jigoku app

[deadtective]

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Len
ARE YOU AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD?: Yes.
CONTACT: PM or phantomblood
CHARACTERS PLAYED: None.

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Hazel Lockwood
CANON: Original
CANON REFERENCE: n/a
CANON POINT: A month or so after putting Heather's spirit to rest.
CRAU HISTORY: n/a
AGE: 19
APPEARANCE: I've got a whole imgur album prepared for you because god dammit I paid for these commissions and you bet I'm going to force everyone to look at them!!

Hazel's an extremely petite young woman, barely scraping five feet even and with the sort of delicate stature that would lead one to believe that an especially strong breeze might snap her in half. On the surface she appears identical to a regular human, albeit one who has recently been in an extremely severe accident of some kind: her entire body is covered with a myriad of scars and medical stitching alike, although the worst of it is centralized on her torso which she understandably keeps hidden from sight with her clothes. Her midsection is a horrifying mess of angry scars from where her killer had practically disemboweled her, many places held together only by the fusion of scar tissue itself. Cutting through this mess are the massive stitches from her autopsy scar, which had been made by Edith to remove her organs. It's not a pretty sight!

She's completely devoid of anything on the inside, which makes her far lighter than should be possible for a girl of her size. Similarly a keen eye may pick up on the fact that there are frequent moments where it seems like she 'forgets' to breathe, or that during periods of intense focus she simply stops blinking altogether. Hazel does her best to hide her inhumanity, but particularly sharp eyes could still pick up on the fact that there's something wrong with her even without the ability to sense magic.

CONTRACT PAYMENT: Her humanity.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

What are your greatest regrets, if you have any? What would you have done differently?

In many ways Hazel herself is her greatest regret. While there was absolutely no way for her to have prevented her death and rebirth, she feels responsible for everything that subsequently followed because of a perceived cowardice on her part. Having recognized what happened to her and what she now was, she believes that the ethical choice would have been to immediately seek out a way to permanently end her second life.

This thought has been severely exacerbated by both the near-universal revulsion she's been met with by all creatures with the capacity to understand her situation and the claims of her own creator - a noted liar, but one whose statements align too closely with Hazel's own view of herself to be completely dismissed. The longer she travels through the world as an undead the more she can feel herself drifting away from the person she once was, humanity included; in this way it's easy to really believe that her very existence was degrading the quality of her soul. To Hazel, there is absolutely nothing she can do or become in this form that would ever make up for the blasphemy that is her very existence.

The only way to remedy her failings (and sins) would be to finally allow herself to be killed. However, as steadfastly as she believes this and as possible as it is to still 'redo' the mistake she'd made at her rebirth, she always finds herself fighting to survive whenever an opportunity for oblivion presents itself. Rather than feel pride over her desire to fight on to tomorrow, she finds this to be another disgusting flaw of hers.

Your Faction leader, not just your boss but the leader, has asked you to carry out a hit. The target is a non-affiliated public leader, well-liked by the people of the city. Do you carry it out? Why or why not?

Trust is very difficult to come by with Hazel when it comes to authority figures, so her first instinct when being given an assignment like that is a resounding no fucking way. She'd been resurrected essentially to be used as a tool for vengeance, so assassinations strike her in an especially sensitive place. However, she's also used to being on the lower side of significant power imbalances, ad with her powers initially diluted as they are she knows better than to outwardly challenge someone who once again quite literally is holding her life in their hands. To the leader's face she'd agree readily enough, but as soon as they'd departed she'd take her own course of investigating that target as much as she could.

Obviously they're well liked, which in her own world would be the start and end of things, but this is hell so the requirements for a positive reputation could very possibly be...more than a bit misaligned to her own set of morals, haha. If they checked out ok she'd try to drop in on them in private to suggest that they 'disappear' for their own safety, therefore saving their life and technically fulfilling the hit she'd agreed to all at once. If they didn't, she'd attempt to legitimately take them out - but there would be a high possibility that she'd have an attack of conscience halfway through.

As much as Hazel believes herself to be a monster, and as studiously as she tries to come across as a callous asshole to people in public, the truth of the matter is that she still struggles with taking a life even when it's justified. Experiencing death herself and having watched those who wield magic treat people weaker than them as little more than playthings, she just can't buy that this is a decision anyone can make for another living being.

What is your favorite diversion? Hobbies, indulgences, vices? Would you put off important things for that diversion, or would you be more strict about how you spend your time and/or money?

Hazel is just absolutely rife with hobbies and vices, the latter of which she's collected more of in the wake of her death. An inability to sleep means she has more time to kill, and a bleak future means she has all the more reason to feed into her natural inclination to act out in the face of great emotional turmoil.

She's extremely competitive by nature and is attracted to just about anything that she can 'win' at: fights, games, sports...if someone can be stomped into the dirt she's at least moderately interested. Video games are her favorite of the bunch, especially mobile games that can hold her attention through the long and often boring hours of the night. Winning is paramount to her, even above following the rules, and she loves to abuse her inexhaustible stamina to beat out fellow players who pay to reach high ranking spots. She's a sore winner in the worst possible way, rubbing the victory into a loser's face as much as she can manage.

Typically she's surprisingly good at keeping herself on task when there's something actually important to be done, but all of that flies out the window if her emotions are in disarray. Hazel can't handle strong feelings in herself - her instinct is to run from her problems, but these aren't things you can flee. Trapped with something she doesn't want to deal with she instead turns to increasing recklessness in order to divert her mind until (hopefully) the issues fade into the blackness of her subconsciousness. When agitated like that she's even more of a troublemaker than usual, baiting out conflicts and causing mischief for people regardless of how wise a decision it is on her part. She simply doesn't care if she ends up hurt and her invulnerability has only intensified that carelessness of hers. So long as it continues to facilitate the facade that everything is fine nothing else matters.

An oni of the Shuten Clan has gone completely berserk, and is going on a violent rampage through the city. You can't stop him, but you CAN lead him elsewhere, but you only have two choices: a road by a discotheque with a large crowd in front, or the nearby park that you do not know is unoccupied, and may have children present. What do you choose, and why?

Assuming that these two are the only choices that can be made in the small window of time before the oni takes matters into his own hands, Hazel would opt to lead him towards the park. There's no way to guarantee that it's empty, true, but the disco very clearly has a great number of people present and there's basically no scenario where at least a few of them aren't seriously injured if not outright killed. Hazel would figure that if it's late enough that a club would be drawing in that size of a crowd it's also late enough that most young children shouldn't be enjoying the park; it makes the risk an acceptable one for her since, if she's wrong, there won't be that many kids lingering in harm's way. Her plan would be to toss them aside (sorry kids, you're young and resilient! you'll recover from that faster than an oni's kick!) if they're present and, above all, continuously bait the oni into wailing on her exclusively. Even in Jigoku with her powers seriously nerfed she'd still be more than willing to suffer that beating if it means keeping others safe.

POWERS & ABILITIES:

Zombie Physiology:

Having been resurrected as an undead being, Hazel's body has understandably gone through some changes. She has been embalmed prior to being brought back to life and is now completely empty on the inside - there are no organs or fluids housed within her anymore. She's completely animated by magic, rendering all of her previous human needs obsolete; she no longer tires nor is capable of sleeping, cannot eat or drink, and feels no pain. In a similar vein she no longer possesses a sense of taste and blinks and breathes out of habit rather than necessity.

Her body is more resilient against physical attacks, although this is less a case of increased durability and more due to the fact that such things no longer hurt. Without pain the only way to stagger her is through pure momentum and it isn't uncommon to see her press through assaults despite racking up significant damage. True to her status as a zombie, it is extremely difficult to stop her once she gets going. Outside of destroying her body to the point the spell holding her together deems consciousness less of a priority than repair, one of the few guaranteed ways to deal real damage to her is through healing or necromantic magic. Healing spells are particularly effective as they inflict pain which she can actually feel and are capable of outright killing her if powerful enough magic is used.

Alongside an increase in tankiness, Hazel possesses a 'healing' factor of her own. The magic holding her together views the state of her body at the time of resurrection as a sort of 'default' state and will always repair any wound inflicted on her back to that default; this is why she still has so many scars and stitches, as they were already present on her body when she was brought back from the dead and don't count in the eyes of the spell. While she will eventually heal from just about any attack regardless of the severity, the process is extremely slow - it takes hours for a simple cut to close back up on its own and several weeks to recover from something severe such as shielding a bomb explosion with her body. In a similar vein the spell prioritizes reattaching lost body parts over regrowing them and will take over a month to begin the process of creating a new limb (which also takes at least a month) in the hopes that the missing piece will be found during that span of time. Suffering too much damage will prompt the magic to essentially turn off Hazel's consciousness, putting her in hibernation in order to funnel as much of the spell as possible into repairing her body. Wounds inflicted with the aforementioned magics actually capable of damaging her do not heal as they are beyond the spell's ability to fix.

As a supernatural being, Hazel is able to perceive creatures that are normally invisible to the human eye. She's also naturally capable of seeing through glamours cast to disguise the conjurer or hide objects from view. This 'sight' extends to a more general awareness of the magic around her, able to discern spells that have been cast as well as their nature. If she focuses hard enough she can trace them to their source, but this requires a great deal of effort.

Nerf: Hazel can feel pain once more, although it is somewhat numbed compared to what a regular human might feel; in a similar vein she can also taste things and differentiate between hot and cold, although food still will not provide her any sustenance and needs to be manually removed from her body cavity. She can sleep although she will not dream, and doing so is now the only way to replenish her diluted healing factor as she is no longer inexhaustible. Although she still can't feel fatigue her body will slow down with enough use.

Healing has been significantly limited! She'll now only recover from minor wounds at a significantly slower rate - the largest wound that will heal itself is probably anything five inches in length, and this would take at least a month. Small papercuts would heal in several hours rather than one, kitchen knife cuts close in a day rather than a few hours, and so on. She can still sew them shut to keep anything from getting inside it, but this is for convenience only and won't speed up the healing process whatsoever. Incurring enough physical damage will now outright kill her rather than simply shutting her consciousness down and putting her into 'hibernation' mode to heal up. Her weakness to specific magics remains the same.

Her 'sight' has been almost completely dampened! She'll be unable to see through any kind of glamour or discern specifics about magics and track spells. Essentially her senses will only be able to reach around her immediate vicinity and boil down to 'is this being magical, yes or no' with no further details given. She herself can still be 'seen' as supernatural in nature by others.

Magic:

In Hazel's world everyone is capable of learning magic, although they of course must know that such a thing exists in the first place. She's no different from an ordinary human in this case, although her status as a supernatural being grants her a greater affinity for such things than she would have had previously. At this point in her story she's come into contact with a fair range of different types of magic and been forced to meddle in most of them; with enough time and effort she can generally pick up the basic framework of spells, although she lacks the finesse and mastery that comes with experience. It's easy for things to go wrong if anything unexpected happens.

Nerf: This ability is going to be locked completely from her initially. Back to admiring magic from afar for her!

Note: Please consider this a blanket ok for any changes or additions to power nerfs that you may need to make! Whatever you have to do to keep the game fun and balanced is fine by me. <3

SUITABILITY: Many of the darker themes that Jigoku provides are ones which Hazel has already dealt with in her own story. She begins her 'journey', so to speak, with being murdered by a serial killer and awakening ten years later to find that her body has been used in a botched resurrection by a witch looking to create a mindless tool. Things only spiral from there as she delves into the hitherto unknown (to her) world of magic, where humans are often used as playthings for the powerful beings which hide in plain sight around them. Despite having confronted many distressing situations such as vampires trafficking human body parts and cults attempting to make contact with beings from another world, Hazel continues to fight for what she believes in and struggle to see another day. Her mind is more resilient than she gives herself credit for; as much as she doubts the value of her actions, she refuses to fold under pressure.

FACTION SUITABILITY:

SHUTEN: Hilariously for someone of her size and stature, Hazel already follows a large portion of the oni's mindset on her own. She abhors her 'destiny' and the cruel culture of the magical community in equal measure and struggles against them with everything she has; she'd rather suffer any humiliation or pain than abandon what little of her humanity she perceives to have left and become the same as those she hates so fervently. Although she lies as exquisitely as a rug, she's equally talented at fashioning her words in a manner that just barely skirts total untruths. For all their brutishness she'd respect the Shuten's bizarre loyalty to the districts they control and certainly would understand their thirst for cash. Competitive as she is she'd do well in any of their gambling or sporting endeavors, more than willing to push things to violence if it moves the situation to something in her favor.

Tamamo: While Hazel is deeply unwilling to involve herself in sexual encounters beyond her rather foul mouth, the kyuubi's desire for freedom would strike a chord with her. Since her rebirth she's spent her entire existence either hiding the fact she's an undead from humans or suffering rejection and outright revulsion from the beings that can see her as she truly is. A place where she isn't constantly looking over her shoulder or watching every word and gesture for something that may have 'slipped' feels like an unreachable fantasy...but one that she still dreams of from time to time. With that sympathy in her heart she'd actually make an earnest attempt at working any of the more safe for work hospitality jobs open to clan members; as rough around the edges as she is, Hazel can be pleasant when she wants to, and potentially aiding creatures as restricted as she is makes for a powerful motivator.

Sutoku: Information gathering is technically what Hazel was originally created to do, so the aims of the Sutoku would be right up her alley. She masquerades as a private detective when questioning humans for information, and at this point in her 'career' she's gotten fairly good at working the ins and outs of such a lifestyle. The disadvantage the alliance would seem to be working with compared to more established clans would also appeal to her, as someone who was only familiar with having to fight tooth and nail to achieve any of her goals. The fact that the group also controls gaming facilities certainly doesn't hurt her opinion either...although it's even odds whether she'd actually work a job at one of those locations or simply spend all her time on the clock playing arcade games herself.

Enma: Although Hazel has a deep-seated distrust for authority figures and those who blindly pursue the maintenance of the status quo above all, to some degree she can understand the desire to forsake everything in pursuit of what you believe. She's ashamed of many things that she's done while fighting to protect the magical world's unwitting victims but continues to commit what she considers atrocious acts because she cannot see any other way. To her, she's already a monster - so what does it matter if she subverts what others would consider moral? No one else cares enough to keep these people safe. Furthermore authority is power, and she certainly loves wielding what little power she has in the most obnoxious ways possible when the mood settles upon her. She's a capricious thing, after all, and loves to cause others trouble for the sake of it. It wouldn't be difficult for her to play along with the Enma's system at all when it meant she could 'threaten' people with hefty parking tickets or condemn someone's permit request to the endless hell of red tape.

SAMPLES

One, two, and three threads from the test drive!