Mayaku, Zeke

*"Today can always be a good day, if you only remember that the sun is still going to rise tomorrow"*

## Summary

Zeke is a generally cheery accompaniment to any social gathering or adventuring party. She may not always be the most observant, but she'll give you their undivided attention when speaking. This is most likely due to the fact that she has to read your lips though, as Zeke's been deaf for years now. But that's just a thing that is, and it doesn't stop them from moving forwards. It took a lot of time and effort, but she's managed to regain most of her ability to function in daily life back since then, by lip reading- sign language- carrying a chalkboard as a back up, and trying to open her own awareness to the world around her more. As a result, Zeke's ended up a generally more caring individual, as she tries to pay attention to the concerns, feelings and emotions of others. It requires reading between the lines on statements, and analyzing body language, absent the predilections a tone of voice might imply. But if someone is lying or hiding hurt, the tone is the first thing they conceal—body language always being a more difficult lie to tell. In any case, she harbours no sympathy to those who would trifle with the feelings of others. All in all, she prizes freedom of expression, dancing, fables and adventure. Especially if it involves the high seas, or anything novel or new.

## History

Zeke used to be a more active part of the Caravan life. She's the 4th youngest child in a family of 12, who share a space with 3 other similarly sized families. All 4 of these families together crew a large merchant vessel, their own take on the call to journey that is core to Caravan culture. This does mean, however, that they often have to make shore leave to attend **K**yokan no Izumi at the winter solstice festivals. Heads of family annually rotated taking responsibility for the ship during festival time. It was one such shore leave that Zeke's life changed forever.

The fox always had a penchant for being getting into trouble. She always felt legitimately bad about it afterwards, but there was just a near constant curiousity, wanderlust and drive for freedom that often put her in the wrong place at the right time. And so from childhood, the pattern began. End up somewhere she shouldn't be, cause some mischief, get scolded or disciplined, repeat ad infinitum. Such was the headache of Zeke's parents.

At 11 years of age, Zeke's parents and three oldest siblings were assigned to guard the vessel, as the rest of the family joined the others on the trek to the kitsune's famed hot-springs. It was a relatively calm weather for the first half of the journey, but as the Caravan set up for camp, a set of darker clouds loomed on the horizon. Everyone began to buckle down the supplies to weather the storm, but it was the perfect time for a child to wander away from camp unsupervised. A small stream wound near the campsite, and Zeke had seen a fish swim along freely beneath the thin layer of ice. It made her wonder where the fish had come from, and figured it had to be somewhere warmer. And so she bundled up in her coat, searched some trees nearby for a good walking stick, and traveled upstream for awhile to see where it was going.

But the stream kept moving along, and along, and she didn't see any more fish inside no matter how many times she poked the surface. So she kept traveling along, and along. Eventually, it started getting late, and Zeke was getting hungry. All this talk of fish and warm places, and she'd found neither. But as she turned back around, a single snowflake fluttered down from the dark sky above. It had spun, twirled and twisted it's way across the sky to alight gently on Zeke's nose. She giggled a moment, and brushed it off as the cold water started to melt. But then a few more joined into the fun, swinging down onto the ground around her as the wind started to pick up.

It was at this point that Zeke realized that she'd done bad again. She could hear her parents calling off in the distance, demanding that she come back this instant. How long had they been calling?

"*I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm coming!*" Zeke said hurriedly as she picked up her frost tipped stick, bundled her coat and started hurrying her way back home.

Her parents, however, weren't just beyond the treeline calling out. Nor the treeline after that. No, it wouldn't be for yet another half hour that her relatives counted heads from the safety of tents and wagons pitched to stave off the winds. Candlelit storytellers told the tail of the first journey across the Tolreiya's norther tundras. Zeke loved all sorts of stories, and would always pipe up to swoon or react to the orators every whim. It was her 'Uncle Rikki' who realized first that the audience was missing it's most proactive voice. He looked around the faces of his tent, and didn't see Zeke's. He stepped out into the fresh snow and biting winds to crunch his way to the wagon, and other tents. Each took a headcount, and found no overeager 11 year old among them. Uncle Rikki's heart dropped.

Zeke was getting colder, and her furrowed brow hid behind snow covered bangs. Her walking stick abandoned some hundred feet or more backwards, she busied her hands how around her chest to pull her coat as close to herself as possible. She stumbled against a wind pushing against her every tiny step. Her nose ran, her finger hurt, and she was having trouble keeping her tail up and out of the snow. It didn't wobble and wag like it usually did but instead hung stiffly behind her, dragging a line across her tracks and gathering flakes along it's bushy length. She could swear that the camp was just behind the next set of rocks. She was just going to take a rest for a moment, and rub her legs so that they could keep moving. The felt like she was pulling up tree stumps, and the thought brought her some little warmth as she imagined herself a tree person, walking into the deadly winter storm without a bother. The trees always came out fine, no snow ever bothered them. She plopped down onto the ground with an audible crunch, and began running straight fingers up and down her long socks. They felt numb, but she always saw others do it to stay warm, so it was helping. She just really needed to get warm, and then she could walk the rest of the way home, and then mom and dad would get upset with her. The Sun always could stay warm, how did it do that? I was always so quiet, and warm, and bright and happy - even when she got sunburns. Zeke wished she could be like the Sun. And so Zeke pretended that she *was* the Sun, so bright and warm. She kept running her fingers down her socks until she couldn't feel them anymore. Her eyes were getting tired, but she kept them open to see the tiny lights in the distance. Like stars, Zeke remembered that people were probably looking for her. The tiny fires must all be their torches. She gave out a yawn as she kept pretending to be the Sun. They'd come and find her here then, she didn't need to keep walking. That was good, because she was getting really tired all of a sudden. Like she'd run around all day and it was time to tuck into bed. She rested her eyes on her knees, and watched all the tiny torches flicker by the trees though her eyelashes. She was quiet, and she couldn't feel the cold anymore, and she was tired.

Just...

like...

the Sun....

The search parties called the girls name into an unrelenting wind, their cries muffled to barely reach father than they could see. They couldn't use torches, and the few sages among then did what they could with light cantrips. The blizzard blew for hours on end, and they had no direction to go, no prints to follow. The Caravaners had searched as valiantly as they could in the storm, but ultimately had to pull back in empty-handed. No one told any other stories that evening.

Finally, the morning came. The Sun crept over the horizon, banishing a low morning fog that had settled after the weather had calm down. By it's light, a morose group picked up their search while others took down the camp. They expected to find a frozen body of a young girl, her red coat buried in a mound of snow. Zeke's body turned up about a mile north of the camp. Shouts sounded to other kitsune, that Zeke'd been found. In a small copse of trees, just on the other side of a rocky hill of boulders, a tiny kitsune lay curled up in a ball. The tips of the pines around her appeared scorched and dark, like something had ignited their tips and boiled the sap. ten feet around her was completely absent of snow, and the ground felt soft and moist to step on. They hurriedly checked on the kitsune, and found a feint pulse. Sparing no time, they took the stiff, unconscious girl back to camp.

Zeke's body looked worse for wear, like she'd gone with little to no food for months. Her emaciated body was wrapped with blankets, and heated stones tucked in her socks, but she didn't wake up. Nor was she able to eat food or drink. They loaded the tense body in the back of a wagon, and made haste to continue their journey—as the sooner they could reach the rest of their peoples, the sooner they could seek medical attention for the child.

Luckily, the next days heralded no similar storms. Each morning, the sun rose up into the sky. The same as the Sun always did. And each afternoon, it's bright warm rays shone down on Zeke, bundled up like an egg. Three days later, just before the party arrived at their destination, a sound was heard from the back of the wagon. It was a little girls yawn. To the astonishment of all present, Zeke had awoken from their sleep. Not only that, but their apparent starvation had vanished. They tried talking to her in her tired state, but she didn't seem particularly responsive. A few relieved hugs later, and Zeke finally spoke up for the first time since taking a simple nap in the storm.

"*Why is everything so quiet?*" Zeke wondered. Family-folk tried to assure her that they were more than overjoyed at her recovery, and that she was found lost in nearby the stream and that she shouldn't have wandered off. "*Why are you just moving your mouth like that*?" Zeke was chided to not play games, and no one thought the better of her questions. They asked what could have possessed her to leave in the middle of setting up camp without a sibling or someone to watch out for her, as the concerned scolding continued unabated now that the child was clearly out of harms way.

*"But why is no one saying anything?"*

A real stillness fell over the group. Zeke, it appeared, had become deaf. They took her be inspected by their peoples wise-men and oracles, as many kitsune had already arrived in **Kyokan no Izumi** and more were still on their way. No cure for the child's issue could be found, and the oracles noted that it could be tied to the circumstances of her discovery. Burnt tree branches, melted snow. Such were not things of nature, but of magic. And not all magic came without a price. Though Zeke now manifested a connection to the Sun, in all it's bright glowing warmth— she likewise inherited it's silence in the sky. The last sounds she remembers are that of howling winds, and cold fingers sliding against each-other for heat.

It took many years to 'catch back up' to where she left off. Zeke had always been, and would always be a tenacious firebrand. And her curiousity and boundless enthusiasm could never truly be satiated. Working with a chalkboard, she was able to communicate with others until she learned how to sign. And after she learned how to sign, she set to work learning how to read lips. Many an awkward practice conversation was had over the remaining years as she grew up, though the misreadings grew less common with age. Her own voice matured, and she stubbornly held onto speech where she could. Though puberty changed her voice, without hearing the feedback of others she still continued to pronounce words longer, and gave vowels more emphasis as a child would. It became more pronounced when she learned to read lips, as she began to carefully monitor each and ever motion she made as she spoke, clearly speaking each syllable and sound with precision as she practiced in her own reflection. Now, she manages well enough that some don't realize she's deaf in a 1 to 1 conversation, though given enough time it always becomes apparent sooner or later, be it a turned head or the way she stares more at ones lips than their eyes.

Now, fiercely independent, Zeke has struck off on her own journey through the world—much to her families concern. But she's well practiced, and knows the inns and outs of survival both in the wild, in the city, and at sea. If anything, she's become slightly more dedicated to learning and growing, her curiousity evolving from a drawback to a destination. Still looking for new and novel experiences, she's grown capable of not only taking care of herself, but others as well.

## Appearance

Zeke wears the same thing to most places she goes. It can be the cold winters of Jarnburg, or the harsh sands of the Rimalharu desert. Light vest revealing her back, thigh high socks and long boots, skirt n' spats, a long glove and a loose arm sleeve. Is it practical? no, but it's because it feels fun. Also, because of her connection to the sun, not much more is needed. She's become incredible resistant to the cold, relying on a reservoir of internal heat. And in the Sun? Well, that's just her element. Zeke actually no longer requires food nor drink, so long as she can absorb some of that sweet, beautiful sunshine every day. Inside of her is what feels like a miniature Sun of her own, which she uses to fuel not only her own natural enhancements, but also channels into bright magics and fiery sorceries.

It's not uncommon at present either to see Zeke spot rainbow or pink hair, courtesy of fellow kitsune chosen "Yuki Solvei." It could mean that they've recently hung out or gotten together, but seeing as the effects can last sometimes up to a month or more—the makeover just means that if Zeke ever changes form into a body of light, that a streamer of rainbows follows in her wake. Much to her own thorough enjoyment.

## Personality

Zeke strives to be sensitive to others, whether it's a small gnome who gets wound up when people call her cute or otherwise diminuatize her, or else a bear that just wants lots of hugs. Zeke is honestly, hard to get down. That's not to say that she's only ever happy—like any healthy individual, she still exhibits a full range of emotions. But she IS resiliently optimistic in the best of times, and tries to keep her own worries to a minimum if they'd get in the way. That said, she still does worry often about the safety of her friends, or other social implications most of all, as she'd hate to disappoint anyone.

## Friends

Yuki! Out of any other Chosen she's ever met, Yuki's been a fast friendship. A sails to her riggings, meeting someone like Yuki is exactly one of the reasons she struck out to see the world in the first place. They initially bonded over their mutual though different skills with light based magics, and then over the wonders of sailing in the sky, and since then; Zeke'd do anything to help or protect Yuki if she'd ask for it.

Grundinnar: Sure, Grundinnar is a bear, and Ulysses is a person... but Grun is a BEAR! And he's such a cute bear, yes he is! He deserves a big ol' hug now, and a skritchy scratch along his chin.

Dot: A fellow heard of hearing, they've not spoken a lot. That said, though they only met the one at the beach for a "Chosen Only" event, Zeke could understand some of what Dot was going through. They talked for a time on a few topics, and Zeke will likely take up Dots offer to visit sometime soon.

Schrodinger: Her dog that isn't, Schrodinger has saved her (and other adventurers life) at least two times. That is as much as they can confirm right now, but nonetheless - the dog itself is a beacon to many powers some might deem... unnatural. At least it's always there for a chin-scratch, even when it's not.

## Foes

Any serious case of the Blahs.

Tyranny

Ketchup