Mikala Oroboki

## History

Mikala's mother was a Peri-blooded who took the role of Matcher in Essen, while her father was a Kitsune Samurai. She was raised believing that she was meant to do great things, and that she would eventually be a Matcher. Her grandmother was a Peri who still to this day saw fit to strive and improve the lives of others in penance for what sins her forebears did, and it only seemed right this would continue on.

Her mother strived to provide guidance to the struggling and grant goodness to those who she could reach. This same goodness did not necessarily extend to her daughter. Mikala became something of a tool. She was to be brought forward as a conduit of family will. An example of the goodness that can be, and strides were taken so she knew failure was never an option. To the rest of the world, she was to be a beacon of light, just as much as her mother, and her mother before her. This all came to a head when her mother had decided to match her to a man she truly disdained- Xianqiu Lonqichu.

On the surface, he seemed a fairly boring but successful man who built houses for the impoverished, even willing to do so for the Marked or Honorless- stating that they could never prove themselves more than what they were if not given the chance. She saw it for something else, however- this man using this position to enact forced labor on the cheap of these individuals who society would never listen to the stories of, practically slave labor. On the day of the wedding... She erupted, her powers as an oracle igniting... As did the entire wedding. Nobody was truly hurt, however she ran- burning the whole way, and stuck between the panicked desire to escape and the blackening of her arms... And the screaming pain she felt as a result of both.

### The Wedding

Near Minxiao, the city of lanterns, was what was meant to be a joyous occasion. Setting out from the capitol, two of the noble houses of Essen were set to have a union. The daughter of the Oroboki family with the son of the acclaimed Longichu family. Both families had a history of social reform and frequently strived to aid the populace in what ways they could. To some, the union of these families would represent a greater good for all of Essen.

This was not the case in the eyes of the daughter. Mikala had spent a lot of time learning of her would-be husband's "merciful" aid in the slums. She had no interest in this union, but was being forced through it regardless. The young Aasimar had been prettied up in a luxurious Furisode of starch white with the traditional red and gold fabric on the inside. She wanted nothing more than to tear it apart in this moment as she was preparing to be marched down the isle, her hands clasped around a bouquet.

The steady sound of the falling of her feet was almost a death knell, reverberating through her in her state of dread as she watched the masses who had come to see the wedding stand, cheering for what they considered a joyous union. She struggled not to scoff. There was a burning anger in her gut as this all occurred, bringing her up to the alter, her fiance smiling toward her as the ceremony began.

For her, this sham seemed to flow for an eternity as her anger at the situation grew. She had no care for this man, and while she would willingly serve her family's desire to help others, this helped nobody. All it did was foolishly hand away her independence and control her freedom. A lavish, gilded cage she was forced into against her will. This anger sparked something in her as, while the wedding progressed, the look in her fiance's eyes seemed to grow more and more arrogant- like she was a prize he had won. So it was a great surprise when, upon the request of the priest on whether she consented, she spoke for herself. "No."

Her fiance's look turned from surprise to rage, her parents looking like they weren't sure what to do. Her father seemed more confused than anything- to him, there had been nothing wrong- but her mother's face twisted into a look of disgust. "What do you mean, no?" She said to Mikala from the front, whispering just loud enough to be carried. "This is your duty Mikala. Carry on with it."

The bottom line was when the priest tried to carry on as if she hadn't said anything. Was everyone here committed to taking her freedom from her. She trembled with rage, before letting out a scream of anger. "I... Said... NO!" She bellows, as something awoke within her. A spark, as flames poured through the area, engulfing most of it. The flowers, the altar, the beautiful silks, the groom, herself... As the people attending scrambled and panicked, she screamed in pain as she was burned, dropping the smoldering flowers, and rapidly retreating from the wedding-turned-pyre.

She escaped, ablaze and smoldering as her Furisode burned around her. Her arms, blackening from the elbow to the tips of her fingers as a result of the fire and some latent inner curse, were incapable of stopping the engulfing flames on her body, and the pain was such that she nearly blacked out in her fevered retreat from the burning wedding. Somewhere in her mind, she refused to allow herself the sweet release of unconsciousness in the pain, believing that someone would just drag her back and force the wedding. It was during this time that she was found, and saved, by Kamui.

## Appearance

Mikala's kitsune ancestry can be clearly seen in her tail and ears- the massive fox tail seeming to permanently exude a warm heat that emanates in near-waves off of it, keeping her and anyone she trusts enough to have access to it warm. Her eyes are particularly interesting, with an inner ring of warm hazel and an outer ring of vibrant green, the two melding together and blending into each other. Little gold flecks appear in her eyes as well, giving them an almost glittering quality when light shines on them. She has a rather solid build, healthy for the most part until one pays attention to the horrific burns on her arms, leaving them blackened. She has visible trouble maneuvering them for heavy labor, and it has a clear negative ramification on her ability to lift and haul things, or use weapons. When asked, these are a "mark of her earned freedom" and, in a way, her salvation.

She wears as little as she can on her upper body. Due to her nature and the nature of her curse, fire spreads across her arms commonly, so anything she wears above the waist runs risk of catching fire. As a result of this, she wears a strap of cloth around her breasts for the sake of modesty. Below the waist, her pants are protected from her fire by a hip-skirt made of hardened hide, which was significantly harder to burn, and also provided some layer of protection from attacks while not getting in the way of too much.

## Personality

In general, Mikala is an overall good person. She seeks to help others, often needing no further gratification than the knowledge that her actions have in some way aided their lives. To her, this act in and of itself is enough. She once thought this was a universal thing, and that people simply sought to help others- it was natural- however she quickly learned as she grew older and became more involved in the world that this was not the case. People seemed willing to do good, but often seemed to require some sort of external motivation, rarely able to do so without some intrinsic and internal desire to simply do good. This was particularly exemplified when she saw the actions of her then-fiance, and the push her parents put her through to marry him in spite of her interests, only caring about their image or responsibilities rather than the good or right. This shattered her worldview, and shook her to her core, leading to the more rebellious "firebrand" attitude she had developed.

While she is far from a perfectionist, Mikala was raised with the expectation that she would succeed and do right. Even after her rebellion, a bit of this stuck to her. Whenever she failed in some way, it tended to shake her up, and she frequently expected far worse results than sometimes realistically feasible. To her, her actions have a sort of gravity to them- when she succeeds, it brings up those around her, and when she fails, those around her suffer for her ineptitude. Perhaps equally importantly came the fact that she was used to heavy ramifications for her failure, as her family would frequently ensure she knew when she came up short, and punish her for it heavy-handedly. This instilled a sort of fear of failure in Mikala, leading her to constantly be on the lookout for it.

## Loves

Mikala has a distinct love of sweet things. It's a bit of a vice of hers that she enjoys such, but redoubles with what her diet actually is. Quite oddly, Mikala has the ability to subsist herself entirely on sweets and wine- leading to a diet of honey (due to it never going bad) and sweet desert sake. In some cases, she actually can't bring herself to eat "normal" food without it being in some way sweetened to a point that others would find rather distasteful, such as lathering bread with a copious amount of honey, or meat being prepared with some form of honey glaze- these things being rather tasteful, perhaps- or smothering vegetables with a caramel glaze to the point where they were more caramel than vegetable.

## Fears

The idea of failure is something that is incredibly strong for her as a result of her family's expectations, but similarly is the fear of ending up forced back home and pushed into marriage against her will. In general, she has many insecurities revolving around her family and mother specifically. Beyond this, however, many of her fears are mild at best and usually understandable. She hasn't encountered any situations outside of those involving her family that would instill fears- the primary one being the burning wedding, however she's grown to see her powers not as a source of fear and loss of control, but a source of liberty. Even with the pain and agony that she went through because of them, she attributes that suffering to her family, and not her power.

## Hobbies

Up until now, Mikala hadn't really been allotted much for "free time" and was typically expected to have every action have some meaning or consequence. What free time she did have was guided by her family into some method that was productive. Lately, as a result of her powers, her free time has been focused on learning about magic and spells more than before. She isn't against the idea of finding a hobby that didn't have to do directly with something actually necessary, but she is somewhat conditioned against it.

## Family

Mikala's mother and father are prominent figures in her life- even after breaking away, much of her decision making and understanding of the world have been molded by them, and she still bears some semblance of interest in avoiding them. She also possesses a number of siblings, and is somewhat worried about them. As of right now, her family is spinning a rhetoric that she went missing during the fire, but appears to not have died, so they have taken to searching for her. Currently, she doesn't have to worry too much about this- most normal people won't see her and think 'runaway noble' due to how she has taken to dressing, and her family doesn't know about the burns, meaning that some of the descriptions they have been putting out aren't as accurate as they once were. She knows, however, that some day soon her family will catch up to her, and she's not sure what she'll do when this happens.

## Friends

After her escape from the wedding, Kamui saved her life, and has become one of the few people she feels she can actually trust at this point. She has taken to sticking to him to whatever degree she still can, and doing her best to help him. Without much else in the way of things important to her, or plans for the future, sticking to Kamui seems like a good thing even without her feeling of being indebted to him.

## Enemies

While nobody had been killed in the process of the wedding, there are multiple people incensed at what happened. It was, after all, quite the incident. That said, most of the nobles there didn't necessarily think that Mikala was the source of the fire. They think there had been some sort of attack or the like- while her family's heritage was known, Mikala had shown no proficiency with fire magic before that point. In fact, she had only ever really shown any proficiency with healing magic, so the idea of her burning the entire place down seemed like a foreign idea to most attendees.

This was not the same for Xiangiu Longichu. Her ex-fiance had been front-and-center for the start of the fire, and he also escaped sporting multiple burns that would warp his appearance. While they had access to magical healing, in the momentary spark of explosive power that Mikala had put out, the divine curse that had rendered her hands unusable had also permanently marred Xiangiu's visage with many black marks. No healer has found a way of removing these burns, and proclaimed it a divine curse. This means that while it isn't known that the source was Mikala, it is known that Xiangiu was struck by divinity during a wedding, and this has severely hurt his reputation as a sign of the disfavor of the gods- these situations are the responsibility and judge of the man, after all, and for this travesty to have happened and him to have walked away so cursed speaks to some failing of his in society.

Seeking vengeance now as opposed to her hand, Xiangiu now looks for Mikala for reasons wholly different than her family. He had seen the fire come from her, knew that she in some way had invoked this wrath of the gods on him, and was the reason his life was in shambles and social image he had built up with so much difficulty was shattered. Determined to see her undone, Xiangiu now seeks to send people to find her and, if possible, bring her back to him so he could settle the score... But if not, he would be satisfied with just her head.

## Aspirations

Mikala is still trying to learn her new place in the world with her new set of freedoms. She is entirely used to other people controlling her fate and destiny, so with these things now resting squarely in her hands, she isn't sure what to do with it. A primary aspiration for her is to keep this sense of freedom, however, now that she has it. In this process, however, she also wants to do good in the world, and to relieve the suffering of others. She dislikes the number of people in this world that seem solely committed to coming out on top of everyone around them, and hopes to at least alleviate some of the suffering both caused by this, and caused by other more direct sources of suffering.