Trivia

Personality

Much like the shadows that give them their power, Cerin is more than happy to blend, unseen and unheard, into the background. They shrink away from the spotlight and would much rather just be another face in the crowd, effectively invisible, but there all the same. No detail goes unnoticed under their eye. They don't emote very much, so while they don't appear cold or aloof, they certainly aren't warm either.

This quiet, taciturn demeanor is a stress response to being around a large group of strangers. Around friends and family, Cerin opens up much more. They lose many of their reservations, aren't afraid to speak without first being spoken to or poke fun at something silly. Even in this relaxed state, however, they still can be difficult to read; if they don't want you to know they're feeling a certain way, you likely won't. And when they do want you to know what they're feeling, they make it unignorable. They approach everything new with a cautious curiosity, and they've very unlikely to rush into anything without at least part of a plan.

The one thing most important to Cerin is helping people, improving their lives in any small way they can. Unfortunately, this noble, selfless goal seems less so when they are very willing to sacrifice their own wellbeing to do it. It's not a choice for them as much as it is a compulsion, a desperate attempt to justify their own existence to themself. Their preferred method for dealing with this kind of negative headspace is to avoid thinking about it. But now that they have the mark of this failure to meet themself head-on permanently across their chest, they are trying to unlearn it, with the help of an unlikely ally.

Powers

Cerin has a number of abilities unique to Shadow Sirens. They are able to retreat into the shadow they cast beneath them, to hide within it or as a "fast travel" method to revisit a place they can clearly picture in their mind. They are also capable of dragging a non-Shadow Siren into the shadows with them, but cannot move (unless it's toward the surface) as long as they are holding onto said "outsider."

A Shadow Siren's eyes are the source of a potent kind of magic; if a non-siren looks directly into them, they are overtaken by a bewitching spell that makes them feel romantic inclinations toward the siren (regardless of their orientation and the siren's gender) and will make them extremely susceptible to suggestion from the siren. This spell is temporary, and the victim will not remember anything that happens between the spell being placed and being broken, but most sirens view this kind of "possession" as a last-resort tactic, due to both how mentally taxing it is for the siren to maintain and the dubious morality of overriding an individual's free will. For this reason, Shadow Sirens hide their eyes behind their hair and wear hats with wide brims.

Every Shadow Siren is associated with one of eight types of elemental magic. Perhaps redundantly, Cerin's element is that of shadow or dark magic. They are able to summon physical manifestations of shadow that they use to attack, defend, or more mundanely, mimic whatever motions they make with their arms and hands. These manifestations are a somewhat diluted form of the Shadow Queen's own brand of dark magic, and they naturally form hand-shapes themselves. Cerin can control up to four of these shadow manifestations separately, though if they are using more than one they need to move their own hands to control them. Cerin must divide their attention between each manifestation, so the more they control, the weaker and clumsier the magic is likely to be. These powers are also influenced by Cerin's emotions; it works best when their head is clear. Anger or fear may make their powers lash out indiscriminately.

Thanks to their shared genetics with Cerin I, they are one of three sirens capable of using black magic, an immensely destructive form of magic that the Shadow Queen relied on during her lifetime, and what led her to become the cataclysm she is known as today. Cerin refuses to use it, fearing both its raw power and the potentially deadly side effects to the user, with which they are intimately acquainted.

Birth

Cerin was created accidentally by the Shadow Queen, over a thousand years after her initial cursing and imprisonment behind the Thousand-Year Door. As such, Cerin is the youngest Shadow Siren in existence, and the only one to have been raised entirely separated from the Shadow Queen's now long-fallen empire. They were formed in the darkest corners of the Creepy Steeple on the outskirts of Twilight Town. Vivian found them there and took them in, raising them how she wanted to have been raised.

Circumstances

Cerin formed semi-naturally, out of the combination of some of the Shadow Queen's magic that had escaped the seal and a lost fragment of Cerin I's shattered soul. These two factors happened to interact in just the right way within the darkness of the Creepy Steeple that Cerin was born without the Queen's careful supervision, or even her intent. Because Cerin had this piece of another individual within them, they were extremely precocious, recognized people they had never seen and places they had never been, and sometimes had thoughts that were not their own. They bear a heavy physical resemblance to Cerin I and share her name (coming from her memories) and her elemental powers. Cerin I and Cerin II are the only Shadow Sirens who are genetically related to each other.

The Story So Far

The Shadow Queen's second resurrection resulted in her remaking "from scratch" her first and most trusted servant, Cerin I, whose soul had been shattered (as a result of her resisting the Shadow Queen calling to her decades ago) and a fragment of which had created Cerin II. The only reason the two were able to coexist was because of the Shadow Queen's immensely powerful magic. When the Queen was defeated, the magic holding them both together vanished. Cerin II, being comparatively "incomplete," also disappeared. However, the combined power of all the Crystal Stars plus the healing magic of Princess Peach was able to eventually bring them back to life, anew and without the part of Cerin I, including her memories.

An unfortunate run-in with Beldam, involving the heavy use of dangerous and destructive black magic, led to the scar in Cerin's chest.