Misa Achtland

[Megami†]

Name: Misa Achtland
Gender: Female
Age: Seventeen [17]
Grade: Senior [12th]
School: Aurora High School
Hobbies and Interests: American culture, helping at her family's clinic, cooking

Appearance: Short and petite, Misa Achtland stands at 5'0" and weighs about 115 pounds with a somewhat curvy figure.  Her hair, naturally a dark brown in color, is always dyed a golden wheat-colored blonde and is cut straight across the center of her back, with long bangs parted along the left side of her face.  Her eyes are a greyish-blue color, thanks to a combination of her father's blue eyes and a recessive gene from her mother's side.  However, due to her half-Japanese heritage, her eyes are also almond-shaped and slightly slanted.  She often wears dark eye makeup, using it to accentuate and "re-shape" her eyes somewhat.  Her eyebrows are still brown in color, but are kept very thin with a small arch, and her nose is small and average looking.  Her lips are just slightly full, and are always painted a soft pink in color, and her ears are pierced twice on the bottom of the lobe and once in the top cartilage on each ear.  Blessed with a high metabolism, Misa still obsesses about her weight, and has made it a habit to run a few miles each night to keep her trim figure.  In terms of clothing, she can be described as very preppy in style, and typically boasts clothing from places like Hollister and Abercrombie.

Biography: Born the only child of Edmund "Ed" Achtland and Chiharu (Sunohana) Achtland, Misa's adolescent years were uneventful.  A native of Seattle, Misa was born and raised in the area.  Her father is a doctor who runs a small clinic from their home, and her mother is a nurse who, in lieu of working at one of the local hospitals, stays home and assists with the family business.  Misa has grown up watching her father tend minor injuries on patients, and as such, has picked up a few first aid practices from him.  She's tried diligently since she was about thirteen to help in the family practice -- quite the difficult task for someone who is very squeamish and hates the sight of blood.  More often than not, she simply winds up playing secretary and attempting to stay out of the actual clinic area completely, although she can, on occasion, be convinced to help patch up minor scrapes and burns.

While she isn't the most stand-out person in her class in terms of grades and extracurricular activities, Misa is an intelligent student who manages to skate by with mostly low A's and B's with little to no studying.  She isn't and has never really been involved in school sports or clubs -- something her father lectures her on constantly, telling her that she needs to branch out and be more well-rounded if she hopes to get into "a good college".  Because of his profession -- and because it was also his father's profession -- Edmund has spent the past four years pushing his daughter toward the family career of medicine.  Over the past year, she has found herself very torn between following her father's wishes, or finding something she herself wants to do.  It has, unsurprisingly, been the source of many squabbles between the two as of late.

At school, Misa falls into the category of "floater".  Acquaintances with most but close with few, Misa's social circle is almost constantly changing.  She outright avoids some of the more popular, spiteful students, simply because she disagrees with their treatment of other classmates.  Even then, she doesn't like to categorize people, and tends to give anyone a chance when it comes to friendship.  She has a very laissez-faire attitude toward people, and is very nonjudgmental -- at least, when it comes to the people around her.  Overall, she is very sweet with a kind, friendly personality.

When it comes to herself, however, judging is all she seems to do.  She never lets it shine through at school or around friends, but she has very low self-confidence, despite being an outwardly attractive girl.  Although she is half Japanese, Misa doesn't embrace her heritage, but rather, tries to push it to the side.  From dying her hair blonde (since middle school) to wearing popular American-brand clothing, Misa goes out of her way to look like a typical Caucasian teenager.  In addition, she tends to be borderline-obsessive about her weight and her looks, and is secretly terrified of putting on extra pounds or being unattractive.  This has caused her to fall into the habit of routinely doing cardio workouts -- mostly running in the evenings along with the family's german shepherd -- in order to keep a trim physique.

Despite her aversion to her cultural heritage, Misa is actually very close with both sides of her family.  Her grandfather (on the Achtland side) lives with them, and has been widowed since before Misa was born.  Although he is in his mid-70's now, he still actively helps in the clinic as well, and is actually the reason Misa got involved with it in the first place.  Her aunt, uncle, and oldest cousin Ayako on her mother's side also help out periodically -- Ayako even more so than Misa at times.  Although Misa is on good terms with her aunt and uncle, she and Ayako have a somewhat strained relationship.  Ayako is exceptionally proud of her Japanese background, and the fact that Misa conceals her own has always rubbed Ayako the wrong way.  Although both cousins love and respect each other as family, they can often be found bickering -- or more specifically, Ayako can be found lecturing Misa on why her viewpoint of their culture is wrong.

Outside of school and work, one of Misa's biggest hobbies is cooking.  Misa adores cooking -- be it for special occasions, large dinners, or "just because".  In particular, one of her favorite things to make is desserts.  She never misses a chance to contribute to school bake sales or other functions in order to show off her culinary prowess, and she frequently jokes that she's going to make all her friends fat with all the sweets and goodies she brings as gifts on a regular basis.

Overall, Misa is a pretty average teenage girl, and doesn't particularly stand out from the crowd of her classmates.  She's a very caring and compassionate person who enjoys helping other people and spending time with her family, all while attempting to live up to both her father's and her own expectations, and oftentimes, she is far too hard on herself.

Advantages: Her obsession with physical exercise could prove beneficial to her -- she has stamina and endurance when it comes to running due to doing it on a frequent basis.  Her first aid skills may also come in handy.  She's also quite cute, and easy to get along with, which could prove advantageous to her.
Disadvantages: Her aversion to blood is a huge disadvantage -- she can't even handle small amounts of it without feeling nauseous.  Large amounts of it would have pretty adverse effects on her.  Her demeanor is as much a curse as a blessing -- she is very trusting of people and typically finds no reason to be skeptical of others unless she catches them red-handed.  This may pose a problem down the line.