Post by Kate Minola on Apr 23, 2015 19:17:49 GMT
(art by me)
Name: Katherine "Kate" Minola
Age: 23
Date of Birth: October 3rd
Birthplace: Athens, Greece but grew up in and around Virginia, USA
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual but tends towards men. Probably. She's very subtle. And awkward.
Face Claim: Original Art
Appearance: What you see is what you get. Kate is fairly tall and chubby with lots of curves. Her librarian-style glasses have corrective lenses. She rarely wears any make-up other than moisturizing and sun-block foundation, preferring dark and natural colors whenever she does. Her manner of dress is generally sensible, practical and impeccably stylish but she knows when it's time to dress up for an occasion or get down for nitty-gritty workout. She could maintain a dignified appearance even when covered up to her ears in mud.
Height: 5' 8"
Distinguishing Features: Pierced ears, extra piercing on right ear, all three are simple rings in black and silver.
Wears a lot of hand-made jewelry and knitted scarves.
Always carries a bag, either a tattered messenger bag with a collection of buttons, or a hand-made knitted purse with leather strap.
Class: Persona User
Arcana: The High Priestess
Occupation: Freelance artist and writer - Librarian for a local library in Shinjuku
Starting Equipment: Training bow and quiver of arrows (Pierce) (Lvl 1)
Kate is remarkably handy with a bow thanks to years of practicing the sport, hindered only by the quality of her equipment. She might rankle the sentiments of native kyudo archers who take their art very seriously because of her practical and no-nonsense approach to the sport. In fact, in an actual combat situation, she'll fight as dirty as she needs to, including making her own incendiary or poison-tipped arrows if she needs to. She prefers a modern, composite recurve bow type for power, speed and accuracy over distance as well as ease of use while mobile.
Personality: For all intents and purposes, Kate is a well-adjusted and fairly friendly individual. She's gotten through life nicely so far without having to prove anything to anyone and intends to keep it that way.
Kate is calm, well-mannered and has a very practical mind with a capacity for thinking ahead. She tends to keep her head on when others don't, even in weird situations - consequently, she's taken the whole Dark Hour and Personas thing in her stride. She pairs her practical approach with a high degree of tenacity. Once she gets something on her mind, it's not going away any time soon. She's kind enough, but no girl-scout. She offers help when asked and on good days, if she thinks someone needs it but won't get pushy about it.
She's very clever and when she needs to be, well-spoken even though her Japanese still leaves something to be desired. She's generally a rather quiet person, though. Kate learns quickly, especially if she's interested and is tremendously patient, especially with other people but her patience has an upper limit and beyond that is a decidedly Mediterranean temper and a refusal to take any bullshit from anybody. She also tends to curse a lot, usually in English or Greek. Above all, Kate detests arrogance. She can comprehend pride in one's abilities, but heavy-handed arrogance brings out the worst in her.
Very opinionated and unafraid to express it, she doesn't hesitate to speak out when she's irritated. She'll often act upon her ideals, sometimes even physically. And make no mistake, Kate has no problem getting a little rough. Get on her good side (it isn't hard), behave like a sensible human being and she'll be your best friend and just about bend over backwards for you. Get on her bad side, act like a moron, though, and she'll crush you and leave you in her dust.
She handles criticism well but does not take well to people insulting her or acting like they're soooo very superior. Most situations that irritate her bring out her innate snark and sarcasm and she's not afraid to sass someone giving her lip. Of course, she knows when to keep her mouth shut but her blunt comments often come out of nowhere.
It might take a while to get past her grumpy realism and her clumsy social skills, but anyone who persists will find out she's a lot like a panda: Cute, goofy, fluffy and sweet... but still a bear.
Kate is highly valued at the library she works at for her amazing memory about books and she has an almost supernatural ability to find where a specific book is when everyone else is lost. Of course, this is all just because she pays attention to her work and has a knack for knowing what people do with the books they read. She's also good at book suggestions even though her own personal reading choices sometimes baffle others.
Kate has certain problems dealing with others in an informal setting, as she was never the most social person and is quite the introvert. She's terrible at small-talk, gets carried away with subjects she can talk about and has trouble reading certain social situations. This makes her a bit of a loner as she has trouble making social contacts, especially in a whole new country with a drastically different language.
On the other hand, she's incredibly chill about issues like sexuality and gender. She won't judge almost anything that's legal, sane and consenting, but she herself is a bit on the subtle and picky side. She's had a fair share of one-night-stands and friends with benefits plus one disastrous little relationship that she'd rather not elaborate on. Whether she's ready for another relationship is left to be seen.
Like any good artist, Kate has a lot of insecurities about her craft; she feels a bit stunted as an artist (especially compared to the local talent) and to her dismay, hasn't written anything she's happy with in six months. And that's a lot of time, for her taste. She's so worried about this that it's making her lose control on her habit of nervous eating.
Her imagination sometimes runs away with her and she is prone to daydreaming about art projects and plots for stories she wants to write. Despite how well-adjusted she is, Kate's not entirely pleased with life and the world and 'needs' escapism methods such as reading and video games.
She'll probably never admit it, but she's terrified of hospitals due to some unpleasant experiences as a teenager. Even though she recognizes the need to visit doctors on occasion and get tests to ensure her continuing good health, she still hates going to hospital.
Likes:
- Well-cooked food, especially things she makes herself.
- Sweets. She has a weakness for tiramisu.
- Books. Books. Books. Just try and get this girl away from her books.
- Video games. She plays prolifically as part of her need for escape.
- Writing. If there's anything that can truly calm her down, it's a ripping good writing session to keep her up all night.
- Art. This is a funny one. She certainly enjoys her art but at the same time, it's the biggest source of her frustration.
- Archery. Kate's not sure what got her interested in the sport and why she took it up but she enjoys the precision of it and going through the motions of the art.
- Knitting. Her favorite method of relaxing.
Dislikes:
- Spiders. Just spiders. And bugs. And grubs. And anything creepy-crawly.
- Arrogant people. Don't expect her to just take it lying down. Girl ain't got no time for high-horsey tsundere.
- Excessive heat.
- Overcooked vegetables. Keep them away from her.
- Violence. For someone as prone to outbursts as she is, she dislikes mindless violence very much.
- Art. The best and worst part of her life.
- Hospitals. She's still not over her experiences from her adolescence.
In high school, she started having problems. She grew dispirited with the whole cliques thing, and the way a lot of kids treated her due to her size, her art-related eccentricities, her geeky habits and her turn to a punk-inspired style. She fell prey to the passive-agressive bullying of some 'popular girls' and fell afoul with others because of her clumsy social skills. She didn't have many friends and actually got a boyfriend for a bit (the relationship was broken off mutually and left neither party with bad feelings).
Kate dealt with everything in a remarkably calm and patient manner until the start of her her senior year, when someone sabotaged her art portfolio. And by sabotage, we mean theft, serious water damage and losing several art pieces. For all intents and purposes, Kate took this very well and expressed herself by finding out who was behind this and confronting them right as school let out for the day.
And by confronting them, we mean that she asked the 'alpha girl' behind the whole thing to apologize and compensate her for the damages, very politely and calmly; it was of course refused with an almost cliche cruel laugh... so Kate knocked out three of her teeth and broke her nose by smashing her face into the pavement. Several times. In front of much of the school body.
Of course this caused a heap of trouble as the girl's affluent and rich parents sued and tried to get a psychologist to declare Kate nuts. The judge fortunately told everyone to grow up and the matter was settled out of court and Kate was removed from the school.
However, word of her deed traveled round and in her new school people left her well alone. So well, in fact, that she made no friends until graduation - which she was fine with, as she felt betrayed by everyone. Her parents put strict rules on her because of the cost of the whole mess as well as the sense of embarrassment they had over the issue.
Halfway through the year, Kate came down with a bad case of kidney infection that landed her in hospital for nearly 20 days with an IV drip and a harsh course of antibiotics and medications. She was feverish for much of this stay and cranky and panicky the rest of it. She made a nuisance of herself with the medical staff because of her feverish grumblings, night terrors and pain from the IV drip procedure, which had to be re-inserted every other day because of her thin veins. She developed a minor phobia of the hospital at night due to the weird atmosphere she thought it had and dislikes hospitals ever since.
Once she graduated, Kate hightailed it to a university for four years and ended with a degree in English Literature, a lot of unpublished writing and a massive portfolio and nothing really to do. She spent a year with relatives in Greece but wasn't really 'feeling it'. A solution was provided by her dad's brother, a military man stationed in Japan: She could move there and essentially house-sit for him while he was out of the country.
And so Kate found herself in Tokyo, working in a library for money and producing art for indie game developers and doing some light writing. She hoped to break into the sequential comics scene with some original work but her writing had dried up. She took odd art jobs such as indie games and occasionally doing ink-work for manga artists.
In other words, a nice, cozy, if slightly dull routine.
Except a while back she started feeling weird around midnight; ever the insomniac she never slept that early and worked on her art or her writing or sometimes, was playing video games. The city grew dark around then and incredibly quiet. She didn't notice at first. She had dark spells and an increasingly overwhelming urge to pass out and sleep. She thought it was tiredness.
One night, art and writer's block had forced her out of the house when the city went dark. She felt like blacking out. She felt sick and tasted bile in her mouth - the air tasted foul. She almost became a heap on the pavement for someone to stumble over.
She grabbed onto a wall, took a few deep breaths, cleared her head and looked up.
Coffins. Coffins everywhere. Where people had been there stood silent, grim and cold coffins in the nasty, heavy feeling of dread. She didn't feel any urge to touch them or examine them closely. She assumed for a moment that she had indeed passed out and was having a messed up dream. She wandered around for a bit, to find everything had gone silent and still. Nothing really worked but she could hear the clatter of a train somewhere in the distance.
When the monster showed up though, she didn't stand there to inquire into the matter. She ran like hell. She didn't get very far before the thing was on her and her head started to hurt. Then came a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach and a strange, sweet taste in her mouth like someone had given her a drink of clear water.
I am thou...
Thou art I...
Now, if you ask her why she reached out for that glowing, slowly spinning card that came out of nowhere in front of her, Kate couldn't tell you. She also couldn't tell you how she knew it would shatter with the tinkle of glass and scatter into points of light. She also couldn't tell you why this made her feel safe. What she will tell you, though, was that out of the light charged a tall woman in red and black, a woman with a regal poise, wearing a Corinthian helmet and bearing a massive hoplon shield and a spear.
There was a flash of fire and the monster was no more.
Kate got home safe and sound, and after some thinking, she dug up her archery gear and found a facility she could practice in to get back in shape. Something told her she'd need to take her skills to the streets.
So much for routine.
OOC Name: Feebs
Notes:
- She's a pretty talented artist with a flexible style and clean linework and color, specializing in urban and high fantasy themes and a knack for character development and design. She writes the same themes she draws and frequently collaborates with indie game development studios.
- Quite the good cook.
- Don't bring up her punk phase.
- She makes nice things with her knitting and craft skills. If you're nice, she might make you something.
- Pretty bad eyesight that requires she wear glasses all the time.
- Although she's got a license to drive a car in Japan, Kate owns and drives a scooter.
- Trilingual: Speaks fluent English and very good Greek and Japanese although she needs more practice with the latter.
Persona: Antiope
Appearance: artist's interpretation
((art by me))
Persona Lore: In Greek myth, Antiope was an Amazon, daughter of Ares and sister to Melanippe and Hippolyte, queens of the Amazons. She was the wife of the Athenian hero-king, Theseus, and the only Amazon known to have married. During Heracles' ninth labor, the Girdle of Hippolyte, Hercules and Theseus attempted to avoid an all out war with the Amazons through diplomacy. During the talks, Antiope fell in love with Theseus and left Themyskyra with him after the talks failed and the two sides resorted to war. They were eventually married and she gave birth to a son, Hippolytus. The Amazons later attacked Athens to reclaim the girdle and 'rescue' Antiope. She joined her husband in battle and was killed just as the tide of the battle turned in favor of Athens. Antiope was buried with all the honors of a queen in Athens.
Skills: Cleave (500)
Agi (500)
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Resist - Fire
Weak - Ice
