Shukotsu Okau

Description

Shu is a jack of all trades and a master of few; if he can't do it, you can bet you'll come back one day and he'll be able to do it then.

Physical Description



Shukotsu is large, standing at 7'0 and weighing nearly 340 pounds. What he is proud to admit is that almost none of his weight is fat, but in fact muscle. He comes from a long line of large arden and small thills, and his parents believe it's something to do with their genes. His pelt is light blonde in color, with dark brown--almost black--markings on his muzzle, legs, and the fingers of his wings. Due to a close friendship with a Feydragon tribe, Shu was gifted with fronima-infused tattoos across his chest and stomach, and around his upper arms. Another encompasses the right side of his face, shaped a bit like a Celtic Knot. These, and his strange second pair of wings--somewhat like those of a butterfly combined with those of a bat, though incredibly small in comparison to his large stature--have made many believe he's some sort of freak child of the fair folk.

 

Atop his head, his normally dark brown hair is cut into a mohawk, curled ridiculously tight due to the curl in his hair. The top is bleached white-blonde, though he's let the color grow out a lot, so his dark brown roots show on about three quarters of the mohawk. His eyes are russet orange, shocking in their color and piercing in their ferocity. His features are fastened after those of a terran bat, and he has their maw and even their ears and large eyes, as well as a large, thick tuft of extra-long fur just under his neck, on his chest. His fur is otherwise very short and luxuriously soft, covered in leopard spots in gray and brown. His largest set of wings, strangely enough, are fashioned after a bat's as well; their membrane grows from his hips up his sides and arms to his wrists, with the fingers between them growing at odd angles out of the joint. They give him a wingspan of about twelve feet, and he can in fact glide for long periods on them. His second pair are fixed more naturally to his shoulderblades, and are shaped like those of a butterfly, though they, too, oddly enough, have fingers along their edges, which stretch rounded membranes between them and give him a second wingspan of about four feet. These help him change direction in the middle of a glide, though he has yet to master their full capabilities. He has two tails, which are thick and seem mostly made up of fur, somewhat like those of a terran lemur, though they are much fluffier, and somewhat thicker.

 

Personality

 

Kotsu might not be considered kind or gentle if you passed him on the street, but seeing him with the children during his act, or in a restaurant or cafe after a long day of performing, he could be considered passive, at first glance. He's not going to get up and start a fight if someone upsets him, not unless there's any money in it; and he's not going to chase away children who've seen his act and approach him on one of his off-days to see if he'll teach them a trick. Shu is, really, a caring man; he likes giving candy to babies, he'll help an old kiom cross the street--anything for the community he's currently thriving on. Beneath that, however, Shu enjoys a little violence. Every time he walks into a dark alley in Bhim, or even enters the city itself, he hopes someone will jump him--try to steal his money, try to mug him, try to kill him--so he can let out a little excess anger, show them why they shouldn't mess with him. He has the air of someone just waiting for someone to step out of line, and perhaps that is the reason so few actually do what he secretly aches for. Only the crazy ones, really.

 

One might point out that, as a master fighter, he could participate in any sort of fighting competition--most of them will accept anyone Apprentice and up, and some even to the Basics--but Shu doesn't want that. He might do it for extra money if his show isn't doing well, but the reason he doesn't like doing so is because of the rules. Some, one would say, don't have rules, but Shukotsu has a strict moral code--it wouldn't allow him to beat a man to a pulp, leave him for dead, for money. To protect himself, certainly; but in a ring? Where his opponent doesn't have any and every chance to escape?

 

Shu doesn't do that. Shu also would never hit a thill, or a child, which is why most of them get along so well with him, when they learn his code. They aren't in danger from him; they can completely relax in a way another arden just wouldn't be able to. And yet if one of them ever tried to rob him--a thill, or a child--Shu could just as easily pin them without hurting them in any way, and turn them over to law enforcement. It's why he became a Master of fighting; as a Journeyman, he just didn't know how to attack without injuring. It took training under a Master himself to learn.

 

History

 

Shukotsu was born into a large family, and although the only Lukuo born to his parents, he was well-loved and taken care of. His mother was a scholar, and she had a huge library at her disposal. Shukotsu spent much of his time there, reading through the amazing books about all sorts of things--biokenesis, chemistry, alchemy, aerokinesis. Only a few interested him, and when his mother explained he'd inherited a few talents, he focused more on those. An innate ability for fighting, for example; he honed it with his brothers, fighting and wrestling until he could beat them even though they were older than he was. It seemed the younger a brother of the Okau family was, the better-trained he was, and Shu was the youngest. Biokenesis was another ability; he spent many hours out in the yard, practicing rolling a rock across the ground, or making the grass grow longer--which always got him in trouble, as it required his father to go out and cut it more than once a week. He learned many things as he studied there, and when he finally set out into the world at fifteen, he was ready to begin his life--on his own.