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love tokyo love hotelXXribsXXsheXXfire fliesXXvapid feels ain't vapidXXdynasty
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NICKNAMESXX
AGEXX 23
SEXUALITYXXpansexual
SPECIESXX emerged god (Denae, God of Unfinished Business)
FACE CLAIMX namikka mugerwa
HEXXX #a87c5f
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HEIGHT: 5'9"
WEIGHT:
HAIR: dark brown, wavy (slightly textured)
TATTOOS AND PIERCINGS:right inner bicep - Judith Slaying Holofernes, left rib - falling lucifer, right clavicle - carina, right lower arm (underside) - six of swords (inverted)
EYES: dark brown
GENERAL: she was always called 'pretty,' as a child. her warm eyes and feminine features earned many a compliment. her apparent prettiness did not keep the schoolyard teasing at bay, nor the pitying, 'whatawaste' tuts of adults. 'what a lovely face,' they would chime, 'shame about that birthmark'.
It curves at the right edge of her lips, fair in comparison to the rest of her cool-brown skin. The way it is shaped looks like art artist's lackadaisical brushstroke, but she has long-since grown past her insecurities. she doesn't recognise it as a mar on an otherwise lovely canvas. on the contrary, she has felt nothing but pride for it ever since the day her sister pulled the collar of her shirt down slightly to reveal her own dappled mark across her left clavicle. if someone as cool as Carina had one- it must be a good thing.
her hair is an awkward texture; falling somewhere between her mother's intensely curly texture and her father's brown waves. her eyes are definitely her mother's, however, dark and big and brown, framed by thick brows and centred by a slightly rounded nose. her frame is slim, almost misleadingly slow, and for there is certainly a tone to her frame, thanks to a practice of martial arts (not all 'finished business' is dealt with in an entirely 'hands-off' fashion, after all).
astral manipulation Denae can astrally project into new environments, including into the consciousness of others, affectively allowing them to 'dream walk' and teleport themselves and their host's spirit to other locations, all the whilst maintaining their corporality. This manipulation of the astral plane also allows them to play with the consciousness of those around them, such as through illusions. They are able to bring the living spirits of others along with them, but it is far more draining, and the more people, the more exhausting it is. More importantly, however, is how this gift allows them to communicate with spirits, and manipulate their physical presence as to make spirits visible to others. It is through this ability that they gain knowledge about, and thus carry out the 'unfinished business' of the dead.
semi-immortality like other gods, they are borderline immortal, and the only thing that can kill them is either another god, or a god-slaying weapon
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STRENGTHS:
acuity : her mind is sharp, and her shrewdness seldom matched. wit is her constant, and she wields it with alarming prowess (albeit often as a means of deflection). her intellect most often reveals itself in street smarts, although there is a quiet bookishness to her that unveils itself in either moments of solitude or comfort-induced enthusiasm.
intuition and perception : her intellect extends into intuition and perception, and even without her subconscious-wandering abilities, she tends to be able to perceive the intentions, and feelings of others, regardless of how they try hide them. she also has an oddly accurate instinct; she doesn't entirely know if it is related to her godly counterpart, or just innate, but what she does know is that her gut feeling is seldom, if ever, incorrect.
charisma : for all her rough edges, she has a natural warmth to her. though she doesn't exactly pursue it, she takes to the spotlight surprisingly well when she finds herself in it. she has the gift of the gab, an an innate charm that tends to draw people to her and make them feel at ease.
hand-to-hand combat : her combat-related skills are far from limited to hands, but years of training have allowed her to develop a knack for fighting techniques that play to her strengths, and her opponent's weaknesses. her misleadingly slight appearance hides an astutely hardened brawler, and one not afraid to get her hands dirty. or cheat. she's definitely not afraid to cheat.
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WEAKNESSES:
flippancy : seriousness makes her anxious. she doesn't know how to best express concern or comfort, so instead she deflects and delays the inevitable. she makes jokes tactlessly, fires off witty remarks even in the face of danger (or of grief), and dodges any and all responsibility save for the one single goal she has dedicated her life to. it is all the seriousness, and all the grief, that she has room for, and she does not share it with anyone.
vindictiveness : she has yet to learn the art of forgiving and forgetting. it's odd that someone so firmly pro-rehabilitation would be so blatantly revenge-driven in her personal and professional life. apparently, she likes all punishment except punitive, as she carries out the unfinished business of the dead unto their killers. and she enjoys it to a devilish degree.
trauma : her past is one that she never really dealt with- she got her justice, sure, but it didn't sate her the way that she had thought it would. now, her grief has settled beneath her skin, stubbornly keeping any wounds from healing. instead they sit raw and torn and open to infection- she doesn't know what she'll do if and when disease takes effect.
cynicism : she does not throw her faith in with humanity, for she has found them far too consistently cruel. she does not trust easily, and sometimes even leans towards pessimism. she hasn't lost her delight for good people, nor is she cold to the loveliness of helping a lost soul share their final comforts with their loved ones... but the revenge-related quests certainly dampen her idealism.
P E R S O N A L I T Y:
at a glance, the manner in which she approaches her duties seem lackadaisical. She speaks with a lazy insouciance about the bleak and the true, noting with jadedness that they are often one and the same. upon closer inspection, however, there is a dedication to her craft; not to mention a knack for ensuring a job well done. she does it quickly and brusquely in an attempt to save herself emotional investment, and only stumbles sometimes. she's strangely casual for all the grimness she must deal with, and her cynicism has yet to turn her herself into a dismal presence. Instead, she is quick to smile (and quicker to smirk), seldom without a bon mot to raise a mood, or remove an edge. she has a knack for deflecting sympathy, loathe is she to be the object of one's commiseration. it makes her uncomfortable, and more so, it makes her hyperaware of her own past misfortunes; something she much prefers to leave unacknowledged outside of the usual 3am ruminations. Or the nightmares.
perhaps it's a coping mechanism, but she has something of an impishness to her, a tendency to brush the serious away with jokes, or trade wit and barbs even in situations she would be much better off not saying anything. she isn't prone to allowing herself to get invested in things or people too easily (she learned the hard way that it hurts less that way) but her innate softness makes it difficult. she tries to keep a distance, but she isn't very difficult to convince, and at least point, she isn't sure if it is some compassionate and helpful nature at work, or a force of habit related to her job of assisting the dead that prompts her to look out for the living.
she is rather impatient, especially when it comes to the less pleasant qualities of others, and she lacks any willingness to indulge in such qualities as cruelty or ignorance. she feels no guilt in bluntly making her opinions known when it comes to such people. she barely has time for self-care, she's hardly going to dedicate any effort towards appeasing the feelings or fluffing the egos of those she likes even less. In short, as Ahya would say, "fuck 'em."
when her guard is down, her wit melts into something a touch less worn, a tad more jovial. as her walls come crumbling, so too comes a strange committal to the role of host. keeping others fed and comfortable, offering comfort and kindness. whatever leaks through her wry and snarky shell pours about her when she feels at ease- a warmness that her trauma has failed to cool.
however, even more so than her father, Ahya's dearest affection rested with Carina, her sister four years her senior. despite their wildly differing personalities, with Carina very much being the summer breeze to Ahya's hurricane, Carina was very much Ahya's biggest supporter, and perhaps closer than any of Ahya's friends. Ahya was devastated when Carina went to a college four hours drive away on a scholarship (thank goodness, for college had been a source of much dread for the family bank account). Carina reassured her little sister that she would contact weekly, and visit every break.
the day they went to drop her off was the last time Ahya saw her with a genuine smile.
it was about a month later when she next saw her sister, and things were different. Ahya wasn't let in on the details of what had happened at the party- she would figure it out eventually, but at the time, Ahya's mother tried her best to shelter her. she thought it would be easier, that way. it wasn't. the rest happened quickly. the university brushed the case under the table, and when Ahya's family went to the police, the prosecution asserted that there was not enough evidence, and dropped it. Ahya remembers the day Carina moved back in, the way Carina hugged her tightly, and offered her a reassuring smile she at the time was convinced by.
she never saw Carina again.
Ahya's family fell apart after that. devastation consumed them. whatever thread had been keeping Ahya's father from stumbling of the edge was severed, and four years later, he would drink himself into an early death. Ahya's mother didn't fair much better- she turned numb for a while, every function robotic- to deal with her grief, she switched to autopilot. she has yet to completely take the wheel again.
And then there was Ahya. Ahya, who lost her most precious person, found herself adrift. for months, she was numb like her mother, the first spent in bed, and the next couple turning back to her party girl ways, desperate to feel something. six months after her sister's death, Ahya saw his face, advertising the university that protected him. and like that, the water she was drowning in turned scalding. it boiled her flesh and bone, and in the heat, she felt a whisper. it was a careful prodding, a delicate yet intoxicating urging. They offered her the ability to deliver the justice Carina was denied, on the condition that she would, among other things, go forth and deliver it unto others. she was fifteen then, and she took on the role with little consideration.
the justice she chose was brutal and violent- she destroyed their minds before she did their bodies, and she enjoyed every second of it. she didn't expect to return to numbness right after the fact. the unfinished business was finished, and yet there was no satisfaction to her conclusion. her heart still felt empty, her soul hollow. but at least she had a new distraction now, albeit one she often resents.
whether it be enacting vengeance, speaking words left too late, delivering gifts never given, or solving the mysteries of one's end, Ahya carried out her duties. Any reluctance she may have had, or has, ignored in jaded recognition of it being one she signed up for. It's something like clockwork, now, and she can't lie and say that there isn't some satisfaction drawn from exacting revenge on terrible people, or a bittersweet ache to providing closure to the grieving.