Art Credits: Adopted from and art by Xenogenessis on DeviantArt

Name: Baishin Sokio Kaiba

Gender: Male, he/him, straight

Age: 30

Origin: Matmata, exiled

Species: Wyldkin / Tainted Feline / Nekomata

Racial Oddities: too feline of an appearance, also two tails

Family: Keep moving, due to Fey Taint, never allowed to remain once they're found*

*Mate: Sivoney Tseo, a jackal sword-dancer, 'kitsune' (fey canine with multiple tails) son Sobumi Kaiba
*Mate: Sola Ravenheart, children **, **, ** (triplets all Kind-born, but not fey tainted so far) 2 live in Bahardi, one in Grotto

Height: 5'7"

Weight: 130

Hair: None, but likes wearing fancy head gear as shown to 'make up for it'

Eyes: fire yellow-orange, too large and too feline, with slight scarring over right eye which seems to be etched with gold?

Appearance: dark grey velvet fur, small scars on upper legs (both), markings in darker grey on feet, shoulders, back, neck, and chest - they are actual markings, their even and geometric look is likely due to Fey influence; backs of ears darker grey; two tails with slightly shaggy ends; prefers black and white clothing as shown, silver jewelry to add to his collection; doesn't tend to wear shoes as they interfere with his balance

Level: 8

Movement: Fast, is extremely nimble and climbs, sprints, and leaps with ease

Quirks: Survival rolls Outrageous chance +3%; Recovers psionic energy +2/hour better; Exiled - cannot be caught in certain cities under penalty of death

Dragondeep Specs

Skills and Profession: An assassin and spy, ever wary of detection from local authorities or those who hunt Fey. Though he is definitely a dark type none of his contacts and connections among the underworld of every city are Fey themselves. He is expert at disguising himself and sneaking about, breaking and entering even the most difficult buildings, and when needed, making sure there are no witnesses.

History: Though his family had once been respected, even holding high office in Matmata, some generations ago the Fey crept into his line. Through his grandmother who posed as a courtesan but wound up murdering clients, this Taint had lingered. Exiled shortly after his birth, the family has had a variety of homes, but remained in none of them longer than a few years at a time. Baishin would love to settle down... but the Fey influence in him is very strong indeed, and he has made a profession out of the dark skills he has flowing through him.

One evening he was relaxing at a seedy club with a reputation for high-class 'hidden' visitors, and among the performers was an incredibly talented dancer. Black furred, a jackal or similar canine Wyldkin, doing a sabre dance with veils and blades in equal number. Captivated, she took note of him staring at her from behind the candles on his table, big eyes unblinking and the same color as the flames.

Her name was Sivoney and he was... for the first time, emotionally invested. He needed to find out more about her. And when he did... it was with the first pure emotion he'd ever truly felt: astonishment. Because she was a dragon rider. And not the local dragons, no. Oh no, goodness not them. Those beastly things. No, her dragon was very different from them in so many ways. Considerably smaller at her adult size, that was certain. More than that though, able to do things that even the great wise dragons here on Dragondeep could: teleport. From this world to another, or even more than one other world.

Baishin's education served him well enough to know that 'worlds' were what was reached through the Portals and Gates here on Dragondeep. So this dragon Odoruth could move through dimensions like those portals? Fascinating. But Sivoney was also quite intriguing herself. She'd been through different... incarnations? Lives? Perhaps just a hidden shapeshifter? Because she claimed she'd been 'furless' and been on worlds that were incredibly varied before reaching this one.

She had an 'in' to a thing, an event, and she wanted him to come with her to it. She'd be performing, and there would be dragons there. Many of them. So he'd be... doing what exactly? He wasn't sure. But when they got there this thing was amazing. Dazzling.

So filled with people, who didn't know him. Who didn't understand what 'fey taint' could even be. Plenty of them who were ... shall we say, less than up and up anyway? In one of the few parts of the venue where you could see the 'dragon side' of things, he stared long and hard at some of those he could glimpse. There truly were a staggering array of 'different' types of these things... People. Creatures. Dragon was such a blanket term.

Am I a blanket? I don't think I look like a blanket.

Baishin looked around suddenly, distracted from watching the Stage show and all the flying flitters or whatever they were. Something had entered his space - no, not space, his mind?

Yes! It is me, just me. Lerrth'Alkar, yours. You are the right one for me. But... am I a blanket though?

From his table near one wall, shared - grudgingly - with a couple other single people whenever they felt like resting from their energetic dancing nearby, Baishin slowly rose to his feet. One of the dancers almost got up with him, thinking he was about to head to the ball floor. But no, she chuckled to herself and sat back down. This grey cat was about to meet a blindingly white cat-like dragonet...

His eyes were as large as they'd ever been, wide with surprise. "You are Lerrth'Alkar," he pronounced it flawlessly the first time. The dragonet nodded. Baishin knelt, this little hatchling was quite small, and would never be a big dragon if the parents, now framing the entry to the dragon-side, were any indication.

"As for your question," Baishin said with a purr and a smile, "only a blanket of snow, I think."

***

This would leave Baishin and Sivoney in an unusual predicament. She was used to being able to flip between realms easily, and while she had a home on Dragondeep her dragon had to remain hidden. The dragons provided something of an answer, however. Somehow they had caught wind of a place that was secure, safe, isolated, and reasonably new. An out of the way island that only a few people knew about. People, and their off-world dragons.

They visited the Endless Grotto, more than ocne, getting the lay of it - it was pleasant, a little cold here and there, but true to the hints that the dragons had heard. But would they want to stay?

Would either Sivoney or Baishin want to remain somewhere for good? Likely not, but with offworld dragons being the rarity that might cost the group everything if they were found out, they eventually convinced the fey tainted feline and his new partner in crime to remain as a home base. Making them welcome and providing security, the locals reasoned, was more important than threats or endangerment. While the couple got settled and the little blindingly white dragonet grew up over the course of the next year or so, they also had their own odd child.

Normally a canine and feline Kin would not be able to mix so easily into a new breed. But here he was, and it was clear to anyone that saw him that he too was a bit... tainted. No normal canine had that many small tail nubs, for one thing... But that's his own story.

For now, Sivoney and Baishin, Odoruth and Lerrth'Alkar, and little Sobumi, reside when they're not doing their own ... work ... at the Grotto's northeastern-most island, way up there where no one else is going to mess with them. The other Grotto inhabitants occasionally deliver goods or food, and some have offered to help create a more lavish homestead. If the pair are going to have a family there, they reason, why not live it up? They have an entire island - seven miles across in any direction, with that gentle hill it creates being hollow just like the rest of the Grotto some hundred miles away - make that place into quite the stronghold. Both Baishin and Sivoney are rather enamored of this thought, but they also like doing their work on the mainland.

They will start bringing mainland stuff home, absolutely. Affording this is no problem at all. Getting the right workers, finding the best people to keep it secret, there's the rub. Also added to the mix is that very-very-strange 'feline' Shortcut Along The Ancient Path, who keeps showing up when they least expect it, mostly to watch Sivoney's performances, but also who brings ... a cat man who looks almost exactly like him sometimes, Lane Ravenheart. Baishin isn't possessive of Sivoney - who she has relations with is her business, just like who this fey cat falls in bed with is his own. They have an arrangement. And it seems like that arrangement will become rather weird with those otherworldly extended relatives of theirs. Maybe they'll start a family here, the lot of them. Ravenheart seems to think that's a fine idea. He's already left hints that he has 'extended family' all over the place, and apparently that's not wrong, since over time both Sivoney and Baishin seem to have had... relations with those in his bloodline. This mansion is gonna need servants and staff within the time Sobumi has grown up and found his own dragon...

(At some point while Sivoney is caring for her weird daughter Silvyan, Ravenheart hooks his daughter Sola up with Baishin. They do make good kits, three of them. Kind kits. Shifter Kind kits. ** to be named)