Pachi's Delivery Service

Pachi

Background:

Pachi was originally a shrike in one of reynke-populated world. Days by days, she spent her life just like any other shrikes: sleeping at night, hunting at day, collect impaled preys and having fun being courted by male shrikes.

One day, she got trapped by a hunter and sold to a familiar-maker - a specialist in creating and training animal-turned familiars according requests. Through special living enchantments, the mindless bird who acted purely on its instinct was magnificently transformed into a half-bird  girl who could feel emotion and gain the ability to learn. Pachi was the name given to her by the familiar-maker.

For the first few years after transformation, she was strictly trained to know how to read, write as well as necessary social skills so that she could interact with other people and blend into the society. Eventually, Pachi became more "tamed" and could get along well with other people.

When her social interaction was good enough, Pachi was sent to a post office that originally demanded a bird-based familiar, which was her, and began her job as a flying post girl, who delivered letters, messages and packages between settlements. Pachi loved the job, as it gave her the freedom to fly everywhere, make friends and drink with many people in far and further places. Her devotion to her job and her friendliness earned her popularity among people, especially children.

Pachi would continue to live her life in peace and happiness until the day she was gone, if it was not for a fateful event. In a stormy night, she was on her job delivering an urgent medicine package to a mountainside village. A white flash of lightning appeared striking a tree near her, accompanying with deafening roar of thunder. The dimension distorted, and Pachi was sent to Felarya.

Lost and helpless, Pachi would have been an easy prey, if she did not met a man-sized harpy tribe, who also welcomed her warmly with traditional verbal insults. Her life in Felarya began like that.

More years had passed since she first arrived to this harsh world, and Pachi managed to adapt well to her new lifestyle. There was no one prepared food on a plate for her anymore, and she had to learn how to hunt her own meal with the patient instructions of her friends. Pachi was considered to be a "miserable feathered clown in human clothes who has no future and will soon drop dead" among her harpy friends. Additionally, living with verbally-abusing harpies let her learn how to speak like them too, but she managed to keep her polite speech, just in case.

Despite that Pachi had been used to live like a wild harpy in Felarya, she still missed her old life. Pachi missed her old job as a post girl too. Maybe living in a native settlement could give her those old feelings back, but Pachi was scared parted way with her friends.

Another fateful day came to her. While hunting with her friend, a giant harpy appeared and attacked them. The harpy then turned to chase after Pachi. Eventually, Pachi's stamina could not keep up, and she fell through canopies.

Pachi woke up at nighttime. While trying to find away to go back to her home, Pachi discovered that there was a settlement nearby. It was a strange one, as it seemed to not very well-hidden from predators. Curiously, she sneakily checked around, observing people doing their activities, feeling missing her happy past. But, she had to return to her new family.

There was hill nearby, and Pachi flew uphill, hoping to have a better view on the surroundings, and discovered a house that was designed similarly to ones in her world. Curiously, Pachi went inside, and met a four-tailed reynke lady whose name was Youko. Youko listened to her story, and let her rested at the house for that night.

The next morning, Pachi learned from Youko that she could return to her world via a dimensional portal in a city called Negav. However, Pachi must earn that ticket to home by herself, because the trip to Negav via the sky route, though short, was a perilous one. Youko offered to teach Pachi magic  to improve her chance of survival, and Pachi accepted.

One year later, Pachi was ready. Youko gave her a letter with her seal, so that Negavian people would let her use the gate and enter the outer ring if she wanted. In exchange for the training, the lady asked her to deliver a present to an acquaintance of hers in Negav.

With the aid of her hard-learned magic, Pachi managed to arrived to Negav safely. She delivered the lady's gift to an inu whose name was Dalia. The smiling face of the recipient made her heart fluttered in warmness.

Through the gate, Pachi returned home, and was shocked at what she witnessed. The bird-girl just had left home for more than a decade, and everything had changed drastically. The peaceful rural village of hers had been urbanlizated beyond recognition along with its people.

The more she tried to know more about her home, the more she found it alien. Familiar-making was banned, and post girl was no longer an available job. Pachi had no choice but to work hard, barely earned three meals per day.

After a few months working like a mindless puppet, Pachi sadly realized that the home she had yearned for was long gone under the cruelness of time. Nothing here left for her to long for anymore, so she decided to go back to Felarya.

In Felarya, Pachi met Dalia again. The inu invited her to stay at her place and had some drink. She cheerfully told the inu her tales, and went sobbing as she remembered the unwelcoming home of hers.

The next morning, Pachi felt so refreshed for letting all of her bottled feeling out, and was ready to make her long flight back to her friends. Dalia asked her to deliver a gift back to the lady to return the favor before. Dalia also gave Pachi a never-fall post office hat. With smiles and hugs, they parted.

Pachi visited Youko and delivered the gift, which was turned out to be the lady's favourite food. Her heart fluttered in happiness again, as she witnessed how joyful the lady had become. As she revealed that she wanted to become a post girl again, Youko said that Pachi was in luck, as the mailing system in Felarya was still pretty much in primitive state, so some people would love to use her delivery service.

Parting with the lady again, she went back to the harpy tribe, worrying that she would experience the feeling of lost again. She wondered if the tribe was still there, or they had been eaten to the last. Fortunately, the tribe survived and thrived, and they warmly welcomed the surprising return of their long-lost member.

A few month later, Pachi returned to Negav. With the help of Youko and Dalia, Pachi opened a post office named "Pachi's Delivery Service" in Motamo Dock. From now onward, she accepted orders to deliver goods and letters from people to other settlements located in the wilderness of Felarya. The magic that she learned from the reynke lady and the never-fall post office hat gifted by her friend were Pachi's tools of trade, allowing her to be elusive to dangers to deliver goods and smiles to people, until some predator was lucky and skilled enough to outwit her.

But that was another story, which had not yet come.


Appearance:

Pachi's appearance looks like a small Felaryan man-sized harpy. She has feathered wings instead of arms up to her shoulders, and her lower body was pair of brown bird-like legs with black talons. For her weight, she's pretty light due to her bone structure which is designed for flying.

The plumage on her wings have three different color layers: the outer layer is blackish, the middle one is brownish, and the innermost one is cream. The feather layers on her tail also follow the same fashion. Meanwhile, from her knees up to above her crotch is covered with cream-colored feathers, well hiding her private parts against curious eyes.

Pachi's eyes are in hazel color, and have the sharpness of a bird of prey , and also a hint of mischief. Her hair is brownish like the middle of her wings, and is tied into two side twin tails with two red string ribbons. On her head is a never-fall post office hat in dark green color with the brass letter "P", which stands for both "Pachi" and "Post".

When talking with people from above, her lips often forms a mischievous glee, which she often half-hides behind her right wing, if she's currently land on a perch.
About clothes, Pachi are often seen wearing a sleeveless hakama shirt in the same dark green color with her hat, together with a burgundy-colored obi tied with a simple red string. For her pants, she does not wear any. Still, the plumage on her lower half covers her private part nicely.

When she's on delivery request, she has an old and tattered brown strap bag slung over her shoulder, which has the symbol of post office sew on, and is used to contain food, water, letters, and other necessary survival tools.



Personality:

Pachi is a quirky sort, really talkative and move around a lot when she talks, either walking around the person to who she's talking while geturing her wings, or flying from one perch to another. Like a real harpy, she mostly talks regardless of consequence and speaks of what she thinks to be funny, even though it may sound not really funny, or even annoying, to the listener.

Additionally, Pachi is pretty much immune to verbal abuse, making her not easily be provoked, allowing her to calmly counter-insult to annoy people. She maintains a safe distance to strangers to prevent being attacked, though.

Due to her behavior, she sometimes accidentally chases away her potential customers or gets into trouble as people mistake her for trying to insult them, especially when she's drunk. Still, she rarely apologizes for people, thus creating a barrier between her and normal-tongued people. Pachi's aware of the barrier, but the fun makes her not think much about it.

Toward strangers who approach her, Pachi is both curious and cautious, especially when they are cusomers. If you can get over her habit of occasionally swearing like a harpy and being an energetic annoyer, Pachi can become a pleasant and devoted friend.

Pachi loves moon-gazing parties, where she enjoys drinking with her friends. She adores any kind of liquor, especially reynke-made sake. The problem is that she does not hold her liquor very well, and a drunk Pachi is pretty much a Three-step Disaster, who flies around, speak rubbish in harpy langague, and cause minor mischiefs everywhere. Most of taverns and alcohol-sellers in Motamo Dock has blacklisted her for this very reason.

While Felaryan harpies often fuss about mating, it's the only thing that Pachi cannot well-adapt too. For someone who does not mind being pant-less and seen naked, Pachi will innocently blush and act awkwardly if someone flirts or makes sexual jokes on her.

Pachi believes in happy ending, and is weak against heart-touching stories that customers tell her when they ask for her service. Such stories motivate her a lot in her job.

For her job as a post girl around Felarya, she is a diligent worker who manages her post office in Motamo Dock and delivery to other places in and outside of Isolon Eye's protection all by herself. If there's something urgent that needs to be sent as soon as possible, Pachi will immediately be on her way, even in late night or during a storm. Still, her service is not always perfect. There are many times she loses her delivery, or arrive late to her destination because she has to dodge Felarya's danger along the way.

Pachi has succeeded her jobs many times, but her business is still young and unreliable. Sometimes, she has to use her meager earning to pay for failed delivery, so she's pretty much dirt poor. Still, she believes her job is delivering smiles, and is devoted in making people feel happy. Her diligence is being paid slowly, as she has managed to make a few loyal customers and drinking buddies here and there.

While many adults dislike her, Pachi is pretty popular among children in Motamo Dock, who are fascinated by her mischievous attitude. Some of them are her frequent customers who often ask her to deliver something small like candies, books... for free.

However, Pachi refuses to deliver anything illegal or against her moral code. She's very doubtful of shady delivery requests that offer high payment, and will not accept them until she knows what she supposes to deliver. If she's ever tricked to do such requests and discover it, she will immediately abandon the job and find a way to punish the senders.

When seeing someone in need, Pachi often tries to be helpful to people, as long as it's something she can do without risking her life. Pachi knew clearly that if she wants to survive in Felarya, she sometimes has to turn a blind eye on people in distress in the wilderness. But, if it's not too late to help someone, she will try her best.

Originally a bird, Pachi loves collecting things. It may be everything, from a pretty pebble to a colorful wig, especially shiny objects. When she sees something fancying her, she will have trouble to avert her gaze from it. When she somehow obtains the item she'll be overjoyed, and add it to her post office , which is decorated eccentrically and crampedly by her collection, making it look like a bird nest rather than an office.

Ability:

Even though Pachi looks like a harpy from outside, she's not a real harpy. Her origin is a shrike that is enchanted to take harpy-like form and gain intelligence by a familiar-maker. Her body was modified again by the reynke lady Youko in Felarya to enable the ability to use magic, helping her to be elusive against predators.

Pachi has a hard time to use her magic. Her mana capacity is poor and her spell power is not great either, so offensive magic is a no go for her. However, surprisingly, she's well-adapt to illusion magic, which allows her to create her own illusionic copies to distract predators or hostile people, and blend herself into environment to avoid dangers, as long as she stands still and keeps quiet.

However, like having mentioned above Pachi has limited mana capacity, so she cannot abuse her magic very often or too long, or she will risk exhausting herself.

Her flying speed is above average. Like other harpies, she does not do well in rainy weather.

Even though Pachi does not have hands to hold things, her bird legs act as amazing substitutes. Her legs are flexible and skilled enough to write and draw, either with pen or with brush, to turn pages of a book, to pick something small like a flat skevol coin, or even to knit something nice with yarn in her free time.

Pachi is not easily to be provoked, but when she is, grace yourself. Depend on how much you piss her off, she will either verbally abuse you with harpy language, go into a brawl where her sharp talons can give you a few nice scars, or harass you with her fake copies.



Weakness:

Pachi is an animal-turned creature with enchantment spells. For the reason, she's weak against anti-magic, which can erase her enchantment. Entering anti-magic environment and being touched by anti-magic items weakens her, make her feel greatly uncomfortable and sluggish than usual and. Depend on which enchantment gets damaged, she may lose the ability to speak, to feel emotion, or to restrain her instinct. In extreme case, her own existence may get threatened to the point of reverting back to her orginal form - a small and vulnerable female shrike.

When Pachi get reverted, she still maintains her intelligence and memory, as these two things are core enchantments, which are imbued so deeply into her body that only very powerful anti-magic can remove them. Erasing them will turn her back to a mindless bird without memory, ending the existence of Pachi the shrike-girl.

However, as long as the two core enchantments are intact, she always have chance to recover to her humanoid form if she can reach someone who can fix her.


Diet:

Living in Felarya long enough as wild harpy, Pachi can hunt and forage food to feed herself. She isn't very picky about what to eat, and most of Felarya edible food is thankfully tasty.

Still, since her limbs are not ideal to cook and have food used with utensil, Pachi prefer something that she can picked up with her legs and thrown straight to her mouth. Maybe it's about her instinct as a shrike, but she fancies grilled food on a skewer.

In the wild where there is no cooked food, she forage edible fruits and catches small animals. Surprisingly, for a nice girl like her, Pachi feels no qualm to eat tinies, thanks to the "education" of her harpy friends saying that it's okay to eat them.

Pachi likes the taste and squirming that these tasty speaking morsels make inside her stomach. Her habit of doing verbal pranks makes her often tease her food before eating. Though it's rare, when she feels safe enough, or her preys piss her off, she will use her magic to aid her hunting, such as blow preys up to the air with wind, make them crawl with weight-shifting magic, or confuse and ambush them with illusion. Still, if she's not particularly hungry, she often ignores tinies to focus on what she's doing. I

n places that ban tiny-eating like Negav or in front of friends who are sensitive about this matter, Pachi will refrain herself, as she doesn't want to get in trouble with the law or hurt her friends.

There are two things that Pachi does not eat in the wilderness: birds and tiny harpies. Pachi spares the first, since birds remind her when she was still a shrike. For the latter, tiny harpies look so alike her friends, so she does not have a heart to eat them.

Though she has managed to keep it under control, her instinct to impale her preys as a shrike is always itching inside her everytime she catches a prey. Worrying that the instinct will prove troublesome someday if she tries to hold it for too long, once or twice per month, she let herself loose and follows her instinct to impale a few unlucky preys in secret. She only used insect to satisfy her dark desire, though.

I have shortened Pachi's background to half of its original length ^^

I have consolidated the overall wall of text again : p

kk, I'm here...

First of all, Pachi's training took years according to the bio. Was the agency that hired her also the ones that commished her creation, or are they trained first, and then sold to the highest bidder?

As for the magic, I'm not too pleased by the training. That's a whole year of magical training, which gave her way too many abilities, and all for a road she could apparently not circumvent in any other way?

Other than that, I see nothing that stands out to me too much. G'job, I hope you have fun with her.

Stabs wrote:

kk, I'm here...

First of all, Pachi's training took years according to the bio. Was the agency that hired her also the ones that commished her creation, or are they trained first, and then sold to the highest bidder?

As for the magic, I'm not too pleased by the training. That's a whole year of magical training, which gave her way too many abilities, and all for a road she could apparently not circumvent in any other way?

Other than that, I see nothing that stands out to me too much. G'job, I hope you have fun with her.

It is in the original wall-of-text, but I forgot to add it somehow. Pachi was trained by a familiar-maker who acted according to the request of a post office who wanted a delivery girl.

For her magic abilities, I guess I can trim down the weight-reduction and wind ones, which will make her have trouble to deliver overweight parcels. The wind magic was added because it looks fun, but after reconsideration, I think I will cut that part. That's way, she will need to rely on her own physical skills more than occasional buffs from magic.

The main one I want to keep no matter what is the illusion magic, since the one who teaches her this is also a master of illusion herself (well, that's another story). And a harpy with illusion is enough to make mischief around.

Took me a long while, but I finally have time to update the description of her bio, mainly her ability where she focuses on illusion magic ^^