Shiori Eikitaika

Shiori Eikitaika
Gender	Female
Race	Au Ra
Clan	Raen
Citizenship	Gridania
Age	Mid Twenties
Marital Status	Engaged
Occupation	Healer and Researcher
Height	5' 2
Residence	Lavender Beds Ward 12 Plot 46
Sires	Yuuto Eikitaika (Father) Rin Eikitaika (Mother)

Determined, inspired, loyal, and perhaps just a bit crazy, Shiori is a newcomer from Othard that ran away from her family to pursue a life away from their constraints. Though there are still several aspects of Eorzean culture that she has yet to grasp, Shiori is very happy and comfortable in her new home among her new family. She pursues research in a handful of topics mostly relating to biology, anatomy, and most recently astrology. Now that the world has opened up to her, Shiori pursues all sorts of wild topics that fascinate her, from allagan chimeras to flesh eating microbes.

Basic Info

LIKES ■ Small soft animals (and large ones too) ■ Anything with ginger in it ■ Redheads ■ Rivers

DISLIKES ■ Lying ■ Fog ■ Chocobos ■ Cheese

OTHER ■ Alignment: Chaotic Neutral ■ Vice(s): Pride, vanity, impetuosity ■ Favorite Food: Peaches ■ Favorite Drink: Ginger tea ■ Favorite Color: Pink

Appearance

Shiori inherited her mother's honey hair and pale skin, though she stands half a head taller than both her mother and her sister. She prides herself on her scales, especially those on her hips and the ones on her forehead forming almost a circlet-like pattern. Her horns look more like fins than typical horns and point backward nearly horizontally. Even when she's upset Shiori's pastel pink irises and limbal rings tend to appear soft and warm which can make her look almost comical when she's trying to stare someone down. Her hair she keeps short for practical reasons, often she found it falling into her work when it was longer. Though she's good at hiding her emotions most of the time, her long and spiked tail is usually a dead giveaway of how she's feeling and it's almost impossible for her to stop it from flicking when she's upset.

Personality

It's difficult to determine if Shiori's oddities and quirks stem from her twisted upbringing or are just who she was born to be. Either way, she fully embraces the fact that her interests and choices make many think she is strange, silly, or perhaps even slightly insane. She's willing to do nearly anything to help those she calls close and would die willingly for those she loves if she ever thought she had to. Those that aren't on her list of people she cares about matter to her as much as the mice in her lab and those that harm her friends are seen as even less. Shiori has no issue causing harm to those that have harmed her friends and has on multiple occasions done just that with a clean conscience. When topics pertaining to her research come up she becomes very excitable and often gushes about what project she's working on, even if no one else asked or wants to know. Over time she's learned that the average person doesn't want to hear her gory medical stories or the ins and outs of her research but she still tends to make some people uncomfortable unintentionally. Shiori is terrible at dropping hints or picking them up and prefers to speak bluntly, even if it gets her into trouble and can make people upset from time to time. Her impulsiveness also lands her in hot water, though very rarely does she regret her actions.

Biography

Childhood

Shiori was born the fourth child and second daughter of the Eikitaika house, a prestigious but slightly fallen noble Raen family. From the moment of her birth she was groomed to help make her family strong in whatever way she could, which conflicted greatly for her desire to venture out of the house grounds and explore. She was a very good and talented student when her lessons interested her, but when they didn't her mind would wander and she would often get caught drawing instead of actually taking notes from her tutors. When she was barely eight years old it was discovered she had an affinity to an old Nymian soul cyrstal passed down by her family and was given it on the condition that she would work hard to become a powerful mage for the Eikitaika house. The stone soon became her master and she his apprentice, and under him she began to learn how to manipulate aether to heal and defend.

Though her two eldest siblings saw her as an annoyance she began to grow close to her elder brother Kenji, who also shared the desire to learn outside the walls of their home. Shiori was much more proactive about her escape attempts and could be found trying to climb trees, pillars, walls, anything she could in order to get out. When she would fall and injure herself or when she got caught Kenji was always there to comfort her and help get her out of trouble. She soon began to rely on him and depend on him for support and comfort in her chaotic household.

Teenage

A few days after her eleventh nameday Shiori's mother Rin gave birth to a sickly baby boy named Isamu. The child was hidden away by her parents so outsiders couldn't see what was considered a failure and a display of weakness. Shiori cared for her youngest brother and did her best to ease his discomfort. Her parents let her care for Isamu in her free time provided she applied herself to all her lessons and Shiori did just that. As she grew she was taught skills necessary for a woman in high society and was shown off at events as a prodigious mage and respectful young lady. It slowly became clear to her that the only thing keeping her from being given away as a wife to another house was her mage studies, and she spent much of her time striving to learn as much about healing as she possibly could. Despite their busy lives Kenji and Shiori stayed close, and Shiori continued to care for Isamu. As she began to mature the threats and pressure from her parents to give her away became stronger and she pushed against them to try and keep her freedom. Her frustration with her parents turned into outrage once they drove Kenji away, and though he offered to take her with him she stayed for Isamu, fearing he would die without her care. When her parents took Isamu away to free up more of her time Shiori left, seeking out her brother and leaving the rest of her family behind.

Dread Wyrms and Sharo

After finding Kenji, Shiori quickly settled down with him in the Ruby Carbuncle, a hotel turned trading business where she worked as a healer. Adjusting to Eorzean life was difficult especially considering her sheltered upbringing and some concepts she still fails to grasp, particularly those surrounding money. In general, she has no idea what something is actually worth and ends up getting talked into grossly overpaying for something regularly. Despite the culture clashes, Shiori thrived in her new home and quickly made friends with most of her co-workers and established two labs in which to carry out her research as well as an infirmary. It was during one of her outings for field research that she stumbled upon a young miqo'te named Sharo living out in the wilderness. The two fell into a whirlwind romance that was tragically cut short when the Voidsent Sharo's mother had made a contract on it came to collect Sharo's life. Shiori was utterly and completely crushed by Sharo's sudden death and chased after the powerful voidsent, killing any she found on her way.

Reformation

For three sleepless nights, Shiori purged the Shroud of any voidsent she could find, trying to track down the trail of the voidsent that had killed her lover. Her primal rampage was only stopped when she encountered a seriously wounded Erimmont by chance. She mended him, and he comforted her and brought her back to the Dread Wyrm halls, though she told no one else of what she had experienced for some time. Over the following moons the trust and friendship she felt for Erimmont grew to love, though she didn't realize this until the man confessed an attraction to her he had harbored for a while. Around this time it was becoming clear that Shiori was unfit to lead the band of pirates and also that the members were more interested in rare artifacts than piracy. Ravusa took over and changed the crew to the Artifice of Reason, an institute for the gathering of information in all forms. Shiori was made one of the leaders alongside Erimmont. A moon or so later, Shiori was attacked in her lab in the Shroud by one of the captives she had kept there. The man, Gaspard, destroyed her soul crystal and left her to die in the fiery ruins of her laboratory, but Erimmont managed to rescue what was left of her along with the help of two of her creations.

Recovery

While the burns and bruises and broken bones from the lab incident healed, Shiori struggled to fill the void her destroyed soul crystal had left her. She was unable to pull aether from the land or feel it pulse and flow like she once could and was left severely weakened aetherically. On top of this, much of her research, tools, devices, artifacts, and samples she had gathered over the past year had been lost in the fire. The most devastating loss was that of Tsubaki, Shiori's fairy and childhood companion whose soul was housed in her soul crystal. Erimmont saw how utterly crushed Shiori was and sacrificed his blessing the Twelveswood had given him and nearly bled himself out in a ritual to pull Tsubaki's aether back together and return her to Shiori. While Shiori can't connect with Tsubaki nor use any of her old spells, having her friend back re-energized her.

Astromancy

Since her skills as a healer were still very much needed Shiori decided to pursue a different field. Conjury was out of the question due to the stuck-up nature of the teachers of the Conjurer's Guild so she turned to Astromancy. Or tried to, it took some time to track down anyone willing to teach her. She learned what little she could from books but the Sharlayans kept their aetherical artform close to the chest. Finally she discovered a young miqo'te woman willing to teach her, and got her hand on a soul crystal. Though the miqo'te wandered away after a time with the crystal's guidance and her magical prowess she was able to quickly learn the basics of Astromancy and was once more able to heal her companions.

Promotion (Present Day)

When the previous Artifice director stepped down, Shiori took her place and began to lead the institution. Though she is new to the role she works to make sure that everyone has the guidance they need to make the Artifice successful while trying to balance her personal life with her soon-to-be husband and progressing on her own personal goals, the primary being the creation of a son using her research and genetic material from herself and Erimmont.

RUMORS

Some of these rumors may be untrue or are greatly exaggerated.

◢ Common Rumors (Easily overheard)

■ Shiori loves playfully teasing people and used to be a huge flirt.

■ Shiori has a soft spot for animals and her home has at least ten pets.

■ Shiori has a sketchbook filled of drawings of numerous people.

◢ Moderate Rumors (Moderately difficult to overhear)

■ Shiori keeps dead bodies in her lab and experiments with them to further her research.

■ Shiori has a chimera hidden away in her backyard.

■ Shiori has a second sketcbook that has more explicit drawings of people in it.

◢ Rare Rumors (Very difficult or rarely overheard)

■ Shiori has kidnapped and purchased people for live testing.