Player nickname: Steam Player DW: steamrollerssolveall Way to contact you: By AIM is best, I use "Wyverncakes" Email: seed.d.cagalli@gmail.com AIM: Covered above. I can also be reached through Wyvernpies Plurk: Don't have one Are you at least 15?: Yeah. I'm in my twenties Current Characters: None
Character: Sakuri Kunekai Fandom: Demonophobia Character Notes:
History: Very little is known about Sakuri's life prior to the start of the game. We know she lives with her parents and has a younger sister named Emi, and she apparantly wasn't very popular or at least was picked on a lot... which leads directly into the events of the game.
Through some way or another, Sakuri came across information regarding a powerful demon who would respond to people's requests for it to strike down those they wanted it to. Young and impulsive, Sakuri found this as the easy way to get revenge on all the teasing she'd been on the receiving end of. And thus the ritual was set.
(Note: we only find this bit out at the very end of the game)
We're not sure exactly what happens right afterwards. At the start of the game Sakuri comments that she has no idea how long she's spent trapped in her current environment; a dark labyrinth filled with deathtraps and monstrous abominations. Death happens with surprising regularity in the game. It's crammed full of Fuck You moments where you're killed out of nowhere by something you couldn't have possibly seen coming. The most infamous (and earliest) of these is the Loli Puncher. You go and pick up an item, start to leave the room you're in, and suddenly a giant, skinned humanoid demon grabs you by the throat and beats you to death with its bare hands.
At any rate, early on in the game Sakuri meets a small, benign demon named Reese who helps explain her situation to her, as well as telling her that a way of escaping the labirynth can be found in its darkest recesses, which can only be reached by defeating the sevon most powerful demons (named after the Seven Deadly Sins) in the labyrinth. To be fair, the majority of these battles boil down to "evade the monster and escape", though there's a few encounters that actually involve Sakuri fighting back in one way or another (as pathetically as many of these ways are). At one point it even seems like she's escaped and returned home, only to find out that the labyrinth changed its appearance to mimic that of her home, complete with her mother being a knife-wielding, many-eyed monstrosity that wanted to eat her.
In the final part of the game, Reese is killed by last of the demons that has yet to be "defeated", a not-Pyramid Head known as Lucifer/Pride. Sakuri nevertheless defeats Lucifer first by activating a pair of environmental traps, then luring Lucifer to fall victim to them, and then destroying Lucifer's still-living spine in a very uphill battle. With Lucifer's defeat, Sakuri is able to enter the deepest parts of the labyrinth...
... Only to discover that Reese is there. In fact, Reese is the demon she tried to summon before being brought here, and all her trials and tribulations were nothing more than the ritual required for Reese to enter the human world. Not only that, all the deaths that the player experiences in the game ACTUALLY HAPPENED. The labyrinth does not let those it tortures off so easily with death, and can/will revive those that are killed so their torture can be eternal. Reese had been erasing Sakuri's memories of those deaths, and he also comments that she is the first person to ever be able to reach this far, with everyone else that came before her giving up in the attempt.
Sakuri, however, refuses to let Reese escape into the human world, and because she was still wearing her hair clips (no, seriously) she was able to narrowly defeat Reese in battle and thwart his escape into the human world. Unfortunately, it's a very, very small victory since death is impossible in the labyrinth and Reese revives once more, commenting that it'll only be a matter of time before someone tries the ritual again and he has another chance at escape. And as for Sakuri? Well, escape for her was impossible from the beginning. Even stopping Reese's attempt doesn't grant her any kind of repreive, and as a last "fuck you" to Sakuri, Reese restores the memories of all the deaths she experienced before leaving her to her own devices. And that equates to last seeing Sakuri being cornered by hordes of monsters, eager to mutilate her body again and again.
The game ends showing that an eternity and a half later, someone else has entered the labyrinth.
Personality: Sakuri is a sad girl, trapped alone in an uncompromising hell. As expected, her strongest driving factor is just a desire to be free and return to her family, and getting back home is what occupies her mind most of the time and what she vocalizes a lot. That said, she has a very low tolerance for what she won't freak out about. Then again, considering what the labirynth throws her way that isn't something I can really hold against her. Exactly one time in the game does she ever really grow some metaphorical balls and talk tough; even the couple of times that she directly and decisively beats one of the demons in battle she doesn't stop and say anything badass.
It can be inferred through various things said, especially near the end of the game, that Sakuri was pretty much an average girl of her age, aside from the fact she tried to resort to an occult ritual when teasing got too much for her. When it's brought up at the very end of the game though, she still makes it clear it was something she regrets wholeheartedly and that she values her own freedom than revenge on whomever it was that slighted her.
What makes Sakuri stand out, however, is the crap she's willing to put up with if there's a chance of salvation for her or anyone she views as a friend. The drive to escape is so strong that she powers through a lot of things that could and probably would shake up ordinary people. Hell, Reese even comments that of all the people who ever were brought into the labyrinth, she was unique in that regard. And the reason for this is hope. So long as Sakuri even has the slightest shred of hope for rescue, she will not give up. Even at the very end of the game after the truth is revealed, in her moment of greatest despair, her biggest priority was to just stay alive. That said, the destruction of hope does still do a tremendous number on her. Sakuri does not respond well when her seeming escape from the labyrinth turns out to just be a ruse, and when Reese broke the truth to her about escape being impossible she was in denial about it.
Unsurprising, considering her environment, Sakuri is immensely appreciative of even the slightest bit of help from another being. Early on when Reese seems to be an ally, she feels pity for him being in the same situation as her and she vows to find a way to escape so they both can. Additionally, in one of the more gorey deaths in the game at the hands of Lucifer, the demon seemingly relents from harming Sakuri after she begs and pleads for it not to kill her. All it takes is that brief repreive for Sakuri to start to think of Lucifer as a "good guy" and that she shouldn't judge books by their covers, right when she's killed mid-thought by Lucifer cutting her in half vertically. It goes along with the hope thing as mentioned above; she will cling to the smallest glimmer of hope there is and try to be positive whenever things improve even slightly.
One other thing that sets Sakuri apart is resourcefulness. This is not a girl you want to be giving even the smallest of fighting chances to, because she is going to kick you ass. She kills Belphagor, one of the largest demons in the game, by throwing orbs of medicinal herbs at it. She kills Asmodeus's first form with a dinky little dagger. She tricks Lucifer into falling into traps meant for her and then destroying his spine using very weak magic spells derived from those traps. To say nothing about beating Reese because she still was wearing hairclips... though if I would explain the gameplay events in story terms I suppose you could say she was siphoning off the residual magic in the environment that Reese had expended trying to kill her and using them to charge spells of her own. The hairclips still played the key role in all of this.
Other: Because of the mechanics of the labyrinth, Sakuri is immortal in the sense that after every death she will be resurrected. Reese claimed to be responsible for this and that the labyrinth only stops people from dying (meaning they could spend an eternity as mincemeat), but that doesn't account for how Reese himself is resurrected after dying (twice!) or how Sakuri herself is resurrected on the off-chance that you lose the fight against Reese. Which you probably will, because of how balls-crushingly difficult it is. She's also not going to have actual *memories* of her deaths until the event where Reese reveals his treachery (which will ideally NOT be the final part of Sakuri's tale in DDD). In the name of convenience, I'm willing to play fast and loose with the timescale for anyone that enters the Demonophobia world, though I really do want to keep time dilated at least for Sakuri.
As for how she communicates via internet, I had the idea of her having like a "ghost" computer. Something that the demons cannot interact with. Considering how important the hairclips are, might as well say they provide her with that computer too. The internet access will also record all of her deaths too, which is going to be astronomical on account that a single instant in the real world equals an eternity in the labyrinth. So in short, Sakuri will KNOW she's immortal but she won't have any actual memories of those deaths to weigh her down emotionally. I imagine that she'd even have a "vlog" as it were whenever she reaches a safe spot in the labyrinth... but considering the time dilation effects, I imagine that there would be a tremendous backlog for people to try to keep up with.
Regarding world-hopping, I figure Sakuri can world-hop (through outside assistance, of course) in an attempt to escape the labyrinth as much as she wants. The catch is that these are temporary fixes for her situation and she will be pulled back, kicking and screaming most likely, sooner or later. Essentially, she can world-hop under her own power, but only BACK to her home universe. The inverse can also be true for the sake of RPing; people can freely world-hop into the labyrinth, but because of how they enter it, the labyrinth will eventually "eject" them. I'll leave it to the discretion of other players when that happens though.
Also, I was figuring that after the "finally kill Lucifer" event, Sakuri's able to keep the Undine and Salamander powers she has. It's not much, just very weak, single-target fire and ice spells. Still, there's no real explanation for why she loses them in the game. Also, just because they're extremely weak doesn't meant she won't be able to think up multiple ways of implementing them.
Any "mature" sequences with Sakuri will be behind a cut, and there will be permission posts with her as well.
First Person (entry type): I know I say this so often, but I really mean it. Everyone out there that's helped me in any way, even if it's just a little, even if it didn't work out in the end... thank you. Thank you so much. And I know I'll never ever be able to repay you for everything, b-but I can still say thanks and...
[Her voice trails off as she looks down at the ground.]
I checked my computer's dates today. If it's not lying, then I've been here a million years. That makes it my millionth "birthday" doesn't it?
... I don't want to be a million years old. I just want to see my family.
Third Person: The soft, pitter-patter of her shoes striking the ground barely registered in Sakuri's ears. It was the same for her very audible breathing. All that concerned her was the massive, lurching, yellow-clad figure dragging gunsekf after her and the very sharp axe that it had in his hands. Lucifer's limp belied his speed, which Sakuri already had learned the hard way. Multiple times in fact. When you didn't see someone for hundreds of years, sometimes you forgot about details like that.
"Keep moving... find something... like a hole or-or something!" It was all Sakuri could do to encourage herself to keep going. Stopping meant death, moving meant at least the chance of finding some form of salvation, be it an opening too small for Lucifer to pass through or, well, "something".
The labyrinth granted her... a dead end with a rusted door. Any port in a storm. "Pleasebeopen!" Sakuri cried as her hand reached for the handle, turned it, and then pushed with all her strength. The door creaked open just as Lucifer's axe came slashing down, and Sakuri charged forward before slamming the door shut behind her and locking it. It was barely a repreive, and Sakuri knew that. The demon was still out there, maybe even debating if his axe would still be in working order if it was used to smash down the door.
Was Lucifer even intelligent enough to bother with something like that though? Sakuri didn't know for certain, and it took her only another moment to realize how there were better things she could use this time for. And first and foremost: finding a place to hide.
Sakuri Kukenai / Demonophobia / No reserve
Player DW: steamrollerssolveall
Way to contact you: By AIM is best, I use "Wyverncakes"
Email: seed.d.cagalli@gmail.com
AIM: Covered above. I can also be reached through Wyvernpies
Plurk: Don't have one
Are you at least 15?: Yeah. I'm in my twenties
Current Characters: None
Character: Sakuri Kunekai
Fandom: Demonophobia
Character Notes:
History:
Very little is known about Sakuri's life prior to the start of the game. We know she lives with her parents and has a younger sister named Emi, and she apparantly wasn't very popular or at least was picked on a lot... which leads directly into the events of the game.
Through some way or another, Sakuri came across information regarding a powerful demon who would respond to people's requests for it to strike down those they wanted it to. Young and impulsive, Sakuri found this as the easy way to get revenge on all the teasing she'd been on the receiving end of. And thus the ritual was set.
(Note: we only find this bit out at the very end of the game)
We're not sure exactly what happens right afterwards. At the start of the game Sakuri comments that she has no idea how long she's spent trapped in her current environment; a dark labyrinth filled with deathtraps and monstrous abominations. Death happens with surprising regularity in the game. It's crammed full of Fuck You moments where you're killed out of nowhere by something you couldn't have possibly seen coming. The most infamous (and earliest) of these is the Loli Puncher. You go and pick up an item, start to leave the room you're in, and suddenly a giant, skinned humanoid demon grabs you by the throat and beats you to death with its bare hands.
At any rate, early on in the game Sakuri meets a small, benign demon named Reese who helps explain her situation to her, as well as telling her that a way of escaping the labirynth can be found in its darkest recesses, which can only be reached by defeating the sevon most powerful demons (named after the Seven Deadly Sins) in the labyrinth. To be fair, the majority of these battles boil down to "evade the monster and escape", though there's a few encounters that actually involve Sakuri fighting back in one way or another (as pathetically as many of these ways are). At one point it even seems like she's escaped and returned home, only to find out that the labyrinth changed its appearance to mimic that of her home, complete with her mother being a knife-wielding, many-eyed monstrosity that wanted to eat her.
In the final part of the game, Reese is killed by last of the demons that has yet to be "defeated", a not-Pyramid Head known as Lucifer/Pride. Sakuri nevertheless defeats Lucifer first by activating a pair of environmental traps, then luring Lucifer to fall victim to them, and then destroying Lucifer's still-living spine in a very uphill battle. With Lucifer's defeat, Sakuri is able to enter the deepest parts of the labyrinth...
... Only to discover that Reese is there. In fact, Reese is the demon she tried to summon before being brought here, and all her trials and tribulations were nothing more than the ritual required for Reese to enter the human world. Not only that, all the deaths that the player experiences in the game ACTUALLY HAPPENED. The labyrinth does not let those it tortures off so easily with death, and can/will revive those that are killed so their torture can be eternal. Reese had been erasing Sakuri's memories of those deaths, and he also comments that she is the first person to ever be able to reach this far, with everyone else that came before her giving up in the attempt.
Sakuri, however, refuses to let Reese escape into the human world, and because she was still wearing her hair clips (no, seriously) she was able to narrowly defeat Reese in battle and thwart his escape into the human world. Unfortunately, it's a very, very small victory since death is impossible in the labyrinth and Reese revives once more, commenting that it'll only be a matter of time before someone tries the ritual again and he has another chance at escape. And as for Sakuri? Well, escape for her was impossible from the beginning. Even stopping Reese's attempt doesn't grant her any kind of repreive, and as a last "fuck you" to Sakuri, Reese restores the memories of all the deaths she experienced before leaving her to her own devices. And that equates to last seeing Sakuri being cornered by hordes of monsters, eager to mutilate her body again and again.
The game ends showing that an eternity and a half later, someone else has entered the labyrinth.
Personality:
Sakuri is a sad girl, trapped alone in an uncompromising hell. As expected, her strongest driving factor is just a desire to be free and return to her family, and getting back home is what occupies her mind most of the time and what she vocalizes a lot. That said, she has a very low tolerance for what she won't freak out about. Then again, considering what the labirynth throws her way that isn't something I can really hold against her. Exactly one time in the game does she ever really grow some metaphorical balls and talk tough; even the couple of times that she directly and decisively beats one of the demons in battle she doesn't stop and say anything badass.
It can be inferred through various things said, especially near the end of the game, that Sakuri was pretty much an average girl of her age, aside from the fact she tried to resort to an occult ritual when teasing got too much for her. When it's brought up at the very end of the game though, she still makes it clear it was something she regrets wholeheartedly and that she values her own freedom than revenge on whomever it was that slighted her.
What makes Sakuri stand out, however, is the crap she's willing to put up with if there's a chance of salvation for her or anyone she views as a friend. The drive to escape is so strong that she powers through a lot of things that could and probably would shake up ordinary people. Hell, Reese even comments that of all the people who ever were brought into the labyrinth, she was unique in that regard. And the reason for this is hope. So long as Sakuri even has the slightest shred of hope for rescue, she will not give up. Even at the very end of the game after the truth is revealed, in her moment of greatest despair, her biggest priority was to just stay alive. That said, the destruction of hope does still do a tremendous number on her. Sakuri does not respond well when her seeming escape from the labyrinth turns out to just be a ruse, and when Reese broke the truth to her about escape being impossible she was in denial about it.
Unsurprising, considering her environment, Sakuri is immensely appreciative of even the slightest bit of help from another being. Early on when Reese seems to be an ally, she feels pity for him being in the same situation as her and she vows to find a way to escape so they both can. Additionally, in one of the more gorey deaths in the game at the hands of Lucifer, the demon seemingly relents from harming Sakuri after she begs and pleads for it not to kill her. All it takes is that brief repreive for Sakuri to start to think of Lucifer as a "good guy" and that she shouldn't judge books by their covers, right when she's killed mid-thought by Lucifer cutting her in half vertically. It goes along with the hope thing as mentioned above; she will cling to the smallest glimmer of hope there is and try to be positive whenever things improve even slightly.
One other thing that sets Sakuri apart is resourcefulness. This is not a girl you want to be giving even the smallest of fighting chances to, because she is going to kick you ass. She kills Belphagor, one of the largest demons in the game, by throwing orbs of medicinal herbs at it. She kills Asmodeus's first form with a dinky little dagger. She tricks Lucifer into falling into traps meant for her and then destroying his spine using very weak magic spells derived from those traps. To say nothing about beating Reese because she still was wearing hairclips... though if I would explain the gameplay events in story terms I suppose you could say she was siphoning off the residual magic in the environment that Reese had expended trying to kill her and using them to charge spells of her own. The hairclips still played the key role in all of this.
Other:
Because of the mechanics of the labyrinth, Sakuri is immortal in the sense that after every death she will be resurrected. Reese claimed to be responsible for this and that the labyrinth only stops people from dying (meaning they could spend an eternity as mincemeat), but that doesn't account for how Reese himself is resurrected after dying (twice!) or how Sakuri herself is resurrected on the off-chance that you lose the fight against Reese. Which you probably will, because of how balls-crushingly difficult it is. She's also not going to have actual *memories* of her deaths until the event where Reese reveals his treachery (which will ideally NOT be the final part of Sakuri's tale in DDD). In the name of convenience, I'm willing to play fast and loose with the timescale for anyone that enters the Demonophobia world, though I really do want to keep time dilated at least for Sakuri.
As for how she communicates via internet, I had the idea of her having like a "ghost" computer. Something that the demons cannot interact with. Considering how important the hairclips are, might as well say they provide her with that computer too. The internet access will also record all of her deaths too, which is going to be astronomical on account that a single instant in the real world equals an eternity in the labyrinth. So in short, Sakuri will KNOW she's immortal but she won't have any actual memories of those deaths to weigh her down emotionally. I imagine that she'd even have a "vlog" as it were whenever she reaches a safe spot in the labyrinth... but considering the time dilation effects, I imagine that there would be a tremendous backlog for people to try to keep up with.
Regarding world-hopping, I figure Sakuri can world-hop (through outside assistance, of course) in an attempt to escape the labyrinth as much as she wants. The catch is that these are temporary fixes for her situation and she will be pulled back, kicking and screaming most likely, sooner or later. Essentially, she can world-hop under her own power, but only BACK to her home universe. The inverse can also be true for the sake of RPing; people can freely world-hop into the labyrinth, but because of how they enter it, the labyrinth will eventually "eject" them. I'll leave it to the discretion of other players when that happens though.
Also, I was figuring that after the "finally kill Lucifer" event, Sakuri's able to keep the Undine and Salamander powers she has. It's not much, just very weak, single-target fire and ice spells. Still, there's no real explanation for why she loses them in the game. Also, just because they're extremely weak doesn't meant she won't be able to think up multiple ways of implementing them.
Any "mature" sequences with Sakuri will be behind a cut, and there will be permission posts with her as well.
Additional Links:
http://sanityisreallyoverrated.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/demonophobia-walkthrough-part-1/ <- The English is a bit wonky, but it's a fairly in-depth walkthrough of Demonophobia, complete with the script translated and a number of the deaths shown.
First Person (entry type):
I know I say this so often, but I really mean it. Everyone out there that's helped me in any way, even if it's just a little, even if it didn't work out in the end... thank you. Thank you so much. And I know I'll never ever be able to repay you for everything, b-but I can still say thanks and...
[Her voice trails off as she looks down at the ground.]
I checked my computer's dates today. If it's not lying, then I've been here a million years. That makes it my millionth "birthday" doesn't it?
... I don't want to be a million years old. I just want to see my family.
Third Person:
The soft, pitter-patter of her shoes striking the ground barely registered in Sakuri's ears. It was the same for her very audible breathing. All that concerned her was the massive, lurching, yellow-clad figure dragging gunsekf after her and the very sharp axe that it had in his hands. Lucifer's limp belied his speed, which Sakuri already had learned the hard way. Multiple times in fact. When you didn't see someone for hundreds of years, sometimes you forgot about details like that.
"Keep moving... find something... like a hole or-or something!" It was all Sakuri could do to encourage herself to keep going. Stopping meant death, moving meant at least the chance of finding some form of salvation, be it an opening too small for Lucifer to pass through or, well, "something".
The labyrinth granted her... a dead end with a rusted door. Any port in a storm. "Pleasebeopen!" Sakuri cried as her hand reached for the handle, turned it, and then pushed with all her strength. The door creaked open just as Lucifer's axe came slashing down, and Sakuri charged forward before slamming the door shut behind her and locking it. It was barely a repreive, and Sakuri knew that. The demon was still out there, maybe even debating if his axe would still be in working order if it was used to smash down the door.
Was Lucifer even intelligent enough to bother with something like that though? Sakuri didn't know for certain, and it took her only another moment to realize how there were better things she could use this time for. And first and foremost: finding a place to hide.