Chouta

The Pastry Prince of the Teikodian court they called them, a name as sweet and flimsy as the life they led. Their days were spent composing verse, their pink yukata never sullied by anything harsher than spilled tea. Then came the 'grand tour' of The Dragon Wastelands, a political folly meant to show imperial reach. When their escort scattered before the ghosts of slain beasts, Chouta was left with only a carved cane and a profound shock at their own fragility. They saw a survivor smear mud and ash on their face before a fight and copied the act, a desperate prayer in paint. The gentle artist vanished, replaced by a chimp whose eyes grew intense from watching illusions flicker in the endless fog. The cake slice on their head is a joke from another lifetime, but the war paint stays. It is the first piece of art they ever made that actually meant something.