People seem to find Weft fascinating and even amusing, despite his aspirations to the lone-mysterious-hunter mantle. He has been described as "bitchy" and "psychopathic", often by those very people. Weft views this as typical of the self-contradictory and self-deleterious hypocrasies of the general public at large, points out that this is just the sort of thing that makes him want to remain cloistered for the rest of his life, and is genuinely utterly perplexed at their insistence on calling him "adorable" and "bishy".
Weft is horribly good with most types of weapon, and unarmed. He has knowledge of poisons and various other skills a hired killer would find useful. He is also talented at tailoring.
Members of his monastic order have access to a knowledge web, from which they can gain information when in a trance-like meditation state.
Within the order, Weft is a field operative. There are a few of these, but they're by no means the only type of monk, or even the most numerous. Not the most senior either, but valuable in terms of being somewhat expensive to replace. However, he still gets some really [crummy jobs]?.
Weft is cloth-minded, which means, in brief, that he thinks of things in terms of threads, weave and fabric. Noticeable effects include a certain proclivity for weaving language and analogy, but the major bearing is on his magic? use. (See Magic below)
Like his fellow monks, he doesn't have a proper name, using a meaningful word instead and translating it for whichever aliens he's dealing with. Weft, in weaving terminology, is a thread manipulated between and at right angles to the fixed 'warp' threads to make cloth.
Weft's around 5'4", 1.6-and-a-bit metres, which is not an abnormal height for his species - but when among aliens, as he often is, this makes him quite short compared to those around him. (Ice, by comparison, is around six feet, with rocca in his personal guard who are even bigger).
Weft's build is sleek, lithe and narrow-hipped, what a human would think of as rather feminine (but among his species this body shape would be seen as fit, masculine and attractive if he wasn't a monk). Age-wise, he resembles an Earth human in its thirties.
His eyes are pale green, shaped slightly differently to a human's (note to self: not 'Asian' - downward tick to the nasal corner, no prominent epicanthal fold) and a tiny bit larger, but held slightly narrower when wearing a neutral expression. Weft has grey hair, which is its natural colour, not owing to age. (It's their equivalent of blondeness, and yes, there are similar stereotypes.) It's cut close, around bottom-of-ear length, with a light fringe that doesn't obscure his vision. His ears are not pointed and have no separate lobes.
Facial expressions can be hard for offworlders to interpret at first; hostility, for example, is shown by a wide-eyed stare, and when he's expressing peacefulness it can resemble sleepiness. He doesn't show fear in danger or combat situations, though being cornered by amorous angels or curious people is another matter. When he forgets himself he can be animated and friendly.
Field agents like Weft are trained to move very quickly and cleanly. No movement is wasted. When standing, he is very still - he doesn't do the fidgeting around, shifting weight and so on that most people do unconsciously. It has an unnerving effect, even if the observer isn't sure why or what's 'wrong' about him. (Weft has been compared to an automaton, but he definitely does not have that condition; it's all artificial training.) The standard stances, gaits and guard positions (as mentioned in some of his posts) were all pretty much thrashed into him unbelievably thoroughly as a youngster, with the result that he moves with unconscious grace and never seems unsure what to do with his body. There is a strong aesthetic component to the training of these monks, who are expected to become background ornamentation when not required.
His voice, reasonably high in pitch, usually sounds tense and often whiny, even when he isn't actually whining. (It's partly because he's an alien, partly because he doesn't like you.) His voice is a little lower and more smooth if he's relaxed. Weft very often seems tense overall.
Weft has the usual abilities of a field monk (informally called 'slashers' because their missions often involve murder), including surveillance, close quarters combat and assassination from a distance. His capabilities are within the limits of a normal human who has been trained from a pre-school age. He has no superpowers and has not trained his minor magical aptitude beyond the standard workings taught by his order. (See Magic below)
One thing to note is that Weft is built for bursts of speed and activity, not endurance. He uses stealth and surprise. If things came to a prolonged fight with someone skilled that he couldn't dispatch instantly, he would be likely to lose. Similarly, his escapes usually rely on a sprint for cover or a lightning-fast climb to higher ground.
For a fuller list of training given to field agents, see Expressors of Agape with Compassion.
Expressors of Agape with Compassion gives more general details. See also Weft's pantheon.
Weft is probably not his birth name, considering it's not one of the list of permitted forenames. He uses a sketched icon instead of a signature, which is legal for a monk.
Full article: see [Weft's history]?
Weft has a bit of a thing against women. He doesn't hate them; he's just uneasy, doesn't know how to relate to them and thinks they're all secretly lunatics. This is the sheltered upbringing talking. But he isn't chauvinistic towards women; gender roles are equal, and he believes his culture is The Right And Only Way.
Weft also dislikes men who act like women or women who act like men. This is cultural. So's his attitude to female homosexuality. He doesn't like male homosexuality either, even though his order and the wider culture don't automatically disapprove of it. (It's viewed as recreational sex and a natural urge for some people, but not a real relationship.)
Weft's social skills are affected by upbringing and by virtue of being a not-very-nice person. He's notably, almost pathologically uncurious unless it's about a mission or textilework. Explaining things to him can result in blank looks.
In an ideal state of things, when he doesn't have anything useful to say or do he'll keep still and quiet. People can forget he's there. He prefers it that way - but hates being ignored otherwise.
Weft puts people into two categories: "all right" and "horrible". These are the people who have been transferred onto the horrible list, or started out on it by virtue of being badly-dressed or a foreigner or something.
Weft first met Iceheart briefly and by chance.
During the Twine Wars, Weft is assigned to more-or-less constant surveillance duty in order to keep proper tabs on Iceheart and his associates. This causes Weft no end of frustration at having to put up with Suitov's various annoying traits, such as being friendly, trying to teach Weft magic, spotting the monk when he doesn't want to be spotted, listening to and remembering things Weft says, being cheerful, failing to show appropriate deference to Expressors of Agape with Compassion and similar acts of despicable evil.
They have been observed cooperating very effectively together on several occasions and apparently enjoying it, but Weft denies this vigorously.
Weft maintains his feelings for Iceheart are simple hatred and disdain and he utterly refutes any accusations to the contrary.
If you've met Iceheart, you'll probably know Baskerville. Something about Suitov's familiar gets on Weft's nerves without him understanding why. That's quite apart from all the irritating stuff Baskerville does.
Weft knows Jaina through her association with Iceheart. He isn't much impressed with her.
Knowing Jaina is a vampire hunter isn't enough to garner Weft's approval, even though one of the monk's vows includes killing vampires and related possession cases. In contrast to his professional approach, to Weft Jaina's attitude seems slipshod and sporadic. (When he knows she's on bad terms with her order - so far only in OOC knowledge - that's a very severe sticking point for him. He hates rebels, and thinking of betraying or being expelled by his own order terrifies him into incoherence.)
Nor does he approve of her romantic association with Iceheart. A number of different objections here. For one thing, Weft is offended by the notion of seeing Suitov happy. He always cheerfully assumes the worst possible motives from Suitov and is sure the fling will end badly for Jaina, not that he cares. In more general terms, Weft doesn't like overt sexuality (and Jaina is very overt compared to his own repressed culture). He also considers her a peasant class and Suitov an upper class, and so their relationship is unsavoury. He claims these are his only reasons.
Also, Jaina has made Weft look stupid at least once.
Something to be noted on Jaina's side is that the huntress believes Weft once stabbed Lance, though in fact he did not. Weft doesn't know she thinks this and thus does not know her main reason for disliking him. Bear in mind that Weft would probably be happy to stab Lance, so he isn't all that deserving of sympathy for the wrong accusation.
Pasht is a vampire, making her automatically, completely and irrevocably disgusting. Oddly enough, it is this same disgusting nature that earns her a reprieve from other crimes (overt sexuality, for example). Pseudodemon possession, which is how Weft's order understands vampires, means the individual's behaviour is not entirely their fault.
Weft is meant to kill possession cases cleanly and without prejudice. Like many of his order-brothers, he fails to live up to the ideal; he actively hates all 'monsters'.
The fact that Lance is an angel is unsettling to Weft, who has specific beliefs about angels. The fact that Lance has made obviously sexual advances fills Weft with fear and loathing. This is invariably funny to onlookers, which has only tended to encourage Lance.
The idea of a fallen angel is not a familiar one to Weft, but the monk understands what a rebel is and he hates them. Weft has gibbering terror fits if forced to imagine betraying his own order and he treats everyone else accordingly. (Note that he always blames the individual; the system cannot be at fault.) Thus, when the facts of Lance's past sink in, Weft decides he is scum that would debase Weft's foot if he kicked him.
Weft is especially freaked out to think that if he stabbed Lance, Lance would probably like it.
The thought of a man working as a dancer is in fact quite normal to Weft, but he certainly [doesn't approve of stripping]!
He's willing to give any religious or contemplative character a chance, and he counts hunters of undead as roughly the same thing. He can sympathise with weavers, clothworkers of any description and people in the fast food industry. But his tolerance is conditional on people not doing 'evil' things (by his order's definition of evil) or setting off his prude-o-meter.
Unless you're a member of his own species, he will never admit to liking you; Weft doesn't fully trust any species but his own. The same goes for animals, workmanship etc from anywhere other than his world. They are necessarily and irrevocably inferior and it's humiliating for anyone from Weftworld to go among offworlders. (This one is a cultural thing, not just Weft being hateful.)
Should he come to care about anyone - which, he adds, is not going to happen, but if he should - then he probably wouldn't be very good at showing it. A natural interest in their lives and anything they find important would inevitably conflict with his injunction against being a nuisance and asking too many questions. This makes Weft whiny, insecure and incredibly high-maintenance in general.
Weft met Sebastian while both were trying to steal the same magic artifact from a wizard named Kell. They subsequently got stranded on a tropical island together, were mistaken for gods, killed a lot of people and managed, through teamwork, threats and dumb luck, to find their way home.
This makes Sebbie the closest thing Weft's ever had to a friend.
To the relief of the monk, who is stranded among aliens for most of his time nowadays, Sebastian doesn't give off confusing gender signals (though he does confuse Weft in plenty of other ways). To a regimented and unimaginative trained killer, too, Sebastian's methods of dispatching, robbing, beating, befuddling and generally Foxing people are an education. Weft approves of the halfie's elusiveness, the way Sebbie doesn't patronise him or appear to want anything from him, and his occasional willingness to chat philosophy.
Sebastian has turned out to be good at defusing Weft's prickly moods, which is a very, very useful talent.
OOCly, authors ReeToes, Erin, Anke and even Snog seem to like Weft, much to his disgust. His own author is very fond of him, but doesn't intend to let that stand in the way of a good story (should de manage, against all odds, to write one).
Weft's material-mindedness affects his magic use.
Weft understands things in terms of weave, folds and knots - metaphorical, but only just. To weave a spell, he would have to comprehend things in orderly rows and warps. But he isn't good at this; he has only slight magic talent, with the basic standard training (see training section under Expressors of Agape with Compassion).
According to the Weftworld laws concerning magic, he is only supposed to use workings and not spells. He is usually resistant and occasionally amenable to Suitov's attempts to teach him.
Weft has been observed using a relaxation working? to try to calm Lance down during a freakout. (This worked rather too well and knocked Lance out, leaving Weft too scared ever to use it again.) The working is part of his standard therapeutic repertoire and simply duplicates the effects of a scalp massage - i.e. relaxation of muscles and release of happy-chemicals - although it doesn't do as much to improve blood or lymph circulation. He thinks of the process as "smoothing out the wrinkles".
(Not really. He's with Instar, of course.)
What can I say?
Above comment left in because it reflects faithfully on its originator, in accuracy, maturity and typography. Weft is not, in fact, a bishy. Or 'kjoot'. --wf
Weft is a kitty and is probably related to Mr Bigglesworth.
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