so give me hope in the darkness / that I will see the light

WIP! Just some blurbs right now.

Selena is a social butterfly to say the least. She enjoys crowds and attention all while just enjoying the sounds of conversations floating around wherever she tends to hang out. Taverns tend to be an all-time favorite due to the liveliness all while being able to perform inside for guests to watch. With that, her music is through the lute, and she just sits down and fabricates stories to entertain people and occasionally sneaks in a pun or two. Or more!

Despite loving the positive reception from her audience, she does have a tendency to doubt her abilities all while shoving it down as just humble behavior when complimented. When criticized, she takes it well, but sometimes the thoughts just prod at her.

She is the type of person who will lend a shoulder to cry on, or an ear to talk to. She remains empathetic throughout her years as she enjoys maintaining relationships as much as she can. Although she enjoys these friends too, her traveling tends to make it difficult to keep in contact besides letters, and the like. Sometimes she fumbles over her own reminders to remind her own parents that she's perfectly fine, and not caught up in any monster attack that looms over any villages.

Adventure is what she craves as much as food and music. Food = a massive appetite as a side-effect of her lycathropy. Her traveling is mostly forced, but she truly does enjoy walking and enjoying nature. She's never been one to keep still.

Being a creative writer means being able to develop fictional worlds. This is a skill she has picked up, and has been refining as much as she can. However, she does have a history of fibbing quite a bit when it comes to reality. She means no harm by it, but it can be consequential. It makes for an easier time to keep a consistent lie, but can be easily dispatched by a good observer. It tends to happen the most when trying to deny the times when she has to do some fishy behaviors, or just dealing with the full moon antics.

The bard can look a bit androgynous with more boyish outfits, and not an entirely feminine look either. However, she is very much feminine as she can be. She also enjoys dressing up and looking fairly pretty for the right occasions, and is pretty unhappy when it comes to dealing with torn clothes when shifting so she unbashedly will go naked in public rather than deal with getting new outfits.

History

Selena was born to Sofia and Carmine Vaccaro within the comfort of a dairy farm on the outskirts of a bustling town. She remained an only child, and became spoiled by the attention given by her parents. She remained energetic mostly with a wild streak as she harrassed workers until a punishment had stopped her antics. She had grown fond of the cows that lingered in her home, and often named them silly names. When they passed or went away, she cried for days.

She eventually had become preoccupied with her father's old lute, and had self-taught herself how to play it. This had led to her eventually leaving her home more frequently in her teenage years to play music, but also sing to the audience in the town nearby. She made extra change this way, and often saved it until she was able to leave the farm for good and travel the world. Until then, she had eventually used the money to purchase a new lute for herself, and returned the old one to her old man.

Her talents were by no means widespread, but she had captivated enough of an audience that she had felt more confident in her abilities to treat her ministrel hobby as an actual career.

Career

Around the age of 18, her parents sent her on her way to figure things out for herself. Adulthood was no easy task, but the practice with a decent song and a knack for storytelling helped her remain off of the streets most days. With traveling, she often was found resting, and humming in the forests with a tent and a campfire. Her lute never left her side. Through traveling, she had met other bards and temporarily became an eager apprentice to one whose music had magical attributes. She was able to transform her own skills into a support set, and could heal scratches. She had picked up actual first aid later down the road when predators became more likely, and being the social butterfly she was, felt a lot more at ease and safer within a group that was traveling the same direction as she was. Though she befriended most people, she was often in a new group every so often when she changed towns, but it eased the monotamy of her livlihood.

When fighting became a thing, she found herself an amateur support bard, but kept a knife on her at all times in case magic would fail her in dangerous moments. Pacifism wouldn't be the way to describe her, but fighting wasn't something she found comfortable with at the time. Her attempts to protect the cattle at her childhood home was to scare them off with shouting, or waving a torch. Due to her lack of fighting prowess, her accuracy would be extremely low, and wildly stabbing at whatever target was a threat to her at the time. It made for some accidental friendly-fire.

Lycanthropy

Selena was no stranger to the predators in the woods, but her sense of caution was lacking. It became her downfall in a way. When she was investigating a potentially hostile creature in the forest of her latest campsite, she was then caught in a brawl with a feral werewolf. A bite was left within her leg, and despite trying to treat it numerous times herself and with a healer, it remained ugly and scarred.

The weight of her consequences befell her one night when the full moon appeared, and she blacked out immediately despite being fairly alert, anxious, and fairly pissed off for no particular reason. When she had awoken, she had found herself nearly naked with torn fabrics strewn across her body along with the aftermath of a werewolf attack. Fearful, she took a bunch of clothes, and fled the scene with what little remained before she could be confronted about the ordeal.

Even as a year had passed since the bite, and the werewolf attack, she still would resent her curse. Her resent had led nowhere though as her form remained impossible to use correctly, or just take control during a full moon. Shifting back and forth during safe days, and when alone, was painful and unpleasant so it became a last resort. It served well as a melee form with its own variant of weaknesses that transferred to her human form as well.

Due to this form, she traveled more frequently especially when the full moon was approaching. Sometimes she failed to remember the day for it, and wouldn't make it to an isolated area on time. It would remain an unpleasant experience for the rest of her days.