4. 1st Log -- Jynx

[Jynx *]

[th][cs=3][rs=3][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,500,true][bg=E6E6E6] Jynx! Physical Description : Reference Picture Jynx is a very small thing, standing at about 40 cm. in height and weighing in around 15 lbs. Her build is very slim and slender, dainty even, and she carries herself with very light steps and a slightly bouncing gait. Her face is very narrow with sharp features that typically are on high alert for the first sign of another. She is a rather skilled sprinter when it comes to running short distances and prides herself on her ability to wedge into places larger animals are unable to reach, though she much prefers slinking out of sight before they even know she's there. Her coat is a combination of blacks, tans, and whites. A majority of her frame is covered in a tanned brown, covering her legs, belly, sides, and head. A small patch of white covers her left fore-paw, while another patch spans the bottom portion of her muzzle. Small ovals of white fur circle her eyes, though thin strips of black fur accentuate their honey-brown color. Like all black-backed jackals, the dark portion of her coloration spans across her back and covers her tail. The black fur is spotted with bits of white along her back, though the white fades enough along her tail to create a gray color instead, leaving the black color most prominent along the underside of her tail and at the tip. Personality Description : Jynx is, in every sense of the word, a loner, though of course she feels completely justified in being so. Since a rather young age, the jackal has been on her own and has had no one to rely on but herself. It has strengthened her in the ways of being able to provide for herself as far as meals go, but it has made her distant from all others. Because of her small stature and lack of physical ability to properly defend herself against larger opponents, she has had to learn to run and hide from potential danger. It has made her automatically wary of any and all she meets, and she typically chooses to avoid any contact with others if it's in her power to do so. The isolation has its downsides, however. Jynx has a tendency to speak her thoughts aloud to herself to break the silence that follows her, and will often be found mumbling to herself over something or other at any given time. When forced to interact with others, however, she tries her hardest to appear as cooperative and submissive as possible to ensure her safety. She's all smiles and tends to refer to strangers as "friend" to gain their tolerance, if not trust. She hopes that by being this way the canine she is conversing with will leave her in one piece when they decide to move on, though even at this point she will still continue to mumble to herself aloud her thoughts on the situation at hand, be they unkind or not. Having company forced on her makes her tend to be a bit reserved and awkward, while she constantly searches for a way to get out of it, but she is adamant about keeping up her friendly charade. Because she is so easily frightened, it doesn't take much for her to do the bidding of others. She'll cooperatively complete just about any task for someone threatening to hurt her, even through her grumbling about it. If escape seems an even pricier option to remaining with someone, she may just end up stuck as someone's unwilling companion until she is released. Friendship is a very foreign concept for the jackal. She's never had a friend and doesn't really know how to trust, and finds difficulty believing everything she is told. She has survived thus far on her logic and cunning and trusts it more than she does anything else. Love is even more of an impossibility for her, considering she doesn't even talk to others if she can help it. Enemies and the like, however, are much more easily understood. They pretty much make up the entirety of the canine race apart from her, since she holds no allegiance to anyone and therefore is competing with all for her livelihood. Trying to change her opinions of all this would be a difficult task, as Jynx is very much set in her ways and has trouble trying to see things from any other point of view. History Description : As far as parents go, Jynx was blessed with an absentminded pair. Her mother was more or less attendant to everything she and the sole surviving brother of the litter needed, but their father was a different story. While their mother was eager to get back to her normal, regular, unhindered lifestyle, her father was eager to be rid of them all. He would quietly on occasion venture away from them, feigning ignorance that he was even remotely trying to distance himself from them, until one day he eventually disappeared altogether. Whether he had found his escape at last or had been beaten by a predator larger than himself none of them knew, but it was decided that the small Jynx’s mother was hardly distraught at all. Her brother, being of a weakly sort, soon succumbed to illness and perished, and unlike her father’s death this did have an effect on her mother. She became colder, more distant, urging Jynx to figure things out for herself that way she could be gone and off on the grand adventure of life as quickly as possible. Needing no further encouragement, Jynx obeyed and left as soon as she was able at a still young age, possibly far too young to be allowed on her own. She grew up in this manner, scrounging for food and hiding from other predators that might wish to make a meal out of her. Distrust and paranoia increased and made her shy from society, keeping to the outskirts of packs and gatherings of other canine creatures. Even now, she avoids confrontation and company, convinced that living alone is the only lifestyle that would lead to contentment and safety.

[Jynx *]

[th][cs=3][rs=3][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,500,true][bg=E6E6E6] Jynx's Diary! Thread One : It was quiet here. I liked quiet. If not for the snow, the place might have been perfect. There was a tree, large and wide for digging a den beneath it among its roots, and a river that possibly hadn't frozen over from the chilly, wintry air. But there was snow and it was cold, so it was still far from what I sought. It drifted even farther from that ideal spot when I noticed someone there, a larger canine than myself. She saw me before I could run away, but she didn't try to harm me. I got away in one piece.