Backstory
Gingko’s childhood consisted of her father’s family’s influence on her, of now vague peers that had impacted her, and the inclusion of spirits troubling her. Perchance, living at a long standing family temple could be a good thing, but the exposure to spiritual matters seemed to have given Gingko the ability to see the supernatural. For as long as she can remember she’s been able to see such things, but her household wasn’t one where she could bring up such "nonsense".
The matriarch was her grandmother, a firm and cold person with clear favorites, and her granddaughter was not one of them. She was often told she was too rowdy, too unladylike, among many other nitpickings. Children are playful, curious, and naturally get into trouble here and there, but the temple grounds were somewhere that you had to be behaved. For children, that meant being physically reprimanded, while adults could be kicked out of the home altogether. Even then, Gingko’s parents were sweet to her, compassionate and keeping her well being in mind. Gingko’s mother was hated by her mother in law, maybe due to her son not marrying someone else in mind, but the animosity had stretched out to a child who had nothing to do with it.
Her cousin Yingpei was one of her favorites, an obedient child who always did what he was told. Gingko couldn’t hate him, nor did she envy him, always having felt respect towards him like that of a sibling. She didn’t have pity for him if he didn’t feel bad personally, he liked that he could get along with others and that Gingko was with him growing up. But they’d only see one another at home as she always went to a different school than him by chance. At her school, she was known to be a scaredy cat, seemingly afraid of things that weren’t there, susceptible to pranks for an exaggerated reaction. Some days her shoes would go missing and she’d walk home barefoot, some days her lunch would go missing, but she’d tell teachers she forgot it at home. At first it wasn’t noticed as her parents were working often, while her grandmother would punish her for “making the family look bad.” So that became mundane for her, a lack of sense of belonging at home and school. To her, home was being around her parents or Yingpei, with those that valued her. By the time her parents grew weary of the matriarch’s treatment towards the family as a whole, and pieced most of the factors that stressed their child, they decided to move out of the household.
Looking back, Gingko believes this was the most impactful time of her life; should she have stayed growing up in the same town as always, she would have been miserable. When she moved, she did miss Yingpei, but they had promised to connect through relatives in the future. Independent now, with a fresh start and no constraints, Gingko finished up elementary school and began middle school. With the sacrifices her parents made at the cost of the family’s reputation for her sake, she figured she shouldn’t let others hold her back, spirits included. With time she got accustomed to spirits, and those that terrified her would be ignored so that they couldn’t tell of her abilities. In an attempt to get along with the living better, she began to make friends this time, and the resurfaced smile on her face was enough to motivate her parents as well. Leaving the family home meant leaving financial security, so while Gingko’s parents didn’t initially make enough to start saving for her future, they were a happy family. Gingko had begun to engage in the things her grandmother despised, such as cutting her own hair or wearing trendier clothes, content in that regard, perhaps her only goal for her future was being happy.
During Gingko’s high school years, she was a casual person who blended into school without an issue, leaving her difficult past behind. While she claims to not remember much of her childhood, she still recalls a handful of unpleasant moments that have made her a somewhat secretive person, but all the new memories she makes are pleasant ones. By this point, her grandmother had already passed away and Yingpei went to the same school as her, so she became fully comfortable.
She didn’t have any particular talents or skills growing up, her parents often saying her sweetness was the best part of her, but she still wishes she could do something practical. Her cousin, Yingpei, was at least good enough at tennis that he’d attend a handful of national tournaments over the years. Still as close as siblings, Gingko would be invited to cheer him on and do a bit of sightseeing, which is how she eventually met Ijus. Eagerly rooting for Yingpei during one of his international competitions against an American team, she caught the eye of one of their players, Ijus. She knew a little bit of basic Chinese from a class she’d just started, but when she saw the energy Gingko shared with others, she wondered if someone like that could encourage her one day too. Although their first meeting was awkward and full of language barriers, they exchanged contact information to become friends.
From then on, the two individually studied the other’s languages diligently, having so much in common, yet so much they wanted to be able to share with one another. Gingko couldn’t readily visit her overseas but Ijus had looked into ways to bring her at least for an exchange program by their last years of school. With time growing closer than ever, the two subsequently began to date after Ijus’ confession. Even though Gingko started to cry that day, both know of her habit of crying whenever she was happy, so ultimately it was an endearing quirk of hers in Ijus’ eyes.
Gingko is now married to Ijus, the two living in America, yet often traveling due to Ijus being a professional tennis player. Although Gingko is not employed, she’s at ease being by Ijus’ side and seeing new things. The mundane of their everyday lives didn’t last long enough once Gingko’s affiliation with the supernatural became a problem once more.
Hearing that Yingpei had been incredibly fatigued, feeling ill from a lack of sleep and a plague of harsh nightmares, Gingko decided to take Ijus with her to China so they could help Yingpei. Expecting to do simple tasks around the family’s temple, things got out of hand when Ijus opened a tucked away urn in the home’s storage room. Sensing a sad feeling from it, she had opened it out of curiousity, but a previously evil being named Chimäre had become unsealed, possessing Ijus and whisking her away. Too late to undo what had been done, Gingko and Yingpei were stunned to be wrapped up in the ordeals of gods and spirits, but Gingko fought through it if she could bring back her wife.
Meeting Eden and Isiktan as her guides, Gingko learned of the Pandora’s boxes and the world’s miseries sealed within them. Chimäre was one, and the one giving Yingpei nightmares was another, yet there were many more scattered that were far more nefarious if unsealed by the wrong person. Two already free miseries were already teamed up in search of the others to build a team of chaos, which Gingko encountered once early into her search of the boxes. It was a meeting she was blessed to have survived after breaking one of their boxes, but she angered Merikh and Pagule, the miseries of death and plague respectively, enough that they held a personal grudge against her. If she were to meet them again, she would need to be prepared physically and mentally if their gathered comrades cross her path. Even so, if she can gather enough boxes herself and enlist the help of the miseries she finds, she will have a better shot at preventing any misfortune.
