Koani Grader

Description

In terms of height and weight, Koani is slightly a bit taller than average (5'9"). Her frame is somewhat willowy which tends to lend itself well to the flowing clothes that she likes to wear. Her face is shaped like that of a vulpine, small, short-muzzled and quite streamlined. Her main fur colouration is a dark violet-blue. Each of her feet and hands look as if they have been dipped in violet. Koani's ears and top of her head (the colour runs in a widening strip from her nose, expanding to cover the entire top and back portion of her head) are also violet. Koani's hair is what she considers to be one of her best features. It's quite long and reaches down to around her thighs when she's standing up. The colour of it is a pale almost-white aqua. Rightfully that of a Graders. Her tail is also quite long. At the base of her spine it begins with short violet hair but after about four inches from the base, long pale aqua hair, not any different than the rest of her hair, begins to grow. Koani's eyes are a pale blue-green colour and are flawed by small random tinctures of light pink.

The thill's strangest features come courtesy of her Lukuo genes. Starting at the top of her head and travelling all along the entire length of her spine to her tail are large (4" to 7") porcupine quill-like spikes. Similarly to porcupine quills, they are fairly flexible and have the ability to move up and down through the use of small muscles on Koani's back. In addition to the spikes on her back, there are four spikes on each of Koani's forearms. These are made out of a thicker and more durable substance than her back quills. Unlike her other spikes, the ones on her arms are actually quite dangerous. They have the ability to secrete a muscle sedative (a type of tetrodotoxin) that can temporarily numb opponents or even be fatal in strong enough doses.Koani's left side is littered with various scars. One in particular spans from her chest all the way around her left shoulder and to her back. It causes her the greatest hindrance. The muscle tissue underneath the wound has been damaged so severely that it's left Koani's left arm practically crippled. Out of (stubborn) pride and respect for her fallen comrades, she has refused time and time again to have this injury fixed. Because of this Koani is very rarely seen in quadruped form.It can be said for certain that Koani likes to dress up "pretty." Her sense of style is a little exotic and oftentimes eccentric. She likes clothes with interesting patterns, bold colours, and draping material. It would be a very rare day indeed to catch her in a plain pair of jeans and a sweater.

Koani is always wearing some sort of jewellery. Whether it be earrings in her multi-pierced ears, bracelets, or strangely foreign necklaces.On each of her biceps there are three tattooed bands: the ones on her left arm done in black ink, the ones on her right done in yellow. In addiction to this, a rather intricate organic looking yellow tattoo covers the bulk of her right forearm.

Personality

Koani for the most part is a very open and friendly Lukuo. At times when she wants to get something done she can be manipulative. She's not afraid to play people against one another in order to get her own desired outcome. Due to her high-class upbringing and like of nice things, Koani can sometimes be a little "snooty" and forceful. She is a very determined individual and will stop at almost nothing when she has a goal in sight. When she does get frustrated, Koani can be mildly sarcastic.Despite all of this, Koani struggles with her identity. She is still coming to terms with who she is as opposed to who she was. She strongly believes that she should have died alongside her husband on the battlefield, as that would have been an "honourable" death. At times Koani likes to try to "drown her sorrows" with alcohol. However, her substance abuse stops there.

History

Koani was born on Ajita, the eldest of eleven children to Zamfir and Karryasa Grader. Throughout most of her younger life, she was ushered around from one private school to the next. Most of these private schools were situated on Ajita, another was in Aurius (she studied law and politics there). The sole public school that Koani eventually attended was Janardan Academy (her parents more so wanted her to go there, as somewhat of a friendly gesture to the community as Janardan was one of the schools that they regularly funded). Koani, in a desperate attempt to escape her parent's rigorous training sessions, eventually took up jewellery making as a hobby. At the time, they encouraged her hobby and even had a small studio built for their daughter.

She ended up enjoying this hobby so much that she eventually decided that she'd major in it (much to everyone else's surprise). Around that time, Koani was also seeing Sabre Lapices. His family was in her parent's "upper-class" social circle but his trades were not exactly what her father would approve of. Sabre was very much into Space Exploration. He wanted to see the stars and be places that no one else had been. There was also the problem of Sabre's homely younger sister Jaceen who liked to stick to his side like glue. Sabre knew that telling Jaceen about Koani would hurt her, so out of the best interest of his sister, he kept his involvement with Koani secret.

Sabre and Koani wound up eloping. Their secret was later discovered when Jaceen discovered the two of them together. Jaceen, normally a quiet and subdued character, exploded on Koani, accusing her of manipulating her older brother. Zamfir and Karryasa were much more understanding. Although the marriage had come as an initial shock, eventually they warmed up to Sabre. Koani later tried to make amends with Jaceen (seeing Jaceen unhappy had really made Sabre upset) by securing her a position on Janardan's teaching staff. Koani and Jaceen became "chummy" for a little while but eventually had a falling out. The two really didn't have much in common aside from Sabre.

Koani had three kids with Sabre: Vela, Mystique, and Cayson. All three children had the telltale colours of the Lapices clan and next to no traits or colourations from their mother. This disheartened Koani a little, but she adored her children all the same. For several years, the family lived together. Relatively happy. There had been numerous scares involving hits on Zamfir and Karryasa who had been Arch Magos and Magosai for quite some time now.

Sadly, while Koani and Vela were visiting Zamfir and Karryasa, there had been some trouble with the security. Vela wound up being a defector's victim. She was shot and killed before anyone had the chance to do anything. Zamfir and his private Head of Security officer made an "example" out of the defector. However, that couldn't replace the hole that had been blown into the Grader's family. From then on, security around the Grader compound was increased three hundred fold. Many years again passed without serious events.

Eventually Sabre was confronted with an opportunity of a lifetime. The Dragyn family, who had been long-time space explorers, invited him to join their ranks for a study that was to be conducted on another planet in a galaxy a few jumps away. The mission was only to be a short one. They were to go to the planet, collect a few samples, run a few tests, and then return home with their findings. The mission was to be "family friendly" so the invitation extended to the rest of Sabre's family as well. One day found Sabre, Koani, Mystique, and Cayson along board a ship with multitudes of Dragyns and several other exploration scientists. The destination? Candrice IV.

The journey to the faraway planet went without a hitch. The beginning experiments went well also. Candrice IV was to be evaluated as a potential future planet for Ramath-lehi to colonize. Its environment was lush and full of life. It seemed to almost be too perfect - which ended up being the case. At dawn when most of the mission members were just awaking, Candrice IV was invaded by the Rapine.

Koani and Sabre had already been long since awake, running diagnostics several miles away from base camp with several comrades. As a result, the mates found themselves blocked off from escape. For a while, they were able to fend off the Rapine with the use of some of their hand-held U.S.R. issued guns. Flood after flood of Rapine came. Koani watched as several of her comrades fell, Rapine slashing them down and then latching onto their bodies in order to rip out their souls. Then they were upon her. Biting, slashing, and clawing. She couldn't see Sabre as she fought roughly to free herself, stabbing at her opponents with her arm spikes. Then came the fatal blow that brought Koani crashing down. It felt as if her entire left arm from her left shoulder/chest area onward had been hacked right off. She fell, blinding white light invading her eyes, and then she was out cold.

For one reason or another, Koani's life was spared. Instead of becoming a Rapine's meal, she was taken captive by a Draconis Rapine. She was sold, stolen, and given to various Rapine after that. She never seemed to be in one place for any longer than a week. The final blow she had received on the battlefield had left her entire left arm maimed and useless. The Rapine made sure that her injuries didn't become infected, but aside from that, they abused her freely. For seven long years this continued. Near the end of this time, Koani found herself the captive of an enigmatic Draconis Rapine who called himself Vortex. Vortex, despite being highly intelligent, was a bit of a scatterbrain. Koani herself had developed into a highly paranoid, yet increasingly manipulative figure. By commanding help from some of the other captives that Vortex was housing and then enlisting the assistance from an outside force, Koani was able to escape from Vortex's clutches. Unfortunately (or fortunately), her escape landed her right in the midst of the Rapine's invasion on Earth. She was able to hail a Ramathian U.S.R. vessel out of sheer luck it seems and eventually make it back to Ramath-lehi.

Once back, Koani had to take in and deal with several drastic changes. The first one being to cope with Sabre's death. She had known all along that he'd probably been killed, but finally seeing his grave site where his buried remains were made it official. She then sought out her offspring. Mystique was nowhere to be found. Apparently, she had changed her name and gone off to parts unknown, not liking the danger involved being related to the Grader family line. However, Cayson was relatively easy to locate. In Koani's absence, he'd been adopted by Jaceen and was now living at Janardan. She attempted to persuade him into coming to live with her once again but Cayson refused. The years in which she had been absent had created a large gap between mother and son. Cayson appeared to be quite comfortable with his current lifestyle so Koani let him be.

Over time, Koani regained some strength in her left arm. She had flat out refused to have any surgery preformed on it. She took up creating jewellery and other fancy items again, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't fit back into her old lifestyle. She had become too different. Keeping her jewellery career on the sidelines now, Koani started to delve into other matters of interest.

With the murder/disappearance of her mother, Koani jumped to her father's aid without hesitation. She took care of him and eventually began taking over all of his duties. Her insertion into a place of power had been so quick and flawless that no one had balked at it. The people needed someone to lead them while Zamfir recuperated and she appeared to be up to the task.