Have you ever been a stranger in a strange land? Maybe you were traveling and you lost your map, or you strayed from the path... Perhaps you had thought this place you were visiting was not altogether unlike your own home, until you took that wrong turn, and found yourself surrounded by the completely unfamiliar. A bazaar where no one speaks your language - a shop selling wares you have never seen before - a resturant where all of the patrons stop to watch the stranger in their midst. Suddenly, the Other is all around you, and you have to realize that here, at least, you are the other. It's a discomfiting feeling. Returning to the familiar brings sweet relief - certainly, we like to explore, to adventure... but we like to know our way home, too. I know this feeling of misplacedness, of having wandered too far... I live it every day. Because when I strayed from the path, I wandered too far... and now I can never go back.





*** Now would be a good time for a stat table / likes dislikes / refrence picture ***


Basic;
Name: Loshai
Nickname: Shai
Gender: Female
Age: Young Adult
Species: Scianta
Birthday: November Ninth
Birthplace: The Irusev, Pagos

Family:
Father: Ferhilin (deceased)
Mother: Shairah
Siblings: None
Courtship: None

Life:
Current Accomodations: Bathtub, Penthouse Suite, High Hopes
Companion: Tiburon the Mantaray/Ukali
info that's been written on other computer goes hurrr



I guess I could be called an abnormality. Scianta in general are rare, and you could easily deem us "xenophobic", so your general Neopet knows very little about us. I've lived in a pod of around five-hundred members for all of my life, with my father being our leader until he passed on.
Even as a member of my pod, I've always had my independance. Scianta are largely family based, within our personal units, but each family helps all of the others. Because of my father, my mother wasn't able to provide that sort of link to the community... so, I guess I'm a little more anti-social than most. Despite this, I still have some fairly typical traits of my kind; I enjoy being with groups of people who I know, I tend to trust people freely, and I care deeply about everyone around me.
On that topic, trust is very important to me, especially now. I do not return to the Irusev, because my people would trust that I had not interacted with the Land-Cousins... and that would be a lie. Respecting the truth is something expected of my kind.


Please note, Loshai now has some slightly darker striping on her haunches, as seen in her layout image! Her proportions are now more otterlike, too. New ref coming ASAP.

Physically speaking, I've been told that I'm quite beautiful by land-standards. I'm a typical Scianta, though. I prefer my quadruped form to my anthropomorphic one, and normally am cream and purple in colour. I do change colours, which is a typical Scianta trait, and I can change my size as well.

Likes image	Dislikes image
- Shells - Salt Water - Fish - Dilumas - The Ocean - Sweet Fruits	- Boats - The cold - Sharks - Tiberous - Being left out - Living in a Bathtub

My people are very fond of their traditions. Clan members have traditions for where they hunt, and where they nest; traditions for how they become couples and for how they structure their families. They have traditions for hatching, traditions for becoming an adult, and traditions for our elders. They also have traditions about how one ceases to be a part of the clan... violation of the law is met with swift and permanent punishment, whether the indiscression is intended or not.

Once a year, after the worst of the storms have passed, my clan holds a special celebration. The young of the clan gather at the very center of the West shore to watch the sun set. As the sun's bottom edge touches the sea, the girls take to the water. With crests and spots brilliantly illuminated, they put on an acrobatic display, showcasing their swimming prowess and physical fitness. Swimming as a group, they head towards the opening in our safe haven. Some - the particularly young, the ill or the weak - stop at the place where the island's edges nearly meet, their participation over for the year. But for those who are strong enough, beyond the confines of the island is the open ocean. For most members of my pod, the open ocean is strictly forbidden but for this one tradition - and swimming through the pass is the most exhilerating moment of any young Scianta's life. Past the rim of the island, the group dissolves, each swimming in the direction she feels is right. The elders say that your direction is chosen before you are ever born - that it is fate's strings which pull the young through the water on such nights - but I don't like to beleive that. Still on the shore, the boys must wait until the first star appears before they begin the pursuit. Before the sun rises again, you must return - alone or with another - as an adult of the clan. For those that return alone, they will swim again next year; those who have paired do so for life. For those who do not return before the sun rises... there is no return to be had.