Profile
Kori Omoide is a technology enthusiast, programmer, and one of the owners of the café in Myrios. Initially declining a tech support position for the company Ares, she later becomes entangled in their affairs when they blame a boy named Phantom for the poisonings that begin in the city. To go undercover and prove his innocence, she takes on the role of employee Marun Ookami at Ares.
Originally from a strange land called Curiah, Kori was banished a few years prior and had her memories altered. However, as she uncovers the secrets around her, eventually she's forced to confront her old life and old self in order to find Curiah's connection to the dangers in Myrios she can't seem to keep herself from uncovering.
Contents [toggle]
Kori has black hair and brown eyes, although her eyes later become gold when her body is forced to regenerate. She has a petite frame, and she is 5'3". Her eyes have dark circles beneath them, and she is noted by others to often look like she's glaring, though it is not her intention to glare. Her hair is rough and thick, and it reaches past her lower back. She wears one of a few different outfits: a red and black varsity jacket, a black suit with a red tie, or her café uniform. Her blood is black and shimmering, although it used to be red before it was exposed to energy from her homeland.
In her Curian form, she has dusty red scales, gold eyes, deer-like ears, and black spots on her ears and tail. She has six clear dragonfly wings that are always pointed downwards, as she cannot move them. Her hands can extend talon-like claws. Below each eye is a vertical line three quarters down her cheeks, with three vertically aligned spots by each one. She also has small fangs in this body.
In her Origin Curian form, the body she had before she took a human-like form, she has the body of a red beast with six legs, mule-like ears, and a strong jaw. Long tufts of black fur fall over her face and blend into the lizard-like scaly structures of her body.
Kori lives in a technologically advanced city called Myrios in the year 2025. While the city is crowded, it is also fairly bright, and blurs the line between crisp futurism (best seen in the 50 floor skyscraper at the center of the city) and old fashioned design (best seen in the cobblestones and stone fountain in the town square, and the small brick buildings in one of the shop districts). While most of the city is walkable, a richer part of town with large mansions is rather distant from the main city, and requires vehicle travel. As the city has focused its efforts on practical and convenient technology and medical progress, there aren't flashy symbols of advancement such as flying cars or hoverboards -- instead holograms, efficient control of information, and the development of experimental energies and procedures are prioritized, creating extra convenience to the average citizen at the expense of those who disrupt the plans of Ares, the company that runs the city.
She can most often be found in her café (a humble brick building with ivy on the outside and checkered floors and countertops), a log house (reminiscient of an old cottage) outside the city which looks over the woods, at an abandoned concrete building, or in a futuristic hospital that makes use of strange devices and hologram technology.
Kori is aloof, hyper aware of how others perceive her, and a massive pushover. Nosy and prone to prying into others' business, she's often unprepared for the outcomes of said prying, especially when it puts attention on her. Most of the time she's good natured though, even though she doesn't always understand how to interact with others properly. She does care a lot for the people in her life, she just shows it by learning just a little bit too much about them, and trying to solve their problems for them, even when she doesn't realize that it's not always the most helpful. She's also rather stubborn and determined, so when she wants to know something, she pushes herself beyond her physical limits until she is successful. She often tries to hide this, as well as the resulting exhaustion, as she doesn't want to concern others and would rather handle things herself. Her tendency to do just about anything for her plans conflicts with her preference to avoid unwanted attention.
As Kori is addicted to a strawberry coffee flavoring powder that Ares had previously issued a voluntary recall on, many of her stubborn and determined traits work to her disadvantage when it is involved. She is incredibly secretive about it, even when it is killing her, and her tendency to dismiss information that she believes to be her own overblown theories causes her to ignore the effects it has on her. Even when she does finally acknowledge that it's hurting her, she relies on it and goes to extreme lengths to keep drinking the coffee, and she resents the efforts she takes to have it even though she always justifies it in the moment.
Kori often disregards her own health and safety. Even before she knew about her ability to revive each time she died, she accepted that she would just end up getting hurt or put in dangerous situations, but once she learns of this ability, she becomes desensitized to the concept of her own death (although she often still is shaken by the deaths of others). She uses it as a way to get out of many situations or use herself as a target so others are spared the full force of the danger. She has a sense of dry humor about her own demise at worst, and sees it as a valuable asset at best, although because of this, she's extremely affected by forms of peril that don't outright kill her, as she doesn't know how to handle these and the possible permanence of them.
Origin Curian
Like all Curians, Kori hatched from a large egg. Unlike most Curians, she was born an Origin Curian, a strange beast that comes from a different reincarnation cycle than modern Curians. Because the monarchy at the time sought to use Origin Curians as weapons of war, the creature, called the Third One, was hidden by her brother Sacchan Kurouto in the Sae Mountain Range in Northern Curiah. He took the role of her Keeper, a role for those who look after the sacred creatures of Curiah. She lived in the mountain range, while Sacchan imported technology from Earth so she could satisfy her fascination with it while never wondering what was outside the mountains.
Except, Sacchan's idea of keeping her safe led to discussions with organizations on Earth and a group he inherited from their father Areios, the Ares Order. He decided to build a city to send the Third One to, and transported Curian energy and resources there to sustain the Third One's life, as Curians can't live without Curian energy. However, the Third One didn't want to leave or take a new form, until Sacchan bribed her with her interest in technology to convince her to go along with it. He gave her a name, Kori Omoide, which their mother Doroi wanted her to have. She took on a modern Curian form, and Sacchan gave her his sweater, left for Earth, and left her to learn how to be a modern Curian on her own.
Pre-Banishment
Kori, who also became known as Countess Kornephoros due to Curian interest in star-based names for nobility, remained in Northern Curiah for a while. She became friends with the Curian princess, Talitha Ursae, who wanted her to get out of her comfort zone (although, Kori never revealed her reason for being so withdrawn, her life as an Origin Curian). In this time, Sacchan never returned -- unbeknownst to Kornephoros, he had his memories removed once he reached Earth for having taken the energy. So, Kornephoros became close with Talitha and went along with her goals, even joining a theatre group for her. She did stage lighting for a while, and later took roles of princes and dukes because of her Curian ability of perception alteration. Talitha also took interest in Kornephoros' curse, which was to die many times and revive back into the same life. Eventually, Talitha convinced Kornephoros to be an assassin for her, and to kill the current ruler at the coronation.
Kornephoros met Prince Phecda at his coronation, where she brought a dagger on Talitha's request. She told him she brought a message from his sister. He seemed disinterested in the coronation until he realized she wasn't interested in the nobility, so the two went out to the garden and connected rather well with each other, although Phecda didn't know she still intended to kill him. She convinced him to take her to a quiet place. When he did, she gave him a pale green scarf, and when she wrapped it around the back of his neck, she plunged the dagger into his back. He accepted his fate and didn't panic, but she realized she didn't want to kill him. She begged him to live. Although it is not known how he made his recovery, he still retains a scar from the incident. It wasn't until years later that Kori learned Talitha thought her father would be there to be killed rather than her brother Phecda.
Kornephoros and Phecda started dating at some point, and eventually got engaged. However, the Curian Council, a governing body in the land, realized Kornephoros knew about Sacchan's betrayal. Thinking she also was complicit in the theft of Curian energy, they decided she had to be banished as well. When Phecda heard of this, he pushed ahead their wedding, as they couldn't banish her if she was their queen. They kept the wedding a secret, although they weren't careful enough. The Council and the Curian Protector Goddess Shika appeared before the wedding was complete, stripped Kornephoros of her memories and altered them, and banished her from Curiah before the wedding papers were completely signed. Phecda resolved to find her, but he was assured Kornephoros wouldn't remember him.
Post-Banishment
With Kori's memories altered, she knew herself as Kori Omoide, born on Earth in 2002, who lived a mostly uneventful life, and whose brother left for work with a company called Ares. At this point, it was the year 2023. She had a pet cat, a stray called Tsumi with the greek letter gamma on his collar, and she dedicated herself to her IT passions. It was for these passions she was invited to the city of Myrios, created by Ares, to work for the company as an entry level IT technician. She moved to Myrios and almost immediately felt out of place, but before she could leave, she was stopped by a man named Phecda Shioto, who wanted to become friends with her. Unbeknownst to her, Tsumi was Phecda, and when she moved, he got himself an invitation as well to finally get a fresh start to meet her. He offered that they start a cafe together, so she agreed, and they opened their cafe. They ran it as close friends for two years before shutting it down for renovations in the summer of 2025, in response to business slowing because of the popularity of a coffee favoring Ares released and then subsequently stopped producing.
In Poisoner's City
When the cafe was ready to reopen, Phecda noticed Kori was worried about the future of the cafe. They were distracted by an announcement from Ares over the news, announcing that a man named Phantom was responsible for 2000 deaths in the city so far. Though both concerned, they shut down the cafe as normal. The mayor called a town meeting the next day, and on the way, Kori ran into a man who knocked her over -- a man who fit the exact description of Phantom, except wearing glasses instead of a mask. However, he was looking for a mask, and asked Kori to help find it. She decided she didn't want to be involved, but she caved in and brought the mask to him when she saw it. He told her not to be seen around him for her own safety, and he disappeared in a strange swirl of light. She decided it was too early to trust her eyes. She met up with Phecda and didn't tell him about Phantom. When the mayor declared Phantom was to be turned in at all costs, Phecda looked startled, and Kori wondered about Phantom's intentions.
They went back to the cafe after the meeting, where Kori met Goodwin Arcana, a new hire. Goodwin invited Kori and Phecda to her house after the end of the next shift. She introduced them to Nezumi Iro, a human experiment she rescued from the Ares Building in the center of the city. Kori awkwardly talked with them, but didn't quite connect well with them yet. She would later become closer with Goodwin for the chance to see Phantom again once it seemed that Phantom was targeting Goodwin, so she walked Goodwin home at the end of the closing shift in case Phantom made himself known. She got a taxi back from Goodwin's house. The taxi driver was rude towards her and she politely accepted it until it was clear he didn't drive her home. Instead, he locked her into the cab in the parking lot of a convenience store at the edge of the city, paralyzed her with a strange ability, and left her without an escape. She called out that there was a fire hoping to get someone's attention from the convenience store, and a man with a flashlight and a fire extinguisher arrived to help her. Even though the taxi driver brought her out of the vehicle and confronted the stranger, he cut open her throat before the stranger shot him and brought Kori to safety.
Kori recovered for two weeks in the man's basement. The man, the Myrios mayor Soru, returned after that time shocked to find that Kori had stayed in the basement hooked up to the medical equipment instead of exploring the rest of the house. He brought strawberry pastries for Kori. He showed her the house, and they decided (as Soru reminded Kori of her brother and Kori reminded him of his sister) to be temporary sibings for each other. However, when Kori found out Soru took her memories of the incident and edited it to make her think it was a car accident instead of an attack for her own safety, she didn't trust him and saw him only for the murder he committed to keep her safe. He checked on her later and when she realized he still cared, she felt guilty for seeing him as someone that would hurt her. They reconciled the next day and went to the cafe, where Kori realized Phecda was afraid of Soru, and they had to chase him down out of the cafe to get their order. (They didn't get it after). Kori was concerned why Phecda wanted Soru to think they didn't know each other.
The next morning, Kori went on an early walk while it was still dark. She got rammed by a motorcycle and slightly injured, and she was found by Phantom, who insisted on helping her. She was shocked someone who apparently killed 2000 people cared about her safety, and he hinted at a general loathing of seeing others die. He insisted on not letting her stay collapsed in the street. He commented that she must have been worrying her friends with wounds like hers. He also showed more care for her as a person than he wanted to show to anyone. Before he could attend to her wounds, he was attacked by a citizen, a pet store owner, with a shock collar. Phantom lied to the attacker and said Kori wasn't an accomplice of his, and that she was there because he was going to kill her. When the man was gone and Phantom was succumbing to the shock collar, Kori ignored the pain of her wounds to retrieve a screwdriver set from the cafe. When she got there, Phecda was there, in pain, and covering his neck, although she dismissed the possibility that Phecda was Phantom sufferign from the shock collar out of denial. She brought the set back to Phantom, who had moved positions, and unlatched the collar. She took care of Phantom for the rest of the morning. He changed her bandages to thank her, and invited her back for 8pm that evening, promising to finally reveal his identity to her. She went back to Soru's house to get ready, but Soru forbade her from going to meet anyone that night, since Phantom had been sighted by a citizen. She left anyway for Phantom's abandoned station. He greeted her and poured her some wine, and she got right to the point; she wanted to finally know who Phantom was behind the mask. He started by saying he received a note from Ares that he had been found and he would be detained. Kori started to put things together: Phantom was too concerned for human life to kill people. The note from Ares matched false evidence "from" Phantom. Phantom's actual handwriting was Phecda's handwriting that she knew so well. After a bit of back and forth, and an exchange where neither wanted the truth hidden nor known, Kori learned the truth. Phecda, her coworker and friend, was Phantom, alleged murderer and her crush. Phecda apologized to her and told her he had to disappear, worried now for her safety. Kori felt conflicted about the idea that Phecda could have killed people. They parted in a bittersweet manner. Kori read Phecda's journals to find the truth, and found that he moved to Myrios explicitly to find her.
Kori looked for Phecda the next day, and instead found that Goodwin had hired Kai Teiriku at the cafe. Kai was another human experiment rescued from medical testing in the Ares Building. It was a busy day, and afterwards when Goodwin and Nezumi went to the mall, Kai and Kori were expected to join them. As a gesture of friendship, Kai bought an outfit for Kori, although she thought the men's clothing didn't suit her (an indication of her pressure on herself to conform to not attracting attention). It became useful later; Soru was mad that she went out when he said not to, and he wouldn't open the door. She formulated a plan to pretend to be a pizza delivery man, wearing the clothes Kai bought her, to get Soru to open the door. She called this persona Marun Ookami, and even though Soru was skeptical, Marun was able to swipe a key when he distracted Soru by fixing an Ares hologram profile app that had been broken for a while. He offered Marun a job at Ares for his help, and Marun realized this was the key to getting inside Ares to prove Phantom innocent. He then worked as Marun at Ares and as Kori at the cafe. He met Dexter, Rex, and Wren on the Floor Nine Team (a team for It technicians to fix and test Ares technology), and found out that Kai worked there as well. Kai, recognizing the clothes, knew Kori was Marun, but no one else knew. He got along well with the team. He even remedied things with Soru at home as Kori, and Soru finally admitted he now knew they were siblings. Kori didn't tell him her plans to be undercover as his employee, even when Soru said he was leaving the city for a Phantom-related work trip for a while.
Marun went to find Phantom the next day, and followed him outside the city, even though it was illegal for citizens to leave the city due to the toxin. He found Phantom in old ruins surrounded by crows. When Marun tried to introduce himself as an Ares employee, Phantom hypnotized him with his hypnotic eyes in front of a crowd. Because of the fractionation method used, Marun's mind was really foggy, and he admitted he knew Phantom's identity. Luckily, when he was snapped out of the trance, he was able to clear up the misunderstanding and tell Phecda that he was Kori. He told Phantom that he could help now that Kori wasn't in any danger of being seen with him.
The next day, Kai introduced Marun to a coffee flavoring powder that he found in the desks in the office. He knew Marun liked strawberries, so he let Marun have it, and Marun enjoyed it enough that he already wanted to swipe the rest of it. However, when he spilled the powder and breathed it in, it hurt his lungs. He went to the nurse, although he swore there was nothing wrong. Using the excuse to get out of the office, Marun snooped around the Ares Building after that and found Soru talking to a scientist about the real person responsible for the toxin, suggesting that Ares would fall under scrutiny if anyone knew. His satisfaction with learning more didn't last long; Wren excitedly told Marun that Phantom was found dead. Marun rushed to the ruins and saw Phantom in a glass coffin surrounded by news teams, and he rushed to check if Phantom was still alive. Soru questioned him. Marun pretended to be under a spell in a rather unconvincing way, but Soru took this at face value, giving Marun enough time to realize that Phantom wasn't dead, he was just under his own trance from the reflection of his eyes in the glass. Soru had Marun taken to Laboratory 12 in the Ares Building to be reprogrammed, a procedure Kai told Marun about before that is meant to rewrite parts of a person's personality. The scientist from before, Dr. Garu Orochi, forced Marun into the reprogramming machine. Marun panicked before the procedure began and forced his way out of the machine, and with his judgement clouded, took down his hair and went up to Floor Nine to calm down. Soru was there and asked if she was there to find him for comfort since Phecda supposedly died. She bitterly shut down and didn't answer him, even though he attempted to comfort her. Kori went back to a regular life and worked at the cafe with Phecda, Goodwin, and Kai, and she separated Kori's and Marun's lives as much as possible.
When October 13th arrived, Kai wanted to walk to work with Marun. On the way, he wanted to see the sunrise. He told Marun that Ares found a cure to the toxin in his code and wanted to reprogram him to get it, and Marun wondered what happened to people if they couldn't escape like he did. When they reached the hill, Kai made a few comments that scared Marun, but the former wouldn't admit to any intentions of his. At work, Soru told them that Wren had passed away. Kai was distraught, but Marun didn't mind because of Wren's hatred of Phantom. After that, Kai lied to Marun and said he left something at the hill, but Marun saw it through the door window when he closed the faulty door, which got stuck. He went to the front desk to have the door fixed. The person he asked at the desk notified him that Kai was at the top floor window and seemed to be in danger. Marun tried to get up the 50 floors as fast as possible and thankfully got the door unstuck before Kai fell. Kai was already on the ledge at this point, and he admitted he didn't want to fall, but he was scared to go back inside because he would be reprogrammed again. Marun went out onto the ledge to help him back in, but Kai pushed him back in through the glass to safety, taking his own balance in the process. Kai fell to his death. Dr. Orochi collected Kai's body and dismissed Marun from work.
Kori moved outside the city with Phecda to a log house he had. Although she wanted to leave everything behind, touching the fabric of Phecda's scarf caused memories of Curiah to come back, which distressed her. Phecda told her a bit about their old life together. It was then that Kori first learned that she was destined to die and revive many times in her life, something she feared. She had a dangerous run-in outside the woods one day with a group that knew the taxi driver which left her exhausted when Goodwin showed up at the door to notify Kori and Phecda that Ares had started doing patrols to see if anyone was leaving the city illegally. She diverted their attention with her cloaking abilities, but Kori felt ill -- she had been drinking the strawberry coffee again after keeping her addiction to it hidden for a while, and the respiratory effects had finally caught up to her.
She woke up in Goodwin's house, where she had been taken by her worried friend to recover after she passed out. Fighting through withdrawal symptoms of the coffee flavoring powder, she decided to take Goodwin's dog Zuno for a walk. She first went to the mall where Kai took her before, but left when she overheard strangers discussing having seen Marun on the news before. She went to the electronics shop that replaced the cafe when neither she nor Phecda could manage it anymore. Soru was there and Kori challenged him about Ares, which surprised him. He in turn challenged her about the coffee in her travel mug, asking if Kai had given it to her, and telling her to stop drinking it. She didn't make the connection it was the toxin because she didn't want to believe Kai would ever hurt her, so she decided whatever the coffee was, it was Ares' fault for making it in the first place. When she tried to go back to Goodwin's house, a tall boy stopped her and blocked the sidewalk. She tried to communicate with him, but he didn't remember anything, and he was hesitant when he called himself "Teku". He showed Kori a branding that read [Property of Ares] as well as many stitched incisions, lascerated the branding with a sharp rock, and bled sky blue blood. Kori told him to go to the hospital. He refused. He knocked the coffee mug from her hand and apologized with much difficulty, and let her go on her way again.
When Kori saw Goodwin again, it was when Goodwin became a mother. Kori went to the hospital to be moral support, but Goodwin's Curian daughter hatched not as a baby, but as a goddess that had been around for hundreds of years, and used Goodwin to come to Earth to retrieve Curian energy stolen by Ares. Goodwin passed away shortly after Aven's hatching -- the two had a contract so Aven (the goddess Shika) could be on Earth for her mission, and Goodwin would be sent home to Curiah. Kori and Aven didn't get along, although Kori didn't yet know Aven was the goddess that stole her memories of Curiah. Outside the hospital, Teku found Kori again, now deciding his name must have been Tekuka. He handed Kori a CD and was able to communicate that he had amnesia. He said he knew Kori was somewhere, but he couldn't communicate where. Aven wanted to take the CD, having come to Earth knowing that Tekuka was Ares' vessel for the extra energy, but Kori wanted to watch it. In it, she saw Kai, stitched up and somehow alive again, talking to Dr. Orochi. He didn't want to be revived and rebuilt, so he asked the doctor to remove his memories and change his appearance if he was destined for another life of being a subject of Ares' medical experiments. Kori watched Kai be turned into Tekuka. She began to resent Tekuka for taking away all that was left of Kai, but Phecda was accepting of Tekuka and wanted him to feel comfortable. Tekuka asked Kori if she had seen Marun, asking her to warn him that the strawberry coffee flavoring was the toxin and that he was sorry for giving it to him. In the revelation, Kori didn't realize that she was sick again, and she passed out once more.
She woke up in the hospital connected to the Ares Building, after Tekuka had brought her there. He had been restrained, so she undid his restraints so he could leave the room. Tekuka mentioned that Phecda told him about Kori's curse, and that she didn't pass out; she had died. Tekuka also had decided Kori must be Marun, since he kept thinking about her when trying to remember his old friend. He pleaded with her not to drink the coffee again. Dr. Orochi met with Kori to discuss a plan to use her to test cures, since if they failed she'd end up reviving and they could try again. She didn't want him as a doctor, but she didn't have much of a choice, as he drugged her and transported her to another room. There was already quite a commotion as Tekuka had attacked Phecda accidentally when told he had to stay so he could be used to cure Kori. Kori referred to him as Kai while trying to calm him down, and he declared he wasn't Kai repeatedly and pinned Kori to the wall, hurting her. Realizing he was hurting Marun, he felt scared and ashamed, and allowed himself to be used for the cure. Kori spent a while after that being drugged by various Ares employees to get her to also cooperate in the procedures. Even still, she overheard Aven trying to negotiate with Dr. Orochi to get Tekuka's power supply reduced, and Kori held doubt over Aven's intentions. She also witnessed Soru, rather unwell, endangering himself over the pressure and stress before his own employees dragged him away, causing further doubt in Ares as a company. In the commotion, Dr. Orochi resigned and told Kori he felt he could trust her out of anyone involved. She was taken to see Soru for the latter's comfort. By this time, her body had nearly completely given out, even with her revival ability, so when she was reunited with Phecda and Tekuka, she asked that if her body stopped working entirely, to be buried beneath an oak tree by the log house and have Phecda's abilities keep her permanently blank, so she would be functionally dead.
Ares failed to cure her. Her body stopped working. She was placed in her coffin, but with both Phecda and Tekuka grieving, Tekuka's own wounds opened so the Curian energy (the cure that had been inside him and Kai) in his blood and power supply could rebuild a new body around her old one. The body that formed was a Curian body, like Kornephoros. When Aven saw this, she stripped Kori of the Curian form, reverting this new body to a human one, and took her memories so she would think Ares cured her with their machines instead. So, Kori went back to her life in the log house and reconnected with everyone. Phecda even renewed his proposal to her, and she accepted. Although, she kept drinking the coffee, thinking a trip to the hospital could cure her if her body ever broke down that much again. Tekuka kept regenerating her. Aven kept stealing the memories. One time, however, the memory removal failed, and Kori remembered that Tekuka revived her, as well as the Curian body. Beneath the fireworks on New Year's Eve, she saw a patch of red scales appear on her hand.
In Poisoned Memories
In Poison World
Because she is from the world Curiah despite having no recollection of her life there, Kori retains certain abilities that this world gave her. These abilities are mostly passive abilities, and she was unaware of them for a long time, although she eventually learned of their presence within her. Unrelated to these, she also has certain skills that are useful to her in the troubles she finds herself in.
Curian Abilities
- Perception Alteration: Kori can make a disguise more convincing to others' perception. This power is passive, such as when Soru Omoide recognizes her as his sister after seeing her in the sweater he gave her years prior, but can be intentionally strengthened, such as when she intentionally makes her disguise as Marun Ookami impossible to see through. This power can be used on others to a weaker effect, such as when she uses it to make a decoy of Tekuka, or when she keeps Phecda out of sight in his hometown in Curiah. While those immune to abilities, such as Garu Orochi, can see through it, those who don't negate the effects of an ability on themselves may even be unable to see past its effect, even if they know it's Kori, and may have their ability to make the mental connection between her and her disguise eroded.
- Revival from Death: Kori was cursed to die and revive many times in her lifespan. She uses this to her advantage when possible to avoid permanent death, but as it cannot repair her body other than superficial wounds, she can't use it against anything that would deteriorate her body or bring her to poor health. She has become desensitized to the concept of death due to her lack of permanent consequences to corporeal danger.
- Curian Body: Kori, if in the presence of enough Curian energy, can take on a form from her homeland. In this form she is stronger, has durable red scales, and has retractable talons. She doesn't initially like this form, as it starts to take over her body without her control, but she later comes to see it as an asset.
Skills
- Technology Skills: Kori has effective skills in fixing and troubleshooting technology. While she excels in hardware-related issues, she also is able to learn new software and its issues at a quick pace. This skill helps her fix the cyborg Tekuka, access data from memory hard drives made by Ares, and identify technological threats to the plans of herself and those she allies herself with. It also allows her to have a day job, where she works under the name Marun Ookami testing and fixing technology.
- Pain Tolerance: Kori's high pain tolerance allows her to use her revival ability at will. She has put herself in fatal danger many times to progress her goals, and she has the ability to withstand an alarming amount of physical and psychological torment. This lack of reluctance to die or relent to pain is one of her best assets in times of danger, such as when Garu Orochi tried to turn her into a cyborg through surgery, or when she refused to relent to the thousands of lifetimes worth of memories Aven put in her head. Her physical fortitude keeps her from being bothered by the many times she ends up injured, and her mental willpower makes her incredibly resistant to even the strongest of abilities or methods that may otherwise harm someone's mind.
Marun Ookami
Marun is Kori's masculine presentation, which they took on so they could go undercover as an employee at Ares. Marun is what caused Kori to realize they were genderfluid, and she sees him as equally as much of her as Kori is. She doesn't tend to mind if people call her by either name. In rare cases she has found being one or the other a hassle, but this is mostly if there is someone she doesn't want to know around, such as employers or people she knew only as one presentation. While mostly the same, Marun is somewhat more open around others, as Kori doesn't have to worry as much about how she will be perceived. She even tends to alternate how she refers to herself or introduces herself to others based on what's more convenient, and to her, Kori and Marun are the exact same -- a difference from how she views her old Curian self, which she sees as a figure somewhat different from Kori/Marun -- because unlike a difference in lived experience or memories, Kori and Marun are different names and appearances for the version of herself she knows.
Phantom
Phantom initially was a curiosity of Kori's, with the two having met accidentally. Kori wanted to learn more about Phantom to the point of her going out of her way to run into him again, and Phantom, although reluctant to have her seen around him in case she'd be in danger, did start to see Kori as the only person he could trust once she saved him from a citizen that believed Ares' accusations against him. Phantom wanted to publicly distance himself from Kori so she wouldn't be seen as an accomplice, but Kori's determination to learn his identity eventually caught up to him. She was uncertain for a long time if she had a crush on him or not (being in denial for quite a while about it and telling herself she was only curious), but she eventually recognized that she was interested in him in that manner.
Phecda Shioto
Kori and Phecda started as coworkers starting a cafe together, and friends, although Phecda followed Kori when she was banished from Curiah and the two used to be engaged in their homeland. Kori saw Phecda as flighty and comforting, and Phecda kept his love for Kori a secret until she started to remember fragments of her old life and memories. They continued their relationship after this. Kori often worries about concerning Phecda with her troubles even if he wants to help, but Phecda is patient and understanding, and he wants to make sure she's willing to put her trust in him. However, he often does the same -- his flighty demeanor is a cover for his own troubles, and he isolates himself when he fears he'll worry Kori. Despite their shared issues, they love each other immensely, and when they're not in danger, they live a peaceful life in a log house outside the city together.
Tekuka
Tekuka and Kori are incredibly close friends. Although Kori resented Tekuka at first for taking away hope of getting Kai back (as Tekuka was created from Kai's revived body), eventually Kori felt bad for the fact that it was being hurt by Ares for her sake. Meanwhile, Tekuka latched onto the idea of Kori early on since he remembered vaguely when Kai knew Marun, so Kori was the only person he could remember enough to trust. Eventually though, they realized they had a lot more in common than they thought, and developed a close friendship. However, there are times when Tekuka's amnesia scares Kori enough for her to be cruel about it, and times when Tekuka's promise not to hurt Marun/Kori ever again puts Kori in more danger. Because of this, she sometimes breaks his boundaries around that matter, or expects more from him than it can reasonably give. Tekuka's guilt around Marun also tends to be exploited to put Kori in danger. Despite their somewhat codependent nature and inability to truly see each other as what they are now instead of who they used to be for each other, they also share the most close forms of comfort and vulnerability with each other in a way they feel too afraid to burden others with. Additionally, whenever the toxin poisons Kori too much, Tekuka damages its own power system to regenerate a body for her, and whenever Tekuka gets damaged, hacked, or compromised, Kori overworks herself to fix him.
Soru Omoide
Soru is Kori's older brother, although neither knew this at first. As both of their memories had been wiped or altered before arriving in Myrios, the two only met when Soru saved Kori from danger. He saved her because her sweater reminded him of his sister, so he let her recover at his mansion after the attack. They eventually learned they were each other's siblings. While they often bantered with each other, they often hit sore spots of each other's lives in their conversations. Overall, though they care for each other, Kori doesn't trust Soru to put others above his reputation even when he's hurting them, and Soru believes Kori is misguided and gets involved far too often in things that are not her business. However, Soru is eventually willing to protect Kori even at the cost of his own company, and Kori's meddling was often intended to serve as a warning to Soru that he was taking things too far. Kori's sweater, her most cherished belonging, was given to her by Soru before either of them moved to Myrios.
Garu Orochi
Even though Kori sees Garu as somewhat absentminded, he also often serves as a mentor figure, whether or not either of them want that dynamic. Garu often warns Kori when she's taking her plans too far or going to get herself or others hurt, and he has allowed her to express vulnerability in a way she often doesn't let herself show to others. However, although he genuinely is concerned for her, he also gets quite exasperated with having to keep her responsible. As well, their conflicting sides of Ares and their issues puts them in a difficult position, because while Garu cares for Kori's wellbeing, he also is willing to hurt her if she crosses the line into challenging Ares, and while Kori generally sees Garu as someone she can go to for help, her dismissal of his cruel and calculating side means she often falls right into his plans, even if she thinks she's the one in control. Garu is the one who caused one of the scars on her abdomen. Because he tried forcefully to turn her into a cyborg, she is afraid of the feeling of scalpels, even though she often is dismissive of other physical pain.
- Kori was designed on September 7th, 2013. While she diverted from her red and black color scheme for a gray and blue one in 2014-15, in 2016 her design was reverted to have the same color scheme, hairstyle, and physical features as her original 2013 design. She was originally named Coalri, then Koori, and finally Kori as she was reworked slightly for each project. The features and design of the Koori version of the design would later be turned into Kioku Kyuurei; Kori, meanwhile, is a direct port of her 2013 Coalri design with a slightly different outfit. The original name is referenced in Poison World through the Ircoal Path in Curiah.
- Because Kori's revival covers physical wounds, but not things that slowly rots away her body, she relies on Tekuka to regenerate a new body for her when her body is too damaged. Although she regrets putting him through that so often, she still doesn't avoid things that cause slow damages to her, such as poisoning, and she doesn't tend to take precautions of such things. This is a stark contrast to consequences that won't kill or physically hurt her, such as losing her memories, becoming a cyborg, or losing those she cares about -- in these cases, she will do anything to keep such things from happening, and she will become incredibly wary or sick when thinking of anything even somewhat connected to the issue at hand.
- Kori often is in conflict with herself over whether or not she sees herself through the framework of technology. She likens many of her mannerisms to technology, and sees herself rather much like a computer, but she also has resisted technological augmentation of herself, such as when she held frustration for the memory hard drive implanted in her head in Poisoned Memories, or when she resisted becoming an Ares cyborg as Project Answer. In this way, she both distances herself from her humanity while secretly holding it close, seeing herself as both faulty for not being a machine and also for being too much like one.
