Raised in the inner city where her father was an engineer in a transport factory, and her mother was a genetic scientist working on new strains of crops that would eventually be grown in environments that were less desirable for human habitation. Mika had always struggled with the social scene. She was, however, exceptionally talented with pencils and paints and recently had developed a knack for forming clay as well. It was in her art that she found peace and acceptance.
When her parents told her that the boy to whom she had been promised had been killed in an industrial accident near his home, she was shamed to realize she was relieved. The thought of being married to someone who might be in the cool crowd had always been a concern for her. She knew that she would never find a love marriage, and likely her mother would find some older man with a successful business to marry her off to. But for now, she was free and untethered.