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lunarcovehq · 6 months

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Wangui Kariuki James is a pixie that currently resides in Celestial Hills and has been a Lunar Cove resident for five years, resurrected Halloween 2022 hoping that third time really is the charm.

ITS THE END OF THE WORLD

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Nonbinary, They/Them

DATE OF BIRTH: January 12, 1968

OCCUPATION: Owner/Designer at Blush Boutique

FACECLAIM: Celeste O'Connor

AS WE KNOW IT, AND I FEEL FINE

SPECIES: Fae

SUBCATEGORY: Pixie

FAE COURT POSITION: High Fae

AGE THEY APPEAR: 25

WELCOME TO LUNAR COVE, KUI KARIUKI JAMES

Trigger Warnings: Murder, Agoraphobia, PTSD

Wangui (known as Kui) James was a bit of an afterthought from the moment they were born, on a snowy December morning in 1967. The James family definitely had enough to handle by the time Kui came along, having just relocated from Chicago to Rockford, Illinois. Their parents balanced work, community, and family in an elaborate juggling act, and if one word described the general attitude of their home, that word would be ‘hectic’.

With two older siblings whose ambitions focused on sports and academics, and a younger one who mostly seemed determined to be the loudest person in every room, they often felt overlooked. Even if there had been early indications of their supernatural origins, in all likelihood they would’ve needed to sprout wings at the dinner table before anyone would pick up on how different they truly were.

In a way it gave them space to try different things—testing personalities the way only an unobtrusive middle child could. Kui slipped between boundaries of identity here and there with ease. They would be playing catch in the park with their big brother’s friends one day, and singing in the back row with their parents’ church choir the next, never drawing too much attention but instead, floating along without disturbing the waters with more than a ripple of their presence. While some would find it lonely, Kui was introverted enough that their solitude and secrecy felt more like a protection than a punishment.

They began to take notice of how presentation affected the way people interacted with them, and an interest in clothing and fashion germinated slowly, along with a natural talent for design and a solidifying of the knowledge that they lay somewhere outside a binary form of gender. Clothing and makeup was something they could use—they could express themselves without saying a word, if they chose, letting their style fill in the blanks of who they were. Fashion and art was where they flourished, spending hours pouring over catalogues and then trying their own skills with a rickety old sewing machine they got off a neighbour. Soon, people began to take notice, and word spread around—if that old coat that doesn’t fit quite right? New dress needed adjusting? Take it to the James kid—no, the other James kid, the quiet one.

As they got older, Kui began to suspect that their innate ability to sense the emotions of others, to copy a complicated stitch after only seeing it once, was something a little more than ordinary. But they’d been used to holding secrets close to their chest by then. With the discovery of their wings and actual invisibility, it became easier than ever to stay out of the way, and curiosity about the world beyond Rockford began to tempt them to take greater risks. This culminated when at the tender age of 19, they hopped a train to New York, to see what they could see of Fashion Press Week in the city, and maybe even stick around if they decided that was where their future lay. They used their invisibility to sneak into show after show, swept up in the glamour of it all, but lacking practice they accidentally dropped it on their way out of a venue. A hand fell on their shoulder and panic set in as someone turned them around, calling them by a name they didn’t know.

The stranger swiftly apologised for the error, but after asking a few pointed questions about things they couldn’t possibly know, took Kui to chat at a nearby diner. Over hushed tones in the back booth the stranger explained that they were both fae—a hidden species capable of being reborn if they were in mortal danger. If they were right (and the resemblance was uncanny) then Kui had previously been a singer, right here in New York—Odette “Odie” Kariuki, a rising star on the scene until one rainy night after their set, they vanished, and were eventually presumed dead.

The fae pointed Kui in the direction of Odie’s old band members, the musicians who used to play together but had since retired. Several of them were supernatural themselves, and one confirmed what they’d all suspected—Odie’s death had come at the hands of hunters.

It was with their blessings, aid, and encouragement, that Kui decided to try and pass themself off as Odie’s long lost child. After all, the band assured them, it’s what Odie would’ve wanted, and that stuff was theirs already, technically. They helped Kui fix up false adoption papers, naming the James’ as their adopted family. As surreal as it was to realize that they weren’t human like the rest of their family, it did answer a lot of unasked questions. Kui added the name Kariuki to their own, as a way to honour their previous incarnation. It was far from a perfect illusion, but a little magic here and there to smooth over questions, and the lie was good enough to hold, at least by 1980s standards. Kui James became Kui Kariuki James, and went from being another face in the crowd, to the mysterious heir of a tragically short-lived 60’s songbird. Although most of Odie’s possessions had been held onto by the remaining members of the band, the label, or sold to various private collectors and fans, at least the royalties were redirected. Suddenly, Kui had the means to follow whatever dream they wanted, a gift from a past life.

But along with this windfall, came nightmares of their previous incarnation’s violent death. Kui’s fears wore at them, and their affection for the bustling city life waned. Every alleyway felt like it held the potential for hidden assailants, waiting just out of sight. They were desperate and mostly sleepless when their old bandmates advised them to check out Lunar Cove, RI.

Here, they began to feel like they could breathe again. The little coastal town was going to be a place where Kui could gather their thoughts and decide how best to go about living as a fae, in light of their previous incarnation’s apparent recognizability. They joined the Court, and felt some measure of protection here, turned back to their designs. Money was no longer the worry it had been, so they opened a shop in Celestial Hills, turning the lower floors into a storefront, and the ones above it into their very own atelier and living quarters. Kui found that their new gift for casting illusions actually made for the perfect design canvas. Blush Boutique became their pride and joy—it wasn’t their own House, far from it, but it was something all their own, and they had centuries to nurture and build their vision.

By 1992, they were very nearly content. Sure, leaving behind the outside world was a tough sell, and they still didn’t know how to feel about their family back in Rockford. But what they had gained—the safety, the community, the truth of their existence—it felt worth it. They’d never felt such a sense of belonging before, not anywhere.

And it should’ve been good. Lunar Cove was safe—they even learned how to lend luck out to those who needed it, and bad luck in a place like this barely felt like much of a risk. When a friend asked, Kui lent a friend more than enough luck to help shake off the blues. If they hadn’t been so generous, maybe things would’ve been different. There shouldn’t have been hunters in Lunar Cove. Kui should’ve seen them, should’ve vanished, should have had enough time to regenerate another time. All of this should’ve been true, but instead they were murdered by hunters. Again.

Or so they’d thought. Maybe fate took pity. Maybe luck was just slow to balance out, and realized it had taken too much from them. The next thing Kui knew, it was nighttime, and someone was reaching for them. Without thinking, Kui shoved them backwards, watched them trip and fall down a flight of steps to land, unmoving, at the bottom. They weren’t aware that the person they’d just killed wasn’t a hunter, or that any time had passed since they were the one being attacked. Reliving trauma repeatedly will do that to a person.

Trembling and shocked, they found their way to the Boutique, only to find the door locked, and when they broke a window to get in, nothing was where it should’ve been. Everything was strange and felt wrong. The atelier was full of things they didn’t recognize, none of their possessions or designs were in the shop. Disoriented and barely coherent, they were found there the next morning, and taken to the Faerie Ring.

With thirty years missing from their life, they woke up to a world entirely different from the one they were born into. Technology moved in leaps and bounds, along with fashion and everything else. Their human parents passed away, their siblings moved and scattered around the country with families of their own. It’s said that a fae will lose their powers if they’re heartbroken, but their abilities seemed to be the only thing left intact. That, and the Boutique, which after the confusion was resolved, fell back under Kui’s ownership without much arguing.

Most days, Kui keeps to themselves, focusing wholly on their work in the atelier, catching up on all the changing trends and the evolution in fashion that they missed. It’s a source of great joy and pride whenever an event goes on, some of the locals come to the Boutique, where Kui does swift alterations or even offers bespoke designs of their own. When they do venture out into town, they’re still in the process of adjusting to this new era, and sometimes it’s easier just to be invisible. The news that hunters are once again terrorizing the town doesn’t help much, leaving them jumpy and untrusting around other people. Displaced from time, pulled back into a world they barely recognize and don’t trust, they don’t know if there’s any safety or peace to be found here—or if there ever truly was in the first place.

#Wangui Kariuki James #fae court member #taken fae #blush boutique #celeste o'connor #celestial hills #all #kui kariuki james #kui james #blush boutique owner

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creativemindsldn · 9 months

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