Xeres / Characters / Blot
Blot
Has plenty to say. Just says it slowly, in ink, on a piece of parchment no one else thought to bring.
Basic Information
Full Name
Blot
Nickname
None yet
Race (Grade)
Ink Imp, Beastbond (F)
Class
None
Height
9" (standing)
Birthday
Frostnight 1, 1304
Age
Loading...
Birthsign
Bloodline Ability
Unknown
This Bloodline ability has not yet been unveiled to you.
Physical Description
Blot, Soulbound Field Asset
Appearance
Blot is jet black from the tips of his spiraling horns to the claws at the ends of his toes, his skin textured like dried ink that has been layered many times over, with a faint iridescent quality that catches blue and deep violet under direct light. He is small even by imp standards, built with the compactness of something designed to fit into spaces that politely suggest nothing should be in them. His ears are pointed and mobile, angled forward when he is curious and laid flat when he is making himself difficult to notice, which is often. His eyes are the only interruption to all that black: wide, amber-gold, and possessed of a watchfulness that suggests he is filing everything away. He almost always has his parchment in his hands or tucked under one arm, treating it with the absent-minded care of someone who has carried the same object for so long they no longer consciously think about it.
Unique Characteristics
The parchment Blot carries is always the same one: a piece of yellow vellum that has never been explained, never runs out of space, and never tears. When Blot has something to say, black ink begins to appear on it in neat, deliberate script, letter by letter, as if being written by a careful and invisible hand. The text is never rushed, arriving at its own pace regardless of the urgency of what is being communicated. When the thought is complete the writing slowly fades over the following minute, leaving the parchment clear for whatever comes next. He does not write with anything. The ink simply appears. His claws, notably, leave no ink stains despite their color, which is one of several things about Blot that does not make sense when examined too closely.
Personality & Temperament
Positive Traits
- Observant with a patience that borders on the preternatural
- Communicates with surprising economy and precision
- Exceptionally good at not being where expected
- Loyal to Puff with total, unspoken completeness
- Shows genuine if quietly expressed affection for Ny'Obi
- Never wastes words, which is notable given he uses none
Challenging Traits
- The parchment does not hurry, even when the situation does
- Tends to appear in places he was not invited to
- His written opinions of people can be bracing
- Does not distinguish between surveillance and nosiness
- Watches for a long time before announcing himself
- Prefers high, cramped, dark places to rest
[Appearing from behind a bookshelf where no one thought to look, parchment already mid-sentence as he ambles into view:] ...been here the whole time.
[Held up toward a stranger at the door while Puff watches from the shadows, ink arriving with unhurried certainty:] Puff is not home. Blot is also not here.
[After being asked if he understood a complex set of instructions, a single word appearing and fading before anyone could second-guess it:] Obviously.
Likes
- Small dark spaces with a clear view of everything
- Being somewhere no one thought to check
- Watching people who do not know they are being watched
- Puff's silences, filled by Blot's parchment at his pace
- Ny'Obi, who reaches for his horns without startling
Dislikes
- Being asked to hurry; the parchment ignores this
- Loud people, unnecessary and easy to avoid
- Bright open spaces with nowhere to tuck himself away
- Being handled without warning has consequences
- Anyone making a move toward Puff that Puff has not invited
Background & History
What an Ink Imp Is
Ink Imps are a rare variety of minor infernal that traded the standard imp's venomous sting and shapechanging for something considerably more particular: total voicelessness and the parchment. No Ink Imp has ever been recorded making a sound of any kind. They do not hiss, grunt, or chirp. They are entirely, constitutionally silent. What they have instead is the parchment, a conjured piece of vellum that is theirs from the moment they exist and functions as their singular means of expression, producing text in black ink at its own unhurried pace to convey whatever the Imp intended to communicate. Whether the parchment is magical in itself or an extension of the Ink Imp's nature is a question that has not been satisfactorily resolved. What is known is that no Ink Imp has ever been separated from theirs for longer than a few hours before it reappears on their person, and that the parchment of a deceased Ink Imp disappears simultaneously with its owner. Ink Imps are naturally stealthy to a degree that outpaces common sense, capable of occupying a space for extended periods without being detected by individuals who would be embarrassed to admit they were surprised.
The Bond With Puff
Puff Puddlefoot is a man who has spent his life communicating obliquely. He speaks in third person because direct expression has always felt like standing in a room with no walls, exposed in a way that the architecture of third person quietly prevents. He has built an entire career, an entire identity, around the art of not being the most visible thing in any situation. His beastbond is a creature who literally cannot speak, whose only communication arrives in writing at a pace that cannot be rushed, and who shares his instinct for shadow and concealment so completely that the two of them have been in the same room as people who were actively looking for Puff and not been found. The bond did not so much introduce Blot to Puff's world as confirm that Puff's world had a shape that Blot already fit exactly.
The Parchment in Practice
The parchment's pace is its most operationally significant quality. Under calm conditions it is merely a curiosity, the slight delay between Blot deciding to communicate something and anyone actually reading it adding a particular texture to conversation that most people find they adapt to faster than expected. Under urgent conditions it becomes a study in managing one's expectations, since the parchment has demonstrated no awareness of or interest in urgency whatsoever, producing its letters with the same measured deliberateness whether Blot is relaying a dinner preference or a threat assessment. Puff has adapted to this completely and reads the parchment as it writes with the focused patience of a man who has never in his life needed to be told twice to be patient. Others find it takes some adjustment. The parchment, for its part, remains indifferent to their adjustment timeline.
A Natural Spymaster's Partner
Puff is Goodberry's Spymaster. Blot is an imp who can enter places silently, remain in them undetected for as long as required, and produce a written account of everything he observed with no possibility of the account being overheard. The professional fit is not subtle. Blot has already demonstrated a capacity for reconnaissance that supplements Puff's own considerable skills, capable of accessing spaces that are too small, too exposed, or too risky for Puff himself. He returns from these excursions and holds up the parchment and the ink begins to appear and Puff reads it without expression while whoever is waiting for the briefing watches the text materialize letter by letter with varying degrees of composure. Blot, during these briefings, typically finds a high corner to crouch in and watches the proceedings with his amber eyes and his parchment resting blank across his knees, having already said what he had to say.
Early Days With the Family
Ny'Obi is the first member of Puff's household who reached for Blot without hesitation, which Blot appeared to note and file away as relevant. She does not startle when the ink appears, which at her age is either a sign of remarkable composure or simply a sign that she finds it perfectly ordinary, which it is, for her, having never known a version of the household without it. Shadowstep took two days to stop watching Blot whenever he moved. Wuffle, who is categorically less patient with things she cannot immediately categorize, told him once to his face that he was unsettling. The parchment took its time, and then produced: Blot has been told. This was considered, by the household, to be a satisfactory resolution.
Goals
Knowing Every Corner
Blot's most persistent observable behavior is his systematic exploration of every location Puff occupies, working through it with the methodical patience of someone taking inventory of exits, hiding places, and vantage points. He does not rush this process. He does not announce it. He simply vanishes from one part of a space and reappears in another, slightly higher up, and watches for a while, and then moves again. When he has finished with a location he seems settled in a way he was not before, the particular quality of stillness that suggests the assessment has been completed and filed.
Being Useful to the Work
Blot has shown clear investment in Puff's work as Spymaster, demonstrating initiative in his reconnaissance activities that goes beyond what the bond would strictly require. He identifies targets, conducts observation independently, and returns with written accounts that are both detailed and structured in a way that suggests he understands what information matters and what does not. He is not doing this because he was asked. He is doing it because it is the work, and he has recognized the work as something worth doing, and because the result is a Puff who is better informed, and a better-informed Puff is a safer Puff, which is the underlying and unstated calculus behind most of what Blot does.
Guarding What Puff Has Built
Puff spent most of his life with nothing to protect except himself and the hope of finding his sister. He has a daughter now, a household, a purpose, a community he has chosen and that has chosen him back. Blot arrived into this and understood it immediately, the way beastbonds understand the shape of their partner's life without needing it explained. He keeps watch the way Puff keeps watch: quietly, from somewhere no one thought to look, with amber eyes on the door and the parchment resting ready across his knees. Whether the danger comes from outside or inside or from a direction no one is currently considering, Blot will have already noticed it before it arrives. And the ink will say so. At its own pace. In time for Puff to act.
Current Status & Relationships
Residence
Role
Beastbond
Soul Bond
ATTENTION!
Blot is an Ink Imp beastbond and is constitutionally incapable of producing any vocal sound. All communication is delivered via a self-renewing yellow parchment he carries at all times, upon which black ink appears to convey his intended meaning at a pace that is entirely independent of external urgency. Do not mistake his silence for inattention: Blot is almost certainly watching, has probably been watching longer than is comfortable to acknowledge, and is likely already in a position to act on whatever he has observed. His stealth capabilities are exceptional even by imp standards and he has demonstrated the capacity to conduct independent reconnaissance on behalf of Puff's intelligence operations. He should not be picked up without warning. He should not be approached from behind. He should not be assumed to be absent from a room simply because he has not been seen.