Suki Maibito

Suki Maibito
Race: Au Ra
Clan: Raen
Nameday: 30th Sun of the 2nd Umbral Moon
Guardian: Nymeia
Soul of a Healer
Calling: White Mage (conjurer)
Speaks: Eorzean, Doman with an odd accent
Personality: Quiet, perceptive, acutely aware of her own isolation as she has yet to encounter another Raen during her travels.
Ht: 5'3" Age: 19

As a child in the east valley of Othard, Suki seemed blessed - possessed? by an innate ability to dance. Even as a toddler, Suki demonstrated a fluidity, a grace, and an almost uncanny spatial awareness. She danced everywhere, to the tune of something only she could hear, her partners the trees, the crags, the whipping winds. And her gaze, always lifted high, not lowered in proper respect. This was unsettling to her family and townsfolk. Was she touched by something fair or foul? What did she hear? What did she see? Maibito, they called her, and Suki's parents, simple crafters and overly mindful of propriety, they despaired of their odd daughter. Finally, they took Suki to the nearest shrine of the Dawn Father, leaving it to the priests to decide. To her parents' relief, the priests deigned to keep Suki and train her in the formal dances sacred to the Dawn Father, incorporating the young Raen girl into the daily rites of honor and worship at the shrine.

Suki learned the Dawn Father's dances. Intricate, complex, formal, precise, the dances bespoke calm and serenity and peace. Eyes genteely lowered. It should have been enough. Surely, this was the purpose of Suki's gift. Certainly her parents believed it and Suki did her best to believe it too.

And yet. And yet. Suki quietly struggled with the desire to move with the invisible eddies and currents of nature which seemed to beckon at every turn. Longing became an old and familiar friend. She longed to whirl with arms wide in an open meadow, tall grasses plucking her skirts, flirtatious breezes lifting her hair about her horns. She longed to dip and sway and spin at the center of a grove where the autumn leaves piled high. She longed to submerge within the cradling waters of a mountain lake, creating eddies and waves with arms and legs and horns. She longed to look up at the sky with wide open eyes.

Suki learned not to speak of her longing, and most certainly not to act upon it. Anything to avoid furrowing the brows of the elders and acolytes, anything to avoid upsetting her parents. She strove to remain humble and aspire towards becoming the perfect servant of the Dawn Father that she could be. And Suki's parents seemed proud at last.

But her dreams. Her dreams obeyed no one and that is where Suki's longing held reign. In her dreams, she danced with wind, and earth, and water. And later, she began dreaming of a pale blue woman, veiled and working at the most glorious spinning wheel that Suki had ever seen. The veiled Lady WANTED Suki to dance and Suki was filled with gratitude. For as she danced for the spinning Lady, it seemed as if she was part of the spinning, one of many guiding the threads through the Spinner's deft hands. Somehow, Suki knew that the glowing thread was the entwined destinies of all living beings, that the great Spinner needed those like Suki to lend their own small part to the warp and weft of Her work. The dreams increased in frequency until each night, Suki dreamt anew of the Spinner, so much so that her dark eyes grew distant during waking hours, still appropriately lowered, but filled with the memory of her dreams more than the reality of her studied steps in honor of the Dawn Father.

It was then that Suki came of age and was taken to the patron of the shrine to accept her dedication to the Dawn Father. And Suki intended to do her duty. But when her lips parted to say the words, she instead confessed of her longing, and of her dreams, heart pounding all the while. Silently he regarded her, and silently, he sent her away to consult his auguries, after which he decreed that Suki should travel alone to the lands of Gridania where the elementals flourish. Without fanfare, she was escorted from the Dawn Father's shrine back into her parents' keeping. Beholding the stony face of her parents through lowered lashes, Suki beheld her worst fear - disappointment. Loss of face. She gave them the only gift she could, remaining silent, remaining dutiful. Dutifully, she went with them to the place of departure. Dutifully, she pretended not to see the ritual marks of mourning upon their garments. Dutifully, she looked away from their retreating backs. She was dead to them now.

Upon arriving in Gridania, Suki had no idea what to expect. Everyone and everything new, different, eye opening. Sometimes exhilarating, sometimes intimidating, always something to expand her experience in ways she'd never dreamed. The best part, of course, is that she no longer only dances with the elements in her dreams. Suki has no notion what role her own small piece of the Spinner's work may be, but she does know, with a surety, that she will meet what comes with her eyes lifted high.

((I prefer collaborative storytelling and immersive RP.I'm flexible and am just as happy being a spearcarrier for someone else's story as much as taking a lead in my own.))