Welcome to Gaia! ::

Name: Reina Amenomori

Nickname: ...That would be assuming she had friends IRL; her online handle is YumeHime

Gender/Pronoun: She/her

Age: 15

Birthday: January 23, 2011

Sign: Aquarius

Gemstone: Moonstone

Blood Type: A

Fav. Food: Boba tea

Hated Food: Licorice

School/Occupation: Meadowview High School

Hobbies:

Music
Reina has loved music ever since before she can remember, first listening to her mother play, then to other people playing what her mother composed, and then, finally, learning how to play music herself! She's proficient in guitar and shamisen (specifically the tsugaru jamisen tradition), and can sing pretty well, too. Favorite genres are J-rock, folk rock, and some of the softer forms of metal; favorite bands right now include SCANDAL and Wagakki Band. When life has gotten tough for her, music has always been there for her. She's even starting writing some music of her own, though she hasn't shared it with anyone else yet.... While living with her maternal relatives, she has been able to practice music, but that time is in stolen moments, or when her grandmother insists Reina play the shamisen for her in an icy silence.

Archery
As a result of playing games, Reina got curious about trying archery, and found it a good way to get away from everything that stresses her out. The rest of the world just kind of goes away in the moment of herself, the bow, the arrow, the target, and the wind. While her race and appearance made her an unpopular addition to her middle school archery team, she still managed to become one of the team aces. Due to a history of getting harassed and bullied, she continues to practice alone in secluded places, deliberately aiming for difficult targets, to continue to grow, even if no one else will help her.... Archery is something Reina's been able to continue since moving in with her maternal relatives, as her grandmother tersely indicated it was an appropriate activity for a young lady.

JRPGs
Reina loves playing JRPGs, has ever since she was old enough to play games on the console! First game that she can really remember latching onto was Pokemon Ultra Moon on her dad's Nintendo 3DS, before she moved on to the older Pokemon games that she could play on the 3DS that her dad gave her for her 7th birthday. Pokemon shares the stage with the likes of Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts; her newest favorite is the Shin Megami Tensei family of games, including Persona and Devil Survivor. It's another good way to unwind, particularly when she wants a different kind of challenge. Plus, the stories are so gooooood. Well. Maybe not Pokemon's stories. But Pokemon is cute. And one of her first loves. So Pokemon gets to stay on the same shelf as the better written titles. Unfortunately, she has not had access to a console since moving in with her maternal relatives; her paternal relatives might prove far more open to the idea of her owning a console.

Anime and Manga
Reina enjoys reading manga and catching anime when she can. Before her father died, she had a subscription to a couple different magazines, and read avidly from her parents' collection of older manga, too. Anime was something she'd do with her parents after homework and before bed, a little ritual she enjoyed with her father in particular; then, as now, the stories were another escape from the bigotry she dealt with in the outside world, places where ethnicity mattered a lot less to people. Favorite manga include Tokyo Crazy Paradise, Saiyuki, and the works of Watase Yuu, Shiomi Chika, Shinohara Chie, and CLAMP; favorite anime is more evenly split across shoujo and shounen demographics, but include any adaptations of beloved manga, plus Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Trigun, Rurouni Kenshin, and what she succeeded in catching of Demon Slayers. Preferences trend toward a more contemplative tone to action/adventure stories, dark themes, and beautiful design work. Oh, and good OP/ED tracks for the anime she likes. In an ideal universe, she'd have a personal subscription to the magazines she likes the most, and would have time set aside to watch her anime without interference.

Virtues: These are positive aspects about your character's personality that affect them on a daily basis, and are things your character could be praised and admired for. These traits shouldn’t be too specific or only manifest in specific situations (such as ‘likes animals’), shouldn’t be overpowered (such as ‘Perfect’), and shouldn’t be based on their physical appearance (such as ‘pretty’). Virtues are things that are directly related to how your character behaves. Traits should be balanced, so all profiles need an equal number of Virtues and Flaws and should not contradict each other.

Even-Handed

Responsible

Nurturing

Example:

Outgoing -- Matt is an outgoing guy. He's always the life of the party, and loves to socialize. He is always eager to make new friends, and he isn’t afraid to try new things. His social battery never seems to deplete, and his kind and carefree demeanor makes him easy to be around. He is always enthusiastic and gives everything his best effort.

Flaws: These are negative aspects about your character's personality that affect them on a daily basis, and are things your character could be disliked or criticized. These traits shouldn’t be too specific or only manifest in specific situations (such as ‘hates kids’), shouldn’t be based on fears (such as ‘afraid of the dark’), and shouldn’t be based on anything that manifests physically (such as ‘clumsy’). Phobias and illnesses (physical or mental) are not viable flaws. Flaws are things that are directly related to how your character behaves. Traits should be balanced, so all profiles need an equal number of Virtues and Flaws and should not contradict each other.

Distrustful

Solitary

Outspoken

Example:

Forgetful -- Matt can be overenthusiastic and often bites off more than he can chew. He will agree to obligations or plans and completely forget that he’s made a commitment. He can come across as fickle and flaky because it’s never guaranteed that he’ll actually show up. He tends to forget names, dates, and other important things regularly and needs to be frequently reminded about important things. It is easy for him to become distracted and he often jumps from one thing to the next; he can come across as careless and negligent.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Eyes: Large and dreamy, pale aqua at the base melting into a pale periwinkle blue at the top of the irises, with long lashes

Hair: Long silvery hair that falls in waves, with white-gold streaks, like sunbeams through the rain or mist; mostly worn up in a ponytail with a silver barrette set with moonstones; bangs parted over the left side of her forehead in ascending length, from eyebrow length to jaw length

Face: Delicate Japanese features with a small, full mouth

Skin Tone: Cool, dark shade of brown, if possible

Body Type: A little short, but very much in shape for archery; fairly curvy for her build, particularly in the bust

Clothes: Generally cooler, muted (or monochrome) tones, favoring Japanese street fashions...which she hasn't been able to get a hold of since her father passed; mostly owns a very worn out combination of athletic wear, hand-me-downs from scornful maternal relatives, and her scrupulously cared for school uniform from Japan, which was too nice a uniform to get rid of; for preference, a complex admixture of leather, lace, ribbons, and the periodic tasteful bit of brocade, generally in cool/soft/subtle tones

Piercings: Has one piercing in each earlobe, made before her father passed (her mother's family would never have permitted it)

ADOPTION IN PROGRESS

Reina's father died in a freak accident a year or two before now; her mother has only very recently passed away (I haven't decided how). After Reina's father died, Reina and her mother moved in with her mom's family...who were a family of shamisen players, very traditional, very stiff and formal...and with no space for a half Japanese child whose foreigner (and non-Asian) father was dead. The good news was that Reina had her mother. The bad news was that this was inadequate protection against aunts and uncles who'd always been jealous of her mother's talent, and spoiled cousins who had learned from their parents to resent their Aunt Miwako and her child. As seemingly unwanted as Reina and her mother (Miwako) were, Reina's grandmother had always felt that only Miwako and Reina might be suitably gifted to carry on the family traditions, which made them favored candidates to inherit the house and attached music school. Oh, and the money. Of course, the money. Nevermind that Miwako had had a decent bit saved up from her own career composing video game music, such that she didn't really need her family's wealth, she mostly wanted their support helping to raise Reina. Which occurred only grudgingly.

Many of Reina's more prized possessions were moved to a secure storage locker once it became apparent to Miwako that Reina was likely to lose her most treasured belongings to theft and vandalism at the hands of her cousins, and Miwako gave her own mother the key, aware of the fact that the only thing that Miwako's mother hated more than what Miwako had done with her life was how utterly selfish and entitled her other children and grandchildren were. Some of the things not transferred to the locker before her mother's passing were very quickly confiscated by Reina's grandmother and quietly moved to storage. Unbeknownst to Reina, the family game consoles, game cartridges and discs, musical instruments, and collection of manga and anime are all securely in storage, as well as some other very nice/personal things. Her grandmother had vaguely planned to give Reina the key once Reina moved out, but, with adoption on the table, during the first six months of Reina living in the US, Reina's grandmother will quietly have the contents of the storage locker transferred to a secure storage locker in Destiny City, with plans to gift that new American key to Reina as a final parting gift.

Meanwhile, Reina's father's older half brother, Tyriq Lyon, had only finally cracked open an old email account he hadn't used in years after finding out from their mother why he hadn't heard from his baby brother in ages, to find, to his utter horror, that there was years worth of emails from his younger half brother, talking about moving to Japan to be a game developer, meeting the girl of his dreams, getting married, having a child, and raising that child. Worse, there were emails from the wife starting in the last half year or so, telling him that she was developing misgivings about the idea of her family continuing to be involved in Tyriq's niece's life, begging him to agree to help if something went wrong, get Reina out of Japan, hell, maybe get mother and daughter both out of Japan.

Tyriq managed to reach out to Miwako before her passing, explaining what had happened on his end, and advised her to reach out to him using the newer email address. She was relieved, but they didn't have much of a chance to plan in advance.

Now, Tyriq has reached out to the Amenomori family, the US embassy, and the Japanese government to try to formally adopt Reina, and bring her to the States.

The process will take a bit of time over the course of the next year, but the following is the basics:

Tyriq will need to get in touch with a few different agencies, including one authorized to work in Japan on such projects, get a US-based provider to conduct a home study to confirm that the Lyon household will be an appropriate home (and then certify this for the Japanese government). Tyriq and his wife Shams will need to fly to Japan to formally adopt Reina, apply for a Japanese passport with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and apply to the US embassy for an immigration visa.

Six months after this, Reina's living conditions will need to be checked one more time and certified to the Japanese government, at which point her maternal family will lose all claims of custody over Reina.

I intend to RP a significant proportion of this, and have researched what I can of this very bizarre set of circumstances.