[b]Availability[/b]: Morning-Afternoon Central Standard Time; I work 3rd shift during the week and Uber during weekends so those days will vary in time online. However I will make a point to post at least once or twice per day. [hider=Atsukawa Hisame] [center] [img]http://i318.photobucket.com/albums/mm415/Winter_Iris/Hisame_1.jpg[/img] [b]Name[/b] - Atsukawa "The Nightwalker" Hisame [b]Name Meaning[/b] - Frozen Rain [b]Species[/b] - Human [b]Gender[/b] - Female [b]Birthdate[/b] - March 4th, 1822 [b]Age[/b] - 195 years [b]Nationality[/b] - Japanese [b]Height[/b] - 5'6'' [b]Weight[/b] - 116 lbs [b]Dexterity[/b] - Ambidextrous [b]Occupation[/b] - Drifter [b]Accouterment[/b] - Katana [b]Weapon Name[/b] - Juudai-na-Shi; [i]Fateful Death[/i] [b]Training[/b] - None [u][b]History[/b][/u] [hider=Death's Chosen] Hisame enjoyed a rather pleasant upbringing with her brother and parents; her father a respected samurai and her mother a simple woman who practiced the arts of cooking, sewing, floral decoration and music. While close to her brother, most of his time was spent learning swordsmanship behest their father. Although she had a fascination with the sword, insomuch to privately mimic the motions she saw while her brother practiced, the interest was always fleeting. After being scolded by her father, she gave it up completely. Instead she practiced the traits gleaned from her mother. She became renown in her village and the surrounding towns for her beautiful floral arrangements and skill with the koto and flute, even asked to join a traveling company as a musician; her heart remained at home, and she remained there as a respected and helpful member of the village. Her attention remained fixed to her family and their honor, as well as refinement of her own creative skills. This changed when her brother died of illness; in his angered agony over loss of his only heir, Hisame's father turned to drinking as an outlet, shutting out his family from his thoughts and feelings. One night, amid heavy drinking, an altercation with a stranger resulted in a duel; the duel resulted in his death. Hisame's uncle was left to fill the void in her life, but their father's shame remained a stain upon their names in the behind-the-back talk and family reputation of the locals. Only after many persevering months did the dishonor fade from them and remain buried with his sullied legacy. The next turn happened when she met a man while selling flowers. A kind, affectionate and gentle soul, the two become close; the next spring, he asked her to marry and she instantly accepted. But the newlyweds met ill fortune when their village is ransacked by marauders. Hisame's uncle and husband are killed before her eyes, along with most of the other men and all the woman that resisted. As for Hisame and her mother, they are passed along the bandits for several days, raped constantly. In time, she learns of her mother's murder, and with it, whatever hope to see the nightmare's end perished as well. At nightfall, she woos the guard off of one of the bandits, stealing his wakizashi and slitting his throat before making an escape. Hisame ventures to the surrounding woods and enters the village graveyard; famished, exhausted and dehydrated, her strength gives out before her father's tombstone. She weeps to heaven in lamentation and curses to her father for being a fool that could not protect his family. Desire to live gone, she places the blade to her throat and resolves to slash it open. It's then that a whisper enters her ears, seemingly from nowhere. It pulls at her attention as it becomes louder the more she attempts to ignore it. Curious, she is guided deeper into the graveyard until she arrives at a well-kept shrine; the shrine she'd always been told only priests may enter. Hisame walks in to behold an altar with an unsheathed sword: an ugly katana whose hilt is worn with bindings unkept and its blade caked with rust. Then the speaker asks her questions of her feelings and desires; her only answers involved vengeance. So they offered power to take revenge at the cost of her life; having already chosen death, she acquiesces. Her gift is a repugnant katana branded the Fateful Death. She's informed that she need but focus her soul into the sword, take it into her hand and it will do the rest. So she ventures back to the village, far from fearful while she does as suggested and creates a midnight nightmare made real. The fools that throw throw themselves at her find her seemingly unaffected, even aroused by the gashes and blood their edges spill from her generous flesh. Them that chase candelight in search of sanctuary find it breathed out and the darkness of a blackened moon their ally; those that run are stalked through the streets, corridors and bedrooms until everyone in the village, even the victims of the raid, are massacred. Her pain recompensed, she stands in the square of the village to behold what she had both wittingly and unwillingly wrought: an ocean of blood, brutalized bodies and child death. Hisame returns steel to her throat and slices it open; laying silent as she bled to death, she is left astonished at how long it took. Then the laughter of the whisperer enters her mind to remind her of her vow: her life was theirs and the death she sought would not come as simply as she desired. After years of constantly creative ways to dispose of the sword and end her own life, with each attempt either failing or seeing the sword return to her again, Hisame has accepted this curse as part of her life; during the day she is a hollow husk of her former self and at night she is filled with the spirit of slaughter who kills whomever is unfortunate enough to cross paths. So has her nocturnal murders gained her the moniker of "The Nightwalker" by the people and authorities who hunt her; fear of her places strict curfews into effect and old women have invented many frightening stories to scare children off the streets. Hisame now seeks death most of all, that she may be free of her vexation and reunite with her family at last. [/hider] [/center] [center][b][u]Abilities[/u][/b][/center] [center][b]Death's Chosen (Passive)[/b] Hisame is bound to the spirit of her sword. This spirit prevents her from dying by means which do not destroy her body completely (such as incineration); the healing speed is moderate with minor cuts and gashes healing within seconds and severe injury requiring noticeably more time. In the case of dismemberment Hisame may re-attach the limbs manually; in case of such dismemberment, decapitation or left pieces will regenerate until Hisame is whole again but the process will take minutes to complete. The spirit will possess Hisame prior to or during events where a normal person would slip into shock or not survive (including decapitation); this will result in activation of the below ability, The Revelation. [b]Bloodthirsting Blade (Passive)[/b] Hisame's sword thirsts for human blood; if it cuts the flesh of another, the wound will become infected. This infection releases endorphins and adrenaline to numb pain and increase blood flow; it causes platelet death at the wound resulting in an inability to close via scabbing and thus creates perpetual bleeding. The Fateful Death may produce spirit-based miracles when it drinks human blood, including Hisame's; use of this blood will drain and parch the blade. The sword may also call blood from nearby open sources such as wounds for a distance of up to 15 feet. Blood created from the miracles is spirit energy made manifest and hence unable to be drank by the Fateful Death. [b]Shrieking Steel (Passive)[/b] T he Fateful Death screams when it is drug against other objects such as a floor (of any construction), armor, sword, etc. The pitch and severity of the sound increases the longer the dragging goes on; something short and brief is still shrill and painful to the ears but a longer screech can be agony to the hearer. At such a high frequency it can easily damage eardrums, cause deafness and break glass. [b]The Promised Comforter[/b] Hisame may call forth and use spirit energy so long as she holds the Fateful Death and may call the sword to her at will; how this energy is manifest depends on the action of Hisame and how she chooses to release it. For example, if she channels her own spirit into the Fateful Death amid a stroke of the blade it may peel off in arc; if she holds it straight and releases it the energy may erupt in a line; if the sword is coated with spirit energy it may be used to deflect simple energy-based attacks, and so on. Further, she may bring her spirit energy outward from her body; this energy may manifest in the form of a shockwave or physical barrier, etc. However when not channeled through and released by the Fateful Death, Hisame's body will suffer the toll of stamina and the amount of spirit used is relative to the stamina she loses. An immediate use of a large amount of energy will effectively leave Hisame unable to channel spirit energy for an appropriate time. Exhaustion will also trigger The Revelation. [b]The Revelation[/b] Hisame becomes possessed by the spirit of the Fateful Death. In this state Hisame becomes impervious to pain and gains the powers of flight, levitation and telekinesis; she may control sources of fire and light such as candles, torches, light bulbs, etc. and make stars in the sky and the sun go dark to create pitch blackness. She may modulate her voice pitch, tone, gender and create voices from a location of choosing. She may make herself invisible to the natural senses and manifest spirit in tangible form to create such things as animals, people or objects as well as smells, or spectral forms such as ghostly arms or bodies attached to her own self, etc. These entities (those not attached to her) are puppets that react to Hisame's desires and are treated as NPCs in the sense that they act as characters controlled by Hisame. They do not receive NPC benefits. Hisame's spirit energy and physical touch acquire a deadly aspect to other living things. To touch her flesh or spirit energy will result in aggressively spreading necrosis. To breathe it in will result in severe inflammation of the throat to point of suffocation and lung tissue death; contact with eyes causes great irritation and degeneration unto blindness. Severed limbs or body parts are bound to Hisame via spiritual tether so she may quickly reassemble anything lost. However if Hisame loses connection with the Fateful Death (such as the arm getting cut off and the limb destroyed or that particular tether is cut via another spirit-based energy) The Revelation will end and she will be left in whatever state she is currently in no matter how deadly. Only by reacquiring the Fateful Death in some physically connecting way may it resume afresh; if another person takes hold of the sword physically the spirit within will attempt to possess them instead. This is Hisame's default state during the night.[/center] [/hider]