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FURBIDDEN REALMS
CHARACTER PROFILE:
Anise
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BASICS
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Full name: Anise Etoile
Species: Skunk
Age: 201 sextets
Season: Moonwax
Gender: Female
Occupation: Administrator of The Velvet Rope, occasional courtesan
Blood Type: B
Orientation: Straight-ish (see "Personality")
Associations: The Velvet Rope (Administrator)

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APPEARANCE
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Height/Weight: 178cm/75kg
B/W/H: 95cm/64cm/93cm
Cup size: C

General Build: Perfectly womanly. Tall without being towering, mature without being aged, slender without being skinny, curvy without being over-endowed. Anise's whole appearance gives the impression of femininity, caring and gentleness.

Fur: Warm medium brown, short and soft.

Markings: A warm, pale brown/tan, in standard skunk patterns - around her muzzle/cheeks and eyes, over the front of her chest/torso/thighs, "sock" markings on her legs/feet and arms/hands, and a broad stripe down her back and tail. She also has a small blaze in the centre of her forehead.

Hair: Rich brownish-red, soft and smooth. She wears it with a short, front-parted fringe, and two waist-length portions bound into thick tresses on either side of her face which hang in front of her shoulders. The rest is worn to thigh-length, forming an elegant v-shape towards the bottom.

Eyes: A soft green; long-lashed, gentle and deep.

Distinguishing features: Anise's unusual hairstyle is probably her most distinct feature. She is remarkably beautiful, but in a plain and earthy kind of way, so it doesn't necessarily stand out.

Preferred clothing: Anise tends to wear simple and serviceable clothing of Alternian peasant-style, with a bit of a feminine touch. Her favoured outfit is a loose, off-shoulder cotton blouse (white), under a simple brown vest, with a pair of close-cut soft suede pants and short suede boots (flat, for practicality).

Accessories: Anise is never seen without her wedding ring - a plain silver band, since anything more elaborate would have been impossible for she and Kyaim to afford. She also usually wears a thin leather band which holds a small, teardrop-shaped crystal pendant in the centre of her forehead.

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PERSONALITY
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General Attitude: Despite all of her troubles, and her past periods of depression, Anise is a modest, gentle soul with a seemingly boundless capacity for kindness and caring. Ever the mother-figure, she is a woman of phenomenal quiet, inner strength; she is patient, loving and forgiving beyond belief, and nothing makes her happier than sharing in the joy of others. Although she can be a little melancholy with regards to her own fulfilment, and hasn't quite overcome the traumatic events of her past, she never lets this get in the way of her work or trouble those she cares about. This isn't to say that she shuts out those who try to help her, however - she's self- sacrificing, but understands that her family won't be any better off if she destroys herself for their sake. She's just working through her issues in her own way - slowly and without making a fuss.

Likes: Families, children, her colleagues, simplicity, peace, seeing people happy and in good company, playing the piano, watching plays/listening to music. She also likes having lots of work to do, enjoying the feeling that she's using her time well.

Dislikes: Cruelty of any kind, parents who don't give proper attention to their children, lying, pretentiousness, people who are overly concerned with money or status, war. She also dislikes having nothing to do, feeling that she's wasting her time when she could be doing something productive.

Skills of note: Anise has a lot of practical skills in day-to-day household areas - cleaning, cooking, washing, sewing, that kind of thing. She also has a good head for organisation, numbers and finance, as evidenced by the fact that she flawlessly remains on top of her work at the Rope. She has a degree of talent for acting, also, but isn't the kind who does well in the spotlight - she prefers to let other, more "showy" members of the Rope fill that role. Her only real "hobby" skill is her love of the piano, which she's very good at playing - definitely concert-standard, to say the least.

Attitude in Bed: Anise's sexual role is easy - she's a switch, and can take a more a more submissive or dominating role to suit her partner's experience and preferences. Just as outside of the bedroom, Anise is gentle and supportive during sexual encounters, eminently patient and forgiving, and places her partner's pleasure above her own. Unlike most of HorNet's members, straight missionary-style sex would probably be Anise's favourite position, albeit not one that comes up often.
Her sexual orientation, however, is somewhat more complicated, which is probably why she spends more time managing the business than doing "field work". Ultimately, she wants her own family again - she wants to raise children with a loving husband. She doesn't much like the kind of convenient, no-chance-of-pregnancy sex that most of HorNet's female members exercise, since to her it simply feels like wasting her chances to have a family again - but it's not like she would want to have that family with a customer, of course.
Therefore, although Anise is mostly straight, she's simply not prone to casual relationships or working encounters with males; instead, her courtesan activities are almost entirely with women. While she's looking for /romance/ with a male partner, her work relationships - more like close friendships with sex involved - tend to be with women.

Turn-ons: Emotion, kindness, gentleness, understanding. Traditionally romantic things like moonlight, candles and peaceful music. Anise likes sex to be intense and passionate, but tasteful.

Turn-offs: Extreme... well, anything. Extreme pain, extreme bondage, extreme submission or domination, and anything else which is too far from simply two people making good old-fashioned love.

Quirks: Anise's only outstanding quirk is her sexuality.

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BACKGROUND
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Family Status: Parents/siblings unknown, husband (Kyaim) deceased, son (Jaime) deceased.
Birth Rank: At least 2/3
Social Status: Begrudgingly respected by the noble class, thoroughly beloved by the commoners.

Homeland/Birthplace: Unknown

History: Anise speaks little of her childhood. It seems that she was once part of a quite large family - she had at least one younger and one elder sibling - who parted ways after a terrible event during Anise's adolescence. Left alone in the wake of this tragedy, Anise found herself in Etterclaw, working tables and playing the piano at a bar to make ends meet.
It was in this role that she met the love of her young life - a young actor by the name of Kyaim, the rising star of a group of travelling players who would pass through the bar every few seasons before moving on to their next show. The pair grew closer with each visit, and before long, Anise was travelling with them, married to her love and performing with their music ensemble. Welcomed into the small but closely-knit group as a colleague and as a friend, Anise found the kind of warm, loving family she had been denied as a child; and, when she was overjoyed to give birth to her first child - a son named Jaime - her life began to seem whole again.
The woman's happiness was to be shattered again, however. The group was touring Alternia when the long-standing civil war between magi and clergy came to a head, yielding the final ferocious battles that would ultimately end the war. Anise's company, however, was caught in the crossfire; both her husband and son were killed, along with most of the group. Devastated, Anise was left drifting aimlessly amongst the homeless and destitute left by the battles amongst Alternia's noble class. Her life empty after losing her second family, she made very little effort to survive until she met a young ferret, similarly despondent, by the name of Reylan. Despite their situation, the pair managed to make each other just a little happier - enough, at least, that living was worthwhile.
As the seasons passed, Anise's spirits gradually lifted through Reylan's friendship; while she would always carry the sadness of losing both of her families, she was learning to accept her losses, and beginning to move on. In doing so, she realised, she was also beginning to see Reylan as more than just a dear friend. The ferret, however, seemed unable to share this feeling - primarily because, he claimed, she deserved better - and simply disappeared one night soon after the subject came up. Some turns afterward, however, she received a message from an entrepreneur in Coalclaw, to whom Reylan had recommended her; the businesswoman had recently acquired an abandoned playhouse in Alternia, with the intention of renovating and re-opening it, and was seeking an administrator for the business.
And so it was - after some degree of confusion about the actual nature of the establishment - that Anise wound up as the administrator of HorNet's Alternian branch, the Velvet Rope. Although she was at first rather dubious about becoming the head of a brothel, Alannah's principles sat well with her, and the position appealed to her motherly nature. Given new meaning by the role, she now treats the various members of the Rope as her third family, watching over them with quiet affection and pride.

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COMBAT
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General level: Mid
Style: Anise's style is self-taught out of necessity. Nothing more than what she could teach herself with only her bare hands (or a good solid skillet) to her name, Anise's style is only slightly more than generic self-defence; essentially, it's a simple, graceful, defensive form of combat which bends rather than blocks and uses the opponent's force against them. She has a small degree of fencing training (taught by Wilton of all people), but it's only for show and stage-fighting.

Advantages: Speed and flexibility - Anise is quick to act and extremely quick to react, and is particularly lithe and limber. She's also fairly hardy; while she can't take particularly large amounts of damage, she's very fit and uses her physical resources efficiently.

Disadvantages: Anise simply isn't very strong; her physical power is lacking, and her style's focus on defence means that she's not particularly effective on the offensive.

Special: Nothing of note.

Techniques: None of note.

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OTHER
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A Quote: (blushing) "Oh, no, I'm not really that pretty. But thank you, it's sweet of you to say so."
Other: Nothing of note.

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