Image © Lakota

Name:	Tysabri (tss-sah-bree)
Species:	"Yokai"-esque demon cat (Not literally a "demon-from-Hell" type of demon, but rather a species of feline crossbred with unknown creatures many eons ago - called "demon cats" because of their appearance: horns/spikes/fins etc.)
Age:	102 (equivalent to a young adult)
Gender:	Female
Sex:	Female
Bond:	Rytasa Li'Multigenus
Sponsorlings/Wards:	None
Birthplace:	Rap'teru, Demon Cat homeworld - exact star-chart location undisclosed
Current Residence:	Sitheil Tirean, Splintyr Gate-Travel Sector
Appearance/Color/Markings:	White fur on body, with a reddish-brown mask, brown hands/feet with white fingers/toes, a brown tail, and a light cream/tan "cape" marking on her back. Bright blue eyes with slitted catlike pupils. Overall lean build; almost too lean.
Physical Description:	Tysabri is a large anthropomorphic felinoid, standing six feet tall at the crown of her head (not counting her shoulder-spikes.) Her fur is marked similar to that of an Earth "bicolor" or "mitted" Ragdoll cat - basically a white body with a brownish mask, brown hands/feet with white fingers/toes, a brown tail, and a light cream/tan "cape" marking over her back. Her eyes are a deep cerulean blue. She has a long, flowing mane that hangs down to the base of her tail and is a grayish-tan in color. Each demon cat has unique physical attributes/features that give the species their unusual, so-called "demonic" appearance. Tysabri has a pair of two-pronged golden horns on her head and two large, crescent-shaped silver-gray shoulder spikes. Tysabri occasionally wears simple tiaras or "forehead jewelry": basically a chain that runs around her head, resting on her forehead, with gems or charms hanging from the chain.
Height:	6' tall (at top of head)
Personality:	Tysabri is almost painfully serious most of the time, which is actually just a façade to cover up her extreme loneliness. At a young age, she was apprenticed to a master tactician who worked closely with the demon cats' Royal Army. This meant that Tysabri spent most of her childhood in a large, cold castle, far away from any other creatures her own age. She got an excellent, well-rounded education and is well-schooled in military and non-military tactics, but she has few friends, and very little skill in the art of making new friends. Whenever she does engage in conversation, she... well, tactfully weighs each and every thing she says, trying to gauge how her responses will affect any possible future encounters with whomever she is speaking with. As a result, she's viewed as a bit of an oddball, and other demon cats her age avoid her. She is now serving her journeyman training as a tactician on Sitheil Tirean in the Splintyr sector, as a sort of "exchange program" for the sentient races that reside on the worlds and planets that are connected via Gates to Sitheil Tirean. Lately, she's been seriously considering leaving her post as apprentice tactician to find someplace - any place - where she will fit in. Or at least somewhere where she can learn to fit in. Ever since she bonded to Rytasa, however, Tys has been feeling more confident in herself and her abilities. She still has a long way to go - as any of us who were once young can understand all too well - but she knows now that she has a true friend for life in Rytasa.
Abilities:	»Tysabri has an extremely flexible, clever mind, and a good sense of tactics and politics. If she had the social abilities to speak up for herself and prove her worth, she would probably be invaluable to any planet's government.
History/Backstory:	"And if the enemy's army numbers over one thousand infantry units?" Tysabri hesitated before responding. "Attempt to split the troops into at least two groups. Drive one group into the standing defenses, if possible." "Correct," The grizzled old man said, tapping his pointer against the gigantic map laid out before them, which was divided into hexagons, with small carved-stone figurines representing armies, units, and defensive structures scattered seemingly at random. "But what if you manage to divide the infantry, but cannot drive any into the standing defenses?" With the ebon-black pointer, the man slid a group of carved pieces away from the tiny stone fences, to emphasize his point. Tysabri regarded the board. Her brows drew together. "Well... you could..." She paused again. "No," the man said, drawing the pointer down the map, away from the figurines. "I know what you're thinking. It's the obvious move, but if you draw the group away towards the river, the other group will simply crush against you from behind." Tysabri suppressed a sigh. That's actually not what I was going to say, she thought to herself. But it didn't matter. The old man considered her childhood apprenticeship to her homeland's Royal Tactician as about as valuable as a pile of still-wet hairballs horked into a dark corner. She often got the impression that the old man thought she could not figure out anything beyond the most rudimentary of tactics. She did know that he was not directly prejudiced against her for not being human, at least; in a place like Sitheil Tirean, it was humans who were the minority, not six-foot-tall catlike anthropomorphic beings. Bizarrely, that gave her a modicum of comfort. Her long tail, stretched out behind her, twitched restlessly as the old man went over flanking, pincer, and sweeping movements, all the while shoving stone pieces around the map with his beloved pointer-stick. After an interminable time, he dismissed her for the day and she darted out of the room, nearly hitting the top of the doorframe with the huge silvery-gray spikes that protruded from her shoulders. She was the only one of her particular species currently in permanent residence on Sitheil Tirean, although most of the other creatures were bipedal animal-like beings as well, so she felt surrounded by familiar creatures. That feeling did little to abate her bone-deep loneliness, however. The loneliness was, in a twisted way, her oldest friend. It had been with her since long before she left Rap'teru for her apprenticeship here. She made her way carefully through the caves, trying not to knock her shoulder-spikes against anything breakable. They were sturdy, bonelike structures that were fused to her skeleton, so they caused her no pain and were in no danger of breaking if she were to graze anything with them, but it was disconcerting to knock the wooden frame off the top part of a door just by going through it. Plus, she was mortified by her carelessness whenever something like that occurred. Up ahead of her, a white wolf with a gray face strode down the cave path, with a small silver dragon at his heels. The dragon seemed to be studded all over with green jewels and was smiling. "Hey, Tys," the wolf called, and Tysabri recognized him: Airt, one of the security guards stationed in the main Gate building. Tysabri had met him the first day she had arrived on Sitheil Tirean, shivering and disoriented from the effects of the trip through the aether from her homeworld. "Hello, Airt," she managed. Her deep loneliness stemmed, in part, from her complete lack of knowledge on how to react in most social situations. Military tactics didn't really help in casual conversation or small-talk. "Hello, Nexratri," she continued, greeting the small dragon that was Airt's bondmate. How she envied the easy friendship between beings and their bonds! The small dragon nodded a greeting, and Tysabri raised her eyes hesitantly to Airt's. The wolf was slightly taller than she, which was pleasantly unusual here. (Tysabri towered above Lakota, which made her feel odd somehow.) Come to think of it, Airt was pretty handsome... well, for a wolf and not a demon cat, that was. Suddenly Airt met her gaze, and she immediately lowered her eyes back down to the floor, causing the jewel strung between her head-horns to rattle. "You know," Airt said in a strangely gentle voice, "I hear there's another group getting ready to go to the Abstract Destiny again. I hear there's another hatching, and they could use a few more candidates." Tysabri couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze again. "Sure," she mumbled to her feet, which, of course, didn't respond. "I only say that because..." He took a breath. "Excuse me for being so blunt, but you look like you could use a friend." Tysabri could feel her skin flush, the blush mercifully hidden beneath her fur. Her shoulder-spikes threatened to melt under the onslaught of her embarassment. "I... don't think my tutor would let me leave," she said faintly. "Apprenticeship... you know... teachings, learnings... all of that..." she struggled to find the right word. "Stuff," she finished at last. She felt like a fool. "Oh, leave that to me," Airt said blithely. "I'll talk to Lakota, and we'll bully your teacher into letting you have a few days off." Suddenly he clapped a hand to her shoulder, right in front of where the shoulder-spike met her fur. "Don't worry about it. Go to the Gate building now, in fact. Right now. They're getting ready to leave. Hurry, you don't want to miss it." He grinned, but she didn't see it, as she was still inspecting her feet. "Yes, right, I'll go right now," she mumbled, fully expecting herself to instead slither despicably to her room and fall into a miserable sleep. She was actually still expecting to do just that, even as she dashed into the Gate building just in time to follow the others to the Abstract Destiny...
Stories:	BONDING STORY: Crouching on the cold metal floor, Tysabri rubbed her eyes – it was a rather useless gesture, overall, but its clichéd nature actually helped calm her down a little and focus her attention. In front of her were thirteen wriggling, bouncing dragon hatchlings, and one of them was right in front of her. The dragonet had vivid golden scales which were marked with quite lovely purple zigzags, and had equally vivid-purple fluffy feathering around her hooflike hind feet. And she had a naked skull for a head. And skeletal wings and paws. And she was on fire. Literally. And she had just bitten Tysabri on the hand. Even as the pain and surprise of the bite had faded from Tysabri's body (which occurred almost instantaneously), Tysabri's mind was flooded with images and information – this hatchling was her bond, she was named Rytasa, and with a wash of warmth and deep, surprising love came a new knowledge: Rytasa's coloration and the genes she carried meant that she was considered a queen-dragon by Old World standards. This knowledge intimidated her. In fact, as she met the hatchling's glowing orblike eyes, Tysabri found herself flooded with a familiar emotion: unworth. She could hear her mentor's put-downs and criticisms echoing in her furry ears all at once, and her head drooped until she was practically bowing in front of the dragonet. What was she but just a common demon cat from Rap'teru, nothing special - and she was shoddy at the job she'd been trained all her life to do. And Rytasa, although newborn, was a queen amongst dragons, miniature royalty, at birth already naturally so far above whatever Tysabri could ever hope to be, even in the furthest reaches of fantasy. Let alone real life. Tysabri felt something gently touch her ears before it moved up to tap the golden, two-pronged horns between them, and as she lifted her gaze, the dragonet moved her skeletal paw up to touch the tips of Tysabri's crescent-shaped shoulder-spikes. When she saw she had Tysabri's attention, Rytasa tapped Tysabri's shoulder-spikes once more before removing her paw and touching her own skeletal wings. The connection was clear. "Don't worry," Rytasa said with a toothy smile. "You're perfect for me, no matter what you may think." "I don't know what to say," Tysabri said, quite honestly. She felt completely bifurcated. The bond had been formed naturally and immediately, and it ran deeper than she had imagined. Rytasa was more than just a new friend. Rytasa was her soul, her other self, not simply another part of her, but the part that made her entire and whole. It was not even like having a sister or a lifemate – athough Tysabri had neither one of those things, she simply knew that this was something deeper and more unbreakable than the connection between siblings or lovers. "You don't need to say anything," Rytasa responded, the orb-like flames of her eyes brightening a little in surprise. Strangely, Tysabri found that she wanted to talk to the little dragonet. So she sat on the floor of the hatching bay room, speaking quietly with Rytasa, telling her about her childhood and apprenticeship, the cold loneliness of her training and travels to Sitheil Tirean. For the first time in Tysabri's life, words came easily, without the overwhelming urge to analyze each sentence before she spoke it. After what felt like no time at all, Rytasa placed a skeletal paw on Tysabri's furred knee. Surprised, Tysabri glanced around. Everyone, even the other dragonets and their new bonds, were gone. She and Rytasa were alone in the hatching bay. "Oops," Tysabri said, and Rytasa giggled softly. "I guess I didn't realize how long we were here." "Let's explore a little before we go home," Rytasa said, and Tysabri's ears wiggled a little in pleasure hearing her bond refer to Sitheil Tirean as "home" - for the first time, Tysabri felt that it was home. ------- They walked down several of the spaceship's corridors, talking quietly as they peered into this doorway or that one. Then, Rytasa paused and tilted her head to one side… although, of course, she had no visible ears. "Wait," she said, "this way." She darted down the dark corridor, Tysabri tromping along behind her. "What is it, Rytasa?" The dragonet stopped in front of a closed door, and hesitated briefly. "I don't know," she said, "but I do know we need to go inside. Someone… something… is waiting." Tysabri tilted her head to one side, twisting her long ears around, trying to catch any hint of sound from the other side of the closed door. But there was nothing. Tysabri wondered if perhaps Rytasa's mind was hearing another's – she herself was too new to the concept of telepathy, and Rytasa's own mental presence was nearly overwhelming in the demon cat's head. And even as she mused on the strength of Rytasa's telepathic presence, she could feel her bond pulling back slightly, turning down the volume of her mental voice. "My apologies," Rytasa said, placing a paw on Tysabri's furry foot. The bony digits sank completely into Tysabri's fluff immediately. "I didn't mean to smother you like that!" Tysabri grinned without showing her teeth, and then strained her brain with all of her might. ~It's all right,~ she managed, feeling as though she was using some sort of rusty, cobwebby tool; she could almost feel it grinding inside her skull as she communicated mentally. ~Still… learning. Have to learn.~ Rytasa's flame-mane flared even brighter, and Tysabri felt a wash of pride run through her like a torrent of water. "Of course," she said. "I bet your tutor will have a fit when we go home and you speak to him telepathically!" Tysabri grinned, and then covered her mouth to hide her fangs. Immediately, Rytasa tilted her head upwards at the demon cat. "Why do you do that?" Rytasa asked, clearly feeling Tysabri's embarrassment thrumming along their bond. "Dmm wtt?" Tysabri asked from behind her hands. "Cover your mouth." Tysabri flattened her ears against her skull and moved her hands. Her urge to smile was gone, anyway. She was silent for a long moment, painfully aware of the fact that she was standing outside of a mysterious door in a, unfamiliar hallway that someone could walk down at any time, and she'd likely be thoroughly questioned as to what she and Rytasa were doing there. "Well," she said finally, "before I came to Sitheil Tirean, I lived alongside the royalty of Rap'teru. It's considered impolite to show your fangs when you smile." Rytasa was quiet, gazing up at her bond. "That's not everything," she said. It was not a question. Tysabri's ears all but disappeared into her mane. She weighed her options - obviously lying would do nothing; Rytasa would know the truth anyway and would be disappointed with the lie. (Tysabri knew this - their bond was growing stronger already.) But if she told the truth, she would be embarrassed and ashamed. The reason seemed so silly now, under Rytasa's affectionate, fiery gaze. ~It doesn't matter if you're embarrassed or ashamed,~ came Rytasa's gentle voice. ~I will be by your side no matter what. And every living being feels these things at one time or another. In that regard, we are all connected. I just want you to feel like you are able to share anything with me. That will be the first step in being able to share yourself with others, dragons and creatures that you're NOT bonded to!~ The dragon's mental voice seemed tinged with a smile. Tysabri's ears relaxed, springing forward again. "Well, I do feel kind of silly now," she said, feeling something in her chest loosen and dissolve. "But, the truth is.... I've always thought my teeth were crooked. And I always figured I looked frightening and even uglier than usual when I smiled." Rytasa giggled and wiggled her skeletal tail. "Your teeth definitely aren't scarier than mine," she shouted, and clicked her jaws together a few times to show just how scary her skull-smile was. And then both of them were laughing. Just then, the door slid open in front of them. They fell silent and peered inside. Tysabri glanced up at the doorframe for the first time and noticed a small sign above it that read "Terigon Stasis Room". Rytasa nodded firmly. "They're waiting for us," she said, her voice solid and confident. "Let's go inside." -------

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