Talula Grayhill
Bleeds-For-Loki

Loki's Sweet Little Girl
Chindi of the Laughter of Ayenwathaa
Honorary of the Court of Bamboo Talons

Description


Homid: ~Tally boasts a pretty face and a tanned Navaho complexion. She stands 5'11" and weighs close to 160 pounds. However, she isn't overweight but packed with well-toned musculature. She even displays the swagger of an often-tested athlete or fighter, as well as the confident smirk of a successful competitor. Tally wears a wide array of attire. She may be found in simple sweat shorts and short-sleeved sweat top, and either bare foot or clad in cross-trainer Nikes. Tally might even be caught in a tribal-patterned, lightweight sundress with sandals and perky ribbons. Or Tally might be wearing cowboy boots, Wrangler jeans, a man's button-up shirt complete with ribbon tie. Over that outfit, she'd probably include a buffalo skin parka with full trim. This jacket will usually include a steel broach set with turquoise and garnet. And she may even don a black rodeo hat. Either way, Tally seems to be bursting with exuberance, excitement, and energy. Long, dark hair bounces with every step and chocolate-brown eyes glimmer with genuine environmental interest. Her zest for life and infectious smile become easily annoying to those who insist on viewing the world through gray-colored shades.~

OOC: Appearance 3; Ferocity 6, Humor 5, Cunning 6

Tsitsu: ~Tally takes even greater muscle definition when she shifts upwards to Tsitsu. Her body expands in height and weight just enough to give her the appearance of a female weight-lifter. But her bright eyes and pleasant expression, as well as her smooth, attractive features, do not fade. Her long hair tends to splay out wildly and untamably, and her smiles seems just a tad...toothier. But that is all.~

OOC: Appearance 3; Ferocity 6, Humor 5, Cunning 6

Manabozho: ~And springing from her near-man shape, Tally takes the Nuwisha's war-form. Though hardly as terrifying as a Garou's crinos, Tally's body is nevertheless pure muscle, demonstrating amazing durability and fantastical agility. All that was human about Tally has vanished, however, with the exception of the intelligent and even playful look in her eyes. Her clothing is entirely replaced by a thick coat of wheat brown fur. Goldenrod and sienna-colored spots contrast with this fur, though her front boasts the lightest and finest fur. A long, fluffy tail extends behind the bipedal coyote-woman. Long, sturdy limbs reveal sharp claws as deadly as any werewolf. Tally's head has become completely canine. A thick head with sharp ears and a long toothy muzzle snaps warningly or let's loose haunting and joyous howls at will. The ancient, primal, and fierce Manabozho inspires fear nonetheless, reminding even the Native folk that coyotes are predators, too.~

OOC: Appearance 0; Reduced Delirium; Ferocity 6, Humor 5, Cunning 6

Sendeh: ~While "only" a few hundred pounds, this huge coyote is clearly capable of running down and tearing apart a horse...nevermind a man. With the exception that Tally tends to be much more aggressive and even vicious in Sendeh, and that the Sendeh is over twice as large, this form is identical to her more "innocent" Latrani shape.~

OOC: Appearance 0; Ferocity 6, Humor 5, Cunning 6

Latrani: ~About the size of a large dog, Tally assumes the shape of your typical North American wild canine -- the coyote. With a long, fluffy tail and thick wheat-hued fur, Tally prowls the day and night with all of the coyote's marvelous physical assets. Dark-brown and yellow markings color her coat further, helping to serve as natural camouflage in the brush and fields especially. Attentive ears, an amazingly accurate wet nose, bright brown eyes, and hungry teeth guide the Latrina through the environment with the animal's adaptable ease.~

OOC: Appearance 3; Ferocity 6, Humor 5, Cunning 6

"C'mon! Laugh, you little bitch!"

History


Youth

Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon -- a range of wonder and achievements -- is also home to a group of Nuwisha. Carefully concealing the power of the caern located in this place even from neighboring Wendigo, their Kin maintain and also patrol diligently. For three hundred years, no white man (or werewolf) has discovered this place. Its theft, rape, and pillage would be all too obvious. Keeping it a well-protected secret remains one of the Nuwisha's many earthbound goals. This is the legacy into which Talula Grayhill was born, some twenty eight years ago. Her mother was Sadzi Dances-With-Luna and her father was Sadzi's coyote mate, Eyota. Born directly into the care of her true people, Talula -- or Tally as she was nicknamed -- received all the nurturing and education she would need to one day take her place among Coyote's Trueborn.

One might believe that an upbringing by Nuwisha would create one socially maladjusted borderline habromaniac. This was not so! Tally was sent to public school so she could socialize normally and learn white man's culture. Then when she got home, she learned the truth from the Navaho and Nuwisha's points-of-view -- particularly when it came to matters of history and science. Sadzi raised Tally primarily, but her teachers and aunts and fathers included all the Nuwisha in the area. She learned how to race and climb and swim. She learned how to fight in the ancient ways as well as how to operate a rifle or pistol. They spent time with horses and Tally learned how to rodeo! She made the bull-whip her own special little interest, practicing with it until she could hit something besides herself, then practicing til she could hit anything, and then practicing til she could tangle people up in it -- a real Indiana Jones. Due to this rather overall wholesome upbringing, Tally lived with a smile everyday.

And Tally was was taught not just to smile but to laugh -- laugh at white man's folly, laugh at red man's folly, and most of all: laugh at her own folly. And she did. Tally was a joyous child even into high school. She found herself picking fights with school ruffians and lipstick girls alike, and laid most of them out (she was learning quite a bit about dirty street-fighting at home!). Naturally, most of them didn't appreciate getting kicking in the groin, slugged in the breast, or poked in the eye. But Tally taught them a valuable lesson! One, don't pick a fight you really don't want to win; and two, always show mercy to the defeated. She personally brought her classmates alcohol, painkillers, bandages -- whatever they needed. She hoped through graduation that they all listened to Lesson Two more than One...

But her extended family was not as pleased with the outcome of her graduation as she was. Perhaps that was because she was marked by Coyote to change and here she was, 18, not yet changed. But the elders were patient and Sadzi didn't worry much either way. Tally was concerned, but she decided to go on with her life. She knew if Coyote wanted her to change she would, and there was no sense whining to God about what you don't have -- that's a sure way of never getting it! So Tally took her diploma and good grades and outgoing nature and moved to Flagstaff to attend the Coconino Community College. She began study to become a licensed nurse but found herself deeply disturbed by even this small city's troublesome atmosphere. The...apathy...she felt in the urban center chilled her to the bone. She found herself smiling and laughing a lot less than she once did, but she never fell victim to that sickness.

First Change & Tutelage

And so only one year later, Tally returned home to visit her family and ponder her future. That was when the elder Nuwisha who had taken the most interest in her life visited with her and summoned her to the top of a mesa one beautiful, clear night. Star's Shadow, she was called. Tally entrusted the old Latrani with all she had witnessed in Flagstaff and how it made her feel inside. The Nuwisha smiled. "Look to the stars, child." She pointed. And Tally looked and saw the stars. And just as she did, a shower of meteors swept through the black sky. Tally grinned and laughed once more, clapping like a five year old girl in excitement.

When she turned around to thank Star's Shadow, the old coyote was gone. Tally blinked and looked again to the sky. One star was shining brighter than ever. A supernova? But this was Tally's moment of truth. That's no supernova, it's a space station!!! Not quite. But she was slack-jawed in equal awe and even fear. The star was calling out to her. She heard her name distinctly on the wind and watched the light pulse with every syllable. She closed her eyes and listened. And Coyote breathed his gift into her soul with every word: "Go forth, child. You are Nuwisha. Bring joy to the sorrowful. Teach humility to the proud. Take solace to the pained."

And Tally opened her eyes with a newfound expression of true peace. Behind her now stood Star's Shadow, Sadzi Dances-With-Luna, Dyami, Anaba Brings-the-Peyote, Kuzih Sweetcloud, and a hunched old figure in the background she suspected was Old Man Manyskins. And all of them were in the Manabozho form -- and Tally was only vaguely shocked that she was, too. Sadzi smiled: "Let the real education begin, my daughter."

Tally began to learn the ways of living life as Nuwisha and did so avidly. All plans to make a human life had faded away. But she took the education she acquired to heart. She wanted to genuinely help people. Her Rite of Passage, she learned, was an observation of how she handled herself since leaving to Flagstaff and to the moment of her First Change. Erratic, sure -- but Nuwisha are always so. She adapted to her multiple forms, priding Latrani especially. She enjoyed running across the plateaus and through the canyon and by the river. She serenaded Luna every night but the new moon, where she pondered her future, her goals as Nuwisha, and her purpose in life.

For one year, Tally honed her Nuwisha skills before finally participating in a ceremony that Star's Shadow led, binding her to a face of Coyote. And naturally, she picked up the ways of Kishijoten. Star's Shadow complimented her choice and whispered that if she did well, she would one day speak well of her to the mysterious Umbral Dansers beyond. Tally did seem to have an affinity for crossing the Gauntlet, but the young coyote simply accorded that to her upbringing and exposure to matters mysterious and spiritual.

Early Years

Taking up the role of mercy-bringer, Tally was accorded the title name of "True Rain (from Kishijoten)". She began to travel near and far, always keeping her homeland a secret from outsiders. She encountered Garou for the first time, particularly of the Wendigo, and spent many days and nights among their hunters, warriors, and mystics. She shared what she could, but her wisdom-through-laughter did not appeal to the often-too-serious Garou. She tried her best but nevertheless watched as many strong Warriors of Gaia turned down paths of hate or sorrow. She lived off and on among the Wendigo for a time.

Then in 1997, Tally was witness to the rising of the Thunderwyrms on one disastrous evening. Many Garou of the Sept of the Painted Sands fell that night to those vast, terrible monsters. Tally wept as she dragged many good men and women, dying, from that desert battlefield while the monsters largely went unharmed by the unprepared Garou. There was little she could do for her best friend of that place. Behind a boulder, she cradled Kaya Stormbank in her arms. The broken and bloody body of the proud, quiet warrior-woman was beyond healing. Kaya's final words haunted Tally the next night and every day since: "Why weren't we good enough to win?" Tally could only crack a comforting smile from tear-stained cheeks and say in return: "We are good enough. There is always tomorrow night." It was a lame attempt to convince Kaya to stay alive. It didn't work, and Tally cried harder while brokenly commending Kaya's spirit to the earth.

But that was event was not enough to dissuade Tally from the road of Kishijoten. She returned to Monument Valley not long after. She found that many good Nuwisha had perished fighting the Thunderwyrms, too, including the brave and venerable Dyami. She embraced her mother and two exchanged tales and tears. But the horror wasn't over. The Thunderwyrms were coming back to the Grand Canyon and this time the survivors had to be prepared. Old alliances were called upon, great spirits summoned, fetishes dug out of closets, and steel slid from leather sheathes. The Nuwisha and Wendigo marched together to confront that menace, flanked by great spirits and powerful human shamans.

The battle waged was considered by human authorities as an earthquake. Many good men and women died that night. The Thunderwyrms had returned with their own allies: two packs of the horrifying and insane Black Spiral Dancers. Even now, that night remains a brief, bloody blur to Tally. The young Nuwisha was really over her head, but every warrior was needed. She fought little, but remembers vaguely a bat-earred freak of a werewolf charging at her as she dragged her wounded mother off the cracked earth to a spot among the brush where she could heal. Deftly, she tripped the bastard and sent him flying several feet through the air -- to be skewered on her mother's purposely extended spear. The silver tip quite effectively slew the Dancer.

However, it drew his packmates' attention to Tally and Sadzi's position. The bastards gradually disengaged from a pack of Wendigo as a thrashing Thunderwyrm turned its massive attention on the Garou. And the Dancers rushed Tally and Sadzi as they tried to retreat further away, intent on avenging their pack leader. They would have, too, had they counted on the potency of human sorcery. The shaman summoned a great tornado of spiritual wrath, which swept across the desert, tearing all of the Earth's foes in its path to pieces -- little wolf-men and giant Thunderwyrm alike. The effort put the shaman in a coma he wouldn't rise from for months, but that brave act changed the tide of the battle. The Wendigo broke from that dying monster when the tornado quite efficiently smashed it into multiple pieces. And their spears and tomahawks fell upon most of the remaining Black Spiral Dancers: all but one. Outraged, it broke the line and chased down Tally and Sadzi. In spite of her mother's warnings, Tally stood to protect her mother. The werewolf fell upon her, tearing and rending. Tally screamed, but she grabbed a hold of the bastard's deformed flaps of flesh and wouldn't let go. The Dancer soon fell upon the injured Sadzi, his Rage giving him too great a speed and fury for the inexperienced and wounded Nuwisha to counter. Tally watched with horror as her impotent blows failed to stop the bastard from tearing open her mother's throat.

And that night, that moment, Tally decided to start returning the favor of these brutal, bloody lessons. Her Manabozho teeth sank into the bastard's neck when he left himself exposed to deliver that fatal blow to Sadzi. Blood spurted like a fountain as she bit clean through the bastard's carotid artery. With a yip, the Dancer fell. Tally tore through the bastard's neck until the head was nearly severed and only then did she back away on all fours. She turned her bloody muzzle to the moon and howled, and such a long and mournful sound she made that night.

When the battle was won, the survivors returned home. The dead were buried and Tally slept. Had she fallen to Harano? Some feared it was so, but Star's Shadow reassured them all otherwise. Tally slept to dream. She dreamed of the stars. She dreamed of her mother, and of Coyote. Kishijoten's path was no longer right for her. She began to see the bloody muzzle raised to the moon every night, and so she went to Star's Shadow to ask what aspect of Coyote that might be. Loki, the elderly mystic explained, was inviting Tally to take up the vicious prankster ways. She would teach lessons in blood and leave mercy to those that had could afford it.

So Tally joined with Loki. She went back among the Garou, taking Kaya's words to heart. She brawled with even the hardiest Ahroun, teaching them the difference between honorable battle and victorious battle as only a New Moon trickster could. With all the Nuwisha's fighting ways under her belt, blooded by one of the most vicious shapechanger battles ever on American soil, and with renewed vigor and passion for life, Tally was of no small consequence. She learned to laugh again, even when it was at her opponents' missteps and falls.

But in spite of that new war-like path, Tally was still a nurturer at heart. It was hidden deep under anger at her losses and a keener sense of revenge against the Worm. While many followers of Loki offer only their enemies' blood in sacrifice, Tally offered her blood, too. She had come to believe that Loki, and all totems of war, liked blood-shedding no matter what side it was on. She served Loki in a strange way -- she served Loki in a belief that she could help sate the hunger for war. Many opponents can remember her saying aloud after they scored a bloody hit: "Did you like that, you bastard?" Some assumed she was talking to them, nodded their sadistic assent, and assaulted again -- and often ended up on their asses after that. With a smirk, Tally would kick them while they lay prone and taunt: "I wasn't talking to you, dumbass." So she earned the title, "Bleeds-for-Loki".

Recent Years

As Tally grew older, she wandered farther from home. Her travels ranged as far as the entire West Coast, past the Rio Grande into Mexico, to Manitoba, and as far east as the Ohio River. She observed many different people, many different follies, and fought many different kinds of fights. She rarely met other Nuwisha, but that was just the way of things. It was one night in Chicago's Chinatown that she first heard tales of people who could turn into foxes and back. Intrigued, she first thought it was a fallacy and that there were perhaps Nuwisha or fox-like Garou in Asia.

So she returned home for a visit with family and inquired this of Star's Shadow. The Latrani laughed and told her then of the Kitsune. She didn't say much, however -- only that the so-called Nine Tails were much like Nuwisha, just a little more vicious. Well, that floated Tally's boat. Loki's Coyotes were the most vicious of the bunch. She wondered how to find them without having to go to Asia, and decided to peek into American Little Tokyos, Chinatowns, and Little Asias. She began with Chicago but came up empty. She started to head to California, but she saw a commerical for tourism in Kansas City's Little Asia. So they had something besides the Chiefs? Cooooool! Off Bleeds-for-Loki went in search of the elusive Kitsune, more laughs, more action, and a new world of shit.

Weakness
Road of Joyful Revenge


The events that turned Tally from following Kishijoten to Loki also planted a bitter seed. Though far from a state of hatred or Harano, Tally is nonetheless enjoying her role in "pranking" the Wyrm as often and messily as possible. She must be careful that her aggressive notions do not over either common sense or her continued maturity and learning. She could make an impressive Umbral Danser one day -- but not if she's dead or corrupted.

Likelihood of Corruption


Low.

Sure, she's a capricious and bloody follower of Loki's vicious ways. But she's not a mindless berserker, nor given to flying into mad rages like her Garou cousins. Corrupting Tally would be easier far more directly through the approach of a Bane -- not that that is easy. After all, it's hard to suffer the Curse of Rage if you don't feel and have Rage.

Links

Character Stats

Character Profiles

Coalition of Little Asia

E-mail me!

Main Character Hub

Back to Game Hub