[CHAR] Between Life & Death

[Drifting Pollen]

Can you not feel it in the air? She is coming! The storm!

Name: Procella
Title: Black spirit of the unchained tempest

Race: Apparition
Occupation: Wandering spirit, she does as she pleases.
Age: Unknown

Appearance:
Height: 5'9''
Weight: 136 lbs

Procella cuts quite the figure. One moment, there is nothing but the storm, the next, lightning flashes, and all of a sudden she is there, a beautiful woman clad in a dress of deepest black. Her hair waves and tumbles with the wind, never still for even a moment. Her body sways and whirls, moving like a puppet with its strings cut, wayward and unpredictable.

With this strange grace, she dances closer, a strange smile upon her face. A faint laugh escapes her lips, high-pitched and ecstatic, before she raises a hand, reaching out towards you. The world flashes, and everything goes dark.

Thus may be described an encounter with Procella. Strange, wild, and lovely as the storm.

Personality:
Oh, she is mad, all the way through. There is no reasoning with this spirit, for her whims are like the wind, her attentions flying from one place to another with the speed of a lightning strike. Procella is bound by nothing, and will indulge in whatever captures her whimsy. This is rather unfortunate for the world at large, for her adoration and her hatred are both equally deadly. If Procella's eyes alight upon you, you know she is fixated- and so much the worse for you.

Oh, but she is not all unkind. Sometimes she is willing to play calmer games, to make minor conversation, perhaps even call you her friend. But like the storm, she is unpredictable, and even the closest of bonds may be swept away at a moment's notice. Do not trust her, do not drop your guard at any time. For at heart, Procella is a vengeful, vindictive spirit, and does no good for anyone she comes across.

History:
Every now and again, a child is born with a void inside. A gaping hole in their very soul that needs to be filled, with life, with power, and with meaning.

One such child, a small, dark-haired girl, had a void greater than any other. Like a great spiritual whirlpool, she sucked out the souls of any she came near, turning everyone around her into soulless, silent husks. She absorbed their knowledge and memories, but found no meaning within them. Likewise, she had nobody to love, or even form an association with. Alone, she wandered, seeking a meaning for her existence.

With nobody to speak to, she began to make friends with the world around her. Earth became a loyal companion, always there to hold her up when it was needed. Fire was fickle, and angry at times, but showed her flashes of warmth from time to time. The Ocean was cold and distant, but its brother Rivers was kind, giving her the water she needed to survive.

The girl's greatest ally, however, was Storm. Every day she would look up at the sky, searching for the tempest, hoping he might come and visit her sometime. Whenever he did, she rejoiced in the rain and the thunder, enraptured by this strange beauty, this meeting of all the elements. More and more, she fell in love with the storm. And thus, she found her meaning.

The hole in the girl's soul was filled, with the purest essence of the storm itself. She now wore a dress of blackest cloud, and her mind and motivations became as fierce and fickle as the nature of her dearest love. No longer was she a mere human. Procella rose as an embodiment of the wild tempest, a spirit that would plague the world forevermore.

Abilities:

Spirit nature: Procella cannot be permanently killed. The death of her physical body will cause her to disintegrate, and she will vanish for weeks or months on end. Eventually, however, she always re-forms, returning to wreak havoc once again. As a side-note, neither she nor her clothes become wet in the rain, a lightning strike will not affect her in the slightest, and even the strongest of winds will not sway her unless she wishes it to.

Storm attraction: Wherever she goes, the weather worsens around her. The longer she stays somewhere, the stormier it will become, with the wind and rain gradually becoming more severe as time goes on. The closer the weather is to a full hurricane, the stronger she becomes:
- Sunny day: weaker than an average human
- Cloudy/windy day: slightly stronger than an average human
- Rain: as swift and powerful as a peak-level athlete
- Full storm: speed and strength at almost double peak human levels

Mad spirit's dance: Procella's movements are erratic and unpredictable, and she is also extremely flexible. Her fighting style is frankly bizarre, and extremely tricky to read even for experienced martial artists.

Throwing knives: She keeps within her dress seven razor-sharp daggers, for when she wishes to inflict pain. These can be wielded in her hands, or thrown. They are also highly conductive.

Electrokinesis: What would a storm be without lightning? Procella can sense and partially manipulate concentrations of charge, allowing her to unleash arcs of deadly electricity, shut down electrical devices, and alter the direction of lightning strikes.

[Tasuke]

Name - Atsukawa "The Remaining" Hisame

Name Meaning - Frozen Rain

Species - Human

Gender - Female

Birthdate - March 4th, 1822

Age - 193 years

Nationality - Japanese

Height - 5'5''

Weight - 116 lbs

Dexterity - Left-handed

Occupation - Drifter

Accouterment - Katana

Weapon Name - Juudai-na-Shi; Fateful Death

Training - None

History

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 skills 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 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 of locals.

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 as deemed fit. In time, she learns of her mother's murder, and with it, whatever hope to 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; famished, exhausted and dehydrated, her strength gives out. Weeping, she laments to heaven, cursing her father for being a fool that could not protect his family. Desire to live gone, she placed the blade to her throat and resolved to slash it open.

It's then that a whisper enters her ears, seemingly from nowhere. It 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 sterling katana branded the Fateful Death. She's informed that she need but focus her soul into the sword 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 of 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, and those that run are stalked through the streets, corridors and bedrooms until everyone in the village, even the victims pf 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. Instead, they told her of the many evil people who were doing the same thing as what happened to her family and loved ones, and that she was fully capable of destroying them.

Therefore she ventured in search of wicked people worthy of her steel by day; unbeknownst to her, by night her body wanders in control of her devilish counterpart, murdering whoever unfortunate enough to cross paths.

Eventually aware of the devil that puppets her at its whim, she now she seeks death most of all, that she may be free of her vexation and reunite with her family at last.

Abilities

Death's Chosen (Passive) - Hisame's body is blessed by a spirit of death. She has eternal youth and thus cannot age or die from passing years; injuries she suffers that do not utterly destroy her body will heal if given enough time and she is impervious to death via blood loss, however, she will still suffer mild effects of blood loss such as light-headedness and fatigue to the point of unconsciousness.

Bloodthirsting Blade (Passive) - Hisame's sword, the Fateful Death, thirsts for human blood and must drink periodically; failure to do so will result in crippling seizures and other agonies; if the sword cuts the flesh of another, the wound will become infected. This infection increases blood flow and causes platelet death, resulting in increased and more severe bleeding, as well as inability for the wound to close via scabbing.

The Promised Comforter - Hisame is able to protect herself from incoming damage via spirit energy; the energy manifests as a matrix of condensed particles which mimic the consistency of hard metal and can take any form she desires. How much damage is absorbed or mitigated is relative to the strength of the attack and how much time she is given to muster a defense; in the event of attacks being too powerful, the matrix will crack and eventually shatter, making the ability unusable for an extended period of time (10 of Hisame's posts following the shatter).

The Unholy Communion - Fateful Death's swallowed blood may be used to fashion sanguine miracles; their form is as concrete as Hisame's imagination at the time of creation. As time goes on, assuming a steady stream of blood is provided, the miracles may grow in size, strength and complexity.

The Resurrection of the Dead - Hisame is able to summon corpses from the earth and reanimate already dead bodies to do her will. They are treated as mindless minions which, while easily destroyed, tend to swarm in the thousands at once.

The Revelation - At whim of her death spirit, Hisame becomes possessed; In this state, she is capable of affecting the area around her, to the extend of warping the perception of reality in creations of complex visual and auditory hallucinations that may well appear real to those experiencing it; she can blow out candles, burst light bulbs, blacken the sun and moon, as well as exude gaseous darkness; she can modulate and project her voice to any pitch desired, from a deeply male tone to a banshee's screech; she is also capable of bending the light around her body to turn herself invisible to natural senses, creating ghostly forms, and can utilize telekinesis.

Her spiritual energy takes on a dangerous aspect which interacts with other living flesh destructively: breathing in her aura will cause swelling of the throat; eye contact results in blurred vision to the point of blindness; a touch of her hand brings muscle and tissue death to the area of contact, and direct exposure to her spirit energy results in a rotting of flesh. This quality extends to any sort of spirit-based attack she uses such as an energy slash as well, passively affects the Fateful Death's cuts, and is contained in her very breath when she exhales.

This is the expected form to be fighting from the start should the battle take place at night.