Otis didn’t understand why the others dragged him into the group, not when he hadn’t really spoken to any of them at all. He wasn’t lonely, nor was he particularly bored, and the strigidae would have been perfectly content with zoning out in a relatively nice-looking temple while he mentally reviewed all that he had learned. Well, that wasn’t to say that he couldn’t just do his review in a group instead of by himself. While Helena discussed tea and Rodrick discussed smells, Otis craned his head backwards, letting his eyes fall into the depths of the sky. The heat of the day was comfortable, and the buzzing of the insects enjoyable. The tantos he had forged and inscribed at the Kirizanto Forge weighed heavily against his shoulders, the pleasant heft of time well-spent. Maybe he’ll get Rodrick or Helena to test them out later. It had always been his intent to utilize the inscriptions in his bullet crafting, but if Otis was going to make a bunch of weapons in the meantime, he may as well make them good.
Who knew, maybe his gun will get a blade one day.
Such thoughts would have to be entertained at a later time though. Sensing a disturbance behind him, Otis turned his head all the way around, seeing the girl that summarily used their group to evade capture by suspicious individuals in suits and shades. Kaganomiya Seirin, was it? His horrifically twisted head tilted to the side at the name, but he couldn’t place it. She had to be some famous person’s daughter though, if she was forced to sit on the stage of the conference without actually being allowed to speak. His eyebrows raised up slightly, before saying, rather flatly, “We need someone to take pictures for the group. Join us and stop diving into other groups. That’s what Japanese people find rude.” Maybe it was strange, an otherworlder like him lecturing a native like her on cultures and all, but Otis was never one to linger…
“We’re mostly Arcanis though, so it’s fine. What’s the Kaganomiya family? Do you know any locals’ secret sites? Got money on you? What can you do? Are you in trouble? Will you be in trouble? There a place for pinicking nearby? Would assassins go after you if you’re unprotected? You need a better disguise. A moustache will help.”
…but perhaps that was a problem, in and of itself.
To confirm then, the modernization of these methods only improves the efficiency of the enchanter, yes? The DHA hasn't actually gotten to the point yet where they have enchanters capable of producing supernatural effects that are totally separate from the ancient texts?
Shika is an invasive species, a tenacious weed whose hunger draws deeper into the earth than their shallow brethren, a monster made more barbaric so through the learned cruelty of the humans living above. Once just another lurker in the shadows, focused solely on survival and proliferation, the observation of their prey brought forth not just a greater understanding of what one must do to prosper, but also a sense of humor. A twisted sense of humor, of course, one that demotes humans from prey to pet, but one that has served Shika well over the years since. They look for fun things in the world, and while some of her brethren may enjoy the mystique of being a creature of the night, isolated from humanity, Shika throws themselves into the thick of it, hitting up karaoke bars, joining in on mixers, attending school, and offering their services as a genius “chemist” to the yakuza or foreign mafia, ensuring that there’s a healthy circulation of their drugs within any city Shika decides to settle down in.
After all, fire is such a common form of exorcism, and it always paid to have some pets out there, willing to die for them. But until the DHA come knocking at the door of their cozy student dorm, Shika’s fine with just snacking on the occasional cutie and enjoying the springtime of their youth.
Background
It began with a seed. A seed inside a corpse hanging from the branch of a tree in a forest. The seed grew off cooling blood and flesh, sinking their roots deep into the corpse, until one day, the corpse’s eyes opened again.
That was the birth of Hanafusa Shika, a seedling of another youkai that they never knew. Within the forest, they obeyed their instincts, staying in the shadows of trees, waiting for prey to kill themselves of their own accord and then making use of the body they left behind. They were a corpse-eater at first, focused solely on that small part of the woods they called their own, content only with eating and hiding. As the amount they ate grew though, as they became better at finding bodies before they were too rotten to be enjoyable, curiosity sparked, drawing their eyes not to what their food was, but what their food had. Clothing, letters, technology, money. Fragments that pieced together to form a larger world. They couldn’t read yet, but they could learn, could extend their capabilities further.
They made quick work of their first live pet, parasitizing them and forcing him to teach them everything he knew, of language, of culture, of the world. Those were nice, enlightening days; Shika made sure that his corpse was the foundation of a beautiful pineapple tree, just like the ones he described to them. That had been a step too far though, and when the DHA was alerted to that anomaly in vegetation, reported on social media by a Youtuber, Shika found themselves evicted, escaping into a forest of stone towers and plentiful pets while hunters sought their demise with shiny weapons and appropriated powers. It had been terrifying, but as they lost themselves in the crowds and the neon lights, Shika found themselves…appreciating all of this.
It couldn’t be fair, after all, if pets were able to live such a bright, fun life out in the daylight, while their masters were forced to slink in shadow and refuse.
Taking their name from the corpse that they now inhabited, Hanafuse Shika began to gradually set their roots into human society. And as they did, they began to be known by another name.
Dandelion.
Inventory
A wrapped lollipop, cherry flavored. The wrapping is faded with age, and half of the plastic stick looks like it had been melted off. Shika keeps it in their pockets at all times. When they need to switch bodies, they make an effort to relocate this particular object afterwards.
Abilities
Shika possesses abilities tied to plant growth, something that they engage their entire being into. While their physical abilities are on the lower end of yokai, they make up for it with versatility and cowardice.
Seeding Every strand of hair on Shika’s head is a seed with the capacity to give birth to new plants or new physical vessels for themselves to inhabit. Though it takes some concentration to create a new species of plantlife, growing oversized renditions of pre-existing plants or recreating their own body is of no issue for Shika.
Fertilizing The ‘blood’ that courses through Shika’s veins is a potent fertilizer, and shedding such blood upon plantlife encourages explosive, virulent growth. Through the shedding of blood, they are able to claim sovereignty over naturally produced, as opposed to personally grown, plants as well.
Parasitizing When planted into living beings, whether natural or supernatural, Shika’s seeds can form either beneficial or harmful relationships, depending on how generous they’re feeling. These plants are able to consume both the meat of their hosts, as well as more intangible substances such as lifeforce or magical energy, which is either stored or used to promote further growth or produce “fruits”. Sufficiently parasitized subjects can be controlled by Shika directly, while more beneficial plant-parasites will release stored up resources when the hosts are in danger, healing their wounds or restoring their injuries. As for the “fruits”…
Fruiting Though Shika’s manipulation and production of plant life grants them the ability to produce any amount of illegal substances, the fruits they can make with parasitized living beings serve as supernatural performance-enhancers, granting the consumer a high both in their mood as well as in their abilities. The higher the quality of the parasitized host, the more potent the capabilities of the fruit that blooms from them, and the more addictive too, until the addicts are no longer capable of being sated by human flesh.
Shika is an invasive species, a tenacious weed whose hunger draws deeper into the earth than their shallow brethren, a monster made more barbaric so through the learned cruelty of the humans living above. Once just another lurker in the shadows, focused solely on survival and proliferation, the observation of their prey brought forth not just a greater understanding of what one must do to prosper, but also a sense of humor. A twisted sense of humor, of course, one that demotes humans from prey to pet, but one that has served Shika well over the years since. They look for fun things in the world, and while some of her brethren may enjoy the mystique of being a creature of the night, isolated from humanity, Shika throws themselves into the thick of it, hitting up karaoke bars, joining in on mixers, attending school, and offering their services as a genius “chemist” to the yakuza or foreign mafia, ensuring that there’s a healthy circulation of their drugs within any city Shika decides to settle down in.
After all, fire is such a common form of exorcism, and it always paid to have some pets out there, willing to die for them. But until the DHA come knocking at the door of their cozy student dorm, Shika’s fine with just snacking on the occasional cutie and enjoying the springtime of their youth.
Background
It began with a seed. A seed inside a corpse hanging from the branch of a tree in a forest. The seed grew off cooling blood and flesh, sinking their roots deep into the corpse, until one day, the corpse’s eyes opened again.
That was the birth of Hanafusa Shika, a seedling of another youkai that they never knew. Within the forest, they obeyed their instincts, staying in the shadows of trees, waiting for prey to kill themselves of their own accord and then making use of the body they left behind. They were a corpse-eater at first, focused solely on that small part of the woods they called their own, content only with eating and hiding. As the amount they ate grew though, as they became better at finding bodies before they were too rotten to be enjoyable, curiosity sparked, drawing their eyes not to what their food was, but what their food had. Clothing, letters, technology, money. Fragments that pieced together to form a larger world. They couldn’t read yet, but they could learn, could extend their capabilities further.
They made quick work of their first live pet, parasitizing them and forcing him to teach them everything he knew, of language, of culture, of the world. Those were nice, enlightening days; Shika made sure that his corpse was the foundation of a beautiful pineapple tree, just like the ones he described to them. That had been a step too far though, and when the DHA was alerted to that anomaly in vegetation, reported on social media by a Youtuber, Shika found themselves evicted, escaping into a forest of stone towers and plentiful pets while hunters sought their demise with shiny weapons and appropriated powers. It had been terrifying, but as they lost themselves in the crowds and the neon lights, Shika found themselves…appreciating all of this.
It couldn’t be fair, after all, if pets were able to live such a bright, fun life out in the daylight, while their masters were forced to slink in shadow and refuse.
Taking their name from the corpse that they now inhabited, Hanafuse Shika began to gradually set their roots into human society. And as they did, they began to be known by another name.
Dandelion.
Inventory
A wrapped lollipop, cherry flavored. The wrapping is faded with age, and half of the plastic stick looks like it had been melted off. Shika keeps it in their pockets at all times. When they need to switch bodies, they make an effort to relocate this particular object afterwards.
Abilities
Shika possesses abilities tied to plant growth, something that they engage their entire being into. While their physical abilities are on the lower end of yokai, they make up for it with versatility and cowardice.
Seeding Every strand of hair on Shika’s head is a seed with the capacity to give birth to new plants or new physical vessels for themselves to inhabit. Though it takes some concentration to create a new species of plantlife, growing oversized renditions of pre-existing plants or recreating their own body is of no issue for Shika.
Fertilizing The ‘blood’ that courses through Shika’s veins is a potent fertilizer, and shedding such blood upon plantlife encourages explosive, virulent growth. Through the shedding of blood, they are able to claim sovereignty over naturally produced, as opposed to personally grown, plants as well.
Parasitizing When planted into living beings, whether natural or supernatural, Shika’s seeds can form either beneficial or harmful relationships, depending on how generous they’re feeling. These plants are able to consume both the meat of their hosts, as well as more intangible substances such as lifeforce or magical energy, which is either stored or used to promote further growth or produce “fruits”. Sufficiently parasitized subjects can be controlled by Shika directly, while more beneficial plant-parasites will release stored up resources when the hosts are in danger, healing their wounds or restoring their injuries. As for the “fruits”…
Fruiting Though Shika’s manipulation and production of plant life grants them the ability to produce any amount of illegal substances, the fruits they can make with parasitized living beings serve as supernatural performance-enhancers, granting the consumer a high both in their mood as well as in their abilities. The higher the quality of the parasitized host, the more potent the capabilities of the fruit that blooms from them, and the more addictive too, until the addicts are no longer capable of being sated by human flesh.
Ah, when I usually think of yokai and all, I think of them as ghosts and shit. If they make babies through sexual reproduction though, does that mean that they're entirely physical beings, and that, technically, enough physical firepower would be enough to down them?
So their abilities are hereditary, ye? You have clans of fire-breathers and water-walkers, and there's nothing ghost-like about them, due to being flesh-and-blood beings in the end?
Phase
Rabidporcupine
Citrus
Candelabra
TheMushroomLord
Lucid Dreaming
Xaltwind
Kumbaris
stone
