#empath problems

Ruka is a 20-year-old Japanese girl. She stands at 160cm, or roughly 5'2", but often wears high-heeled shoes. Most of that height is carried in her legs; on the whole, she's more pear-shaped, but looks somewhere between skinny, underweight, or exceptionally underweight (she's only 42kg, or ~93lb, so yeah), depending on the outfit and the level of observation of the viewer. Willowy arms and narrow, delicate fingers, she'll never give off the impression of someone that does any sort of physical labor. Or physical anything, if she can get away with it. Her hair is a natural pale blueish green, in the general neighborhood of seafoam, while her eye, singular, is a sort of greenish amber.

The other one (her left; on the observer's right) is covered by an eye patch, usually red, heart-shaped, and this is usually obscured by her bangs. She usually wears long sleeves, but she will wear skirts and shorts as short as she can get away with as the weather permits. Accessories she always wears include gloves — (usually red, but occasionally black, or blue), her eye patch (always heart-shaped), and a silver chain necklace with a crescent moon pendant.

Ruka speaks in a middling alto pitch, and has even since childhood. Her tone is mostly level, clearly enunciated, and never particularly fast, so she is a great person to get driving directions from. Ruka speaks both Japanese and English fluently, though her English has accent markers more commonly associated with Western Europe than the Eastern United States, due to the native English speakers she's spent the most time with.

If she is hedging her statements—maybe, I think so, anyway, at least, and so on—she sounds a bit more apologetic, uncertain, or otherwise unsure. When she speaks to the point, her voice is very direct and brokers no argument. Most of the time her inflection is dry, flat, and disinterested, often mistaken for bored. She is no fun at parties.

Ruka is a wallflower. She hangs around the outskirts of any gathering and doesn't go out of her way to engage people. It won't parse as shyness or insecurity; rather, she'll just seem a little detached from whatever is going on—like she doesn't feel it affects her, or doesn't want it to. In conversation she is usually polite and soft-spoken, unless she feels that the situation (or, perhaps, your character) is too troublesome or idiotic to bear. She can be exceptionally callous, and blunt to the point of rudeness and insult, but she doesn't go out of her way to be cruel. When she is stressed or irritated, she comes across as vitriolic. She tends to ice people out when she's upset, and it would take a great deal of effort to thaw the mood when she's like this.

Most of all, she is acutely observant with regards to other characters' personalities and emotions, as well as to events and circumstance, and is usually willing to discuss them; her intelligence and ability to notice patterns are often remarked upon. However, Ruka often refrains from being too direct in these regards; she can struggle with translating the abstract into words. Sometimes she'll resort to metaphor in order to get the idea across, which can occasionally give a "mysterious" quality to her speech, but this can leave her meaning indecipherable.

If a character strikes the magical balance between listening to her, treating her with respect, and taking her advice and guidance to heart, as well as completely disregarding any and all faults or problems they might notice with her or her situation, she can warm up quickly. Drawing attention to her stresses, losses, and frequently obvious hangups in regards to social bonds is a quick way to garner a cold shoulder.

Ruka was originally imPorted to the MOM version of Earth in 2014, as part of the first wave that arrived from the world of C&C. As such, although Ruka has had a few extended absences from the game, she is still considered one of the "first" of the new arrivals. Because of her physical appearance (and the comparative rareness of Anime Hair among imPorts), paparazzi often take her picture at major public events, but she usually ignores them, and almost always declines interviews.

Ruka has worked in a few different art fields, traditional and digital, and original works tend to sell for a lot. Presently she works as a freelance artist, often designing characters and creatures for various entertainment studios.

The hottest prevailing rumor is that she was not originally human. Because the "Ru" of her name is the kanji for "Dragon" (龍), theory goes that she was a real dragon that was forced into a human form when she was imPorted, and this explains why she looks the way she does. Ruka has made no comment.

Her "fandom" has had a long time to develop, and has swung through a few different cultures; presently, most of her fans are young girls and young women who take her general aloofness and "quirky" appearance as license to be introverts, to do what they want with their appearance and take more ownership of their "imperfections," and to tell guys to shut the FUCK up. She does have a smaller subset of male fans who are mostly there because of the way she looks, but they tend to keep to themselves in the less trafficked parts of the web. Opinions on her current "ship" are mixed, regardless of the type of fan you ask, but everybody has an opinion.

Ruka is a staple choice among cosplayers, thanks to her distinctive and easy-to-replicate appearance, so pretty much any fan event with cosplayers will have at least three Rukas in attendance. They have been getting progressively more elaborate over the years, and often delve into niche themes or period costume AUs.

She features in a great deal of fan merchandise — mostly dolls + figures with varying costumes and hair styles, though some more fashion-minded vendors will sell gloves or eye patches styled after the ones she wears.