#Japanese culture inspired | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lumilasi · 1 year ago

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UPDATE: Slight lore change for one of them, namely I changed Yaguro's name; it looks very similar but has completely different meaning and Kanji used now. I just felt like the OG name was too "edgy" for him in this new incarnation.

Also...."When your boyfriend is the fluffiest thing in the room"

Their bio below:

Yume Kobushi:

Age: 25

Height: 160 cm

Family: Great grandmother Anei (A ghost still lingering in the library she guards)

Friends: Avane Faydream (Her Fae bestie/Pen-pal) the Murasaki family running the nearby bathhouse

Love-interest: Yagura Asahi

Powers:

Waterbending: She can use the element of water to form physical objects, most typically a bow or crossbow she uses to defend the library. Since she is not specifically an ice witch, she cannot freeze water.

reflection-shifting: She can traverse through water's reflection either to phase through things, or essentially teleport to another location entirely, as long as she knows where it is.

Astral projection: She can enter the spirit realm and discuss with spirits there, typically she needs some sort of object as a medium to open her way there/reach the specific spirit she wants to speak with. This is a fairly basic ability nearly all magic users regardless of their type can do, they just use different mediums for access (In Yume's case, water ofc)

General spellcasting: She can cast spells outside her water powers by transforming her magical energy to its basic form.

Weaknesses:

While she can cast spells not related to her primary magic, in order to use those she needs to convert her elemental magic into a more basic form of spirit energy, which is more draining than using it as is.

Yume is still young and new to all this, since she didn't really grow up taught magic. While her family was aware of their heritage, her parents' generation for example thought of it a myth, so she still struggles with her powers occasionally.

Staying connected to the spirit realm for too long can cause some damage to her, such as fainting, nightmares, hallucinations and in worst case possession, since Yume is not yet experienced enough to protect herself from it with just mental resilience. She typically needs talismans to protect herself.

Given witches' elemental powers are much more restricted than those of elementals or Sorcerers/Sorceress', Yume can't use water in any other form than its liquid form. She can turn ice or vapor into water, but can't use either element as is.

Personality:

She’s quite temperamental and compassionate, wanting to do things well and also getting frustrated if things aren’t working like she’d hoped. Yume sometimes questions her own abilities due to the fact she never had “official” witch training outside the guidance from her great grandmother's spirit. She also has the tendency to get a bit flustered around people she finds attractive. (regardless of gender)

She tends to be the type to not make a big deal of her good deeds, and often helps people secretly; mainly because unconsciously due to her doubts over her own skills, she's afraid she's done something wrong so she's pre-preemptively avoiding the anger and rejection from others. (it is somewhat irrational, given she tends to do good job at helping)

She does also have a petty side to her, that enjoys taunting people and messing with those she dislikes. She's known for being able to insult people totally poker-faced, which leads to them not necessarily realizing at first they were told off.

FUN FACTS

Yume is pan, and has a fan crush on the Murasaki family daughter/boss of the bathhouse Kouka. She's also had a brief crush on her best friend Ava initially, though she pretty quickly figured out she'd rather be friends with her as Ava is Too Scary sometimes.

She still sometimes acts flustered around Asahi, even if she's used to his presence by now.

Yume would never admit it, but she LOVES that her weird moth-ghost-past-life-Samurai-boyfriend is extremely fluffy and therefore a good pillow.

Yume didn't find out she has magic until she turned 15, which is when her great grandma's spirit contacted her, sensing the family had finally produced an offspring with magic.

She initially didn't want to go, but once she did end up in the mirror realm (accidentally) and spent some time there, she quickly begun to feel like this was her home. She'd always felt subconsciously alienated in the human world.

The library she looks after is the second oldest of the seven still left in the Mirror realm; there used to be 20, but most were destroyed during the Ancestral War long ago, where the entire realm was in chaos.

The magnolia theming of her witch outfit comes from her family name, which is a type of magnolia.

Yume sometimes jokes her life is like one of those magical girl stories popular in her human world home country: She thought she was just a normal girl, but then turned out she has powers and a greater purpose. (People around her rarely get this joke, they are not familiar with modern world pop culture in human realm)

Yume's haircomb she often wears is her medium to speaking with her grandmother's spirit, as it used to belong to Anei

She doesn't really visit her family often, but does occasionally send them letters. Her parents have mixed feelings about her new life, wanting to support her but also struggling with the entire concept. Her grandfather - Anei's son - is very supportive though, and has even visited the library before, both as a child and now as an old man.

Yagura Asahi:

Age: 30 (at the time of death) manifested 2 years ago

Height: 185 cm

Friends: The Murasaki family (Soul eaters), Avane Faydream (Yume's bestie who visits them occasionally)

MOTH SPIRIT LORE:

Moth spirits are human souls reborn in new form through what is called a Hive Tree. There used to be 7 of those, but after the Ancient War only 3 are left. Each tree attracts slightly different types of souls with unfinished business:

Amethyst Wisteria: A purple tree which reminds a massive Wisteria tree in appearance, the spirits manifested by this one are typically those who were in some way significant people in their community, dying unexpectedly. Leaders, warriors, freedom fighters, etc. (Since Yagura was a Samurai who died in battle, his soul was called upon by the Wisteria.)

Emerald Weeping Willow: A green tree similar in likeness to Weeping Willows, only again much more massive. Souls born from this tree were those with tragic, darker sudden deaths. These souls were typically killed by someone in a non-war setting (I.E victims of crime) or they died of self-inflicted injuries caused by mental distress of some sort.

Blue Lapiz Spruce: A large tree in likeness of blue spruce. The souls that this tree attracts are typically those who died in a freak accident or natural disasters. This tree tends to birth a lot of child moth spirits, given it is more likely for a child to die of a freak accident/natural disaster than be of a level of importance/die due to crime. (both are still possible, but rarer)

Moth spirits also correspond to the tree they are born from in color; Wisteria-born are purple with sometimes yellow accent colors, Weeping willow's creations are green with occasionally red accents, and Blue Spruce creates blue spirits with orange accents. Their names also typically indicate how they died in some way, or reference the setting they died in/a significant object related to it.

Born-Adult spirits recall their deaths with often some sort of trauma-related response left in them, whereas children tend to not remember at all; it is a supposed form of mercy by the Hive trees, granted to the youngest souls.

The way moth spirits complete their "unfinished business" is more symbolic, rather than directly going to those this regret is connected to. (Often this'd be impossible given those people may be long gone themselves) For example, they perform the same action/reach the same goal they didn't do during their past life: confessing your love, helping with something you didn't help with, etc. It is in that sense, not a do-over to fix what you already did, but a second chance to not repeat your mistakes.

Abilities:

Close combat; really strong physically with excellent swordsman skills, his blade can even slice magic and spirits, not just physical, tangible things.

Moth spirit abilities: All moth spirits share some basic abilities, but not all manifest every single ability possible; Asahi is a rare case where he has most of them, likely because he was a combatant in his last life. These are: poofing into bunch of butterflies to quickly avoid attacks or flee, drenching an area around him in darkness using them (essentially enlargening his pocket dimension to bring people inside it), flight, Spitting acid that is corrosive even to magic seals, his wings are also stab proof.

Dadness: Asahi is very good with kids, able to be patient and supportive with them, and children tend to not view him as threatening, even if he looks scary.

Immunity to most fellow moth-spirit abilities: Moth spirits tend to be immune to each other's powers, or at least matching ones. In Asahi's case he is not affected by moth spirit acid, can't be taken into another spirit's pocket dimension, and he can in fact stab through other moth's wings, including those who also supposedly have stab proof wings.

Personality:

He’s known to be very efficient and ruthless in battle; He’s not the type to show anyone he fights mercy easily, although he tends to not like combating somebody who’s clearly far too weak to even have a chance against him.

Outside fights he quite intelligent, mostly polite, patient and considerate person who has a strong sense of justice, though for most outsiders he can come off really closed off and rude at first. He just doesn’t really warm up to people easily. Once you have made it to his inner circles though, he's fairly relaxed and pleasant person to spend time with.

Yagura is very observant person, and can pick up if something is wrong long before others do. He can tell if someone (Like Yume) is about to have a mental breakdown/needs to rest before they acknowledge it.

Weaknesses:

While he can utilize majority of moth spirit abilities, there are two he can't do, and therefore isn't immune to: Ear-shattering/ groundbreaking screeches, fellow moth spirits with stab-through-the-wings ability, being trapped by their webbing.

Due to his manner of death, Yagura has a slight fear of fire, and even though he no longer freezes around it, he still tends to keep a VERY close eye on campfires and fireplaces, dousing the flames as soon as he is allowed to do so. He does still have nightmares occasionally about fire, especially if he's too warm when sleeping. (he tends to prefer sleeping outside as a result)

FUN FACTS:

Yume met him only months after he manifested; he was initially looked after by the Murasaki family, then upon noting Yume was struggling with her duties as a bit of a newbie, he decided to offer his help in protecting the library, which she eventually accepted upon seeing he was reliable and trustworthy.

Asahi is a rare case where he still remembers his human name partially; this is not unheard of though, and can sometimes happen with the purple moths especially; this is speculated to be because these souls born from the Purple Wisteria tend to have the strongest sense of self.

Asahi uses Yagura as sort of a surname, and most people tend to address him with it, mainly Yume and Ava call him Asahi (some don't even know his actual name is Asahi)

He tends to not curse much, and sometimes uses a bit unusual choices of words, such as referring to things he sees as bad behavior/terrible actions "Dishonorable."

He does wear modern clothes too, mainly sweatpants, sleeveless shirts and cardigans. Yume does make him dress up a bit more appropriately if they travel to the city where Ava lives together, though.

Yagura sheds his fur every two months, which leaves Yume with bags and bags of bluish purple fluff everywhere. She's used it as stuffing sometimes...

The scar on his lip wasn't there when he was born; moth spirits generally do not carry physical scars from their past lives (apart from mental ones)

Moth spirits tend to have the same lifespan as humans (80-100 years roughly) starting from the moment they manifested. If the spirit doesn't complete their unfinished business though, they may live much longer until this is done/keep being reborn if they die.

Yagura has already completed his "unfinished business" because his regret as human was dying before confessing his love to a person his past human self adored, something he got to do with Yume.

His blue jacket and belt were made by Yume's grandmother's spirit once he became an official Guardian for the library. The pattern is not just a reference to him being a moth spirit, but also of the river the library isle sits on.

#artists on tumblr #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles #oc reference #oc info #digital art #oc redesign #Yagura Asahi #Yume Kobushi #mothman #witch #colorful #spirits #Japanese culture inspired #Kureshima bathhouse

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