Index | Lost Eggs | Player Characters | Mukyu Ichijyo
Vitals
Name: Mukyu Ichijyo
Casting: Rinko Kikuchi (Yes, she looks a very much like Tolerance Zero)
Home World: LeGrange Point L4, Static Launch Platform, 2015 TK7
Element: Fire
Personal Equipment
- Plugsuit Mk 0.9
- An older prototype repurposed by Mukyu modified over the last six years of piloting. It allows her to link to most any known mecha and get maximum results while still providing a modicum of protection when extra-mecha. Last year she was able to get her hands on a supply of single chain self replicating polymer and integrate it into the weave. Slowly it's strengthened the suit, increasing durabilty even in the areas not covered by ceramic armor plating and repairing slowly from the wear and tear of use. Like a second skin, Mukyu wears it most all the time, a layer under her uniform.
- The Lotus
- A gift from Hayao when she gained her wings, Mukyu's preferred close combat weapon is a rokushakubo, a replica of the one that the HERA uses in miniature. Made of the same alloys as the larger version, the bo will extend to a sasaho yari for piercing to the heart of matters when blunt force won't solve the situation. Collapsible to 5cm diameter by 50cm long, she carries it most anywere. There may be other configurations, but Hayao didn't outline them all before he passed.
- The Collection
- A number of items collected in the remains of any number of battles, Mukyu scavenges just like the follow-up sweep teams, but she's often there first. She's accumulated a few small shelves of kitsch in her quarters. It all started with the jade ring depicting dragon that was found in her grasp when she was recovered from Crow Castle in Okayama. Unwilling to be parted from the jewelry, Hayao cut a distal-phalange-actuator-chain down to size so she could wear it around her neck under her shipsuit. She still wears it to this day under her plugsuit.
Concept
22 is young to be a lieutenant in the
TASC, but Mukyu Ichijyo has advanced quickly, but in a war of attrition, she has exemplified the VII Corp Motto, "Revenimus - We come back." Some argue that her successes and accolades are as much a result of the missions and sorties that she's been assigned by the Admiralty.
Commodore Ichijyo claims no relation to the young mecha pilot, but has always kept a discrete eye out for the young girl he rescued from a Scourge attack over a decade ago. Now standing 166cm and 50kg she fits the cockpit of her
ARTEMIS scout unit as if built for it, and one supposes she has been. Daily conditioning both in zero and augmented gravity has kept her bones strong and her muscles from atrophy. She regularly scores better than her fellow pilots in the VII Corp on neural interface testing and that's to what command attributes her success. She just seems to get more out of most any mecha with which she interfaces, be it her lightly armored, high speed ARTEMIS or the lumbering, bristling with weapons
ARES .
Mukyu spent much of her school days in the maintenence bays, scuttling beneath the feet of the techs and mechanics that build and repair the TASC units. A good student, she was always sure to finish the CBT coursework, just to prevent herself from being caught with mecha grease up to her ears and an incomplete assignment come to the Commodore's attention. "The Care and Feeding of Gods," Hayao always called rotating mecha out of operational status, a nod to the different model callsigns. He taught young Mukyu a reverence for the machines, instilling a respect for her eventual partner. Hayao was the grandfather she never knew, instilling the discipline that the Commadore never could muster in the young girl that reminded him too much of the daughter lost decades before. He also taught her bokanru, to see the staff or spear as an extention of her own body. Mukyu has thought in the year since his passing that it is this concept that lets her see the mecha as extentions of herself. It helps also that while she's not a Class A tech, she understands more about the underlying makeup of her mechs and their true stresses and tolerances. During her last mission, she pushed those limits with a HERA and something amazing happened, when she dealt the final blow to the enemy Scourge. Vidcom journals show a huge crescent of flame extending from the mecha's spear. The cockpit vidcom also recorded a spike of brilliance. Mukyu's vitals spiked for a moment and dropped right back into green once the enemy was defeated. The Admiralty has logged this anomoly and is currently investigating before putting Mukyu back into the field.
Pregame Questions
- Rich asked, "I see that Mukyu has an officer's rank. How has she handled the responsibility of leadership?"
- She's done "well"? It's a dodge of an answer. Mukyu would tell you she's done what's required and her subordinates are the better for it. It was the hardest transition to make from being half the mechanics' "little sister" to being a pilot. She didn't know how to balance the difference at first, almost wishing she hadn't taken her wings (but just almost). It was Hayao's calm hand that led her back as he had so many times before.
Now, she's a quick and exacting taskmaster with her team, whether enlisted or officer, ground crew or other pilots in her wing, but she's learned to focus on the moment, not carry baggage from one incident to another unless it shows a dangerous trend, and be just as quick with praise as with criticism. She's not perfect, and has moments of temper, more often with fellow pilots than crew, but she tries to always keep in mind what the Commodore did for her when he saved her those dozen years ago.
- Sol asked, "What does she do when she's not actively being a soldier?"
- I'll write off training to be a soldier as not expanding the character. Mukyu is a fan of old holovid pseudo-dramas. She's any number downloaded to her desk in the barracks and every few months binge re-watches her favorite, Scions of the Line, about a fantasy universe where a father and son of a powerful family break away and create their own dynasty. She's chock full of obscure facts about the series, the failed spinoff about one of the grandsons of the original series' King, knows all the actors and harbors a secret crush on one of the original princes. In addition, one of the princes, not her crush, was supposedly a musician, so she got into the historical datafiles and has become enamored of jazz. She plays it in the cockpit, in the maintenance bay, through the earpods of her plugsuit. Big fan of Armondo Corea.
- Keith asked, "[H]ow does one pronounce Mukyu's name?"
- Moo'kyoo, it translates as "infinity", or in some contexts "immortal".
- Jason asked, "What does she consider Victory?"
- The Admiralty of the TASC and The Third Alliance of Humanity have defined victory over the Scourge as the elimination of the threat to Earth and her peoples. It's why they've stopped fighting the defensive war that's sustained them for nearly two decades and have begun plotting the Oort Cloud expedition. Mukyu is willing to serve, even anxious that she won't be chosen since this data spike after the last mission, but those aren't what she considers Victory. Bringing her wingman and their mecha home safe, that's Victory.
TK7 Fiction
Mukyu Threads
