what she was from the start and planned from there. Now he had two young selkies who barely knew what they were, but would be able to lead him to not only seals, but to the hidden selkie pods as well.

That was when Deva knew the ocean hadn't saved her on a whim, for no reason. It had saved her to find her children. It had saved her for revenge.

Deva plans to make the most of it.

Currently she is traveling along the coast searching for any sign of rumor of William and her children's whereabouts. And when she finds him, she fully intends to drag him to a watery grave. Selkies don't actually drown people, as a rule -- that's bad press. But she's ready to make an exception.


Personality:

Deva puts up a good front. She is not the naive girl she was when she first left her pod and came ashore to the human world. She has been hurt and wronged and no longer trusts most anyone.

Deva comes across as cheerful and friendly. She's outgoing and eager for conversation, quick to joke and quick to laugh. Anyone meeting her superficially would see someone easy to approach and warm to get to know. It's all very much on the surface, clinging to the person she remembers being as a defense mechanism to try to get by and move on despite the pain and anger in her.

With everything that has happened, Deva's only goal is to track down her children and her husband, to rescue the former and murder the latter. After all, that seems only right. It makes her a woman absolutely driven, and intensely frustrated that every lead she tracks down up and down the coast seems to bring her just short of finding her missing family.

Though she's been betrayed and nearly murdered, with the exception of William, she doesn't harbor any particular grudges to anyone. However, she won't be taken in and tricked again. Actually earning Deva's trust is not an easy task. That said, she's surprisingly softhearted for those who are suffering, and in particular is easily swayed by children and their plight.

Once crossed, however, Deva can be vicious. She no longer hesitates to strike down obstacles in her way or anyone who means her or those she cares about harm. The young woman has sharp edges these days.

Deeper down is the pain though, and that is in many ways what drives her. Deva misses her children and wants nothing more than to rescue them back and return to her pod, safe and sound. She still has just enough hope that she can pull it off. The children are still young, and they'll have to learn to be what they were meant to be before William can use them the way he wants. Until then, they'll at least be safe.

And until then Deva must get stronger.



Abilities:

As selkie Deva can turn into a seal so long as her sealskin is with her.

Deva sings and dances very well, particularly graceful for a selkie on land, given that they tend to be more comfortable in water. During her time in the fishing village and with William, she also took to learning the fiddle. It's a point of pride that she's managed it, since the webbing between her fingers does present an extra challenge.

Once she's emerged from the ocean after William tried to murder her, Deva comes back changed. Something dark and old in the sea has woken something even darker and older in her blood. She's still learning to control it, but an almost siren-like quality has risen in her, where through music she can charm those around her. Well, charm or torment, depending on her intention. It's a new skill and one she's still coming to understand.


Notes: Character generally played from a vaguely D&D-esque meets real world places setting, bard class. (For memes or PSLs, she also has a modern-day urban fantasy style version)