bn app wip

[weaponthatlives]

1. Player Information
Name (or internet handle): Kai
Current characters in Bete Noire: Tim Drake / Talon (au)

2. Character Information
Name: Youko Shimura
Livejournal Username: weaponthatlives
Fandom: World of Darkness original character.
Image: http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/95833108/24267492

3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance: Youko is 26 years old, and Japanese. She has a slender, compact build, at 5'4", but has well-developed and toned muscles. She has short brown hair, cut into a rough bob, brown eyes, and a tattoo on one shoulderblade. Her training and actual fights have left her with several scars all over her body, and her hands are callused and rough.
History: n/a
Personality: Note: Youko is a shih, which is basically a demon hunter. Shih is the name of the order, that was historically more of a warrior monk school of things, and the hunters themselves. I'm using it to define Youko from the regular World of Darkness hunters, as found in Hunter the Reckoning, and there are more details on the history of the order in the OC history section. Another term used a lot in this app is shen, which is used as an umbrella term for supernatural creatures, covering vampires, werewolves, ghosts and everything else.

The trauma of her parents' death and the intensity of her subsequent training have left Youko introverted and focused. She has a very strong sense of her self and her mission, an iron clad will and determination to follow the teachings of the shih and travel the path of a demon hunter no matter the cost, until her inevitable death - and she knows it will likely be sooner rather than later. She lives a dangerous and thankless life, but she isn't bitter over it like a lot of shih are - yet, at least. She believes that it is worth sacrificing her own happiness and comfort to become something that can protect others from having to suffer as she did, and lose their parents and those they love to the predations of the shen. At the same time, her mentor made sure to hammer home the point that not all shen are villains, and as a result Youko has a worldview that is very open to shades of grey, as it needs to be to maintain the balance without losing herself in the fury of black and white vengeance and extermination. She is observant, often following a shen for several weeks to judge if they are living in accordance with their nature, or abusing their powers to cause unnecessary suffering, before moving to strike. She knows the importance of planning and taking whatever advantage she can get.

She's also very practical, living a nomadic lifestyle and having no work or source of income, and surviving by taking money from the wallets of the shen, or more often, their victims when she's too late to save them. She's been taught that it's better to take the money and live another day than leave it out of some misplaced idea of respect for the dead and starve to death herself - after all, the dead don't need their money any more, and most people have more than what's in their wallets to leave to their families. This is also how she gets a lot of her clothing, by taking it from people she's failed to save. It's not exactly a nice thing to do, but it's part of surviving, and she can't really afford to go clothes shopping all the time, not when that money can be used to eat. It means she doesn't really get to be picky about her clothing, and although she does tend to try and take more practical things in dark colours suitable for sneaking around in, sometimes she might end up with a bright pink fluffy hat just because it's getting cold and she needs it. Despite this habit, she does respect the dead, and often mutters an apology or small prayer for them as she's looting their bodies.

She is also horribly socially stunted thanks to her upbringing. Her shih training is great for kicking ass, but not so much actually talking to people. In social situations she feels awkward and out of her depth, and copes by remaining quiet and keeping her emotions to herself, resulting in sometimes seeming aloof or uncaring, even emotionless. At other times, she is simply direct and honest, to the point of being blunt. It's difficult to make friends when you have to worry about your enemies hurting them to get to you, or them getting caught in the middle of a fight with a shen. The shih are solitary for very good reasons, but at the same time, it can be useful to forge alliances, or at least trade in favours owed. And no matter the reasons for staying alone, no amount of training can completely fend off the feeling of loneliness.

While Youko has very strong willpower and determination, she's still fairly young - although her training has left her with a more mature and serious outlook on life than many ordinary people her age, she's still learning, and still inexperienced enough to make more mistakes than a veteran shih. She can have moments of impulsiveness, or stubborn flares of temper, especially in the heat of battle. It's important not to let her emotions take control during a fight, since that can lead to sloppy mistakes, but she's still working on that exacting level of control. Outside of battle, the fact that she's not used to things beyond training and hunting shen mean that she can appear to be quite naive about things, especially things in the media or made purely for luxury. She hasn't had toys since she was a child, and all the things she possesses now have a practical purpose - even the little pieces of jade jewellery on her wrist are there as a protection against certain shen tricks. At times, she can't help but view ordinary humans as soft and lazy, although it's not their fault that they haven't had to train like she has. There's a slight feeling of disconnection and alienation from the rest of humanity, an ironic distance she feels between herself and the people she's supposed to protect, but finds so hard to relate to.

Sexual Preferences/Orientation: Youko is bisexual leaning towards men. She approaches sex as a casual hook up most often, something to indulge in as pleasure and a celebration of being alive when she has the luxury, and sometimes a way to ride out the adrenaline high after a tough fight. The life of a Shih is necessarily lonely, and one night flings are a way of having human contact without endangering yourself or others. She's not opposed to paying for sex, but usually she doesn't have much money to spare on such things.
Powers: The shih train for 15 - 20 years, physically, mentally and spiritually. As a result of this training, Youko is stronger, faster and tougher than the average human, and fairly knowledgeable about the ways of the shen, with a strong sense of self and willpower. She can use both martial arts skills and weapons, and guns - any weapon that can hurt the shen is one worth learning to use - but she prefers to use her sword, in general. She has some skill at sneaking around unnoticed, breaking and entering and defeating security systems, as the shih's battle in the modern age has become one of subterfuge and being able to catch the shen unawares in their own home is a valuable advantage. She has access to some chi powers, fuelled by her own chi that she must meditate to recover. The schools of chi powers, or Qiao, that she has learned so far are focused on paper prayers to damage or bind the shen (I Shen), physical enhancement of her own body (Mo Kung), and protection against mental "tricks" of the shen (Yu An).

Reason for playing: I feel that it will be interesting to play Youko in Bete Noire as she is a character with a morality already in the shades of grey territory, but quite strict and honourable. It will be interesting to see how she holds to her moral code, and whether anyone in BN will tip her over the edge - it's forbidden for shih to start hunting humans who kill or abuse other humans, for example, since it's outside their duty; they maintain the balance with the shen only. It's a frequent temptation to break this rule, of course, and once a shih starts slipping, it becomes harder and harder to resist the temptation to abuse their own abilities in various ways. This results in gathering P'o, a darkness of the soul that can result in a shih becoming a hungry ghost when they die, and is a danger that Youko and all other shih are made aware of.

I also think there are a lot of interesting characters for Youko to bounce of off, and get her to break her solitary shell - being forced to stay in one city and not able to wander as freely will be something for her to adapt to. Plus it will be fun to have her stalk some of the more suspicious people and supernatural creatures around, and have to decide whether to kill them or not, which could make for fun plotting.

I'd like to play her at BN rather than a panfandom game or dr since she is an original character, for a pen and paper roleplaying game, and it can be tough to find games where that sort of character fits in.

4. Original Character Supplement
World History: Youko is from the World of Darkness supplement Demon Hunter X, which is a part of their Kindred of the East setting. The vampires in Kindred of the East vary from Western vampires as they don't so much survive by drinking blood, but by draining the life energy, or chi, of living creatures, most often humans. There are other supernatural creatures besides the Eastern vampires, varieties of shapeshifter other than werewolves, ghosts and so on, that are all grouped together under the umbrella term of shen. In the mythology of the Middle Kingdom, supernatural creatures have just as much of place in the universe as humans and animals, being a part of the balance. However, some shen abused their power, and upset the balance, by preying on humanity and taking pleasure from the pain they caused, becoming true monsters rather than simply doing what they had to to survive. As a result, millennia ago, the splendid archer Yi founded the Shih, a group of humans similar to religious order, who trained in martial arts and the use of their chi to defeat those shen who abused their place in the universe.

The legend tells that, 3,000 years ago in the Middle Kingdom, the noble families of the Shang dynasty treated the shen as gods. They offered blood sacrifices to the shen, especially the Kuei-jin (vampires), in return for their protection and the security of their power and wealth. Wan Kung Yi was born into one of these noble families, and as the heir, he was trained in the art of warfare - but he had the spirit of a dreamer, and often stayed more quiet than was expected. In truth, he was observing everything, learning as much as he could about the world and seeing things for what they were. His father understood his nature better, and sent him out to gather taxes and report on what he saw. This way, Yi would learn about the world more clearly than he could from books, and his father would learn more than he could from any other observer. Of course, he didn't count on his son seeing how the villages lived in fear of werewolves, or were haunted; the bodies of those slaughtered by the hungry or simply greedy Kuei-jin, and how the soldiers ignored it all. When Yi reported these findings to his father and asked permission to raise an army, he was shocked and angry to be refused - though Yi's father was a good man, he was still under the influence of the shen, since opposing their secret control would have meant catastrophe, and the death of the family Yi's father cared so much for.

For opposing and insulting his father, Yi was exiled, and he wandered the land for five years, learning all he could about the shen, and about different ways to fight. He fought with the shen on a few occasions, but only managed to injure them before being forced to run. This changed when he came across a temple under attack by bloodthirsty spider creatures. He rode to attack and intervene in the battle, despite being outnumbered and knowing he would die - he hoped to atone for his family's wrongdoings, and do some good even if he was doomed. However, in that moment he was touched by the gods - or rather, he awoke as a sorcerer, though he didn't realise it. He survived, even beating the shen and saving the temple, who took him in so he could recover from his grievous injuries. He spent his time healing and discussing philosophy and belief with the sages of the temple, and it was here that he realised his father had been right to bargain with the shen to save his people - that the shen were as much a part of nature as the storms and droughts that sometimes seemed cruel, killing people, but were an inevitable part of life.

It was also at this time that he questioned why, if the shen were a part of nature, he had been able to stop the attack on the temple, and the wisest of the sages answered that it was like the sun knowing how to set - another part of nature, and perhaps due to the virtue of Yi and the justice in his cause. Yi decided then to stand against those shen who abused their power and slaughtered humanity out of greed or pleasure, but to leave those who respected the balance and only did what they had to survive in peace. He convinced the sages to join him, and began training and learning how to fight the shen in earnest.

Many forces began moving towards conflict, between both humanity and the shen, who believed that the shih must be the forces of other shen in the south. The truth about the shih, and their location, was impossible to find, as the corrupt nobility knew nothing of them, and the ordinary people kept their silence to protect those who protected them from the predations of the shen. Those who had lost loved ones to such massacres joined the ranks of the shih, and their numbers steadily grew. Yi himself met Heng-O, a woman related to river spirits, and learned more of the shen who co-existed peacefully with humanity through her. Eventually he asked her father's permission to marry her, and they had five children together, three sons and two daughters, who all joined the shih as well.

The shih learned several weaknesses of the shen, such as certain kinds being vulnerable to silver, or different colours of jade protecting against harmful powers. This made them more effective, and the shen began hunting down holy men other than those shamans already corrupted in their own temples, as this was the only clue they had to go on. The Chou forces, who opposed the corrupt Shang, were meanwhile making moves to attack, and Yi helped to consolidate their forces as he went on his own journey. He wished to return home and try to make amends with his father, followed by fifty shih disciples yet walking alone - they followed him but moved in small groups, sometimes coming forward to ask him questions but otherwise staying distant from both Yi and the other shih, to avoid drawing attention. When they reached Yi's home, however, they found it burned to the ground, and all his family dead - his father had finally dared to stand against the abusive shen, and paid the price. Yi was gripped by the throes of madness, to the terror of his followers, and while many shen along the way had been ignored as they had not been causing harm or abusing their powers, now no shen was safe. None until he drew the attention of a great dragon, Kung Kung, with whom Yi talked with hours before being carried away into the sky.

After this, war erupted between the Shang and the Chou. The Kuei-jin and the Yama Kings, powerful and evil shen, met to work together to ensure the victory of the Shang, who they held in their sway and would continue to worship them as gods. They cast a spell fuelled by the blood of thousands of sacrifices, to shatter the sun into ten, and the light and heat beat down but only harmed the lands of the Chou, burning many humans and shen alike and reducing the ground to scorched rock.

The war raged, fierce and bloody, for three months before ending in a final attack. The Chou leader Wu Wang was able to best the Shang emperor, but it was the return of Yi and Kung Kung that truly provided the final push. Kung Kung created rain where he flew, and Yi rode on his back, wielding a bow crafted from wood from the Trees of Immortality and armed with arrows of white jade. He fired nine of these arrows into the false suns, destroying them and leaving only the true sun in the sky, and as he fired each arrow he called out a curse upon the shen. These curses had effect on their targets, but each cost Yi dearly, draining his soul and leaving him aged beyond his years, close to death. Kung Kung returned him to the earth and the arms of his people, and flew away, never to be seen by mortal eyes again. Inspired by this, many of the Shang soldiers turned on their old, corrupt masters and fought with the Chou, and through more bloody battles, the shen were finally driven from the land.

Once the celebration was over, Yi made his dying speech, urging his followers to wisdom and fairness. Many swore oaths to follow in his steps, cementing their promises in blood until the ground around Yi ran red, and he used the power of this blood to make one final curse - to stop the Kuei-jin from being able to bear the light of the sun, and therefore stop them from ever using it as a weapon again. After this, Yi died, and the shih were an army for 200 years of glory. This was, sadly, their downfall. There were those among the shih who became too militaristic, calling themselves the Celestial Army and treating the shen as an enemy to be eradicated - but one they had already beaten thanks to Yi, and thus more as vermin they underestimated. The wisest of the shih learned from the writings they were able to take from the Kuei-jin and their twisted shrines, while the Celestial Army treated them as mere trophies, and did not understand why it was important to learn from them. Eventually, there was a schism between the two factions, and the shih who left the Celestial Army were only able to take a few documents with them. Only one month after this, the Celestial Army's monastery in Kun Lun was utterly destroyed by a massive explosion, wiping them from history. No-one knows what happened, but many of the remaining shih believe it was a counter strike by the shen, even the Kuei-jin and the Yama Kings working together for one last stab at revenge.

The shih have learned from this tragedy and moved on. Now they no longer build monasteries or move together as groups. They keep themselves solitary, and training is given on a one-to-one basis, mentor and disciple. They recruit those who have sworn revenge on the shen for killing loved ones, or those children orphaned by the shen with no other family left to look after them, rather than keeping any form of school or base that could be vulnerable to attack. They have become highly solitary, though some shih families still exist - they are rare and more of an exception to the rule. Some younger shih, in recent years, have started working in groups where before this was a rare occurrence to battle powerful shen no single shih could handle, and more attributed to fate as it was often unplanned - the older shih are disapproving, worrying that they will go the way of the Celestial Army, but the trend persists.

Character History: Youko is one of the orphaned children who are sadly often inducted into the ranks of the shih. Her family lived in a home on the outskirts of Tokyo, in one of the smaller prefectures. Her father was an ordinary enough salary man, working for one of the many companies based in Tokyo as an accountant, and her mother worked part time at the convenience store down the street once Youko was old enough to attend kindergarten. It was a fairly typical life, and Youko was a cheerful child, playing with the others in her class, dreaming of growing up to be a ballerina or a vet, and never imagining how her life could change.

It changed when she was six years old. She still doesn't know why the shen chose to attack her family in particular - there may have been no reason beyond convenience and opportunity, and maybe just sadistic pleasure. She was sleeping, only to be woken by the screams of her parents, and ran to find them ripped to bloody shreds with the creature disappearing through the open window. It may have been this that saved her life, the fact that it was already leaving and didn't turn to see the small child frozen in the doorway. She was shocked into silence for long enough, before collapsing onto the floor and sobbing, shaking her parents limp forms and soaking her own pajamas in blood. It seemed like an eternity before strong hands were lifting her away - not the police, no, and not the creature come back to kill her as well. This was when she met her mentor, Yakumo.

At first, he tried to find her relatives to turn her over to their care, but it became evident that she had no-one to look after her. Both her parents had been single children, just like her, and her grandparents were dead of old age or accident. That was when Yakumo asked her the question, if she wished to stay with him and seek revenge for her parents, or be handed over into foster care. It didn't seem like any choice at all to Youko, who was full of heated rage even at such a young age. Once her grieving was done, she started training with Yakumo, following the shaolin traditions of hitting a tree or other hard surfaces rather than the air, hardening her body and soul to withstand the pain the shen could inflict. It was a hard training regime, punishing but necessary, one that made her body a weapon and helped her find a spiritual peace and a purpose beyond the fires of revenge. She learned the importance of maintaining the balance in the world, of only hunting those shen who broke it, and how to judge them fairly. She was also, always, seeking to hunt down the shen who had murdered her family, as the evidence was that it had been done for fun, not necessity.

After seventeen years of training, and going on hunts with her mentor Yakumo, Youko was finally ready to travel the world by herself, having learned all she could from him. They had both known it was time, but it was still a difficult farewell, and Yakumo remained an important part of her life, as a connection to the shih and an ally in times of need, though she was strong enough to stand by herself. And when she learned that the shen who had killed her family had moved to America, she followed his trail, hunting him closely until she could finally confront and destroy him. Once there, she began learning the ways of the Western shen and those who hunted them, along with slowly becoming more fluent in English as she decided to stay. There were those here who needed her protection, and shen that needed to be judged just as much as at home - the balance was universal, and perhaps it was fate that had decided she should be in America at this time.

5. Samples
First-Person: [The video clicks on to show a blurred close up of someone's face, just for a second. It resolves into a girl's face, staring hard at the camera.]

...

[The video clicks off again. After about a minute, it comes on again, and the girl is back, frowning at the camera this time.]

This [the feed shakes, like she's shaking the phone for emphasis] isn't stolen. [Her English is heavily accented - it sounds like she's Japanese. A beat, and she bites her lip.] Doesn't belong to me. But I didn't steal it. I didn't steal it, it showed up. [Another beat, and she sounds more resolute.] Keeping it, though.

Third-Person: Youko shook out the jacket, checking it for holes. She hadn't had a chance to really check the damage when she took it from the body of the man she'd left in the alley for the police to find, but it was better to grab what she could and leave a messy scene like that as quickly as possible, and check her takings later. It was a little different when she was in more rural areas, more isolated - that kind of place, she could take her time picking over wallets and clothing for anything useful, but the shen preferred to cluster in busy cities where that wasn't as much of an option. Easier for them to blend in, their victims to disappear into the statistics, fading behind the curtain of bloodshed humanity inflicted on themselves. She would hunt them wherever they called home, though, follow the trail of pain and blood to find those who upset the balance, even here.

Normally, she'd only have taken this man's wallet, and used the money to buy food and perhaps replace clothes when she needed to. But his jacket was very nice, practical leather, black and reinforced lightly, suitable for riding on motorcycles. He'd had it open, unfastened, and the blows that killed him had not damaged the jacket, after all. No holes, just a few bloodstains, and she was hardly in a position to be picky about that. Yes, this jacket would do nicely. She shrugged it on and zipped it up - it was a little large on her, but that meant she had room to move without being constricted by the leather.

She tucked away her other pickings, the money getting stored in the inside pocket of the jacket, and started climbing down off the roof. When her feet hit the ground, however, it was a different street than she'd started on, and there was a new weight in her pocket.

Third-Person #2: With a sharp gasp of breath, Youko jolted into wakefulness, opening her eyes in the dark and staring into blackness. The mattress and pillow were soft against her back, warm with sleep and the heat of the body next to her, which shifted but did not stir from its slumber. Slowly, the fog of sleep faded, taking with it the remnants of her nightmares. The images of blood and suffering, tortured faces of those she knew, her parents and mentor... they haunted her often, in the darkest part of the night, ripping her from the sleep her body sorely needed. On some nights, it was enough to have a warm body next to her to ward them off, to tire herself so thoroughly with sex that she would not dream at all, only collapsing into an exhausted, empty sleep.

It hadn't worked tonight, for whatever reason. And now she was awake, there was no need to waste the man sleeping next to her. Although... it would be a shame to wake him too soon. Sliding her naked form deeper under the covers, Youko slipped a hand around his hips, slowly and gently seeking out his cock and beginning to stroke it to hardness, listening to his breath catch and become shallow and irregular. How long would it take him to wake to her ministrations? It was possible she could make him come without even waking him, but that only held so much appeal. It was more likely she would end up shaking him awake once her patience wore out, but for now it was enough to touch him and enjoy the warmth of their bodies pressing together under the sheets.