Filo

"You know, um--"

## Appearance

Filo is a male Zora based on a Ribbon Eel . His body is largely blue, with a pearl-white marking that covers his neck, chest, stomach, and inner thighs, additional pearl markings on his forearms, and a darker blue tint on his shoulder and hip fin covers. The frills of his shoulder, elbow, and hip fins are yellow. From near the corners of his amber eyes grow a set of yellow fins; a second set grows behind his ears, which are usually hidden from sight by the swirling fins that frame his face. Two sensitive barbels grow from his chin. His most striking features are the two yellow sensory organs, called nares, that grow from his forehead, and his head-tail. This tail is nearly three times his body length and marked throughout with lighter blue freckles. A long yellow fin grows from the dorsal side of his tail, and a dark blue fin from the caudal side. Both fins are edged in white. Though generally unadorned for maximum maneuverability, he sometimes wears traditional silver Zoran jewelry. When on land, he affixes a leather guard to the underside of his tail to protect it as it drags along the ground, or gathers it up in cloth sling he carries over his shoulder.

## Background

Filo, like Freya, was born a member of the Ocean Clan. As a child, he never strayed far from Freya’s side. Freya was morbidly curious about what was out beyond the safety of their hometown, and while Filo would have preferred to stay within their parents' sight, he followed her out of attachment and naivety. The two often explored specifically where they were told not to go. Freya found this thrilling, but Filo came out of their adventures frightened and anxious.

The atmosphere of the town where they grew up was detrimental to the wellbeing of a gentle, timid ribbon eel, and the stress the ever-present threat of danger caused him eventually began to take a toll their parents could not afford to ignore. Filo and Freya were sent on their way with a convoy of travelers and distant relatives, brought from the Ocean Clan to Saltwater--further away from the Forbidden Sea and therefore much safer for the two teenage eels. Here, Filo finally began to blossom and come out of his shell.

The siblings made their home in a peaceful district of Saltwater near the shoreline, where Freya set up a forge and opened a smithy for metal- and silverwork. At Filo’s request, they would create anything they could sell or be commissioned for except weaponry, and in time they grew to be a staple presence at local markets and trade shows.

During their stay in Saltwater, Filo’s idealism combined with a dumb teenage crush on Prince Sidon led to dreams of being on the royal guard of Zora's Domain. He enlisted as a trainee but quickly found out that he wasn’t cut out to be a fighter. Despite this, he still pushed on for several years after, facing failure and disappointment every time. Eventually, he resigned and returned to the atelier, where his eye for detail combined with his sister’s handiwork made them an outstanding team of silversmiths. During the day, Filo will now scavenge or shop for rare or beautiful stones which he can use to decorate their pieces and to craft jewelry. Currently he’s quite satisfied with this life and has settled into a comfortable routine.

Sometime after his resignation from the training program, Filo began making regular trips to the Hotspring Clan together with his sister, seeking relief for muscles aching from long days of hard work and hoping that someone could heal a rather nasty burn he’d inflicted on his fingers while handling heated metal. It was here that he met Rentis the nurse shark Zora--the rest is history, and the two are now a happy, loving pair.

## Personality

Filo is a chipper, enthusiastic guy who isn’t often seen without a smile on his face. Although he's a fast talker, he isn’t always equally fluent. He will often have false starts or trip over his own words, especially when he’s excited or nervous. In situations he’s comfortable with and where he's had a chance to rehearse what he wants to say, Filo can show a lot of confidence and charisma. This makes him an excellent salesman when he and Freya hawk their wares at local markets. In unfamiliar situations, Filo is much less certain and will often be nervous and jittery. He isn’t a thrill-seeker and prefers to keep with what he knows and likes already, only accepting new experiences when they’re presented by people he trusts. Even then, he may still be hesitant.

At times, Filo is a dreamer and an idealist. He hasn’t seen much of the world beyond Saltwater, Hotsprings, and what little he remembers of his childhood in the Ocean Clan, so he loves to listen to travelers sharing tales of their journeys. He lives vicariously through stories of their adventures and can completely lose himself in one if it’s told in even a slightly compelling way. He likes telling them on, too, but has a tendency to change details or blow events out of proportion.

His bright colors and exuberant nature usually make him seem like a confident and self-assured person, when in truth he’s often anything but. Filo needs regular breaks from social activities to retreat to calmer, more private spaces, otherwise he runs the risk of being overwhelmed. Usually he will say that he’s put his days as a trainee behind him, but the many years of failure and the realization that he couldn’t stand up to the many sharks, morays, and other tough fighters can still make him doubt his own worth. Underneath the practiced front, those who know him personally will find vulnerability, a fragile sense of self-confidence, and at times even anxiety.

Emotionally, Filo can be a person of extremes who whiplashes between one emotional state and the next. He’s volatile and also pretty terrible at keeping his emotions inside. Filo wears his heart on his sleeve at all times. Some call him a crybaby because he’ll often go misty-eyed or start crying about the smallest things, but really he is a sensitive person who will just as easy tear up when happy as he will when sad or angry. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and his opinions can be easily read from his body language.

## Traits

Filo has deep-sea creature Zora and electric ray Zora in his family. This means his freckles are very faintly bioluminescent and he can let off nonlethal zaps from his head-tail, the intensity of which are about equal to a static shock. He doesn’t have much conscious control over either one.

His eyesight isn’t great. Filo relies mostly on his sense of smell and touch. He uses his nares (the yellow snoots on his head) to help him find his way around. He hates having them touched as it’s very disorienting.

Though they look dainty from a distance, his hands boast a lot of calluses and scars, the worst of which are from accidental burns while working in the atelier.

He loves having his frills and fins petted and will probably purr if you do it.

Since he’s made to fit into small spaces for safety, he’s double-jointed and rather bendy.

He has a pharyngeal jaw, but it’s not usually noticeable since it’s located pretty far back in his throat.

His blood is toxic and can cause gastrointestinal distress, irregular pulse, (respiratory) paralysis, and death in large quantities.