BasicsFull Name: Maria Nakajima
Nickname(s): Mistress Nakajima/Mistress Maria
Age, D.O.B.: 23; January 15th, 1997 | 3; January 15th, 2017
Gender: Female
Class: Shadow
Arcana: XX - Judgement
Career: Owner of The Golden Rose flower shop. | Leader of the Golden Rose cult.
Ethnicity: American/Japanese
Family:-Daisuke Nakajima: Father, alive and well.
-Marianne Nakajima(nee Ray): Mother, deceased. Died giving birth to Maria, who was named after her.
-Other Family: Maria was already quite estranged from any other family besides her father even before she became a Shadow. As such, there are no other family members that she has associated with.
AppearanceFace Claim: Maxwell, Brave Frontier
Maria stands at about 5' 10", having a svelte athletic figure. She is a pretty girl with startlingly golden eyes that seem to draw in whoever looks at them, though a sense of dread often follows. She also has long silver hair and she usually wears dark clothing with occasional bits of golden jewelry such as rings, necklaces, sometimes bracelets.
PersonalityLikes: Chaos, Coffee, Cute Things, Flowers, Gold, Sexy Women
Dislikes: Constraints, Feelings of Weakness, Lack of Purpose, Sour Food
Hobbies: Collecting and aiding the wayward, learning about types, arrangements, and etc. in regards to flowers, tending the flowers, and working upon her signature golden roses.
Goals: Maria does not have many real goals. Sometimes it's just as simple as managing to make enough money to pay her rent next week. "All must confront that which they have hidden away from themselves."A great many issues in the life of Maria Nakajima have resulted in the Shadow that had overwhelmed the original Maria. She had never stood a chance against it. And now the Shadow wears the form of Maria, retaining some of her interests and quirks, both positive and negative. But she has developed parts of her own psyche as well, based around the darker emotions that formed in the mind of a covetous young woman so easily forgotten. Though she will has trouble admiting it, deep within her is a purpose that went unfulfilled. As a Shadow, she existed to confront someone and make them either accept their own issues or steadily work to improve themselves. Such a thing did not happen.
Yet her purpose is still there and still driving the motivations that have led to her creation of the "Golden Rose" cult of personality that she has built around herself. While she cultivates a following of young women that have come to be attracted to her, she also helps them to better themselves, whether through words, a bit of money from working at the store she owns, or in some other way,. However, her ultimate goal is both benevolent and yet intrinsically flawed and deeply misguided. Now seeking to turn all of Sanyo into a "Prison" of her own crafting, Maria wants to force all of the denizens within the city of Sanyo to face the Shadows of their own deep-rooted issues.
HistoryThe story of Maria Nakajima actually starts with her mother, Marianne Ray. Marianne's father was an American soldier that was stationed in Japan when his daughter Marianne was born. The American girl would then go on to fall in love with a Japanese man by the name of Daisuke. From the fruits of their love was born the Maria Nakajima of today. But sadly, her mother would pass away after giving birth due to the strenuous process. And Daisuke was left to raise his daughter on his own. To do this, he would begin to take multiple jobs, doing his best to support the small family how he could.
But this busy schedule would lead to growing feelings of loneliness in Maria as she grew up. Starting in junior high school Maria's grades began slipping and the young girl also began withdrawing into herself. Eventually she began to run with the wrong sorts of crowds, turning into a delinquent along with a small group of girls that began to congregate around her. After some shows of violence in the beginning of her high school years, Maria turned into a sukeban, a female gang leader, and got into even more trouble than before. Grades became entirely pointless to Maria and no amount of attempts by anyone to get through to her would succeed. Words fell upon deaf ears and eventually, Maria squeaked through high school.
More than likely, the first thought about the young Maria Nakajima was about how volatile she could be. At once arrogant and sorrowful, she puts on a strong mask of complacence that belies her real dissatisfaction. Faced with severe depression issues, Maria was quick to try and avoid facing them through whatever means she could think of. Including and not limited to some less than legal things that she became involved in during her final years at Wakaba High such as smoking, drinking, and even hanging with some even worse delinquents than herself. This made her susceptible to making bad choices as she grew, desperate at times to not face herself. Her mood always seemed to veer away from actual cheer more often than not and she was dismissive at her nicest. When dealing with people she would often have an abrasive sort of attitude as well. As such, she'd often come off quite aggressive and generally unpleasant.
She didn't bother with any further education either, instead just drifting from job to job in an effort to hold something down. Maria has yet to fully leave the gang life, often finding herself running with the same cynical crowd. Yet in recent days she's begun to distance herself from them after finding work at a flower store of all things. The rare opportunity has actually given her a bit of drive in life and has caused her to want less and less to do with her old gang life. As Maria continues to go back on the law abiding side of things, she still finds herself chafing under the confines of the law. The issue had yet to come to a head, but Maria found herself pressed to make a decision on which to uphold and which to let go.
At the age of 20, she would never actually have the chance to make such a decision as a fateful encounter occured on her birthday of that year. She had been out late, drinking her sorrows away. She didn't notice the fog, nor the person who matched her step for step. She heard the words, but didn't get the meaning even as she quickly sobered up from the sight of a second person who looked just like her. But then she did. The words filled her ears, resounded in her mind, and she knew, she knew it was all true. And so Maria became consumed in her despair, her fears, and all that boded ill. She never stood a chance as the Shadow consumed what she was, becoming something new and horrifying in exchange.
3 years would pass from that dark night and Maria Nakajima appeared to be a changed woman in the face of her friends and her father. She turned her life around, going out and about, avoiding those she once associated with as part of her sinful ways and instead going out of her way to help those in need. None expected her to somehow find enough money to invest in a small, local flower shop, re-branding it The Golden Rose and selling the related golden-colored roses as part of the store's unique appeal. While still a very small group, Maria's cult of personality (aptly called the Golden Rose as well) has started to make a small name for themselves in their unique flowers and the occasional act of charity towards various groups around Sanyo.
EquipmentRegardless of what Maria is carrying or wearing at the time of her entry into a Prison, she starts carrying the following weapon and wearing the following armor.
Weapon: Starcutter (A large spear with two bladed heads in addition to the wicked spike at the top of her spear. At the bottom of the shaft is also a golden decorative piece with a genuinely deadly spike. (Pierce))
Armor: Ordainment (A beautiful dress of black silk and intricate golden weaving, taking up the top half of the dress while the bottom half is composed of a gossamer material, along with a pair of black thigh-boots with additional golden detailing.)
Notes-The sclera of Maria's eyes is white when she is outside of a Prison, but inside one her sclera turns black as her golden eyes turn practically luminescent, revealing her true nature. She is quick to brush this off as an odd trait of having "defeated her old issues" and gaining new powers from it.
-More overtly, she has a pair of wings that grow from her lower back, though they do not actually allow for any sort of flight, instead often resting upon her thighs. Nonetheless, she can use them for a quick burst of agility, flapping them with enough force to push up and away from a solid surface.
-Maria knows sign language, as well as the languages of Japanese, English, German, and French.
-The store is located in the Moon District, the cult itself only being more of a neighborhood rumor than anything else at the moment as anyone who knows of the store would only really know of their unique flowers.
--Furthermore, Maria herself resides in a living space above the flower store itself.
---Maria only allows women into the Golden Rose.