Personality

LONER  | STUBBORN | ENDEARING | CURIOUS | DIFFIDENT

• Kui though mostly still terrified by the dramatic change in her life, is wildly curious about her new surroundings. Taking every opportunity to explore every crevice there is when by herself. When she's around others, she still doesn't really know who she is yet.
• (Although she hasn't had a lot of choice) Kui has stuck with studying thus far, a small seed inside of her is determined she's powerful, she just has to work for it. The days she succeeds the most are the days when people tell her she's nothing. 
• Kui has found a great passion for encouraging others, it helps her feel like she's not a failure. So she's doing her best to at least create a facade of positivity and endearment to help others succeed when she feels as though she's failing. 
• Still fearful of getting bullied for having no known abilities however, Kui tends to lash out before anyone has a chance to do it first. It's fair to say she doesn't currently have many friends... she's trying okay
• This long into study without results has Kui feeling rather defeated. Now that she's actually found a property of magic on her being it has risen 1% but mostly she's found no confidence in herself. 

(wc: 208)

History

Kui was born to two non-mages in Nymene. Mae was a heavily built ground soldier and Nia a mineral shopkeeper. With Mae away so often Nia was terribly lonely and they decided bringing a child into their life was the best solution for that. Surely they would birth a non-mage child like themselves and live happily ever after...

Instead what came out was fins, a bright pink fish tail and the hint of plant life on her shoulder, there was no denying that Kui's parents had a Mage on their hooves, but being their only child didn't want to send her away as a baby, as was Nymene law. 

Terrified of their only child being taken away to Namarast, Mae and Nia never let Kui out of their sight, particularly strict about it for her first 10 years. When she was with Nia, she was welcoming customers into the store or sorting (playing) with the minerals and if she was lucky enough to spend the day with Mae on her day off, they were out doing mock training drills or exploring the chilly wilderness, just the two of them and always covered head to toe in outfits that hid or masked any mage signs Kui carried (which is incredible for how long it lasted given her fins and fish tail) 

It was cute for a start, getting to spend so much time with her parents, but quickly Kui grew bored of never having a moment to herself, to discover new things on her own. 

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After being smothered for so much of her short life, Kui began to rebel at every turn. The moment her mother's were looking in the other direction she was sneaking off. It was one day of sneaking that it all fell apart. Not entirely looking where she was going, Kui fell into the river at the edge of the territory. Being her first time in the water, her body automatically changed into its water-form and she was absolutely amazed. She swam down as deep as she possibly could taking cheeky snaps at the fish that passed her by and wanted to snack on her plant-life. Twenty minutes passed and when she rose back out of the water, she froze. Standing on the banks shocked and enraged was a troop of soldiers, her mother included, brought over by a concerned citizen seeing a child fall into the river. Not being able to deny her mage child, Mae had to give her up. They were allowed one final night with Kui before she was sent off in the morning to Ivras.

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For a long time she didn't believe that she was magic at all, many of her scholars didn't believe she was anything special either, she had the looks but not the touch, no matter how hard she studied and tried to understand what her abilities could be. 

One day however, while being teased after class for having no special magic powers (for the 3rd year in a row), a young mage took a swipe at her with their razor sharp horn and cut several leaves in such a magical way they landed in another's gaping mouth. The moment the leaves made contact with saliva the mage's eyes dilated and appeared to send their mind out of the room in a hallucinogenic spin. Kui being absolutely terrified took off with the opportunity as the other mage bullies surrounded the affected one. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her until she was safely back in her own room, having absolutely no idea of what just happened.

The next day she was called into the biology scholar's lab, a rather eccentric light in their eyes. They had a theory about her leaves and wanted to explore it. That's where she's been studying since.
(WC: 639)

Potent Tea Leaves