"Some guy asked me if I'd eat like, tiny people if they tasted like steak. But humans taste like pork and I don't eat them, so why would I wanna munch on some midgets?"
Name: Chiyu Shoukei (朱 祥瓊)
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Appearance:
Despite her shockingly pink head of hair (all-natural, thank you very much), the five foot three teenage girl isn't someone with a particularly noticeable aura, unless one of her many strange ideas pops into her head and she recklessly decides to go ahead with some action that draws people's attentions. Indeed, one merely needs to take a gander at Shoukei's ridiculously sparse wardrobe (stocked just in order to ensure that she can alternate between outfits when some are in the wash) to conclude that, yes, if she has a fashion sense that isn't tailored entirely towards looking like a brightly-coloured background extra, it's one that's almost nonexistent. While definitely not totally lacking in savvy towards clothing, she definitely is somebody whose care ends at "being presentable", although depending on whether or not she'd brushed her hair that morning, even that can change. Sometimes she wears glasses. She does, however, have an incredibly expressive face.
Personality: At first glance, Shoukei seems like one of those quiet, studious types, someone who prefers to keep silent and fade into the background rather than engage with the rest of society on a regular basis. That view is ... half-right; while it is true that she doesn't care for being in the forefront of life and whatnot (despite a mild attention-seeking streak) due to all the energy it would require of her, the actual reason behind her seeming lack of social activity is her constant need to think things through around strangers. As someone already not too predisposed to talking, a lot of the time she spends her efforts formulating the proper conversation starters, thinking through the consequences of what words she may say, and whether or not others would welcome her actually talking to them. And then it turns out that she's lost her window of opportunity, so she simply shrugs her shoulders and decides to do better next time.
Of course, none of her planning actually comes into play when she actually gets into a conversation.
Shoukei's manner of speech is, to put it bluntly, incredibly off-the-cuff, with a certain irreverence to it that some people could construe as rudeness. She certainly doesn't try to be rude, of course, and that's pretty clear to see in her interactions with figures of authority (who tend to receive polite addresses from her), but the moment she crosses the hurdle of "should I actually try talking to this stranger", she starts loosening up, and any attempts at staying formal immediately devolve into incredibly casual dialogue (and depending on the situation, loudness). Under the seemingly quiet persona she's accidentally adopted, it becomes pretty telling that the pink-haired girl is an amicable lass, although the contents of her words can be, at times, a bit eccentric. The closer she is to you, and the more casual she is, the more likely it is for her to not bother with thinking through her words. Sure, the running commentary in her brain (which is, despite her friendliness, somewhat dismissive from time to time) is always turned on, giving dry observations of happenings, but even that can't stop her from blurting out what's on her mind.
And her mind certainly can come up with weird things.
She isn't too fond of being a weirdo, however, although she's resignedly accepted that, yes, she's definitely somewhat more eccentric than your usual gal. It doesn't stop her brain (which ping pongs from nihilism to shining optimism like a table tennis match in high level Chinese leagues) from constantly trying to pretend to have some veneer of normalcy. It's why it's easy for her to play both funny and straight woman if necessary, because ignoring her inherent strange nature, she likes the concept of an easy, quiet and perfectly normal life. Her exasperated snarking does tend to be more mental though, because she doesn't want to verbalise any disrespectful thoughts too much. She still does, but they're not too common, thankfully.
Or at least not common enough to do much to her reputation (which admittedly isn't too great but hey, nobody thinks she's anything worse than a weirdo).
Something to keep in mind is that Shoukei possesses a pretty sizable streak of selfish cynicism. While she does do her best to keep it under bay, it does end up colouring a lot of her worldview. And serve as a source for some of her materialistic ambitions. Even if she prefers the quiet life, there are just some things that she really wants, and will do anything to get it. Like the position of Student Council Treasurer, triumphing over her rival to do so.
It can be noticed that she's rather petty, too.
In the end, however, she's still a studious and diligent young girl, and for all her flaws and eccentricities, Shoukei can be someone hard-working and effective in her duties, to the point where you can describe her as some sorta freight train in her intensity. She has an almost unhealthy sense of responsibility to almost any task she's been assigned (a flaw which she acknowledges and awkwardly tries to avoid by convincing others of her lack of suitability as being in charge of things), and will fight 100% to make sure it comes out properly.
Even the smallest things. Especially the smallest things.
She'll get them done, no sweat.
Skills: For all her weirdness and tendency to leap before she looks, Shoukei's actually pretty smart. Grasping and understanding the concepts of how things work comes pretty easily to her (which explains the overall excellence of her school grades), so it doesn't really take long for her to suss things out. Lateral thinking is something that she still needs to work on, but when getting down to the nitty-gritty details, she can definitely get it through. Her diligence towards getting things done is almostly inhuman, to the point where she can function on almost zero sleep (well, almost - if she's had a few late nights, do expect her to be taking advantage of any break to snooze). Physically, of course, she's not that amazing, although some say that if she's either scared or super pissed, the adrenaline turns her from "mediocre" to "Usain Bolt's got nothing on this lassie", but that's just an exaggeration of her tendency to perform slightly better when motivated. She learnt to speak Chinese from a Beijinger, hence her excessive rhotic consonants. Her cooking boils down entirely to ... well, boiling. And eggs.
Equipment: Mobile phone; wallet (bank card, cash, library card, photo ID, fabric store loyalty card, coffee store loyalty card, some old receipts she's forgotten to throw away); a lot of pens; a notebook of miscellaneous deeds; chopsticks case
Soul Arts: Lil' Miss Acoustic - when inserted into a slot present on her right forearm (usually hidden under her sleeves), Shoukei gains the ability to reduce some of the damage she takes from enemy attacks by converting the energy received from them into sound waves (through a complex series of events which boils entirely down to "her body starts oscillating"). In itself, this ability would be admittedly useless, and an added strain on her body, but once she begins to produce sound waves, she can manipulate the direction of their displacement (usually by redirecting it towards her foes). The intensity of these waves depend on the attack she's redirecting, although it goes without saying that she's definitely more powerful underwater (given the denser medium). Of course, that means she's useless in space.
Brief Backstory: The firstborn daughter of a government clerk and a teacher, Chiyu Shoukei grew up in a rather normal upper middle class household, albeit one with a significant focus on education. Her early years were rather bland, having spent much of them merely going to school and absorbing everything that her teachers and parents sought to instill in her and training up her head for numbers through her maths classes. It wasn't really until the later stages of her elementary life (and bleeding into middle school) that she (and her fellow self-actualising peers) realised the extent of her eccentricities, a revelation that she promptly sought to correct through a series of rather embarrassing and unspeakable events that she refuses to acknowledge ever happened. Yet the repercussions on her reputation stuck, and so Shoukei threw herself even further into her studies, hoping to quickly get into high school and blot out that stain on her person.
Her wish, fortunately, was somewhat fulfilled with her arrival onto the campus grounds of Yamamura High. While it was impossible to entirely avoid being seen as a mild weirdo by her peers (particularly when some had gone to school with her earlier), the pink-haired girl, despite her background extra-like nature, proceeded to establish a niche for herself as someone studious and diligent, settling into her new school with requisite gusto. At first, she decided on trying to have a rather quiet life, but on a whim, she found herself throwing her name into the ring during the student council elections.
Much to her surprise, she was given a position.
Despite her relative youth, Shoukei was thrown straight-first into the position of Treasurer, forcing her to give up her dream of an entirely quiet life with the realisation that she was now in possession of great responsibility. The assignment also coincided with the introduction of Strange Gospel, which, while she did download, found itself being left to the wayside as she struggled to handle her new job. Being a treasurer was hard work, and the ever-responsible Shoukei decided that a random mobile phone app was of no import when compared to balancing the budgets and serving as a receptacle for school clubs complaining about funding cuts. With the sketchy rumours emerging around it, going back to using it has only become less appealing to her, allowing her to focus her efforts entirely on her work.
It might not be entirely fun, but the duty is one she must bear.
