Quentin De Clayre

I wrote Quentin when I was not a biologist. I now am a biologist. You can imagine my shock when I read how terribly this plant mant was written. But, I have learned, and I am ready to rewrite him when I finally have time to do so! For now, here's a list of planned changes to his species.

❖ The plant-animal hybrid will be done with a lot more subtlety. He will have chlorophyl as well as the ability to eat, he'll have cell walls with little enough callulose to allow for movement but enough to cause reinforcement, and a bit of a cuticula that prevents respiration for the largest part since he has veins to pump fluids throughout his body. 

❖ The origin of his species may be explored! Maybe some plant species was dying out and a benevolent tree spirit decided to save the little guys by giving them the capability to walk around and eat. Maybe. I just came up with this, so we'll see.

❖ Actually give him a personality and a thing to do in his life. Why's he with the Academy? No one knows!

❖ Might give him a new outfit. Who knows.

Quentin is an average looking dryad boy, which means he is small of height, chubby, has a lot of green colours on his body, and has stubby arms and legs. He has a height of 120cm or 3'11 and weighs about 20kg or 44lbs.  He has pointy ears, two black branching antlers on his skull, and a long light green tail ending in a large tuft of dark green fur near the end. His hair is dark green in colour and turns a little darker near the tips. It is of medium length but in the style it's worn it never goes past his shoulders. He has fatty cheeks, oval shaped amber eyes with no pupils or sclera that have a light glow, and a medium sized somewhat bulky nose. He rarely smiles and often walks around either scowling or with a neutral but still bitter expression, his eyes only contributing to this.

His weight can be attributed to the fact that he is made of a material that's a hybrid between flesh and plant cells, thus making him very light even for his height. As a result he also has a lot of fluid inside of him and has a clear but textured skin. His blood is a nectar-like yellow fluid that has a sweet taste. His skin is light green in colour and starting from respectively his elbows, knees, and middle of the ears he has dark green spots that grow darker and more visible closer to the hands, feet, and tips of the ears.

He has very broad hips and thin shoulders and his arms and legs have a unique anatomical structure; down from the elbows the arms only get thicker and make for very broad hands; his knees are thick and get a little thinner near the end but they never get thin again. He has very small feet. Despite his height, his head is only slightly smaller than that of an average human sized person.

The clothes he wears are thin and only worn because he has to wear them at the school property. He wears a dull dark green vest with a grey shirt, a black pair of short shorts, brown high boots, and a pair of dark grey fingerless gloves. Around his neck he has a deep green gem, but he usually hides that under his shirt. 

Colour palette

Quentin is a bit of a rainy cloud. He rarely smiles or expresses his joy and feels more comfortable expressing himself when he is all alone. He is more of a loner and shuns other people, especially non-dryads. He has the luck of being able to communicate with plants due to his species and has a love for spending his free time in a forest or a garden learning about the flora inhabiting it. Plants don't judge what others judge for, so he feels a lot more comfortable spending time around those who don't require a lot of commitment to their relationship.

He is rather high maintenance to keep as a friend, as he makes no spontaneous efforts to contact the other or to do something together and most of it has to come from the other. This doesn't mean that he refuses to interact with others, as he appreciates people who take the extra effort to try to befriend him and he accepts the attempts when they come from people he likes. He's not all to compatible with other people so it rarely happens he actually makes a connection.

Any connection he can make isn't kept too close if he doesn't value the friendship enough. He still aims to go back to his people and abandon the academy once he learned what he came there for, so creating close bonds is not a good idea and he isn't looking for commitment.

(Personal reference: expand on these traits:
- Grumpy
- Loner
- Asocial
- Low energy
- Low motivation
- Easily angered
- Tends to be easily provoked
- Not expressive towards happiness and joy
- Basically depressed and deprived of motivation and expression of happiness)

❖ His cells have an inner and an outer membrane with inside a very weak cellulose-based cell wall in between them. His body is sturdier for this reason.
❖ He has healing powers but has yet to learn how to use these. He can heal small cuts already and can soothe others a little, but it ends there
❖ Nature based offensive powers that are underdeveloped for his age. He can barely do any damage with them.
❖ His blood has weak healing properties that speed up healing and is edible and nutritious in the same way nectar is. It only heals when it's poured into wounds and given the time to harden, and it can't heal any cut off limbs or heal drastic wounds like an open heart wound or broken bones
❖ Though so far he hasn't yet unlocked this power, his species has a panic form. This form heightens awareness, makes the body more resilient, and makes the body more prepared for an escape. Wounds suffered in this form are likely to heal in the next 24 hours given that he has enough water, sunlight, and rest. This form is only triggered when suffering significant bodily damage but doesn't guarantee an escape or survival
❖ His eyes have a tapetum layer that naturally allows him to see in the dark
❖ All of his senses are slightly lowered compared to humans, except sight
❖ He is capable of tapping into the history of plants, often teaching him about the land and people and magic of the area

Ordered from lowest to highest priority at this point in time.

❖ Protecting nature and flora
❖ Getting over his depression
❖ Becoming a competent healer
❖ Becoming a better friend and partner to Andreas
❖ Returning to his village and becoming its healer
❖ Saving the Apium dryads from extinction

Quentin is part of a group named the Apium dryads, which is a subspecies of dryads living together in the denser parts of forests and who take it upon themselves to protect nature from those who seek to harm or destroy it. To give some more background about the Apium dryads and dryads in general, dryads are a hunted species. Their flesh is valued as a nutritious hybrid between meat and vegetables, and their blood being a valued product for its healing properties and its exquisite taste and use in cooking recipes. Their young are born in big batches but the increase in numbers after a new nest of podlings often quickly decreases again due to hunters, poachers, and people destroying their habitat.

All dryads have offensive powers and healing powers that work on creatures entirely made on flesh, but healing powers that also work on people made of plant material are rare. Thirty years before Quentin's birth, the power to heal other dryads was discovered in some members of the Apium. They became important to keeping up the numbers of dryads.

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