Naive and a more than a little conceited, Tessa is used to getting her way when it comes to her dad and for a long time, she was able to boss her siblings around as well. While Tessa still does her best to avoid jobs that would involve her getting dirty, she is beginning to realize that she needs to do more work than she originally did upon leaving home. She was used to doing very little, but that isn't how being an adult works. It's not how being part of a pack works. Even while she's earning her keep, she likes pretty things and can't understand others who don't want to look nice.
Recognition: Tessa is not one to do something because it's nice or right. She wants others to know what she is doing, how nice her jewelry is, that she decorated for whichever event the pack is putting on, and that she is good at making adornments for clothes and leather goods.
Being Important: More than being recognized, Tessa wants to be recognized as someone who is important. She doesn't want to be remembered as someone who did silly things or for bad things. She wants any good deeds to build up the opinions others have of her.
Fears
Making a Mistake: Tessa hates to be embarrassed, and the easiest way to end up feeling this way is by making a mistake. Not matter how small the mistake, she continues thinking about it long after it's over. While mistakes made in private are not a big deal, anything that happens in front of other canines will stick with her.
Something: something something
Spirituality
Tessa was raised without any particular religion, and she tends to think of them all as superstitions and fairy tales.
Biases
Packs: Tessa prefers more humanized, glamorous packs. Krokar was too country bumpkin for her, but Sapient was nice.
Species: none.
Non-Luperci: Tessa feels sad for non-luperci because they are missing out on a lot of opportunities.
Gender: Tessa tends to see females as competition.
Color: none.
Sexuality: none.
Age: Tessa dislikes young puppies because they are too rambunctious and get her clothes dirty.
Sexuality
Describe your character's sexuality here -- sexual orientation (e.g., heterosexual) isn't enough of a descriptor, by the way! How about their libido (their desire for sexual activity)? How promiscuous are they? Are they monogamous or polygamous? How do they go about obtaining sexual partners (are they a nervous approacher, or a giant flirt)?
Interests
Likes: jewelry, clothes, horses
Dislikes: dirt, messes, uncertainty
Substances
Tessa has only tried alcohol, and so far she likes the appearance of drinking mead or wine, feeling that it makes her seem sophisticated. She does not actually like the alcohol, though.
Kalypso Savoy: Tessa greatly respects for her leadership skills, how she dresses, and how she interacts. Tessa hopes to emulate her even in some small way.
Cidro Amato de la Peña: their interactions started off well enough with Cidro admiring a necklace Tessa was making, but then Cidro ruined Tessa's dress at the 2019 Masquerade Ball by vomiting on her, so Tessa is not quite sure what to make of him now.
Norah Morelli: Tessa already had a low opinion of Norah since she is a former member of Krokar, a backwater pack, in Tessa's opinion. An interaction at Cour des Miracles' 2019 Masquerade Ball cemented their ideas of each other because Norah dared to wear an actual fishnet as part of her dress, which Tessa took great offense to.
Margeaux de la Croix: Despite being sisters, Tessa resents Margeaux's presence. She left Portland in the first place to get away from her siblings, and even now, over a year later, the presence of just one of them is enough to annoy her.
Education and Learning: Most of what Tessa has learned is self-taught through experimentation, although she also learned some of the various related skills, such as tying the right knots, while living in Portland.
Design (Journeyman): Tessa enjoys design, and tries to make her pieces as fancy as possible, however she also understands the concept of simple elegance. Her designs often have feathers and rolled metal beads, which she tries to make as shiny as possible.
Metalworking (Dabbler): the most Tessa can do is heat metal enough that it is pliable, allowing her to roll it into a shape that can be used as a bead.
Bead Embroidery (Apprentice): this is a skill Tessa decided to pick up in early 2019 as a way to branch out and make herself more useful.
Tessa's designs are unique, which she likes, however it also means that they won't necessarily appeal to all of her possible trade partners. She struggles to branch out into different types of designs.
While stitching beads onto fabric or leather, her stitches tend to be uneven, and the finished pieces tend to have inconsistent tension, so some areas seem to droop a little more than others.
Horse Husbandry
Education and Learning: how'd your character learn this?
Grooming (Master): describe skill
Riding (Master): describe skill
and over here go some weaknesses~
4.2 Inventory
Trade
blah blah blah
Offering: what kind of stuff does your character trade?
Accepting: what do they want?
Items
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5. History
5.1 Overview
Pre-Souls
There were one puppy born alongside Tessa who died shortly after birth, leaving her to be raised for the first many months of her life as an only puppy. She had the undivided attention of both her parents, as well as much of their extended family. Then the unthinkable happened: her parents decided to have another litter. Conditions were better for this one: more food, less stress for her mother, and so five healthy puppies were born, and only one stillborn.
At first, Tessa was excited about the siblings. It meant she could be in charge of someone. Unfortunately, it did not work out this way. She felt like she was scolded at every turn by her stressed parents and quickly came to resent her siblings and felt pushed aside. In reality, her parents were doing the best they could to provide for their suddenly large family without bothering their extended family too much.
Tessa took to ignoring them whenever possible, along with her parents, except when her dad was teaching her to ride a horse. It started shortly before her first shift, with him holding her in front of him on the horse, and continued after she gained her bipedal form, when she immediately refused to allow him on the horse with her again.
When she was avoiding her parents, she was playing with puppies of nearby families and pretending her own was great to hide how things really were. She talked up her horse and her ability to ride so soon after shifting. Only two of the other youngsters' parents had horses, and so it made her feel important for the first time in a long time. Soon, she created a tighter circles with those who had horses, pushing the others aside. She and the other two girls began to shun them.
As her siblings grew, Tessa's opinion of her home life only grew worse. Now, not only were there five of them, they were nearly the same size as her and loud. During the small amounts of time she spent at home, Tess constantly felt crowded and annoyed. All she wanted to do was move out and never live with them again, but she was unable to provide enough food for herself and her horse at the same time to do so.
One day as she was taking care of her horse, her father approached her and informed her that he wanted to go on a trip with her. She thought he meant just a trip up the coast to visit some traders who had apparently taken over an old ship and called it the Old Ironsides Depot, somewhere she had wanted to go for quite a while. Unfortunately, the Depot was only one stop on the way, as he explained, and the trip would be taking them into the wilderness. Something about wanting her to see what she had at home and bond with her with some father-daughter time. The idea of sleeping outdoors was not Tessa's idea of fun, nor was getting dirty.
Unfortunately, she had little choice but to listen to what her father said since her mother agreed that it was a good idea. The other pups were old enough now that their mother could handle them on her own for a while, with some help from the family. The one bright point was that she would be away from her siblings. Begrudgingly, Tessa left with her father. The Old Ironsides Depot was not what she was expecting. It was small and had a lot of livestock, which smelled. However she got her father to trade for several pieces of jewelry for her, along with a dress. He insisted she did not need it, but she didn't care. The combined weight of the goods was not too much for her horse to handle, along with the dried meats and other supplies they had brought along.
After leaving the Depot, they spent many days traveling, and Tessa largely refused to speak to her father. They met other canines along the way and Tessa decided she wanted to look at the other packs once they started smelling border markings. Her father was resistant because he wanted to start heading home soon but eventually agreed. Their first stop was Krokar, which Tessa disliked, except that she got to see her cousin, Marla de la Croix. It was also nice not to be sleeping on the cold, hard ground. Their stay here was, thankfully, not very long.
From there, they continued on and eventually came upon Cour des Miracles. The pack immediately interested Tessa, although she was looking at it largely through rose colored glasses. She decided to stay, based on an idealized version of the pack that she built up in her mind, and after a couple of days, her father had to leave to get back home. Tessa became an official member of the court.
Tessa's time at the Court got off to a rocky start, joining during a time when the pack was rebuilding from an attempted coup. Thankfully things seemed to improve from there, with a birthday party. For a long time, she was not quite sure what to do with herself and was really a bit of a mooch off of the pack. She made jewelry out of the goods she came with, trying to improve her skill, but for the most part, she did not do much of anything.
She did eventually begin interacting more with the other members of the pack, enough that she was able to finally be promoted out of the joining rank. It made her want to do more within the pack, and the real turning point was a masquerade ball in January 2019. Kalypso asked her to decorate for it and she was very proud of how the decorations turned out, and a conversation with Cedric Stryder during the ball made her truly realize how little she did. This made her think long and hard about how she could earn her place in the pack, along with recognition for what she could create. That was really the high point in the evening, and it was all downhill from there, ending with Cidro Amato de la Peña vomiting on her dress, ruining it.
Unfortunately, she never got the chance to put any of her budding plans into action. The Court was attacked by a group of loners, and in the midst of all the drama, her sister, Margeaux de la Croix showed up at the border, only to be turned away by Tessa. Tessa helped the pack how she could, but, when it became clear that the situation was far more dangerous that initially thought, she left with a group that was heading to Portland. Tessa did not want to head back there, though, and so when she caught Margeaux's scent, she split off from the group so search her out.
Tessa and Margeaux did not stay as loners for long. Fearing that the group of loners would return, the pair headed to the borders of Casa di Cavalieri, hoping to make a new, safe home. After joining, they settled into their shared room (to Tessa's dismay), and started integrating themselves into the pack. Tessa discovered that Cidro now lived in Casa as well.
As she got to know the pack, Tessa decided what she wanted to focus on, which was her ability to create jewelry. She still helped out in the stables and spent time with her horse, Small, but otherwise much of her time was put towards jewelry making, whether she was scavenging for components, creating and dismantling various designs, or creating pieces to wear to Casa's events.
2018
January
Pitstop (Late January) Tessa and her father, Warren de la Croix stop in Krokar because they are familiar with the Krokaran who are in Portland, and because Tessa's cousin, Marla de la Croix lives there. They are greeted by Milos Parhelion and Marla, and allowed to stay in the pack for a few nights.
I'd Like to Stay (Mid March) After staying for a little while, Tessa decides that she would like to stay in Cour des Miracles when her Dad decides it's time to head back home to Portland. She finds Abigail Sadira and asks to join the pack.
Not a Word From Your Lips (Mid July) Leadership has decided that the pack will be moving out of the hotel and building new houses. Even though Tessa is not happy with this because she doesn't want to do the work of building herself a house, she knows it would look bad if she didn't pitch in, so she shows up while Harrison is at work. Odalis and Alouette Moineau are there, too. (A New Horizon project)
Somehow, This Hell is Home (Mid November) Tessa slips and falls in some mud. This is unfortunately witnessed by Kalypso Savoy, Reblin, and Mottle. Thankfully Kalypso suggests washing off in the warm water of a nearby lake.
2019
January
At the Last (Early January) Tessa visits Kalypso Savoy, who shows her the dress she's going to wear to the ball and offers to loan Tessa something as well. (Masquerade ball)
Deck the Halls (Early January) Tessa helps decorate for Cour des Miracles' masquerade ball, which she is very excited about. (Masquerade ball)
The Sublime (January 12) Dressed in her best, Tessa arrives at the masquerade ball. She is very proud of her mask, which she created from birch bark, feathers, strung wooden beads, and metal bits. (Masquerade ball)
Burn Down Slowly (January 12) Tessa meets Norah Morelli, who has the nerve to wear an actual fishnet as part of her of her dress. The two have a somewhat unpleasant conversation. (Masquerade ball)
Stop, Thief! (January 12) As if Tessa's night couldn't get worse, a party crasher steals her bracelet. Tessa gets it back with help from Toraberā Tanaka. (Masquerade ball)
[M]Love Fool (January 12) To end her night at the ball, Tessa walks in on an orgy in progress. She promptly turns around and heads home.
[M]Rest and Relaxation (January 13) The day after the ball, Tessa gets rid of her ruined dress and then relaxes in the warm water of the former hot springs while deciding what she wants to do with her life.
[M]Continental (Late January) While riding along the border, Tessa finds a pair of loners. Skoll Haskel comes to fight them off. Tessa tries to help, though she is mostly useless and ends up fainting.
Balanced on a Shelf (Late January) Tessa is attempting to put together a shelving unit in the new workshop. Riddle Damaichu shows up and tries to help even though she is a puppy too young to shift. (A New Horizon project)
March
To What End (March 10) Tessa is called to the border by her sister, Margeaux de la Croix, who has arrived for an unexpected visit. Unnerving things have been happening in the pack, and so Tessa tells her to leave, both to keep her safe and because Tessa does not want any of her siblings living with her at the Court.
The First Sign of Spring (Early April) Tessa and Margeaux attend a Mentor Ceremony in Casa di Cavalieri.
Face the Facts (April 11) A member of Casa di Cavalieri has been missing for some time. Luca Knight has made the difficult decision that they should assume that she has died.
Face the Facts (Mid April) Tessa finds that a very injured Cidro Amato de la Peña has joined the pack. Despite his still-healing injuries and apparently poor mental state, Tessa is glad to see a familiar face.
Dumb and Dumber (Late July) Tessa is practicing with a club when Cidro Amato de la Peña comes upon her. He initially thinks she's injured due to the sounds she was making.
August
Part of Us (Mid August) Tessa attends a Mentor Ceremony. The pack's other member named Tessa becomes a mentor, causing her to wonder what it would be like if she was called up.
Wood & Wire (Late August) While scavenging for jewelry supplies, Tessa finds a small den that might have something interesting inside.
Celebrate Eachother (October 20) Tessa and Margeaux join other members of Casa di Cavalieri to welcome their guests to the Diplomacy Summit. (2019 Diplomacy Summit)
Baiting the Dragon (Mid November) While out scavenging for jewelry components, Tessa finds Tristan Callow starting a descent into the Dragon Tail Trail. Despite the danger, she decides that she wants to go, too, in case there's anything interesting down there to find.
Kick Rocks (Mid November) Tessa and Margeaux are out scavenging for jewelry components.
