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Tokumi's Style

Peleps Nalin Tokumi is a solemn girl of few words, but not because she is shy or soft-spoken. She keeps a dark secret close to her heart, and finds herself painfully reluctant to become too close to others, lest she must be put into a position to betray them. Even in casual interaction she is constantly observant of her peers, noting in her mind every fear and weakness she witnesses, silently analyzing their personalities and behavior. In the past she may have sat herself down in a heavily trafficked part of campus, pulled out a book or assignment to busy herself, and listened surreptitiously to the interactions of those around her, but nowadays she is quite paranoid about appearing alone among a large concentration of her Exalted peers. Following on that paranoia, she has spent a good amount of time exploring the campus whenever she can, memorizing what she can of its layout, keeping in mind quick exits and hiding places she can use to her advantage if attacked.

Such precautions has made her early teenage years quite lonely, which in turn has developed in her a cynical bent in her perception of the world around her. Life, in her worldview, is a game of survival, and every advantage one can garner for oneself is a boon, even if it is at the expense of another. Nowhere has this proven to be more true than in Crimson Orchid Academy, in which all but herself and three others in her class have achieved Exaltation and tormenting the last remaining unExalts has become a favorite sport. Tokumi, at least, would not meekly settle with being hunted, no matter her lack of pure physical strength or charismatic presence. With her keen senses and her talent for investigation, she would catch her enemies off guard when they least expect it, exploit their greatest flaws, turn friend against friend, devastate their reputations. Let them believe they have won -- slowly and subtly, she would emerge victorious, or die trying.

Tokumi had a twin sister, Kizuko. Identical in appearance, with thick, glossy, jet-black hair, pale, creamy skin and grey eyes flecked with blue, the most obvious criteria to tell the two apart was their respective personalities and talents. Kizuko was a genuinely kind-hearted girl, well-liked by her friends, blessed with a natural talent for performance and oration, exceptional form with quarterstaves and polearms, and a picture-perfect memory that made studying and recitation a breeze. Nearly every subject of study that Tokumi struggled to achieve her best in came with enviable ease to her sister. That, coupled with her sister's more engaging, energetic personality, put Tokumi in her shadow constantly, so much that the few achievements she made that she was truly proud of were ignored or quickly forgotten. That is not to say Tokumi was terribly untalented in comparison -- she simply lacked the social presence to be truly noticed, besides the fact that her talents leaned more towards the stealthy, secretive and solitary, and thus were not as openly praised.

Despite all of the attention lavished upon Kizuko, though, she never seemed to let it get to her head. In particular, she took great pains to encourage Tokumi and insist that the talents she possessed were easily achievable, even making an effort to point out when Tokumi made high marks in testing or earned the praise of a particularly hard-nosed teacher. Unfortunately, her efforts backfired, as Tokumi took her meddling as patronizing, which only increased the widening gulf between them. Kizuko's fault in this was that she was ultimately too naive and too trusting; she would never have suspected Tokumi would conspire to betray her, when Tokumi was -- of all of her friends and allies -- the closest to her most private spaces and secretive of moments.

Before Tokumi and Kizuko entered the grueling competition of Dynastic schooling, the two of them were the best of friends. They were also two of the favored grandchildren of Peleps Nalin, the founder of their branch of House Peleps, who was an early inspiration in their lives. Nalin wanted to inspire these twins, in particular, to treat one another with respect, to know the difference between competition and outright conflict, that betrayal should be viewed not as a tool, but as a moral crime. Identical on the outside and equal in age, Tokumi and Kizuko could grow to be each other's greatest ally, or most heinous foe, and Nalin saw this clearly -- perhaps even saw, early on, the seeds of jealousy being planted in Tokumi's mind. While Kizuko took Nalin's philosophy deeply to heart, Tokumi found much more interesting Nalin's caution that not all people -- particularly others of House Peleps -- would not be so merciful, so they should learn to watch for and protect themselves against such cases. Nalin's influence also led her to pursue the art of throwing weapons, which better suit her penchant for mobility over brawn and have become her favored form of offense.

It was Tokumi's respect for Nalin above all that made her hesitate when the opportunity came to take action against Kizuko. Not long after their 12th birthday came and went, Tokumi heard wind of a plot among students in Kizuko's year to frame her for cheating. Apparently Kizuko had insulted one too many classmate with her seemingly effortless talents -- particularly that she seemed to take her achievements so much for granted, but continued to treat people with such insufferable kindness and sportsmanship, as if she could triumph so humiliatingly (if naively) over her peers yet still remain friends. They had come across a minor artifact, the Memory Charm, a blue jade bell charm with a latticed surface representing a serpentine, smoke-breathing dragon writhing through clouds, that when rang temporarily enhanced the user's ability to retain and recall knowledge in a way that closely emulated Kizuko's own uncanny feats of memory. The biggest stumbling block in their plan was that they needed someone she trusted implicitly to place the evidence, something which Tokumi was easily in a position to do.

One final scenario pushed Tokumi over the edge. Tokumi had chosen, for an end of the year piano recital, a challenging centuries-old piece by the short-lived but extremely brilliant composer known today only as Ai. She spent many months slaving over the technical flourishes and emotional nuances of the piece, pouring her heart into every practice -- only to find that Kizuko had chosen the same piece for the recital, and with nowhere near as much effort managed to pull off a heart-rending performance that left Tokumi's effort feeling forced and uninspired, though both of them played each note perfectly. Their mother, Bejan, was at the recital, and her praise made Kizuko the focus of the banquet later that night. Tokumi was crushed, but most of all furious. She had long desired to be looked upon favorably by Bejan, whose high standards and fast-paced lifestyle made it difficult to keep her attention for long with anything but the most impressive of achievements. Kizuko had stolen the spotlight from Tokumi once too many times.

So it came to be that Tokumi collaborated with Kizuko's enemies, all the while putting on the face of a loyal, if inferior, sister. The bell artifact was only part of the plan -- cheat sheets and stolen test answers were planted in her belongings, rumors started that she was charging upperclassmen for their old term papers and written test results, charges of plagiarism made as her work was examined more thoroughly. The rumors became wilder, yet more plausible as time went on, as the student body seemed to move in a collective sweep against Kizuko, some for their own petty reasons, some simply caught up in the excitement of the crowd. When school officials approached Tokumi in private to speak on the matter, she delivered a straight-faced tale about the bell and Kizuko's slow, gradual obsession with it, her need to keep up with the outward impression of perfection leading her to more desperate feats of cheating. Of course, when Kizuko and her belongings were searched for the Memory Chime, it was summarily found, and the instructors of the Crimson Orchid Academy, faced with a large body of "evidence" and an even larger body of students who clamored for Kizuko's removal, expelled her from the school.

The effect on Kizuko was devastating -- besides the black mark of expulsion on her record, she had lost the respect of a whole community of former friends, students and teachers, and most of all, earned the enmity of her own parents, who felt betrayed by the fact they had spent so much time lauding a girl whose talents were deceiving. The next morning after her expulsion and Bejan's clipped, cold and final condemnation of her, she was found hanging by a makeshift noose in the closet of her room, very rigid and very dead. Her body was quickly removed, a hushed ceremony held to keep her anguished spirit in check, and all acknowledgement of her existence was thereafter suppressed by wordless, mutual agreement of the whole household. Tokumi, however, has far from forgotten her twin sister and the discreet but pivotal role she played in her demise. Part of her despises the twisted soul who could backstab and ruin her own kin so completely; part of her sees the necessity for ruthlessness in a society where being too merciful can be one's death. Either way, Kizuko's death has left an odd sense of absence deep within her, as if she had killed off an essential part of what had made her human. And she has never been able to look Nalin in the eyes ever since.

Tokumi is now the only one out of Bejan's three remaining children currently in school. Poised to graduate in a year's time from one of the most illustrious primary schools on the Blessed Isle, her mother Bejan and her patrician father, Ragara Geros, are scrutinizing her every triumph and failure with excruciating detail. In the forefront of their concerns is the fact that Tokumi has yet to Exalt. Kizuko had Exalted before her death, at 11 years of age, but Tokumi has yet to reach that potential -- perhaps held back by constantly measuring herself up to her twin, or haunted by her memory in the wake of her suicide. She has not yet given up hope on the possibility, though, banding together in the meantime with the three other unExalted girls in her year in what feels to her to be an uneasy, though fruitful alliance. Still, despite her misgivings, she still harbors the desire to cast aside the part of her tainted by Kizuko's death and become part of a genuine friendship.

Tokumi wears her Crimson Orchid uniform in accordance to the rules, along with black high-button shoes and over-the-knee white stockings cuffed with lace. During cold days, she wears a mid-thigh length, black suede coat buttoned up with large round buttons and quilted on the inside with wool; otherwise, she wears a long-sleeved, black cashmere button-up sweater over her uniform shirt. She carries several throwing knives secreted on her body, disguised as hairsticks, hidden in a loose hem, strapped onto her thigh, sheathed in a harness strapped underneath her sweater or coat. With her at all times on campus is a sturdy, rectangular, standard-issue brown leather book bag, in which she keeps her school supplies, assignments, sheet music for piano, organ and flute, and books for school and leisure. Around her neck, tucked into her shirt, is a necklace from which hangs a keepsake of her deceased twin: a gold charm representing a tree in winter whose innermost branches arc together to form the shape of a heart.