Cathak Hikari
Cathak Hikari
"Sure, I'll get married eventually, but for now lets go have some fun!"
"Sure, I'll get married eventually, but for now lets go have some fun!"
Alias: the Fire Dancer
Age: 22
Gender: female
Sexuality: bisexual
Hair: Red
Eyes: brown to amber (depending on essence expenditure)
Build: 5'3" and 125lbs of pleasant curves concealing surprising muscle
Clothing types: cotton or silk kimonos are typical, often with long flowing sleeves or other ribbons or ropes that trail behind her movements
General Appearance: Charisma 4, Manipulation 2, Appearance 5
- Hikari is a radiantly beautiful young woman whose Dragon-Blooded heritage is impossible to miss. Her flame-red hair seems to shimmer like actual fire as she moves. Her pale skin is flushed with red and extremely warm to the touch. Her eyes, windows to the soul, change color as she spends essence. Normally they're a reddish-brown - barely burning embers - when she expends essence and stokes the fire within, her eyes will shift to the vivid orange-yellow of hot flame.
- Hikari largely seems to have stopped aging already; most who don't know her would guess her at being somewhere around twenty (which is not far off, in truth). She is not particularly tall, but that suits her just fine. What she lacks in size she makes up for in speed and energy. Her body is quite pleasantly curved. The matrons of her family observe that she "has good hips" while men in her vicinity find it hard to tear their eyes from her generous bust. She's muscled like a dancer, gymnist, and martial artist (because she is all these things) and has very little body fat that isn't required to create her curves.
- Hikari likes to dress up, preferring kimonos and other similar garments. These are usually accessorized with long flowing sleeves, ribbons, sashes, or rope belts that trail behind her movements. She wears little or no makeup, the natural flush of her skin substitutes for blush, and she doesn't much need the rest anyway. She eschews most jewelry aside from an occasional hair ornament, though she does wear a pair of bracers and matching anklets pretty frequently (those with a little Occult or Lore will probably note that these appear to be Discrete Essence Armor). When armed, she wields a pair of short daiklaves; custom built for her own use, the pair are not quite matched. Dancing Ember incorporates an elemental lens into the pommel whereas Flickering Spark instead has a hearthstone socket.
Distinguishing Features:
- As a Fire Aspect of excellent breeding, Hikari sports flame red hair. Her eyes range from a light brown when she's at rest (or as close to rest as she ever gets) to amber yellow when she expends lots of essence. Her skin is always very warm to the touch and is often flushed with rosy color.
Habits & Quirks:
- Hikari seems unable to completely stop moving, she even fidgets in her sleep (this was a major focus of her training at the Cloister).
- Hikari is constantly wary of flammable substances in her vicinity; she's inadvertently set too many fires not to be hyper-aware.
Hobbies: Dancing! Katas! Reading! (Yes, reading!)
Magics:
- A Fire Aspect, Hikari is quite capable of setting herself and her surroundings ablaze with her anima banner alone.
- Hikari is a student of Fire Dragon Style and is thus capable of enhancing strikes, blocks, and other maneuvers by channeling the essence of fire through her movements. These techniques allow her to avoid the attacks of others more easily, increase her own accuracy, inflict painful burning wounds, and even breathe fire.
Complete Personality Exploration:
- Hikari is currently making up for lost time. She spent seven years in the Cloister of Wisdom and living with the restrictions of being a monk. Now that she's out, she's got a lot of partying to work out of her system. She knows she can't keep it up forever. Eventually her family is going to demand that she marry and have some kids (for the good of the Realm, of course), but she's hoping to have worked this out of her system by then. If not? Well, she can only hope that whatever husband she is set up with can keep up.
- Energetic in the extreme, Hikari will still be going strong when others are losing their second wind. She sleeps only because it is a biological requirement (and can't seem to keep still even then; she's notorious for kicking her bedmates in her sleep or winding up on the floor when she wakes up). She's simultaneously a morning person and a night owl.
- Despite her party-girl demeanor, she's actually quite well-read. She took the chance at the Cloister to study up on a number of topics. Though she lacks the depth of knowledge someone who went to one of the other schools might have, she's at least able to keep up and even participate when a number of academic topics are discussed around her.
Connections of Importance:
- Hikari is the granddaughter of Cathak Cainin himself. She has only a remote relationship with the patriarch of her house, though she did impress him with her desire to attend the Cloister of Wisdom over other secondary schooling options.
- Hikari's mother, Isul, is a prominent general in the Cathak legions. On the whole, she has little to complain about with regard to her daughter, but the two aren't any closer than the average Dynast mother-daughter pair. Isul is notable for having produced five children, of which four have Exalted so far. The youngest is aged barely ten and is expected to Exalt within the next two to four years. She is married to fellow Fire Aspect Ledaal Varyn.
Occupation: undecided - Hikari wants to live a little before settling down into a long term career
Fighting Style/Weapon(s) of Choice: Fire Dragon Style - paired short daiklaves (Dancing Ember and Flickering Spark) Hikari prefers to avoid physical combat if at all possible. If it comes to blows, she'll try to finish things as fast as she can.
History:
- Hikari grew up as many other children in the Realm did, hoping that one day they would join the illustrious ranks of the Dragonblooded Host. Her parents were, fortunately for her, both Exalted themselves and so it was that she joined them in her ninth year. Exaltation as a Fire Aspect turned an energetic little girl into a teen-aged dynamo. She went everywhere she could, she was out partying with her friends all the time - it hardly seemed like she even slept.
- When confronted with the choices for secondary schooling, her parents wanted to send her to the House of Bells - it would seem best suited to her active lifestyle and the tendencies of her aspect. She considered this and its implications and then submitted a counter-proposal. She would go to the Cloister of Wisdom - though she promised that she would not, then, dedicate herself to the life of a monk. Her parents were confused. She'd never been an especially pious girl before, why the Cloister of Wisdom? Her answer as simple: She wanted to dance. Doing that would require a greater mastery of her body than she was likely to get at the House of Bells. She also didn't really think she had it in herself to be a soldier.
- It turned out that being a monk was harder than she expected. Early on, cutting her hair off had been the hardest part. Later on the celibacy was the hardest part. She had, after all, been partying with other teenage Dragonbloods since her Exaltation.
- It was a trial, her masters informed her. She must master her body, and that wasn't limited to just moving it as she wanted, but also suppressing its urges. She tried, she really did. She tried and failed. During her seven year stint at the Cloister she became the most notorious repeat offender of the celibacy vow in attendance. Her typical workload of chores was half again as large as any other students and was occasionally doubled.
- Aside from that, her masters could find nothing to complain about. She was bright, she learned quickly, she was graceful in moving through her katas and sought out masters to teach her things beyond just the martial arts. She picked up a bit of math, history, language, and geography; dabbling in each but not really mastering any to the extent that she might at a different school. During her rare spare time, she danced, augmenting her performances with the katas she'd learned and creative flares of her anima banner.
- She left the Cloister after the standard seven years, much to the relief of most of the instructors and the consternation of a good chunk of the student body. She let her hair grow back, partied like she hadn't in the better part of a decade, and then sat down to try and figure out what to do next. Her parents were likely to try to get her married before too long. Perhaps a few years of travel were in order first.
