Sis's History [LONG]

Sis's father [Mayuzuki Shinta] was a tailor who had an uncle who exalted. Her mother [Baraen Tetsu] was sochei who had always wanted a gag of children, and was related to the Teresus through her great-aunt [Teresu Tae Lin, Sis's [great-great] Auntie]. Neither Exalted, but they had some breeding, so it was considered a good match as it was likely to produce several children. In fact, it produced twelve.

Baraen-Mayuzuki Akio was the eldest, and went on to Exalt during his first deployment. Etsuko and Ana Ki were born next, twins to their parents pleasure. Unfortunately, during her third pregnancy, Tetsu grew rather ill. Tae Lin loaned them a house outside of Lookshy to ease the stress on Tetsu, and so the triplets were to be named after her - Tae Asa, Tae Mai, and Tae Rei. As it turns out, Sis's tale about the Old Lady is true - the Lunar helped to stabilize the pregnancy, and so the eldest of the triplets was named for her.

Tae Mai, middle triplet and Sis's identical sister, proved to be the dominant personality of the trio, sharing a telepathic connection with her elder and empathic connection with the younger. Tai Rei and Sis shared an empathic connection with each other and Tae Mai.

With six children born, Shinta and Tetsu realized they couldn't afford the schooling for all of them. Eventually, it was decided that Sis would be the last of their children formally schooled, with one of the triplets to act as teacher for the children after them, and the other two triplets to study from their sister's books. Ana Ki was recruited to help with raising Inari, and later Kita Kiku. When Tarou and Chizue, another set of twins, were born, Sis and Tae Rei also helped raise the little ones. Sis was particularly close to Tarou. Shiori, and finally Emiko, rounded out the family.

Sis would have been doomed to merely helping to raise her younger siblings if not for the intervention of Tae Lin and the elder Lady. Both were adamant the girl be raised as a socialite, despite or perhaps because of her role as the happy medium of the triplets. As it happened, this was a cover for inducting the young Sis into the White Veil Society at a remarkably young age. Sis took to the training like a bird to the sky, and her dancing began earning her revenue - and friends. The scarf Sis wears instead of a veil originates in this era - it was the first thing she bought entirely with her own earnings. This makes it far more precious to her than any gift from her mother.

When Righteous Lightning, the shamisen player from the Blessed Isle, arrived in Lookshy, Sis teamed up with him. Between them, they were able to gather more gossip - and put it to good ends. This was when Sis began to learn to manipulate on her own, and not just on others' orders - the Old Lady approved. As it happened, Sis and RL were coming home from a late party when the Infernals struck, and the two barely managed to survive. In the roundup, the triplets met up, but Tae Mai was easily spotted as an exalt, and taken away. Despite this, she remained in telepathic contact with Sis, using her sister as a way to dodge the mental conditioning being forced on her. Tea Rei confirmed - to her sisters - that their younger siblings hadn't made it; their district had been one of the first leveled. That the others might have survived, and might rescue them, was the only hope they had. Though Sis's heart broke, she still had the two closest to her.

How they got through the grueling slavery, Sis prefers not to remember. What she can't help remembering, what gives her nightmares... is how she and Righteous Lightning made it to the ship. For when the Infernal forces released the reavers into the slave camp to try and deny the Dream the full tally of the slaves, Tae Rei held off the forces until her sister and RL made the ship. If RL hadn't restrained her, Sis would have thrown herself to the reavers to exact her revenge. Perhaps this fate would have been more merciful than the one in store for her - for as mad with grief as Sis was, it was nothing to Tae Mai's broken-hearted rage. The now-twins were unable to even think properly- then the Dream's protective shield snapped their pyschic connection, and with it, Sis's stress-fragile mind.

No one noticed there wasn't really a child in Sis's room for months, though the Lunars - especially Kyphus, the Old Lady's own mentor - realized <i>something</i> was wrong with their Lookshyan Princess of Veils. The discovery of her lesser break with reality coincided with the Reaver Plague - providing the perfect cover story. No one needed to know Sis had been this badly broken, and so the explanation was simply crafted - Emiko had been too gone too save, and Sis had been forced to kill the toddler.

What they didn't catch [or at least, didn't appear to catch], was the second, and arguably greater break - Sis's stubborn insistance that Tae Mai would shake off the brainwashing. After all, she was the strongest of the three, surely the rage had lead her to free herself - not slip into the helpless despair that left Sis unable to sleep without someone to hold her. Nor did they catch or stop the replacement attachment that she formed with Shamed. When Shamed joined the EDC, Sis convined Vespasian to keep an eye on the young faeblood, but was left as berefit of her physical sport as she would have been if the relationship was entirely broken.

And so she latched onto the chief engineer. Partly, it was a ploy to get her closer to Momo. Partly, it was a ploy to make Whisper jealous - manipulating the manipulator. Mostly, though, it was a consequence of her rampant codependency. When Star was added into her roster of people to befriend for information, Sis wasn't the only one surprised when she began to care for the young Sidereal.

The past few months on the Dream have shown many signs of improvement in Sis - she's evened out, and been less dependent on any one person... but today's events have managed to undo some of the healing.