Name: Lily Strider
Age: 23
Sex: Female
Shifter Form: Nine-Tailed Fox
Human Appearance:Lily is roughly 170 high with a somewhat athletic build with a few muscles, but nothing extraordinary, being visible. It doesn’t take two glances to see that Lily has japanese blood in her veins, though mixed with something western. Her hair is pitch black and reaches absurd lengths, going down past her buttocks, though usually held in a braid. Her eyes are a dark brown—almost black—and peeks out from beneath a pair of equally dark eyebrows, a hard glint almost always visible in them, rarely ever absent. Her lips are prominent, with a rosy colour and noticeable pucker. She's nothing extraordinary when it comes to womanly assets either, being medium both up front and behind—perhaps even less than medium.
Shifter Appearance:Here's a shameless steal to show what she looks like. In her human form one might say that she’s decently pretty, but none would deny the fact that she’s a stunning beauty when she Shifts: Jet black hair the same length as before and kept in a braid as well, although there is enough hair to cover where her human ears would be. Her eyes are a striking summer blue with slitted pupils, giving her a slightly feral—and sometimes mischievous—look. Nine white tails extend from behind her, each about as long as she is tall and covering in soft, silky fur. All four of her canines are elongated, each a good centimetre longer than usual, giving her toothy smiles a bit of a dangerous edge to it all thanks to her fangs. It also makes her bites that much more painful, and potentially dangerous. Another thing that should be noted is that, in this form, she is the epitome of feminine beauty in accordance with the legends, with full lips, long eyelashes and so on; something which she's actually rather fond of, if she had to say so herself.
Where her nails are usually kept short for convenience’s sake, they are quite long when she's shifted, with an ever so slight rounded point to them, and coloured a purple-ish blue. Aside from that her hips become wider, as does her bosom become a fair bit larger. Where before her body had been somewhat tough thanks to her developing muscles and athletic lifestyle, they have now softened; giving her a body devoid of hardened muscles but rich with pleasant curves. Her facial structure also changes as well, becoming more sharper and a little angled; more fox-like as opposed to the roundness it had before.
Abilities:Athletic and flexible, skilled at gymnastics/parkour, and a very fast and agile runner.
Powers:True to the mischievous and trickster nature of the Kitsune in the legends, Lily's magical skills are focused mostly around illusions, enabling her to trick the senses of those around her; create ghost sounds and touches and make them see things that are not there. The more energy she uses the more powerful the illusions.
She also has a secondary magical gift which allows her to drain life energy from the area around her and use it for various purposes ranging from creating a light source to weaponizing it. The amount of energy she draws from anyone depends on how much they are willing to give, or how much more powerful her will is than theirs. She can freely take from plants and smaller animals, though she has to overwhelm the mind of other sentient beings, or larger animals, to drain theirs, though doing so is forbidden—A rule set in place by Ikari, the Kitsune Teacher.
Background:Lily has never had an easy life, not by a long shot. For as long as she can remember she has been on the street, without easy access to food or shelter. She never knew her parents and has been forced to steal to survive more times than she can count. Her early life was spent in the company of an elderly person called Max, also a homeless man. For the first several years of her life he took care of her, sharing what food he had between the two of them. She remembers little about him, save that he was kind and patient, and always soothed her whenever she got sad, or cold. One fond memory from her past is one winter night when he gave up his coat for her so that she didn’t freeze.
Alas, fond though that memory may be, it was also what led to his death. He caught a harsh flu and, without money for medicine and no hospitals in the town, got deathly ill and died by the end of winter. She was six years old back then, and it took several years before she finally stopped blaming herself for his death, and realised that his old age was why he had died and not just because he got sick.
The town where she lived, she later found out, was located somewhere in England. She never really bothered to learn the name of it as her mind was more focused on finding food and a place to sleep each night, but staying unaware of her hometown was not quite possible. The town was Lichfield, a small-ish town with around thirty thousand citizens.
Aside from her time with Max, her life was rather uneventful. She scraped together what food and money she could, stole when money was scarce, and hoarded when she had sufficient.
She was a skilled thief. Quick with her fingers, and even quicker on her legs. There were hardly any roof she hadn’t been on, no alley she hadn’t sped through or hidden in when some gang or other criminal chased her. She lived on those skills, and constantly trained with whatever she had at her disposal to stay in shape; to stay quick and agile. It wasn’t always enough, however, as she was cornered from time to time, beaten up and had whatever food and money she had stolen. Life in a small city was never easy, and the multiple bruises she got was proof of that, and even though she often longed to just rob someone blind, hide the money somewhere safe and live a somewhat decent life, she didn’t. Stealing when she had to was something she was had no reservations with doing, but taking more than she needed… she did look down on that, especially those who stole from others who had so little—She wasn’t completely without morals, after all.
The day came, however, when the war erupted and the Shifter Program was started. She had heard, and noticed, the people going around recruiting everyone who would be willing to be test subjects. Lily initially volunteered, but due to her young age they wouldn’t accept her: A 13 year old was not old enough to become a potential soldier, regardless of her zeal. It was her chance for a proper life, a job, a room of her own. A chance for a life where she didn’t have to wonder if she’d go hungry to bed that night, wonder if she had to run from the police yet again for stealing. But they wouldn’t let her.
Seven years went by with her asking every time they came to Lichfield to recruit, but every time they told her no because she was too young. That was until she turned 20, and they returned to Lichfield after three years of absence. She was finally over 18 and, to her relief, they finally let her join. She didn’t hesitate even once about leaving her old life behind.
She was brought to a facility in Spain, the nearest one at the time, and was immediately subjected to test after test, swarmed by humans and Mythics alike, each of them trying to figure what type of creature she was compatible with. The next day came faster than she realised, and the knews were thrust upon her: She was a Kitsune, or Nine Tailed Fox. She was compatible with a Demon Class, specializing in illusions and speed.
She didn’t care much about the news at first, but all the excited voices of the other applicants talking about what kind of Mythic they were compatible, and how much they wished to be able to test the abilities they would get… It infected her, so little by little she was getting excited as well, wondering how she’d look and how many tails she’d get. One of the things about Kitsune, she’d heard some of the people in the facility say, was that they were one of the few where you could estimate their power by their number of tails. Usually a Shifter only had between four to seven tails, but the occasional eight-tailed Kitsune also popped up. Nine-tailed ones were exceedingly rare, with only a handful having appeared in the past ten years since the Shifters came to be. She secretly hoped for seven or more.
Finally came the day—after all the others had been tested for compatibility—when she would undergo the process of becoming a shifter. The memory is still vivid in her mind, of standing stark naked in that strange, vertical tube with electrodes attached to every conceivable part of her body; from chest to legs, scalp to feet. One might say that she was covered head to toe in electrodes.
The process itself wasn’t painful, as she was knocked unconscious almost the moment a strange, blue-ish liquid started flowing into the tube itself. No, there wasn’t any pain but what happened when she awoke might as well have been for how vividly she remembered it all. The first thing she noticed as she was brought back to consciousness, still stark naked inside that tube, was a heavy weight behind her. A quick glance revealed a multitude of tails. She had counted them, counted every one of them and felt the joy fill her as she counted five and she wasn’t finished counting yet. She had gotten the seven tails she had been hoping for, but… There wasn’t seven.
She was stunned. She could hardly comprehend the fact that she, a no-body from the streets of a small town in Britain, was a Kitsune with NINE tails. The rarest and, supposedly, most powerful of them. That alone made her soar: She was special, she wasn’t a nobody. She was _something_ now, and not just an unwanted rat on the streets. But that wasn’t all, she soon discovered.
They had a large, wall-length mirror installed in the room where the process took place, and when she looked in that she almost dropped her jaw. She had always prided herself on being fairly pretty—at least among the rabble on the street. She had no uneven teeth, no excessive amount of pimples, and she managed to keep relatively clean. But what she saw was beyond her imagining.
It wasn’t a word she would have used about anyone she just met or saw in passing, let alone herself, but in that moment the only word that came to mind was “Beautiful.” Her eyes were a summer blue, and slitted, as opposed to their usual dark brown. Her face had become more angular, sharper, and more fox-like. What’s more, the toned and athletic body she prided herself on was gone, replaced instead by the well kept and fit body of a gorgeous woman, wide hips and a bust far larger than what little she had had before.
It was the first time in years that she had cried. Just seeing herself like that, seeing, and feeling, that she was worth something. Not just because of her enhanced looks, but also because she knew that with this transformation, she could help others. Selfish though she might have been, she’d learned from Max early on that compassion goes a long way.
The following days brought with them several more discoveries. Among them the fact that her smell, hearing, and sight had been vastly enhanced when she Shifted, as well as her speed and raw physical strength being far above what she had previously had. One of the most annoying changes in her Shifter form, she decided, were the fangs. Sure they looked good and gave her smile a certain level of viciousness, but the amount of times she had to put healing salve on a lip she had punctured was high. Far higher than she’d like.
In the following two years from when she was shipped off to the Academy from the facility in spain, to when she started her final year in said Academy, a lot of things happened. For once, she learned how to fight and utilize her knew powers. She learned how to trick the minds of others, to change reality as she saw fit and how to draw the very life out of plants and trees, small animals and insects. She was forced through tactics classes, dragged through the mud when she didn’t meet the field trainer’s expectations.
She learned a lot, and while she appreciated that there was still one thing she gained that she treasured, and still treasures, above all else: Her girlfriend, Tsukiko, a fellow Demon Class Shifter, and a Bakeneko—a two-tailed Cat-and-Human hybrid with the ability to divide herself into two, one tail staying with each of the ‘copies’. She was a sweet japanese girls, and one of the few who managed to get past her tough exterior, and touch and thaw the frozen heart within her. They hit it off early, and their initial friendship bloomed into something more in the months following their arrival at the Academy.
Now they’re inseparable, spending much of their free-time together and sparring when they get the chance.
As for Lily, so far she’s enjoying her stay at the Academy. For the first time in her life she has a bed and a room for herself. She doesn’t have to worry about food, or how to not get cold during the winter.
If it means that she’ll have to fight and put her life on the line to pay back for all of that, then so be it. At the very least, she spent the last of her life being happy if things go bad.
Personality:As opposed to the kind nature of Ikari, Lily is quite the rough girl. Her life on the streets has made its mark on her, making her aggressive and distrustful. She’s used to having very little, and what little she has has always been in danger of being stolen. As such she’s very possessive and protective, suspicious of anyone she might find near her rooms getting a little too close to the few she cares about—Especially her girlfriend.
Despite this, she can be perfectly friendly and amicable if someone proves to her that they are trustworthy, though it doesn’t get rid of her tough exterior. Some might call her a Tsundere (made even more exasperating due to her japanese roots), and they might be right. She doesn’t open up easy, and she’s stubborn, but she isn’t impossible to befriend. She’s the kind of person you can count on when things go downhill if you have managed to win her over to your side.
Furthermore, she’s somewhat arrogant and a tad narcissistic, as well as being the kind of person who has trouble seeing the difference between right and wrong. That is not to say that has no regards for other people, but having lived a life where taking what you could from an exposed fruit stall or sneak the wallet out of some fat business man’s pocket has sort of made her indifferent to stealing, meaning that she’s not opposed to taking something if she feels that she has a need of it—something her girlfriend is trying to make her stop doing.
Other:- She is
very proud of her looks in her Shifter form, and can be caught admiring her naked self in the mirror if you “forget” to knock in the late evening before entering her room.
- She’s a lesbian and has a girlfriend who’s also a Shifter: A fellow Demon Class able to shift into a Bakeneko. Her name is Tsukiko, and she’s born Japanese.
- Her name was given to her by Max. Lily because he thought she was a pretty little girl, like a lily, and Strider because she was quick on her feet and faster than most kids her age.
- Her hair is as long as it is because she never really had a proper chance to cut it while living on the streets, so she just got used to it being so long.
- Lily is being taught Japanese by Tsukiko, and is decent at it so far, able to at least swear at it and do simple shopping in a japanese town. Longer conversations is something she’s still working on.