(skylifter) KEISHA'RA SAIAR.

[KEISHA'RA]

SKYLIFTER

name- Keisha'ra Saiar.

nickname- Keith.
reason- Some find it difficult to pronounce her name, therefore she allows others to call her Keith.

age- Six years.
gender- Female.
group- Skylifter.

ranking- Leader.

owns jewelry?- No.
appearance-

Keisha'ra is a small cat; small for her age, small for her group. As appearances are, in fact, deceiving, the she-cat is not what she seems; if one doesn't judge at first glance, they will notice the thick muscle in her shoulders and forelegs, giving her front legs the uncanny strength of the Skylifter. The rest of her body is slimmer, more natural in appearance, as there is none of the Skylifter power in the other locations on her body. Instead resides the muscle gained by training and battle, appearing to be nothing but the norm in comparison to her thick, broad shoulders.

The feline has long legs – for her size, at least – that end in paws seemingly measured for a cat that'd match her longer-than-needed limbs. Keisha'ra's front two paws are slightly larger than her one hind paw, and the claws, ever since birth, were considerably longer – just a coincidence, or a part of her Skylifter heritage? It wouldn’t matter, either way, as the claws that were once sheathed comfortably in her back paw have been long gone; ripped, torn out, leaving no trace that they had once been there. The only thing that reminds Keisha’ra that she had once had claws in that paw is the feeling of phantom duplicates; she still feels as if she can unsheathe them, flex them, dig them into the flesh of an opponent...

As has been so truly stated, the she-cat has only one hind paw; never has she had a second. The upper half of Keisha’ra’s right leg is all that she has ever had. The foot, the paw... both had never been a part of her body, which is perhaps better than having lost it. For she has lived without that fourth leg for all her six years, Keisha’ra finds living without it no problem. Her balance is as perfect as that of any four-legged cat – though, instead of evenly distributing her weight, Keisha’ra takes advantange of the strength of her front legs and puts most weight upon them.

On the outside, Keisha’ra is painted with the color of the pure: white. It does not cover her completely, but, to be simple, the front half of her body – her chest, belly, forelegs, face. To add to it, the bottom half of her back leg and the under-fur of her body. The rest of her flesh is covered by brown, which is then striped by black, like the tabby. The top of her head is dipped in the coloring, as well as most of her back, hind legs and tail.

The last point to consider would be her eyes – both pale and dark, reflecting the world and nothing else. The "pale" factor is obvious, as the two pools are a pastel lime in color, ringed by the black around her eyes and contrasted with the strips that are her pupils. The "dark" is more difficult to describe, as it isn't something one could see but, instead, a thing one could feel. Keisha'ra's eyes show nothing within, told no one of what hid beneath. Her eyes could be compared to mirrors: showing the blunt truth of who one was, no more and no less. Thus the darkness, the blinding truth, showed.

one line appearance- A small tabby-and-white she-cat with three legs.

personality-

There is no physical thing that Keisha'ra enjoys. There is nothing that can be felt and seen that brings pleasure to the she-cat – it is the spiritual realm, as Keisha'ra calls it, that brings whatever joy she has. It is the mind and soul that the feline takes interest in; not fighting, not food, not any other thing any cat could partake in (though she has nothing against any of these things). What cannot be seen are the things that she chases, are the desires she feels. What thing is sweeter than the shrieking melody of a heart's broken strings? Which battle would conquer that rushing ecstasy one feels when betraying a cat whom so dearly trusts them?

Keisha'ra finds the mind an interesting thing, and she pities the fool who is so easily swayed by the heart. Though it is fun to see a heart break, an agonising sob of, "Keisha'ra... I trusted you!" it is the mind, the soul, the being that she truly delights in. It is easy to beat, to crush one in body, to make their blood run freely and their bones snap, but all such things heal, even in death. They are physical things, and Keisha'ra only uses such to explain her point; the pain of the flesh seems to make mental torture all the worse. As she whispered words into ears, telling of the souls most treasured hopes destroyed, the feeling of claws digging into skin, tearing the body, seemed to strike hope a point. If it is so easy to make our bodies bleed, they must think, is it so much harder for our soul to bleed, too?

It is because of this desire that Keisha'ra loathes her cousins, the Mindbenders. They were able to do whatever she wanted – twisting the mind and soul – quicker and more efficiently than she could ever do, as their powers revolved around minds while her kin was of the flesh. Perhaps she envied them – envied how easy it would be to torment one in the soul with a power of the mind – but, if she did, she would never admit it. It is hate she shows towards the Mindbenders; a hate that runs through her being like the very blood in her veins.

Even with all this underneath nothing but a soft layer of fur, skin and bone, Keisha'ra is able to hide herself from the world. She shows a cool, uncaring exterior; a face that doesn't care much for anything unless it directly affects her. She finds no need to throw a fit when a cat does something that goes against her beliefs – after all, if someone goes and makes friends with Mindbenders, what did it matter to her? It wasn't like the Mindbenders could turn a Skylifter into one of them, no matter how much mind-intruding those bastards could do. If she was to say, however, that they couldn't befriend a Mindbender and they did it anyway... Keisha'ra wouldn't allow such a thing. Her words had to be obeyed, no matter if the bastards were nice to the Skylifter or not.

Keisha'ra is willing to pretend, to put on a caring façade or whatever else, to get her way. She is willing to cheat and to betray, to kill and to torment – also, she is fine with showing sympathy, helping others, and any other "nice" things; but, of course, they're all lies. The she-cat is quite good at speaking tongue-in-cheek, faking a smile, but the only thing that she will not change about herself is the dark, reflecting eyes. She allows no one to know any more about her than what she chooses to show.

likes-
xx , being in control of the minds of others.
xx , lying to get her way.
xx , making others feel bad.
xx , betraying trusts.
dislikes-
xx , those who lie.
xx , mindbenders and their meddling powers.
xx , sleep; it's nothing but a nuisance.
xx , being told what to do.

history-

narrated by keisha'ra's son, allelujah.
note: this is the writing example!

My mother always used to speak of her family when I was a kit. It was all she would ever do; she'd sit me down in some run-down alley and talk about her life, about what had happened before I had been born. The darkness in her past... to be honest, it terrified me. I was only a young cat when she began telling me of the murders she'd committed, of the blood she'd shed. When I asked, quaking in fear, "Why did you do it?" my mother could do nothing but turn away. I know now as to the reason why she did that: she didn't know the answer herself.

I remember the day she began telling me of the past... not only that, but I remember her exact words: "Luja," she said, which had been her nickname for me, "I haven't told you anything of your family, have I? My parents, my siblings... I don't even need to say 'your father', as he was one of my siblings... Here, I'll tell you what happened. And, I promise you, I'll tell you it again and again until you grow up and run away, terrified, these words of mind burned into your memories like they are in mine."

She kept that promise. I still remember every single word, every expression that passed across her face as she spoke to me: sometimes softly, almost longingly, and sometimes with such ferocity that I was sure she was going to kill me. But I will not tell her story the way she told me. No, I will tell it to you in the best way I possibly can.

Keisha'ra, my mother, was birthed to Arianna'leetu and T'ulo; two cats that were not only lovers, but half-siblings. My grandparents never knew they were kin when they fell in love but, when they found out, it was too late; Aria was already pregnant and the pair's love for each other would not be swayed, sister and brother or no. The other cats, after hearing rumours of the two, began to mock and sneer at them; even their closest friends turned their backs in disgust. Because of their blood relationship, Aria and T'ulo were shunned.

Seeing this as a good reason to leave (leaving being something they had wished to do for a long time), the pair left the home they had lived in for longer than they could remember and went out into the world. They moved from the edge of a peaceful countryside to a city occupied by humans, where cats lurked the streets at night. They weren't quite sure if they wanted their kits to live in this noisy place, but they had no choice – Aria knew they were going to come soon.

She was, of course, right. About a month later – after which a cat taught them of the way of life in the human-infested place – Aria gave birth to three kits: Hea'shei, Luria'ne and my mother, Keisha'ra. Perhaps it was because of their extensive travelling, or because of their parents blood relationship, but the kits didn't turn out as healthy as the pair would have wished – Hea'shei had trouble breathing, Luria'ne wasn't very bright, and Keisha'ra was without one of her hind legs.

Yet, T'ulo and Arianna'leetu saw past these disabilities and loved the three. After all, they were the parents of these kits, no matter if they had three legs or couldn't breathe properly or didn't understand quite as well as a normal cat. They took a risk by having kits, knowing very well that the kits might turn out dead or worse, and they were willing to follow through with the consequences. Whenever my mother told me of this part of the story, I could hear her mutter under her breath, "Maybe it would have been better if our parents had killed us when we were kits, to spare us the life we'd have to life." I'd always known she hadn't been talking to me, so I never dared answer.

Hea'shei didn't live past kithood – one rainy night, in an abandoned human home at the edge of the city, her throat closed up, preventing her from breathing and ultimately ending her life. Her parents grieved for their lost daughter, but they had their two living kits to take care of still and Hea'shei was soon forgotten.

Keisha'ra and Luria'ne grew up in a fairly normal fashion, but, as the months went by, Luria'ne's kithood stupidity seemed to fade away – and, in turn, the tom became very controlling of his littermate, often putting her down for being unable to "heal" from her birth defect. As he hid this from their parents, and Keisha'ra was threatened to death if she told anyone, Aria and T'ulo never knew of their son's abuse of his sister.

Luria'ne left his parents and his sister after a year, claiming that he was able to live on his own from now on. In the night, to his sister, he whispered that he would come and get her; one day, he promised, one day. My mother always told this part in a harsh whisper, as if she had to force herself to speak it, as if she didn't want to remember – I recall not being able to believe my mother, so cruel and self-serving, could ever be so terrified all these years later.

Keisha'ra stayed with her parents for another year, fearing that her brother would find and do something to her if she left to be on her own. T'ulo and Aria often encouraged my mother to leave, to live her own life, but she refused; it was after that year that she began doubting that her brother would come and get her, that she began thinking that he had said that just to scare her. So, she left to live her life in the city on her own.

Not half a year after leaving her parents, that same cat that had taught her parents to survive in the city met up with Keisha'ra with some news he regretted to tell her: Aria, her mother, was dead. When she demanded how Aria had died, the cat had only shrugged and said, "Your father said she had been murdered; if he knew who murdered her – which he probably did, from the stunned look on his face when he told me of her death – he didn't tell me who it was."

Keisha'ra had no doubt that she knew who had killed her mother, too. Luria'ne. It had to be him. She made the cat swear that he would never tell a soul that he had talked with her, instead say that he found out she was dead, and, satisfied, Keisha'ra fled the city. She had no real destination, going here and there, and she eventually stumbled upon a group of travelling cats. They offered her a place in their ranks, to go with them, and she, grateful for the company, accepted their offer. Little did she know...

My mother soon discovered that these cats didn't just wander aimlessly, or go from city to city, or anything like that; these cats murdered for fun and profit, killing for no reason and for others, if someone wanted another killed. Keisha'ra, in her foolishness, hadn't tried to discover who these cats were – she hadn't known that they were mercenaries that worked for nothing but reputation. She hadn't known that she would be forced into the business.

The cats of the group told her that she'd have to help or be thrown out – they didn't need an extra mouth to feed if she wasn't going to do anything. Keisha'ra couldn't help but do what they asked – despite their profession, many of the cats were kind to her and didn't see how missing one of her legs made her any different from them.

So, Keisha'ra began to work with the mercenaries. Unlike her first thoughts, which were that she wouldn't be able to kill a cat on command, my mother found the whole killing business to be simple and easy; almost boring. When it came to "interrogations", when cats asked the group to find out information with any means possible, Keisha'ra was ecstatic. She found the art of forcing things out of people to be more fascinating than killing, as it took longer and she was able to make them suffer without ending their life. I don't know why she found torturing poor souls so... so fun, but she did. This was one of the places where I'd ask why, why, why, and she wouldn't ever be able to answer.

Sooner or later – my mother was very vague when it came to the timeline – Keisha'ra had completely forgotten about Luria'ne and his promise, about her parents and Aria's death, about everything and anything that didn't have anything to do with her job as a mercenary. She became obsessed in destroying cats from the inside, so much so that she unintentionally isolated herself from the other mercenaries. Keisha'ra was still told to do her job, and she willingly complied, but she and the others were no longer what anyone could consider "friends". She had no problem with this, however, as she was so consumed in her desires to notice.

The group's reputation was the thing that ruined my mother. Many cats knew of the mercenaries, and some of them knew the individual cats – by name and appearance, at least. And so Keisha'ra was known by the general population to be in the mercenary group, and, after asking around, Luria'ne learned not only this but where he could find this group. My uncle was not one to make false promises, so what he had said to Keisha'ra on the night he left their parents had not been only to scare her; he'd always intended to do exactly what he had said. What he found when he encountered his sister again was, apparently, not exactly what he had been expecting.

Keisha'ra admitted that, when Luria'ne came, demanding for her, she didn't know who he was. She thought him to be a cat that wanted her to force information out of someone, and so she came forward willingly. He requested they go for a walk alone, and she, oblivious, agreed to go.

It was on this walk that Luria'ne asked his sister about her life, acting the perfect gentleman, sometimes hinting that he was going to ask her to interrogate someone but never quite getting there. Keisha'ra's responses to his questions astounded him, my mother told me. He couldn't believe how much she had changed. She was obviously insane, he could see that much, but she wasn't rid of her senses; Keisha'ra was smart, even if she wrapped herself up in the ecstasy of destruction. He very well fell in love with the sister he had tormented and teased through their younger years.

My mother did not love Luria'ne, she knew that much. Even though she didn't remember him as her brother, her instincts warned her not to have anything to do with him. But she still thought he was there for information; many of the cats that came for such a thing made her instincts murmur for her to stay away, so she paid it no heed.

Luria'ne didn't exactly force my mother, his sister, into mating with him; Keisha'ra was not afraid to admit to me that she let her brother do what he did. She had known no better, back then. It was her fault, yes, but no one was perfect; "We all make mistakes," she murmured to me, "and we learn from them. No matter how insane or smart or good or evil anyone is."

It was only after that Keisha'ra learned who Luria'ne was – he told her his name, still thinking that she wouldn't remember, but it was not the case. She remembered him and she remembered his promise. In terror, she had fled – just like those years ago when she had left her original home, the city, and before that, when he parents left their home.

When Keisha'ra found she was pregnant, she was not horrified that the father was her brother – why would she be, when she was a result of the exact same thing? – but because she had no clue as to how to raise kits with someone, let alone on her own. And, despite how crazed she had been, she pitied the kits in her belly as she knew she could never raise them. It was then when she shoved away her insanity, pushed her desires to torment down into the depths of her mind, and locked up herself in the cold and uncaring face she shows to this day. If she was to bear kits just to see them die, so be it. She would be ready.

Keisha'ra had no place to go, and therefore she travelled – she had no need to stop every now and then to rest herself, to assure her kits safety, as they were going to die anyway and having them killed in her belly, she told me, would be much easier than seeing the squirming, mewling bundles of fur wither away. As I was one of those kits, I am quite glad I didn't die before I could have taken my first breath; or afterwards, either.

Though my mother wished to continue walking, after she grew more pregnant, it became impossible. She sought out a place to stay, the base of a large tree on the outskirts of an abandoned town, so that she could give birth – or death, as she said to me – to her brother's kits. Thus, I was born.

I had two siblings, just like the litter my mother had been born into. My brother had been stillborn, and my sister had come out alive – but she was horribly mutated, and it was mercy that made Keisha'ra kill the poor thing. I, my mother told me, didn't want to die. She could see it, even if I was not old enough to speak it. And she could not kill her one and only healthy kit; she didn't have the heart to. But she wasn't going to go out of her way to make sure I survived.

family-
Arianna’leetu, mother.
T’ulo, father.
Hea’shei, sister.
Luria’ne, brother.
Allelujah, son.

ooc name- god.
contact you?- msn. ask.
other characters- none.

[MAMA SPOT]