Juhász, Isshu

       FULL NAME:
       → Isshu Juhász

       AGE:
       → 20

      SEX:
       → Female.

       BIRTH PLACE:
       → Hesson (Small village in outer wall Maria)

       RACE:
       → Ishrin

      CLASS:
       → Freelance

       DATE OF BIRTH:
       → June 8, 830




       HEIGHT:
       → 5'0”

       WEIGHT:
       → 115 lbs

       PICTURE:
       →

Spoiler:

      DESCRIPTION:
       → Erring on the petite side, Isshu's small size and observed daintiness often make people question her usefulness at the manual labor that she was raised to do. However, despite her smallness, Isshu is much stronger and more durable than she's often given credit for, quite capable of holding her own against most issues. Isshu is something of an oddity, compared to a pale doll or ghost due to her albinism. Isshu's body generally lacks pigment, so while her family members have skin that are more natural hues of peaches and soft tans, Isshu is very pale, looking more the color of fresh milk or white suede. Her skin is very sensitive and burns easily, leading Isshu to often wear long sleeves and covering clothing, even in summer. A personal favorite of hers is a long-sleeved red dress coat that hangs to nearly her knees that Isshu tends to wear with most things, whether they really match or not. The coat is comfortable, a great color, and her eldest brother often comments how much he hates Isshu always wearing it, so she wears it that much more. Anytime she is wearing clothes that are more revealing, Isshu is armed with salves and creams to help prevent too much burning.

Despite her hard work that is more often than not very physical, Isshu keeps her hair quite long, typically pulled back into a long braid with messy, uneven bangs framing her face and long wefts of hair left down in front of her ears. Her hair is just as pale as her skin, generally a snowy white with some slight tints of silvery gray and occasionally a few strands that are the palest shades of gold that get lost with all the white. What stands out most (and often bother people in an odd but irritating way) are Isshu's eyes. While highly expressive and the most honest way to gauge how the girl is feeling when she simply smiles and says she's fine, the color is a bright pinkish red, and her pupils often look to be an even darker reddish-black rather than what is typically black on everyone else around her. This is also due to the genetic defect of albinism. Isshu rather likes her unique look, even if small-minded people like to stare or tease her and call her "Spooky." The downside to her eyes' pink hues is that they are more sensitive to bright light, and she does need glasses, Isshu generally considered mostly blind. Up very close her vision is functional, but distances more than a few feet prove to be a challenge without her glasses, leaving Isshu better suited to the close combat-styled weapons rather than things that require quite a lot of precision and aim from afar. Her glasses are always on her person, along with an additional magnifying glass she uses to read and inspect plants with, but while she's working anyhting manual Isshu leaves them off, trusting her memorization of patterns in how things are done, feeling, and her hearing to get general work done more easily.

When not working (and sometimes even when she is), Isshu likes wearing long skirts in bright colors with short vests, and often has long aprons on over the long skirts to wipe the endless dirt or carry whatever she needs when she’s working, and slightly shorter pleated skirts when she isn’t. While Isshu does wear pants, skirts and dresses are her preference, though she has little opinion for fancier dresses and jewelry. Isshu loves her bold patterns and shiny things, but doesn't have much use for them since they're too nice to be running around in the dirt in. The one thing Isshu almost always seems to have on her is a smile, even if only a small one in the dampest of situations, but usually the worse it is the brighter she smiles and more cheery she seems. Almost always on her person is a satchel large enough to carry a blank book for notes and observations, specimen samples, small tools and essentials, and whatever else she may need. But mostly there's books in there.



       PERSONALITY:
       → Unrelentingly curious, Isshu's questioning nature can be seen as a scientific blessing or a curse, her brothers often teasing her growing up that she was as much trouble as a sack of ferrets. Isshu is highly inquisitive, constantly wanting to know the how and why of just about anything and has always been that way, and typically isn't satisfied with the short answer. She seeks greater understanding of the world around her, and to that end will do just about anything to feel fulfilled. In her family and among her peers growing up Isshu was the most intelligent and well-read, any free time not doing chores on the farm spent devouring books. Even though there was never a shortage of work to be done, for Isshu there was always more to know and that motivated her more than anything else, and still does. Four older brothers is the short answer she'll give anyone who asks why she's so competitive or stubborn, and then laugh as though that should make it perfectly clear. She's witty and good at thinking on her feet most of the time, putting stock in what she lacks for size and strength that she makes up for in cleverness.

Isshu is sweet and good-natured, and unlike her loud, obnoxious, sheep-headed brothers, she can be very, very patient if it means good results. She knows you can't hurry or force a good thing, and that sometimes persistence pays off, even if it takes failing a lot of times before something goes the way you want it. She's an incredibly hard and dedicated worker, raised to be up before or with the sun and not complain about the workload because there was always someone worse off than you. There was also never really time to sit and moan, something always more pressing needing doing than you whining about something trivial. In this, Isshu learned for better or worse to suck it up and smile through whatever, no matter how she was really feeling. The world was already grim enough and didn't need one more person adding to the mess, so the best she could do was smile and try to help those around her to pick themselves back up, or pick them up when they can't. She was raised to put herself last, which isn't always a good thing, the girl pushing herself as hard as she possibly can to be her very best and be as useful and helpful as possible. If anyone asks Isshu for a favor or help, she is always more than willing to do it, even if it's not exactly beneficial to her. Her brothers tease that she's the world's greatest doormat, but Isshu ignores the comments, glad to be of help, even if sometimes she knows that she is being taken advantage of. She doesn't like it, but she doesn't complain, and too often doesn't say no, feeling it would make her a hypocrite.

On the flip side of this, Isshu's curiosity can be a danger, not all of her plans as well-thought out as they probably should be. While she does really try to weigh the possibilities of her actions, Isshu is something of a risk-taker , but things worth it to her aren't always worth it to everyone else. She can be incredibly stubborn (just like her brothers), and the more you tell her not to do something or worse, that she can't do something, the more likely it is that Isshu will try to do it with even greater flair and gusto than she thought of to start, entirely out of spite for her sense of pride. While she isn't overly proud, boastful, or arrogant, Isshu is only human and far from perfect. Even though she's outwardly very optimistic about herself, life, and even the world itself, Isshu does have her moments of having to push away those quiet fears that come from growing up with your life decided for you and there always being more asked of you. Given that she's always so willing and eager to help, locally people who know Isshu know they can count on her for nearly anything (whether she can or can't do it), and she holds herself to the standard that everyone expects of her. But Isshu does worry that she is forgettable, seen by her peers as simply someone or something to get jobs done and make their lives a little easier but could be easily replaced by someone or something else if she didn't perform. She worries quite a lot that she doesn't matter; when she does what people want, they thank her and vanish until they need her again, leaving Isshu to wonder if there will be anyone there for her when she runs out of steam to push herself to give her all for them. But because Isshu was raised to work and not complain, she smiles, pushing it all to the back burner as best she can and reminds herself that there isn't time to cry about the things that eat at her, so she doesn't.

       LOVE:
       → Flowers, cooking, reading, time alone in her gardens, music, fresh marshmallows, sweets, exploring, making new discoveries (no matter how small), her brothers (no matter how annoying), vegetables, full moons, being around the horses, fresh bread, winter stars (they’re brighter and easier to see), apples, rakott teszta (sweet baked noodle pudding), having a crowd to cook for, singing and music,

       HATE:
       → Being teased or called "Spooky" and "Snow White," feeling trapped or useless, being told "No" for no good reason, skilly (porridge-like soup made from carrots and oatmeal), missing people, being forced to sit and do embroidery, things being decided for her, shearing sheep, the smell of moldy hay, untidy kitchens, rats (they tend to ruin stored food), her eyesight

       DEEPEST SECRET:
       → Isshu’s father and brothers don’t know she has their mother’s SAAD and is rather torn about it; on one hand she knows it might enhance her abilities, but on the other she’s afraid she’ll either die from the implant, or that it will wear her out that much faster since she can already transmute things. Secretly Isshu is very afraid her alchemy will ruin her and that nobody will want her around when she isn’t of anymore use.

      IDOL:
       → Her mother



       HISTORY:
       → It was cold enough to snow the night Erzsebet died, the clouds blotting out every star but not letting a single flurry fall. The buggy ride to the clinic had taken hours, her husband and children insisting to make the trip with the alchemist hopeful to show their support and be there for her to take her home and help her recover. The surgery to implant the SAAD was dangerous; they all knew that, and Erzsebet accepted this risk. Her children shouldn’t have come. They sat in the parlor, ignoring the muffled screams of agony and the rushing about of nurses in long dresses and aprons, staring absently at the marble floor, the gas lights turned up so high, and the wallpaper with the dizzying floral pattern. All silent, they waited for hours. Things were quiet, three of the five children piled together on the long sofa, asleep in a tangle of limbs, and quiet still when in the wee hours their father was called upstairs. Five little sets of legs, the youngest only 6 and the eldest 12, all made their way up the stairs after their father.

The eldest, Milo, was told not to cry and set a good example for his siblings. He did anyway, five pairs of eyes burning the doctor with silent blame as he handed the small SAAD device over to their father, only managing to apologize for his wife’s death. On that quiet, starless and snowless night, tears fell and anger mingled with grief, but it was the youngest, Isshu, who took it the hardest. The buggy ride home was even longer, agonizingly quiet as the family rode back to the small village of Hesson, to bury someone who only wanted to help do greater good for the people. But there was no time for tears. There was work to do; goats didn't feed and milk themselves, and now it was up to them to look after each other. So young but so aware of the hole in their family, Isshu did the only thing she could to make it hurt a little less: push the hurt away, and try to smile, for her father's sake. Feelings buried in naïve cheer, Isshu did her best to quickly learn from her neighbors all the things she should have had time to learn from her mother. Left alone with five children and a farm to run, her father pushed his own grief to the side, removing tokens of his wife, her SAAD thrown far into the field and her alchemy books sold to the local bookseller.

It's difficult when the world is still so big to one so small and not being allowed to openly show hurt and confusion. Why did she die? There were no discussions, and there were no answers. All Isshu knew was that her mother had been passionate about alchemy, and she had been able so many nights to get to stave off bedtime just a little longer by asking her mother something new about her studies. She didn't quite comprehend all of it, but that was okay; it made her mother excited and happy, and was something that could be beautiful and useful and make things better for people. Now, nobody could be helped, and her family was left hurting instead. She wanted to know more about what it was her mother had been trying and wanting to do, but knew better than to ask; questions would either make her father angry or sad, neither of which were helpful. For a little while Isshu let it go, doing her best to learn more important things, like helping with the farm and helping her brothers not burn dinner. It wasn't until two harvest seasons later that Isshu's curiosities would spark back up, the child finding something in the field she was never supposed to find: her mother's SAAD.

The flower etched into one side was lovely, but the array on the other was amazing. So small, and yet, there were lines and runes, shapes that held power to them. They all meant something. Her mother once said that the geometric shapes and runes helped tap into the energy of the world itself and connected you to what you were doing, and for a brief moment you were part of everything. Isshu wasn't sure how you could be a part of everything while only in one place, but she did know that the array was key. Taking it as a sign, Isshu kept the token secretly, and the next time she was in town Isshu took some of what little money she had to find a book to explain even the basics of alchemy. If she could answer the questions burning inside of her, maybe she could understand what it was her mother was trying to do and make sense of why she was gone now. Any money that's hers is spent on books to study, alchemical texts mixed in the stack of cookbooks and given different covers, and any free time dedicated to practice, almost trying to reconnect with the lost spirit through shared passion.

Erzsebet's shed was old when she'd taken it for her own, and now was abandoned at the far edge of the field, neglected and becoming overgrown with weeds and vines. Nobody went near it except in passing, and Isshu's father and brothers tried to avoid looking at it if they could, knowing the woman wasn't ever hurrying out of there to make a late dinner again. Therefore, nobody would notice if Isshu claimed it for her own as a secret place to read, her mother's notes and test arrays pinned all over the inside walls. It could have been the lingering traces of her mother only, or the scientific indulgence, but the shed she'd never been allowed inside of before felt like home. It was private and safe, and was like silent encouragement to keep going. Slowly, the hurt and confusion were starting to go away, the little girl finally having an outlet and something to focus on, and a place to cry away from where she would be seen and scolded for it.

Day in and day out, Isshu tended to her father and brothers, quickly forcing herself to grow up and fill the hole her mother left behind as best she could. Something always needed doing; there were meals to cook and goats to milk and food to pick and take to market and sell. At 11, the world was still such a big place, and all she was learning about alchemy made it seem that much bigger, but the world around never seemed as big as it was until the day Isshu found the hole. A chicken had gotten loose and run off, and Isshu chased after the bird as it ran under a large bush next to the wall, clucked, and then seemed to vanish as its clucking grew further away. But that was silly; chickens didn't just vanish. Things always had explanations. As Isshu crawled under the bush, she found the explanation for the lost chicken, and rather wished she hadn't at first. It was so small; too small for an adult, let alone even the smallest of titans to break through. Along the base of the wall and behind the bush was a hole in Wall Maria, less than three feet but with a long, narrow crack riding up above it. Things had been peaceful, but Isshu had grown up being told about the titans living on the other side that wouldn't hesitate to eat her. The world outside was very, very big, and very, very dangerous. And the stupid chicken had bolted out into it.

Her imagination running wild with possibilities, Isshu worked herself up into a small frantic panic, trying to figure out how to stop the possible dangers and did the most sensible thing she could think to do: pile small stones and branches in front of the hole and push the branches of the bush back down in front of it to cover it. Crisis averted. Isshu gave up her pursuit of the chicken, satisfied that she'd blocked the hole, but couldn't help but to keep glancing back toward the hidden hole, questions piling on top of each other. What was a titan? How big were they, really? What was the world like outside? Isshu had seen in some books outdated maps that showed the borders of her own country that proved that Agania was really quite large and not actually one giant walled circle. It had jagged edges, and there had been other countries surrounding it, and oceans. On the map it all seemed so oddly impressive yet muted, and pictures in books could only tell you so much without a person experiencing it all firsthand. Questions began to arise, the inquisitive girl asking first each of her brothers in turn and then her father, wanting to gain as much insight as she could. Did the ocean still exist? Did the titans live there, too? What about other countries and people? Were they the only people left in the world? Had any of them ever seen the outside world for themselves? If they hadn't how did they know that anything they were told was even true at all?

The questions stopped abruptly, silenced with an irritated slap and a stern warning not to dare cry lest she be given something to cry about. No answers given, Isshu knew better than to persist, resolving in her mind that the only logical thing to do was find out what she could on her own since nobody else either knew or wanted to tell her. For better or worse, she would figure it out herself. She spent some days debating it and working, being extra sweet and good so that she'd move back into her father's good graces and be allowed to go off alone to play when her chores were done. Nobody was watching as the child ducked behind the bush she'd gone into before; nobody was there to warn her as she moved the rocks she'd blocked the hole with; and nobody was able to stop Isshu as she crouched down to crawl through the hole in the great, never-ending wall that stood to protect everyone from whatever was outside. Isshu had pondered many things about the world outside, but wasn't quite expecting what she found: a field. Nothing more. In the distance, deep rolling hills, and between the two were tall trees untouched by man in at least a century. Sitting at the edge of her secret exit, Isshu sat terrified, looking everywhere as though waiting to be eaten simply for having poked her head out. She told herself ot go back, but her legs wouldn't budge. She pleaded with herself to go forward, and nothing happened there, either, fear gripping the child too much to gain more than a few inches in either direction. But she'd done it. She had seen the outside, and it was beautiful, and there were flowers dotting the field she'd never seen before. Star-shaped and white, they were magnificent. Going home empty-handed after only ducking her head and shoulders through Wall Maria  would have simply been a waste, and too easy to convince herself later that she'd only dreamed doing it and that it never happened. Mustering all of her courage, Isshu darted forward, grabbed the first of the white flowers she could, and then bolted back to the hole that only sat feet away. Victory.

The flower was pretty, but there was more to it than just its looks, surely, and Isshu set out in town to find as many books on Aganian herbs and plants as she could, the older the better. Many plants were lost to Agania after the walls went up, and now they were left to feely bloom in the wild outside. If she could just get out there more easily and more often, the possibilities to bring better medicines and new kinds of edible plants to Agania were limitless. Always careful of the watchful eyes of her father and brothers, and infinitely careful to not be seen by the great monsters that would eat her, Isshu continued to sneak out of her hidden hole and into the world, braving her odds alone to collect plant specimens and bring them back to her mother’s shed where she consulted as many almanacs as she could while pushing herself even harder to gain a greater understanding of her mother’s alchemy. Over the years Isshu got very good at hiding and being still long enough for danger to pass, many times coming far too close to being spotted and having to stay hidden long enough to not let anything follow her back to the hole in her wall. The teenager was fearful and careful, and her mother’s shed that was rotting on the outside was once again bright and alive inside, filled with strange and beautiful plants as Isshu worked through each of them to see which were edible, where were medicinal, and which could be enhanced alchemically for the greater good.

She was in her lab the day she heard that rumble. Isshu’s first thought was that it was some distant thunder, except the skies had been lovely earlier that day. Her father and Milo were in the village to trade, and Isshu was done her chores enough that she could take a break to work on her own things. The teenager ignored the rumbles at first, so far away that surely it was some distant thunder in the mountains and nothing more, until they grew louder and louder, and were followed by screams. Isshu ducked her head out of the shed’s window and saw something that she never hoped to see: the crack above the secret hole was bigger, and spreading rapidly before her eyes. The wall was breaking all around her. Cracks spread down the wall as far as she could see, and Isshu ducked back into her shed, shoving all of the texts and samples she could into her bag to save what she could. She could hear louder rumbles and screams as the wall began breaking down. Titans were inside of Wall Maria, and none of them were safe.

As she ran out of her shed to get back to the house, Isshu stopped dead in her tracks, breathless. In the distance of the village, she could see them. More and more of the wall surrounding their farm was falling, and Isshu stood there, frozen as her world began to crumble around her, all the dangers of the outside she’d been so brash about before retaliating full-swing. Livestock ran in all directions to flee to safety, and Isshu didn’t notice the titan above her until the remains of a partially-chewed farmhand dropped a few feet in front of her. Coming close to being spotted and being within grabbing distance were two entirely different things, and it was far too late to find something to hide inside of or under. Isshu bolted, jumping over as much as she could to put any distance between herself and what would eat her. Isshu shrieked as she was grabbed from behind and lifted, and nearly fainted with relief when it was her brother Rayek who had come to her rescue, Isshu quickly pulled up on the large workhorse as they galloped off back to the house.

There was so little time to grab anything, their father and Milo still in the village, Dart, Rayek, and Isshu frantically trying to grab what they could and run together to the nearest place of safety: inside Wall Rose. Clothes, food, and goods were forgotten, Isshu only having her satchel to her name as her brothers grabbed what they could and rode their other horse, the four of them riding as fast as their horses could carry them to the wall and hoped they’d find the rest of their family soon. The ride to Dauper was long, exhausting, and hungry, the four of them only stopping to rest for short bursts until they were safe within the walls. Refugees were everywhere, inns and taverns were full, and the four of them were still shaken from being chased from their home. It was some days before they found their father and brother, and were for once rather glad not all of the goods had been sold, the two of them escaping with their cart, a few goats, and some money.

Starting over is never easy, and to go from such a large, open farm to a small shack with only a small space to let their animals graze was cramped for everyone. Isshu was suddenly very homesick and despaired that there was no home to go back to, and the world outside and all its possibilities even further from her reach. Like her brothers, Isshu sought whatever work she could in the farming town, trying harder than ever to help care for her family and keep their spirits up. Money was tight, food was tight, and winter was looking bleak in the little hunting and farming village that was suddenly so over-populated. Isshu sat up late most nights, trying to think of what could be done to help ease things for her family and her displaced neighbors. Even though she’d been studying alchemy for years, Isshu never expected results from her first finished test array. It was only small, but there was a change that showed the array had worked; the seed she’d put in the array’s center had cracked open and a bud was trying to unfurl itself to grow.

The array was a step in the right direction, Isshu finally starting to understand what her mother might have been trying to accomplish. By forcing the seeds to germinate, crops could grow within days and solve food shortages and even provide out of season foods. Finally satisfied that she had it, Isshu braved confessing to her father what she’d been working on for so many years under his nose and without his permission. She had potential to be an alchemist; she could feel it. And if he’d let her to, she could help their family, their neighbors, and even Dauper get through the tough times a little easier. Reluctantly her father agreed after Isshu insisted that the alchemy wasn’t dangerous, wouldn’t put her into danger, and moreover that she didn’t need the surgery like their mother had. Before her father and brothers Isshu drew her array, poured out all her concentration, and showed them how they could be helped as a seed became a plant, and soon bore a heavy, red tomato, an exhausted Isshu plopped on the floor with her fingers still on the array. Without a SAAD, Isshu’s alchemy had worked and created food. There was hope.

Her father tried to keep his daughter’s talent as quiet as he could, only telling select neighbors and trusted friends the services she could offer, escorting Isshu to their farms and homes to help start their crops as she slowly helped earn enough money to help her family buy a larger plot of land and more goats, life slowly returning to normal. Isshu began to find peace within, glad that she finally ad a better purpose than tending and milking goats and making dinner at night, her alchemy benefitting those around her. Days were suddenly filled like never before, the farm work left to her brothers as Isshu was tasked to start seeds for as many people as could come to her in a day, the girl returning home every night too exhausted to eat many times. All the same, Isshu loved it, loving the feeling that came from helping more than anything else, her father the only one that insisted on being paid something for his daughter’s skill, which made if funny that he worked so hard to keep it so quiet.

Isshu understood, though. She was still so young, and being able to work alchemy without a SAAD implant was freakishly rare. A SAAD would amplify her alchemical ability, but all alchemists she knew of had one, and they all worked for the Aganian government in some way. After what happened to her mother, Isshu wasn’t sure she wanted one, her father rather vocal about his concern that she would be forced to have the surgery and taken to work for the government directly, her alchemy a tool to be used more than a skill worked by a human being. The feeling of being trapped was creeping up on Isshu once more as the desire to go out into the world to help more than just those around her intensified while being completely tethered to her father and only allowed to go as far as he could see or be escorted. The world was waiting, Isshu feeling once more like she was hiding in the crack in the wall, wondering if she had the courage to dare herself to take the next step.

The world was hers if she dared...



             TRIVIA:
     → She loves to sing and can play the cobza (a type of bent-neck lute)
     → Isshu is better at hand to hand and close range weapons than ranged; she can win  in a fight using a stick or sword better than a gun.
     → She keeps her mother’s SAAD as a somewhat morbid lucky charm; it’s a small white disk the size of a quarter etched with a rose bloom on one side and a simple array on the other.
     → Loves to memorize and recite poetry
     → Due to her albinism, Isshu’s eyesight really is very poor. Don’t point in the distance and say “Do you see that?” or she will hit you.
     → Doesn’t fully trust doctors and surgeons, and is rather afraid of being a government alchemist
     → Antique sheet music and books? Hers if she finds them.
     → Isshu has many books dedicated to plants, herbs, and flowers, and their uses
     → Commonly, friends and neighbors call her Ish and Snowdrop
     → Isshu sees herself as the care-giver, filling the role of all their mother did as best she can
     → She can and often does work herself to the point of exhaustion when she uses her alchemy
    → Isshu's general blindness gets in the way of a lot, but she pretends it doesn't and meaks up for it as best she can with her memory and sense of hearing.
    → Like many women, Isshu is a master and commander of THE LOOK; that silent, deadly stare of disapproval that all women are capable of that make most animals, children, and most importantly, men stop what they're doing before they regret it.
→ Isshu is rather afraid of heights.
→ She keeps a pet milking goat that is for breeding and milk named Mina
     → Fluent in Ishrik (Delvideki dialect) (Gold) and Aganian (Lightblue), but has a very heavy Delvideki accent



       ALIAS:
       → Shu

       OTHER CHARACTERS:
       → First here.

      CREATOR'S COMMENTS:
       → Let me tell you a tale for a penny. One that you cannot hear anywhere else, no anywhere else. I heard from a birdy it doesn't end purdy, it doesn't end well. No, it never ends well.

       FACE CLAIM:

Code:

[b]Fate/ Stay Night[/b] - [i]Archerko[/i] - Isshu Juhász

     

     CUSTOM RANK:
       → Snowdrop