Thalassa Wyrm

"All I'm saying is this: why, exactly, is being a dragon supposed to be a BAD thing?"

- Thalassa Wyrm

Thalassa Wyrm, also known by her nickname "Thala", is the daughter of dove Isabel from "Kemp Owyne" as found in Child Ballads, a collection of popular English and Scottish ballads gathered by Francis James Child. Technically speaking, as Owain of King Arthur's court is the hero of the tale, she considers herself (somewhat) associated with the Arthurian Legends.

As she has absolutely no wish whatsoever to actually stop being a dragon, much less in a storyline where she is actually the damsel in distress, Thala self-identifies as a Rebel. She has not signed the Storybook of Legends.

((This page is WIP, and therefore unusually short. Thank you for bearing with me ^^;))

Personality
Thalassa has an unquenchable thirst for adventure-- she is willing to try almost anything at least once. Though it does not manifest itself as thrill-seeking, her desire to explore and discover new places and experiences has often lead to what some may call "excessive and unnecessary risk-taking." Though she is extremely open-minded about trying new things, Thala's somewhat reckless and impulsive behavior has gotten her into a great deal of trouble in the past.

She has developed something of a distaste for waiting, always on the edge of something new to explore the very next day. This is, unfortunately, a very unfitting trait for the story from which Thala comes-- she is supposed to serve her "evil" stepmother for many years, and then have her hair grow out so long that even as a dragon, she is stuck in one place for even more time. One would think that she would attempt to learn patience in preparation for this day. One would be wrong. Thalassa is always full of sayings along the lines of "idle hands make idle minds" and "monotony is the mother of all sins." She loathes the idea of a future full of them.

As someone who tends to underestimate her own strength, it is not unusual for Thala to accidentally break a door while attempting to close it, particularly when she is exceptionally angry. She has a quick, furious temper and a scathing rage-- sometimes literally, as she tends to spew actual dragon flame when particularly infuriated. However, though she angers easily, she is not one to hold a grudge for very long. Sometimes it takes as few as fifteen or twenty minutes for her to "cool off."

Ultimately, her temper can be traced to the matter of how deeply she cares about very nearly everything, and very nearly everyone. She has a very, very strong sense of honor and any attempts to "besmirch the names" of her friends or family will be met with especially severe scorn... or, perhaps, a challenge to a duel. Some would say that this attitude is more befitting a knight than a dragon. Thalassa would say that there is no reason why dragons cannot be just as chivalrous as knights-- with wings instead of horses, and flame instead of blades.

Hobbies & Interests
Thalassa is an EXTREMELY avid Dragon Games fan, owning DVD and VHS recordings of every game ever played by Ever After High. Though she has been forbidden from actually competing this year (due to her classification as a "not yet full-fledged" dragon, which are forbidden from being ridden due to magical creature safety laws), she does attend team practices as she expects her final set of "adult" scales to come in sometime between now and her seventeenth birthday. As such, she is considered a "junior" or "reserves" member of the team.

She also enjoys sparring with any knights who feel like challenging a dragon. Every now and then, she is known to "spit fire" in a somewhat less literal sense-- she enjoys rap music, and isn't completely awful at coming up with a few of her own rhymes.

Pet Peeves
Thala is comparatively tame if it is only she who is being insulted-- she can laugh off being called a "loser" if she has been sufficiently assuaged with enough assurances that "it's a joke" or "they're only being petty because they're jealous."

However, you absolutely cannot, in any manner, insult Thalassa's mother. Though she was very young when her mother passed away, she does respect her a great deal, and she has a fundamental issue with disrespect of the dead. It is wisest to stay away from "yo momma" jokes of any sort if Thala's in earshot.

Appearance
Tall and athletically built, even as a freshman, it is not at all unusual for Thala to be mistaken as an upperclassman. Due to her particularly specific destiny of being trapped in one place because of her hair growing long enough to get tangled up in a tree, she has something of a problem with keeping her hair manageable-- though not as quickly-growing as Rapunzel's daughters, a shoulder-length cut on Sunday becomes a knee-length, frizzy disaster by Saturday. It goes without saying that her hair is nowhere near as valuable as Rapunzel's tresses.

It is not even slightly weird for her to misplace a comb somewhere in her hair, and even less unusual for her to roll over in bed one night and realize there are several twigs poking her in the back.

Her dragon form is lithe and sleek, as all adolescent dragons, and she breathes fire. Particularly unique to her form, however, is the birdlike feathering of her wings and the gull-like shape of her maw. Thala is missing her final set of adult scales, meaning that her armor is particularly weak to magic and the breath effects of other dragons. She is, however, more or less immune to injury via the Hero Training class's dulled practice swords.

((She doesn't have a color scheme yet. I am still working on it.))

How the Story Goes
Thalassa is destined for the role of Isabel in the ballad "Kemp Owyne" as found in Child Ballads, gathered by Francis James Child.

According to the tale, a young girl's mother dies and her father remarries a mean witch. The evil stepmother makes the girl, Isabel, serve her for a long time, eventually sending her across the sea and turning her into a savage wyrm. Isabel is trapped there because the witch makes her hair grow long, and she wraps it three times around a tree (sometimes multiple trees, in variant tellings). Ouch!

She's also cursed with bad breath, which is especially awful because the only way to break the curse is to have Owain (who is specifically named in the legend) kiss her three times. In order to get Owain to kiss her, she gives him three enchanted items, one for each kiss: a belt, a ring, and a sword. They all have the same enchantment-- as long as Owain is wearing or carrying the enchanted object, he cannot be hurt by pointy things that would normally draw blood.

At the end, the curse is broken and Isabel is returned to her normal self... regular-length hair, clean breath and all. There is no mention of a marriage to Owain, and some other versions of the telling actually write in the heroine as Owain's sister.

How does Thala come into it?
While Owain was presumably still traveling across the sea to save her, Thalassa's mother Isabel "the Dove" struck up a friendship with the young lord whose land she would be squatting on for the next several years. She was very deeply appreciative of his understanding of the situation, and his efforts in offering her companionship. He was very good company, never seeming to mind that she was a terrifying reptile with a tree stuck in her hair and gross dragon breath. Plus, she never needed to bribe him with valuables in order to kiss her-- so, the choice was obvious, and she settled down with the young lord, eventually bearing Thalassa.

As holds true to the original tale, Isabel passed away of illness when Thalassa was very young. She does not have very many memories of her birth mother, but she holds a deep respect for her. However, when her father at last remarried, Thala found that her stepmother was far from the cruel lady told of in legend-- and, perhaps, that was when she began questioning her own destiny.

As someone who quite strongly feels that being a dragon should be something awesome and empowering, Thalassa identifies as a Rebel. She doesn't want to lose the wild freedom that comes with having the wind beneath your wings and flame upon your lips-- especially not because of a guy who has to be bribed to even kiss her.

Mother
Though Thala's memories of her birth mother are few and far between, she does have a few of them-- a sweet-melodied lullaby sung late, late at night, whose lyrics have since been forgotten; a soft, clean-scented embrace; the temper-tantrum she threw, confused, at her mother's funeral.

Sometimes she is struck with the odd thought of whether or not her mother, who died in the name of destiny, would approve of what she is doing. It secretly bothers her quite a lot, as she firmly believes in respecting one's parents.

Father
Thalassa's father was deeply saddened by Isabel's death, although he was aware that it was inevitable due to her destiny. Lacking much of a significant destiny himself, he does not much understand the whole royal/rebel shenanigans his daughter has gotten herself caught up in. He doesn't want anything to do with it, although he occasionally wonders what his first love would think about the situation, as she followed her own destiny to the grave.

It is obvious that Thalassa gets her temper from his side of the family, and they butt heads over the littlest of things-- ESPECIALLY local politics and gossip. Thala's father thinks she should be more reserved and less quick to anger, perhaps a little hypocritically. It is ultimately accepted as something that's just part of their relationship-- and neither of them can stay mad at the other for long. A certain sign of peace is when one of them offers to share a snack with the other.

He is an environmental protection advocate in addition to being the Lord of his own estate (a role that some might roughly equate to being the proprietor of an exceptionally large local business). As his lands are especially well known for their lumbering and orchards, he is passionate about resource conservation.

Stepmother
Contrary to what her destiny ought to dictate, Thalassa's stepmother, Lady Warst, is actually a very soft-hearted woman. Though you would probably not want to cross her, given the extent of her magical prowess, she has a particular soft spot for her husband, her stepdaughter, and her daughter by blood.

She is built quite stoutly, and she is very protective of both her children regardless of the circumstances of their birth. Sometimes, this manifests as being quite a strict matron-- she does indeed follow her fairytale destiny as far as assigning chores goes, at any rate-- but most of the time it involves threatening to curse "any lad or lass who tries to break your heart, you hear?"

Though it wounded her heart to do so, she has sent Thalassa "over the sea" to Ever After High in order to fulfill the destiny she signed onto as a teenager. She attempted to follow the rest of her destiny and curse her stepdaughter, but the spell was cast so halfheartedly that Thalassa only has half the curse-- unwieldy hair, but still manageable; unpleasant morning breath, but easily rectified with mouthwash; being a dragon, but really, only when she loses control of herself or actively tries to be.

Her relationship with Thalassa is actually quite good. She secretly supports Thala's decision to avoid signing the Storybook of Legends, as she considers having signed the book during her youth as "a terrible mistake." She considers her family as the one positive outcome of having signed on to be a mean and cruel witch.

Half-Sister
Thalassa has a significantly younger half-sister, Erith Warst, whose destiny is to someday marry Thalassa's widowed spouse and turn her daughter into a dragon. She is presently six and the evillest thing she has ever done was put gum in Thala's hair because the castle cook's kids dared her to do it. She felt so bad about it afterwards that she cried, even after Lady Warst charmed it right out.

Thala thinks she is kind of fun, and a good excuse to play with dolls again. It helps that Erith is the more mild-tempered of the two, quite shy for her age.

Friends
WIP

Pet
Hesperida would be offended at being called a "pet." She prefers the term... "mutually beneficial acquaintances, one of whom happens to give excellent scritchies." She is a highly intelligent (also very big) monk vulture who likes to take advantage of Thala's tendency to give her free food and honestly amazing scritchies. In exchange, Hesperida offers companionship on long flights and regular free basses from being pooped on. Maybe. Sometimes.

She likes to think herself immune to "birb moments" but honestly, she isn't.

Romance
WIP

Enemies
WIP

Outfits
WIP

Trivia

 * Thalassa's name comes from the Thalasseus genus of crested terns, a reference to both the "Dove Isabel" epithet and her family destiny of being a seafaring dragon (as terns are found near the water).
 * Her younger sister Erith is also named after a bird.
 * Despite being named "Wyrm," Thala's dragon form is indeed a dragon (4 legs, flight dependent on 2 wings) and not an actual wyrm (2 legs, no wings, flight dependent on some weird floaty magic thingie)
 * Also, she spits fire and is amphibious... which is an odd combination, but a fairly consistent detail in the legend.

Quotes
"I don't abide trash-talk."

- Probably flaming at the mouth honestly

"You know what's kind of odd? Even though I'm supposed to be the dragon in the story, my tale STILL says I'm supposed to grow a couple miles of hair."

- Probably on a regular visit to the Tower Hair Salon

Gallery
WIP