Either way I finally have Kayin's character relationships down, thank Luigi.
Jacques: If he is sufficiently loud or abrasive, he will probably startle Kayin badly and cause her to clam up completely. His having little respect for personal space means that she will most likely react with violent emotion if he gets up in her face. However, if he makes an effort to respect her restrictions and what she is and isn’t comfortable with, Kayin thinks he is a useful ally that she can put up with, depending on the circumstances and will somewhat reciprocate the effort to be decent to him.
Ruben: Because of his soft-spoken nature, his not asserting himself in the same zealous way as his brother, and because his prosthetic leg and the scars peppered all over his body make him less threatening to her, Kayin feels much safer around Ruben than his brother. Because he’s often with Jacques, she tries to avoid the two, but when he’s alone, she really doesn’t mind him at all.
Mahmud: He is likely Kayin’s favorite out of all the Resistance members. Similarly to Ruben, his quiet demeanor appeals to her, and his caring and empathetic nature, while foreign to her, resonates well with Kayin—reminds her a little of her father. Maybe that’s why she has the self-professedly stupid notion settled in the back of her mind that she could trust someone like Mahmud to protect her.
Piper: Her determination and self-confidence aren’t traits that Kayin knows herself to like in other people. That said, Piper surprised her and turned out to be a reliable, down-to-earth person. Kayin disagrees with her that such a valuable ally should be so certain of their own inevitable death, though. She of all people should try to stay alive as hard as she can. (If there was anyone Kayin trusted to help cut her hair, it would be Piper.)
Drake: Kayin doesn’t mind him. She knows, at least, what she’s in for when around him because he keeps a similar unassuming expression on his face to hers. She thinks they understand each other well, at least on the most superficial level, which is what matters.
Wendy: Because the two each have their own reasons for generally keeping to themselves around strangers, Kayin has yet to talk much with Wendy. She is on her guard because of the other’s frequent smiles and happy appearance—why would someone have reason to be so cheery all the time? Because Wendy is not reactive, Kayin feels reassured that an argument won’t break out between them because of a silly misunderstanding (one of the issues Kayin tends to have with people because of her subpar communication skills). She feels inadequate around Wendy though, because the latter essentially has a much more effective version of her own power, and then some.
Naomi: Kayin is not entirely sure how she feels about Naomi. She irritates her a little because Kayin thinks her sort of a zealot, but is intrigued by her ability and tries to spectate Naomi’s use of it whenever she can.
Jeff: Because he is friendly and polite with most, Kayin can put up with him. Neither of them are very into small talk since it’s a waste of energy, which suits Kayin just fine. His talk of protecting the weak rubs her the wrong way, however, and she steers clear of him when he’s like that.
Kat: They don’t talk much. Really, neither of them talk much in general. Again, Kayin is not bothered, but is a little jealous of the way Kat can be so peacefully lost in thought when things are silent, whereas Kayin’s own mind is always cluttered, filled with static whirring at a mile a minute. She is trying to raise the courage to ask Kat how she manages to daydream and still remain stable and calm with ease.
Phoebe: Kayin can just hear her father’s voice: “You need to get out and meet people your own age, malaika*.” That isn’t to say she doesn't feel at least a little connected to Phoebe, simply because of the teenage angst they share— everyone else is over twenty and a good number of them over twenty-five. I imagine Kayin would warm up to Phoebe enormously if she learned that the latter suffers panic attacks and is afraid of the dark, because she can identify with that.
Please let me know if you disagree with my characterization of your character, and I'll fix it. * - malaika, angel in Swahili.
“and I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam and no emotion that’s worth having can call my heart its home.”
Name: Kayin Okoro Alias/Nickname: Because Kayin has little to no sense of self, depending on her mental state she barely responds to her own name on a good day. It’s really not a good idea to use nicknames, that just confuses her further.
She goes by “Okoro”, however, and considers it a taunt when her first name is used by people she doesn’t consider sufficiently close to her.
Age: 19
Sex: agender (female assigned at birth, but Kayin could care less.)
Sexuality: asexual and demi-romantic. Generally very skittish/confused and aggressive when faced with the idea of sex or “love”. She’s currently disinterested in the idea of forming relationships, romantic or otherwise.
“if the strain proves too much, give up right away. If the light hurts your eyes, stay in your room all day.”
Appearance:
I hope you’ll forgive that I didn’t use a real life picture, but I wanted to convey something with the cuts on her body that I’d feel a little odd posting a real picture of. Some are old and fading, some are newer and with those it’s more evident that Kayin inflicts these cuts upon herself—usually when she is going through a psychotic period and cannot differentiate her own body from that of any intruder—effectively, she is then fighting off an assailant to save her own life, which is why she isn’t fucking around with those cuts.
It’s worth noting that that’s the sort of damage she always tries to do to someone she thinks is trying to hurt her. Not that she always succeeds, but she shoots to kill, as it were.
Her face usually does not show much expression, because there is a lack of emotion to convey. Her hair is cut short because of her habit of tearing it from her scalp as another quote-unquote defense mechanism. She doesn’t know how to cut her hair, nor does she trust herself with scissors in her lucid times, so she tries to push the worry to the back of her mind what will happen when it grows out again. Height: 5’11 (180cm)
Weight: 108lbs (49kg)
Body Type: Kayin’s metabolism is average, but she is a chain smoker and she can’t motivate herself to eat more than a few small meals, enough to get by, so that her body is slightly emaciated. She isn’t in great condition, but if she is hysterical enough, the instinct to either run or kill will override most anything else. She has a lanky appearance and clumsy movements due to her disproportionate weight compared to her impressive height.
Distinguishing Marks: Kayin religiously draws sigils and symbols of protection on her limbs. This is explained a little further down under the biography.
Her hands are fairly rough and calloused.
Clothing Style: A military grunge callback, I suppose? It makes her feel safer. Her white shirt is maybe five sizes too big and, along with the shorts, came from Goodwill. The military boots are like comfort objects, they mean that her kicks and stomps pack more of a punch. Even when it’s cold, Kayin has trouble putting on sweaters and trousers because they feel all wrong and scratchy on her skin. She prefers to just be cold in those cases, all things considered.
“empty room with a lightbulb where the phone starts to ring. Everybody gets nervous, nobody says anything.”
Personality: Kayin is a schizophrenic. Doctors before could not place her into one sub category—she had symptoms of catatonic and paranoid branches of the illness.
Paranoia manifests itself as a constant feeling that hostile entities are standing behind her or all around her, and a hair-trigger defensive attitude. She also has great difficulty sleeping alone—the entities, the shadow people, keep her awake, and when she does sleep, she suffers nightmares, which can completely mess up her sense of what is and isn’t real, which is why she prefers to forego sleep until it really affects her.
Catatonia manifests itself in occasions where she freezes up and her eyes become blank, sometimes in the midst of conversation, sometimes when shit /really/ has to get done. The penalties vary accordingly.
Interacting with her, she usually comes across as a regular person, though she is socially poorly-adjusted and has difficulty reading and making facial expressions. This is especially so when someone is hazy in their expression, ie “content”, “neutral”, “pondering”, in these cases Kayin will likely default to thinking that someone is upset and that it is her fault. It is best to simply reassure her that this is not true.
In times of lucidity, she is totally capable of making decisions based on reason, although she can be stubborn.
She is quick to lose motivation and hardly ever had the drive to eat or to shower when there were people tugging at her from every side, and since they stopped,j she is practically a recluse. However, she is not suicidal and in fact will do whatever she can to scrape by when she really /does/ need to eat or sleep.
Biography: Kayin was a rare case as the appearance of schizophrenia goes: she was diagnosed at eight. She did not have many friends as it was, but with the aid of her father, she made an effort (when she could) to go out and meet people.
A year later, when the walls went up, Kayin’s father was her rock. Because of the stress under the constant threat of being outed as a Super (despite the relative insignificance of her power) her psychotic periods became more frequent, longer and worse. Her father went against his own better judgment and got her started on Thorazine, just so that she could have some peace. She was still unable to sleep without him there and continues to have this problem.
Five years after the Technopath and his rules took effect, Kayin’s father was dragged from his house by Crusaders and put to death for harboring a Super fugitive, which, ironically, was not Kayin herself, but the mother of a family Kayin’s father was close to, who hid out in their basement. He was the one who took care of the backroom deals with ex-pharmacists to get her the antipsychotics, so that supply dried up soon enough.
For a few months, Kayin lived in a state of foggy near-consciousness, unable to tell what was real and what wasn’t, but as it turned out, the pharmacist was a Super himself—a proficient healer, he was killed as well. The store was plundered and everything useful to the masses, such as antibiotics and painkillers, was taken, but the stash of Thorazine went into Kayin’s stock.
Because her psychotic periods only occur every few months, and because sometimes her conflicting consciousnesses compel her not to take the medicine at times, we fast-forward almost five years to the current day and Kayin has joined the Resistance. Not because of any need to avenge her father, but she figures a movement that killed her dad and the pharmacist, the two most useful people to her, is probably something she’s gotta help get rid of.
As she has come to realize, the Technopath isn’t a personal problem that can be willed away like she’s been told so many things are. He is very real and here to stay and obstruct Kayin’s comfort and quality of life, which pisses her off to no end.
While she isn’t the best strategist, she plans wicked assaults on the Technopath’s goons with indifference. Her day-to-day lack of obstacles (empathy, mercy, sentimentality) in reaching her goals and her whirlwind “kill-’em-all-for-all-I-care” attitude makes her efficient for getting through the first line of defense on a mission, before leaving the logistics part to the specialists.
Skills/Strengths: Kayin has a very high tolerance of pain. This isn’t always ideal because she’ll throw herself into a fight and come away from it far more beaten-up than she realizes.
She is also fairly resistant to the pangs of hunger and lack of sleep until they begin to hurt her body. She suffers little of the physical discomfort, but the damage rages just the same.
Because she does not bleed, seeing an injured person bleeding is very scary to her, and because it would take so, so much damage to make her bleed the same amount, she assumes that they are mortally wounded at least. This means that she is proficient with first-aid, since she avoids blood whenever she can. She is not aware that she does not need bandages to stop bleeding because of her power (under Powers), so she carries a first aid kit most of the time.
Powers: Kayin is physically unable to bleed out. Because of the density of her blood, it is difficult to draw blood from her at all. One can shoot her through the head, electrocute her, rip out her heart, asphyxiate her, whatever, but you can’t stab her or sever an artery and just play the waiting game.
She can also affect the density and pressure of the blood of others, so although she is not yet conscious of this ability, she could make a wounded enemy bleed out many times faster, or stop a hurt ally from meeting the same fate. (Again, she is powerless to stop disease or damage to any vital organs.)
Obviously even if any bleeding was stopped, the affected person would still have a big gaping hole/cut in their skin, so Kayin’s not exactly a healer, just the you-won’t-die-for-a-little-longer person in a pinch if there’s absolutely no one better. Really her powers are more useful on the offensive, and then only against flesh enemies. The Crusaders don’t have blood to die from a loss of.
“ugly things in the darkness, worse things in store in the declining years of the long war.”
@The Mad Hatter First off, thank you for not binning Kayin right away. I can leave out the bit where she wasn't found out along with the pyrotechnic, maybe she was at a relative's house or in another room, I don't think it's a big deal.
Second, I do my research on the effects of schizophrenia, and while I understand the burden, I don't intend to write her as a constant weight on the others' legs. Like everyone else, Kayin has her strengths and insights and doesn't have to be on the front lines 24/7. That said, it's your call, don't sweat it. I don't really have the juices to suggest another character, so I'd be dropping out no harm done. ^^"
@The Mad Hatter At long, long last. I'm sorry again for the delay -v-"
“and I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam and no emotion that’s worth having can call my heart its home.”
Name: Kayin Okoro Alias/Nickname: Because Kayin has little to no sense of self, depending on her mental state she barely responds to her own name on a good day. It’s really not a good idea to use nicknames, that just confuses her further.
She goes by “Okoro”, however, and considers it a taunt when her first name is used by people she doesn’t consider sufficiently close to her.
Age: 19
Sex: agender (female assigned at birth, but Kayin could care less.)
Sexuality: asexual and demi-romantic. Generally very skittish/confused and aggressive when faced with the idea of sex or “love”. She’s currently disinterested in the idea of forming relationships, romantic or otherwise.
“if the strain proves too much, give up right away. If the light hurts your eyes, stay in your room all day.”
Appearance:
I hope you’ll forgive that I didn’t use a real life picture, but I wanted to convey something with the cuts on her body that I’d feel a little odd posting a real picture of. Some are old and fading, some are newer and with those it’s more evident that Kayin inflicts these cuts upon herself—usually when she is going through a psychotic period and cannot differentiate her own body from that of any intruder—effectively, she is then fighting off an assailant to save her own life, which is why she isn’t fucking around with those cuts.
It’s worth noting that that’s the sort of damage she always tries to do to someone she thinks is trying to hurt her. Not that she always succeeds, but she shoots to kill, as it were.
Her face usually does not show much expression, because there is a lack of emotion to convey. Her hair is cut short because of her habit of tearing it from her scalp as another quote-unquote defense mechanism. She doesn’t know how to cut her hair, nor does she trust herself with scissors in her lucid times, so she tries to push the worry to the back of her mind what will happen when it grows out again. Height: 5’11 (180cm)
Weight: 132lbs (60kg)
Body Type: Kayin’s metabolism is average, but she is a chain smoker and she can’t motivate herself to eat more than a few small meals, enough to get by, so that her body is slightly emaciated. She isn’t in great condition, but if she is hysterical enough, the instinct to either run or kill will override most anything else. She has a lanky appearance and clumsy movements due to her disproportionate weight compared to her impressive height.
Distinguishing Marks: Kayin religiously draws sigils and symbols of protection on her limbs. This is explained a little further down under the biography.
Her hands are fairly rough and calloused.
Clothing Style: A military grunge callback, I suppose? It makes her feel safer. Her white shirt is maybe five sizes too big and, along with the shorts, came from Goodwill. The military boots are like comfort objects, they mean that her kicks and stomps pack more of a punch. Even when it’s cold, Kayin has trouble putting on sweaters and trousers because they feel all wrong and scratchy on her skin. She prefers to just be cold in those cases, all things considered.
“empty room with a lightbulb where the phone starts to ring. Everybody gets nervous, nobody says anything.”
Personality: Kayin is a schizophrenic. Doctors before could not place her into one sub category—she had symptoms of catatonic and paranoid branches of the illness.
Paranoia manifests itself as a constant feeling that hostile entities are standing behind her or all around her, and a hair-trigger defensive attitude. She also has great difficulty sleeping alone—the entities, the shadow people, keep her awake, and when she does sleep, she suffers nightmares, which can completely mess up her sense of what is and isn’t real, which is why she prefers to forego sleep until it really affects her.
Catatonia manifests itself in occasions where she freezes up and her eyes become blank, sometimes in the midst of conversation, sometimes when shit /really/ has to get done. The penalties vary accordingly.
Interacting with her, she usually comes across as a regular person, though she is socially poorly-adjusted and has difficulty reading and making facial expressions. This is especially so when someone is hazy in their expression, ie “content”, “neutral”, “pondering”, in these cases Kayin will likely default to thinking that someone is upset and that it is her fault. It is best to simply reassure her that this is not true.
In times of lucidity, she is totally capable of making decisions based on reason, although she can be stubborn.
She is quick to lose motivation and hardly ever had the drive to eat or to shower when there were people tugging at her from every side, and since they stopped,j she is practically a recluse. However, she is not suicidal and in fact will do whatever she can to scrape by when she really /does/ need to eat or sleep.
Biography: Kayin was a rare case as the appearance of schizophrenia goes: she was diagnosed at eight. She did not have many friends as it was, but with the aid of her father, she made an effort (when she could) to go out and meet people.
A year later, when the walls went up, Kayin’s father was her rock. Because of the stress under the constant threat of being outed as a Super (despite the relative insignificance of her power) her psychotic periods became more frequent, longer and worse. Her father went against his own better judgment and got her started on Thorazine, just so that she could have some peace. She was still unable to sleep without him there and continues to have this problem.
Five years after the Technopath and his rules took effect, Kayin’s father was dragged from his house by Crusaders and put to death for harboring a Super fugitive, which, ironically, was not Kayin herself, but the mother of a family Kayin’s father was close to, who hid out in their basement. He was the one who took care of the backroom deals with ex-pharmacists to get her the antipsychotics, so that supply dried up soon enough.
For a few months, Kayin lived in a state of foggy near-consciousness, unable to tell what was real and what wasn’t, but as it turned out, the pharmacist was a Super himself—a proficient healer, he was killed as well. The store was plundered and everything useful to the masses, such as antibiotics and painkillers, was taken, but the stash of Thorazine went into Kayin’s stock.
Because her psychotic periods only occur every few months, and because sometimes her conflicting consciousnesses compel her not to take the medicine at times, we fast-forward almost five years to the current day and Kayin has joined the Resistance. Not because of any need to avenge her father, but she figures a movement that killed her dad and the pharmacist, the two most useful people to her, is probably something she’s gotta help get rid of.
As she has come to realize, the Technopath isn’t a personal problem that can be willed away like she’s been told so many things are. He is very real and here to stay and obstruct Kayin’s comfort and quality of life, which pisses her off to no end.
While she isn’t the best strategist, she plans wicked assaults on the Technopath’s goons with indifference. Her day-to-day lack of obstacles (empathy, mercy, sentimentality) in reaching her goals and her whirlwind “kill-’em-all-for-all-I-care” attitude makes her efficient for getting through the first line of defense on a mission, before leaving the logistics part to the specialists.
Skills/Strengths: Kayin has a very high tolerance of pain. This isn’t always ideal because she’ll throw herself into a fight and come away from it far more beaten-up than she realizes.
She is also fairly resistant to the pangs of hunger and lack of sleep until they begin to hurt her body. She suffers little of the physical discomfort, but the damage rages just the same.
Because she does not bleed, seeing an injured person bleeding is very scary to her, and because it would take so, so much damage to make her bleed the same amount, she assumes that they are mortally wounded at least. This means that she is proficient with first-aid, since she avoids blood whenever she can. She is not aware that she does not need bandages to stop bleeding because of her power (under Powers), so she carries a first aid kit most of the time.
Powers: Kayin is physically unable to bleed out. Because of the density of her blood, it is difficult to draw blood from her at all. One can shoot her through the head, electrocute her, rip out her heart, asphyxiate her, whatever, but you can’t stab her or sever an artery and just play the waiting game.
She can also affect the density and pressure of the blood of others, so although she is not yet conscious of this ability, she could make a wounded enemy bleed out many times faster, or stop a hurt ally from meeting the same fate. (Again, she is powerless to stop disease or damage to any vital organs.)
Obviously even if any bleeding was stopped, the affected person would still have a big gaping hole/cut in their skin, so Kayin’s not exactly a healer, just the you-won’t-die-for-a-little-longer person in a pinch if there’s absolutely no one better. Really her powers are more useful on the offensive, and then only against flesh enemies. The Crusaders don’t have blood to die from a loss of.
“ugly things in the darkness, worse things in store in the declining years of the long war.”
A footnote, I think the reason Kayin was not killed when her father was found out is because like you said in the original post the Crusaders don't always kill children and she was nine, plus her power is a fairly insignificant shield compared to all the other ways there are to kill someone.
@The Mad Hatter Hold up, does this mean I missed the CS creation deadline? Mine's on the brink of being finished but I'm starting to sweat what with all these inter-character relationships being set up...
@Drake Baku Yeahh, you might want to reconsider a bit? Emotional distress and having to "keep a leash on yourself" (you kind of have to do that anyway) as a side-effect of, like, unimaginable power is a little unbalanced. You might need something seriously disabling if you want to compensate for Intensely Cool Fire Powers.
