[OOC] - History
Tyki Mikk was born in a small town on the coast of Portugal to a poor but very loving family. Most of his early years were quiet, full of fishing and rough play as he learned his father's trade of sailing. He was a calm and happy boy, very kind and polite to anyone he met. No one knew how much of this was an act until the day Tyki's hometown was attacked by the Earl's Akuma. The Earl had caught wind that a piece of Innocence might lay dormant in this tiny town, and he wanted it out. Akuma ripped through the town, killing mercilessly, and Tyki watched in bald fascination as his friends and family died around him. Though age nine and capable of acting, he did nothing. Even then he sensed something was wrong in the perverted, muted glee he took from seeing blood run in the streets, but the attack and this bizarre euphoric rush left him dazed.
Tyki ran for his life to the largest home in the town, which had been owned by a family of prominent traders, now all dead. Deep in the house he came across a large black butterfly, wide across as two spread handspans, cut from jet marble. Set in the center of the butterfly's body was a garish white skull with jagged, sharp teeth and gaping eyes. Drawn to this vaguely creepy ornament, Tyki picked it up - and the sudden burst of power that came from Innocence and user syncing sounded like a bell to the akuma, drawing them to him in an instant.
That's when the members of the Black Order showed up. Three exorcists, cloaked and hooded, rescued the young boy from death and brought him back with them to their Headquarters. Though only a child, he was clearly the wielder of the Innocence he had stumbled across. In short order the science department had fashioned the marble butterfly into something a little smaller and much lighter and given Tyki a set of fine white gloves - the means through which he would manipulate his butterfly. Immediately he was set to train with his new weapon, learn its uses and the scope of its power, and become an exorcist.
Tyki kept the dark part of his soul that had reveled in the carnage of his home very secret. Once again he was the polite, kind boy, though he now had an accompanying acerbic wit to go with it. Such was his defense against the endless questions about what had happened, and why wasn't he sad. Even so, he managed to charm everyone around him, and grew up in relative comfort. His new life at the Order afforded him constant excitement and, in his mind, a very definite step up over his previously dull life. He enjoyed it immensely, tearing into missions and akuma with a careless sense of fun that often drew strange looks from his mission partners.
But after a while it grew to be a bit .. much. By now Tyki was fifteen and strangely growing tired of his adventurous, almost romantic lifestyle. He'd enjoyed his village too, after all. Thoughts of the simplicity of home drove him from Headquarters and into the streets of a nearby town. He went in disguise, wearing simple, ratty clothing and big, funny glasses that helped hide his face, looking for all the world like just another street urchin. The Order never knew of these visits; he'd make excuses of training and work and then sneak away in the afternoons and evenings for his fun. In that town he made his first real friends, earthy boys around his age that worked in the local mines. Tyki would spend a great deal of his time with them playing cards, drinking, skirt-chasing, and telling stories. With these boys, Tyki found the part of himself that was the total opposite of the twisted boy who had delighted in death. This part of Tyki really enjoyed his "normal" friends, maybe even loved them. For the first time in his life he felt human.
For a while, this double life brought Tyki as close as he'd ever get to real, genuine happiness. The pain and danger of being an exorcist coupled with the lax and easy days spent in town brought him a sense of balance and completeness. He even became closer to some of his fellow exorcists, genuinely befriending only two; for Tyki, however, this was a monumental step forward. Slowly he was settling into his own skin and learning to confront his darkness.
Naturally, of course, all good things came to an end. A night out on the town led to a nasty bar brawl. Some of the older men dragged Tyki's friends outside and beat them viciously. Tyki, unable to risk revealing that he was an exorcist for fear of driving his friends away or even ruining his chances to visit the town ever again, could use only his fists. But it wasn't enough. The youngest of the group, a boy named Eaze, was beaten to death in the brawl.
It took Tyki only one day to fix his course of action. He crept into town in the depths of night and silently broke into the home of the man who had murdered his friend. He carried with him his deadly Innocence - and a knife. In cold blood and, for the very first time without emotion - without any pleasure at all - he killed the man in his sleep, slitting his throat and watching blood and life drain away. He let his Innocence witness it all, knowing it would judge him. Somewhat miraculously, it found his trade, a life for a life, fair. Tyki Mikk did not fall and lose his grace with God. But he did change.
Tyki learned grief and suffering from Eaze's death in ways he had not been capable of when his village was razed. Knowing and understanding those emotions tempered Tyki and balanced him in much the same way that learning love for his friends had done. Some of the boy's acerbic humor wore off after that. His sarcasm became a quieter, more playful thing, noticeably subdued to those who knew him best. The raging darkness within him grew smaller, but it also grew more vicious. As Tyki aged, he learned to hone this darkness within him almost like a weapon, to bend it to his will the same way he had the night he avenged Eaze. His faith in his Innocence became absolute and he rarely traveled anywhere without the butterfly, carrying it in a specially-designed holster on his right upper arm and keeping his gloves at nearly all times.
Several more years passed this way. A few months after Tyki's nineteenth birthday, he was assigned a special mission: he was to travel to Template City, a place rarely touched by the Black Order. Reports of new Innocence and an akuma infestation had come from the local finders, and Tyki had come so far in his skills and in his self-control that he was awarded the mission. So he undertook the month long travel time to reach the city and begin his work.
All was going well until he awoke one morning to find that Template had changed during the night into a place he didn't quite recognize.