Appearance
Adult Form
Child Form
- Height: 7'2" (Adult); 2'8" (Child).
- Body: Androgynous. Barely defined body features. Two pairs of arms. Legs transition into clouds. Extremely light.
- Face: Rounded square head. Bat-like ears with rainbow interiors. Rainbow horns. Right horn is longer than the left.
- Eyes: Rainbow eyes that look to always be crying.
- Hair: Cloud-like. Same color as their body. The interior is rainbow.
- Voice: Voice sounds distant and close as if it's coming from multiple places at once. It also sounds like multiple people of various genders and ages speaking the same thing at slightly different times. The voices match Sela's body, so child form sounds like children, adult form sounds like adults.
- Clothing: None.
Personality
Inconsistent: Sela is a jumbled up being. They can be withdrawn and quiet. Bombastic and filled with energy. Naive or perceptive. As their personality changes, their body does too. If they're feeling childish, they'll take on a child's body. If they only want to go off of instincts, they'll look like an animal. If they want to be respected as an adult, they'll use an adult's body.
Childish: Sela was never raised by anyone, only learning lessons and important life experiences from the memories they gathered. The most consistent traits they have are being animal-like and childish. Either they view people as predators or prey, or they follow their emotions and do as they please. Despite this, Sela doesn't really want to hurt anyone. They have a sadism streak for sure, but the small amount of compassion they have makes them aware that hurting people won't score them any points. They're just too used to the life they've been leading to think of anything else. Now that they're on Manta Carlos, they're able to get the food they need much more easily.
Curious: Memories from people Sela eats gives them plenty of information they likely would never have had access to, but it's nothing compared to actually experiencing something yourself. Sela is indirect with their curiosity. After years of needing to hide to avoid getting in trouble, it's easier to shrink themself down and watch people from a corner.
Chaotic Dumbass: Sela is full of knowledge gained from other people. The assumption would be that they're smart, and in some ways, they are. They're very creative and good at noticing things most people would overlook. That doesn't make them good at analysis. Sela has never been trained in logic and how to put their knowledge into action. Their psychology is also different enough from humans that it makes empathizing with them a near-impossible task. If asked to explain the actions of a character in a book, Sela would give a simplistic observation with inconsistent logic that matches their worldviews or what they think the questioner wants to hear.
Biography
Sela was born from space as a soul with no body. Fueled by the desire for company, food, and sleep, they created themself a body and wandered aimlessly. Sometimes it took months to meet anything living, sometimes years. Every time they met a creature, they would playfully interact with them before eating. The memories and emotions they gained from their experience turned them from an animal with only instincts in mind to an actual person. While their ability to feel compassion for those they killed was still diminished, they realized they couldn't keep going on like this. People would seek them out to kill them. If they haven't already.
Sela never stopped with their eating, as they had no other choice, but they were more inconspicuous about it, only going for those who were alone and far away from civilization.
But they weren't perfect. They were still sloppy. That sloppiness led to one person they kidnapped trapping them in a bottle. For years they stayed in that bottle, unable to escape, only able to have company in their dream world. When Sela woke up every once in a while, they were often in the hands of someone new. As the years went on, the value of their bottle seemed to have decreased, with people only being able to speculate about what was inside.
It took someone on Manta Carlos opening the body to release Sela. They were barely aware that they were outside of the bottle after being trapped for so long, but when they finally realized they were free, they fled the area. That sense of freedom didn't last long. After spending some time in the forest, they began feeling like it was too small for comfort. They tried to escape the island, but no matter how far they flew to the side or up, they always returned to the island somehow.
Before long, they resigned themself to being stuck on the island. After someone noticed they definitely did not have the mindset of a capable adult and had no home, they were brought to Starlight Academy.
Active Abilities
Constellation: Sela is the head of a body they subconsciously split. Jao and Myst are akin to their limbs. It's hard to say they're distinct individuals, but they're not the same either. This comes with some benefits:
- They are mentally connected, allowing them to share memories and telepathically communicate.
- When someone in the Constellation suffers, they all do. Sela's damage directly translates to Jao/Myst. Jao/Myst's suffering does not affect Sela as much, but is still noticeable.
- When Jao/Myst sleep, they return to Sela's dimension. They must leave through Sela to reenter the awake world.
Meditation and focusing on the gradient separating the words they're between allows Sela to access information they should have no way of knowing. Meditation allows Sela some awareness of the outside world with heavily dulled senses.
This information can concern the past, present, future, and dreams. Sometimes this information is vague, lasting a short time or not connecting to all of their senses. Other times this information is so vivid that, when taken out of it, their normal reality feels faker than the one they were seeing.
Black Hole: Sela is always hungry, unable to ever feel full, and tired, being able to sleep for days. By turning a significant portion of their body into a mouth, they can envelop a living creature in their body to slowly drain them of their emotions, memories, and dreams, dissolving them in the process. Absorbing an object's memories is only a snack and cannot sustain them for long. Not eating results in a deep sleep as an alternative to regaining energy.
Eating a living creature makes them a permanent resident of Sela's dimension. All information within that creature will be stored in Sela's library. Similarly, absorbing an object gives Sela its "memories" and a vague idea of the emotions the object gave living creatures.
Storyteller: Benefits can be received by anyone who directly tells an entertaining story (in any medium) meant for Sela. The more entertaining, the stronger the benefits and the longer they'll stay. Benefits include vivid control over their dreams/daydreams and/or a restful sleep/nap/meditation session. Uninteresting stories will receive little to no benefits. An excellent story through creativity will receive a wish from Sela. This wish can grant items, but it cannot directly change anyone but the wisher.La-La's Land: Sela's body is a portal into an infinite dimension where they reign supreme. People and objects can be transported to and fro this dimension. Alternatively, they can summon a doorknob to connect to any surface, turning it into a door to their dimension. What they summon from their dimension can be specified with a thought, and objects that did not get permission to enter will pass through them. Sela must be asleep or meditating to access their dimension.
From this dimension, Sela can open pathways to dreams. With dreams being fickle, they can take a very short or very long time, no matter the distance. Constructs from their dreams and the dreams of others can be brought to and fro.
- People who willingly enter cannot be absorbed.
- For those who are not permanent residents, they can leave by simply willing it. The more they want to leave, the higher the chance they'll find a randomized door. This door either leads out of Sela or through the door the visitor entered through.
- Injuries can be made or healed in their dream world, but all changes will be reversed upon leaving.
- Anything made inside of this dimension cannot be brought to the awake world.
- What's brought from the awake world can be changed, but upon leaving their dimension, it will revert to its previous state.
Limitations
Passive Abilities
Unknown Physiology: Sela is a being of hardened cosmic gas, lacking any sort if internal structure. They are not truly solid, and can be pushed through with enough force, or cut by sharp objects. If cut, their essence will leak, causing their size to shrink and allowing them to be trapped, requiring them to sleep to recover.
Being made of gas, Sela is naturally buoyant, floating just off the ground naturally. They do not walk, instead flying everywhere, and are capable of reaching 60 mph. They cannot submerge themself in water without bobbing to the surface, and any more than a light breeze can blow them away.
Sela's body is ever-changing, capable of taking any shape between 1' and 12' in size. These changes are purely cosmetic: no matter how Sela changes themself, they always have the same general look. Their voice sounds as if it is coming from multiple places at once, although Sela can also mimic the voices of others. Their body also matches their mood: when happy, the stars on their body will shine brightly enough to light up a small room.
Sela's senses are significantly difference from that of a human. While they have excellent hearing, on the level of a predator, and night vision, they have no sense of taste, smell, or touch, except when in a dream world.
Cluster: Reading Sela's species gives no answer or many alien species. Soul-detecting magic will note that Sela has dozens of souls of varying spaces, acquired from their period of eating people. Locating Sela through their soul(s) will also bring up Jao/Myst (if outside of Sela's dimension) as locations.
Narrator: When Sela tells a story, active listeners, readers, or viewers will find themselves in a daydream where they can vividly imagine the story. Based on how the story is told, they can feel like watchers or characters. While it takes a bit of work, it's not hard for people to have their attention broken away, such as from sitting in a very uncomfortable chair or loud music passing by. After experiencing the story, it will stick to them like a memorable dream. Those who are only passively paying attention may not get the full experience or be sucked into the story at all.
Sob Stories: Sela tears are rainbow with the same galaxy look as the rest of their body. They always dissipate before hitting the ground. If caught in a container, they can be drunk for creative inspiration. The tears have no discernible taste but will always taste good. A teacup can give a month of inspiration and lucid dreams, with the side effect being that the consumer will feel an insatiable need to release their ideas somewhere.
Weaknesses
Dreamy: 50% more vulnerable to mental magic. Can't lift past 50 pounds. Is so light a moderate wind make it difficult for them to stay in place. Moving on the ground is clumsy and slow.
Waking Haze: Sela's loose relationship with reality causes them to lose all senses, other than hearing and eyesight, when awake. They can't taste or smell and will experiences a numb sensation when touched.
Resources
Lives at the Starlight Academy dorms and receives an allowance. Has a minder to keep watch over them for when they're more child or animal-minded.
