Kikuto

Kikuto roams the world often alone and makes friends where It can. It is often friendly to others, sometimes It can be a bit overly friendly and flirty but that's just how Kikuto is. Kikuto refers to Itself as 'It' because It does not consider Itself as female, or male, but something in between or a mix between the two. As a young child there was some ambiguity as to whether Kikuto was a boy or a girl, it is often not clear in spotted hyenas anyway which didn't help. As a result Kikuto's parents had to pick a gender for their first born. Kikuto was raised as a boy until It started puberty after which It was treated more like a daughter, which was confusing. Kikuto views Itself as too meek to be female and too dominate to be male. Yet at times It feels at if It were both and other times like It is neither or something else It can't put a name to.

Kikuto likes to meet people and make friends, but It is not the best at keeping in touch with them when Its traveling. The hyena can go months without seeing another person which isn't good for Its mental health. Sometimes It travels with friends but It usually has to part ways with them after a while just because Its so used to traveling alone and can't quiet adapt to having another person or persons around all the time.


Gender: Complicated -
Kikuto is a biologically a female spotted hyena but was raised male during Its early years because it was not clear if it was male or female at birth. This is common but as Kikuto did not behave in the overly violent fashion of a normal female cub and its sex/gender was not clear the adults chose to go with the less shameful guess and raised the cub as a male rather than a female - partly due to the cub's gentle nature.

Spotted hyena gender norms are roughly the reverse of human gender norms, meaning Kikuto was raised to be a quiet, submissive and polite boy, and expected to assist with domestic chores around the home. When Kikuto reached puberty and developed more fully and obviously as a female Its parents switched to raising their eldest as female. They were glad to find they now had two daughters rather than a son and a daughter. It validated their choice to raise their eldest male until being proven otherwise. For it was less shameful and in their minds easier to raise a daughter as a male and later have to retrain her to be loud, aggressive and to take charge as an adult, than to raise a son as a female and later have to retrain him to be a submissive, quiet, and obedient without worrying that he might fight against it and bring shame to the family.

All this meant that when Kikuto reached the of age 12 and 'his' body changed in ways the young hyena had not been taught to expect(the opposite of what was expected in fact) and went from being told to be sweet, cute, charming and quiet to being told to be loud, aggressive, not to cry, to fight and so on as 'he' was now a 'she' the youngster was not sure what to think. A few years later Kikuto ran away from home(partly to to Its younger sister and her friends making fun of It for being a sissy).

Because of Its odd upbringing Kikuto hasn't had a very clear gender identity for Itself, though others give It different ones based on how they interpret Kikuto's behavior. Johari views Kikuto mostly as a male or a third gender while Kikuto's ex-husband Milaika sees Kikuto as female(they did have a daughter together whom Kikuto gave birth to as It is physically female).

Pronouns: Kikuto uses It, It's and Itself personally when talking about 'Itself'. Generally Kikuto does not care what pronouns other use for 'It'.




Romance: Kikuto has a preference for men over women but as long as the person flirting with Kikuto is of age and is not a relative the hyena wont mind. Though things rarely go much farther than flirting as the hyena has had too many relationships ending poorly to keep track of - mostly due to the hyena not taking the relationship as seriously as Its partner.

Clan: Fisi Madoa(of the Spotted Hyena Clan)

clan: Johari Fisi Modoa(in Matriarch Johari's clan)

Deity: Mwezi (the Spotted Hyena moon goddess of death - a fairly hands off minor deity).
Kikuto as a Shaman (a title given to It by Johari) interprets phases of the moon and related phenomenon in a religous manner for the Matriarch (Kikuto draws from experience and common sense more than any supernatural deity to make her interpretations and would gladly pass the duty on to someone with greater scientific or religious training than Itself should such a person be around to pass the job off onto).

Occupation: High Priestess of Mwezi (in Johari's clan)/ Wandering hermit (when anywhere outside Johari's lands).

Personality: Kikuto is very friendly and affectionate, at times inappropriately so, but means no harm by it.

Mannerisms: The most noticeable ones are that It calls Itself 'It' and It doesn't use contractions much. Kikuto also whoops, cackles, growls and snarls much like a feral hyena at times. Also It has been known to give Its friends nicknames or pet names whenever the mood strikes It.