Kiku Honda

Character Name: Kiku Honda

X-Men / Brotherhood Code Name: Doesn’t have one (as of yet). Subject to change depending on events.

Age: 20

Appearance: At 5’5”, Kiku is slim and muscular with very exotic, feminine features. His eyes are the brown of the soil and his hair is darker than a black rose. His skin is pale, despite his many hours in the sunshine. Although he works with plants, his fingers are devoid of calluses, an indication that his powers are psychically rather than physically controlled. When tending his shop, he wears a navy blue yukata and adds a white headscarf when arranging flowers for others. He wears both the traditional geta and tabi also. At his home, he either wears a solid colored yukata, geta, and tabi (when he is expecting company, which is rare) or a pair of black trousers with earth toned, solid-colored tops (varying from t-shirts to long sleeved) and simple black shoes or boots (depending on where he is planning to work). He wears a necklace with a bottle attached to it, which contains various seeds. He also will occasionally wear a leather belt with pouches containing seeds, small pouches of dirt, herbs and healing plants, and dried food, depending on where he is going.

Mutant Abilities/Quirks: Controls plant life telepathically. He typically controls smaller plants (such as flowers) and grows them into arrangements, but he is able to control larger ones as well (such as vines or even trees). Plants also seem to take an interest in him, often extending vines, leaves, or branches to try to touch him unless he consciously keeps them at bay. Plant life around him can either grow or whither depending on his mood, and it is rumored that if angered, Kiku’s powers could prove fatal. Kiku can also use his control over plants to create medicines for anything from cough to more serious illnesses. If he is tired or distracted, his control over plants diminishes significantly. He is also badly affected by the weather, like his plants.

He does show promising signs of controlling concentrated forms of plants, though the only times he had ever done this were complete (and rather traumatic) accidents. He'll never talk about them either, though certain situations reminiscent of them make him extremely wary.

(These are also known as Florakenisis and Agrokenisis. Florakenisis is the control of plants and an off-shoot of Agrokenisis. Once Kiku's powers become more developed, he would be considered 'Agrokenitic' rather than simply 'Florakenitic'.)

X-Men or Brotherhood: Neither, as of this moment. Subject to change depending on how events unfold. (though I do have one picked out for him, just fyi)

Sexuality: Unsure, as he’s never bothered to really think about it, as well as had some rather interesting experiences with plants and the bedroom. He believes himself to have no interest in such matters, though he would probably be bisexual.

Personality: When not tending to the plants (or the forest in his backyard), Kiku enjoys spending his time sitting on the roof of his shop, sipping his homegrown tea. He avoids venturing too far into the city, as many people would try to utilize his powers for illicit activities. He is knowledgeable of the factions that exist (to a point), but he has thus far been able to stay away from them. He would rather tend to his flowers, preferring the inherently neutral nature of plants to the moral struggles of people. He enjoys the quiet, and prefers to remain as under the radar as possible in regards to his powers, which he accepts as simply part of him. He has discovered that prolonged care of his plants will make him extremely tired, and he cannot concentrate on caring for his flowers in extreme temperatures or when being distracted or tired in general. However, if customers come to him, regardless of his condition, he will welcome them into his shop and listen to them without interruption. Secretly, he enjoys their company, unable to entirely suppress the instinct that people need other people to feel happy.

Like his flowers, Kiku wishes inwardly to find a home in which he himself can flourish without fear of being used. But beneath that want is also a darker side. He also longs for someone to nourish the adventurous and rebellious side of him…the one he used to have as a kid. He can’t help but feel just a little stifled, like a flower in a pot that’s just a little too small. He dislikes this conflict in himself, and his inability to solve it. Although he’s considered the factions for help, he has ultimately decided to stay put and go wherever the winds take him (like flower seeds).

Background: Born into the slums, Kiku ran away from every orphanage and foster parent in order to live a life of adventure and risk on the streets. Preferring forests and parks to the concrete prison of the city, he often found himself being thrown out of public places for ‘messing with the plant life’. Still, he managed to make his living selling flowers (stolen from said parks) to people. His customers often said that his flowers seemed to be brighter, healthier, and live longer than others. He began to slowly migrate from town to town, selling flowers and arranging them in beautiful, artistic formations. At first, he purchased himself large baskets for them, and then moved to a flower cart, and finally, he settled and remodeled an old building into his current flower shop, called Haru no Hana (Flowers of Spring).

While there, he came across an old woman who purchased a blue flower from him every day. After one of her visits, she was attacked and beaten nearly to death just outside of his store by three drug addicts. Terrified and unable to transport her to a hospital, Kiku pressed a blue flower into her hand, figuring that even if she were to die, at least she would die with her favorite flower. Unconsciously, Kiku’s powers caused the plant’s healing properties to activate, saving the woman. Because of this, he began to research different types of plants and their healing properties, vowing also to try to make medicines and herbal supplements for anyone that asked. Haru no Hana became not only a floral shop, but also an herb pharmacy.

The shop has since become a multi-story building, with the ground floor being used as the store. Other levels include small greenhouses, indoor gardens, and other environments friendly to plants. Kiku rarely leaves his shop, unless called on to examine crops or by request of his customers. Because he can grow his own food, he occasionally profits from his fruits and vegetables as well. His herbal supplements range from healing to rather inventive, something that has gained him notoriety (though he will refuse politely to share his secrets, as some of his work is just his powers), and any attempts to interview have found him mysteriously absent from his shop (hiding in his forest, probably up a tree).

A rather disturbing dream haunts him, making his fear of his powers becoming unmanageable or 'evil' in nature more prevalent. In his recurring nightmare, a man came into his shop and after realizing that Kiku was a mutant, panicked, sending Kiku and his plants into an equal panic. In a fit of anger over his plants, Kiku harmed the man. Though in the end of the dream he was able to heal the man with no ill effects, the dream still causes him to wake up drenched in cold sweat. After those dreams, he will often spend his time on the roof, not speaking to anyone.

About Haru no Hana: The shop is multi-story.

1st floor: Street level. Contains the shop, and a small kitchen. Two sets of stairs lead upstairs. The one in the shop has access to the various plants on the floors above, while the one near the kitchen leads up to living spaces/guest rooms on the other floors.

2nd floor: Desert plants and a desert climate can be found here.

The other floors, currently unspecified, each contain their own climate and unique plant life.

Top floor: Kiku's living space. There is access to the roof from here.

Roof: A small garden/living space. Kiku spends time up here when not with his flowers. No one from the outside has seen this yet.

Back: There is a small forest out back (an oddity in the city). A lattice frame on the outside of the store (covered in vines) serves as a ladder up to the roof, though not many people can climb it.