 Art by Kris | . . . . Physical Information Species — Human. Race — Cizokian/Oriental. Sex — ♀ Skin color — Fair. Eye color — Blue-violet. Hair color — Purple-is-black. Height — 4'11''. Weight — 101lbs. Visible age — 11-12. True age — 16. Voice — Soprano. Extremely quiet and hushed, however, almost as if she is constantly within a church and library and is afraid of speaking too loudly. . . . . Personae Name — Mayako Takamine. Status — Alive. Birthplace — (Former) Imperial City, Cizok. Nationality — Cizokian. Demeanor — Due to her best friend Sarah, Mayako is sociable by proxy. In truth, she was extremely bashful--even when she is brought out to a social gathering, she refrains from speaking rarely enough that she does not accumulate many close friends. Her anxiety comes from self-consciousness, however; she fears saying the wrong thing so often that she says nothing at all, only smiles nervously and shies away from eye contact. More often than not, she sees the worst in herself, playing upon selfishness more than anything else--in general, she sees herself as a selfish being and loathes herself and natural reactions because of it. When pursuing a boy that she has feelings, for example, she holds herself back out of self loathing, constantly referring to herself as selfish and cruel, though she is truthfully the exact opposite. One of Mayako's prominent hobbies is reading. In particular, religious texts. She has a great interest in religion (likely due to her father being a priest of Saqin), though has never expressed interest in the spiritual or truly religious aspects of her reading. Mayako's interest could easily be concluded as sociological entertainment; because of her age and subtle |
Mayako can, however, be pushed into making rash decisions without guilt or afterthought, provided the right level of stress. Such is the point in which she emotionally snaps and reacts violently in some way or the other--usually through crying or screaming, but if physically antagonist by someone when in such a condition, may physically lash out at them.
. . . . History
Mayako Takamine was born to Harama and Maya Takamine in the former Imperial City, fifteen years before its inevitable collapse. Due to religious differences between her father, Harama, and the doctrine of free religion in Cizok--none of which recognized his religious values--they left the large Imperial City. Mayako was only an infant at the time. They settled in a small Algerothian village, and Harama founded their first church of Saqin.
Mayako grew up in this village under the thumb of a man who loved his religion more than his family. It was only at the call of others her age that Mayako was ever permitted outside, though her father was strict about her social interactivity (to the point of forbidding her to talk about certain subjects), Mayako took every opportunity she could to get out of her house--always at the behest of a girl her age by the name of Sarah. As a girl, Mayako played with Sarah and her friend Eldridge Tsukimono; Sarah being the one responsible for getting both of them out of the house. More often than not, Remington, Sarah's older brother, hung around them--he was only six years older than them; he often had to babysit his sisters, anyways.
When she was not with Sarah (and Eld by proxy), she was at home reading. Her father restricted the literature she was permitted to read, however, explaining her interest in religious philosophy--this was the only study she was permitted to undertake.
Terribly shy by nature, Mayako rarely spoke in social gatherings, even when asked to. Since maturing, though, her willingness to talk increased dramatically, though her anxiety never did. Over time, she developed a crush on Eldridge, but constantly suppressed it out of fear that he'd reject her.
By the time Mayako turned sixteen, their village was attacked and taken control of by a organized group of traveling bandits. The farming village was forced to produce food for their captors, and many civilians were forced out of their residences to give the bandits lodging. By force of will, many civilians took up arms and fought the bandits off, until inevitably expelling them from their village. In the process, Remington was killed. Now forced to balance her emotions with decency, Mayako condemns most any action (committed by herself) with romantic interest in mind as selfish, and tries to be strong for the sake of her friends, in spite of her meek, socially backward tendencies.
Much happened following the invasion, however. Eld discovered the destiny he'd built for himself to save the lives of the rest of the village: becoming a Reaper. Another Reaper by the name of Etsu Hikane tracked Eld down to Hillcrest to watch over and prevent him from becoming an enemy to all Reapers during the time in which he became accustomed to his powers--and much to Mayako's displeasure, Eld fell in love with Etsu. Mayako and Sarah--inadvertent rivals for Eld's affections--were both put off by this for some time, but forcibly got over it due to the conditions that Eld was to permanently leave the village in less than months. Mayako briefly considered suicide to join the Reapers with Eld, but quickly rethought the idea.
They'd many troubles in the village during Eld's last months in Hillcrest, including an issue with a man known as the Law, a psychopathic serial murderer whose victims were all legal miscreants, regardless of whether they committed major or minor crimes. The ordeal left them believing the Law to be dead, but in the process, Sarah lost her current and most stable boyfriend of the time, a young man named Noah Herst.
It wasn't long after Eld and Etsu left for good that Sarah and Emma's father suffered a fatal heart attack. Mayako tried to keep Sarah in perspective, and though she felt like Sarah understood how necessary it was for Emma that she try to keep a level head, Sarah wandered off one day and never returned.
In Sarah, Noah, Eld, and Etsu's absence, the Law made a surprise return to Hillcrest. There, he ransacked the village with newfound madness. It was up to Davis, Emma's boyfriend of the time, to put a stop to him, but Davis was much later to act than Eld or others would have been.
During the Law's rampages, Mayako lost both of her parents. This devastating blow resulted in her staying with Eld's parents, Rebbecca and Urikuse Tsukimono.
There, Mayako busied herself to near death. Emma, who lost her boyfriend Davis--the last person she had left, next to Mayako--was kept within the clinic shortly thereafter, on a constant suicide watch. The Law had mutilated one side of her face before Davis defeated and disappeared with the Law, and the trauma left Emma both emotionally and physically scarred. Mayako spent close to fifteen hours a day simply doing clinic work and helping the Tsukimonos any way she could, all as a means of keeping her mind distant from her troubles.
But when a coma patient by the name of Fenix Black awoke, everything changed. Mayako took it upon herself to assist Fenix in his recovery from a six month long coma. On one day outside with Fenix, she encountered a man by the name of Garv, who at first seemed creepily interested in her, but quickly turned pseudo-violent. He was chased off by Fenix--though Mayako later learned, when she found Garv drunk and emotional in the ruins of her family's church, that Garv simply recognized Fenix as his son. Mayako promised not to tell Fenix of this if Garv left town the next morning--and he did just that.
Fenix was placed in the same room as Emma, and the degradation of Emma's sanity became quite evident. She disappeared one day, prompting an entire day's worth of searching. Until this point, she had become increasingly verbally violent and irritable. All emotional recovery reversed. By the time they found her, she'd already begun to burn old buildings in Hillcrest down, stating that the town was a breeding ground for lunatics and she'd every intentions of ridding the world of it. Emma beat Fenix and Mayako to a pulp with her deceased brother's wooden sword, but when she dropped it, Mayako took it and--in a brief fury--hit Emma across the face with it, effectively ending the girl's stint of violent madness. As search parties found them, Mayako cursed Fenix and Emma both for their behavior.
Fenix took responsibility for the buildings burned, and even staged a fake villain's monologue to back it up. The next morning, Emma helped Fenix break out of village custody and prepared to leave the village with him. Mayako caught up with them, and after failing to convince Emma to say, Mayako decided she couldn't let Emma go out into the world as is, and followed her and Fenix into Galaens--where she met them again and convinced them to let her join their travels.
. . . . Contacts
Eldridge Tsukimono — Friend; crush. ". . . I'm not angry with him . . ."
Sarah Vaerbond — (Former) Best friend. "I thought we had everything worked out, but then . . . she left . . . she left Emma and me both."
Remmy Vaerbond — Former crush; surrogate brother. Deceased. ". . . I miss Remmy. I think we all do . . . It's never going to be the same without him."
Emma Vaerbond — Best friend. "Emma is unwell. She can't go out alone, and I won't let her get herself hurt. I'll stay by her side until she's well, then I am taking her back home!"
Etsu Hikane — Close friend. "I-- I really do appreciate her. I really do! It's just that . . . I can't help but hate her sometimes. For taking Eld away. None of this would've happened if they stayed . . ."
Fenix Black — Acquaintance. "H-he's . . . he's nice. He k-kind of reminds me of someone, though . . ."
. . . . Talents
Unknown — It has been alluded that Mayako has some brand of supernatural power, somehow relevant to the ambitions of a man named Theleaus. Neither Mayako nor her friends know what this means.
. . . . Statistical Analysis
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