Mae

Mae Tamao is a major character in the RWBY fanfiction, *D'Arc Is Not Evil*. She is a fox faunus who suffered abuse from the local kids in an unnamed village near the military base of Aurbis. She left to go on a journey with Jaune Arc after he decided to go back to crash his funeral at Beacon Academy.

## History

Mae was born in an unnamed village near the military base of Aurbis. She was orphaned at a young age when her parents disappeared for unknown reasons. She was raised in an orphanage where she was ostracized and ridiculed by her fellow orphans for her heritage.

At some point, she met Maria Calavera, who treated her kindly. Over the years, she grew closer to Maria and eventually came to see her as a grandmother figure.

## Appearance

Described as being rather odd for a faunus, Mae is a young girl with pink hair. She has bright golden eyes with messy shoulder length hair. She has a bushy tail behind her which she used to loathe due to its contribution to the abuse she faced from both humans and faunus. She is rather short for a girl her age, being shorter than most of the girls she knew. She gains an extra ethereal tail upon the use of her semblance, Mirror Shield.

Her clothing is rather simple, not having owned much as she was an orphan. Her color scheme consists of blue and white clothing, primarily that of a dress. She wears short socks and open toed sandals that were recently bought for her.

## Personality

Depicted as a rather shy girl, Mae is not what one would call a people person. She prefers to let others talk while remaining quiet. She only talks when talked to. This is most likely a side effect of the bullying she suffered earlier in life. Her quiet persona tends to attract both positive and negative attention. Her quiet, shy self is painted as cute in the eyes of most and annoying in the eyes of some. Mae is also easily frightened, triggering her semblance upon being hugged by Vert, perceiving her as a threat.

Mae is rather attached to Jaune, seeing him as a sort of older brother figure. She adores him and looks up to him. Mae is mostly seen following Jaune around like a lost puppy, not that he minds. She tries to mirror and mimic what he does, which escalated even more after she unlocked her semblance, beginning to train with it. It is noted that Mae loves animals. Despite being afraid of Grimm, Mae was initially afraid of Nyx but warmed up to her.

## Powers and Abilities

Mae is unskilled in terms of fighting, being only seven years old. She has no mastery over her aura, despite having it unlocked. She is only capable of using her semblance at a basic level, still training in its applications. Recently, it is implied that she has begun training underneath Maria.

### Semblance

Mae's Semblance is known as **Mirror Shield**. Her semblance allows her to create hyper-realistic illusions that are capable of messing with the somatosensory cortex of her target's brain, fooling them into thinking that the illusion is real. This is shown when Maria is capable of physically touching a clone, however, when Jaune threw a rock at one of Mae's Illusory Clones, the rock completely passed through as if the clone wasn't there. She is still training in using this semblance as Maria theorizes that one day, it may be potent enough to where she is capable of inflicting physical harm on her foes.

## Trivia

* Mae is based on the historical figure, Tamamo no Mae, who was a legendary figure in Japanese Mythology, primarily from the Muromachi Period. She was a courtesan that served Emperor Konoe. Stories told by Hokusai depicted her as a Kyuubi no Kitsune (Nine Tailed Fox). She caused the Emperor to be ill. After a few years, the Emperor sent Kazusa-no-suke (上総介) and Miura-no-suke (三浦介) to kill the fox in the plains of Nasu.
* Mae's name means Pearl which is primarily associated with the colors "White" and "Pink".