Mao Nakiri

Name: Mao Nakiri
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown/Appears between teens and 20’s due to her height
Birthday: 10/29
Sexuality: Straight probably
Special Characteristics: Nothing she considers particularly special. Everything feels and seems normal enough.

Personality:

“An Observer” best describes Mao, always trying to stay on the outside of whatever’s going on and yet often flocking towards a scene or event. It doesn’t matter what it is – from a mere child crying to a large-scale fight breakout – the odd woman wants to watch all the events unfold from start to finish and then analyze everything. What started it? What could have gone differently? Why did they do what they did? Sometimes it leaves one to wonder if she fully grasps emotions as Mao is rarely certain how she feels about something, if at all. While at first it didn’t matter what she felt towards these mini-observations, over time opinion has slipped in here and there. Nothing too large, like hoping someone distressed over an important object might find it later, or that a sad child might cheer up later because out of all the emotions witnessed joy and happiness seem like the best…maybe… Someday she’d like to truly understand what it means to “sympathize” with someone because currently it feels as though there’s a wall between her and everyone else, one that’s hard to scale right now.

While curt on occasion – usually if someone interrupts her reading or is being impolite – Mao tries to speak politely to people. For as polite as she is however, the girl can be quite blunt and horribly honest as the idea of “white lies” never really clicked with her. Dealing with other people as a whole reveals how bad she can be with human interactions, and she’s claimed many a time that people are very, “complex.” The various intricacies fascinate her into asking many questions that have left some flabbergasted at her naiveté. Compared to people though the company of animals is always and often appreciated. The chance to cuddle a canine or feline, and amusingly some scaly creatures if they prove friendly enough, almost finds the girl in an uncharacteristically soft and happy mood compared to that usual detached state.

Mao’s really not the leadership type, preferring to defer such responsibility to someone else – especially someone more willing or suited. If anything, she likes to see how others take to the role and how their style may differ from someone else’s. She will work to execute her orders to the best of her ability, knowing that others might be relying on her success for their subsequent task. That isn’t to say she follows orders blindly, willing to point out potential downfalls or holes in the idea so they can be amended, but overall prefers to receive orders rather than dish them out. The notion of being a leader leaves her with an uncomfortable feeling though, as if it were a role she wasn’t born for compared to others.

In combat there’s little difference in Mao’s overall temperament outside maybe a more concentrated expression compared to the usual aloof one and moving faster than her more lackadaisical/distracted pace. Her attention does tend to focus on the task at hand however, compared to her normal attention floating from one thing to the next. Dazed eyes become sharp as they follow their target: waiting, watching for anything and everything the person or beast might reveal. One-on-one she might try to lead her foe into a trap or false sense of security while in a group situation the woman prefers to keep her distance until the time is just right. Overall she isn’t gung-ho about the activity, doing so more out of necessity than desire.

Likes:

• Reading: Books and places filled with them – libraries, stores, magazine stands, and so on – are the best places to look for a lost Mao. From history and biographies to fiction and magazines full of propaganda (and undoubted BS) the girl’s attention becomes almost immediately enraptured with whatever the story or article. Despite how often she’ll poor through various informational texts and history books, Mao prefers fiction as a whole as she claims it doesn’t offer as much “pressure” as the “Life Books” and goes so far as to envy the characters for reasons she can’t describe.
  
  
• Pillows: If life could be spent in a pile of pillows with a stack of books, Mao could probably die happy. There’s just something about the cushiony softness of a large pillow or stack of them that acts like a siren’s song to the small mage. Trying to pry her from a corner of her two favorite objects results in the heathen receiving the most severe and disapproving of looks (it’s just about as close to a glare as Mao gets). The girl even totes a large pillow stored in a small container that goes on any overnight trip…and often times to the nearby library.
  
  
• Rainy/Cloudy Days: So long as she’s inside at any rate, because a wet tail is rather annoying, Mao enjoys when the sun takes a vacation. Such days make staying inside all the cozier and are great ones to sleep in late. However, even though she won’t admit it, Mao does still enjoy the occasional nap in the shade on warm days: she’s just not fond of too much heat.
  
  
• Animals: Less difficult to comprehend than people, their furry or scaly hides prove comforting to the creature-featured girl. Most animals are described as “cute” or “adorable” as her go-to words, be it cat, lizard, or a large and carnivorous beast. While insects aren’t a favorite (not like most can be “cuddled” anyhow), she remains neutral towards most of them.
  

Dislikes:

• Spiders: They could almost be a fear if not for her immediate response of squishing them. Their very presence is offensive to the usually impassive Mao, and due to an annoying incident in her past the nearest object becomes a weapon of murder – generally something that belongs to someone else as instinct dictates she not dirty her things. She’s even gone so far as to use someone else’s hand rather than a nearby newspaper she was reading.
  
  
• Fate/Destiny/”Purpose:” The notion that something was doomed to happen regardless of efforts or wishes greatly annoys her. Why should everything be spelled out already? Why can one not throw a wrench into things? If everything’s predetermined, why the bother? Granted Mao cannot adequately explain her dislike of such notions, but she prefers the idea that despite such things one may overcome them if their will is strong enough. It’s probably one of the few things that actually rile her up to-date.
  
  
• Hot Weather: Warm weather is okay, bright and sunny weather is even bearable, but overly hot? Sweating in the shade? Going to a desert type hot? Then Mao’s not going and that’s final, she’ll glue herself to a corner full of comforting pillows and cool temperature if she must to avoid that unwanted trip. How people can stand such things she’ll never understand since cooling off seems a lot harder than warming up.
  
  
• Being Mistaken for a Child: While it happens once in a while, it never ceases to irk her enough to be a little curt with the person. Mao knows that she’s an adult, so everyone else should simply know this too whether or not they’ve met her, because that’s how she views it simple as that. While she doesn’t normally care about her height, the fact that some people assume her a young teen or tween because of it…is annoying to say the least.
  

Motivations:

• Understanding: Of a lot of things, but more than anything Mao wishes to understand people. Emotions, hopes and dreams, and little oddities that make them tick: she wants to understand what makes each specific person and makes them different from the next. In some ways, one could say she wants to understand herself as well.
  
  
• Learning: It never gets old for her as there’s something new around every corner, under every rock! While most of her time is spent learning from books, Mao also indulges in various life-based experiences such as eating new foods and checking out new places – as long as the weather or timing is right. Meeting new people has become a newer one, the once silent girl trying to speak up more often.
  
  
• Enjoyment of Life: This isn’t to say she doesn’t like it currently, merely that at times the woman feels as though she’s missing out on some things that could really make her enjoy it. Thanks to her natural curiosity she won’t stop looking for these things, whatever they might be, and hopes that someday she might be able to as openly delight in life as more expressive people do.
  

Fears:

• Bees/Wasp: If there’s one thing Mao absolutely cannot stand it’s the ominous sound of a bee or – heaven’s forbid – a wasp’s buzzing. There is no level of reward or convincing that can force her into dealing or even going near those little Hell Spawns, wasps more equivalent to the “Darkest Entities of Any Nether Realm” due to their ability to sting multiple times. Sometimes the fear is bad enough she’ll make haste from the vicinity over the loud buzzing of flies because one of those little evil things might be hiding somewhere…out of sight…plotting…lurking…And yet, she still loves honey.
  
  
• The Future: Somewhere in the future exists an event that Mao desires to avoid at all costs. ”It feels like the end of a story…” is how she describes it. It leaves the woman feeling like nothing more than a storybook character whose story will come to an end, and then she’ll forget everything again.
  
  
• Remembering/Forgetting: Mao doesn’t think twice about the large blank spot in her memories. She doesn’t go looking for those memories, and hopes that they don’t come looking for her either. This life after “forgetting” however is starting to feel more and more precious to her, and even if it hasn’t been particularly remarkable yet she’s…fond of it. The idea she may forget it someday causes a constriction of her chest that she doesn’t want to analyze too much.
  

General Appearance


Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 110lbs
Hair: A dark shade that flows between black and midnight blue depending on the lighting
Eyes: Pale agate green
Skin Tone: A pale, light tan tone
Appearance:

Spoiler:

Once sporting short hair, Mao’s allowed her bundle of curls to grow out so slightly longer waves to make it a little easier to deal with in the mornings. Layered, most of it fails to reach her shoulders as it cascades down, mostly the long strands framing her bangs and the lowest layer achieving such a feat. Bequeathed with some amazing bed-head Mao’s developed the habit of absentmindedly combing a hand through the troublesome locks. Only the fact that it brushes so easily keeps her from returning them to their shorter state. Hidden only slightly behind bangs are green eyes with a hint of an animal nature to them.

Sporting a thin body with only slightly tanned skin, it’s often covered by at least one layer of clothing if not multiple if the weather permits. Out under the sun her head stays beneath a scarf wrapped loosely to protect from the heat as the long, extra ends stretch towards the ground if it’s not substituted with a hooded jacket or shirt. Shirts are often paired with either another shirt, light jacket/vest, or a heavier jacket depending on the weather as she prefers to keep most of her skin covered to some degree. Pants are preferred over shorts and skirts, from leggings to jeans and in-between (the softer the material the better, weather and circumstances permitting). As for her shoes, they tend to be some variety of boots with little to no heal, her favorite being a black pair that she can slip on easily and reach only a few inches above her ankles. As far as her color palette goes, Mao veers towards mixing and matching darker shades of a color and black, mostly sticking to hues of blue yet occasionally opting for green or purple.

Finally, and rather hard to miss, would be her abnormal ears and the fact she owns a tail – though given the variety of Fiore it might seem more normal in the cities than the countryside. Long ears reminiscent of a hare’s or a fox’s ears stretched, they reach almost a foot in length and sit a little above and behind her temples. From her lower-back juts a long tail as long as she is tall, the thing widening until it splits off into three different tips that are able to wriggle independently of one another. It could be said she could “tail flip someone off” though there’s no record of her doing such…no known record. The odd set of limbs are covered in a soft fur, the ears armed with a short and velvety layer while the tail starts short at the base and lengthens to almost an inch-and-a-half at the tail tips. It’s often brushed and kept in excellent condition and probably one of her favorite traits.

Guild/Council

Guild: Sabertooth
Tattoo: Left shoulder blade, indigo
Rank: D

Aproved