OC Spotlight November: Jin // sfw-ish

i'm gonna start this spotlight off by bullet pointing some basic info about the world jin lives in, just to provide the necessary context for his story:

- rhaajim is an original species of dragon shapeshifters, whose main forms are a relatively human form (where they still have scales, horns, claws, fangs, tails, and other draconic features), a 'were-dragon' form, and a legit dragon form.

- "the scoundrels" refers to a loose criminal organisation with members of various questionable talents, who are all over the moral spectrum; some of them use illegal methods to achieve altruistic goals, others are bad to the bone, and many are somewhere inbetween. the scoundrels are 'ruled' by a set of 'royals' with different titles, and there's unwritten but holy laws that their members are expected to follow lest they be put on trial and punished. for example, it is not allowed to engage in illegal slave trade. the scoundrels also tend to take care of people who have nowhere else to go, or who need a second chance in life; they aren't necessarily good, but they aren't all bad either. 

- in the underground world of this setting, darkness and shadow is associated with life and safety, while light and brightness is connected with death, fear, and madness. light spirits are often malevolent, and there's a strange incurable light disease that drives people insane and eats them up from the inside out.

- the vhu'la were strange shadow creatures who existed before even the gods. the most powerful among them where the vhu'la mothers, but not even they could stop their society from eventually crumbling. the mothers retreated into the earth to slumber and whisper; many of their shadow children were dead, but those who remained where sent into the world to help those who deserved it. nobody knows where the mothers are hidden--with one exception.

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jin was born into the scoundrels. he's a rhaajim who hatched from a copper egg, and as a hatchling he had copper scales and copper hair. but when he was still little, he got very ill. it was the feared light disease, but his parents both figured it was a way to weed out weakness. he would survive if he deserved to, otherwise he might as well die. they already had an heir in the form of his bigger sister, anyway. 

but the sister didn't share their parent's cold-hearted sentiment; she did everything that she could to help him. she took him to healers and shamans, but none could cure him. she prayed and prayed to the gods of healing, but he just got worse. in her desperation, she eventually wrapped her brother in her arms and descended deep below the earth, down into the labyrinthine caverns below the scoundrels' desert hideout. in the guts of their mountain lay a narrow path, strewn with ancient mechanisms and gears, ending at the black iron gate that sealed the royals' best kept secret: a vhu'la mother's tomb. 

she prayed to the vhula mother to save her brother. she never knew why, but the mother decided to listen--perhaps because she could save this child, despite having been unable to save many of her own. whisps of shadow slipped out underneath the door, wrapped themselves around the baby dragon, and his scales and hair and eyes turned pitch black.

every trace of the light disease disappeared from his body, and his sister promised that he would be safe now; that she would always protect him.

but a couple of years later, she died.

for as long as he could remember, jin's parents seemed to harbour a certain resentment towards him. they rarely said it out loud, but they seemed to blame her death on him, as if he had been given life in exchange for her death. she had been excellent, they had had such great plans for her--and then she died. now they would have to make do with him instead. "but it should have been her." 

jin's father was one of the scoundrel royals; he was known as the prince of coins (or 'coins' for short), leader of the thieves. he excelled at scheming, stealing, planning intricate heists, and investing his resources in genius ways. his mother had once been a slave, but after a series of strange events (including her owner's mysterious death) she marries the powerful criminal and becomes a shrewd master of intrigue. in short--they were excellent criminals, but awful parents. people in general mattered less to them than their schemes, their money, their own ambitions and goals. their son was no exception. his parents didn't care about jin growing up happy--they cared about him growing up into an obedient tool, a sharp sword, a knight on their chess board. 

after his sister's death, jin faced the full force of his parents' high expectations and unforgiving demands. he was put through rigorous training even while he was still a kid, not being allowed to eat or rest before coins was content with his performance. jin worked hard, but whenever he accomplished what his parents had asked him to do, they always just raised the bar even higher. jin was never quite good enough, yet they kept demanding more and more from him. "it's the least you can do after she died for your sake."   

they were pleased with the fact that jin's healing at the vhu'la mother's hands had given him control over shadows and darkness. their son could step into one shadow and appear from another, wield darkness like others wield fire, steep his ink-scaled form in smoke and stealth about without a sound. they needed jin to be skilled, dangerous, and intimidating: a deadly dog they could sic on their enemies. they did not need him to have friends or confidants. the more afraid others were of him, the better. people soon grew to view the shadowy shape of him as an ill omen; where he went, someone was bound to get hurt.

jin grew up into a stern, very serious, and unfriendly young man. he was raised to think he didn't need anyone else, and that being lonely was his best defense against getting stabbed in the back. for the longest time, he didn't allow himself to question his parent's actions and decisions, because that would also mean questioning himself. only later would jin realise that he never chose to follow his father, because he didn't even think he had a choice except for unquestioning filial piety.

there was only a couple of people who insisted on chipping away at the walls jin had raised around himself. the first was another young thief, renza. jin himself would not be able to explain exactly how it happened, but one morning he woke up with his arms around renza. their unlikely fling lasted until they started disagreeing too much about coins's leadership. jin refused to admit that his father had come to view the thieves and rogues--the people he was supposed to lead and protect--more as tools for his own ends, that he seemed to be playing a game with little regard for the lives at stake. people died on mission, sacrificed by coins to achieve certain ends, but jin always told himself that that was the kind of thing a leader had to do.

the next person who managed to get close to jin was a strange elf named dara. dara was from far away, very unlike the local elves, with his moonlit eyes and midnight blue skin with star-like freckles. he was never the least bit afraid, of jin or anything else. once again, jin never quite knew why, but all of a sudden dara was his constant companion. at first, jin tried to alienate him, but dara would have none of it, and jin eventually went from merely tolerating his presence, to appreciating it, to craving it. their relationship, once it bloomed, would turn out far more long-lasting. dara questioned jin's obedience towards his parents in a more gentle way than renza had, out of concern for jin's well-being. in his own way, dara gave jin the courage to eventually stand up against them.

that would never have happened if it hadn't been for renza, though. renza was the person who finally decided that something had to be done--coins was too greedy, too selfish, and not fit to rule anymore. in secret, renza started plotting to overthrow the prince. by now, jin knew, deep down, that his father had gone too far, but still refused to admit it ... until he was presented with proof that coins had engaged in illegal slave trade. 

only then did jin offer his services to renza. jin is very skilled, but lacks the ambition and initiative of a leader; he sort of 'needs' someone to tell him what to do, and he looked to renza to be that person.

renza's plan was quite simple. he would challenge coins for the leadership of the thieves--for the title of "prince"--and after having won, he could put coins on trial, outing his sins for all the royals to see. when coins turned to his son for support, jin stayed quiet, openly defying his parents for the first time in his life. coins is judged for his crimes, and jin stands witness to his greed and corruption, much to the astonishment of those who had thought him irrevocably obedient to his father. renza leaves coins' fate in jin's hands, saying that he knows and understands his nature better than anyone. jin decides to spare his father's life, but he's sent into exile, warned to ever return or meddle with the scoundrels again, and without a copper to his name. he goes from being one of the richest men in the empire to having absolutely nothing--he's lost his position, his money, his wife, and his son. his mother manages to avoid being exiled with her husband, but she has no control over jin anymore; he doesn't even talk to her.

jin also expects to be put on trial, for the sins he committed while in the service of his father. instead, renza asks him to be his knave--the scoundrel title for a royal's right hand man. jin hesitantly accepts. many of the thieves question renza's decision, but renza is willing to let jin redeem himself and trusts him to prove himself worthy. it doesn't happen overnight, but the thieves and rogues eventually come to accept and appreciate jin as one of their own--a brother-in-arms rather than his father's lackey. for the first time in his life, jin starts feeling like he belongs, with the other scoundrels and with dara, who has been at his side throughout all of this. 

the hardships aren't quite over, though. one day, renza disappears. jin and senka (renza's adopted sister) lead the search for him, but to no avail. once he's been gone for long enough people start saying that perhaps they need to elect a new prince of thieves. as knave jin would be one of the candidates, but he refuses to accept that renza is gone. his mother tries to support him, putting his name forward as a valid successor to the princely throne, but something about it stinks. it turns out that renza had ended up captured by slavers who were supposed to bring him back to his one-time owner, but before they get there he is rescued by his lover, and the two of them find evidence that someone among the scoundrels had arranged the whole thing. once renza returns, he and jin put the pieces together--jin's mother had tried to get renza out of the way, aiming to make her son the new prince of thieves. when jin confronts her about it, asking why, she says "you're still my son. my legacy."

that's the last straw for jin. she had herself been a slave--and yet she had tried to send renza back to that hell. and for what? jin's about to turn his back and walk away, leaving her to be put on trial just as his father was. but something seems to snap in her--her usually so cold and calm demenour falls apart and out of its ashes a frantic monster arises. she transforms into her dragon form, attacking and killing anyone who's in her way as she barrels towards jin. "it should have been her!" she roars in the rhaajim tongue, and jin is almost too shocked to react. he last-minute shifts form to fight her, protecting the other scoundrels from her, but his attempts at calming her down are futile. the fight only ends when he kills her.

jin doesn't like talking about it. there's many things he doesn't like talking about. he's not exactly a talkative person, for starters, and he has very little training in how to acknowledge, deal with, or even show emotions. he's very serious, duty-oriented, is socially inept, has no sense of humour, and tends to take things very literally. yet his new friends are there for him as he struggles to deal with feelings he won't even admit to having. renza gives him missions, knowing that he prefers having work to do. senka bothers him in her usual carefree way, because better he be annoyed at her than gloomy over more serious matters. and dara offers him a type of intimate, unconditional acceptance that jin wouldn't accept from anyone else; he's never let anyone as close as he lets dara. thanks to them he can grow into his own, and figure out his own path--and he doesn't have to feel lonely anymore.

many years later, jin accompanies renza on a faraway desert mission. they end up staying with a nomadic clan called zahradam, who has a bit of a reputation for offering people a second chance. among them there's an old man who seems to always be surrounded with happy people, young and old, smiling and laughing; they're listening to his stories of adventure and romance and wonder, or asking him to show them sleight-of-hand tricks. he's often seen playing with an old copper coin, but he says it's the only piece of money he has nowadays, and he likes it that way; money ruined his life once, and this one coin is a keepsake to remind him of that. now he's a craftsman, who makes fabrics and provides clothes for people without asking for anything in return. "i've taken enough; it's time to give." 

jin avoids him until the very last day of their stay. when the old man sees him, his eyes widen in surprise--and then droop in shame. jin hadn't said a single word to his father at the trial, and he wasn't even present when they sent him off into exile; but now he sits down with the old man, and they talk. he never tells anyone what they talk about, exactly, but he's later seen going to the shrine of mezfirah--the god of healing, redemption, and forgiveness--to leave a small offering at their altar. 

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HOW ABOUT THAT FAMILY DRAMA, HUH. as always i'm happy to answer questions and such in the comments below! hope you enjoyed the read :D

art + jin © me; dara + renza + senka © kubi.