[[ OOC: I am extracting this passage from my comment on an event, because it's a handy description of what Heather looks like in the dreamscape. Easier to point people this way than anything else. ]]

Heather, in her merrow form, is rather hard to miss. She resembles the popular depiction of a mermaid in only slight ways -- humanoid body to the waist, fish-like tail beneath. Long ginger-red hair cascades around her, growing only from the scalp area of her head. Her eyes are as black as ever, including the sclera this time. Her mouth is wider in her face, and full of sharp, pointed teeth. Her skin is ghost-pale and lacking in scales until about her collarbones, and then little scaly patches in flame orange and iridescent white begin to show along her arms and torso, larger around the gills that start halfway down her ribs, merging together to complete coverage beneath her waist.

Oh, and her full length in this form -- from the crown of her head to the end of her tail-fin -- is twenty feet. That fish tail of hers, with its various fins, is about eight feet long on its own.

There are very few full-blooded fae left, which includes merrows -- the Finfolk of Ireland. Merrows are able to perform several magical feats by singing -- they can summon sea creatures to aid them, plant suggestions in the minds of those who hear them, materialize water while on dry land either to help them move around or as an attack, and also heal people or animals by singing. (The healing can only be achieved on the living. If there is no life to sing to, there will be no effect, no matter how hard the merrow tries.) How well one can do these magical feats is based on practice and experience just as much as innate talent.

Luckily for the remaining merrows, they can cross-breed with humans. This is achieved by a merrow weaving a magical cap to allow for shape-shifting between their natural shape -- which is a very large, half-humanoid and half-fish body -- and a human appearance. The resulting children are human but sometimes have merrow characteristics like webbed digits or patches of scaly skin, or the more remarkable trait of a mesmerizing voice. These traits will dilute with each successive generation that such "changeling" children have offspring with regular humans. However, any person who has merrow ancestry can be granted a magical "merrow cap" and take on a merrow form.

Once such a person does so, magic will transform them -- their true body will be the merrow form, and the human body simply a construct for walking about on dry land. Even if one's merrow cap is destroyed, they will be locked into the current form they inhabit, and must weave a new magical cap in order to shape-shift once more.

BASICS
Full Name: Heather Ann Harne
Nickname: "Red", which she hates; "Hetty" by her grandparents
Age: 27
Birthday: July 15 (Cancer)
Location: Roane County, Tennessee
Relationship Status: currently single

PHYSICAL
Language/Dialect: English, Appalachian dialect
Height: 6 feet even
Weight: 180 pounds
Hair Color: red
Eye Color: black
Skintone: naturally fair, but tanned by outdoor work
Physical Build: broad-shouldered and noticeably muscular

RELATIONSHIPS
Heather is her mother's eldest child. Heather's mother and father divorced when she was two years old, and she has no memory of her father ever being around. (She has half-siblings from her father that she has never met.)

Heather's mother Rosemarie Harne depended on her parents to help her care for young Heather. Heather was very close to her Nana Day and her Papaw Mike while growing up -- Nana Day in particular hates to come down the mountain for anything, but both of them taught her how to live in the Appalachian Mountains where they made their home.

Rosemarie has since remarried. Heather gets along well with her stepfather (Steven) and his two children -- her older stepbrother Russell and younger stepsister Gemma.

Heather was the only red-haired person in her class, and quickly earned the nickname "Red", which she hates. Her lack of a father until she was twelve years old was also something that got her teased, though she'd always declare that her Papaw Mike was better than any run of the mill dad anyway.

EDUCATION AND VOCATION
Heather graduated high school and took some correspondence courses to get ahead for college. She has earned a bachelor of engineering degree in pursuit of a career as a civil engineer.

Heather worked part time while attending Vanderbilt University. She has experience in construction as well as working as a lifeguard.

HOBBIES
Heather likes to swim, and has some experience with bow-hunting.

She also sings, but it's for the best if no one hears that... not that she's bad at singing, but her speaking voice can easily persuade people to do as she wants, and the effect is much stronger with her singing voice.

OTHER NOTABLES
Heather did not speak aloud until age five. She was taught American Sign Language to communicate after her baby talk inadvertently mesmerized a babysitter. (Nana Day's older brother -- who has since passed away due to old age -- was born deaf, so Nana Day knows American Sign Language thanks to him, and passed the knowledge on to Heather.)