<br/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/cxaGXif.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Kaiya Omoi</span><br/><br/><br/><strong>AGE:</strong>Twenty eight<br/><strong>GENDER:</strong>Cis Female<br/><strong>SEXUALITY:</strong>Lesbian<br/><strong>BLESSED BY:</strong>Hera<br/><strong>NICKNAMES:</strong>Kai<br/><br/><br/><strong>LIKES:</strong>Gardening, reading, starry nights, yoga, caring for animals (birds especially), and tea<br/><strong>DISLIKES:</strong>Violence, spicy food, crowded spaces, rudeness<br/><br/><br/><strong>SKILLS &amp; POWERS:</strong><br/>Skills:<br/>Diplomacy: Kaiya knows what to say and when to say it to win people over. Her calm demeanor and steady hand can be soothing to those around her. With her wit and her kindness this girl knows how to broker a deal, keep the peace, and negotiate her way out of a situation.<br/><br/>Midwife: Kaiya has trained as a midwife. With Hera being her patron goddess she know all about childbirth and the caring of children.<br/><br/>Sewing and weaving: To ease her mind Kaiya took up sewing at a young age. She fell in love with the beautiful silk kimonos of her homeland and wished at one point to be such a skilled dress maker that she could make kimonos of her very own. But as she learned of her fate as a blessed of Hera this passion had to take a back seat. She still sews in her spare time and even picked up weaving as well since many of the goddesses are quite adept in this skill. She saw it appropriate to learn all the ways one can fashion cloth into something beautiful.<br/><br/>Gardening: Kaiya has always had a green thumb. She loves taking a stripe through a well kept garden or even the great abundance of the wilderness. Tending to the wonders of nature allows Kaiya to keep her hands busy as she thinks about other things, and helps her feel like she is giving back to nature and the gods who created it.<br/><br/><br/>Powers:<br/>Silver tongue: Kaiya has a knack for convincing people of what to do. Her words carry a weight that is inexplicable. When she speaks people want to listen. She can use this to her advantage if needed, but usually she uses it in more diplomatic ways. A soothing word to calm someone in anger, a gentle nudge to do the right thing, a calming voice when there is chaos and uncertainty. She doesn’t understand her powers fully yet, but if there are rising tensions Kaiya is sure to try and sooth it away with her calming words. Use of this power is mentally taxing however. The stronger the will of the person or the more people she uses her ability on the bigger the strain on herself. Pushing this ability too far can cause massive headaches and even strain Kaiya to unconsciousness if used too often or on a subject stronger willed than herself.<br/><br/>Healing magic: Kaiya has the ability to heal others with her touch. Granted magic by her patron goddess, the queen of Olympus and the most magically adept of the gods, Kaiya can channel this blessing to aid others. She can remove poisons from their system, set and mend bones, and repair the flesh. It’s is quite a taxing experience for the maiden, but it is a gift she wishes to share as she cares for those in need. To use this ability Kaiya must use her own life force and endure it into whomever she is healing. As such she often feels tired and weak after using this ability. After any major use of it she usually must lie down and rest for a time before she even has the strength to stand again.<br/><br/>Sorcery: Hera has granted her chosen with similar magical powers to the ones she wields. Kaiya is frightened by this power and seldom uses it, and as such she has very little grasp on what she can do with it. She has been able to call the elements forth from her fingertips, as well as change one creature into another just as her goddess has done countless times in her myths. The extent of this power is unknown to Kaiya, and she hopes she never truly has a need for it. This ability, though powerful, is not normally intended for a mortal. The energy for Kaiya’s magic is fed by her own energy and life force. The more magic she uses the bigger the strain on her body, weakening her physically and even destroying her body if too much magic is used. It is a dangerous price to pay for such powers, and Kaiya does not wish to pay the toll unless it is a dire situation.<br/><br/><strong>APPEARANCE:</strong>Kaiya is 173 cm (5’8”) with deep brown eyes and raven black hair. She is rather lithe and petite, with not a lot of muscle on her. She usually dresses in nicer clothes, likening the more flowing blouses and skirts or dresses ranging from spring dresses to sheath dresses, to Qi  pao depending on how she is feeling. The colors she usually wears are golds, whites, silvers, but occasionally she switches it up with blues and greens. The only distinguishing mark she has is a large scar across her back from a terrible burn. However it is hard to see because it is now covered by a massive peacock tattoo that covers most of her back. She wears her hair down and straight or up in a variety of buns.<br/><br/><strong>PERSONALITY:</strong>Kaiya is quiet, reserved, and above all calm. She is not aloof or entitled, far from it, she is simply a contented individual. Kaiya can come off as frail, but she simply doesn’t see the need to solve problems with brash over confidence or brute force. She prefers a more measured and subtle approach to life. Always willing to help, even if that is just moral support, Kaiya enjoys working for and helping others. She sees herself as a big sister to everyone in her village and as such can be a bit doting. She has little refused for her own happiness and will give you the shirt off of her back if it would help you. She sometimes comes off as too gentle or giving, especially to her patron goddess who is always urging her to be more assertive and to take charge as a leader. She would like to be a leader, but at the moment is still just a little to shy and soft spoken. So for now she doesn’t have a problem being on the sidelines so long as she can be of help. If she ever feels overwhelmed she is prone to panic attacks and will often times seclude herself away to retreat into her hobbies and ease her mind before rejoining the world at large. If anyone makes sudden movements near her she is also still a little jumpy. Her timidness is something she is constantly trying to overcome.<br/><br/><strong>CHARACTER BACKGROUND:</strong>born the eldest daughter to a poor family of rice farmers in the Mie prefecture of Japan Kaiya lived a very simple upbringing. Her early years were good, but her father was a very traditional man. He believed the future of the household fell to the eldest son, and as such wanted to father a boy of his own. However as the years went by and Kaiya’s mother delivered daughter after daughter her father became angrier and angrier. By the 3rd girl he began to demand his wife give him a son. By the 4th he began beating his wife, and by the 5th and final daughter he had taken to drinking what little money the family made away. And as their father beat their mother and eventually turned his anger to his children Kaiya did all she could to protect her younger sisters. She seemed to be the only one who could calm him, at least a little. She would plead with him, promise him to make sure her and her sisters would keep the family afloat and do extra work in the fields after school. She would talk with the neighboring families and procure whatever he needed to distract him from his woes. It was an uneasy life but Kaiya’s mother helped them get by. Her mother was gentle and sweet and always to Kaiya that someday she would marry and get away from this lot in life. It sounded nice, but Kaiya knew that what she wanted would not please her father.<br/><br/>So instead of taking suitors herself Kaiya did everything she could to get her younger sisters married off instead. She met with their neighbors, spoke to other workers in the field, students at her and her sisters schools. She knew everything about her siblings and learned all she could about who might be a match for them. Who might be their savior to take them away from their abusive father. As the years went by she managed to get one sister after another matches up with the boy of their dreams and quickly whisked away to a better life. But as her younger sibling left, this left fewer targets for her father’s growing rage. After all, why wasn’t his eldest marrying? Why wouldn’t she bring home a son? If he couldn’t birth a son the least his wretched daughter could do was marry someone better off than herself so they could take care of him in his old age. He began trying to arrange marriages himself, dragging his daughter around the village to meet suitor after suitor. And with the skill of a politician Kaiya was able to convince her father, or the boy, or the boys’ families that she was not a match for their sons. For deep down Kaiya knew she this was not her destiny. Her desires were not for a loving husband. What she wanted her father would never allow. She she boded her time and protected her mother and sibling as best she could until there was just herself and her parents left.<br/><br/>Her mother worried that her eldest was not able to find someone to take her away from the house, and so one day finally decided to confront her daughter about it. She pleaded and prodded to know why her daughter had not found a husband for herself. And when Kaiya’s excuses finally ran out the girl decided to risk telling her mother the truth. She had never found a husband because she didn’t want a husband. What she wanted, her father would never approve of. She couldn’t give him a son to marry into the family because she was not interested in men. The mother was heartbroken for her daughter because to follow her heart would be to call down the wrath of her father. They agreed to keep it a secret and the two began a new plan. They would save up enough money to one day secret themselves away in night, and finally be free of their abusive father/husband.<br/><br/>Then, one night her father came home in a drunken rage. Kaiya had found a husband for her youngest sister, and had secreted her away in the night to get her free from their father. When he had found out that he had lost yet another possibility for a son he came home drunk as sin and with a rage burning in his eyes. He was furious, how dare his worthless daughters abandon their father! How dare his eldest refuse to marry, how dare their mother allow such underhanded women to be raised in his household!! He screamed at Kaiya and her mother, as he burst through the door, letting his rage propel him. He tossed furniture aside as he lunged for the women. And as he tore through their tiny house he upended something. Hidden in a piece of pottery that he had accidentally smashed he found the money the two women had been hiding away to escape with. Infuriated Kaiya’s father kept at the nearest thing to him, his daughter, and began to beat her with a rage he had never before exhibited. Crying that he had been cursed with a demon for a daughter and that why  he had no sons. When he mother tried to save her his fury turned to her instead. Reaching for something to strike her with the mad man grabbed the pot over the fire and flung the boiling hot liquid at his wife. But without hesitation Kaiya had kept between her mother and the scalding liquid. It splashed over her back and she let out a scream as if she were dying. This sound snapped her father out of his rage just enough to realize what had happened. He tried to blubber out an apology once he saw the terrible burn that now covered the entirety of his daughters back. Through gritted teeth Kaiya told her father in a steady voice to leave and never return to their house. In a stupor the man simply nodded and stumbled out of the house. That night Kaiya and her mother fled to the nearest train station and purchases tickets to a station as far away as they could afford.<br/><br/>On that train ride and Kaiya sat in the most excruciating pain she had ever suffered, trying to comfort her sobbing mother, a stranger approached them. It’s was a foreign woman, dressed in a strange green and blue robe with a hood. She offered to help Kaiya and her mother, and said she had seen what had happened. Kaiya did not believe this until the woman recounted the nightmare she and her mother had just undergone. As her jaw hung open in surprise this mysterious woman reached out to touch Kaiya’s wounded back. The girl went to wince in pain but a warmth radiated from the woman’s hand and Kaiya’s back suddenly no longer ached. Pulling back her hood and speaking to Kaiya again the woman introduced herself as the goddess Hera. She mentioned she had been keeping an eye on Kaiya for some time now. She saw in her a champion she could rely on, a woman who protected other women and upheld the virtues of marriage and motherhood. Hera could use a girl like Kaiya. And if she agreed to come with her the goddess promised to take care of both Kaiya and her mother. And that no man would ever harm her mother again so long as she lived.<br/><br/>That was three years ago. Kaiya said goodbye to her mother a she was taken by Hera to a new home, Blessed Falls Village. Her mother was put up in a nice and comfortable home far from her father in Tokyo, and Kaiya sends her letters to stay in touch. She had spent the last three years learning what it meant to be blessed by the gods and her new role to play in carrying out the wishes of her new patron. Kaiya feels she owes her life, her safety, and everything she now has to Hera. She wants to make her goddess proud and prove that her faith placed in Kaiya is well deserved.<br/><br/><br/><strong>FACE CLAIM:</strong>Yukie Nakama<br/><strong>WRITER:</strong>Thunder Splash