Manami, Lady

Lady Manami (aka Mana, Manifest Destiny, Manna from Heaven, Mandate from Heaven) is a kitsune. She is introduced to the members of the San Andreas Pack by a ghost, Jack, who used perform with Mana's drag persona Manifest Destiny when he was a live. 
During the first two San Andreas books she prefers to be known by her drag name Manifest Destiny, until she is friendly with the pack at which juncture they call her Mana. She eventually reinvents herself as a kind of drag queen superhero, Manna from Heaven. 
She also appears much earlier in time in Reticence as Lady Manami. 
== Appearance ==
Mana is a very beautiful, diminutive Asian woman (with Chinese and Japanese ancestry). She dresses in elaborate costumes for performances, but prefers a domme look for her day-to-day life. Without makeup she is very androgynous looking. 
Her fox form is white and larger than most, making her technically more of a huli jing a Chinese fox spirit. She uses kitsune in the San Andreas books because it has become the accepted term. 
Her shift is fast and very powerful and she can maintain her false eyelashes through shift, a fact that surprises most. 
== Personality & Abilities ==
She can be a trickster, but she's very old so she's very laid back. She is caring, but she can be a drama queen and is very used to getting her way. She owns and rides a motorcycle. 
She is an Old One, which means she survived Super Saturation. She has nine tales and some seriously strong companion abilities that are linked to her age and survival. 
== History ==
Manifest Destiny is over 600 years old. She is friends with Jack (the ghost). She also became friends with and traveled with the crew of the Spotted Custard. She is the only character (as of 2020) that Carriger has written who entirely crosses over between the San Andreas and the Parasolverse. 
== Home ==
Manifest Destiny has a small apartment in Outer Richmond, San Francisco that is described as a cross between a bordello from a 1940s western movie and a kabuki theater. One wall is all feather boas and obi belts. The fireplace is filled with fairy lights. A shelf runs along the ceiling that is lined with art-glass sex toys and wigs. Everything either has red fringe or gold tassels. 
== In the Books ==
=== The Sumage Solution ===
The pack, newly formed by Alec Frederiksen, is housesitting for Manifest Destiny while she’s doing a tour back east. She returns and continues to let the pack stay at her place as they try to sort out where they're going next. She's able to explain how Magistars and Familiars work, as well as get help from another Magistar. 
=== The Omega Objection ===
Mana joined the pack for their after full moon BBQ. She would also stop by to take Loveyjoy out where she met Isaac. 
=== The Enforcer Enigma ===
Mana is traveling during The Enforcer Enigma. Lovejoy boasts that her latest cabaret is doing so well she's in talks with people in LA to host the next great shifter reality show (Hell's Bitchin' Undead Races). 
=== Reticence ===
In this book Lady Manami appears only as an androgynous Japanese geisha (although is is not Japanese, only having Japanese ancestry). Arsenic describes her "in layers of robes and a wide obi with that big poof out the back." (Reticence Chapter 12) Because Arsenic has already met Anitra, she recognizes Lady Manami as a trans person. 
She becomes a key agent of help, advice, and assistance, but always in a riddled, cheeky manner. She travels with them for a while. 
=== Vixen Ecology ===
Mana leaves the San Francisco Bay Area for Hollywood. She returns after the filming of her popular drag show has finished, looking to reconnect with her lover: Lovejoy. 
== Trivia ==
* Mana is a nine-tail fox. 
== Quotes ==
* "Manifest Destiny smelled like something old and wild-an ancient artifact of immense power. She was also the most beautiful thing Biff had ever seen." (The Sumage Solution, Chapter Seventeen)
* "Doesn't nine tails mean wisdom?' 'But not omniscience." (The Sumage Solution, Chapter Seventeen)
* "Without makeup, Mana was still stunning, but in an androgynous way, all high cheekbones and perfect full lips There was something about him that telegraphed female, though, even without the trappings." (The Sumage Solution, Chapter Nineteen)
* "I suppose I should be transgender, under modern parlance. But I like drag queen. It suits me. I like the fabric roughness of drag, and the royalty of queen. It's a nice change to have the luxury of choosing one's own semantics, if not one's own situation." (The Sumage Solution, Chapter Nineteen)
* "We, the weird and sideways folk, have always walked the line of rejection. It's what makes us visionaries. We who are pushed away, to the edge, can see beyond the borders of reality. We frighten the privileged with our possibilities." (The Sumage Solution, Chapter Nineteen)
* "Looks like Mana thinks Lovejoy hung the moon," commented Max, noticing Tank's obvious envy. "With his dick," added Marvin. "Off his dick," countered Max, who was never one to let anyone be more crass than him." (The Omega Objection, Chapter Five)
*"She was like trying to understand light - both particle and wave, pummeling against him and crashing over him at the same time. She might be held, warm and close for a time, but she wasn't really there at all." (Vixen Ecology)
*"Her lips, full, downturned at the sides, perfectly shaped, were cruel. When she wasn't talking or performing, her expression was petulant. Her eyes were sharp, weary of the world, impatient with all the endless youth about her. The frown was one of frustration, seeing the same mistakes repeated over hundreds of years. His lover wasn't kind of all. Her beautiful sulky mouth damaged all too easily with word or teeth or sarcastic smile." (Vixen Ecology)
*"Unconditional love. Someone like me, essentially unlovable - cold and hardened and set in her ways. We ever expect it. so I didn't see what you were offering. Because I thought I wasn't worthy of it. I'd forgotten that I once needed it more than anything. Then for centuries I didn't get it, so I stopped wanting. I won't be blind again and I won't forget." (Vixen Ecology)
Category:Characters
Category:San Andreas Shifters
Category:LGBT character
Category:Parasolverse Characters
Category:San Andreas Shifters Characters
Category:Supernaturals