Post by Illah Karu on Jun 6, 2012 9:33:32 GMT -5
Illah Karu
name: Illah
gender: female
age: 33
element: non-bender
animal companion: -
::looking pretty good[/font]
hair color: dark brown
eye color: blue gray
skin color: tan
overall appearance:
Illah is a very tall woman with excellent posture. She stands at 6 feet and from behind many have mistaken her for a man. She has a lean, athletic body with hips that are narrow for a woman's but still a little curvy. Her breasts are of average size, not too big, but noticeable. Illah has light blue gray eyes, which people have remarked being the colour of a cloudy sky. She has a visible scar on the left side of her face and a variety of others under her clothes, results of various tumbles and fights she's been a part of. The scar on her face starts from her hairline and ends just above her cheecbone. She received it in a knife fight and it did not heal right, being forever the colour of raw salmon. Illah's hair is long , thick and a rich shade of dark brown. She keeps it tied most of the time, either in pigtails or a ponytail. She has small plugs for earrings, made out of bone.
On her back Illah has a tattoo, the size of her palm. It's a black and grey picture of a koi fish being strangled by a snake.
For clothing Illah prefers something comfortable, usually wearing water tribe men's clothing. Her usual outfits consist of roomy trousers, long boots and garters and a knee length tunic with short sleeves. She carries a small arsenal of knives and steel wire hidden under her clothes at all times.
Full body reference
::what I'm thinking[/font]
likes: warm baths, gambling, sailing, traditional wooden ships, strong liquor, romantic gestures and sleeping late
dislikes: early mornings, hangovers, ignorance, un-necessary humility, self pity and foppish men
sexuality: heterosexual
overall personality:
Illah is a creature of complexity. She is decisive and straight forward, honest to a certain point and likes to make fun of everything and everyone, herself included. As as child she was often teased about her height, but instead of letting it get to her, Illah adopted a positive outlook on her stature and as an adult has become quite proud of it. She isn't very talkative, but likes having conversations with different people. She loves being outdoors and has a restless soul that has a recurring desire for adventure. This often leads into her going on unexpected trips, usually without bothering to tell anyone. Illah loves people but isn't one to get overly attached to anyone. She treasures her own happiness above all others and tries to avoid situations where her happiness might be compromised. Having had two serious relationships which both blew up on her face, she now has a slight case of commitment phobia. Relationships are the only thing she feels unsure and insecure about, her other failings she has come to accept and embrace over time.
She has a short temper and is very snappy and spiteful when angered. Her friends often joke that this is her one feminine trait. In an argument it's not easy for her to admit it if she's been in the wrong and she'll sulk for a while before apologizing.
As a fighter Illah is no stranger to using dirty tactics to win. She will pull a knee to the groin or throw sand at her opponent's face if it means getting her out of a sticky spot. Even with all her underhanded tactics she still recognizes when she's outmatched and is quick to run if the situation requires it.
::a past to remember[/font]
Illah was born in the Southern Water Tribe during an unusually harsh and relentless winter. Her mother died in the child bed not three days after Illah was born, leaving her in the care of her now widowed father Yorn. Her father wasn't overly sad over the loss of his wife, more like inconvenienced by it. Nevertheless he did his best in raising her, even though his best meant for her to practically grow up as a boy doing boy things. The women in the tribe didn't particularly like seeing Illah covered in scratches and bruises and playing with clubs and boomerangs while she should have been learning how to mend clothes and help with chores like cooking. But they didn't dare raise their voices about the matter and instead left Yorn alone to do as he pleased with his daughter.
When Illah was six years old Yorn had grown tired of the Southern Tribe and packed his things and his daughter and left. For many years they traveled from place to place, Illah's father never wanting to settle down in one place for long. When Illah questioned her father about their seemingly neverending journey, Yorn only replied that it wasn't in his blood to stay put. He often said he'd never been unhappier than the day his parents had saddled him with marriage and to be quite frank, he was quite relieved to be free again. Illah never felt a father-daughter connection with Yorn, mostly because he felt distant and didn't let her call him father.
"I'm Yorn and you are Illah. There are no other names, so stick with what there is," he would say if Illah ever uttered the f-word.
During their travels Illah learned some skills, that most parents would have been ashamed to know their kids had picked up. One was lying. Not the sort of lying where you got caught the instant you uttered your little story. No, this was the serious sort of lying where you almost had to believe in the shit you spat out, to make it work. At first Illah used it to get out of trouble, then she started using it to scam people. Her grandmother was sick, she would say. Her father left and she was all alone now, was another one she used.
After the lying came the pickpocketing and from a few failed attempts and beatings with a stick she realized, one had to be quick and stealthy to nab a purse and not dawdle. Yorn never punished her for stealing or lying, merely shrugged and continued like it never happened.
"You are your own person. Do your own thing and your own mistakes. I'm not responsible for what you do," he would say, leaving Illah to her own devices.
When Illah was twelve she got into a serious fight with some street kids four or five years older than her. She had stolen a purse from someone in the group and they weren't too happy about her doing so. This happened in a little harbor town in Earth Kingdom and Illah was outmatched and outnumbered. One kid pulled a knife while two others held her down. They weren't much bigger than her, but they were stronger and soon she got a taste from the knife leaving her face a bloody mess.
At this time an older man came to chase the kids away from her and she took this opportunity to run to the inn she was staying at with Yorn. Only Yorn wasn't there. Illah was surprised to be as shocked as she was and for a while she tried to look for him. After a day or two she realized he would not be coming back for her and that she would have to support herself from that day onward.
Her luck turned on the day she decided to pickpocket the wrong person. Not only did she get caught but it turned out that this man, Maruk was a pirate and was a captain of a ship. He hailed from the Northern Water tribe, but hadn't been to the North Pole in a decade preferring to pillage and pilfer the innocent people of Earth Kingdom. And soon Illah found herself on his ship under his tutelage.
Years went by and Illah found herself in a strange relationship with this man who had practically adopted her. They were almost two decades apart agewise but she never felt he was too old for her. He had been her teacher in many things and it seemed strangely appropriate he should be her teacher in this too. Unfortunately Illah found herself getting jealous and possessive over Maruk as soon as their relationship took the plunge from platonic to romantic. And Maruk wasn't the type to preach monogamy. Eventually her feelings of resentment escalated and she found herself standing on a dock in a Fire Nation city, Maruk sailing happily to the sunset with his latest protege. Apparently he had a habit of taking young helpless girls under his wing and deep down Illah wondered who had he been with before her.
Later on she found herself in quite a serious relationship with a firebender a few years younger than her. Well...maybe not exactly few. The boy was barely 19, while she had already turned 28. They had passion and love, she thought. Surely she could make it work. And for a year it did, but as time went by it became increasingly obvious how different they were. She was too clingy and wanted commitment, he was young and brash and wanted to date other people. In the end she found herself broken hearted again, wondering why she could not get the grasp of relationships when she had no trouble getting everything else.
Since Fire Nation didn't feel like the place to be after her being jilted, she purchased a ticket for a ship en route to Earth Kingdom and travelled around for a while. Eventually she found herself Republic City and has made the city her semi-permanent residence. From time to time she dissappears to embark on another journey, but she'll always return to Republic City.
