Mae

Basic Statistics

• Name: Mae Haley
• Species: Kitsune
• Gender: Female
• Height: 5'9" humanoid 11 inches at shoulder fox
• Weight: 95 lbs humanoid 8 lbs fox
• Eyes: Gold / Silver heterochromic

Physical Description

Fox

As a fox, Mae appears as a small black-furred fox with speckles of white scattered in her fur much like that of the stars in the night sky with the Milky Way making a stripe from her ears to her tail. Her left eye was silvery gray in color while her right was yellow gold. She also possessed three long tails rather than one. Aside from these details, she was a slender and rather normal shaped fox.

Humanoid

Mae's appearance meant she would never wander into towns even when standing on two legs. Even as a child, her long black hair was speckled with silver strands. Her eyes, one silver and one gold, were immediate tells that she was not a normal human. Her presence tended to attract lesser spirits, and her near gray skin was something impossible for her to hide. Having never learned much about faking being human, her movements were also typically more wild and fluid than any person would usually have. She was referred to as a forest child or a spirit child as a result.

Abilities

Dreamweaver

Mae's most powerful ability and one she was known for is called dreamweaving. This ability goes beyond the mere ability to move into dreams and change them. Mae had the singular ability to bridge the gap between dream and reality. What looks like an illusion is literally a fusion of two worlds in a set radius around her. Spirits and even her friend Blaine loved to frolic in the bizarre worlds that could occur when Mae used her powers, and dream beings likewise relished the ability to directly interact with the material world. The ability stems from her celestial blood, her mother having been a star hopping spirit and her father being a kitsune.

Shapeshifting

Mae was able to move between a fox and humanoid form, but she never learned how to properly hide her fox traits fully when shifting. Because of this, her hair and skin color was often off and her tails sometimes failed to vanish. Because of this, she almost never moved too close to town.

Spirit Light

Similar to Blaine's ball of light, Mae can summon a sphere of silver starlight when she is in fox form or humanoid form.

Illusion

A very common kitsune trick, Mae often created illusions to hide her retreat or distract predators be they animal or humanoid. She had more skill than Blaine and could manifest convincing cover that would turn many hunters away.

Relationship with Blaine

Blaine and Mae knew each other as kits. By some distant ways on their fox side, they were even related. For the better part, they only knew each other as friends while growing up, and when in the forests they would frolic among the trees as free spirits. Other spirits favored both foxes, and while they tended to draw different types of spirits, the pair was almost never without them. Unfortunately Mae did not have the protection of the city that Blaine would manage because he could appear fully human but for his eyes, and even then his parents could keep almost anyone in town at bay. Mae's powerful dreamweaving ability attracted the attention of spirit hunters, something no one likes to talk about but everyone knows exist.

Mae and Blaine were out together when they came for Mae. They didn't know Blaine was there, and their parents were not aware of the hunters until it was too late. Mae was captured, and as the hunters went to make the killing blow and harvest her soul, Blaine cried out for help. It wasn't soon enough to save Mae's life, but the spirits of the forest were on their side. IN this case, Blaine's mixed blood finally showed its true form. HIs mother, who has coyote in her lineage, passed on to him the Great Fire that was stolen ages ago from the Great Spirit and given to humans. The fire of creation some call it, but what it came to be was a focus for every angry spirit in the area, and they all piled in and dumped their energy on Blaine.

Blaine doesn't remember what happened next. He didn't know at the time that, for a brief second, he had three tails just like Mae. Overcharging Blaine's capability to command fire, the explosion leveled over two hundred acres of forest, turned whole trees to ash, and obliterated the hunters entirely. Mae's and Blaine's parents arrived to look for their children, but it was Inari who picked up Blaine's body. Mae was gone, but because of the explosion, her soul passed on as it should. Blaine would spend a week in the care of Inari at the temple before he could recover. He recalled Mae's death and the hunters but nothing else.

The loss of Mae was the catalyst that spun Blaine's abilities to use fire out of his control. A three tail compressed to one is unstable, and even later in the company of others doing safe practice, he would only be able to manifest two of those tails while the rest of his potential waited for what no one knows for certain.