Nosk [Ready]

[DerpRavener]

Name: Nosk

 

Sex: Male

 

Age: Ancient

 

Species: Jorogumo Yokai

 

Eye colour: Nosk's eyes are orange in both forms. In his natural form, his eyes are solid orange, with a slightly lighter area indicating a pupil, while in pony form the colour merely affects his irises.

 

Appearance: In his natural form, Nosk has charcoal chitin covered with a coat of pale grey hair. The chitin on his forelimbs and the top of his abdomen is more pronounced and the hair thinner, giving those sections a darker colouration. The opposite is true for the upper sections of those limbs as well as his belly and head, making those appear lighter.

 

When he disguises as a pony, he takes on a charcoal coat, and a messy, pale grey mane.

 

Physique: Nosk has a very stocky natural form, which is of a spider the size of a pony, though he is surprisingly light and agile.

 

He is somewhat lanky when appearing as a pony, as though built for agility instead of strength.

 

Residence: Tends to wander. Knows a few good caves around the country to hide out in, though rarely spends long in any of them.

 

Occupation: None, though he will occasionally do stints as a mercenary or an actor, depending the circumstances and his mood.

 

Cutie Mark: None in his natural form. In pony form, it's a set of hoofprints leading away, which he explains as representing an affinity for travel and a nomadic nature if asked.

 

Unique Traits:

With centuries of practice, Nosk is skilled in combat. While he is best at, and generally prefers to fight unarmed and in conjunction with his illusion magic, his time spent posing as various mercenaries, soldiers and bandits he has at least a basic familiarity with most classical forms of weaponry. Newer weapons meanwhile confuse and intrigue him.

 

Though Nosk's actual shapeshifting capacity is fairly minor, being mostly just abilities to alter his size and proportions to a degree, he more than makes up for it with his illusion magic. Not only can he appear as all varieties of ponies, and a few other creatures, his illusions are not limited to himself, being able to alter the appearance of terrain, and create all manner of apparent distractions. He can even disguise others, although those illusions are less effective and dependent on the one they are cast on.

 

Nosk has a modest acting ability, supplementing his illusions. He has some trouble imitating other ponies outright,and needs a lot of time and preparation to do so, but he has a number of archetypes he can fairly easily slip into.

 

History:

It is not known whether the jorogumo had a name before 'Nosk' or if he simply went nameless for many years. If he did have a name before, he either has since forgotten, or is determined to keep it to himself. What is known is that he chose the name 'Nosk' when he was very young. He heard the name from a sailor from a distant land, who had washed ashore after his ship had capsized. The sailor offered stories in exchange a place to sleep and safe passage, and one of those was the tale of a great beast in a dark cavern that would lure travellers in by appearing to them as a lost friend or family member before devouring them whole. Nosk, being much younger, and thus more ambitious and reckless at the time, completely missed the morals of the story and was so enamoured with the idea of the beast that he took its name for his own.

 

When Nosk was young, the whole world seemed like a game. There were rules lots of people followed, without always being sure why they were in place or who put them there. Ponies seemed to be seeking wealth and power, and measuring themselves against their fellows by the same. And everyone seemed to come out alright in the end. Other yokai may have needed to rest for a while, and ponies might look and sound different when they returned, but everyone would start playing again all the same.

 

If it was a game, Nosk wanted to win. He could never quite figure out how one did that, eventually concluding that finding out was a part of the game itself. He tried various things over the decades. Initially he stole from travellers and caravans that passed through his territory, and ambushing the soldiers and adventurers that tried to put a stop to him. After a few years he found that too simple, and as he refined his illusion magic, he disguised himself as a pony and ventured out into the world. He joined mercenary bands, ninja clans, and at one point was even a minor lord, all under different guises. He tried different strategies each time as well, one time being self-serving and seeing how much he could gain personally, while another he focused on how far he could push his underlings, counting only their victories as the true measures of his success. He did not find a true winning condition to the game, but he cared little from the fun he had playing.

 

The pattern did not last forever. The breaking point was after conflict between a town he effectively controlled, and another. Initially the conflict was like any other contest, pitting Nosk's town against the other. In this case another yokai, residing in a cherry blossom grove, lived near the town. This was also not out of the ordinary, there were plenty of other yokai who played the game, some falling into it by accident. The grove was caught between the two conflicting groups, and much of it was destroyed. Nosk didn't notice at first, having moved on along with his cohort.

 

It was on his way back, with the situation finally resolved, that Nosk finally noticed something out of place. The grove looked no better, much to Nosk's surprise. While he would have been surprised to see the grove right back to where it was, those small signs he expected to see of the grove returning were nowhere to be found. And so he waited, out of one part curiosity and one part concern. Perhaps the grove was merely taking some time to come back. Or perhaps the local yokai was distracted with another matter at the moment. Years passed. Nosk remained, waiting for a positive change, and growing more agitated each year it did not happen. Eventually, fed up with simply waiting, he took his own actions. He enticed, coerced and even lured a number of horticulturalists to the area. And yet, it was not enough. The grove faded away.

 

It was a disturbing change for Nosk. Never before had an act in the game felt so permanent, and gave him pause for thought. His efforts to repair the damage did have one positive effect, as it brought the yokai who had lived in the grove back to consciousness. Much to his surprise the yokai, who stated her name as Ochiru, began following beside him, not so much out of a desire for revenge or punishment as seeking companionship in a world she no longer understood. This proved to be both a silver lining to and a painful reminder of what had happened.

 

Nosk cut off all outside contact for a time, save for Ochiru who he did not have the heart to send away, leaving even those he had previously commanded to wonder where he went. A seed of doubt had been planted, and when he eventually returned in yet another new guise, it was with a new purpose.

 

He'd spent a lot of time among the various pony races, and even saw them as having their own importance in a peculiar way, but he'd considered them to be something that would indefinitely return, what ever happened to them. Now he was no longer sure. If another yokai could be hurt in the ways he had caused, what was happening to the ponies he interacted with? This time he had taken the guise of samurai, sent to guard a remote village. The village was of little strategic importance, and life there was fairly slow paced. But then, that was the idea. Free of distractions or ambitions, while still in a position of authority, he was free to observe the townsfolk as they went about their lives. Or at least mostly free of distractions, it took some creativity to explain away the wolf spirit following him around. It was in so doing that he learned something about the nature of ponies, in particular their individual traits and desires and the notion of continuous family lines.

 

With the last discovery, Nosk found himself feeling adrift. He was no longer willing to continue the game, learning what effect it had on those around them. Yet he'd spent his whole life doing so, without that what was left for him? He spent the next few decades wandering aimlessly, Ochiro often at his side. Although their whims would often take them in different directions, they always managed to find each other again.

 

Nosk began to interact more casually, both with ponies and with other yokai. As a way to keep busy, he would investigate each town that was visited and each caravan or passing traveller he encountered. To occupy himself, and to help make up for what he now realized he had done before, he tried to help them as best he could. He found many of his skills applied here too.

 

With enough time, Nosk began to feel more comfortable with himself. He'd stumbled onto a new purpose, of sorts. He returned to playing the game, in a way, but his participation had fundamentally changed. He now knew what could be lost when one was reckless or callous. Still unsure of his own purpose, he now placed value on how he assisted those he interacted with.

 

Personality/Summary:

In the general course of things, Nosk is a very relaxed and amiable individual. No one is sure exactly how long he's lived, not even him, and that time has given him experience of a wide range of life events. He's also found over the years that it is often better to listen then to speak, as it is an easy way to get more information from someone knowing or not, as well as limit any chance of exposing one's own weaknesses. Between these two traits, he makes a good listener, and tends to be very measured in his words. It also means he's very resistant to surprise, or at least skilled at feigning such a state.

 

There are a few things which Nosk takes very seriously, enough to nearly instantly change his demeanour. Ochiru is one, he's grown quite attached to the wolf spirit over the years, and has taken something of a brotherly attitude towards her. Usually this manifests as a relaxed and even playful attitude, but if something were to harm or threaten harm to Ochiru the change of attitude would be immediate. He also finds those who seek to gain through harm to others, in other words ones who are 'playing the game wrong', to be deeply irritating.

 

Nosk is not afraid to resort to violence, and has the experience to be very proficient at it, however that is not his preferred method. Despite all he's learned, he still feels a distance between himself and most others, and it is in his nature to act deceitful. He also believes that lessons taught through such subterfuge are more likely to be remembered, even if he doesn't really have proof of this.

 

Finally, as a long yokai, even if he does have a close relationship with Ochiru there are many things he still does not understand, particularly involving interactions with others. He's observed long enough to have a general understanding, but details or nuance are often unfamiliar to him.

 

 

Other Notes: I know I've changed the app format a little bit, but 'coat' and 'mane and tail' didn't quite seem to apply in this case.

Also, it may be obvious, but this one ties into Zeig's recent yokai.

[Bellosh]