Asahi

Name meaning: Asahi (旭) is a Japanese name meaning "morning sun."

ROLE: Diver MATES: Kisumi and Ikuya FAMILIAR: ? NOTABLE RELATIVES: Ocelot (brother), Juniper (sister), Aracara (sister), Gin (sister), Irati (sister), Macao (sister), Sammy (sister), Leary (brother), Pantheon (sister), Cosmo (brother), Verne (sister) Note: Changed her breed from Tundra to Mirror on 1/17/2020.

Asahi came from the lively town of Evesheart on the coast of Churnscar Wharf. As a hatchling, she was fascinated by the comings and goings of the seafaring dragons who passed through Starport Harbor - sailors, fishers, merchants, even pirates! - so most of her days were spent happily playing along the soft white sand of The Wistful Surf as she tried to sneak a peek at them. Sometimes, she would sneak down to the Coral Cove and try to race the passing ships, kicking her legs as fast as she could through the calm water, perhaps trying to outswim the inevitable call from her minders to come home.

Although she hadn't been alive when the Great Maelstrom tore the land apart, what she could see of the reconstruction efforts that were still underway made her want to get stronger too. Once she was big enough, she would climb the cliffside just off the Windswept Plateau up to Sunglow Heights and strain to see as far out as she could at the dragons collecting debris and fishing valuable resources from the ocean's depths. Whenever the divers would come close enough to the coast, she would dive down after them as far as she could go to see if she could beat them to the finish line. There was something exciting about how time seemed to almost stop the second her feet left the cliff's edge and her plummet gained speed, the thrill of the shock that coursed through her body when she broke the water's surface, and the single-minded goal of swimming towards something just out of sight.

Eventually, she decided that she needed to climb even higher. Despite her best effort, she couldn't convince anyone to join her in this mission. All the other dragons her age thought she was crazy for wanting to throw herself off cliffs, or they had other plans for their lives that didn't involve exploring the depths of the ocean they'd grown up in, or they figured there were better methods for strength training. But they just didn't understand! She wasn't just some adrenaline junkie with a reckless obsession! Still, trying to explain it to them proved to be a waste of breath and she had been forced to look elsewhere.


The day she met Ikuya had started like any other and quickly turned into the weirdest experience she'd ever had.

She had been going about her business when suddenly a Coatl launched itself out of the ocean before her very eyes. The grace in his posture had enraptured her instantly, the speed with which he breached seemed unreal... and then he collapsed in a heap, gasping for air, on the beach ahead of her. Strangely enough, a Maren immediately pulled itself out of the water and slithered over to his side, looking distressed as it pet him gently and sang sad songs Asahi didn't understand.

Whatever the case, the Coatl did not look well and she figured that Maren had to care an awful lot to risk imminent death at the surface for a dragon, so Asahi decided to help. When she approached, the Maren took up a defensive position by its companion's side despite being obviously unarmed and mere moments from suffocation. Of course this couldn't be easy. With a quick apology, she scooped up the slippery beast and released it into the water, telling it to stay as she ran back to check on the dragon that seemed to be struggling to find his voice.

After some trial and error, she figured out that he also wanted to be returned to the ocean, so she did her best to carry him the short distance back to the water where the Maren aided her in settling him on a sand shelf to recover. It was only after she offered protection and fish that she was given a brief explanation of what they were doing so far from the ocean's depths. Evidently, a little magic mishap had led to their impromptu relocation and if it wasn't for the Maren's quick thinking they would have both been suffering some catastrophic decompression sickness.

It took a little while before the Coatl gave his friend permission to tell her his name was Ikuya, but she supposed he had only wanted to make sure she was serious about sticking around to keep them safe before readily trusting her goodwill. Not that he would have been able to stop her if she was planning to betray them, considering he couldn't talk and hadn't tried to swim again since curling up in the ocean sand. Eventually, he would have to dig himself out of that hole he was making, but for now the Maren spent its time tending to his recovery.

Day after day of watching him mope quickly began to drive her crazy until she'd finally had enough. He was too depressing like this and she was too bored of arguing with this one particular band of annoying pirates over fish every day to go on like this for another second. By all accounts, he was stable and that was reason enough for her to push him out into the deeper water and make him swim. Paddling along beside him until he got used to supporting himself again was just about the only other thing she could do to help at this point, so she wasn't going to let his melancholy stop her.

Once he realized how to use his body to his advantage, his attitude shifted drastically from resistance to confidence until she was struggling to keep pace. That was the Coatl she had seen fly out of the sea that first day! That was what she had been waiting for! He didn't need to speak for her to see that he clearly felt the same way she did about racing side by side toward a shared goal. He was hooked.


But it was only inevitable that they would have to address the matter of Ikuya's speech... Asahi and the Maren had tried their best to offer assistance, but they knew his situation required more professional tutelage. So, Asahi had begun asking around the nearby clans now that Ikuya could more or less hunt for food on his own. Sure, plenty of clans had teachers who were adept at advising hatchlings, but none that seemed specifically equipped to handle a fully grown Coatl who needed to learn two languages simultaneously.

Her last-ditch effort was to question the pirates. Their Captain was a real piece of work, but the rest of the crew and the Guardian they rode on were more accommodating when she expressed her concerns. They were more than willing to speak to the reliable nature of their clan's very own language tutor, a Coatl named Atsushi. Ignoring the seemingly contradictory fact that these pirates came from a clan called Haven, Asahi thought it sounded like a gift from the deities themselves that she had inadvertently stumbled upon exactly the right group of dragons to ask for sanctuary. The clan even fostered friendly relationships with beasts, which she thought Ikuya would appreciate knowing.



No matter where she goes, her personality is very straight-forward and she is able to stay true to herself.

She and Ikuya arrived in Haven around the same time, where they met Kisumi. Somewhere along the lines, Asahi found herself developing different kinds of feelings for the two boys and didn't quite know how to handle them. As such, those feelings mostly took the form of teasing and bickering, but they had their fair share of ganging up on her too. In fact, she noticed they tended to talk about her to each other a lot.

Her feelings for Ikuya flourished to a stage of acceptance first and yet she still found herself awkwardly going to Kisumi for advice on how to approach it, since Kisumi seemed to boast some kind of knowledge on the topic. It was in part because of this coaching that Asahi was finally able to understand her mutual feelings with Ikuya and initiate a relationship with the sometimes infuriating Coatl.

Sometime into the relationship, Asahi found herself stuck at a not particularly problematic but still slightly frustrating dilemma. She had been feeling curious about the concept of making a nest. It had been niggling at her for a while, but she hadn't exactly known how to approach it. How did others usually approach the subject with their partners? It seemed like an awkward thing to ask, but if anyone managed to make nests at all, then obviously there was some secret to it. She just wasn't sure of what it was or where to look for it.

Regardless, Asahi eventually found a quiet moment to broach the subject.

Asahi: "Have you ever thought about… maybe nesting sometime?"
Ikuya: "Not really. Are you thinking about it?"
Asahi: *her first reaction is to get slightly defensive out of embarrassment* "I don't think about it all the time or anything like that!"
Ikuya: *reassuring her* "I never said you did."
Asahi: "So, you've never thought about it?"
Ikuya: *kind of getting embarrassed now, too* "I don't really think I would enjoy it. Not because of you, but just… in general."
Asahi: *snuggles him from behind* "We don't have to do it. I was just curious. I like the other stuff we do, too." *buries her face in Ikuya's feathers to hide how flustered she is* "You know I like you for more than nesting, right? I mean, it’s not about nesting at all."
Ikuya: *smiles and nuzzles her comfortingly* "Yeah, I know."

They're fine with this arrangement and Asahi never pushed the topic further, resolved to leave the situation at that conversation. But evidently, Ikuya had other plans.

Through a series of confusing exchanges, Ikuya encouraged the idea of inviting Kisumi into their relationship. For a while, Asahi had been concerned that this was a practical joke they were playing on her, but Kisumi seemed to be just as conflicted about it, so obviously that wasn't it. The only one who seemed oddly at ease regarding this shift in their relationship dynamic was Ikuya, who appeared to act like this was the most natural development for them. Unfortunately, that confidence was not contagious.

Asahi couldn't shake the worry that Ikuya was doing this only for her sake and it frustrated her. Didn't he understand that she didn't want to make a nest with just anyone? She wanted to nest with him! It's not like those feelings would just go away if she made a nest with someone else... even if that someone else was Kisumi... that stupidly pretty and charismatic Kisumi. At least, in theory.

It didn't help when Ikuya realized her concerns and began to playfully tease her that it had to do with her developing feelings for the Skydancer. Mutual feelings, he felt the need to add. Asahi did not take very well to being called out like this when she had been trying so hard to ignore and deny it, especially since she felt like Ikuya should be more upset by it. But Ikuya reassured her that he thought it was funny watching them interact and bicker like smitten kids.

After Ikuya encouraged Asahi and Kisumi to resolve it together with a talk, they made a nest and the trio seemed content to fulfill the roles of doting mates and parents... that is, Asahi had thought so until a rather smug Skydancer informed her and Ikuya one day that Kisumi had been seen crying with their daughter in their nest.

"That's the kind of thing that gets them thinking about leaving," he had warned them before flying away.

That ominous note had been the final push they'd needed to rush to Kisumi's side and see firsthand for themselves that his usually carefree demeanor was a mask for his insecurities. At first, it had been surprising and worrying that after all this time Kisumi still didn't know how much they loved him - they'd thought he understood that their bickering and teasing was affectionate - but the moment he called himself a surrogate was the moment everything clicked into place in Asahi's mind.

"Ikuya, did he not know?!"

For his part, Ikuya looked equally as flustered as Asahi felt. "I told him exactly what I told you when I had the idea."

"WELL, OBVIOUSLY NOT!"

After a thorough discussion making it undoubtedly clear that the feelings that had led them to this nest were mutual, Kisumi and Asahi both realized that Ikuya may have acknowledged their feelings for each other, but he had yet to actually state how he felt about it...

Turns out Ikuya likes both of these dummies and kind of thought it was obvious, but he was too embarrassed to elaborate and they are thrown for a loop because he really was a terrible mastermind all along.