Sorchna is an Ascellus from the AU leg of the story, whom Ka meets on old Bastaat. she had been exiled-- pretty lenient for Terry's old track record-- basically because he no longer trusted her or was amused by the sheer oddity of her mission there-- which, hate to say, contributed to the trust thing. he also believed there was something fishy going between her and his kid (the one he didn't like.) untrue in a naughty aspect, but provoking enough in others.

she's sent many miles away and plenty of bad things happen in this time. but in a change of heart, she decides to return having little else to do on that world (and it's not as if her death would matter much in a simulated environment.)fearful yet determined, she heads back. on the way, Sorchna saves her from being torn to shreds by some of his brethren after she falls into a river. he only intervenes out of curiosity, and only because of what he's heard about her. some craaaazy human lady wandering about the western outlands, prodding the Ox king for attention? something like that has to be worth interrupting five hundred some-odd years of predatory solitude.

he hardly EVER uses his half-n-half form, and also he isn't much for conversation or compassion, having spent his entire life in the intellectual void that describes the company of other alligators. he had exchanged maybe three words with the wayward human every century (and probably just to decline sparing their lives.) but being an Ascellus and all, he decides it's just too interesting to let her go on her way or just eat her himself. so after hearing her story and aligning it with the monosyllabic gator gossip that had reached him from down the river, he decides to accompany her back to Toreas' settlement as both her protection and transportation. traveling the river instead of hiking around the gorge does shave off a couple days' walking she'd have to do otherwise to avoid the perils of the river. he'd get to prolong the weird experience of a human's company and do the first good deed of his whole life; and if Toreas threw her back, Sorch could just keep her or eat her or whatever. everyone wins.

the only snag in the plan is their arrival into the the king's territory might be a little rocky considering her exile and the notorious relations between gators and oxen. and while Sorchna does dip out for a bit and leave her to complete the trip alone, her own unwelcome reception they had both predicted leads him to tail her there in case of trouble. which there is, and becomes worse after he shows up. afterall, Toreas is a bloodthirsty warlord who arbitrarily terrorizes/exploits humans, but pretty much enjoys being involved in their matters. he is also devoted to his people, who sadly have been terrible swimmers since the primordial ooze. and Sorchna, in spite of his enlightened status as an Ascellus, is still just a large unsocialized predator that lives off of the unsuspecting young of Toreas' people. so it's easy to see why there would be tension.


not sure how to tie in all the information/interaction. but it'll be good. i been throwin some stuff around, it's fun to think about.

it's also worth noting that this is the first character pretty much ever who was conceived in a dream i had. he looked different, but, it was a stupid dream overall. apart from the man-i-gator. and i have to say, after drawing ~Zeah1Renee5Voinovich's cobra frontman Tethebi a couple times, my heart goes out to folks who draw reptiles for a living. these fuckers are hard! there are a million things not-quite-right about his scaling pattern but i just went with what was easy and fairly consistent.

and given the environment "crocodile" was the first thing that came to mind after i decided i needed this sort of character for LOA. and when i was little, crocs seemed exotic because we didn't have them here. but the rest of the world does have them-- so i stuck with the dream concept, went a little native pride on urrbody and went with this American alligator color scheme. i did also color and like a crocodile one, but this is what i'm going with.

it is. SO late. right now. not sure i'm happy with this descripto but GOOD-NIGHT.