Toria Zhang

**Toria Zhang** is a smart and friendly student at EM. A natural leader, she and 4 others form the Mystery Gang, a group of students who regularly investigate and research strange happenings in the academy. Coming from a family with sparse magic experience, Toria hopes to master the art of rune magic to make her family proud.

## Other

### Involved Arcs

* Professors Arc
* Rift Arc

## Personality

Toria is a positive person and is always willing to help. She cares deeply for her friends and loved ones, but is quick to anger when harm befalls the people she cares about. An avid note-taker, she keeps a well-attended notebook full of her theories and observations about the academy's many mysteries.

## Appearance

Embracing her short height, Toria prefers to keep her brown hair styled in a short bob, occasionally pinning it back with barrettes or a ribbon. She has had to wear glasses since she was a child, but does not mind wearing them and thinks they make her look better. Her taste in clothing usually consists of a large t-shirt or sweater tucked into jeans or a skirt with a matching jacket hanging loosely off her shoulders. She dislikes wearing heels and would much rather settle for a pair of comfortable sneakers or sandals.

## Relationships

### Dahlia Joyeux

Dahlia is Toria's best friend and roommate. Bonding over their shared interest in mysteries, they eventually go on to create the Mystery Gang along with Elliot, whom Dahlia has a crush on. On several occasions, Toria has had to comfort a lovesick Dahlia over situations involving Elliot. Toria and Dahlia also share a taste in shows, having referenced Steven Universe in previous encounters. Their familiars, Linus and Ember, respectively, are also good friends.

## Quotes

* "Speaking of the staff, I don't know if I was the only one that noticed this, but there seem to be a stunning lack of adults in this academy."
* "There's a deeper feeling to this. Like a- I don't know, a stronger force connecting us to the magic we're learning. Like we need to learn to not only harness our energy, but control it and nurture it. Be one with the magic. It sounds stupid, but I think that's really how it works. It's more than just a pretty light source."
* "Love is... hard. I'm sure you know that. And I'm not going to try and give you the 'Oh, there's plenty of fish in the sea' lecture, because it doesn't work like that. Catching fish is hard, y'know? You don't always get a fish on your first try. If it's too hard, sometimes you gotta let it go. But when you do catch a fish, and you put your heart and soul into catching this one fish, it's so, so rewarding."
* "I don't have it. I never did. But please, *please* don't hurt her. She didn't do anything. None of them did. It- it's me you have a problem with. Right?"

## Trivia

* She has exercise-induced asthma, a problem that rarely surfaces but is unpleasant nonetheless.
* When she is nervous or lost in thought, she scratches at things (her neck, face, fingernails, etc.), a habit she developed when she was younger.
* Toria is of Chinese descent. Her Chinese name is 张秘祜 (zhāng mì hù), which roughly translates to "secret" or "mystery".
* Canonically, Kai's DND character, Magnolia, is Toria’s grandmother. She was an elderly druid with memory issues who gave strawberry candies to everyone she liked.
* Besides Auryn, Toria is the closest thing to a self-insert oc of Kai