Character Name: Honoka “Melody” Shirakami-sanchi
Nicknames: Melody, Mel, Mellie
Aliases: --
Name Explanation: Honoka is her given name by her parents and the Japanese, but upon learning that she would attend Horror High she decided to take on a new name to represent her new life – Melody. Her last name comes from the forest she grew up in.
Name Meaning: Honoka - From Japanese 和 (hono) "harmony" (using an obscure nanori reading) and 花 (ka) "flower". Very often it is written ほのか using the hiragana writing system. Other Scripts: 和花 (Japanese)
Melody – Greek origin meaning “music, song”.
Monster Specie Type: Kirin
Mythology/Folklore: I’ve also included a little mythology and folklore on the Kirin species so that you get an idea of where I want to go with her character.
“It was a bringer of Peace, and often was a good omen. (accompanying the arrival of a sage) The Kirin was known to walk hidden alongside a sage, it loved all living righteous things and thusly did not trample the plants it walked on.”
“It was said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a wise sage or an illustrious ruler.”
“The Kirin is a sacred animal that has good qualities, but Kirin could be wild animals and terrible when threatened.”
Gender: Female
Age: 14
Birth Date: June 14th, 1998
Place of Birth: Forest in the mountain range of Shirakami-sanchi, Japan
Residence: Horror High
(One) Power: The ability to help grow plants. By this I mean to quicken their growth from a matter of weeks to a matter of days, currently about 5. Plants that are native to the mountain range she grew up in are going to be easier for her to grow than non-native plants which she must do much more research on before she understands exactly what the plant will need. She has an affiliation with water lotuses as they are her family's symbol and she has the easiest time growing these plants.
Using her powers currently make her feel slightly fatigued as the plants use part of her energy to speed up their growth. By the end of the 5 days she normally has to sleep a full 24-hours to regain her strength. As she ages and improves her powers through practice, knowledge, and enlightenment, she’ll be able to quicken the plant growth even further, she'll have an easier time growing a wider variety of plants, she'll be able to identify plants better, and she'll be able to use less energy.
Personality:
Cautious: After her run in with the humans as a child, and naturally being trained to be in-tuned with the nature around her, to never step on a growing plant, she is cautious and careful. She tries to understand things before making quick judgments about them.
Warm-Hearted/Compassionate: As the only daughter of one of the last living tribes of blessed Kirins in the Human world she was treated much like a princess growing up. Greatly loved and respected by all those around it. But, her parents didn’t take advantage of their power and quickly showed their daughter that this treatment needed to go both ways teaching her compassion, righteousness, and how to be warm-hearted. Because of this, she loves all living things and believes everyone should be given a chance.
Righteousness: Being raised as a princess, she often saw her parents have to work out feuds. One hot springs monkey was taking more than their rightful share of the food and had to make proper decisions about what and who was right. Her parents have instilled in her these feelings of righteousness and she doesn’t like to see anyone wronged by a situation. This means things often go bad for bullies.
Compulsive: One flaw that she’s always had with her personality was compulsive behavior. She becomes obsessed with something and must know and do everything about and for it. For example, if a flower in the forest was not doing well she’d sleep next to it day and night often forgetting to eat or sleep until it was better. This has been known to cause a scare to her parents as she would forget to inform them about what was going on being too focused on the flower until days later. Luckily, in their forest news of where she was was brought to her parents’ ears, but they are concerned for her safety at Horror High if she wanders off.
Emotional Suppression: She often holds her problems to herself, and in turn, the problems of others. She keeps all her stress, pain, and anger in to a point when she snaps. Like a cornered animal she bursts after being pushed too far and goes on a rampage taking no prisoners and telling and showing everyone exactly how she thinks and feels.
Proud: She can act proud, sometimes to the point of being pretentious at times as she knows that her family line is one of the last living Kirin lines. This means, as a Princess, she often thinks herself better than other monsters, and especially better than human beings. Although she wants to live peacefully with them she still has these thoughts.
Socially-Awkward: Although she was quite excited to attend Horror High, she quickly discovered she didn't know how to interact with other monsters her age. She'd mess up her words speaking in half-English half-Japanese, blurt out the wrong thing, insult people, and otherwise just make a full of herself. She's highly embarassed about this and now, for the most part, tries not to speak unless she feels a deep need to. She's working on language abilities and trying to be more open to interacting.
Appearance
General Appearance: It’s honestly really up to the artist. I have her Kirin form completely figured out: here she is~ and I have some general design ideas in mind for her human form, but most of her clothing is still up in the air.
Height:
Weight:
Hair/Head/Tail: Pink and in one long braid that goes all the way down her back almost to her feet, tied at the very bottom with a brown ribbon. I’d like her to have the antlers and unicorn horn in her human form, as well as the tail (which also has a braid at the bottom and a ribbon tied). I also imagine her ears would be pointed, like elves, and stick out from her head quite a way, similar to the ears in Sword Art Online in Alfheim.
Eyes/Face: Her eyes should also be gold (if opened, I think you could also leave them closed if you’d like) accented with pink eye liner all the way around. Blush marks would be cute but not necessary. I imagine some freckles might be cute as well, I’ll leave that up to your artistic freedoms.
Skin Color: Is very fair. Having spent so much time in the forest covered by shade she skin tone wasn't able to develop very well.
Build: Petite, small, and lightly muscled.
Clothing Style: When I think of her outfit I imagine her in brown boots that have fluff at the top (like those but matching with her colors).
Some Sample But Not So Perfect Tekteks: Eyes in each of these should be gold with pink eyeliner...
Boots and necklaces should be brown.
With a winter cloak on.
"Proposed" Pose/Expression: I’d like her to have a cute, sweet, and inviting demeanor and expression. Maybe a pose like this.
Relationships
Relationship with Family: Good, she misses them dearly as they live in the 'normie' world, but knows she has chosen this path.
Key Family / Relatives: Her mother, father, and their subjects in the Shirakami-sanchi mountain range.
Biography
History: She was raised in a forest in the mountain range of Shirakami-sanchi, Japan with her mother and father. As a child she enjoyed running around with all the monkeys and forest spirits that lived there. Once she tried to leave the forest. She was playing a game of tag with some of the hot spring monkies when one left the boundaries of the forest, as she chased after it she heard a sharp ‘BANG’ and was startled, cart wheeling backwards into the trees.
She hide there for what seemed like hours, but must’ve only been a few minutes when she heard the voices of her first humans. They were laughing, and out of the corner of her eye she saw one pick up the hot springs monkey she had been chasing. He was dead.
At that moment she fled back into the forest. She ran faster than she had ever in her life until she was back in the safety of her family. She cried for so long not knowing how to get the words out and her mother only looked at her with sadness and pain knowing what had happened to her. ‘The humans---‘ She chocked out. ‘He’s dead! My friend… he’s dead!’ She cried all night.
After that she never left the boundaries of her forest, until she heard about the school, Horror High. The news came through the grape vine to her family and her, passed along by a Pipe-fox and gossiped about by the forest spirits. A school that had goals of bringing peace not only to all the monsters in the world, but also with goals to eventually become immersed with the humans. She begged her mother and father to let her go, but they were unsure seeing how she had reacted as a child. Although her species was known to be cool, calm, and collected, they are also known to be deadly when threatened. That is why she decided to go to Horror High. She was here to bring change. She was here to bring in a new age and represent her family.
*** Also the location she’s from is an actual place in Japan. ***
As she was coming-of-age her parents were getting ready to set her into an arranged marriage with one of the other powerful Kirin lines that still lived. By attending Horror High, she dodging this fate, at least for a little while.
Personal Goals: To learn more about both the 'normie' and the monster world. To hone her powers and leadership skills. To make life-long friends who will help her with her personal mission. She’s scared of humans for the most part, but wants to learn to overcome this. To find true love (and dodge her arranged marriage).
Professional Goals: She wants to bring world piece, or in this case ‘realm peace’. Eventually between the humans and the monsters, but for now she plans to work within the monster realm first.
Extra
Jewelry: Long circular necklace that drapes down her front switching between beads and circles. Wrapped in multiple layers.Example of circles.
Tattoos: In the middle of her back, between her shoulder blades, is etched this Tribal Lotus Tattoo in gold. It is a sign of the family she is from so that she always remembers where she came from.
Educational History: Raised in the forest with her parents. She was taught the names of all the animals and all the plants that inhabit her forest in folklore names, Japanese names, and the more common English names. She spoke Japanese mostly as a child, but once she hit about 9 her parents started speaking and teaching her English knowing that one day they'd be gone and she would have to take over in their place. She has a general understanding of the human world, but it's a rather biased view by her parents who feel that all humans are selfish.
Key Childhood Experiences: The first time she grew her own plant with her father. When she was playing tag with the Spring Monkeys and saw one of them get killed.
Key Teenage Experiences: The night that she decided to go to Horror High.
Things She Likes: Plants, the forest, quietness, forest spirits, peace, spring rolls and bamboo shoots, learning more about the Horror High Universe as well as the Human World
Things She Doesn't Like: Bullying, meanness, humans, big cities, loud noises, being insulted and talked down to, ramen (especially Top Ramen)
Style of Speech: Very proper for the most part. She often keeps her true motives hidden within her words, think of the tip of the iceberg idea.
Speech Quirks: Sometimes she mixes up Japanese words with the real words she's trying to use (like a bad anime dub).
Pet: She brought with me a piece of bamboo and in it lives a Kodama. She often uses him as an alarm clock in the morning since he starts to shake with the morning light. He’s really the darn cutest thing ever, but my family, nor the teachers here would be too pleased to find out she had one living in my dorm room. Luckily, he often just hides and lives in the bamboo piece, only coming out when she's around or summon him.
