Aoi Tenshi

Aoi Niwa Tenshi

She/Her

29

Neurologist

Aether (born)

22nd December

60lbs, give or take

5'10

Black, with an almost dark green hue

Hip-length hair, swept back and tied most of the time

Heterochromatic - her right eye is green, and her left is a slightly burnished gold

Her inked wings, resembling the classic sweeping feathered wings of an angel; when present, one is dark as a moonless sky, the other pristine white except at the very edges, where a dusky brown rim bleeds down into the white for the first row of feathers

Slim, almost delicate

When not working, Aoi favours lengthy dresses, many of which she's modified, patched, or otherwise customised herself. Her work attire is usually very clean, close-cut, and professional however, usually involving either a business suit or scrubs depending on her current tasks.

Diligence is one of Aoi's main virtues - she works hard, nearly to the point of exhaustion, in just about everything she does. When with her mother, she was inquisitive, becoming an absolute knowledge sponge - but reckless too, a fault she grew out of the hard way.

Akiko's influence in her life pushed her towards quietly hard working in her studies - her time with the smuggling group gave her some life-skills but left her behind in her education.

But Aoi was, and is still a knowledge sponge, and caught up quickly - and excelled, finding herself leaning towards medical fields more than anything else, wanting to provide something in the way of healing back to the world, given what Akiko had done for her.

Nowadays she is a busy woman, a specialist with a keen interest in giving people the tools to adapt to their situations. She is polite, extremely patient, generally honest, and professional in her workspace, only really 'relaxing' around people she knows quite well. The rest of the time she feels as if she is under the constant pressure to be a role model - a hard worker who makes tough decisions, and is the person others can rely on.

Inside though, she is a bit of a pressure cooker - she still struggles a bit to blow off steam properly, and keeping the secrecy around her supernatural life puts a strain on her desire to live a bit more freely. It's only recently that Aoi has begun to dismantle her own workaholic nature - and she still has constant relapses with it.

• Animals in general


• Botany


• Large, open spaces


• Night-time, especially the night sky


• Sketching


• Nature, both in terms of landscapes and general


• Seeing others grow to grapple with their own struggles


• Cooking with fresh, foraged ingredients


• Romance, and especially romanticised settings - she's a hopeless romantic, just like Akiko


• Flying


• Singing, especially whilst flying


• Grapes - she loves a lot of fruits and nuts, but grapes especially

• Senseless violence - she's not a pacifist, but overly violent actions upset her


• Disorganisation - Akiko's clean streak rubbed off on her in a way


• Exploitation of vulnerable people, trust, or lenience - personal experience, and Akiko's influence, makes her find these extremely aggravating


• Animal cruelty is a massive sore point for her, and she is rather outspoken when it even remotely comes up


• Too much free time - it makes her feel aimless and lost, and partly led to her workaholism


• Really tight, enclosed spaces - she's somewhat claustrophobic, sending her into a very 'still' sort of panic


• Dancing in front of others - she's utterly terrible at it, so it makes her highly embarrassed


• She tries very hard not to be prejudiced, but Aoi still gets nervous more easily around Phages - at least when she knows they are Phages - because of her childhood

Knowledge Sponge: Aoi collects and understands new knowledge with remarkable proficiency. She has a near-eidetic memory, and is constantly hungry for learning.

Incredibly Focused: Part of how Aoi can be as hard working as she is is due to her ability settle into a sort of 'calm', focusing on her tasks at hand and chipping away at them relentlessly.

Animal Affinity: Most animals seem to be partial to Aoi for unknown reasons, and she to them. It grants her no especial skills, but they are likely to be in better emotional states around her.

Trusting: She's not completely naïve, but she still trusts people way more, and more easily, than she should and it can burn her really hard.

Workaholic: A hard worker can be a good thing, but it can also extend into bad territory as well - Aoi often ends up exhausted, physically and mentally, most days due to her work and personal life. It's also easier to rile her up by messing or insulting her work ethic.

Struggling Self-Esteem: Akiko has worked wonders on her, but Aoi still struggles often with seeing herself in a positive light. She likes to think she's helping people, but often questions herself, and it can be an easier way to tip her towards a negative mental state.

Mostly unknown; Aoi finds herself attracted to various individuals but hasn't really narrowed down what about others she finds specifically attractive. Her best guess is she's probably pansexual.

Aoi is almost the 'mom friend' to most of her friends - someone to rely on, to confide in, to seek support from. She goes out of her way to help her friends, and struggles to turn away requests for help - and she thrives on the company, after losing her birth mother and trying to find her place in the world.

Conversely, she struggles to pull on the support from her friends; Akiko is always there to help her, but Aoi has a drive to be independent if she can, and it stops her from reaching out as much as she should. It's part of why her friend network is otherwise relatively small - there are plenty of acquaintances who rely on her, but only perhaps 2 handfuls of people she'd considered solid friends.

Enemies are rarer still - at least for now. Whilst there are definitely behaviours that irritate, infuriate, or otherwise upset her, Aoi doesn't often connect that with how she sees the person - at first anyways. She makes enemies very slowly, but once she makes them, they tend to stay there without rather massive changes in circumstances. She's not generally a hateful person or anything, and she might still help her enemies in dire circumstances, but she sure as hell won't like being anywhere near them.

Things that she wants - Aoi has basically zero experience, and shares her adoptive mother's desire for romance. They'll likely find that she's devoted to a tee, and will absolutely shower any prospective partner in all the bottled up affection she has. However, her busy worklife will be difficult to balance with any relationships she does have.

Botany: Several years of tutelage under Chii instilled a fairly large amount of botanical knowledge in Aoi, especially rare plants. This is quite useful for identifying difficult poison cases, and sometimes applying herbal remedies for other aspects. She even keeps a small greenhouse at home, filled mostly with rare specimens, and some attempts at hybrids.

Sky Magic: Aoi has been experimenting since she was very young, and harsh circumstances have forced her to 'fall or fly' so to speak. She still practices when she gets an opportunity, but it's more difficult to find the time and place lately.

Medical Knowledge: Whilst she specialises in the brain, and is relatively adept in her field, Aoi also has studied general medicine and a number of other electives across the spectrum, and has continued to study on her own device even after leaving residency. She's pretty eager to improve and branch out further, and shares relevant knowledge with Akiko whenever her adoptive mother needs it.

Minor Shifting: A talent she has displayed, seemingly inherited through Chii, Aoi can partially shift her appearance. She can fully shift her hair, skin, and eye colour, and make very minor changes to her body structure, but not enough to really disguise herself as other people specifically. Her height can be modified by a few inches either way, and her hair length is changeable too, but without additional mundane work, she still mostly looks like 'her', just perhaps a different age. With some decent extra effort she can disguise herself as someone else to the average person, but more perceptive individuals won't likely be fooled.

Heart-Reading: Though it takes a lot of effort, Aoi can sometimes glean unsettling private information by looking closely at people and focusing. It is akin to drawing out snippets from the person's heart, 'reading' them, but what she gleans is always subject to interpretation - how she analyses the information may or may not be correct. A by-product of this is that people have trouble lying to her if she is focusing strongly on them at the time, in close proximity, without their own talents to fool this ability.

Aoi is home botanist in her spare time, maintaining a small greenhouse and even taking the time to experiment with hybrid breeds.

She isn't a vigilante like her adoptive mother, but she does assist in whatever ways she can, and has more than once helped patch people up quietly in private too.

Aoi also possesses an avid interest in sketching, and when she isn't busy with other things, sometimes even just in small breaks between other types of 'work', she'll pull out a sketchpad to work on some things. She's a bit rusty, albeit still reasonably talented, though by no means a professional - she wants to get better, but lacks the time and energy.

She is also very fond of flying, and singing, often simultaneously - yet these things are rather sparse with her busy life. Still, whenever she does get the chance to do so, she is very enthusiastic.

Aoi suffers from moderate claustrophobia, though she has worked at lessening it for many years. However, in very tight spaces, especially underground, the panic rises up - but instead of getting jittery or overly anxious, she settles into a 'calm', more frozen in terror than anything else.

This also extends somewhat to feeling restricted; Aoi often gets incredibly uncomfortable when physically restrained, though it's not always an issue.

If someone were to try and put a word to it, Aoi could likely be described as Kindness - she strives to be that for everyone around her, and with some struggle, to herself too. It makes her easier to take advantage of in many circumstances, but a deep-seated part of her drives her to be this way, and was one of the reasons her birth mother referred to her as her 'little angel'.

Perhaps unsurprisingly to most - green! Though she has a penchant for sometimes favouring black as well.

A small, very-weathered book belonging to her mother - a self-made journal on botanical records that Chii had worked on for nigh-on 3 decades.

Aoi has a mild Alaskan accent, having grown out of the faint Japanese accent she had in her childhood after Chii passed. She also has a habit of slipping into very formal language at times, particularly when her intellectual pursuits get the best of her.

Aoi's biological mother was Chii Shizen Niwa, a Japanese-American botanist who specialised in rare plant life. Originally born in Juneau, Aoi and her mother moved further afield a few years after she was born. She never knew who her father was, and Chii was tight-lipped - if she said anything at all about it, she joked about Aoi being her little 'Angel' sent through something resembling miraculous conception.

When her mother passed, Aoi was left to fend for herself - and did until a smuggling group snatched her up. When following up the disappearance of both Chii and Aoi, Akiko encountered and removed her from their clutches, adopting her as she was wont to do.

Aoi lived with her adoptive mother for several years, and when she moved out, she didn't go all too far, getting her own place a little ways away from 'home'. As it is, she still spends a lot of free time with Akiko - as a mostly-nocturnal person, whenever she isn't working night shifts, she often ends up assisting her adoptive mother in her endeavours.

Plus the holidays with Akiko are a blast that she would be massively disappointed to miss!

Aoi is also rather happy to help any of the others that Akiko adopted, being a helping hand in a pinch when she can.

Aoi's grandparents first immigrated to Alaska in the early 20th century, though both of them passed away a few years before World War II.

Aoi is very fond of animals, and seems to have a natural affinity for most kinds - but she only recently adopted a rescue cat named Selene. Fortunately, Selene is rather independent - which is good since Aoi isn't at home as often as she likes.

Aoi doesn't share Chii's surname, as her mother prompted her to think of what she wanted for herself - and chose 'Tenshi' (Japanese for angel) for the joke Chii often made about her being a little angel sent out of the blue.

Her grandparents moved to Alaska during part of the big immigration boom in the early 20th century. Both of them died of illness in the 20s, leaving a teenage Chii isolated in a country she was still mostly a foreigner to despite being born there. As far as Aoi ever knew, Chii was an only child, and grew up fast in order to survive on her own.

Chii was relocated along with other Japanese-Americans during WWII, and it was during that time period that she was turned. The process was mostly willing, chiefly because Chii had become aware by circumstance, and the pair thought it would be the best course of action (especially in such uncertain times).

Because of her age, Chii has moved around a few times, but stayed in Juneau longer than anywhere else due to Aoi's birth. However, unspoken threats to her daughter's safety (and some old concerns from the internment days) surfaced, and Chii moved them both to somewhere more isolated. It fit her current modality for life anyways, and she used it to teach Aoi how to survive as best she could - fearing that being a supernatural would never be easy, even in Alaska and near Snow Haven.

22nd December

Juneau, though she and Chii moved to a more remote area close to Snow Haven when Aoi was young.

Snow Haven

Currently engaging in doctoral thesis work, to branch her specialisation (currently a Neurologist; looking into psychiatry.)

Prior to this, she attended college and medical school in Juneau, though she did a large part of her residency work at Snow Haven upon personal request.

Aoi is a native English speaker, but she has slowly accumulated a few other languages over the years - her Japanese is fluent, though living in Alaska would likely mark her speech pattern as an outsider.

She is also proficient in Latin, not just due to her career choice, but for personal pursuits as well.

The other language she is mostly fluent in is actually Chinese, mostly due to a series of research projects she undertook in partnership with researchers in China.

Aoi has some passing knowledge in a few of the native Alaskan languages, but she could not be considered fluent, and her knowledge in this regard is mostly by hearing, rather than reading/writing.

Born in Juneau, Aoi was raised by her single mother Chii, a botanist specialising in rare plants. For work (and secretly for safety), Chii moved them both further northwest. They were a couple hours away from Snow Haven, where Chii could study some of the exotic plantlife that developed thanks to the wild magic underneath Snow Haven.

Educated at home by Chii, with minimal contact with the rest of the world (barring some state department contact with Chii), Aoi grew up isolated but happy. Overly inquisitive, she soaked up everything Chii taught her, and hungered for more. This, combined with recklessness and a genuine desire to do something nice for Chii, put both mother and child in a precarious situation; in a search for a rather exotic specimen to gift to her mother for her upcoming birthday, Aoi ventured out by herself.

Suffice to say, a series of bad events turned the secret trip into a nightmare for them both, with Aoi having to seek shelter from a sudden storm (one she couldn't quite deal with at the tender age of 9) - her desperate hiding place was stricken by unstable tectonics, leaving her trapped underground. Between exposure to the elements, even underground, a lack of sustenance, and the only thing she could actually eat turning out to be rather dangerous, Aoi fell seriously ill whilst Chii searched for her.

Though her mother found her, they were both exposed to a dangerous plant that grew in the chthonic space Aoi was trapped in. Chii was forced to make a very difficult decision rather rapidly, as the exposure was toxic, and severe enough that neither of them were likely to recover without supernatural resistance - without intervention inside of a couple of hours, neither of them would likely live for more than a day or two at best.

As the magical artefact she had acquired many years before could help with most illnesses, including toxic exposure, Chii ensured Aoi benefited from it whilst they returned to their home. In doing so, she saved her daughter's life, but had resigned herself to her own fate - she borrowed the ring back for only a little while, to give herself enough time to explain some very tough things to her soon-to-be-orphaned daughter.

Aoi still has occasional nightmares about that event, and the subsequent sunrise that had her burying her own mother, still a young child herself. They had no extended family to call upon, and Aoi was not yet a strong enough flyer to adequately make it to Snow Haven on her own. So she did the only thing she could - survive, with the mindset that when the weather and surrounding environs became less hostile, she might be able to venture to Snow Haven safely, and perhaps figure out what on earth she was meant to do with herself now.

A couple months passed like this - Aoi fending for herself, thankfully able to forage a little in the immediate area around her home, and surviving off of what they already grew themselves. The storms were still bad for those several weeks - even as an Aether, it frightened her, but held onto the hope that things would ease up soon.

However, before they could lessen enough for the young Aether to seek help, her home was stumbled upon by a pair of smugglers, crossing the remote area in order to bypass more wary eyes near Snow Haven. Aoi was easy prey for them - in a way, they took pity on her, taking her in, but also taking advantage of her youth and desperation. It was also a way for the supernatural of the duo to feed even when in the wilderness - the Phage was more than able to sup on Aoi's energies, especially as her ring allowed her to recover more swiftly.

That was how Aoi found herself helping smugglers cross back and forth between remote locations north of Snow Haven; her echolocation was a godsend for navigating, especially at night, and her familiarity with at least some of the local area was useful. Even her animal affinity meant they had less issues with normally hostile wildlife - and Aoi's intellect and memory became assets integral to making difficult 'business ventures' back and forth.

Sticking to that area was the main mistake the smugglers made though; having been missing for 6 months, with no sign of either Chii or Aoi, some authorities in Snow Haven had become concerned. Chii was usually prompt with all bills, and the pair did make infrequent trips to the town - usually every couple of months or so - for extra supplies.

With child welfare being a major concern, especially once the house was discovered abandoned, and Chii's grave eventually unearthed, CPS was involved - and in scoping out the area around her home, it was Akiko who picked up the girl's trail. It took a couple more months, but the Sun Dragon was a determined woman, and eventually she found fresh leads - enough to catch the smugglers themselves. Aoi was very nearly killed in the cat-and-mouse exchange, as the Phage made attempts to physically feed from her. Fortunately Akiko prevented the worst of this - and Aoi's near-eidetic memory can still only recall flashes of that period.

Things started turning around after that, though - Akiko adopted her, as Aoi had nowhere else to go, and clearly needed the support. Being looked after by a fellow supernatural was also far better than she would have otherwise likely have had in the care system, and Aoi grew up in an extremely positive environment. It took years, but Akiko's influence in her life, as well as the rest of her newfound family, gave Aoi time to properly grieve and then begin to heal. She threw herself into her studies, and into hobbies she initially carried on in her mother's stead - eventually coming to enjoy them for her own sake too.

Catching up was expected - between Akiko's support and Aoi's own abilities, it didn't take an awful long time for her to get on her feet in the academic world. Excelling however, was more unexpected, and Aoi graduated early, very quickly finding herself wanting to chase after more - she ventured back to Juneau to complete her further studies and her medical degree, returning to Snow Haven for the latter half of her residency period.

Following that though, she returned to the only place that felt like home, and found herself a position at Snow Haven's own hospital; she did eventually move out, but only a few streets away, enough to have a bit of her own space yet never all that far from her adoptive mother in the end.

Nowadays, she spends a large portion of her life working - either at the hospital, occasionally from her office at home, or in the various hobbies that have taken over her life, like her personal greenhouse. Failing that, she also has her own further studies that continue to chew up some of her time - with less need to sleep, Aoi devoted at least some of the regained time to constant learning. Currently she's studying an advanced specialisation in psychiatry, finding that it complements her current work greatly.

Aoi still struggles most days in the back of her head, no matter how patient and diligent she is on the surface; whilst she has come a long way, her claustrophobia still plagues her, as does heavy doubts from time to time about her own self-worth. But she has the tools most of the time to manage it, and often keeps close contact with Akiko - enough that when she starts slipping, she doesn't fall too far.

Of course, she's still a workaholic, even after making many attempts to find a better work-life balance - despite improvements, Aoi is currently figuring out the mess that is her priorities in life, as she begins to find herself in more and more of a respected position at work, and amongst the small circle of friends she has.

Aoi is a natural-born Aether.

Sky Magic: Sky Magic gives the Aethers the abilities of sky elementals - a step above and beyond a mere air elemental. They can perform any magic that involves the sky or the atmosphere. This includes visible light manipulation, wind magic, air manipulation, lightning, thunder, storms, winds, rains, clouds, fog, and anything else that would be covered by the sky.

Another facet of sky magic is the use of echolocation. Aethers have the innate ability to use echolocation to find people or objects and to navigate in pitch black conditions.

Minor Shifting: A talent she has displayed, seemingly inherited through Chii, Aoi can partially shift her appearance. She can fully shift her hair, skin, and eye colour, and make very minor changes to her body structure, but not enough to really disguise herself as other people specifically. Her height can be modified by a few inches either way, and her hair length is changeable too, but without additional mundane work, she still mostly looks like 'her', just perhaps a different age. With some decent extra effort she can disguise herself as someone else to the average person, but more perceptive individuals won't likely be fooled.

Heart-Reading: Though it takes a lot of effort, Aoi can sometimes glean unsettling private information by looking closely at people and focusing. It is akin to drawing out snippets from the person's heart, 'reading' them, but what she gleans is always subject to interpretation - how she analyses the information may or may not be correct. A by-product of this is that people have trouble lying to her if she is focusing strongly on them at the time, in close proximity, without their own talents to fool this ability.

Aoi's minor shifting allows her to adjust her form somewhat, but besides that, the only changes occur when she manifests her wings.

Tear of Amaterasu: A small ring that Aoi usually wears on her left index finger, containing a small tear-shaped emerald stone. Inside the stone is a tiny piece of a specific root, found by Chii many years ago. The root, which Chii recorded as Liberfons Borealis, seems to be infused with lingering life energy. Whilst worn the ring grants its wearer greater vitality - they require less sleep, nutrition, and water as the ring sustains them. They are less vulnerable to illness and diseases, catching them far less frequently, and purging them faster when they do get them. It even restores their vigour more easily, replenishing their energy faster than normal.

Finally, it very slightly boosts natural healing - but only marginally, barely enough to qualify as regeneration. Chii theorised that in a pinch, it might be able to do far more, but it would likely drain the root piece in doing so.

The ring itself (rather than the root), is enchanted to provide warmth, keeping the wearer at a comfortable temperature, providing the surrounding temperature is no colder than 10 degrees F, at which point it helps but does not quite keep up with the strain of sustaining said warmth.

When casting, Aoi's eyes often shift wildly - with effort she can control it, but elsewise her irises light up like the Birds of Paradise flower, shining all sorts of colours at once.