What to say about Ailis... Well, there's always what her classmates say about her, to start. She's always a sweet thing, for starters. Polite, generous, chatty. And she's adorable, really, always perfectly dressed for any situation. Her grades are surprisingly good too, especially in English and history, and she's a perennial favorite for the drama club, to the point where she refuses to participate in some plays just to let other students have a chance. Such a sweet, friendly girl, it's a shame really that she always refuses to have a roommate. She's also pretty obviously rich; after all, how else could she convince the college to let her have one of the rooms on the third floor of the dorm all to herself, even though all the rooms are normally doubles?
Oh, and there's the rumor that she's secretly a werewolf. But nobody actually believes that except the tinfoil brigade. Despite the universally unsuccessful dares, nobody believes that's really the reason she locks herself in on the night of the full moon. After all, there'd be sounds of scratching and growling, and nobody's yet heard any such sound coming from that locked room no matter how many girls make it a test of courage to sit outside Ailis' door until the dawn.
There's also an odd rumor that springs up now and then regarding Ailis, though. Some of the girls who were freshmen when she transferred in say that she looked slightly different back then. The cheekbones less high, her eyes a little smaller, nose a bit wider, breasts somewhat larger. And some students swear that if you give her a really big shock, her face goes wavery, like a blurred photo. Nobody really knows what to make of a rumor like that, but it never really seems to want to go away...
... if you want to believe that she's a normal human, with some strange quirks... if you want to discover what she truly is through interaction and discovery... here's the part where you stop. Knowledge of the truth isn't everything... and it's nothing you need to interact with this girl.
... so, what's the real story? Why does her face seem different, why is she so insistent on having a single room, why does she lock herself in every full moon? Why haven't I indicated a last name anywhere in this profile even though she attends a high school? Why has this been the impression of her at every school she's ever attended?
... yes, every school. She's been to quite a few. Then again, by this point it's fairly clear she isn't an ordinary human; her not having a normal lifespan isn't too outside the park either.
Well, to begin. Why no last name? Because each time she transfers to a new school, she does so with a different last name. She has to, really. Otherwise it'd be difficult indeed to explain why the girl transferring in has such a radically different face than she did at her previous school.
... it all comes back to the face, really. That's what people notice the most, even if she screws up the hips, or the boobs, or makes her hair jump a few inches one day. It's hard, after all, keeping up the same appearance every day when your memory of the girl you're trying to look like is just so poor, and when your ability to do that doesn't work as good as anyone else in your species!
And with that hint, it all falls into place, really. Not that she'd ever say any of this out loud, but if she did, you'd know instantly what you're really dealing with when you meet Ailis. She's not a human girl at all, but a doppleganger. And... a bit of a klutzy one, in a certain way. Dopplegangers, after all, are beings that blend into human society by copying the appearance of human beings. They are able to maintain this disguise even years after encountering the person they've chosen to copy, to such a degree of perfection that even the most advanced biometrics can't distinguish.
Ailis, on the other hand... well, let's just say she has a bad memory for appearances. And her ability is... imperfect. Badly. It's part of the reason she's so far away from her society. See, dopplegangers of her society are all assigned a name by their elder when they are deemed old and ready enough to go out into the world, one which they are expected to keep as their first name no matter how much their last changes. Ailis, however, proved so inept at maintaining appearance over time that her elder dubbed her "Scathwae", an ugly patchwork of Irish and Korean that he claims means "warped mirror". Hating the name, Ailis set out on her own and took a name of her own from the Scots she'd come to be quite fond of while studying and learning about human cultures. "Of noble kin," her name means... perhaps, despite her break with their society, she's proud of being part of such a secretive and different race.
This is also why she hides herself away in her room during the full moon. Under its light, her powers are null, and her true form is shown. Anyone who managed to somehow enter her room on such a night, not that she'd ever allow them to, would find a much younger looking girl in a creamy tattered dress, her skin devoid of pigment and hair messy and white. The only color in the little figure, barely four feet tall, would be those piercing yellow eyes regarding the one who surprised her secret with scorn... and definite fear... hers is a secret she does NOT want to be revealed.
That, then, is how she lives. Her memory ensures that her disguise slips, little by little, the worst changes of course coming after each full moon forces her to lose her chosen shape. Eventually, she changes too much and the rumors get too strong, and so she moves on again, taking a new last name and copying the appearance of a girl in her old home that she's taken a fancy to, each time returning to the start. She made it all the way to college, once, before one full moon left her so drastically changed that she had to flee into the night in fear of being discovered. Still... perhaps one day she'll actually get a chance to live properly... somewhere to settle her roots after hundreds of years of wandering the world...
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