setsugeka

[setsugeka]

“it’s far too late,” uta sniffs, all too pleased to have a new companion to complain to. the entourage she travelled with have grown so accustomed to her countless slights and have started to tune her words out completely. but what else could she say? the food was too heavy, the festivities dragged, and her joints ached from the dampness. it would be a wonder if a woman of her station and age had no complaints to speak of. “it is what it is,” she sidesteps. “i’m sure everything has its reasons.”

open  to   everyone                 location  —  the  blessing  of  the  crops   (  day  two  )   . (  0  /  4  )

               ────  .  ݁₊     “i  hate  the  demonstration,”  they  admit,  their  palms  still  warm  as  they  join  the  crowd  heading  back  into  the  city  from  the  sprawling  crops,  the  power  of  the  solarui  golden  in  the  mild  spring  breeze.  it's  a  pleasant  day,  but  danya  is  already  bored  of  the  celebrations  and  whatever  it  is  the  royalty  are  hiding  behind  it  all.  “always  feels  cheap.  like  we  have  nothing  else  we  should  be  doing.”  perhaps  it's  their  bad  mood  causing  them  to  speak  so  brazenly,  though  it  was  a  late  night  spent  trailing  a  dead  end  into  the  pits  of  the  city  and  an  early  start  to  the  day  which  left  them  feeling  so  irritable. 

[setsugeka]

wao yoka . cis woman . she/her . wasn’t that uta zamfir walking the cobbled roads of coňstanja? it’s nice to see the lady of house zamfir out and about on such a fine day as this. i’ve heard from the court spies that they are notoriously cantankerous, whilst also managing to be quite discerning. the fifty-seven year old is eager to explore bran keep. i heard that they themselves aren’t divine. it’s funny, whenever i think of them, i think of a child's feet against cold tiles, the taste of salt and the smell of iron, pinpricks of ice from a gust of cold wind. ( coco . she/her . 22 . cet . n/a )

basics

name: uta zamfir / personal name: tsukishiro no hikada / employment name: midoririn ketsukinu / age: 57 / sex & gender: cis woman / sexuality: aromantic bisexual / marital status: married / birthplace: devya / residence: devya / title: lady of house zamfir / former positions: companion, lady in waiting, spy / loyalties: n/a

faceclaim: wao yoka / height: 174cm / build: svelte / hair: anywhere from black to ashy brown to pale blonde, long or short / eyes: black / movement: feline / smell: incense / fashion: rather masculine

ambitious, organised, pragmatic, tenacious, discerning, warm, generous, convincing, composed, charming / cantankerous, detached, temperamental, manipulative, transactional, cutthroat, self-serving, aloof, callous

past, sparknotes edition

tw: familial death

born to a poor noble family then left orphaned and penniless, tsukishiro no hidaka clawed her way to her station. jettisoned between relatives and other distant relations, she grew up quickly. she had to, to survive.

that surviving was spying. it was always so convenient, for the adults around her to instruct her to listen in on some, copy down some. she was always around, never paid any attention too. but she’s a clever girl and quickly learned to use that to her advantage.

as young as seven she starts working as a companion, and through that, works her way around regions and into the court as a lady in waiting but also spy. before anyone can think of getting her married, though, the war breaks out.

turns out, there were benefits to being sent from place to place as a kid then hop from employer to employer as a tween: ketsukino always knew someone who knew someone. with her youth and self-effacing presence (honed through years of practice), not to mention her expertise at making targets create their own explanations, her strategic importance in the network only grew as the war continued. any distress and disorder could be explained by her sudden marriage and new responsibilities. she was even briefly a member of the small council until she had to blow her cover.

it wasn’t even of upmost strategic importance, but when push came to pull, she couldn’t resist the urge to take that opening. with no support outside the small garrison stationed at the fort, she took to the sword and a legend was born that day. it was the beginning of the end, and though it did nothing to change the tides of the war, the newlywed earned the respect of the troops. that moment of weakness cost her everything—the notoriety made her too visible to resume her activities as a spy.

but there was a region to rebuild a family to raise, and that kept her occupied for years to come even as she lost her sense of self, her raison d’être. but life moved on, even as she mourned the world as she knew it.

misc headcanons

no one had invested in her education so she was self-taught and consequently has an inimitably awful script / serious grumpy old lady vibes nowadays and is more like a persistent papercut / unintentionally hilarious / soggy cardboard presence but with disarming charm / will play into every stereotype under the sun to keep a low profile

[setsugeka]

雪月花— setsugeka

| uta zamfir. lady of house zamfir. for divinelytm by coco.

[setsugeka]

Wao Youka in Excalibur

[setsugeka]

““Dealing with an aggressive adversary isn’t always about showing strength. Sometimes it’s best to show weakness. If they believe they can dominate you, they’ll drop their guard. Of course, that means getting dominated.””

— -Michael Westen, Burn Notice 207: Rough Seas