"Ninja Friend" Motoko
Gender: Female
Age: 31
Birthday: May 22
Class: Ninja
Bio: Adoptive daughter of the head ninja on Godbird's Eyrie, Motoko was taught combat at an early age. She became familiar with hand to hand combat and the use of ninja tricks, and was particularly adept at crafting smoke bombs. Upon learning the recipe for poison smoke bombs as a teenager, she began taking an interest in the local plants. The azure lily garnered particular attention, as the pollen of the plant can paralyze creatures that inhale it. This effect would prove useful in many endeavors, as it allowed for the target to be easily captured or defeated once paralyzed. Her upbringing instilled in her a strong sense of discipline and an aura of command.
She lost her left arm fighting a heligator when she was 20. The creature had threatened the farmlands of Empycchu, the village of monks and worshipers of Empyrea the ninjas split off from. The monks asked the ninjas for aid in defeating this creature. Being allies under the banner of Empyrea, Motoko volunteered to lead the team who would take the creatures down. The team included herself, two other ninjas, and three monks (including an 19 year old Yasuhiro, who led the monk faction of the group). It was sort of an initiation for her, and would be her first major mission for the village. They cornered the creature by the mountains surrounding the island, and went on the offensive. The monks were delivering swift punches to the creature's eyes. Despite this, the heligator was still thrashing wildly and causing damage to all who would approach it. Motoko issued the command for poison smoke bombs to be used to paralyze the creature so it could be more easily eliminated. Unfortunately, as the smoke began emerging, the creature roared and blew it back toward the group. The monks, unaccustomed to the effects of the poison, were paralyzed on the spot and in great danger. Realizing her mistake, she ordered her group to leap in and move the monks back while she prepared another smoke bomb. The group succeeded in moving two of the monks, but the leader was still there and about to be attacked by the heligator. Motoko jumped in front of the creature and held out her arm with the smoke bomb. Before she could drop it and escape with Yasuhiro, her arm was clamped between the teeth of the creature. The smoke bomb went off inside the heligator's mouth, its jaws becoming even tighter with paralysis. The pain left her unable to move as her team administered moonwort bulbs to the monks. The restored monks tried to pull Motoko from the monster's jaws, but she was stuck and made the decision to amputate her own arm with her sword. After having moonwort bulbs administered to him, Yasuhiro took over command and began stabilizing Motoko. When she woke up, the creature had been killed and her fellow ninjas were weeping above her. Motoko's arm was lying next to her and the ninjas were pleading with the monks to help them restore it. She passed out again upon seeing her arm. When she awoke, she was in Empycchu with Yasuhiro and her father watching over her. She would not get her metal arm for another year, and would hardly speak anymore as she thought her command to use the poison smoke nearly killed their allies. She would never take command again, as she once again had to learn hand to hand combat with her new arm. She had the sword she used to amputate herself forged into it and always carries an azure lily to remind her of what she did.
Years later, reports of a shipwreck near the island came to the monks of Empyrea and the ninjas. Two people were found unconscious floating in the secret entrance to the island, one with a strange hat and the other with glasses. The ninjas thought they were spies, while the people of Empycchu were more trusting after outsiders defeated Rhapthorne with the help of Empyrea decades ago. It was agreed that the ninjas would take the more dangerous looking one, the one in the hat, and get information about what they were doing near the island out of him. Godbird's Eyrie at this point knew of the existence of the outside world, but chose to remain relatively isolated from it. Motoko personally oversaw the interrogation of the man, who called himself Vartan and kept trying to flirt with his female captors. Motoko put on her mask and glared the information out of him with her sheer intimidating prowess. He did not find out her gender because of the mask.
Vartan escaped after blinding his guards with a toothpick of pyrotechnics the day after his capture. Motoko chased him down to the gates of the city, where Yasuhiro and the other man were just coming in. The monk explained that the two were not spies and were sailing to investigate a threat to their homeland. Motoko was confused by the other man, the slime that emerged from his backpack certainly didn't help. The man was clearly intelligent, but something about him was strange. His eyes were soft, he didn't seem to be hiding anything. He didn't have an air of authority about him. How did this man convince this sorcerer and a monk he never met to work with him? She brought them to her father, who did not address her by name in front of the outsiders to maintain secrecy. He offered to let them stay while a ship is prepared to bring them to their destination.
During this time, Kefka was wandering the castle and saw Motoko without her mask as she was maintaining her arm in the mess hall. He promised not to tell Vartan about it and offered to help her. This kindness was concerning to her, but she let him take a look. He was able to fix parts of it and the two had some conversation. She didn't entirely trust him, but he certainly wasn't here to harm her or her people.
She would choose to leave the island with him, Vartan, and Yasuhiro when the ship was repaired to eliminate the cultist threat after one was seen trying to raise a heligator. Kefka seemed to be the only one out of the party who knew what they were doing. She would go on to save Kefka from death in the crater that was once the Holy Isle of Neos by pushing him out of the way of a spell after he broke his glasses in combat. He would in turn save her from being surrounded by cultists after they got separated. It was after that she realized she could trust and possibly develop feelings for this man, not that she would ever admit it. After the incident at Neos crater, as the party would later call it, she traveled with the party for a few more months before they returned to Godbird's Eyrie. She would not see him again for years, and all that time she wondered how she let this happen to herself.
Six years after the party split up, she asked her father what he knew about Ascantha. He brought her into the fold about the spies they had in various places around the world making sure any information about the island's people didn't fall into the wrong hands. She was then told about how they had lost track of Kefka until recently, when he was seen fighting mushroom creatures near the city to the south of that area. She asked to be sent there, where she would eventually take part in freeing Kefka's mother from servitude under the queen, as well as briefly visit Tryan Gully. She did not reveal where Kefka lives to her father when she returned.
Two years after that, after being awakened from a nightmare that turned into a pleasant memory by Yasuhiro, she would join him in working at the Grand Bazaar in Argonia. Here she would reconnect with Vartan and take the first steps in advancing her relationship with Kefka. After two weeks of dancing lessons provided by Vartan, she would surprise Kefka at the merchant's ball to end the bazaar. They kissed after she opened up about how she felt. With the bazaar ending and the group having to go their separate ways soon, neither knows how they can make this new relationship will work despite both wanting it to.
They send messages back and forth via carrier birds a few times a year, but neither thinks that's enough. The year after the merchant's ball, Motoko made a surprise visit to Kefka on his birthday. Kefka would return the favor on her birthday the next year to make up for the date that was ruined by rain the previous bazaar.
She has since met Kefka's family, including his grandfather. She spent a holiday with the family in Orkutsk. The family seemed to like her.
Likes: exercise, metal crafts, nature walks, small animals
Dislikes: incompetence, comments on her arm, anyone she doesn't know or trust using her name
Associates: Kefka (boyfriend), Yasuhiro (close friend), Vartan (Friend)
kefkadragon Community Member 
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