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Character Desired: Karin Haamu, Lumiveri's Pet

Civilian Form

Name: Karin Vieno Haamu

Karin=Swedish form of Katherine, meaning "pure"
Vieno=Finnish, "gentle"
Haamu=Finnish, "ghost"

Put it all together, and we have "Pure and gentle ghost". Spooky and nice at the same time!

Kingdom: Eighth Kingdom

Age: 18

Birthdate: 19 Chaste Moon, 105/Pisces

Occupation: Formerly a seamstress working for the Pakkanen family, Karin is now, in a nutshell, Lumiveri's pet.

Likes:

It should be noted that, having since come into possession of some evil mirror shards, Karin doesn't like much of anything, because everything is warped to show only its bad side to her now. So these are her likes before that.

Cuddling: Karin is a very tactile person, her feelings and thoughts coming through in touch as much as they do through her words. She loves to be close to people she cares about, and frequently enjoys curling up under a couple of big warm blankets with someone. Not only is it comforting, but it's also nice and warm. As a result, Anika is her favorite person to cuddle up with.

Sleep/Dreams: Tying somewhat in to the above, Karin considers sleep to be a very good thing, especially in the darkest part of winter. She loves to burrow under the covers and stay there until she's expected to move again. She also loves having dreams. Hers are usually typically elaborate and colorful, and involve lots of strange and wonderful things happening. She also loves hearing about what other people dream about. One of the things she and Anika liked to talk about while knitting is what they had each dreamed about the night before, talking about what had happened, and what might have happened if the dream had been allowed to continue.

Birds, flowers, other signs of spring: Spring in the Eighth Kingdom is so relieving and so fleeting that when it starts to come time for it, Karin makes a point of looking for the signs that it's coming, and enjoying them for as long as they'll stick around. She adores seeing flowers managing to push their way through the cold and melting snow and bring a little color for a short period of time, and admires their delicate beauty. Another spring thing--Karin loves everything about birds, from the sounds they make to the feel of their feathers to how they look in flight. If she sees a bird outside, she'll stop everything she's doing to watch it. To her, birds not only represent spring, but also the freedom to go wherever one wants, something Karin would love to be able to do. In general, when springtime rolls around, Karin makes a point of spending as much time outside as possible (the only real mar on the whole spring thing being the presence of mosquitoes. Eww). After all, it's going to have to last her a long time before it rolls around again.

Sweets: Oh man, tasty goodness! Karin has a horrible sweet tooth which is rarely indulged, thanks to the fact that things like sugar and the like are hard to get up north, and sweets usually only make their presence known at special occasions. Berries are savored with relish, strawberries especially, and she covets honey. She had the opportunity to try it once, and has craved it ever since.

Music: Karin holds a deep appreciation of music--while she doesn't like loud noises and the like, she doesn't care much for silence either. She's been known to get a little fidgety when there's nothing to listen to, and has been known to hum softly to herself to alleviate it. A good jig will get her toes tapping, and she loves listening to Anika sing.

Dislikes:

Cold hands: Living in the Eighth Kingdom, you learn how to deal with things like being cold for long periods of time. The one thing Karin has never been able to reconcile, however, is having cold hands. She's never quite able to get them warmed up in the winter, and it really bugs her. Stiff hands make it difficult for her to knit, which isn't very nice. As a result, she always tries to knit with a heat source nearby when her hands are cold, so she can knit until she can't stand it anymore, warm them up, and keep going.

Sudden, loud noises, shouting: Karin's ears are rather sensitive, and as a result, loud noises give her a jolt more than they would most. Furthermore, she's the sort that when she gets intent on something, it can absorb her to the point that she doesn't notice things going on around her, and so makes her more prone to being startled. On a similar note, folks shouting have a tendency to make her shrink away, partially due to them being loud, partially due to the fact that she's afraid that somehow, she was the instigator of the shouting. She's gotten better over the years, but she still tenses up a bit when someone raises their voice in an unhappy way.

Sad stories: She's never been able to get why some people *like* sad stories. She finds them to not only be sad and tragic, but very frustrating--why didn't the characters make the decision that would cause less pain? If only they had taken a different route, or helped that one person who could have helped them, and so on. She gets so caught up in seeing the ways that they could've ended up with a happy ending that it depresses her.

Sleep: This one developed after getting a shard of glass stuck in her eye. Seeing as REM sleep causes her extreme pain (due to said shard of glass rubbing against her eyelid), she's only able to manage snatches of sleep at a time. The lack of sleep doesn't really help with her general mood either, and results in her being even more biting and mean. She'll sleep in short sprints until she gets fed up with waking up, at which point she just gets up and goes back to knitting.

Hobbies:

Collecting/Drying Flowers: Warm weather in the Eighth Kingdom is not only weak and basically meaning "There's no ice on the ground", but terribly fleeting, and Karin tries to take advantage of it as much as possible. She gathers all the flowers she can, and carefully dries them at home. Not only do they serve as a welcome reminder in the middle of winter that spring'll come again eventually, but she regularly uses them for making simple herbal remedies and the like.

Cooking: Karin likes to cook, not only for herself, but for others. Having been dubbed the unofficial cook in the family, Karin enjoys finding ways to use usual foodstuffs in unusual ways (seeing as she has regular access to only a small pool of ingredients), and loves experimenting with spices, when they can get ahold of them. She loves seeing people light up when they eat her cooking, and occasionally makes edible things as presents for people. Bread is one of her favorite things to make.

Exploring: Tying into the previous hobby, Karin likes to boldly go where she hasn't gone before. Possessing a streak of curiosity, she has a tendency to go on long, rambling walks, just to see what's out there, what might have changed since the last time she went that way, and so on. This hobby has actually managed to persist into the present. She likes to wander the halls of Lumiveri's palace, since she has no forests now to do her exploring with. While she has free-reign over where she wants to go, she always has this sneaking feeling that she's being watched (and she is).

Knitting: And here we have the big one. Not only does Karin know how to knit, but she's exceptionally gifted at it, her work being both elegant and strong. She can crank out a pair of socks and think nothing of it. She finds it very relaxing, even when she puts intricate, complicated designs into the work, and loves making things for people. Give her a fresh ball of yarn, and she'll be happy. This is considered to be her main hobby, and it was how she wiled away the long winter nights with Anika when they still lived in the village. Now that she's hanging out at La Casa de Lumiveri, it's how she spends the majority of her time. Even now she finds it relaxing, the repetitive, structured motions and the ordered, clean patterns being soothing to her shardified state.

However, knitting isn't just a hobby in Karin's case. Items that she's knitted for people have had what might be considered odd effects--a scarf she made for Anika always stays warm for her, and when Sigrid wears a pair of gloves that Karin made for her, she seems to get fewer bumps and bruises. As it turns out, Karin possesses a nice bit of magical potential, which, due to being raw and unrefined, leaks out through her knitting. As a result, her feelings toward someone come through when she knits something for someone. For example, in the case of Sigrid, the gloves have some protective properties, due to Karin's worry over her rambunctious sister being safe. Since getting the shards in her, however, this ability has warped, causing her general disdain towards the world to come through. The servants that wear her knitted things, as a result, act a lot more dour and wretched than they would otherwise.

Aspirations: Pre-disappearance, Karin's greatest wish was to move south with Anika, someplace where snow wasn't quite so prevalent, and open up a little tailor shop. They could live above it, and have themselves a happy, cozy little life. Now, all Karin really wants is to stay in the palace and keep knitting, and stay away from most everyone and everything. Although, she would like to remember who it was that she cared about so much.

Friends and Family:

Inge Haamu: - 39 - Karin's mother. A very dutiful woman, with a bit of a perfectionist streak. While genuinely fond of all her daughters, Inge wishes Karin hadn't decided to move away from the family business, which has resulted in a bit of tension between them. She basically runs things when it comes to the family business--taking orders, handling the finances, and so on.

Rasmus Haamu: - 44 - Karin's father. Rasmus is an extremely gregarious man, joyful and very family oriented. He loves all his girls, and loves to roughhouse with them. He is also noted for being very strong, and does the majority of the smithy work.

Aina Haamu: - 15 - Sister #1. Somehow, Aina managed to get a serious dollop of responsibility, likely from her mother. She's somewhat dour and serious, and takes everything with the most severity. Rasmus is about the only one who's able to consistently make her crack a smile. She handles a lot of the business transactions for the family's business, along with her mother, and is very hard to haggle with.

Sigrid Haamu: - 9 - Sister #2. An air molecule. Sigrid is HIGHLY excitable and curious, and has a tendency to get into everything. She's basically set on full-time hyper, and is hard to keep up with. Like her father, she is also somewhat strong for her age, and helps him out in the workshop.

History:

Karin was born the eldest daughter of Inge and Rasmus, a couple that lived in a small village in the Eighth Kingdom, a fair distance away from the permanent snow line. They made their living through metalworking, owning a small smithy and making metal objects for people in the village, which gave them enough money to live off of. Karin was something of a delicate, difficult baby, weak and prone to illness. Despite that, however, she had a certain degree of tenacity that helped her to survive past her first few years.

A few years after Karin was born, her sister Aina came along, who turned out to be much easier to deal with than Karin had been. While stronger than she had been, Karin was still something of a weakling, who had difficulty keeping up with other children, and couldn't do all the things expected of her, even if she did persevere to the point of exhaustion. It had been hoped that she would be able to help Rasmus out in the shop, but she simply didn't have the physical strength to keep up. So, when it came to helping the family, she was typically delegated to help with maintaining the household--cooking, running errands, and occasionally helping her mother with handling job orders and money. The one thing she did naturally excel in, however, was working with fibers, knitting in particular. She practiced any time she got the opportunity to, and was soon turning out very fine work for her age.

It was soon after Sigrid was born that Karin met the one person that would shape her life the most. She was attempting to bring some firewood home from her father, but had once again overestimated how much she could carry, and was struggling horribly with it. She was almost home when she was noticed by a couple of boys, who had recently moved into the village with their family. Feeling mean, they decided to make her the butt of some nasty jokes and knock her carefully balanced wood over. She had been on the verge of tears when the boys' younger sister showed up, and took umbrage to them harassing Karin. A scuffle ensued which ended up with the girl as the victor, and the boys going home to nurse their wounds. Karin thanked the girl, who, as she helped Karin pick up the wood, introduced herself as Anika. Despite the girl's awkward, gruff, and slightly violent demeanor, Karin found herself thinking she might not be as bad as she seemed, especially after she helped Karin carry the wood home. Despite Anika's protests, Karin tagged along with her as she went to the bakery afterwards. Her tenacious nature began to show through as she began showing up regularly on Anika's doorstep, interested in spending time with her.

While Anika was somewhat standoffish at first, Karin persisted, and soon Anika was showing up at Karin's house as often as Karin was appearing at hers. They formed a strong friendship over the years, reinforced by spending long winter evenings knitting by the fire, among other things. They got even more time together when Anika's mother, having noticed Karin's skill with fibers, took her on as an apprentice in the family's clothing business. One of the most pivotal (and impossibly sappy) moments in their friendship was when they inadvertently bought the same gold daffodil pendant for each other. The necklaces given to each other were proudly worn, a symbol of their closeness. As the girls progressed deep into teenagehood, Karin began to realize that her attraction to Anika might go deeper than friendship. However, thanks to a fear of what would happen if she told Anika such and what would happen if she didn't reciprocate (or even if she did), Karin never got up the guts to say anything.

As the girls got to an age where they were able to set out on their own, they talked a lot of moving south, where there were actual (gasp!) seasons, and Karin could knit without having to warm her hands every five minutes. Soon, what were just idle talks became solid plans, and soon the girls were making arrangements to up and leave the village and travel some place south. On Anika's suggestion, they decided to leave at night, meeting by the river that ran by the village and avoiding the brouhaha that would surround their departure if people knew.

Bursting with excitement, Karin had made a point of getting ready early, and got to the meeting place well before the appointed time. As she walked about idly while waiting for Anika, a flash of light from the sky caught Karin's attention, causing her to glance up. It was in this position that she felt something lance her eye first, and then her chest. When the pain subsided to a somewhat more tolerable level, Karin opened her eyes, and found the world changed. Suddenly, nothing seemed right or good about it--the peaceful winter night landscape was a warped, perverted version of what it was before, and suddenly it seemed like she could only remember the flaws and bad things about people she cared about, even Anika. In that moment, the last thing she wanted was to move south with her. In fact, all she really wanted was to be alone. And so, with a few choice words shouted to the night sky, she ripped off her necklace and set off on her own, following the river.

It was a couple of days of traveling before a woman in a large, white sled came across Karin. While initially callous, Karin found that the woman didn't repulse her like others did, and was easily persuaded to join her. The woman was Lumiveri, who was out searching for the pieces of her now-shattered spy mirror, which had broken rather violently after she overstretched herself with it. Of course, considering that Karin was now seeing only the evil in the world and Lumiveri is basically nothing but evil, it would make sense that she would appear to Karin exactly as she was. Lumiveri brought her back to her palace, and set about trying to figure out how to extract the shards.

However, over time, Karin began showing signs that the shard was affecting her in other ways. In particular, she seemed to have intimate knowledge of the servants' flaws and weaknesses, despite the fact that she only saw them when they came to feed her. As it turned out, the shards gave Karin a certain degree of insight into the weak points of people, deeper and more accurate than Lumiveri could have achieved when the mirror was whole. Intrigued, Lumiveri left the shards in Karin's eye and heart, and gave her a bit more freedom. Karin was now allowed to roam the palace, though always watched, and she was provided with a quiet, obedient female servant.

Lumiveri did a couple of things to keep Karin complacent when she wasn't utilizing her abilities. First, she cast a spell over Karin to make her forget about the people she cared about, and thus discourage her from trying to leave (not to mention it was a fun little way to torture her--specifially, Karin could remember that there was someone in particular she cared for deeply, but couldn't remember *who*). Secondly, she kept her thoroughly busy by putting her to work making warm clothing for the servants. When she had all but knitted them wool cocoons, Lumiveri got her on to making intricate lace dresses and bedspreads for the Snow Queen, which has been keeping her occupied ever since. Due to the fact that Karin is still a virgin, Lumiveri has been trying to use her to attract and capture a unicorn. The attempts have been unsuccessful, though, thanks to the fact that the shards caught in her send off an aura that acts as a big red flag and lets creatures sensitive to it know that she's connected to evil things. Lumiveri persists, though, and as a result, men are forbidden to touch her.

And so, that is how Karin spends her days: Grouching about the world, telling Lumiveri the weak spots she sees in other people, contentedly knitting, and not so contentedly trying to remember who it was she forgot.

Personality:

Okay, this section's going to be broken up into two pieces: Pre and post-disappearance, due to the drastic change Karin goes through between the two.

Pre-Disappearance
As a general overview, Karin is a very kind, gentle individual, the sort who seems incapable of disliking anyone, no matter how mean or spiteful they may be. Something of a quiet sort, she always seems to be softly smiling, laughing easily and often, though she rarely breaks out into huge guffaws. As it turns out, Karin's a very forgiving person, and can usually find a way to reconcile things when someone does something mean, usually by putting herself in the shoes of the perpetrator and trying to see it from their point of view. This tendency has led her to become very empathetic, allowing her to connect with other people, animals, and sometimes objects--she's been known to talk to things like her knitting and the stew while she's interacting with them. We're not talking holding conversations here, just "Oh, you're looking lovely today!" or, "Now where did that stain come from? Have you been out in the mud again?". As a result, some have considered her to be a bit odd.

On a similar note, she's a very tactile person, her desire to avoid being alone causing her to like being close to people. She talks as much with her hands as she does with her mouth, her words usually punctuated with touches. Not everyone likes to have their personal space invaded in such a way, though, which has occasionally led to her being snapped at and the like. Unfortunately, when it comes to standing up for herself, Karin has a lot of work to do. She has a tendency to shrink away from people that intimidate her. As a result, she has a tendency to come off as sort of weak, and subsequently, Anika regularly takes it upon herself to act as Karin's protector, giving the evil eye to anyone who looks at Karin the wrong way. While Karin is appreciative, she sometimes wishes that Anika didn't have to act that way for her, and that she was stronger than she is, both physically and emotionally. In terms of physical weakness, she tries to compensate, largely by putting forth as much effort as she can muster. Unfortunately, that means she has a worrying tendency to either overextend or overwork herself. This aspect of her personality is aggravated by the fact that once she latches onto something, whether it be a task or a person, she's hard to turn away from it, possessing a very strong tenacious streak.

It should be noted that when it comes to people and things she cares about, Karin possesses endless gobs of patience. She can tolerate a lot before cracking under pressure, which is a good thing when having Anika as a friend. Furthermore, it means she'll take the time to do things right the first time, working slowly and meticulously to make sure she doesn't miss anything. It does mean she's slightly perfectionistic, though, and it takes a bit of doing before she'll consider something she's done to be good enough. This tendency of hers has instilled in her a certain degree of cautiousness, one that has a tendency to get in the way of her boldly going forward with things. She's been known to get so caught up in trying to assess a situation, looking at the "What ifs", as it were, that either the opportunity to do something will pass her by, or she'll be paralyzed into simply hanging back and avoiding making a decision altogether. Boldness is something that never really got instilled into her.

Post-Disappearance
Of course, since having recieved pieces of glass in her eye and heart, Karin's demeanor has changed drastically. Gone is her gentle, kind demeanor, replaced with one that's quite bitter and grouchy. She now hates being around most people, due to the fact that the only thing she sees in them are all the bad, weak, horrible parts, amplified and flung violently in her face. In fact, she's developed an almost misanthropic streak, being incapable of seeing anything good about people. As far as she's concerned, eventually, they'll either betray you, hurt you, or otherwise show something that you really didn't want to see. Therefore, why bother being around them? And so, she prefers to keep to herself and her knitting, Lumiveri seeming to be one of the only people who doesn't cause her severe pain in interaction. It does mean, however, that she hasn't really learned how to stop overworking herself.

Due to her somewhat misanthropic nature, Karin has kind of lost her compassion for people, and doesn't really care what happens to most of them. Between the shards and Lumiveri's influence, she's become somewhat amoral--she has no trouble with telling Lumiveri the weaknesses she sees in people, and what happens to them as a result, because she simply doesn't care about them. She has an almost "Whatever" attitude. You screwed up? Well, it's your own damn fault and it's going to be a hot day in the Eighth Kingdom before she lifts a hand to help you out.

Karin also harbors a vast amount of frustration. She knows there's someone out there that she cared deeply about, and she can't remember who it is. She feels as if she's betraying herself, as a result, and it hurts. On a different note, the one good thing that seems to have come out of the whole thing, if it can be considered a 'good' thing, is that Karin has been instilled with a certain degree of boldness. If she thinks that you have the fashion sense of a color blind hedgehog, she'll come right out and tell you such, and damn the consequences. She's become very critical of other people where it used to be directed solely at herself, and she isn't afraid to tell you what she thinks of you, in all honesty. Most of her remarks come out as biting, sarcastic, and at times, even cruel. Yeah, she isn't quite the person she used to be. That's what glass in your eye and heart can do to you.

Appearance:

The thing about Karin is that there isn't a lot about her that makes her stand out in particular--she blends easily into a crowd, and unless you know who you're looking for, is hard to pick out. That doesn't mean, however, that she's not pretty. She stands at about 5'5", with gentle curves and not much in the way of muscle definition. She doesn't look particularly frail, though she does struggle with tasks that require some degree of strength. However, her hands are noted for being particularly strong and nimble, with graceful fingers. Her face is oval-shaped, with soft lines, and her complexion hovers somewhere in the pale ocher range. Overall, it has a rather calm, kind look to it.

Karin's eyes are almond-shaped, with coffee brown irises and dark eyelashes. They manage to be both expressive and gentle. Her lips are a rosy pink color. Her hair is mousy brown, kept at about shoulder-length, with bangs that are swept to the side. It's slightly wavy, and very soft in texture. Her clothing style is fairly simple, but warm, her tastes gravitating towards good, heavy shirts and skirts, with durable boots being a must. Color-wise, she prefers greens and muted earth tones. Before ripping it off and disappearing, she was never without her daffodil pendant. While her general demeanor had been kind and gentle before getting shards in her body, Karin's general state has deteriorated rapidly, her expressions now almost completely callous--hard at the least, cruel at the worst. There's very little indication of the fact that she's got glass stuck in her, except for some redness in her left eye and a little bit of swelling above her heart. However, when she's asleep, both pieces glow a faint red color.