Name: Onyx Penumbra

Pronouns: she/her

Age (13-19, please): 13

Dragon or Unicorn?: Dragon

Appearance: She wears very plain, dark colors and is always dressed like it’s winter (see weaknesses). Her eyes are black as well as her hair, which is mildly wavy and medium length. She wears little silver necklaces and bracelets with moons and stars on them.

Personality: She’s introverted, quiet, and shy and will go out of her way to avoid speaking to anyone. She has a lot of anxiety and low self esteem. She’s desperate and a little hopeless, but she’s also empathetic, a good student, patient, and persistent (she doesn’t give up easily). She seems to have a hopelessly negative storm cloud following her that she brings everywhere. She’s always the last to appear in class and the last to leave, since she doesn’t want to accidentally hurt anyone by brushing against them (see powers again).

Most treasured item: A pocket size rose quartz bottle filled with a water dark purple potion, given to her by her parents. She doesn’t know what it does, and therefore has never used it.

Powers: She’s a healer with a 50% chance of causing complete recovery to a patient, by physical contact. However, there’s an equal chance that she’ll spread a permanent magical illness she has to them while trying to heal them, making their condition worse. The illness, as far as she knows, causes symptoms that become more extreme each year, and is incurable.

Strengths/weaknesses: Some of her strengths are that she won’t give up easily and is clever and sensible. She’s also talented at healing—that is healing that doesn’t involve physical contact…Some of her weaknesses are the illness she has had as long as she can remember that she can’t figure out how to cure. Some of the symptoms are extreme fatigue, always feeling cold, paleness, lack of appetite, and the occasional fever. She also is really, really lonely and has no friends.

Background (optional): She’s only spread the illness she carries once by accidentally brushing against a passerby and then watching in horror as they instantly became ill. After that she became very careful of her surroundings and has not used her healing magic, for fear that she could harm instead of heal. She’s tried everything she knows to try to cure herself, but it’s to no avail.

Shipping: No thank you.

I'm working on the first part! Hopefully I'll get a clearer idea soon of what it'll be like. and don't worry, as long as there are no tragedies, I'll definitely start and finish this solo write!

@pangolin, I don't want to pressure you, but please do submit your character as soon as possible so I can fit him/her in :)

ack I’m so sorry this took me so long!! I’ve been so busy with end-of-the-year activities in school but that’s not really much of an excuse. I’m so sorry!

Name: Aurnia Clayde-Hunt

Pronouns: she/her 

Age (13-19, please): 15

Dragon or Unicorn?: Dragon

Appearance: She’s on the taller side of average, with a lean and slightly muscular build and light skin peppered with freckles. She has blue-gray eyes and auburn hair in a chin-length bob with bangs, which she’ll sometimes wear in a short ponytail. She tends to dress in some baggy t-shirt with a fun design tucked into jeans and converse shoes in varying colors, or the boarding school uniform if there is one. 

Personality: She’s smart, with a good memory and an excellent work ethic, and endlessly curious. In an academic setting she can be a bit of a know-it-all, but it isn’t intentional, and she’s always spouting obscure trivia. She can come off as quiet and awkward around people she doesn’t know too well, but around her friends, she’s funny, talkative, and a bit spontaneous. Her humor is mostly self-deprecating or pun-based. She’s adventurous, daring, and will never back down from a challenge. She’s artistic and creative, and loves art — especially film and photography, and she dreams of being a movie director.

Most treasured item: her film camera!

Powers: light manipulation

Strengths/weaknesses: She’s smart, creative, resilient, and knows a lot of random facts, and she has a good sense of humor. However, she’s kind of quiet and awkward around people she doesn’t know that well, and doesn’t always think before acting.

Background (optional): I don’t really have any ideas at the moment, and I kind of just want to post this because it’s already taken me so long to do so :/

Shipping? (Just tell me whether the charrie is open or not): open to anyone her age 

again, I am so sorry for taking this long to post this! I'm really looking forward to reading this though — you're a wonderful writer!

@pangolin, thanks so much for your charrie's form! No worries about the lateness; I've been struggling a bit to write the first part anyway, so it's not like it was holding me up or anything. It's totally fine :) Btw, I love how you can create such developed charries before you've even written anything about them (I'm personally terrible at it XD) I'm looking forward to writing Aurnia :)

I've finished the first part, so... the solo write is starting! Here's the first part.

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Prologue

Night had fallen over the Dragon Boarding School. It was a strange building. The twisted towers, the pointed turrets, and the marble dragons at the gate, all glowed eerily in the moonlight. The lawns, that sloped down to indistinct weeping willows and softly plashing fountains, were dark and shadowy.

In a dim room lit by smoking candles, high in a tower, three men stood, and outside the locked and barred door there were four guards, set and immovable as stone. One of the three men within was only a boy, with fair hair and hard blue eyes, and an insolent air as he leaned against the cold stone wall. Another was a tall, handsome man with brown hair and a stern look as he paced to and fro. By the shuttered window stood an even taller man. His black hair was impeccably smooth, and he had a cool, confident air as he stood arrayed in his cloak. In the dim, smoky light his dark eyes were shining strangely.

This last turned to the pacing man.

"Peace, Lord Telyar! If Swaine is sure of his facts -"

"Quite sure," cut in the boy. "I couldn't be surer."

"Good," said the cloaked man, stretching out the word. "You see, Lord Telyar? All we need to do is - extinguish this uppity student."

"Your Majesty," said Lord Telyar, "we shall need to do a great deal more than just that. Swaine says she is halfway to the Dairns by now. If so we are lost! The Dairnsfolk are skilled in magic, even more so than we are. Besides, you are forgetting the Aquimans. They may uprise against us at any moment, and we are not prepared for it - we are not prepared."

"And, Your Majesty," said Swaine smugly, "I haven't yet told you all. The Aquimans are on the move - toward the schools. They wish to take over. I found this out only yesterday, due to my extreme cleverness in tricking one of them into -"

But the cloaked man had no patience for such vanity. He whipped around toward the guards. "You there! Guards! Go at once and send two thousand men through the country. They are to find and capture anyone suspicious. Go!"

Part 1

What did you do when you were suddenly faced with the fact that everything you knew had been stood on its head, you weren't the ordinary high schooler you'd always thought you were, and your classmates were immortals who held magic powers you had never dreamed of?

When she arrived back at the Dragon Boarding School last week for the start of the new school year, Aurnia Clayde-Hunt had been confronted by the news that she, and all the other students, were magical beings, with powers that would manifest themselves at some point during the next year. The last few days had been such a tumult of chaos and new teachers - and magic - that Aurnia needed some time to think. Of course, it was pretty hard to think when you were surrounded by hundreds of high school students from the Dragon and Unicorn Boarding Schools, who were always chaotic at the best of times, milling around in a grassy field on a warm September morning. Some were even playing tag, and nearly everyone was shouting at the tops of their voices. It was glorious weather, at least - the sky was a brilliant, cool, cerulean blue, that made you feel fresh just by looking at it, the way it always does in September. Asters and goldenrod grew along the edges of the field, seeming to glow in the clear light, and in the underbrush there were autumn crickets chirping, sadly, as if they were reminding everyone that September never lasts.

Eve Brightwillow, Aurnia's best friend, nudged her to get her attention. "I'd better be getting over to the Unicorn edge of the field. It looks like they're about to begin."

"Okay. Shall I walk with you? Then I can support you if Ms. Ellis walks by and knocks you unconscious with her steely gaze."

"She'd knock both of us unconscious if she saw us together, my poor innocent Aurnia," Eve pointed out. "No, I'll go by myself. See you!"

"See you," replied Aurnia. She watched as Eve walked away. There was something so daring, so fearless, about her friend. Eve was right, it was highly disapproved of for Dragon and Unicorn students to associate with each other, even if it wasn't actually banned. But Eve and Aurnia had known each other since they were babies, as their families were friends. A year after Eve was sent to the Unicorn school, Aurnia's parents died and she was sent to the Dragon school by her autocratic old grandmother, who "couldn't stand kids." The two of them were in rival schools, and yet Eve, in her casual, charmingly sassy way, had never stopped being friends with Aurnia, supporting her, calling her up, offering to help her with her homework. The teachers spluttered, the classmates jeered, the principals almost wept with vexation. It made no difference. Eve and Aurnia were still staunch friends, and by now most of the students had reluctantly come to accept it.

At long last, Mr. Brodie, the Unicorn principal, mounted the steps to the podium and began to speak.

"Gooooood morning everyone. I'm Mr. Alan Brodie, principal of the Unicorn Boarding School, as I'm sure you all know. So, we have gathered here for the Annual Dragon-Unicorn Sports Competition. The contest celebrates..."

A voice rang out over the crowd. "Stop."

Aurnia turned. A tall, lithe figure, in a mud-brown uniform, had sprung onto the enormous ornamental rock at the edge of the crowd. It seemed masculine, with short, heavy, dark hair and a strong-featured face. Worst of all, there was somebody else there, too - a boy in a Unicorn uniform, with a dazed expression on his face. The stranger was holding him tightly by the wrist.

Mr. Brodie's voice died away. An intense silence fell over the group. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the newcomer as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Mr. Brodie cleared his throat. "Most irregular," he said. "I'll call the police if you don't leave right now. This is private property."

"Do you really think I'll do that, Alan?" inquired the man, easily. "Because I won't. Look." He gestured toward the edge of the field, and Aurnia, following his gaze, saw dozens of men approaching, surrounding the crowd. "I want you to give me, and the other Aquimans, control of the Dragon and Unicorn Schools. Otherwise I'll take this student with me - or worse. These kids have powers we need. And since we Aquimans are no longer cooperating with - you know who, I'm making sure it's me they work for, not - you know who."

Mr. Brodie lifted his hands. "Okay. Fine. Go ahead."

Aurnia was shocked. Mr. Brodie was the principal of the school - he was responsible for them all, at least for the Unicorn students. She could hardly believe that he'd do something like this. Looking around, she saw a flame of anger kindling in the faces of the students around her. She knew they felt the same way, and she heard her own voice speaking, so hard and unrelenting that she barely recognized it. "You're going to give us up to this crazy guy just like that?" Murmurs started spreading through the crowd. "Who does he think he is?" "How do they expect us to stand by and watch this happen, when some of us have already gotten our magic powers?" "Yeah, sorry, that is so not happening," came the voice of a boy in a Unicorn uniform. For the first time it was as if they were all united - or was she imagining it?

"Oh, it isn't?" the stranger shot back. "It's that, or this boy here pays the price."

A new voice entered the conversation - that of Ms. Ellis, the Dragon School principal. 

"Seriously, Karendis. Have you forgotten that we too have magic powers?"

Wait, what? My teachers have powers? How did that happen? How come nobody told us?

For answer Karendis pointed his sword at Ms. Ellis, and a bolt of fire suddenly shot through the air toward her. 

Aurnia never remembered fully what happened next. She only knew that she seemed to be frozen in time, watching her principal's shocked face - and the next second she had leaped forward, knocking Ms. Ellis out of the fire's way. The next second everything had turned black.