Taso Autio
| Taso Autio | |
|---|---|
 (By Roujin_) | |
| Class | Investigator |
| Occupation | Dollmaker |
| Tier | Trainee |
| Ancestry | Fetchling |
| Heritage | Deep Fetchling |
| Pronouns | They/She |
| Age | 37 (born in Desnus 196) |
| Height | 1.65m |
| Relatives | Tarina "Taru" Autio (sister) |
| Status | Alive |
| Player | Unseelie |
Taso Autio is an Associate of the Round Table, though they spend most of the time in their workshop, The Dollhouse.
Description
Like their parents, but unlike her chaos-touched fraternal twin sister, Taso is a deep fetchling. Besides being comparatively short, their appearance is fairly typical for their ancestry, with white hair, glowing white eyes, and grey skin perhaps slightly darker than her sister's.
Most days they can be seen wearing nice, but not overly fancy, dresses, often covered by a leather apron splattered with all kinds of paints, glues, and other crafting materials. Outside of combat they tends to wear a single pair of dangling, silver earrings, and often a matching necklace. They wear their hair in a long braid.
For combat they do away with the jewellery and instead don quilted armour and fight with a rapier. Having witnessed Batective's abilities with guns, they are currently considering that path as well.
Taso's shadow is very shy among most people, usually hiding either beneath Taso's dress, or in the shadows of nearby objects, adapting to their shape. It avoids touching the shadows of living creatures unless it is very familiar with them, even more so if those shadows are bound to the movements of those who cast them. However, these attempts are often unsuccessful since its own pitch-black appearance usually unnaturally darkens the shadows it hides in.
Background
Taso, together with her fraternal twin sister Taru, was born in a small village on the material plane mostly populated by fetchlings that had to flee the shadow plane during The Collapse.
Some lingering fragment of chaos came into contact with their mother during her pregnancy, apparently only affecting Taru and leaving Taso a normal fetchling. While Taso always supported her sister, they were also secretly glad for Taru's colourful presence attracting attention away from them and sparing them from having to interact with others more than strictly necessary.
There was, however, one exception to Taso's avoidance of people: They always enjoyed the company of children, finding them much easier to interact with, or as they might phrase it, their reactions more straightforward to predict. This increased even further when Taso discovered their love for handicraft and how even simple creation could elicit unadulterated joy in children. As a result they often took care of the village's children when their parents were busy, crafting toys for them or even teaching them how to do so themselves.
When Taru decided to go on an adventure, Taso decided to join her to further their knowledge of the world and of crafting techniques. The two of them have a rather strange relationship, getting along famously in letters and occasional meetings, but mostly bickering whenever they spend more than a day or so together. Somehow they made travelling together work anyway.
Soon before arriving in Onadbyr they split up, Taso staying in a village with a prominent artisan willing to teach them more about the making of dolls while Taru travelled on. The two still regularly exchanged letters and a few months later, having been told about the city extensively, Taso moved to Onadbyr as well.
Familiar
Besides her crafting endeavours, Taso also experimented with primal magic and investigated forces granting such powers to those born without any talent for them. Their efforts attracted the attention of a young scalliwing, who soon decided to not only tutor Taso in magic, but also, and perhaps primarily, assist them in social situations. Since she didn't have a name before and her colourful appearance and virtuous, if a bit impulsive, personality reminded Taso of her sister, she named her new familiar Tarunen.
Life in Onadbyr
Taso spends most of the time in their workshop they have dubbed "The Dollhouse", where they further their techniques in toymaking and occasional other crafts. To finance this, Taso also became an associate and goes on occasional missions, but unlike her sister, she mostly regards them as work.
After a very productive season in which they built up a substantial assortment of dolls, Taso decided to open their workshop to the public, hoping to sell, or perhaps sometimes even just give away, some of their creations.
Pronouns
Taso uses both They/Them and She/Her. If pressed they would express a mild preference towards the former, but in the context of their relation to Taru, she prefers being called her sister.
Etymology
Taso's names are based on Finnish words. Their first name, Taso, means "Level", both in the sense of a flat surface and a set standard, symbolising their less brash presence compared to her sister, and her methodical, standardised approach to many things, especially crafting.
Autio, their last name, translates to "Desolate" or "Uninhabited", referencing large parts of the Shadow Plane. It is a very common last name in their culture.
Tarunen is a diminutive form of Taru, named so because she reminded Taso of her sister.