S-H | Mukaru | Insurgent

EDIT - Added some extra info to her Occupations, and to her sybal.



Name: Mukaru
Nicknames: 'Karu, Eagle
Age: 19 (arrived late 1891)
Physical Age: 17 (born in 1258)
Height: 4'9"
Hair: True black
Eyes: Black

Faction: Insurgent
Karu, only being a rather recent addition to the city, doesn't know much about factions but knows without a shadow of a doubt that she does not like the restrictions placed upon her. No leaving... no freedom... no exploration... no oceans... no, she does not like that at all.
She will, given the chance, fight with all she's got to be free once again. 


Occupation(s):
-Wood/bone Carver
It started when she was young enough to hold a knife, and grew from there. At a young age, she showed much promise; Mukaru possessed a sharp eye for detail, and knew how to use the grains in both bone and wood to her benefit.

-Herbalist 
Her mother, back when she still lived her own life, taught her a great deal about various herbs and the effects they have, from repelling insects to preserving foods to healing festering wounds. Herbs that gave energy, herbs that made one sleep... herbs that killed. And the girl was fascinated.

-Dancer/Fire-dancer
Back in the world before, she had been a wonderful dancer... and in this new world, she found a measure of peace doing the same. After witnessing some fire-dancers during one of the festivals.... she simply could not resist. She proved to be gifted in this area as well.


Sybal Form: ROPEN / NIGHT-EAGLE
Asset Sheet: sta.sh/022iyzp3iyk1
While 'Ropen' is her title, PPN, Pancake Potoo Noodle, also works. Her Sybal is somewhere between a snake, an eel, and a giant manta, with the head of a potoo or similarly-looking nightjar.

Her color and markings mimic that of a giant manta's quite closely, though with a definite blue tinge to it. The pelt on the back and upper potions of her wings is waterproof and feels like very, very fine luxurious velvet, as does Ropen's underside and the lining trailing the edge of her wing/body membrane. Her wings are long and pointed, tipped with sharp spurs/claws, and their membrane acts like the edge of an owl's wings, giving her silent flight.

Karu's eyes are HUGE, and see very well at night; they possess pupils with dilate to fill almost the entire eye, or shrink to almost as small as a pinhead counteract her power as best as her body is able. Her mouth is  her oddest part - normally it is smooth, shaped much like a snake's, but her beak can be extended and when her mouth is open, hinged black teeth may swing forward. The inside of said mouth glows an ethereal  blue, as do a few specific bio-luminescent patches on her body. This luminescence can be dimmed completely.

Her tail is flattened, much like a horizontal eel's tail. At the base of her tail, on either side, two pseudo-tails sprout. They are prehensile and act as interacting limbs, and end in two 'stingray' spines, one larger than the other.

When shifting from form to form, the change appears as living ink seeping from her eyes and mouth, writhing and flowing out to alter her shape. When shifting back to human, the process happens in reverse... ink flows back into her eyes and mouth mouth. It can be quite unsettling to witness, and even more so to experience... t'was why she had such a panic the first time it happened. 

EDIT - Yes, she does indeed have gills, thanks to the manta influence. 


Sybal Power: Light Mastery 
Karu has the ability to bend light waves, from creating brilliant flashes that stun and blind, to bending light around herself to render herself unseen.

When she enters and exists her 'invisible' state, she must always set off those blinding flashes. She must take great care to close her eyes or look away, or else risks blinding herself. When 'invisible', she can still be felt, heard or smelled. She has to take great care to be completely silent, or else risk giving herself away (which can be rather difficult considering her large and unwieldy sybal form)... 

At first, she could only remain invisible for 5 - 10 minutes, but with practice and hard work began to bend light waves for little over 30 minutes, and once for an hour before she began to get very dizzy. When creating flashes, at first she could create no more than 2 per night. Now, her limit is 6--meaning she can go invisible three times per night.

Her control of light has a range of 15' around her body, and solid objects will block her light. 


Docile or Feral: Docile
Karu normally possess very good control.... once she accepted what happened to her. However, she's very reactive at night. She is not vicious... but she IS defensive on a massive scale. She responds badly to utter shock, rage, or extreme panic, and if attacked she WILL fight back, and HOW.

Normally, though, her sybal form is much calmer and more easygoing than her human self. This is the manifestation of who she could have been... who she wanted to be. Who she would have been if she didn't loose herself in her competition: a gentle, caring soul. Granted, she's also larger, and has the ability to fly, and has huge wings and a tail and all. It almost makes it all worth it. Almost. 


Personality: 
- Headstrong 
If she puts her mind to it, it'll get done. Somehow, someway, no matter how.. ugly that way ends up being. 

- Conflicted 
She wants to fit in. She wants to be useful. But she also wants to hate everything about this place.  In an attempt to make something of herself, she decided to share her knowledge of herbs and such things as fishing. It helped. But not enough. 

- Defensive/Mistrustful
It doesn't take much to put her on the defensive. Almost anything said will cause the girl to bow up and think the worst of somebody or something. She does not trust very easily... at all.

- Napoleon Complex 
This definitely contributed to the above attribute... or vice. She HATES being looked down upon in any situation... even if, well, taller folk really don't have any other choice in the matter. 

- Helpful 
Buried beneath all her anger and frustration, there IS still a gentle soul who does indeed like to help others... it's just hard to find. 

- Loyal  
If you happen to do the impossible and manage to claim her as a friend, you'll have one for life. 


History:
 - PRE-Arrival -
Mukaru was always an odd child; some even dared to think she was a boy cursed to wear the skin of a woman. She was born strong, possessing a very sharp competitive spirit even before she could walk. Such a spirit got her in more than her fair share of trouble, as did her wont to explore far and beyond the reaches of her village. 

It came to a head when she showed up the chief's own son, returning from a fishing excursion she had been forbade to go on with a greater catch than he. Needless to say, that day did not end well... He willfully destroyed the dugout she'd painstakingly made herself - it was purposely burned to 'teach her a lesson'. 

In rash anger that night, on the one night the moon was bright and full, she stole a canoe, and headed out to sea. The water was rough... as if the ocean had been angered. But she did not care. 

Mukaru did not even make it past the breakers; a massive wave drove her craft against a razor-sharp reef, and the canoe 
shattered.... as did the bones of her right leg. Blood from the injury flooded the water but she still managed to stay afloat. Yet... Mukaru could not stay there long. Weakened from blood-loss, the next massive breaker washed her asunder, while the blood in the water did its job. 

She saw a massive triangular fin sliding by, and a mass of red swept across her vision. After that, things got... hazy.

She looked down, unable to feel anything, to see nothing but billowing red. She could feel a tug... a tug on her body, as teeth bit into her side. She cried out, whether in her mind or to the night, 'Please... help me. I don't want to die. Give me another chance.

'I don't want to die.'

Perhaps it would have been better if she had. 

Fueled by adrenaline and the roiling waves, she somehow managed to get onto solid ground. She remembered red-soaked sand below, and looking up to see green. A forest. Something... made her struggle forward. She was bleeding out on the beach, but the woods called. And she... she felt like she just had to answer. Her mind fading, her body awash in agony from the bite, she dragged herself towards it, clawing at the wet sand with bloody fingers. 

She didn't remember making it inside; her mind was too far faded for that. But, with her last bit of strength, she must have.


- POST-Arrival -
While the last sound she remembered was the muffled sound of waves through the trees, the first she heard next was... something similar, and yet not. Leaves... leaves blowing, rustling in the wind...

Upon opening her eyes, Mukaru saw that somehow... she'd ended up in a wood. An unfamiliar one. She lay there for a time... but eventually, she felt her strength start to return. She crawled, then got up and started walking, weak and limping, too confused to call out.

Two hours later, when the forest was beginning to thin, her borrowed strength faded, and she crumpled to the earth.
 
A hailing call rang out. It came from one by the name of Theo, who she later learned apparently greeted all those who wandered the forest. Rather than answer, her fear, her confusion caused her to scrabble back deeper into the wood's shadow. But he found her, and, speaking gently in a language she could somehow recognize (the accent was different from her own tongue... yet close enough to understand) managed to approach without her panicking and fleeing. Even so, the man had to wait for weariness to fully take its toll before Mukaru allowed him to carry her (for she could no longer walk) to the Minister's Estate.

This was when things grew most difficult. Culture shock was the least of her worries. 

When she awoke late that morning Karu, now somewhat recovered, had the energy to panic. Only by hearing her own language from one who'd taken it upon themselves to appear in the clothing (or lack thereof) she could recognize could she calm down enough for conversation.

Of course, she did not understand, and was afraid of this new world. But... at least she was not running around in a blind panic.

Yet.

Night neared. Though someone called Chaska, and others who called themselves Aides, tried to explain what would happen and how to deal with it, to accept it... nothing could have prepared her for the admittedly painless but extremely unsettling sensation of thick, writhing fluid pouring from her eyes, mouth and nose to cover and remold her into something... larger. Much larger than anyone would have expected. Much larger than the room they were in was built for.

She panicked. 

Thankfully, the courtyard didn't get too demolished before the Ropen managed to figure out its wings and take to the sky. 

That night, anyone near would have heard nightmarish cries as Mukaru flew hither and yon in a blind panic. But not for too long. Before two hours had passed, three of the Detainment Aids managed to catch her and for a time, one pinned her down until her panic ran dry and left her too exhausted to move.

Morning found her curled up in bed with a bad case of the shivers. Everything had just been so... overwhelming, on a massive scale. It took several nights before she didn't have to be... physically detained (aka sat on), and a few more until Karu managed to transform without getting very distressed. Still, for a time after, aides were needed 'just in case.' 

After that major hurtle was dealt with and accepted, there came the other more... insidious one. The city itself. It might have taken a while to get the hang of shifting into a monster at night, but it took no time at all for Mukaru to feel stifled within the city. So many people everywhere... all the time. So much noise. So much hustle and bustle. She wanted to go back home where it was quiet, where the only noises were a few shouts when the fishers came back and the cry of birds and the roll of the waves. 

But she was told she couldn't leave. At first, Karu didn't believe it. Then, when she could finally fly on her own, by herself... she tried. 

They were right. No matter how far, how fast, she flew... the city always reappeared. No matter how hard she tried to find the sea... No 
matter how desperately she wished for it to appear over the horizon, the only thing that ever did was the city. Over and over again.

That took time to accept, and it took all her strength not to regress back into the panicked state she had been in during her first days.

But it never went away after that.

It never let her have peace of mind, that feeling of being trapped. Of always being 'caged'... never able to leave. 

When Mukaru could take it no longer, every now and again at night... she tried, just because she could. She would fly as hard and as fast as her sybal could force its wings, then dive into the river and swim the same, slicing though the water. But it all had the same result.

No longer had she the sea... no longer could she hear the ocean's voice. The gull's cry. No longer could she explore... see things no one ever had. 

Never before had she dealt with such feelings of loss, save perhaps the day her boat had burned. 

Mukaru did not enjoy the feeling. She wanted it to go away. She wanted her freedom. 

And she was willing to fight for it. 

At this point in time, she has no knowledge of the insurgents' existence. Once she does, she's all in. 


Additional Info:
-Has a thing for deep blue, especially beads/marbles/shells. 

-Is fascinated by light-colored hair (blonde, red, etc) and skin.

-Used to be a dancer, and a good one. Since arriving at the hiem, she's taken up fire-dancing, and... she's good at that too.