Post by Karura Kotoko on Jul 3, 2012 23:52:37 GMT -5
KARURA KOTOKO
name: Karura
gender: Female
age: 24 years old
element: None (Chi-Blocking, Swordsmanship)
animal companion: Mongoose Dragon named Komo.
Approximately nineteen feet long, Komo is an imposing specimen of his kind. His body is covered in tiny scales of a light chocolate brown and has, as all mongoose dragons, a few golden plumes on the area of skin just above his head. Part of the crest on his back is missing, the spiky membrane looking as if it had been bitten off. Versatile and perfectly trained, Komo can easily dodge attacks, climb over almost any surface and run with impressive speed, even across water.
Although an excellent mount and means of escape and transportation, the great lizard has little combat potential, specializing on evasive maneuvers and speed.
::looking pretty good[/font]
hair color: Light Brown
eye color: Pale Blue
skin color: Light Peach
overall appearance:
Reference Picture
Karura stands at 5’6” feet tall. Her body is well toned, covered in lean muscles, both her lower and upper body similarly developed, the sign of balanced training. Her light brown hair reaches down to her waist, her hips are moderately wide and gestures measured. With expressive blue eyes that remind of summer sky , her face is rarely blank when talking to others. Her eyes betray her thoughtful, scrutinizing nature and observers can be sure she never stops thinking.
With a preference for Water Nation styled clothes, she’s rarely seen garbed in anything else. On the rare occasion she’s struck with a craving for variation she goes for blacks and greys. A traditional tribal betrothal choker is worn on her neck, the carvings on it delicate and with no apparent meaning. Aside from this, she wears no other jewelry. Her skin is fair and covered in light scars, most of them on her arms and shoulders where quite a score of deeper ones can be found. Her walk is confident but unassuming, feet rarely out of knee length black boots.
Strapped to her belt are various pouches with even more varied contents. From weapons to metal strings to bandages, there’s a pouch for everything, slightly jingling as she walks. Also strapped to her belt, somewhat to the side, is a Longsword fashioned of the purest iron, non-bendable, much like the other small metal instruments in her possession, nested in a rough cotton sheath with a serpentine silver dragon across its length. In one of her pouches she keeps a thin fiber filtration mask that partners with the two sleeping gas bombs, roughly the size of apples that find their place in the next pouch.
::what I'm thinking[/font]
likes:
- Sitting by the lake/river/sea at night
- Dim light
- Working with metal (manufacturing weapons)
- Spicy foods
- Subtlety and Subterfuge
- Crowded places
- Being alone for longer periods of time
- Fairness (advocate for equal work opportunities for benders and non-benders)
- Occasional Smoking & Heavy Drinking
- Music & Dancing
- Racing with Satomobiles
- Being underestimated
dislikes:
- Arrogant, self-entitled people
- How non-benders are treated in society
- Hot weather
- Ignorance and banality
- Lack of substance
- Blind hatred
- One track minded people
- Insistence
- Barbarian approach to things
- Attention seekers
sexuality: Hetero
overall personality:
Confident and independent, Karura takes orders from no one and has difficulty working in a group if she’s not leading it. She likes to do things her own way but won’t argue to change others’ minds. If she doesn’t agree she makes herself scarce and with or without help, does whatever she pleases. Everything about her is full measures. She leaves no rock unturned and no detail unchecked; no idea just partially said when it has purpose. She doesn’t believe in coincidences and ardently strives to find the meanings behind apparently random sayings or events. Dissecting everything, including her own thoughts and desires, she’s deeply introspective, to the point of obsession.
Quietly narcissistic, unspokenly self-obsessed, she acts with remarkable selfishness, hardly ever placing someone else’s benefit above her own. If people were animals she would be a snake, with a penchant for strategy and tasty drinks. Not without compassion, she is not cruel, nor mocking for pleasure. Her anger is hard to rise and impossible to quell, the true extent of her wickedness showing only when she has found a suitable target. Somewhat masochistic she willingly places herself in harm’s way, always taking the way that’s risky. Shrewd and calculated she never shows her cards before the end, unless she’s in the mood to make things difficult for herself.
She enjoys the game, the subtle tricks, the labyrinths people build when they fight with words and not with weapons, although she’s no stranger to the physical side of combat. Regardless, it is with wit and cunning that she fights best and delights in finding others who play by the same rules. Incredibly open-minded, she strives to keep herself open to alternate solutions to her problems and new approaches to concepts. Anyone, regardless of their level of animosity, can keep her attention with a good debate. She will offer her consideration without reserve or judgement, never one to slap aside an idea because of the status of the one uttering it.
Karura likes to play and plant puzzles as much as she does being direct. One moment she may be beating around every bush while the next she’s laying her thoughts bare before the other. Faceted, she enjoys playing roles and being many things, eccentric or dull, careful or careless, mysterious or open book, there’s such a great variety of expression to enjoy. Some days she has to wonder which is her true personality or if stability even matters. Not without loyalty, she does not relish the role of the backstabber, although the moment she senses that potential in someone else is the moment she leaves. She never preoccupies herself with the impressions she leaves and doesn’t like wasting time with people of no interesting aspects.
::a past to remember[/font]
Born in Republic City to a Water Tribe descent father and Earth Kingdom descent mother, both of no bending heritage, Karura was a quiet child. From an early age she showed signs of arduous curiosity about everything and creativity to join in. She invented her own games, she set the rules to little puzzles and observed far more than she talked. Her father, a blacksmith and engineer, quickly found he didn’t have enough hours in a day to spend sating her thirst for knowledge. He taught her about metals and devices, while her mother introduced her to people and culture, music and art. Like a sponge, she took it all in, becoming thoughtful and philosophical at an early age.
With no lack for friends, she introduced them all to her inventions, involved them in the games she envisioned, led them down new paths, sometimes dangerously so. Always the leader of the tight nit little group, she acted accordingly, taking responsibility for the others and gaining an edge of maturity uncommon in children her age. Around eleven years old, adults found her unnervingly well-spoken, with a wisdom that far surpassed her experience, her words the thoughts of old, her emotions the only indicative of her true age.
At that same age, her grandmother on her mother’s side passed away. Still settled in the Earth Kingdom, they had to travel there to attend her funeral. While the day for mourning, that she couldn’t especially partake in as she had never really formed a bond with her grandmother, came and went, their return to Republic City didn’t. Her grandfather was old and lonely so her mother decided they needed to stay, settle in the Earth Kingdom for a while. This enraged her, upset her deeply. All that she knew was in the city, not the little village they had come to.
She spent her next years studying people’s ways and learning battle. Finding that the locals didn’t interest her much, not of their own fault, but of their unfortunate mental limitation, caused by their sheltered, mostly uneducated living, she started training in combat. Benefitting from her superior intellect, she learned the dance with blades swiftly, her arm as coordinated with the sword as her mind was with the aim of her words. She danced with poise and charm, as fascinated with the metal of her blade as a young man was with her frame.
When she was sixteen a merchant and his son were passing through the village. Coming from the Northern Water Tribe, the young man, a year her senior, spoke with both candor and knowledge, quickly drawing interest from Karura who had spent her years deflecting the company of rowdy boys with little if anything to say. His ideas were fluid and charming and he was blessed with moderate handsomeness. Two years later they were married, not in the village but in the icy lands of his origin. Leaving her parents behind to enjoy their little village life, she relocated, finding that she quite enjoyed the Northern Water Tribe, their spirit.
Their marriage was a happy one, full of love and understanding and shared curiosities. Two years were spent in perfect bliss, until one day, when the cold bit deep and hard and brought Karura news of his unfortunate passing. Killed by an earthbender while on a merchant route through the Earth Kingdom, he would never come home again. Knowing this, a fresh young widow, Karura decided to pack her life and return to Republic City, the place of her birth and the only place that could grant her healing. She became more reserved, more thoughtful, more precise, more daring and entirely more productive.
Past the point of learning, she started making weapons, non-benders needed to wake up and see just how vulnerable they were. Along the daggers, caltrops, and various styles of swords were small attempts at devices. Working hard to keep up page with today’s advancements, she disassembled and reassembled radios, learned about circuitry, studied how a Satomobile engine worked. By chance she met a man who took a liking to her thoughts and character and decided to teach her something she hadn’t hoped to learn – chi blocking. With him as master, she learned quickly and diligently, joining the knowledge with her sword dance moves.
One day, on her way to visit her parents in their dream village, she came across a camping circus she joined for a rest in the night. That’s where she came by Komo, the mongoose dragon that she spent half her savings on. Mongoose dragons were prized transportation, easy to ride, possessing incredible speed and clawed feet that could grasp any surface.
