Rezida Onifri

Be the quiet, yellow-green insomniac
> == Your name is REZIDA ONIFRI, and you are ECCENTRIC to say the least. But, of course, ANYONE living out in the middle of the woods with their lazy-ass bearzelle lusus has to be a little WEIRD.

You are one of the few surviving lime -er- yellow-green blooded trolls left, and for good reason; your bloodline consists of what are essentially DRUG BARONS and MANIPULATORS who knew how to stay on the higher-up's good sides. That, however, does nothing to quell your hidden PARANOIA about being culled... hence the living in relative seclusion thing. Like most yellow-greenbloods, you have the power to sooth, shoosh, and even HYPNOTIZE others, sometimes by complete accident. UNLIKE most yellow-greenbloods, you have a long-ass tail that you trip over ALL THE GOGDAMN TIME, making you spill and drop things. You're a quiet, mild, sleepy looking troll, one may describe you as DRIFTY, especially after a puff or two off your pipe; the contents of which is none of your damn business, but you secretly STRESS over everything.

Despite your odd, quiet ways, you are more or less the leader of your little ragtag team, tasked with the role of PEACEKEEPER and making sure everyone stays CALM AND SANE. If someone is upset, angry, or in the throes of a nightmare, you bust out with the SHOOSHCUDDLES, which calms and quiets your poor, stressed teammate. Being of a stable caste, you are pretty damn GOOD at what you do, and have established a close bond with each member of your team through means of SNUGGLY EMBRACE, even with those who bug the crap out of you. However, just because you're good at putting others to sleep, doesn't mean YOU sleep. In fact, you tend to not sleep for days on end due to stress, study, and insomnia, only to either CRASH, or give in and sedate yourself with your pipe. The fact that you CAN'T STAND the sight of sopor slime does nothing to help with this. Being a bit soft and sympathetic by society's standards, you'll only resort to using full-on hypnosis if necessary, more for healing, positive means than for your own benefit. Along with the powers of HUGS and mind control, you are also well versed in MEDICINAL HERBS, making you an important asset to your ragtag "family."

Your trolltag is drowsyApothecary, and you speak with a soft, gentle voice, only uZing caps for EMPHASIS and catching a few occasional Z's. If there are already some Z's, you like to make the most of them, drawing them out in a pleaZant way.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz (-U-)

Background
Rezida's name comes from "Resido", a Latin term for "Peacekeeper", while "Onifri" is a portmanteau of "Oni", the Japanese term for "Troll", and a corruption of "Óneiro" the Greek term for "Dream".

If it wasn't for her somewhat lazy bear-gazelle hybrid lusus, called "Poppy," she wouldn't even be alive. Poppy had spotted and snatched the wriggler just mere SECONDS before a drone could, but that wasn't the end of it. Operating on mother bear instincts, Poppy fought tooth and claw to protect her newfound wriggler from the alerted drones, destroying several of the machines in the process. Both lusus and wriggler made it out of the brooding caverns alive, but not before sustaining deep injuries, scars of which they bare to this very day.

Rez' s deep-set fear and paranoia of being culled lead her to build a secluded hive out in the woods, where nobody except her teammates would think to look. She'll sometimes hole up in her home for days on end, working intensely on mixing, grinding, distilling, and cooking herbal ingredients into healing concoctions, which she uses on herself and teammates, or sells. Sometimes, she'll work for days without sleep, suffering from severe anxiety and insomnia. Her strange, irrational fear of sopor slime simply adds to this problem. She'll go like this until her body gives out and crashes, or until she gives in and smokes her pipe. When she's under the influence of the strange concoctions she smokes, she gets all at-ease, fearless, "drifty", and starts to talk of bizarre, unrelated subjects.

Like the rest of her bloodline, she possesess the ability to link up mentally and take a mind- or several- into her power, either through prolonged eye contact with her, or her hypnotic pocket watch. Once a mind is in her power, she can either calm and heal, benefitting her "target", or bend and manipulate, benefitting herself. Being a Sylph, she usually goes with the former, while simultaneously embracing, papping, or rubbing the back and head of those in her power to amplify the effect. The effectiveness of her influence depends on the blood color of those she's entrancing. She can retain a weak hold on several lowbloods at once, usually for several hours. In highbloods, her mental hold is very strong, albeit very brief, lasting only five minutes at the most. Any amount of time longer than that can lead to overexertion. To take a fusiablood into her power is a risky task, not only politically but physically, and has historically lead to at least one limeblood's death.

She's extremely odd by troll standards, being reclusive, quiet, and sympathetic. Despite her strange ways, her quadrants are filled as followed:

Relations:

<3 Latroh Adhara ( Mutually devoted, almost inseparable)

<> Antser Praedo ( Very mother/son-like, think Karkat and Kanaya)

<3< Alphir Crotal ( Bugs the ever-living HELL out of her)

c3< EVERYONE at some point... >_<* Ech...

She shares a strong bond with her little close-knit team of pariahs, rejects, and orphans, even with those she neither shares a quadrant with, nor actually really likes much at all. She can't really explain why, but she has the impulse to try to defend and take care of everybody she knows, even those she hates.

Appearance and Traits
Rez' is fairly average-sized for a troll her age, and has a very slight, thin build. Her hair, which she keeps tied back, is mid-length, thick, and somewhat frizzy, sometimes falling into her face. What sets her apart the most is her eyes and tail. The former, always framed with prominent dark circles, appear to be double-irised and two shades of very bright green,with a spiral shape in the pupil. If someone is talking with her and looking her in the eyes, she must break eye contact every so often, lest she accidently link with them mentally. She sometimes wears tinted contacts to conceal her eye color. Her tail is a sign-specific mutation that occurs in both Ursa Major and Ursa Minor trolls, similar to how the Gemini trolls grow two sets of horns. The tail is about a yard long, with a thick, black tassel on the end. Having prehensile properties and substantial length, her tail has proven both helpful and a hinderance, acting as a fifth limb that can easily grab things, but also as a constant tripping hazard. In adulthood, the tail will grow to be about 3 yards.

Her loose, simple clothing is fairly muted in color, being predominantly grey, black, and a few hints of brown. The only really colorful clothing she owns is her soft, blanket-like Luna Moth Wing cloak, and the gold-colored earrings she received as a gift from Latroh. Once in a while, she can be seen smoking a very slender, spoon-shaped pipe that appears to be made of silver. Whatever is in it gives off a sweet, herbal smelling vapor. Wether or not she's smoking, she always exudes a smell simliar to that of a spice cabinet, her clothing having absorbed the aromas of the plants she works with.

Ancestor and Dancestor
The Onifri Post-Scratch ancestor was known as The Longtail, but was also referred to as The Embracer or Baroness. Longtail was an underground leader of sorts, heading a predominately limeblooded group ( with other colors mixed in) of passive hypnotists called "MeZmereyeZerZ", or "Petal Eaters". She, as well as most of the other outcast trolls she knew, followed or held respect for The Signless and his peaceful ways. That doesn't mean she was all innocent, however. Like her descendant, she had extensive knowledge of different herbs and plants... but unlike her descendant, she used this to her full advantage. She was a grower of a psychoactive plant known as "Crabsblood", the roots, seeds, petals, and resin of which she would process and sell. This strange plant has two varieties: green, which has a drowsy, soporific effect, and bright red, which acts as a stimulant and is an alleged aphrodisiac. Both emit a very sweet smell.The fairly lowblooded Longtail and her even lower matesprite made a violet's fortune, selling this plant and illicit alcohol in underground, speakeasy-type places called "lamplight dens" by some, and "fox holes" by others. The highbloods, wanting the products but not the affiliation with the lows, turned a blind eye towards their operation, preferring to deny it's existence rather than shut it down and cut off their own supply. In fact, many highs discreetly paid top dollar for the purest substances, as well as smoking pipes that they saw fit for their status. Their pipes were commonly made out of precious materials such as gold and jewels, while lower and middlebloods used bronze and silver. The agreement was essentially: "You supply us with substances and keep your chutes shut tight about it, and we won't cull you for doing what you do." It obviously worked.... at least.... for a while.

Unlike later Onifris, Longtail used her powers to their full potential, subtly manipulating and bending the wills of others in her favor, and even implanting thoughts and demands. To an extent, this may explain some of the highbloods' lenient attitudes towards her, her followers, and her matesprite. However, it's believed that she got too careless with this power, starting with the day she wandered into the cave of the Grand Highblood, looking for cave-growing plants. They ended up conversing, which led to a trade of crabsblood resin for some stardust, which led to intoxicated talk of "dreamZ and MiRaClEs," all culminating into Longtail demonstrating her hypnosis. This is NOT what led to her downfall. No. Grand Highblood found her mind-bending skills to be quite entertaining, being a mind manipulator himself. It DID, however, topple the proverbial dominoes. It's thought that Dualscar caught wind of this event, and, having underestimated the skills of the limebloods, panicked. Fear of mutiny spread among the violet castes, and orders were eventually sent out to start culling all limebloods on the spot, as well as put an end to the den operation. A group of highbloods broke into a den one day, killing several trolls, including Longtail's matesprite. She herself escaped, but was overcome with grief at the loss. With her matesprite dead, her moirail fled along with her followers, and the realization that her actions had caused the death of thousands of her own color, she couldn't stand being alive anymore. She consumed so much crabsblood to numb the pain, she ended up overdosing and dying in a fit of crazed, paranoid delusions. Coincidentally, she died on the same day The Signless did.

The Pre-Scratch Beforan Onifri, named Melata, shares many similar traits with her ancestor, though they're quite toned-down. During her time alive, she could and DID manipulate the minds of others, though it wasn't always for her benefit alone. Being a Witch of Mind, she used her powers both to help and hinder, fluctuating between the two constantly. Like the rest of her bloodline, she is an Apothecary, creating and selling healing, plant-based concoctions. She grows and smokes crabsblood, as indicated by her constant use of a silver pipe, but she doesn't sell it. She used to only smoke her pipe on occasions, to dispel stress, but since she has died, it's rare to see her without it in the dream bubbles. Like her Post-Scratch descendant, she is fairly quiet, calm and benevolent, though she's a bit more bold and quirky in her words and actions. She's less prone to stress than Rezida, but has been known to go off on rants about her various conspiracy theories: like how she thinks the lifespan thing "is juzt a bunch of crap, and they kill lowbloodz at an early age becauze there'z zo many of them." Her trolltag is hypnoticMicrosleep, and she too speaks in all lowercase. However, she replaces ALL s's with z's, and will draw out words when trying to sooth or tease someone. She goes around in the bubbles picking plants, interacting with the other dancestors, hanging about in the trees, and minding her apothecary stand. She likes to gently tease and fluster chaste, tense trolls like Kankri and Equius, coming up from behind and suddenly embracing them with all five of her limbs. Her full name: Melata Onifri, is a pun on "Melatonin", a natural chemical that aids sleep. "Melata" is also a play on the Italian term for "Honeyed".

Other Information
Melata carries the nickname "Dipper the Moocher", in reference to a Cab Calloway song.

All Onifris hold respect for the Vantas line... but that doesn't stop Melata from constantly picking on Kankri XD

The "Petal Eaters" are based off of the happy, entrancing Lotus Eaters from the Odyssey.

Melata's Theme-

Rezida's Theme-