(no subject)
灰燼の猫
bio (wip)
KAIJIN
full name:
Kaijin no Neko (灰燼の猫)
age:
~300
pronouns:
he/him
race:
youkai (komaneko)
origin:
Kyoto
sexuality:
pansexual
brief:
Forgotten shrine guardian kami-turned-youkai given a second life thanks to internet memes.
FORMS
human
This is just a test
cat
#'#" . build . eyes . pb
!! content here !!
!! content here !!
youkai
#'#" . build . eyes . pb
!! content here !!
!! content here !!
cryptid
#'#" . build . eyes . pb
!! content here !!
!! content here !!
THE MEMES
Header Text
!! your content here !!
Header Text
!! your content here !!
Header Text
!! your content here !!
ABILITIES
item.
!! your content here !!
item.
!! your content here !!
item.
!! your content here !!
HISTORY
!! your content here !!
ooc info:
gray . est . talkincodes@plurk . masaki suda
(no subject)
OOC INFORMATION.
IC INFORMATION.
BASICS
BACKGROUND
POWERS
SAMPLES.
NAME: Gray
CONTACT:talkincodes or PM
AGE: 30+
OTHER CHARACTERS: N/A
IC INFORMATION.
BASICS
CHARACTER NAME: Kaijin
CANON: Original
CANON POINT: Modern day
AGE: 300+
BACKGROUND
HISTORY: The spirit who would become Kai began as a komaneko, a cat-shaped guardian statue of a small shrine in the mountains outside of Kyoto. Dedicated to the silk trade, the shrine saw enough traffic and enough reverence that the komaneko were able to become kami, minor gods. While his partner was content to stay with the shrine, Kai was a bit more restless, occasionally wandering to visit with the other gods and spirits in the mountains. Stories sprang up that a massive black cat could be spotted wandering the forests, always returning to protect it's shrine.
But it was unfortunately on one of these excursions that disaster struck, and by the time Kai managed to return to his shrine it had been destroyed by a fire--both the shrine itself and his partner-komaneko were completely gone and his own statue was badly burnt and damaged.
And then the whispers started. Rumors that maybe the shrine's destruction had been punishment. That maybe a youkai had taken up residence instead. That maybe the cat everyone spoke of seeing was actually something much more dangerous and destructive. The stories only continued, suddenly blaming any fires and disasters on the cat youkai they had definitely seen in the area right before something terrible happened. Some said it was a bakeneko, and as European influence began to spread some even suggested that it might be a demon.
Enraged by the loss of respect and status and drowning in his own guilt for failing to protect his shrine, the now-youkai decided that if they wanted something to be scared of, he would give it to them. He began terrorizing the surrounding area, moving further and further into Kyoto itself as the stories of the cat youkai spread. Seeing the huge black cat meant terrible things were coming and there was little that could be done to ward it off. It was only when a traveling monk managed to corner the youkai and get him calmed down that the sightings began to die down as the youkai retreated to his statue.
But as the sightings stopped, the stories began to die down as well. Other concerns took precedence and before long people stopped talking about the cat at all, just another piece of faded folklore, and as the belief faded away, the spirit himself went dormant.
And then the internet happened.
An urban explore youtuber happened to get some footage of his statue as a part of a vlog, and the creepy-looking, burnt and broken statue caught on as a fascination. Someone wrote a creepypasta about it that went semi-viral depicting a catlike portent of disaster, an urban legend sprang up about the statue telling fortunes if you made it offerings, and somehow it even became one of those "repost for luck!" memes. With that much attention and belief, even if some of it was ironic, the spirit suddenly found himself brought back into a very different world. Taking his name from one of the original youtube vidoes (Kaijin no Neko, the burnt-down cat) Kai had to learn how to navigate the new modern world that had little true belief in the old spirits but a whole lot of folklore anyway.
Mostly what he caught on to very quickly was the internet. A weird source for folklore, but the nature of social media also meant that for the first time he could possibly try directing some of those stories himself. Does it always work? No, telling the internet what to do is hilariously pointless. But he has headed off at least one story about himself he'd rather not have to deal with and now mods a couple of sub-reddits, so at least he has something to do.
PERSONALITY:What impression does your character give when meeting someone for the first time? How does the first impression differ from your character’s true nature?
On first glance, Kai seems unobtrusive, if a bit odd. He doesn't quite blink often enough, might occasionally stare very fixedly at nothing and can seem alternately weirdly still or constantly in motion. But none of those are too strange, especially for someone who largely keeps to himself. He can be friendly enough, a little prickly and standoffish but generally polite. Just another slightly weird guy.
Of course, anyone with a sense for the supernatural can tell he isn't human, and sometimes he pretends better than others. He doesn't really think like a human, for all that he an mimic them with variable results. Sometimes he tries so hard to fake it that it wraps around into being uncanny. Pulling genuine emotion out of him can make him a lot more humanlike, but he needs a certain amount of comfort for that and isn't likely to unbend for people if he doesn't know them well. Like the cat he is, Kai prefers his emotional responses to be on his own terms and both isn't concerned what people think of him and also wants everyone to know that he is completely in control.What are some of your character's regrets? How is your character impacted by them?
His biggest regret is being unable to prevent the destruction of his shrine, something that sent him on a downward spiral that he still hasn't truly managed to pull himself out of. Failing at the one task he was created for was bad enough, but it also destroyed his partner as well, leaving him lonely and riddled with guilt. Would the stories about him have changed so much if he hadn't already been questioning his purpose and place in the world? It also led to his other major regret, which was living down the negative perceptions of himself after he became a youkai. He let his anger and outrage at his loss of respect get the better of him, and did a lot of unnecessary damage. In some ways, finally being forgotten was a relief since it meant he no longer had to deal with his broken and conflicting emotions. Since his return a lot of that essentially survivors guilt and old anger has muted, but isn't entirely gone. He's just learned to ignore it better.What are your character’s ambitions/goals? Why are they important to your character?
Kai's main ambition is to be able to choose for himself how he's known. Now that he's discovered it's (sort of) possible to nudge public opinion, he desperately wants to be able to define himself for himself rather than being pulled around by what other people say about him. Of course he doesn't entirely know how he'd define himself, but he can figure that out when he gets there, right? The process of self-actualization is definitely a thing, he's read about it on the internet.
There's also a secondary goal there, and one that he hasn't even consciously admitted to himself. But part of him wonders that if he manages to be able to tell his own stories well enough, he'll be able to do the same on a big enough scale to be able to bring his partner back.
POWERS
SKILLS/ABILITIES:
SHAPESHIFTING: Kai has four main forms that he can switch between at will:
Human - A lanky late 20s-early 30s Japanese man with wild hair.
Cat - A roughly Maine Coon-sized longhaired black cat.
Youkai - A roughly human-sized (standing 6' or so) black cat that seems to be dissolving into smoke along the edges and has glowing eyes. Supernaturally strong and fast.
Nightmare - A vaguely cat-shaped mass of smoke and ash with light shining out of missing areas and pouring out of his eyes like liquid. This is currently his strongest form, and since it is essentially a sentient ash cloud, means that he can do things like float on the wind and get into any place that would let smoke particles through.
BARRIERS: One of the last remnants of his kami abilities, Kai can create magical barriers against both physical and spiritual energy. They last as long as Kai has the energy to power them and can be broken by overpowering him.
YOUKAI NATURE: As a youkai, Kai is deeply connected to the spiritual world and can sense and communicate with supernatural beings. He can also sense a certain amount of supernatural power in humans, especially if it's connected to the spiritual. He's also immortal and essentially indestructible as long as belief in him persists- he can be physically damaged but heals quickly and any non-serious injuries don't carry over between his forms.
FORTUNETELLING: Straddling the line between ability and weakness, if he's made an offering (ie, given food), Kai is compelled to tell the giver their fortune. He has no actual fortunetelling ability, so largely this comes in the form of consulting a magic eight ball, reading a horoscope, or making something up on the spot depending on how he feels at the moment.
NERFING: At 20%, Kai is basically confined to just his human and (regular) cat forms and can only switch between them a few times a day. He's also no longer completely indestructible, severe damage will take him out and lesser injuries will heal slowly (if still slightly better than a human rate) and require significant energy.
WEAKNESSES: Kai is extremely susceptible to belief, and as he learned the hard way, ironic belief still counts. For example, if everyone in the City started believing that he has blue eyes, even if they were joking, his eyes would turn blue.
SAMPLES.
TDM 1 | TDM 2 | TDM Top Level
the city permissions
KAIJIN
NAME
ORIGINAL
CANON
300+
AGE
MALE
GENDER
YOUKAI
SPECIES
5'10"
HEIGHT
LANKY
BUILD
LINK
INFO
ABOUT THE CHARACTER
OOC PERMISSIONS
Backtagging: Yes
Threadjacking: Yes
Fourthwalling: Yes
Off-limits: Nothing really
Shipping: Yes, with chemistry and buildup
Tagging style: Primarily brackets but I can also do prose
Misc: Nah
IC PERMISSIONS
Hugging: Yes but he may bite
Kissing: You can try
Flirting: He may not notice but sure
Romance: Yes with buildup and chemistry
Sex: Sure
Fighting: Yes
Injury: Yes
Death: Let's talk
Physical manipulation: Let's talk
Mental manipulation: Let's talk
Shrine guardian turned youkai turned internet cryptid. Fortune teller, disaster herald, subreddit moderator.
OOC PERMISSIONS
IC PERMISSIONS
(no subject)
APPLICATION
NAME: Gray
AGE: 30+
CONTACT:talkincodes, PM
CHARACTER(S): N/A
INVITED BY: Tea
NAME: Kaijin
AGE: 300+
CANON: Original
CANON POINT: Modern day, a few years after his internet-based resurrection
CRAU: N/A
OTHER: N/A
SUITABILITY: The setting would be really interesting for Kai because he is someone working to find who he wants to be, and learning how to better interact with people is a big part of that. He's comfortable with physical interactions and casual sex and is willing to try just about anything in order to learn, but he struggles with making real connections. He's been solitary and lonely and found that it's not good for him, which pushes him into reaching out more in hopes of finding what fit and means he might throw himself into some of the resort's games just to see what happens. I'm interested in exploring how he'll react to circumstances that force him into unusual kinds of social situations, emotionally or physically or both, to see if they prompt him to learn and grow in some unexpected directions.
HISTORY: Kai began as a komaneko, a cat-shaped guardian statue of a small shrine in the mountains outside Kyoto. Dedicated to the silk trade, the shrine saw enough traffic and garnered enough reverence that its pair of guardian komaneko were able to become kami, minor gods. While his partner was content to stay with the shrine, Kai was a bit more restless in wanting to wander, something that would lead to the most impactful moment of his life: the destruction of the shrine with Kai as the only survivor.
He had simply returned from his wandering one day to find that the shrine had completely burnt down with no immediately apparent cause. With no more shrine and no more worship, he went from kami to youkai, and his lone standing fire-damaged statue gradually attracted rumors that he was a spirit of misfortune instead. Enraged at his loss of status and and trying to ignore his own guilt, Kai took his anger out on the humans instead, terrorizing the surrounding area and into Kyoto itself as a herald of chaos and destruction. While he was eventually calmed and made to recognize his misplaced anger, the stories about him died out as sightings of the youkai lessened to the point that with no belief left to sustain him, the spirit went completely dormant.
Until the second pivotal moment in his history, his accidental resurrection in the modern age. One urban explorer blogger posting a picture of a creepy, fire-damaged cat statue was all it took for several memes to spring up, including a sem-viral creepypasta, a ‘repost for luck!’ mascot, and an urban legend about a fortune-telling statue and suddenly Kai had more than enough attention and belief to reform properly and find himself struggling to navigate the new internet age. Ironically, the internet’s attention has made him stronger than ever but also much more malleable, something he has been trying to turn to his own use in his search for self-determination.
ABILITIES:
Youkai - As a creature intrinsically tied with the spirit world, and can sense and communicate with any other creature similarly connected. He can also sense supernatural energy in humans, to a degree, especially if that energy is spiritual or involving the spirit world in some way. He's also effectively immortal, and can only be killed if his original form (a stone statue) is destroyed or if belief in him fades away to the point where he can no longer draw energy from it. He can be injured, but any physical damage will eventually regenerate depending on how much energy he can devote to it.
Shapeshifting - Kai has four main forms that he can shift in and out of at will: human form, a shaggy-haired Japanese man appearing somewhere in his twenties; cat form, a long-haired black cat with green eyes; youkai form, a roughly 6' black cat that seems to be dissolving into ash at the edges and has glowing eyes; nightmare form, a vaguely cat-shaped cloud of smoke and ash with light shining from the core and pouring out of its eyes like liquid. As the latter two are his strongest forms they come with a few benefits, supernatural speed and strength for his youkai form and the near-intangibility of being essentially a sentient ash cloud for his nightmare form. The ash cloud also works as a sort of in-between state when he's shifting, though it's more formless. His human and cat forms both appear as perfectly normal if a little uncanny, though anyone who can sense spiritual energy would be able to tell what he is.
(Mis)Fortune - Thanks to his dual roles of being both a source of luck and bring of disaster, Kai can influence fortune to a certain degree in either direction. He can't cause anything to happen that wouldn't already have a chance of occurring and he can't control what it is that happens, only able push to things in a luckier or more unfortunate direction. At the absolute height at either end, he can bring down buildings or make you win the lottery, but only if there's the possibility the building could fail or you bought a ticket. Also swinging too far at either end of the scale means that he essentially gets stuck at that side of things until he can even out, making him an uncontrollable source of good or bad luck. Most of the time he tries to avoid it entirely, with only the gentlest of nudges either way.
Barriers - One of the last remnants of his guardian kami abilities, Kai can create barriers against both physical and spiritual energy. They last as long as Kai has the spiritual energy to maintain them and can be broken by either overpowering him or having him run completely out of energy. The larger the barrier, the more energy they take to maintain.
VICES:
Guilty - Kai carries a massive amount of guilt for not being able to prevent the destruction of his shrine, not only for failing at the job he was literally created for as a shrine guardian but for also being responsible for the total destruction of his partner. It creates an unconscious feeling that whatever bad things happen to him, he probably deserves it and a lot of existential angst about what he is if he couldn't manage his primary function. He could likely manage to connect with others a lot better if part of him didn't feel like he doesn't deserve to.
Angry - He mostly manages to keep it under wraps, but at the core of him Kai carries a lot of anger. A lot of it is self-directed for his failings, but it also spills over into being angry at his loss of status, that the people who paid homage to him turned on him so quickly in the aftermath of tragedy. A part of him really resents that he can be manipulated so easily by human stories and that he's essentially beholden to whatever people decide about him. It's caused him to lash out violently in the past when he was at his worst, and while he's managed to bury that impulse it's still there somewhere deep inside.
Uncertain - The downside to realizing you can self-determine is that you have to actually make those choices. Kai has no real idea who he is or who he wants to be and struggles with where to even start deciding. His nature means that he doesn't really fit in with other youkai or spirits, he definitely isn't human enough to blend in with the human world, and he doesn't entirely feel comfortable with the urban legends and cryptids either. He's stuck in the middle of a lot of things and decision paralysis means that he has a very hard time moving in any directions at all.
VIRTUES:
Protective - At his heart, Kai is still a guardian. There's a somewhat instinctive drive to look after people and places that he registers as being 'his', and he will get very defensive over them. He doesn't even need to like or get along with a person in order to feel the need to defend them from outsiders once they've entered his circle. He's not exactly a caretaker in the emotional sense, but he will do what he can to ensure that people get their needs met. Acts of service over actually expressing himself in any meaningful way, mostly because he's never really learned how to talk about it.
Curious - Cliches aside, the main thing about Kai is that he wants to learn. Kai was always someone who wanted to explore more of the world, and his surprise second chance has given him the ability to see more of it than he ever expected. He likes finding new things and gaining understanding, he likes knowing that there's more out there he hasn't had a chance to experience yet, and he isn't particularly bothered about the possibility of looking stupid in his quest for new information.
Open-Minded - Kai is well aware that he's coming at the world from a very odd viewpoint, so his instinct tends to be to take things at face value. It's not that he doesn't understand lies and misdirections, he's spent way too much time in both the spirit world and on the internet to be any kind of naive, its just that his first reaction to most things is usually easy acceptance unless he has a reason to think otherwise. It makes him unusually direct in turn, especially considering youkai in general tend more towards the cryptic.
SUIT REQUESTS:
Diamonds - As an animal spirit, Kai is already very connected to the physical. Since he's trying his hardest to learn to fit in better with humans, forcing him into something more animalistic and uncontrolled and stripping away anything he's managed to learn so far could be very interesting. He's a naturally instinctive person, but reducing him entirely to animal impulse would fascinate me.
Spades - Kai has struggled with anger issues and lashing out in the past, and he'd be much more susceptible to that kind of corruption. It could very likely push him back into the headspace of being at his lowest point, being overwhelmed by his darkest feelings and fears, which are all something he's done a lot more repressing than dealing with constructively. I'd be interesting to see what putting him back into that kind of a state would do for his development.
RANK REQUESTS: Random is fine!
SAMPLES:
February TDM Top Level
TDM Thread
June TDM Top Level
OOC
NAME: Gray
AGE: 30+
CONTACT:
CHARACTER(S): N/A
INVITED BY: Tea
IC
NAME: Kaijin
AGE: 300+
CANON: Original
CANON POINT: Modern day, a few years after his internet-based resurrection
CRAU: N/A
OTHER: N/A
SUITABILITY: The setting would be really interesting for Kai because he is someone working to find who he wants to be, and learning how to better interact with people is a big part of that. He's comfortable with physical interactions and casual sex and is willing to try just about anything in order to learn, but he struggles with making real connections. He's been solitary and lonely and found that it's not good for him, which pushes him into reaching out more in hopes of finding what fit and means he might throw himself into some of the resort's games just to see what happens. I'm interested in exploring how he'll react to circumstances that force him into unusual kinds of social situations, emotionally or physically or both, to see if they prompt him to learn and grow in some unexpected directions.
HISTORY: Kai began as a komaneko, a cat-shaped guardian statue of a small shrine in the mountains outside Kyoto. Dedicated to the silk trade, the shrine saw enough traffic and garnered enough reverence that its pair of guardian komaneko were able to become kami, minor gods. While his partner was content to stay with the shrine, Kai was a bit more restless in wanting to wander, something that would lead to the most impactful moment of his life: the destruction of the shrine with Kai as the only survivor.
He had simply returned from his wandering one day to find that the shrine had completely burnt down with no immediately apparent cause. With no more shrine and no more worship, he went from kami to youkai, and his lone standing fire-damaged statue gradually attracted rumors that he was a spirit of misfortune instead. Enraged at his loss of status and and trying to ignore his own guilt, Kai took his anger out on the humans instead, terrorizing the surrounding area and into Kyoto itself as a herald of chaos and destruction. While he was eventually calmed and made to recognize his misplaced anger, the stories about him died out as sightings of the youkai lessened to the point that with no belief left to sustain him, the spirit went completely dormant.
Until the second pivotal moment in his history, his accidental resurrection in the modern age. One urban explorer blogger posting a picture of a creepy, fire-damaged cat statue was all it took for several memes to spring up, including a sem-viral creepypasta, a ‘repost for luck!’ mascot, and an urban legend about a fortune-telling statue and suddenly Kai had more than enough attention and belief to reform properly and find himself struggling to navigate the new internet age. Ironically, the internet’s attention has made him stronger than ever but also much more malleable, something he has been trying to turn to his own use in his search for self-determination.
ABILITIES:
Youkai - As a creature intrinsically tied with the spirit world, and can sense and communicate with any other creature similarly connected. He can also sense supernatural energy in humans, to a degree, especially if that energy is spiritual or involving the spirit world in some way. He's also effectively immortal, and can only be killed if his original form (a stone statue) is destroyed or if belief in him fades away to the point where he can no longer draw energy from it. He can be injured, but any physical damage will eventually regenerate depending on how much energy he can devote to it.
Shapeshifting - Kai has four main forms that he can shift in and out of at will: human form, a shaggy-haired Japanese man appearing somewhere in his twenties; cat form, a long-haired black cat with green eyes; youkai form, a roughly 6' black cat that seems to be dissolving into ash at the edges and has glowing eyes; nightmare form, a vaguely cat-shaped cloud of smoke and ash with light shining from the core and pouring out of its eyes like liquid. As the latter two are his strongest forms they come with a few benefits, supernatural speed and strength for his youkai form and the near-intangibility of being essentially a sentient ash cloud for his nightmare form. The ash cloud also works as a sort of in-between state when he's shifting, though it's more formless. His human and cat forms both appear as perfectly normal if a little uncanny, though anyone who can sense spiritual energy would be able to tell what he is.
(Mis)Fortune - Thanks to his dual roles of being both a source of luck and bring of disaster, Kai can influence fortune to a certain degree in either direction. He can't cause anything to happen that wouldn't already have a chance of occurring and he can't control what it is that happens, only able push to things in a luckier or more unfortunate direction. At the absolute height at either end, he can bring down buildings or make you win the lottery, but only if there's the possibility the building could fail or you bought a ticket. Also swinging too far at either end of the scale means that he essentially gets stuck at that side of things until he can even out, making him an uncontrollable source of good or bad luck. Most of the time he tries to avoid it entirely, with only the gentlest of nudges either way.
Barriers - One of the last remnants of his guardian kami abilities, Kai can create barriers against both physical and spiritual energy. They last as long as Kai has the spiritual energy to maintain them and can be broken by either overpowering him or having him run completely out of energy. The larger the barrier, the more energy they take to maintain.
VICES:
Guilty - Kai carries a massive amount of guilt for not being able to prevent the destruction of his shrine, not only for failing at the job he was literally created for as a shrine guardian but for also being responsible for the total destruction of his partner. It creates an unconscious feeling that whatever bad things happen to him, he probably deserves it and a lot of existential angst about what he is if he couldn't manage his primary function. He could likely manage to connect with others a lot better if part of him didn't feel like he doesn't deserve to.
Angry - He mostly manages to keep it under wraps, but at the core of him Kai carries a lot of anger. A lot of it is self-directed for his failings, but it also spills over into being angry at his loss of status, that the people who paid homage to him turned on him so quickly in the aftermath of tragedy. A part of him really resents that he can be manipulated so easily by human stories and that he's essentially beholden to whatever people decide about him. It's caused him to lash out violently in the past when he was at his worst, and while he's managed to bury that impulse it's still there somewhere deep inside.
Uncertain - The downside to realizing you can self-determine is that you have to actually make those choices. Kai has no real idea who he is or who he wants to be and struggles with where to even start deciding. His nature means that he doesn't really fit in with other youkai or spirits, he definitely isn't human enough to blend in with the human world, and he doesn't entirely feel comfortable with the urban legends and cryptids either. He's stuck in the middle of a lot of things and decision paralysis means that he has a very hard time moving in any directions at all.
VIRTUES:
Protective - At his heart, Kai is still a guardian. There's a somewhat instinctive drive to look after people and places that he registers as being 'his', and he will get very defensive over them. He doesn't even need to like or get along with a person in order to feel the need to defend them from outsiders once they've entered his circle. He's not exactly a caretaker in the emotional sense, but he will do what he can to ensure that people get their needs met. Acts of service over actually expressing himself in any meaningful way, mostly because he's never really learned how to talk about it.
Curious - Cliches aside, the main thing about Kai is that he wants to learn. Kai was always someone who wanted to explore more of the world, and his surprise second chance has given him the ability to see more of it than he ever expected. He likes finding new things and gaining understanding, he likes knowing that there's more out there he hasn't had a chance to experience yet, and he isn't particularly bothered about the possibility of looking stupid in his quest for new information.
Open-Minded - Kai is well aware that he's coming at the world from a very odd viewpoint, so his instinct tends to be to take things at face value. It's not that he doesn't understand lies and misdirections, he's spent way too much time in both the spirit world and on the internet to be any kind of naive, its just that his first reaction to most things is usually easy acceptance unless he has a reason to think otherwise. It makes him unusually direct in turn, especially considering youkai in general tend more towards the cryptic.
SUIT REQUESTS:
Diamonds - As an animal spirit, Kai is already very connected to the physical. Since he's trying his hardest to learn to fit in better with humans, forcing him into something more animalistic and uncontrolled and stripping away anything he's managed to learn so far could be very interesting. He's a naturally instinctive person, but reducing him entirely to animal impulse would fascinate me.
Spades - Kai has struggled with anger issues and lashing out in the past, and he'd be much more susceptible to that kind of corruption. It could very likely push him back into the headspace of being at his lowest point, being overwhelmed by his darkest feelings and fears, which are all something he's done a lot more repressing than dealing with constructively. I'd be interesting to see what putting him back into that kind of a state would do for his development.
RANK REQUESTS: Random is fine!
SAMPLES:
February TDM Top Level
TDM Thread
June TDM Top Level