#she‘s the type of person to follow someone strictly behind and no less than five blocks apart

[curseddistinguishedly]

False in the life series is a really good idea because she’s the only guy who can form an alliance with anyone first day and still ALWAYS question their allegiance, and that anyone can try to prove it once and once again and it first it may seem like False trusts them, because she will tell them that she does, but the moment False is left alone with the audience she will start going „I think they can betray me any moment now but they haven’t yet so I‘ll stay“, and I know she‘ll distance herself from everyone as much as possible

[uncheckedtomfoolery]

What about the hot Nazrin opinions? She doesn't necessarily seem like she's from Japan, and she seems a lot older than many animal youkai.

Oh, look. Someone else who likes Nazrin. There might be a whole… five of us, now? Standard disclaimer applies (this is my opinion etc.), rest is below the cut. The good news is that I’ve written a lot on the topic before and can pillage that for something to put here. Bad news, it’s gonna be a bit of a rambling mess maybe.

Off the bat, I’m going to address the stuff you point out. You’ve got me at a bit of a disadvantage there; I hadn’t realised she’s quite as old as she is, for one. I’m also at a loss to explain her name, sorry; one could make a case for a corruption of ‘nezumi’ into ‘naz’ but that seems like a real stretch, and it doesn’t really map to anything else that I know of. That’s not a very promising start, but I’m glad you brought that to my attention. As for age, funnily enough, this makes her older than Mamizou (assuming she’s basically Danzaburou-danuki. Indeed in that case, Mamizou’s not even half as old as she likes to act, by youkai standards.) Now, onto things I can say with a touch more confidence. First of all, what does she do, exactly?

Shou and Nazrin are both leaders, after a fashion. Shou is a figurehead. No, that’s not meant to diminish her importance or anything; it’s shorthand to say that she’s the one who’s seen, who talks and smiles and inspires people and is generally very impressive. Shou is the face. The regal one, if you like. Nazrin stays behind the scenes. She organises, she manages, she cleans up little problems and keeps everything running smoothly. It’s a job that’s partly about saying the right things when around others, but equally, about saying the wrong things, pointing out the stuff no one is quite willing to admit. Being, at times, the realist who’s willing to speak out of turn.  It’s not always nice and it’s definitely not glamorous. She prefers it that way. She doesn’t care for glamour, and praise is awkward at best, offensive at worst to her. It’s a pretty thankless job, and she prefers it that way; she’s the sort of person who enjoys having something to complain about now and then, and despises the spotlight. I take the view that she probably could have a shot at the avatar role if she wanted to. She’s smart, capable, reasonably powerful with her gadgetry on hand (which is about where Shou sits), and has a good heart and a mind for tactics. Sure, Bishamonten would probably let her sign on. She doesn’t like that, though.  She’s not the type and cannot stand the idea of… avatar work, basically. Time spent in the limelight, being generically inspiring and dealing with people all day, like Shou does. She’s quick to say she could never do what Shou does, even if “I don’t want to” is a lot more accurate in practice. Depending on my mood, I’ve even written her as not being especially religious at all. She likes Byakuren, but she’s no strict Buddhist. She has no strong opinions on Bishamonten/Vaisravana, but if Shou wants to do this, she’s happy to help. That sort of thing. Officially, since this seems to work out best (and because Shou is meant to be the public face), she’s a follower. In practice… ask them which one is in charge and they’ll both laugh at you. It’s not really like that.

Next up (yes, I’m still going, you knew what you were getting into after the last few posts), how does she view Byakuren’s private crusade for youkai/human unity and the like? Well and poorly, all at once. In her mind, youkai are ideas. You can’t change nature, you can bend it a bit, and eventually either you fail or it breaks outright. Things like ‘you don’t need to settle’ and ‘everyone can change’ are uniquely human luxuries in her eyes. Byakuren and her followers have no clue what they’re doing. They’re a bunch of misguided idealists, thinking they can save the world, going off on their hopeless crusade. Everyone can change; that’s why the human doesn’t quite understand youkai, the tiger spends her days being big, impressive and scary, the mouse hides out of sight and finds little hidden things, and the yamabiko shouts all day… right? Case in point. Whole thing is stupid. And you know, she loves that. Sure it’s probably hopeless, but these are good people, working towards a fine cause, and she’s not about to stop them. The world needs more optimists and good-hearted people, and she’s more than willing to enable them. No one’s place to stop them, right? The closest she’ll do is contribute as she is; after all, they can use someone who is neither unfailingly idealistic, nor always a good person. Having someone like that on hand is useful, she figures. Besides, she does what she can in her quiet way to keep the wheels turning. In a way, she’s probably somewhat reassuring to others in the temple. The transition to a Buddhist lifestyle is no doubt challenging to many, and we know not everyone at the temple plays by Byakuren’s rules… so seeing someone higher up who’s not exactly perfect and is willing to cover for them now and then probably helps. Both because of her age, and all the little rats/mice (same word in Japanese, who knows?) she looks after… she has a slightly Tewi-like trend (I refer strictly to my own Tewi as mentioned in previous posts) to… well, basically to treat them as children. Let the kids dream, it’s good for them and she’s happy to encourage them, keep them safe, all of that. Would be rude to outright say that to them of course, so she doesn’t. Who knows? Maybe some day they’ll prove her wrong and it turns out they can do everything they set out to do after all. That would be nice, it really would. 

On faith, I’ve written something I can more or less copy; may as well not let it go to waste. She’s a follower of Bishamonten, broadly. She’s a helper to his avatar, given. She would hasten to say, though, that she’s not particularly religious. The gods do a good job of getting much too full of themselves without any encouragement, and she’s already close enough to the ground without any kneeling adding to that. Anyone who can change the world by snapping their fingers and still needs validation from others bowing and scraping has, in her view, some explaining to do. Likewise for those who somehow have so little to worry about in this world that they need to start concerning themselves with the next as well.There just isn’t the time for that sort of thing.Not that she’d put it that way to most. This does not preclude living in a Buddhist temple, or attending the sermons, chanting sutras, and even observing some restrictions. It’s a matter of making others comfortable, and she finds it to be a wonderful exercise for centering herself anyway, so why not? Out of sight, she doesn’t adhere to the rules quite as closely; she’s no saint and would be suspicious of most people who claim to be one. It has its advantages, too; there are things the youkai at the temple need to talk about, and some of them are the sort of thing you need to bring up with ordinary people, not saints.She likes to think she does ‘ordinary people’ quite well, in her own way. You don’t take one of the columns holding  temple up and call it a pilgrim, and in the same way, she‘s no worshiper. Hijiri is a good person, and if the others at the temple aren’t, then they certainly try their best, which is all anyone can hope for. Bishamonten, too, is probably a decent sort on the balance; she hasn’t quite had enough time face to face to figure him out, of course, but he seems fine enough. Shou likes him. Shou doesn’t usually like bad people. There’s faith there. Not for gods, no; they do fine by themselves. She’s just found some very good people to put her personal faith in.

Because this inevitably will come up: I do not view her relationship with Shou as particularly romantic. Or rather, it probably has been at some point, it might be now, and that’s not really important. Youkai are odd, and they’ve also known each other since forever ago; I figure they’ve basically attempted every (positive) configuration possible for their relationship, and at this point they slip into whatever they like the idea of at the time. Meet their mood for a couple decades. They’re going to be very close whatever happens, anyway.

So on a closing note, having talked almost entirely about her work around the temple and her role there, what about her free time? Well, it’s usually uninterrupted, for one. There’s a quiet assumption that she knows what she’s doing (and therefore she can afford any break she’s taking), to begin with. Besides that, though, she always seems so tired. She might be, with all that she does, but partly… well, honestly, she’s just one of those people who has looked and acted exhausted her entire life. It doesn’t necessarily mean much. Her love of casual grumbling only pushes this further. If you ask her what she does in her free time, she’ll laugh, shake her head, and promise to tell you if she ever gets a chance to find out. Let her have her exaggerations, she thinks it’s funny. The real answer is… a few things. She’s an avid reader, for one, but an eccentric one. Memoirs, accounts of great battles, anything written by tacticians and generals of the past, and so on. It’s not an act of faith, just an overlap of interests with Bishamonten. Actual martial pursuits, though- well, no, she never found that too interesting. Nazrin is the kind of person who reads instruction manuals for fun.

She also has a bunch of picture books, which she reads to the little mice in her basket. They don’t understand a word and she doesn’t expect them to, but they seem to enjoy it. And lastly, she has a love of go, shogi and (after Murasa introduced her to it) chess. She’ll read about it, practice openings, theorycraft endlessly, and solve puzzles. She even plays against herself a bit, though it’s not ideal. She’d rather not, you understand, but there aren’t many that would play against her near the temple, and she’d rather not get rusty.

…And there you have it. More than anyone ever wanted to hear about Nazrin, I’m sure. Future askers, if you want to hear about a character and also don’t want a gigantic wall of text hurled at you, please tell me and I’ll restrain myself on levels of detail.