Kokitsu

[Kokitsu]

Name: Kokitsu
Age: N/A ( she doesn't remember... )
Gender: female
Species: kitsune / spirit caller
Sign: Penna
Family: Mated ( married ) to Genji and has three children with him, all deceaced ( triplets Yoko, Doki, and Enzeru )

Appearance:
- hair - A shaggy white mane that reaches to the ground when unbound, with equally shaggy bangs and long side locks, her hair is fluffy and thick and pillow-soft and warm enough to be a blanket on cold nights.
- eyes - Large and soft, they are a vibrant, liquid shade of amber, dark in the center fading to lighter toward the rims of her irises. They never appear entirely focused, as if she lives in a perpetual state of daydream, or as if she sees things others don't -- which, of course, she does. When she does focus her stare upon something, it is an eerily knowledgable gaze and can easily give one the impression of seeing straight to one's soul.
- height - 5'8"
- weight - 170
- build - Perhaps because of the layers of missmatched clothing, she seems smaller than she is. She is tall and well-proportioned. While not fragile, she is very graceful and has supreme self-control, bearing her gentle and quietly confidant poise in an understated way. Most people don't notice her delicate and careful bearing , distracted by the thoroughly faraway expression she typically bears. In fact, most fear she will trip at any given moment.
- clothing - Kokitsu has a tendancy to pick up anything she takes a fancy to and has managed to amass a somewhat eccentric collection of clothes. She wears many layers, often putting intricately-patterned skirts over comfortable, plain, practical pants. She'll wear jackets over halters over button-down, collared blouses. She likes well-fitting sandals or sturdy boots, depending on her mood. Often excessive numbers of unnecessary belts, buckles and other strings of trinkets adorn her. To keep her hair from dragging or getting in her way, she ties thick, brightly-colored ribons in it, often adding spare tools ( throwing knives, chains, toys ) to the knot for storage.
- weapons - Various chains and knives of several kinds, a few throwing stars just for fun, and her inherited bow from her clan. She also has her sword, Kagetsu, which serves as a medium for her spirit calling abilities.
- other - She has large, luxuriously-furred, fox ears of the purest shade of white, as well as an incredibly long brush of a tail of the same color, comfy enough to rival any cushion.

Spirit Form: Her spirit form is that of an elegant, 6-foot-long, snow-white fox with amber eyes. It is a simple, unassuming, even plain form on the whole, but it suits her. This is the way the spirits she sees see her.

Abilities: As a spirit caller, she can sense the presense of spirits and call specific ones to herself using her sword as a medium. Also, as a kitsune, she has amazingly acute senses, speed, and a deceptive strength. Her specialty, other than spirit calling, is markmanship; she can hit anything within sight with just about anything.
Weaknesses: She's rather absentminded ( though not to the extent many would think ) and tends to misplace things and gain new ones regularly. Literally compassionate to a fault, she can't turn down another creature's plea for help, no matter the circumstance. Physically, she has very litte practical skill in close combat and, in fact, cannot wield her sword as a weapon other than to call spirits to her aid. Lastly, it is extremely difficult for her to harm other living things and doing so requires a long emotional recovery period for her.

Personality: Kokitsu is a very flighty person, aloof and childish and dotty all around. She loves being happy and making those around her happy. For all that she is a couple hundred years old, she is still very innocent and purposefully naive. Very much a people person, she loves everyone and everything equally, without prejudice or favoritism, except where Genji and her children are concerned. She treats everyone like her friend, automatically giving anyone the benefit of the doubt. Her gullibility is almost a legend with people who know of her. Because of this, most people underestimate her. She is much smarter than she acts. She is constantly aware of herself and her surroundings -- she simply chooses not to acknowledge a great percent of it. The classic representation of a free spirit, she is taken with wandering to and fro at will, though she will always return to Genji. Eventually.
Likes: nature, animals, traveling / wandering, sunshine and bright weather, night, being near Genji, quiet, young things, sleep, comfort, caring for others
Dislikes: using spirits for selfish gain or to harm others, eating meat / hunting, force of any kind, violence, hate, pain, dominance / aggression, loud noise, destruction, the leaders of her tribe, being unable to make someone happy / causing distress

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[Kokitsu]

History: Deep in the primitive forests of the Nature Realm, long before the time of the Collapse, a small clan of isolated kitsune sheltered a special secret. Within their group existed a carefully cultivated and preserved line of spirit callers, beings who communed with spirits as easily as living beings. The line had never been extremely prolific, usually made up of only a handful of individuals. Close to the time of a new birth in the clan, however, things had reached dire straights. When Kokitsu was born to a spirit caller member of the clan, there was only one other remaining spirit caller, a young kitsune boy. Kokitsu, her mother, and this boy were the last spirit callers in the clan. For as long as the long memory of a kitsune went back, this clan had never been without spirit callers to live among and protect them. It was imperative to them that they revove the spirit caller line.

For Kokitsu, all of these worries were only vague issues for adults to fret over. She was allowed to remain blissfully ignorant of the problem she was a part of throughout her childhood. She laughed and played with the other children, learning under the careful guidance of adult clan members. Even her oddities were anticipated. The clan had vast experience with children of her kind. When she watched and eventually spoke withe things no one else saw, the adults turned a blind eye and her playfellows were forbidden from teasing her. As she grew older and spent more time on her own, wandering the wilderness and slipping from under the watchful eyes of the clan, she was given her space. Even if she was even more airy and seemingly absent-minded when around people, they wrote it off as a personality quirk not to be worried over.

As a matter of course, Kokitsu was betrothed to the other spirit caller, the boy named Sansuro. It was considered necessary for the preservation of the spirit caller line. Kokitsu accepted the fact at a young age and then proceded to ignore it entirely. She and Sansuro didn't speak to one another throughout their childhoods, he being older and already a mature hunter with the clan and she just a carefree and illusioned child. As they grew, however, they were expected to learn to like one another. If they were to be married, they should at least be friends. IN theory, the tribe's idea was a good one. In practice, it was a horrible miscalculation.

Kokitsu hated Sansuro, and the feeling was mutual. While they both kept a pleasant facade for the tribe's peace of mind, neither could stand being in the other's presence for more than a short time. Kokitsu loved her freedom, balance, and peace. Sansuro was harsh, loving only the hunt, thriving on challenge and adversity. None of the clan's children were brought up to be rude, but he was rough and abrasive and nearly hostile. Argumentative. Young and brash. Sansuro seemed to thrive on making Kokitsu uncomfortable. Of course, he was subtle, never tipping the rest of the clan off to his torment of Kokitsu. Kokitsu was faced with choice between fighting and fleeing. According to her sensative and easily-bruised nature, she chose to simply run away. What the tribe perceived as a shy and flighty personality was her way of dealing with her aggressive betrothed.

She spent more and more time on her own, spending days wandering, entertaining herself by practicing with the bow and arrows her clan gave her. The spirits she was growing more able to see as time passed served as all the company she needed.

When she was called to return home and prepare for her marriage, none of the clan expected calm, peaceful, compassionate Kokitsu to fight them. Finally faced with the reality of her betrothal, her future of being tied to a man she feared and despised, was suddenly being pushed on her. She couldn't ignore it in blissful ignorance anymore, and that sent her into a panic. She lost all control when Sansuro himself asked in all politeness to speak with his bride-to-be and then began threatening her. For the first time, Kokitsu fought back, shoving Sansuro into a wall hard enough to wind him. She hadn't realized it, but it was also the first time she summoned the aid of a spirit to give her the strength to fight back.

She left, forgetting in her haste to grab her bow. She never returned. For days afterward, she stayed in the vicinity, evading clan members. She composed a letter of appology for her violence and forgiveness of their bid to force her compliance, then left it in the village beside Sansuro as he slept.

For all that she was incurrably flighty, Kokitsu knew how to keep herself alive. She found that after her fit of temper with her people, she couldn't stomach the thought of further violence. She stopped eating meat, unable to stand the taste when she thought of what the poor creature had suffered to become food. Eventually, she left the forests of her home and came upon the settlement of other peoples. For the most part, they were kind farmers and simple folk who were perfectly willing to give food and shelter to a wandering girl as kind as Kokitsu. Naturally curious, she asked questions and learned about the lives of the people she met. But being the free spirit she was, she always moved on, never putting down roots in any place, working when she needed, helping where she could. Her first taste of oppression since leaving her clan showed when she came upon the remains of a pillaged hut. It had been razed to the ground, only ash and smoke left of the lives of the small family who'd lived there. Kokitsu found the bodies nearby, the man and his wife and children lying with slit throats in puddles of their own blood.

The horror was enough to send Kokitsu running again. Kept in a state of shock, she stumbled into the next village. The villagers took her in, compassionate as a group. When she told them of what she'd found, an instant frenzy of activity ensued as everyone began packing. That night, they moved to the caves of a nearby bluff. Kokitsu, still with them, watched in dull terror as distant smoke and the orange glow of fire showed what had happened to the village. A few days later, the villagers returned to the burned-out shell of their homes and began to rebuild, Kokitsu recovering enough to help.

She stayed longer there than at other villages, helping them start on a good standing. Before she moved on, the blacksmith, a particularly talented man for a peasant, gifted her with a sword as a show of thanks from the villagers for the forewarning and the help. It was a simple sword, but strong and perfectly balanced. Kokitsu didn't want it, seeing it as an instrument of violence. Besides, she didn't know how to use it. But it was a gift of gratitude and she couldn't refuse. She planned to sell the word off at the next opportunity.

True to her dotty nature, she forgot to sell the sword at the next village. And the next after that. After that, she kept the sword because it was pretty, which was a perfectly good reason to be carrying anything in her mind. It was becoming a comfortable accessory as well, like her bow back with the clan had been. By the time she ran into another incident, it had become as much a companion as her inherited bow had been.

This time, she ran into a band of raiders themselves, leaving the bonfire that had been a village. They, of course, saw only a defenseless young woman, alone on the road. Free game. Kokitsu was too preoccupied with worrying over the people in the burning village to react immediately to the advancing warband. They were on her before she could properly react. She tried briefly to fight them off, but the effort was entirely wasted -- she couldn't fight with the sword, even as good a sword as her own.

For only the second time, Kokitsu used her abilities to defend herself. With the sword clutched in her grip, she called some of the more familiar spirits that stayed with her to her aid. The sword, oddly, acted as a medium for her power, lending strength to her call. Half the band was slaughtered before the rest fled. Kokitsu's grip on the spirits faltered as she released the sword -- now glowing with a faint, misty light -- and it clattered to the ground. Having killed for the first time, something akin to a backlash of violence hit her and she collapsed.

The surviving villagers found her, passed out in the carnage of a number of the bandits who'd pillaged their settlement. Again, she was treated as an honored warrior. This time, Kokitsu was sure to leave the village before they would bestow any other 'gifts' upon her.

In the years that followed, she avoided challenge as often as she could. She kept the sword against her better judgement, feeling a strange connection to it that she couldn't define. Plus, it never seemed to require any maintanance, never growing dull or tarnished or chipped. Like all other worries and unanswered questions, Kokitsu pushed this out of her mind.

Occasionally, she ran into situations she couldn't gracefully flee. One such incident was when she stopped in a small lord's castle for a rest, only to wake to find the place under siege from a neighboring lord in the morning. Left to her own devices, Kokitsu would have reverted to her base nature and hidden in a corner, away from the violence and fighting. Unfortunately, the lord who's castle she was staying in requested her aid, assuming that she was a warrior, considering she carried a sword. Unable to refuse the man's honorable request, thankfull, in fact, that he hadn't merely tried to force her to help, she capitulated. In resignation, she asked for a bow. They didn't question her, simply gave her the weapon. She carried it to the ramparts, joined the archers already there, and began systematically picking off enemies on the ground below with precise and deadly aim. Later, she would have no recollection of the battle at all, most likely having blocked the entire ordeal from her consciousness.

There was, however, one part of the battle she remembers quite well. She only missfired one arrow in the battle, distracted by a shadow momentarily blocking out the sun directly above her head. Instinctively, she released the arrow and crouched, covering her head. She was still hit. But it was no weapon that had landed on her: it was a man. At first she was too winded to react. Then, she cautiously surveyed the man for injuries. Shockingly, he was fine. Not even dazed. In fact, he promply stood and, as he was attacked by regrouping archers on the walls, dispatched them. Kokitsu only watched, fascinated by the fact that there was no bloodshed involved. The man merely knocked all of the hostile soldiers unconscious as they came at him. Almost immediately, Kokitsu liked him. Then he turned to her and hesitated for only a moment before asking, in all politeness, for her to attack him. She blinked confusedly at him and asked why. He replied in a reasonable tone that he couldn't possibly fight her if she didn't attack him first, especially since she was a lady. She nodded in ungrudging agreement with that logic, pulled Kagetsu from its sheath, and attacked. The scuffle was short and completely in the other man's favor. She was out cold and captured with little to no fanfare, which was fine by Kokitsu, as it meant she didn't have to fight and kill anymore.

Unfortunately, she woke up in a pen, being pandered off as a slave. As pretty as she was, the bidding didn't take long. She was bought in short order by the man who'd been attacking the village in the first place, a wealthy warlord. From the pen she was put in a cell, which might as well have been a cage to Kokitsu. She quickly lost much of her spirit while confined, sinking into herself. She hardly noticed that her guard and the man who made sure she was fed was the same man who'd crashed into and captured her atop the wall. She was only drawn out of her mind when the lord who now owned her entered her cell and attempted to rape her. Before she could gather herself even enough to summon the aid of spirits, her guard was dragging the lord off of her. In the midst of the confusion, Kokitsu escaped through the door, carelessly left open by her rescuer. She wasn't noticed slipping through the camp to the armory, as all soldiers were busy running toward the call of their lord. Taking her sword and a bow from the unguarded armory was an action of seconds. Getting out of the camp altogether would be more difficult, however. The perimeter guards were well trained and hadn't left their posts.

The next morning, she'd just about timed the habits of the guards and was ready to make her escape when she was distracted by a crowd on the other side of camp. Disguised in a pilfered cloak, she watched as her savior, the guard, was led to the chopping block, obviously about to be executed. Besides the fact that she owed the man a considerable debt for saving her, she couldn't stand the thought of his killing. She climbed a nearby roof, took careful aim, and loosed four arrows in quick succession, neatly slicing the man's bonds with one while pinning the lord into the chair in which he sat, watching the show. Instant pandemonium ensued. Every fighting man rushed to defend his lord and Kokitsu again used the confusion to her advantage, racing toward the man -- who was eating what she could only guess was his last meal -- and dragging him out of the camp with her. She'd forgotten the perimeter guards, but the man she'd saved easily dealt with them.

By mutual, tacit consent, the two traveled together for a time, at first running from the lord's hired pursuers, and then simply for companionship. She eventually found out his name, Genji. Unfortunately, Kokitsu was so used to traveling alone, she forgot about certain inconveniences of species. Namely, heat. In her clan, all of the women had gone into heat at once and any male without a mate was sent on a prolonged vacation for his own safety. Unthinking, Kokitsu jumped Genji without warning. He didn't stand a chance.

When Kokitsu gave birth to triplets, it was finally agreed upon that the two were a couple. Only a few years later, Kokitsu left to pursue her own travels again, taking one son with her and leaving the other two with her husband. Genji had settled down in a house with a kitchen all his own, which he hoarded jealously. Kokitsu, though a free creature, did love Genji in her own way and always returned. She would show back up, leave the kid she'd had with her before and take one or the other away soon after. All three of her sons had the benefit of her travels, whether they wanted it or not. Even when full grown and self-sufficient, Kokitsu would pop back up unexpectedly to visit her sons, or even to drag them into her travels briefly. She loved them all deeply and they returned the sentiment in varying degrees. When the collapse of the realms took all of her sons in one fell swoop, it tore a deep-bleeding hole in Kokitsu's heart. Otherwise, the collapse didn't affect her. Though she and Genji seem to have reverse-inherited the role as rulers from their sons, she doesn't take much part in the actual ruling part. She stays near Genji more now, after losing her sons, though she still tends to wander.

[Genji]

How am I going to top that? *sigh*

Well at least one of the admins can write ^__^

[Slash]

Lol ya gj Kokitsu ;D

[Kokitsu]

Thankies ^^ Honestly, I tried to condense it... I couldn't >.<