Midori (and Other RPG Nonsense)

She made her way to her assigned dorm room along with Chiyuki, walked through the doorway, took off her geta, and placed them by the side of the door inside. She walked toward an unchosen bed and set down her bags, regarding the uniform set out for her with curiosity.

Midoriko stepped in front of a mirror to look at herself and gasped. Her wig was ruined from the brief dip in the pond earlier! The topknots held their shape, but the front was white from the structural wax and the side wings had all frayed. Furthermore, the silk mesh holding the wig to her scalp had started to lift. She had no choice but to remove the wig. "At least," she thought to herself, "nobody here will object to the natural color of my hair."

She carefully removed the wig. Short locks of her hair stuck to the wig's wax, but she managed to separate out her hair with her fingers, resulting in a sort of spiky pixie cut. She frowned, knowing she could not leave her dorm with unadorned hair.

In the meantime, however, she carefully disrobed and folded her outer clothes into a neat stack on her bed; she would take care of those later.

Modoriko regarded the individual parts of her uniform and realized that her own undergarments would be incompatible. She removed those as well and put them with the other clothes.

She easily donned her uniform shift and took a hard look at her stays. "Perhaps they function as a mid-layer obi? This garment is stiff and has boning." She put the stays on as easily as putting on a vest and figured out how to lace it up easily. Having observed other students, she put on the other layers in a logical progression.

Midoriko looked in the mirror again. With a thought, she pulled a neutral-colored silk ribbon from her old clothes and wrapped it around her forehead, wrangling the stray locks at her forehead into a kind of Roman titan style. Nodding in approval, she readjusted her tabe socks and moved to exit the room, donning her geta on the way out.

"I believe I am now properly prepared for what comes next."

Thank you for following me

Thank you for dealing with my awkward phases

Thank you for dealing with my emotional moments

Thank you for sending in Asks

Thank you for waiting patiently during my hiatuses

Here's a small piece of the WIP.

I've been playing around with learning animation. I made a short loop of 11 frames I drew.

The note's author was Oda Masaharu, a friend of her father's who had often visited the castle. His words mentioned a way out from her life of hiding her true self if only she were to meet him in the plum orchard today at sunset.

Midoriko read the note. She read it again. Then she read it a third time. Her eyes kept returning to the part that read, "If you want to leave this place and go where your talents in magic can flourish in safety...."

"Leave this place," she whispered to herself, then continued in her head, "I would no longer have to hide. No longer worry about prying eyes or worry about making my father lose face. This could be my chance."

Midoriko thought some more. "But Oda-dono? What an unlikely person to bring this about! He would come to the castle and watch me and my sisters. I thought he was considering one of us for marriage, but perhaps he was simply observing? Could he see through my disguise? Could he sense my magic? I should speak to Mizuiroko first—she would know what I should do! Then talk to my siblings to explain...."

She looked out her window. "Yet the shadows grow long! Sunset approaches soon! I must pack first and think later, lest my time expire and my opportunity vanish." Midoriko cast her eyes about her chambers. "Clearly," she thought to herself, "I cannot leave the castle bearing a packed bag! But maybe...." She regarded her koto, her shamisen, and her tsuzumi, all nestled snugly in their respective silk brocade travel bags. "...maybe I can leave the castle to practice my music in the plum orchard!"

She regarded her koto. At six shaku long, set vertically it dwarfed her four-shaku-nine-sun height. Its bag would hold many of her belongings, but it would be too unwieldy to be taken out of the castle for practice. "My old friend," she whispered to her beloved instrument as she held a hand to it, "I fear that I cannot take you with me. Please forgive me."

Midoriko took her shamisen bag and packed in what few outfits she could without displacing the instrument itself. Frowning, she closed the bag and removed the drum from her tsuzumi bag. "I must leave you behind as well, 'Tsutsu.'" She filled the drum bag with hygiene items, a pared-down makeup kit, a pristine calligraphy set ("I may need to present a proper gift to my host!"), and a pouch filled with every gold oval koban coin she had and a string of copper square-holed mon coins.

Finally, she picked up a silver ring with a bezel-set emerald cabochon. "She said she was a kitsune. She said her gifted ring was magic. Maybe I can figure it out when I arrive...wherever my destination is." She carefully placed the ring in the bag and closed it up.

Midoriko looked out the window again. "Oh, no. I have taken too much time. No chance remains to discuss things." She stood up straight and squared her shoulders. "No time to think, only to act." She picked up her shamisen and tsuzumi bags and left her room in search of Mizuiroko, who would have just returned from the temple.

She encountered her elder sister near the main entrance. "Onee-san," Midoriko exclaimed, "I was just on my way to the plum orchard for some sunset music practice! But welcome home!"

She hugged Mizuiroko and whispered to her, "I have my chance to flee to safety. If I do not return...let it be as we discussed...white plague. No one will question. You know who you can trust. I love you, elder sister." A soft sob escaped her throat. "Pray for me."

Name: Niji-iro Midoriko

Niji-iro Tetsu no Jo (formal, "Daughter of Niji-iro Tetsu")

Niji-iro Midoriko-hime (personal, "Princess/Lady Niji-iro Midoriko")

Midoriko (given name)

Age: 20 (birthday: June 1st)

Biography: Midoriko was raised in Edo Period Japan. She is the middle daughter of the Daimyō of Satsuma Province, Niji-iro Tetsu (Niji-iro Satsuma no Kami) and has four brothers and six sisters. Her second-eldest sister, Mizuiroko, has a talent for holy magic, but her path to become a Buddhist priestess merely marked her as favored by the gods instead of attracting any negative attention. Her youngest sister, Sakurako, was born with albinism and was recorded in official documents as having died at birth, but in reality lives in secret in the Daimyō's castle, cultivating her mental magic talents away from prying eyes.

Growing up, Midoriko found her magic abilities: strange things happened around her when she sang. Her father recognized her abilities and made plans to prevent her from joining the marriage market, lest her secret be discovered by a potential husband.

To further complicate matters, Midoriko was born with bright red hair and green eyes. It turns out the Niji-iro line had a kitsune far back in its lineage. Fortunately, Midoriko had no trace of any fey magic abilities. She wore a traditional black, waxed wig to hide her short-cropped, colorful hair and learned a low-level illusion spell to turn her eye color brown. (As a child, her father dismissed the green color as coming from her partial Ainu ancestry, saying that her eyes would darken as she aged.)

Midoriko yearns for an escape from her gilded cage; she cannot reveal her magical secret, but she is forbidden from leaving Japan under the government's threat of her death and her father's loss of status. Faking her death would be the only way to cover her departure....

I think this fit would be 🔥fire🔥 on me IRL!

Anyhow, Murasaki is secretly an Awakened Mage and a member of the Verbena Tradition.

Pippa is also an Awakened Mage, focusing on Mind Sphere magicks. With Mind 3 and Correspondence 3, that makes her extremely dangerous!