Tiffany Aching (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hagothehills) wrote2014-04-28 02:47 pm
hagothehills) wrote2014-04-28 02:47 pm
Tiffany Aching | Discworld
PLAYER
Name: Murder
Age: over 18
Personal Journal: murderofcrows (not in use)
E-mail: storytelling.crow@gmail.com
AIM/MSN/etc: almost a murder @ aim
CHARACTER
Name: Tiffany Arching
Canon: Discworld
Age: 18
Timeline: The end of I Shall Wear Midnight; BEFORE she speaks to Eskarina after the resolution of Roland's wedding, and sees herself wearing the Hare, assured of her future and her eventual acceptance of love with Preston, IE, before the epilogue and before the last little bit of the last chapter.
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: N/A
Personality: When Tiffany was eight years old, the Baron's son vanished into the wood and never came back. They blamed an old woman nearby, Mrs. Snapperly, who was old, poor, and mostly forgotten. They burned her cottage to the ground, called her a witch, but with no proof, could not put her to death. Instead, the Baron declared that no one could aid her -- and so instead, she starved and froze over one harsh winter on the Chalk.
Tiffany decided then and there, that she was going to be a real witch, so things like this didn't happen anymore. She was a precise girl. She knew Snapperly couldn't have eaten a boy in that oven; it was only ten inches deep. She measured. No, really. She measured it, after the cottage's embers had cooled. This is the sort of girl that Tiffany is -- the one who knows certain laws and facts must be, and that if magic was in play, certain things would not be in play: If Snapperly was a witch, she'd never have been caught. A magic oven in a magic cottage would never have been burnt. Logically putting the facts together, she deduced that the baron was a frightened man who put a woman to death for nothing at all, all at the age of nine.
With a sense of justice, a craving for knowledge, and generally being too smart for her own good, Tiffany Aching is not socially awkward, but certainly, reserved. Somewhat alienated from her village -- a witch must be set apart to be able to do her job in both picking up and sorting the important information from her steading, and not seen as 'one of us' but an outside who can be spoken to -- she doesn't have many friends outside other witches, the Nac Mac Feegles, and the Toad Lawyer. This can make for a somewhat frustrating existence, but it is part of a witch's lot and Tiffany shoulders it admirably, though she is often stung and insulted when at fairs, if young women ask about her love life-- or comment on her lack of lovers. She is somewhat lonely, due to this set up, but in her home steading, rarely gets time to think on it.
She is affectionate with those who need it to a point, is not demonstrative or gushy (or 'girly' or 'feminine', and sometimes feels badly about that) but she is very much a witch after her grandmother: she doesn't take any guff, takes her obligation to poke holes in the local nobility -- especially given their ego and their witch persecution -- seriously, and is apt to speak her mind. If you're wrong, she'll say so. If you're very wrong, she'll say so loudly. If you're dangerously wrong, she may grab you by the ear and haul you off for a lecture or make sure that whatever you're doing is not going to hurt people. Passive, Tiffany is not.
She is logical, occasionally seen as cold and factual, possessive, and a little bit selfish. She's struggled with witching's self-sacrifice at times, but has mostly overcome it. She sometimes slips, especially where romance is concerned. Recently spurned by the baron's son for being 'too complicated' despite many years of friendship and attraction, he chose to marry someone of equal rank, who he thought would be 'simpler'. (Tiffany takes satisfaction in the fact that Roland's marrying a witch who is just as complicated as she is, just in different ways.) She tries not to get nasty with Letitia at first, but she cannot help but think some very terrible things she manages not to say -- but she doesn't make it easy for Roland and can act out of spite if she thinks it will serve a purpose AND make her feel a little better at the time (such as arranging her 'lock up' in Roland's own baronial castle, telling him and his future mother-in-law off, and so forth, which is as much for herself as for the matter at hand).
She is viewed as a future spinster witch by her village, as nobody there cares that 'Geology' is not spelled 'G golly G', and so she has few equals in intellect and even less time to go hunting for one to be her lover, as she works a very large steading and is very aware of her responsibility to be people in it. Tiffany is a workaholic by nature - she enjoyed the invisibility of working hard as a dairymaid on her family farm where she got lost in her chores, but had to cultivate respect as a witch within her own community, as she grew up there. She has it, but it is not always easy. People come to the witch with needs, and rarely does the witch get to go to anyone for her own.
However, all is not perfect in Tiffany's logical world. Tiffany is still young and while she does have Second (Third and Fourth, etc) thoughts actively, she does some things on the impulse of youth. This is slowly fading but she can be goaded into fast action with some effort. She'll grow into a more settled -- for a value of settled -- woman, but she will always have a fierce temper and a certain lack of fear when it comes to making first moves anywhere except romance. She is not unknown to make split second decisions; with the help of Second Thoughts, these are usually sound ones, but she's done some stupid things on impulse that nearly wrecked the world before -- like stepped into the Morris Dance in Summer's place. (Summer has mostly forgiven her. Mostly.)
Tiffany uses very little 'Boffo', or 'obviously magickal trappings' like warty noses, fake skulls, and star-covered pointy hats in her work. She takes a very pragmatic approach -- everybody knows she's a witch, she's worked hard to make her steading safe, and she learned a long time ago that the 'Boffo' doesn't make the witch -- it's most often a crutch for witches who are not very good at other forms of magic, lack other important skills, or headology. She takes pride in her ability to get the job done without a lot of dress up and plastic bats.
In the matter of fear, Tiffany is not a conventional girl. She is not afraid of Death, as she has seen him many times and has walked a creature so inhuman that it was desperate to experience death to the afterlife. She is not afraid of failure, but certainly does not seek it. As a witch, failing her Steading is a big problem -- people depend on her; if she's not out to do her rounds, make her medicines, cut toenails, make the elderly comfortable or check on the babies, both furry or otherwise, who will do it? She takes her steading responsibilities very seriously and is driven to see to it that those she cares for are protected.
If kept from this she would be very frustrated and upset - a steading with a bad witch is a steading with trouble indeed. To this end, Tiffany does not like being out of control, and lack of respect is frustrating to any witch -- especially a very young one. It hampers what she can get done, an that's very important to Tiffany to be able to do her job. If they see a teenage old girl, instead of a year old witch, it's often harder to get things done in a straight forward manner.
Tiffany does fear that the girls are right, however, and that she's given so much to her steading that there will never be anything for herself and a family of her own. Roland betrayed her and she will not be apt to immediately trust a young man in the matters of the heart again.
With no other witches in the City, one other thing that may be a problem for Tiffany is 'cackling' or 'going to the dark'. It's the suggestion that witches, especially regularly disrespected witches in distant steadings, will eventually go 'gingerbread houses and big ovens' or start turning people into frogs willy-nilly when their hard work goes repeatedly disrespected. If they're treated as a convenience instead of the hard working people they are, there can be problems -- big ones. Usually, witches will check up on each other, make sure they sit down, have tea, work it all out -- but with no one to empathize in her position, Tiffany may be more vulnerable to fits of temper, especially if she has to struggle for respect. "Next thing you know it's spinning wheels and castles sleeping."
While she's a very centered girl (partially because she has seen what she is like without a conscience and nothing but her id and her powers, thanks to the Hiver), this is always a possibility, to drive her over the edge with disrespect, rudeness and generally taking her for granted... or worse, to continually treat her like a child. She has defeated the Queen of Faerie, walked the Hiver to the shores of death, kissed Winter and burned the Cunning Man. She knows that respect will be earned, but it will not be brooked if they see her as a child and treat her like such.
Things where Tiffany are weak are much more straight forward; she's a mostly normal teenage girl, though if Narrative demands it she is strong and tough -- strong enough to pull a grown man from his bed, throw him down the stairs, slap him till he bleeds and run him out of town for beating his daughter until she miscarried. But if you shoot her, she will probably get hurt and bleed. She doesn't know jack about technology, but she'll be a fast learner, but there'll be adjustment periods and a lot of study. She's emotionally distant and there's a literal need for respect in witches, less they go to the Dark and become cacklers.
This also isn't helped by the fact to that she's still a teenage girl who is fresh from a break up and not certain about her future or if she's going to be a spinster. Tiffany's a witch, but she's a woman too and she really did love Roland, and really did think they had a future together. While there's a very quiet assumption that she and Roland were briefly lovers, and were certainly emotionally involved/courting for years, nobody in the village knew for sure and Tiffany is intensely private about such matters. She's very sensitive about her lack of desirability; she knows she's plain and that as a witch, there's much work to be done. But she wants love and a family of her own, some day, and these are issues that can be preyed upon.
Background: Wiki here, here... and an app with a much longer background here.
Abilities: Tiffany is a Discworld Witch.
This means a few things: Witches are what stories need them to be, as the entirety of Discworld is dictated by narration, and it's need for continuity. Myth, lore and story all have very potent meaning in Discworld, and they are as alive and moving the world as much as anything. What this means in effect is: Tiffany exists in a dual-gendered magic system; men and women's magic are different in practice, though you do see overlap (only one female wizard, to date, and no male witches; wizards generally remain celibate, witches rarely do so.) Wizards are flashy, loud, experimental, rarely get what they're after, and congregate in schools and universities. Witches are singular (though they sometimes meet in covens, and often check up on each other to prevent 'cackling' or going 'to the dark') and tend to cottage in a village, or nearby one in a remote area.
For Tiffany, she serves the lowlands near the Ramtops called the Chalk, where witches have been in bad states for some time due to the Baron's son going missing a few years before the start of the first Tiffany Aching book, "The Wee Free Men". Witches tend to the reflect the land they are on and their communities needs. Tiffany's grandmother, Sarah Aching, was the last witch of the Chalk, though she was not formally acknowledged as a witch and didn't do much magic - most witches don't. She was a shepard; Miss Level asks, in A Hat Full of Sky how she managed things, and Tiffany explains that Sarah Aching often made people help themselves, as opposed to helping them directly. Miss Level says that means she was a great witch, for few witches can manage such a thing.
Tiffany is a powerful witch, especially for her age; she is 'the flint in the Chalk' - reflecting the hidden stone in the soft, fossil-bed of the Chalk that was under the turf that the sheep grazed on. She is small, sharp, and not just a little bit dangerous. Flint will hold an edge for years, long after steel has corroded. This may help to define what sort of witch Tiffany is: hard and sharp, just like the soft people of the Chalk around her need. Magically speaking, however, Tiffany's 'specific' abilities include broom riding, shamble creation, possession of animal bodies by leaving her own body 'empty', and walking through worlds when she can find the right place. She has what is called 'First Sight' and 'Second Thoughts'. She can also 'move' energy from point to point. All witches use Headology to some degree. There are other minor notes to her magical power, but the major points will be detailed here.
For completely nonmagical abilities, Tiffany is a dairymaid, expert cheese maker, shepard, midwife for both woman and beast, herbalist, hospice worker, and old-time vet and something like a village doctor when need be. She is not trained in extensive combat, but often relies on Headology instead. If a witch or wisewoman does it in fiction, likely, Tiffany has that skill in her repertoire, with a bent toward the specifics of the British lowland country and their needs, with some time up the mountains later in her life.
She cannot take payment for any services. A witch cannot be bought, so she cannot ask for anything or take anything as payment. When she is given gold by the Baron she attempts to refuse it until he can phrase it as a gift-- and even then, she gives it away to start a school once the gold does come back to her. A witch will always get what she needs-- either by skill, by taking cast offs from her Steading in a round about manner, or by sheer luck which is a type of magic unto itself. Other witches may spread the rumor that it's good luck to gift to witches -- the first beer from any brew, or the first slice of pie, for instance -- and in a way, it is. It keeps the witch respected and serving her community. But gifts do not buy a witch's services, and Tiffany will not deny anyone in need. She's a witch, and she serves her steading.
A witch, however, greatly reflects the land she's on. Tiffany is a witch of the Chalk, and she is the flint within the Chalk. This means she's a hard woman in a soft country with few real harsh problems, just the general human lack of care that everyone gets someplace. But over time she'll reflect her community and the land she becomes attached to. This will be gradual --but if the community remains fractious and unstable, Tiffany will reflect that, and shift more toward 'cackling'. If there can be some stability, then she'll stay more stable.
First Person: Test drive!
Third Person: Morning came round and Tiffany could not shake the strangeness that had trickled into the back of her mind. It was not dread; no, but it was kin to that black feeling. The anticipatory ice in one's belly was not heavy, but it would grow. She could not give it a name, though. It was like dropping a knife and watching it spin and spin, warning of strangers coming from all around, that there was something coming and it could not be pinpointed, could not be guessed at, could not be defined, as threat or warning or possibly both.
She rose early, with this in mind - delivered breakfast to Juliet and James, before she swept on her way. She'd be back later to help clean up a bit, aye. But then she went to the places where she knew that magic dwelled. She visited the shrines, the places where the green was thick and wild and it's power unchecked, she walked the magic school grounds and she listened. She went to the place where broken objects went to die and the iron was heavy with it's strength.
There was something afoot -- something on the wind, cold and chill and perhaps even dangerous -- but she could not name it. It may yet be too far away for her to hear it's name.
Maybe someone else could hear it, though.
Name: Murder
Age: over 18
Personal Journal: murderofcrows (not in use)
E-mail: storytelling.crow@gmail.com
AIM/MSN/etc: almost a murder @ aim
CHARACTER
Name: Tiffany Arching
Canon: Discworld
Age: 18
Timeline: The end of I Shall Wear Midnight; BEFORE she speaks to Eskarina after the resolution of Roland's wedding, and sees herself wearing the Hare, assured of her future and her eventual acceptance of love with Preston, IE, before the epilogue and before the last little bit of the last chapter.
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: N/A
Personality: When Tiffany was eight years old, the Baron's son vanished into the wood and never came back. They blamed an old woman nearby, Mrs. Snapperly, who was old, poor, and mostly forgotten. They burned her cottage to the ground, called her a witch, but with no proof, could not put her to death. Instead, the Baron declared that no one could aid her -- and so instead, she starved and froze over one harsh winter on the Chalk.
Tiffany decided then and there, that she was going to be a real witch, so things like this didn't happen anymore. She was a precise girl. She knew Snapperly couldn't have eaten a boy in that oven; it was only ten inches deep. She measured. No, really. She measured it, after the cottage's embers had cooled. This is the sort of girl that Tiffany is -- the one who knows certain laws and facts must be, and that if magic was in play, certain things would not be in play: If Snapperly was a witch, she'd never have been caught. A magic oven in a magic cottage would never have been burnt. Logically putting the facts together, she deduced that the baron was a frightened man who put a woman to death for nothing at all, all at the age of nine.
With a sense of justice, a craving for knowledge, and generally being too smart for her own good, Tiffany Aching is not socially awkward, but certainly, reserved. Somewhat alienated from her village -- a witch must be set apart to be able to do her job in both picking up and sorting the important information from her steading, and not seen as 'one of us' but an outside who can be spoken to -- she doesn't have many friends outside other witches, the Nac Mac Feegles, and the Toad Lawyer. This can make for a somewhat frustrating existence, but it is part of a witch's lot and Tiffany shoulders it admirably, though she is often stung and insulted when at fairs, if young women ask about her love life-- or comment on her lack of lovers. She is somewhat lonely, due to this set up, but in her home steading, rarely gets time to think on it.
She is affectionate with those who need it to a point, is not demonstrative or gushy (or 'girly' or 'feminine', and sometimes feels badly about that) but she is very much a witch after her grandmother: she doesn't take any guff, takes her obligation to poke holes in the local nobility -- especially given their ego and their witch persecution -- seriously, and is apt to speak her mind. If you're wrong, she'll say so. If you're very wrong, she'll say so loudly. If you're dangerously wrong, she may grab you by the ear and haul you off for a lecture or make sure that whatever you're doing is not going to hurt people. Passive, Tiffany is not.
She is logical, occasionally seen as cold and factual, possessive, and a little bit selfish. She's struggled with witching's self-sacrifice at times, but has mostly overcome it. She sometimes slips, especially where romance is concerned. Recently spurned by the baron's son for being 'too complicated' despite many years of friendship and attraction, he chose to marry someone of equal rank, who he thought would be 'simpler'. (Tiffany takes satisfaction in the fact that Roland's marrying a witch who is just as complicated as she is, just in different ways.) She tries not to get nasty with Letitia at first, but she cannot help but think some very terrible things she manages not to say -- but she doesn't make it easy for Roland and can act out of spite if she thinks it will serve a purpose AND make her feel a little better at the time (such as arranging her 'lock up' in Roland's own baronial castle, telling him and his future mother-in-law off, and so forth, which is as much for herself as for the matter at hand).
She is viewed as a future spinster witch by her village, as nobody there cares that 'Geology' is not spelled 'G golly G', and so she has few equals in intellect and even less time to go hunting for one to be her lover, as she works a very large steading and is very aware of her responsibility to be people in it. Tiffany is a workaholic by nature - she enjoyed the invisibility of working hard as a dairymaid on her family farm where she got lost in her chores, but had to cultivate respect as a witch within her own community, as she grew up there. She has it, but it is not always easy. People come to the witch with needs, and rarely does the witch get to go to anyone for her own.
However, all is not perfect in Tiffany's logical world. Tiffany is still young and while she does have Second (Third and Fourth, etc) thoughts actively, she does some things on the impulse of youth. This is slowly fading but she can be goaded into fast action with some effort. She'll grow into a more settled -- for a value of settled -- woman, but she will always have a fierce temper and a certain lack of fear when it comes to making first moves anywhere except romance. She is not unknown to make split second decisions; with the help of Second Thoughts, these are usually sound ones, but she's done some stupid things on impulse that nearly wrecked the world before -- like stepped into the Morris Dance in Summer's place. (Summer has mostly forgiven her. Mostly.)
Tiffany uses very little 'Boffo', or 'obviously magickal trappings' like warty noses, fake skulls, and star-covered pointy hats in her work. She takes a very pragmatic approach -- everybody knows she's a witch, she's worked hard to make her steading safe, and she learned a long time ago that the 'Boffo' doesn't make the witch -- it's most often a crutch for witches who are not very good at other forms of magic, lack other important skills, or headology. She takes pride in her ability to get the job done without a lot of dress up and plastic bats.
In the matter of fear, Tiffany is not a conventional girl. She is not afraid of Death, as she has seen him many times and has walked a creature so inhuman that it was desperate to experience death to the afterlife. She is not afraid of failure, but certainly does not seek it. As a witch, failing her Steading is a big problem -- people depend on her; if she's not out to do her rounds, make her medicines, cut toenails, make the elderly comfortable or check on the babies, both furry or otherwise, who will do it? She takes her steading responsibilities very seriously and is driven to see to it that those she cares for are protected.
If kept from this she would be very frustrated and upset - a steading with a bad witch is a steading with trouble indeed. To this end, Tiffany does not like being out of control, and lack of respect is frustrating to any witch -- especially a very young one. It hampers what she can get done, an that's very important to Tiffany to be able to do her job. If they see a teenage old girl, instead of a year old witch, it's often harder to get things done in a straight forward manner.
Tiffany does fear that the girls are right, however, and that she's given so much to her steading that there will never be anything for herself and a family of her own. Roland betrayed her and she will not be apt to immediately trust a young man in the matters of the heart again.
With no other witches in the City, one other thing that may be a problem for Tiffany is 'cackling' or 'going to the dark'. It's the suggestion that witches, especially regularly disrespected witches in distant steadings, will eventually go 'gingerbread houses and big ovens' or start turning people into frogs willy-nilly when their hard work goes repeatedly disrespected. If they're treated as a convenience instead of the hard working people they are, there can be problems -- big ones. Usually, witches will check up on each other, make sure they sit down, have tea, work it all out -- but with no one to empathize in her position, Tiffany may be more vulnerable to fits of temper, especially if she has to struggle for respect. "Next thing you know it's spinning wheels and castles sleeping."
While she's a very centered girl (partially because she has seen what she is like without a conscience and nothing but her id and her powers, thanks to the Hiver), this is always a possibility, to drive her over the edge with disrespect, rudeness and generally taking her for granted... or worse, to continually treat her like a child. She has defeated the Queen of Faerie, walked the Hiver to the shores of death, kissed Winter and burned the Cunning Man. She knows that respect will be earned, but it will not be brooked if they see her as a child and treat her like such.
Things where Tiffany are weak are much more straight forward; she's a mostly normal teenage girl, though if Narrative demands it she is strong and tough -- strong enough to pull a grown man from his bed, throw him down the stairs, slap him till he bleeds and run him out of town for beating his daughter until she miscarried. But if you shoot her, she will probably get hurt and bleed. She doesn't know jack about technology, but she'll be a fast learner, but there'll be adjustment periods and a lot of study. She's emotionally distant and there's a literal need for respect in witches, less they go to the Dark and become cacklers.
This also isn't helped by the fact to that she's still a teenage girl who is fresh from a break up and not certain about her future or if she's going to be a spinster. Tiffany's a witch, but she's a woman too and she really did love Roland, and really did think they had a future together. While there's a very quiet assumption that she and Roland were briefly lovers, and were certainly emotionally involved/courting for years, nobody in the village knew for sure and Tiffany is intensely private about such matters. She's very sensitive about her lack of desirability; she knows she's plain and that as a witch, there's much work to be done. But she wants love and a family of her own, some day, and these are issues that can be preyed upon.
Background: Wiki here, here... and an app with a much longer background here.
Abilities: Tiffany is a Discworld Witch.
This means a few things: Witches are what stories need them to be, as the entirety of Discworld is dictated by narration, and it's need for continuity. Myth, lore and story all have very potent meaning in Discworld, and they are as alive and moving the world as much as anything. What this means in effect is: Tiffany exists in a dual-gendered magic system; men and women's magic are different in practice, though you do see overlap (only one female wizard, to date, and no male witches; wizards generally remain celibate, witches rarely do so.) Wizards are flashy, loud, experimental, rarely get what they're after, and congregate in schools and universities. Witches are singular (though they sometimes meet in covens, and often check up on each other to prevent 'cackling' or going 'to the dark') and tend to cottage in a village, or nearby one in a remote area.
For Tiffany, she serves the lowlands near the Ramtops called the Chalk, where witches have been in bad states for some time due to the Baron's son going missing a few years before the start of the first Tiffany Aching book, "The Wee Free Men". Witches tend to the reflect the land they are on and their communities needs. Tiffany's grandmother, Sarah Aching, was the last witch of the Chalk, though she was not formally acknowledged as a witch and didn't do much magic - most witches don't. She was a shepard; Miss Level asks, in A Hat Full of Sky how she managed things, and Tiffany explains that Sarah Aching often made people help themselves, as opposed to helping them directly. Miss Level says that means she was a great witch, for few witches can manage such a thing.
Tiffany is a powerful witch, especially for her age; she is 'the flint in the Chalk' - reflecting the hidden stone in the soft, fossil-bed of the Chalk that was under the turf that the sheep grazed on. She is small, sharp, and not just a little bit dangerous. Flint will hold an edge for years, long after steel has corroded. This may help to define what sort of witch Tiffany is: hard and sharp, just like the soft people of the Chalk around her need. Magically speaking, however, Tiffany's 'specific' abilities include broom riding, shamble creation, possession of animal bodies by leaving her own body 'empty', and walking through worlds when she can find the right place. She has what is called 'First Sight' and 'Second Thoughts'. She can also 'move' energy from point to point. All witches use Headology to some degree. There are other minor notes to her magical power, but the major points will be detailed here.
- First Sight is defined as 'seeing what is really there instead of what one expects to be there'. Not only does this give Tiffany a fine eye for detail and a near detective like ability to notice wrongs, ferret out information and catch people in lies, it also includes the very magical end of penetration of illusion, seeing the possessed for what they are, detection of magical places and things.
- Second Thoughts is that little switch that everybody wishes they had they keeps what you think from traveling through your head to your mouth without thought. NOTHING Tiffany says is without a bit of forethought unless it's a damn crisis or something is seriously wrong with her. Her Second Thoughts ask why she's thinking that and if it is really that important. She also has Third or Fourth thoughts that sometime crop up at very dangerous times to help her analyze angles of various situations, but if she gets into Fifths and Sixths, Tiffany's head get very noisy and she has to start quieting herself mentally -- it can put her off her game, but working her to this level requires dire circumstances... like staring down the Queen of Faerie and telling her that you don't want a sweet, you want your damn brother back, thank you very much. This makes her resistant to mental manipulations, whether the be magical or otherwise.
- (As an extrapolation, to telepaths this makes Tiffany very difficult to read, if one can't make out which is a thought from Tiffany, and what Tiffany's thoughts are concluding about her other thoughts and what thoughts get to go forward.)
- An extension just developing for Tiffany -- of the First Sight and Second Thoughts is the ability to 'read the narration' -- or to hear the thoughts that people very much want to say, but don't. This makes her difficult to lie to as the truth is often screaming behind a lie, and she often picks up on subtle dynamics; a watchmen who doesn't want to deal with a certain thing or item, for example, will think 'loudly' about it. She's not a mind reader-- just happens to catch certain overflow from people's minds. She cannot, will not go digging about in someone's head for 'thoughts or dreams' or anything of the sort; she just catches the unspoken, the sublimated or the hidden, but the known.
- Tiffany can also 'Borrow' -- she can leave her body and look around where she can't normally. This can get her into trouble as it leaves her body VACANT and it can be occupied by malevolent forces while she's 'out'. She will sense this, however -- what she won't always sense is physical thing. She'll feel a spiritual invasion, but she may not notice that she's been slapped for a moment. This skill has gotten her into trouble before, and so largely, she rarely uses it anymore -- and certainly no longer uses it simply for vanity of 'See Me', seeing herself without a mirror. She can also use this to 'borrow' animals (she usually asks first) to use to get to places or see things that she couldn't ordinarily.
- Tiffany can create 'Shambles'; these oracular objects are made with string, bits of odds and ends, and something living -- a mouse, egg, bug, Nac Mac Feegle. They can be made and preserved as 'warning devices' for magical intrusion (breaking, glowing, or otherwise alerting the witch) or simply help with scrying efforts on locations of hidden magics, disguised places, and things that are too far for First Sight to See.
- Tiffany can fly on a broom. This is pretty straightforward. This often means warm pants under your dress, sturdy boots and not showing people your knickers.
- Energy movement is another skill of Tiffany's -- she can do this with any 'energy', including living energies, like pain in the body, which is useful in midwifery or hospice care. The energy is invisible, and traverses through her without harming her; she can stick her hand in a fire and move the energy up her arm and through a pointer to make it glow red hot, or she can move pain from a dying man's body to give him ease as he dies; this type of energy must be moved from her body -- it can be 'held' without harming her but it will cause her duress if she's not allowed to release it, and in the case of pain or other 'metaphysical' items, is likely to destroy or damage any object it is moved into -- the dying baron's pain takes a guard's helmet and warps it in half. Energy always needs an outlet somewhere.
- Lastly is Headology; Tiffany is a student of this magic that most witches possess -- it's sort of like an magically active psychology. It is said that Granny Weatherwax can guilt a sodden log into becoming a roaring fire simply by giving it a disapproving glance, but Tiffany is not so practiced. She tends to use this on people more then objects, but this is not entirely on it's own. Sometimes magic is not actually magic -- she may order "bucket, fill yourself" and it was truly a nearby friendly Feegle that did the command then 'magic' -- but the person watching doesn't need to know that. Either way, simply telling a thing to be can make it so if Tiffany exerts her will, both on people and on items, but like all magic, it has it's cost. Usually hidden. In short, she has a great affect for 'coincidental' magic-- things that seem magical, but may not be, or things that don't seem magical, but totally are. Was it luck that the hinges were rusty and the door just happened to fall down at the right moment, or did Tiffany make it so? Nobody knows!
- There are other minor spells and abilities that fall under the bailiwick of magic, but little wand waving or lightening summoning is done -- Tiffany's magic is less about what is done, but what isn't. It's what isn't seen that is important. This does not mean she's not capable of great, rending acts of power. It's simply that great, rending acts of power are usually stupid, tip your hand, put other people in danger, or don't make any sense. While the Hiver controlled her, her magic was used to kill a woman by burning her to cinders, and poorly making a man into a frog (Not all of him fit inside; it was very messy). Tiffany is capable of these sorts of magics, but even in the face of great threats, rarely do witches wave their hand and draw down lightening from the sky. Tiffany has usually solved her problems with her smarts, not her power, but that's not to say that he did not in fact call her Grandmother back from death and rent the sky, either. She has. There's just a time and a place for that, and it's usually the Final Act of some great arc.
For completely nonmagical abilities, Tiffany is a dairymaid, expert cheese maker, shepard, midwife for both woman and beast, herbalist, hospice worker, and old-time vet and something like a village doctor when need be. She is not trained in extensive combat, but often relies on Headology instead. If a witch or wisewoman does it in fiction, likely, Tiffany has that skill in her repertoire, with a bent toward the specifics of the British lowland country and their needs, with some time up the mountains later in her life.
She cannot take payment for any services. A witch cannot be bought, so she cannot ask for anything or take anything as payment. When she is given gold by the Baron she attempts to refuse it until he can phrase it as a gift-- and even then, she gives it away to start a school once the gold does come back to her. A witch will always get what she needs-- either by skill, by taking cast offs from her Steading in a round about manner, or by sheer luck which is a type of magic unto itself. Other witches may spread the rumor that it's good luck to gift to witches -- the first beer from any brew, or the first slice of pie, for instance -- and in a way, it is. It keeps the witch respected and serving her community. But gifts do not buy a witch's services, and Tiffany will not deny anyone in need. She's a witch, and she serves her steading.
A witch, however, greatly reflects the land she's on. Tiffany is a witch of the Chalk, and she is the flint within the Chalk. This means she's a hard woman in a soft country with few real harsh problems, just the general human lack of care that everyone gets someplace. But over time she'll reflect her community and the land she becomes attached to. This will be gradual --but if the community remains fractious and unstable, Tiffany will reflect that, and shift more toward 'cackling'. If there can be some stability, then she'll stay more stable.
First Person: Test drive!
Third Person: Morning came round and Tiffany could not shake the strangeness that had trickled into the back of her mind. It was not dread; no, but it was kin to that black feeling. The anticipatory ice in one's belly was not heavy, but it would grow. She could not give it a name, though. It was like dropping a knife and watching it spin and spin, warning of strangers coming from all around, that there was something coming and it could not be pinpointed, could not be guessed at, could not be defined, as threat or warning or possibly both.
She rose early, with this in mind - delivered breakfast to Juliet and James, before she swept on her way. She'd be back later to help clean up a bit, aye. But then she went to the places where she knew that magic dwelled. She visited the shrines, the places where the green was thick and wild and it's power unchecked, she walked the magic school grounds and she listened. She went to the place where broken objects went to die and the iron was heavy with it's strength.
There was something afoot -- something on the wind, cold and chill and perhaps even dangerous -- but she could not name it. It may yet be too far away for her to hear it's name.
Maybe someone else could hear it, though.