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opheliaafterdeath) wrote2019-05-06 12:18 am
Character Information
Title(s): Adriel (birth name)
Age: "Twenties" (In their forties in reality)
Date of Birth: Unknown
Gender: Ambiguous. They were not created with gender in mind.
Species: Angel/demon hybrid
Family: Dead, as far as they're concerned.
Tarot: The Hermit
Occupation: Private detective
Education Level: Self-taught
Artist:
Threadjacking: Y/N
Forth-Walling: Y/N
Mindreading: Y/N
Fighting: Y/N
Injury: Y/N
Romance: Y/N
Smut: Y/N
Offensive Subjects: (elaborate)
Age: Sample
Timezone: GMT(+/-)
Contact: Plurk/Email/Pm's/etc.
Standing at 5’8, Nekane comes across as someone who looks perpetually in need of a good nap. Their skin is a sickly pale colour and they are rail thin due to starvation being employed during their captivity and sticking around after their failed fusion with Adomaitis and their own neglect. Nekane’s skin has cracks dotting here and there all over their body from said fusion, mainly on their face. These cracks react to the stress of using Nekane’s shadow manipulation ability, ranging from opening a little more when they first use it, then leaking black sludge and at worst, visible replicas of their eyes appear “inside” of the cracks (and at that point Nekane is about to pass out). These cracks close back up once Nekane stops using this ability but are slow to heal the longer the shadow manipulation is used.
Nekane has long black hair that they normally tie back in a braid. Contrast to the rest of their appearance, their hair is well taken care of as it is the only think about their body that Nekane still likes. One can tell they are having a bad day (or week, month, ect.) when their hair is a mess. Their eyes are bright red and have dark circles underneath due to a sever lack of sleep.
They still possess their angel wings despite denouncing being an angel. Nekane’s wings have been heavily damaged and many of the feathers are missing along with flesh so the wings are more bone then anything else and are no longer capable of flight. As a victim of torture, Nekane still possesses the sever amount of scars from that time. While they glamour away the scars on their face, they do not for the ones covered by heavy clothing. In particular they have third-degree burn scars around the base of their wings, cigarette burns across their shoulders, scars from a knife across the back of their legs and the underside of their feet and Nekane’s toes are crooked due to being broken and then being forcefully set. Across their throat is their tag number (6234-01) that they hide with bandages.
In terms of clothing Nekane favors heavy clothing such as jackets, long-sleeve shirts and pants, and rarely wear things like t-shirts. When doing their detective work they wear a blue tie but forgo it when they are not. All of their jackets and shirts have holes in them so their wings can fit. Finally they wear two white flower earrings and a pair of beat-up sneakers.
Eons ago, Nekane was happy. Loyal and devoted to their role as one of many sacrifices to seal away a powerful demon, as Adriel they never questioned this. Subservient, docile and willing to please, Adriel was one of the thousands upon thousands of perfect beings born with no flaw.
Looking back on it now, all Nekane can say about Adriel is that they were a fool and those memories are worthy of nothing but contempt. Their sheer rage and hatred for who they once were has Nekane consider them separate people, that Adriel died in the snow alongside Adomaitis. They refuse to acknowledge who they once were and consider the stigma of being a “monster” to be much more preferable then letting anyone know they were once an angel despite keeping their ruined wings.
Unfortunately despite forcing a separation between “Adriel” and “Nekane”, they cannot separate their memories. The trauma of being tortured still lingers like the scars etched into their body. Nekane possess a fear of the dark, which is at odds with their use of shadow manipulation, and as such do not sleep and frequently neglect other needs. They have an unfortunate habit of self-sabotaging themself when things are going too well and often lose themself in a feedback loop with their own negative thoughts as Nekane can become trapped in heaping their own abuse onto themself. A part of this comes from a fear of the brainwashing that once held them docile - they are unable to tell if the happiness they feel is true or something that still remains from that time. They fear it somehow coming back to claim them so if they’re always miserable then clearly it’s their choice and not something else controlling them.
What ultimately lead to Nekane being captured during their escape and tortured was the betrayal of someone they deeply loved and trusted. Unsurprisingly this has caused them to develop a deep-seated paranoia of other people and a refusal to let the formation of deep bounds happen. They will lie about themself at the drop of a hat so no one can know who they truly are and this is the source of their need (obsession) with information. From Nekane’s point of view, if they know everything about someone or something, then nothing can surprise them. And with their photographic memory and own talents of observation they are good at keeping track of others and their daily habits. Unfortunately for Nekane they are still very much vulnerable to mistakes and personal opinions - Sherlock Holmes, they are not - and may miss certain qualities about people that would have saved them some grief in the long run. In addition their paranoia can be taken advantage of and they are prone to fits of anger, especially if someone assumes that since they are an angel they must be happy all the time, and may take it out on somebody unrelated, only to regret it later.
When not dealing with their own paranoia and issues however, Nekane can be a mixed bag but reasonable to deal with. Although they are prone to sarcasm at times, you can be guaranteed to get their honest (and blunt) opinion about something so long as the question isn’t about themself. They have also been known to lower or outright wave the price of their detective services for people who cannot afford much or have suffered like they have in the past. Nekane prefers to keep others at arm’s length but despite their paranoia, they do not hate humanity as a whole but only the cult that was responsible for everything that happened. Spite for that group is the main reason why Nekane kept their wings despite being able to glamour them away like they do for the scars on their face and avoid questions. They know the cult is keeping an eye on them, so they’re rubbing it in their face that despite everything, they’re still alive.
Nekane has a set of standards they attempt to stick to as best as they can, even if their paranoia causes them to overstep them on occasion. They do not kill if they can help it, preferring to distract or disable. The death of Adomaitis did disturb Nekane, as it was something they forced him into, and thus they wish to not put someone in that position again. Sacrifice is a touchy topic for Nekane and they do not consider self-sacrifice to be a noble act, especially if said sacrifice is at the behest of another. That being said Nekane will put themself in harm’s way if they feel it is necessary and will not simply abandon someone in need. They were abandoned once and to do it to someone else would make them no better then their Handler. Finally the information they gather is often kept private and for their own use. While their paranoia has them use said information on others to their advantage and dig into matters best left alone, generally it is not something spread unless Nekane has a reason to do so.
Fill in here with information about your characters skills, talents, magics if they possess them. Anything from the more mundane such as weaving, thieving, farming, whatever it is to magical things, or talents related to fighting, even.
Photographic Memory — Nekane possesses photographic memory where, as long as they can get a good look at something or someone, will be able to remember it with perfect detail. This does not mean they will have perfect understanding of what it is that they remember – Nekane will still need to find someone to translate anything that they do not speak or read, they can remember someone’s appearance but will not know if they are human or not without visual evidence. And because this ability is not on a supernatural scale, they are still prone to error. For example if Nekane was shown a fake art piece and then found the real one later, they will not “suddenly” know the first one was a fake unless there is a noticeable error between the pieces to tip them off.
Shadow Manipulation — Nekane can manipulate shadows to create things like weapons or use them to grab and pull things as they see fit. This ability puts stress on Nekane's body and thus they can safely use it for about an hour and a half before it starts catching up to them - they can push a little farther then this limit but risk passing out. Blasting the shadows with light will break Nekane's "hold" on them and destroy whatever they have made.
Minor Illusions — As the name implies, Nekane is capable of casting minor illusions that can play on a person's senses. For example, they could make someone think they saw something move out of the corner of their eye. They can only use this ability on one person at a time and Nekane must be able to see the person in question for it to work - even if they know that someone is behind a wall, their illusions won't work unless they can actually see them. And naturally if the person that Nekane attempts to use this ability on does not possess a certain sense then it will not work. If someone is blind then Nekane cannot make them see anything.
Guard Seals — A Guard Seal puts a lock on an object that only Nekane can open and will sound an alarm if someone else breaks the seal. They can only cast Guard Seals over small objects (a lock on a door or a book, for example) and can only have two Guard Seals going at the same time. If they want to cast another Seal with two already active, they will have to deactivate one of the two currently existing Seals.
A long time ago a group of people were tasked with the sealing of a powerful demon. As it was physically impossible to defeat the demon with what the group had on hand, they delved into deeper rituals and the occult until they found a way.
What must be done was that someone must be sacrificed in a ritual, where the person’s soul would take in the demon’s own heart (the source of power for a demon) while their body would be staked down in the deepest pits so the soul cannot find their body again. This ritual would be performed every twenty years and will inevitably result in the death of the sacrificed and the return of the demon’s heart unless someone else gave up their life to continue the seal.
This was the group’s answer but nobody stood up to begin. Cowardliness sadly ran through the group and so they delved deeper and deeper. They found another ritual which would give them the power to create life. It would require blood, clay and the death of many birds. But to them it was an answer from God, because it meant no one would die. The group created a single person born with wings that they dubbed an angel. The angel was soon sacrificed to create the seal and it stuck.
From then on every twenty years the group would create and sacrifice an angel to keep the demon sealed away. They began to become well known in the world of magic, becoming somewhat celebrities as they were the group that discovered a way to seal away a threat to the world. The group slowly began to grow drunk on this fame as it and other favours piled on, and created more angels to tote around as they saw fit: perfect beings that were nothing but happy, for they were brainwashed to think that way from birth.
But it was not only the world of magic watching this group. The demon in question was watching the group grow in power and influence with amusement, and he was also quite interested in the angels. What could they do? He wondered. What were their limits?
So in the briefest of moments between the seal being renewed, the demon spoke to the group for the first time. He whispered to them about various things, winding the people around his little finger before making an offer: if they sacrificed a group of angels for his own personal use every twenty years, the demon would leave everyone alone because he would be busy with his new playthings. To sweeten the deal the demon offered the group powers for their own personal use and as a way to help the process along. Drunk off the power of everything that has happened thus far, the group agreed and sacrificed the first group of angels almost immediately. As promised the demon fulfilled his side of the bargain. Eventually the group began to worship the demon as his power corrupted their minds, turning them into a deadly cult. To make sure no angel would break their brainwashing, each one was assigned a Handler to observe them, watch for any defects, and report any that needed correcting.
Years later the angel that would become Nekane was born. They were granted the name “Adriel” by their Handler and they soon grew close. Each angel were granted abilities and talents that were requested by the demon and Adriel was granted a photographic memory as he wished to see the absolute limit of what someone could endure while remembering it. However their memory and own personal talent of observation slowly began to poke holes in Adriel’s brainwashing until they gained enough personal agency to sneak away a book when no one was looking.
The book was nothing special but it began a spark within Adriel. They wanted to find out more about the world they had been born into, why they were supposed to be happy all the time, and the true concept of “sacrifice” and if it was truly good or not. Noting that some angels who inquired about these things tended to vanish and return with that spark gone, they kept what they were learning to themself. Adriel began to read and absorb more and more information until they finally understood their ultimate fate. A fate that they did not want. As the day where Adriel’s group were to be sacrificed, Adriel began to plan their escape. However, they made one mistake.
The true role of Handlers was never put down on paper just for that reason and as far as the angels were aware, they were just there to guard and provide someone to interact with. Like every other angel before them, Adriel was not aware of their own Handler’s nature and when she caught them trying to escape, Adriel confessed what they knew and were doing. Adriel’s Handler “agreed” to help and because of the deep trust and love they had for her, Adriel did not question where they were going until it was too late.
Adriel was recaptured and locked away in a dark room. There they were tortured for a countless amount of time in repeated attempts to force them to submit back to their brainwashing. Due to their deep-seated disgust and rage at what had happened, Adriel refused and made repeated attempts to escape, which often resulted in worse punishments.
Soon the day where the new group of angels were to be sacrificed came. The cult was worried that the demon would be angered since Adriel still refused despite the cult’s attempts to correct their mindset and thus made it impossible to remake them - the body can easily be remade but the soul will endure unless the person themself changes. The demon spends some time with Adriel, which almost kills them. Quickly losing interest, the demon takes the rest of the group and states that the cult has a day to provide him with a new angel to replace Adriel. The cult does so and tosses out Adriel as they are no longer needed.
Dying in the snow, another demon named Adomaitis stumbles across the angel. As the delicious nature of an angel’s soul has become well known within the world of magic, Adomaitis attempts to take Adriel’s, only to find the angel’s hands around his throat. With the cult’s final words still echoing in their head, Adriel forces the demon to fuse with them and the sheer imbalance between the two (along with the fact that Adriel is strangling Adomaitis to death at the time), the fusion is extremely flawed and wipes both of them out.
The person that remains, still dying in the snow but able to stand, is neither Adriel nor Adomaitis, but an angel and demon hybrid. They are deeply disturbed by killing Adomaitis, feeling it was a forced sacrifice, and take his name to be their last. Dragging themself to the nearest town before collapsing, they’re able to get help.
Someone asks their name, and although they remember the name “Adriel”, it fills them with pure disgust. Instead they answer with something they give themself, a name from the first book they read and the demon that birthed this new life.
Nekane Adomaitis.
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