Zodion Application; Houjou Mamushi
May. 15th, 2012 11:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impurify✖ PLAYER:
Name & DW Journal: Rizu @waxwing
Birthdate & Age: 11/27/88, 23 years old
Characters played in Zodion: currently none
✖ CHARACTER:
Name: Mamushi Houjou
Canon: Ao no Exorcist
PB/Image: here for canon profile image, here for color chapter cover
Info links: Ao no Exorcist Wiki
Canon Point: ch. 34
Gender & Sex: female
Age: 25
Birthdate/Sign: canon birthday is June 4th, Gemini
Tattoo: ~3 inches in diameter, surrounding her right eye socket
Suitability: n/a
Power: I'd like Mamushi to keep her power to summon two nagas with a certain Buddhist sutra, as shown here and here. The serpents obey her when summoned, and are more intelligent than a normal beast, though not capable of speech or human-level interaction. The function as guardians and weapons, and at most mundane, beloved pets. If this power needs to be toned down, perhaps she can only summon one, not the both of them?
Personality: Mamushi is a woman who, more than anything, has the best interests of her sect at heart no matter what she does. In her life, most everything is focused around her role and participation in the Kyoto-based Myouou Dharani, (or "Myou Dha"), Buddhist sect. To her, it isn't just a religious conviction- it's a duty and a family all in one. As the eldest daughter of three in the Houjou family, one of the three main clans, (Suguro, the bloodline of the head priests, Shima, the bloodline of those who guard the outer temple, and Houjou, the bloodline of those who guard the inner temple), who uphold the branch's traditions and direct line of ritual transmission, she's well aware of her own duties to the sect, as well as to her family.
Based on how she interprets the duties of Myouou Dharani, Mamushi has a very strong black and white way of seeing what is right and what is wrong, and isn't afraid to speak up if she feels someone is neglecting their duties or doing something she considers improper. She can do this somewhat respectfully, if it's to someone she views is a superior, but more often than not she comes off as too proud and abrasive when she does this, and tends to offend those around her and lead to her being silenced or disciplined by her father, Houjou Uwabami. She chafes somewhat under her father's rule, as she is well aware of her role to him, (and her lack of use as a daughter and not a son, and therefore unable to perform certain rites and assume certain roles in the sect). She's also troubled by the fact that her father never seems to take her side in arguments, yet she constantly looks to him for approval and support despite the fact he seems to rarely give it. Her main support system comes in the form of her two younger sisters, Ao and Nishiki, who look up to her with unflagging devotion and believe pretty much everything she says with a chorus of "that's right, ane-sama!", "yes, ane-sama!".
Serious natured until her trigger is set off by an insult or a perceived wrongdoing, at which she becomes loud, grating, cocky, and prone to violence before someone knocks her down a peg or reminds her of her position, Mamushi was a devoted student in school and is a Middle First Class Exorcist by the True Cross Order's standards, and wears paraphernalia that identify her as a priest of some rank within Shugendo/Buddhist mixed practices. She had to have worked hard to obtain two meister ranks within the order, as a Tamer, (with snake summons), and an Aria, (someone who repels and exorcises demons through the power of religious scripture)- which is something she did because it was expected of her, and because she truly does believe in the mission of the Myouou Dharani sect, which has long been tied to the practice of performing exorcisms, as well as protecting a certain artifact, the Right Eye of the Impure King, a demon killed by their founder that if unsealed is capable of creating a miasma that can poison and kill those affected by it.
Mamushi is not so much a loner, hard worker, or serious natured person by choice as she is somewhat bad with people and unwilling/unable to compromise her duties in order to socialize or do things a normal young woman of her age might. Her profile lists that she doesn't even listen to music at all, for example, and her idea of a nice way to spend her time off is watching the rain fall. It also reveals that, while she loves the snakes her family breeds and raises, is very skilled at caring for them, and they seem to adore her in turn, one of Mamushi's secret worries is that she's no good at making friends with anything but a reptile. This shows that she does sometimes long for a more "normal" life, but is unwilling to throw away the ascetic's way in which she's been raised, and that world she lives in- with the burdens and duties with it.
Because of those burdens and way of thinking, however, she is someone who is also open to being deceived as long as the person takes care to make sure that along the way she believes that the path is a righteous and just one. She's willing to go so far as to steal and deceive her comrades if it means doing what she feels is right morally/ethically and what is best for them in the end. Possibly due to her own relationship with her father, Mamushi seems to be weak towards older, father-like mentors, as she was to a teacher of hers in school, Toudou Saburota, the one who managed to manipulate her in to betraying her whole sect in order to "protect them" and "fulfill the duties of their order" when in fact, she was simply being used by him. Her religion and devotion to her group is a source of strength for her, but it's also a major blind spot that can be easily manipulated by those who form a trusting bond with her. At least- it was. Since being betrayed by Saburota, she will not be so free with her trust.
Mamushi is someone who carries her guilt over those canon events with her, (along with her other emotions), right on her sleeve. She can't hide discomfort or anger well- or the positive emotions as well, including love and relief. The guilt of betraying her comrades but having been wrong, having been used and having facilitated the rise of the Impure King that then needed to be defeated at great cost... she couldn't bear the guilt of it, crying as she begged for the people she betrayed to go and save the Head Priest she put in danger. The worry that she's been the cause of such a thing, that people she loved might even have died fighting the monster... When Juuzou, her childhood friend/rival/love interest returns home safe, and tells her that everyone else made it out alive... she can't control herself, collapsing in his arms in relief. Even knowing she's going to be punished, that her eye may never see again after holding the Impure King's, that she will surely be stripped of her ranks at the very least- it doesn't matter. Because in the end, that's all she was hoping for, to keep everyone safe, even if she went about it all wrong.
Admitting she was wrong, admitting that she's ever wrong, is something that doesn't come easy to her, but in true emergencies, like with the Impure King, she's capable. You won't ever catch her admit to it over some daily squabble or triviality however. Even after accepting Juuzou's marriage proposal, consummating it, and admitting in front of her sect's elders that she wouldn't think of marrying him as a punishment, (the closest she can get to admitting she loves him in public), she's already back the next day to scrapping with him and shouting. (It's cliche, but the tsundere stereotype is strong with this one.)
And so Mamushi was a serious, burdened, and somewhat lonely young woman, trapped between her devotion to her sect and her devotion to what she thinks is the right thing to do, something that contradicts all she's been taught in her life. She's able to take risks- and make sacrifices, putting her body in danger just by carrying the Right Eye, attack her comrades, because she feels compelled to try and expose the wrongdoings in her organization and do right by the original duties. She's not as strong as she likes to think she is, deceived by someone she put her trust in on account of the small doubts in her heart that were carefully groomed in to an act that betrayed everyone who was on her side, but she pushes herself more and more striving for things like faithfulness to Myou Dha doctrine, her father's approval, and loyalty to doing what is right no matter the cost or how misguided she turns out to be.
She still is this woman even after the end of the Impure King incident- but she is a woman who knows she's committed a grave mistake, and can't begin to make up for the trust she's betrayed. She's accepted that she will be punished. She will be stripped of her True Cross Order rank, and probably operate only within the confines of Myou Dha in the future. She has accepted Juuzou's marriage proposal as well, and her feelings for him. She's realized her life is going to change- well. It definitely will now.
✖ SAMPLES:
"Zodion" First-Person Network Entry:
What is the meaning of this?!
[The video is activated with a demand best described as a near screech, the view being a pair of pale hands before the fumbling of the woman holding it offers a brief glimpse of her... lovely and calm visage-]
[Okay, not the most dignified of faces, but it's a glimpse, before the only thing on the screen is darkness. ... She's put it up to her ear, yes. What? She thinks it's just a phone!]
Whoever you twelve are, I'll be having a word with you! Presently. I have things to do! [Like cover up her actual fear and nerves with a big front, apparently.] Do you know who I am? I am a Houjou. I have duties to attend to, a wedding to arrange, and a shinbu to repair, and I will not tolerate this!
I'm leaving. Now.
[The frustrated, strangled sort of noise is the last thing heard before she... hangs up. Yes, network. You've been hung up on!!]
"Zodionlogs" Third-Person Prose Entry:
For a moment, when she had imagined the life that awaited her after her recovery, Mamushi had thought things might be... dull. Her father had been right, after all. The True Cross Order surely wouldn't want anything to do with her since her accusations against Mephisto Pheles, since her betrayal and theft of the Right Eye. Yaozō had told her to expect their representative within the day to deliver the Order's judgement.
... She was surprised that Myou Dha wanted anything to do with her.
The guilt weighed down on her like a weight on her heart, making her lash out at those around her. Even if she denied that was the reason... she knew it was. Knew the reason that her voice had a sharper, more desperate edge to it, knew why she snapped and shouted at Juuzou, despite what she'd been forced to admit about her feelings for him. Why she was examining the look in the others' faces, watching for the hints of their inability to trust her again, looking for a harshness in their faces when they looked at the bandage across her face, the right eye of hers that might never be the same again, blackened and wounded by the Impure King's.
Her father might forgive her. The Head Priest might forgive her. Of course her sisters did. Juuzou had, and still asked her to be his wife despite what she'd done- but what of the others? The family she'd betrayed because she'd been so stupid, a naive girl led astray by the very types of demons she was supposed to exorcise?
Another night where she took it out on those around her- Juuzou, again, this time. Snapped and bit, that if he didn't like it, why had he asked to marry her in the first place? It was cruel to say, but she said it without thinking, slamming the screens to her rooms shut before she let her expression fall, let her back hit the wall before she slid down and hung her head in her hands, masochistically deriving some pleasure from the pain in her damaged eye- it was sharp, and it was not as much as she deserved.
It had hurt more when she'd begun to cry, striving to keep it silent because she knew he was still standing outside. She'd heard him sit down, and every now and then he'd hurl words through her door. Loud and abrasive- but kinder words than she'd thrown. Fighting with him-
When was the last time she'd been free of these feelings? Before Saburota had been her teacher? Before the Head Priest had handed over their sect to the True Cross Order, and she'd taken it for abandonment? Before she'd ever heard that Mephisto Pheles was rearing Satan's son in secret?
It didn't end, and her fingers had clenched angrily, futilely, in to the fabric of her kimono, (not her uniform- maybe she'd never be trusted enough to wear that uniform again, maybe she'd never be trusted to walk the paths of the shinbu again, maybe she'd never be trusted to conduct the rituals again, do an exorcism again-), and she'd fallen asleep like that, curled in on herself and her new fiance outside the door.
She didn't wake like that, cramped and sore from her odd choice in sleeping position. Didn't wake tucked in to her futon thanks to someone else coming in her room after she nodded off.
Mamushi woke before a temple, and knew it for that immediately, not just because of the architecture, not just because growing up in a religious environment gave her experience with holy ground- she just knew. Just as she just stepped toward it without thinking, bare feet padding silently over the grass, then the stone, then the ring of water-
That sprung up, and made her start, jolting her out of the near daze she had been in, with her automatic movements. Mamushi's head whipped about, long hair followed, before she froze at the sight of her own reflection.
Naked.
Even in this situation, she could flush red with embarrassment, shame, and fury all in one, and she would have stayed that way, if it weren't for the slight pain that emanated from her right eye. It was too soon for her to differentiate, the pain of the eye itself or the skin around it, and her hands had flown to her face in sheer panic, the embarrassment dying in her throat with a choked half-cry.
The Impure King had been defeated. The Doctors had cleansed her eye of its taint- they'd said so. It couldn't still be roiling inside of her skull, full of poison and miasma.
It couldn't. Her undamaged left eye caught the glow in her reflection, and she forced herself to shakily remove her hands, uncover the mark that now framed what remained of her right eye.
Any other girl her age in Japan would probably know what it meant. Gemini. They'd know, because they read their horoscopes, or played some silly themed game, or watched the news and waited for their fortunes to be displayed for the day. But most girls weren't raised in out of the way temples in Shungendo sects in Kyoto, and Mamushi did not know what it meant.
Knew she had to get herself under some semblance of control, though, and managed it, long enough to make it to the alter, to pull the device and the letter out of the box that had beckoned her.
For her conviction? Twelve? The fate of the cosmos?
What was this? A dream? Pheles' idea of some sick joke? Was this part of her punishment? A demon could conjure something like this, perhaps-
Mamushi didn't realize she was gritting her teeth, that she was supporting herself over the alter with the heel of one hand pressed to her eye until she tasted the blood in her mouth.
She'd thought it might turn out dull.
... It would have been better if it had been, wouldn't it?
Name & DW Journal: Rizu @
waxwing Birthdate & Age: 11/27/88, 23 years old
Characters played in Zodion: currently none
✖ CHARACTER:
Name: Mamushi Houjou
Canon: Ao no Exorcist
PB/Image: here for canon profile image, here for color chapter cover
Info links: Ao no Exorcist Wiki
Canon Point: ch. 34
Gender & Sex: female
Age: 25
Birthdate/Sign: canon birthday is June 4th, Gemini
Tattoo: ~3 inches in diameter, surrounding her right eye socket
Suitability: n/a
Power: I'd like Mamushi to keep her power to summon two nagas with a certain Buddhist sutra, as shown here and here. The serpents obey her when summoned, and are more intelligent than a normal beast, though not capable of speech or human-level interaction. The function as guardians and weapons, and at most mundane, beloved pets. If this power needs to be toned down, perhaps she can only summon one, not the both of them?
Personality: Mamushi is a woman who, more than anything, has the best interests of her sect at heart no matter what she does. In her life, most everything is focused around her role and participation in the Kyoto-based Myouou Dharani, (or "Myou Dha"), Buddhist sect. To her, it isn't just a religious conviction- it's a duty and a family all in one. As the eldest daughter of three in the Houjou family, one of the three main clans, (Suguro, the bloodline of the head priests, Shima, the bloodline of those who guard the outer temple, and Houjou, the bloodline of those who guard the inner temple), who uphold the branch's traditions and direct line of ritual transmission, she's well aware of her own duties to the sect, as well as to her family.
Based on how she interprets the duties of Myouou Dharani, Mamushi has a very strong black and white way of seeing what is right and what is wrong, and isn't afraid to speak up if she feels someone is neglecting their duties or doing something she considers improper. She can do this somewhat respectfully, if it's to someone she views is a superior, but more often than not she comes off as too proud and abrasive when she does this, and tends to offend those around her and lead to her being silenced or disciplined by her father, Houjou Uwabami. She chafes somewhat under her father's rule, as she is well aware of her role to him, (and her lack of use as a daughter and not a son, and therefore unable to perform certain rites and assume certain roles in the sect). She's also troubled by the fact that her father never seems to take her side in arguments, yet she constantly looks to him for approval and support despite the fact he seems to rarely give it. Her main support system comes in the form of her two younger sisters, Ao and Nishiki, who look up to her with unflagging devotion and believe pretty much everything she says with a chorus of "that's right, ane-sama!", "yes, ane-sama!".
Serious natured until her trigger is set off by an insult or a perceived wrongdoing, at which she becomes loud, grating, cocky, and prone to violence before someone knocks her down a peg or reminds her of her position, Mamushi was a devoted student in school and is a Middle First Class Exorcist by the True Cross Order's standards, and wears paraphernalia that identify her as a priest of some rank within Shugendo/Buddhist mixed practices. She had to have worked hard to obtain two meister ranks within the order, as a Tamer, (with snake summons), and an Aria, (someone who repels and exorcises demons through the power of religious scripture)- which is something she did because it was expected of her, and because she truly does believe in the mission of the Myouou Dharani sect, which has long been tied to the practice of performing exorcisms, as well as protecting a certain artifact, the Right Eye of the Impure King, a demon killed by their founder that if unsealed is capable of creating a miasma that can poison and kill those affected by it.
Mamushi is not so much a loner, hard worker, or serious natured person by choice as she is somewhat bad with people and unwilling/unable to compromise her duties in order to socialize or do things a normal young woman of her age might. Her profile lists that she doesn't even listen to music at all, for example, and her idea of a nice way to spend her time off is watching the rain fall. It also reveals that, while she loves the snakes her family breeds and raises, is very skilled at caring for them, and they seem to adore her in turn, one of Mamushi's secret worries is that she's no good at making friends with anything but a reptile. This shows that she does sometimes long for a more "normal" life, but is unwilling to throw away the ascetic's way in which she's been raised, and that world she lives in- with the burdens and duties with it.
Because of those burdens and way of thinking, however, she is someone who is also open to being deceived as long as the person takes care to make sure that along the way she believes that the path is a righteous and just one. She's willing to go so far as to steal and deceive her comrades if it means doing what she feels is right morally/ethically and what is best for them in the end. Possibly due to her own relationship with her father, Mamushi seems to be weak towards older, father-like mentors, as she was to a teacher of hers in school, Toudou Saburota, the one who managed to manipulate her in to betraying her whole sect in order to "protect them" and "fulfill the duties of their order" when in fact, she was simply being used by him. Her religion and devotion to her group is a source of strength for her, but it's also a major blind spot that can be easily manipulated by those who form a trusting bond with her. At least- it was. Since being betrayed by Saburota, she will not be so free with her trust.
Mamushi is someone who carries her guilt over those canon events with her, (along with her other emotions), right on her sleeve. She can't hide discomfort or anger well- or the positive emotions as well, including love and relief. The guilt of betraying her comrades but having been wrong, having been used and having facilitated the rise of the Impure King that then needed to be defeated at great cost... she couldn't bear the guilt of it, crying as she begged for the people she betrayed to go and save the Head Priest she put in danger. The worry that she's been the cause of such a thing, that people she loved might even have died fighting the monster... When Juuzou, her childhood friend/rival/love interest returns home safe, and tells her that everyone else made it out alive... she can't control herself, collapsing in his arms in relief. Even knowing she's going to be punished, that her eye may never see again after holding the Impure King's, that she will surely be stripped of her ranks at the very least- it doesn't matter. Because in the end, that's all she was hoping for, to keep everyone safe, even if she went about it all wrong.
Admitting she was wrong, admitting that she's ever wrong, is something that doesn't come easy to her, but in true emergencies, like with the Impure King, she's capable. You won't ever catch her admit to it over some daily squabble or triviality however. Even after accepting Juuzou's marriage proposal, consummating it, and admitting in front of her sect's elders that she wouldn't think of marrying him as a punishment, (the closest she can get to admitting she loves him in public), she's already back the next day to scrapping with him and shouting. (It's cliche, but the tsundere stereotype is strong with this one.)
And so Mamushi was a serious, burdened, and somewhat lonely young woman, trapped between her devotion to her sect and her devotion to what she thinks is the right thing to do, something that contradicts all she's been taught in her life. She's able to take risks- and make sacrifices, putting her body in danger just by carrying the Right Eye, attack her comrades, because she feels compelled to try and expose the wrongdoings in her organization and do right by the original duties. She's not as strong as she likes to think she is, deceived by someone she put her trust in on account of the small doubts in her heart that were carefully groomed in to an act that betrayed everyone who was on her side, but she pushes herself more and more striving for things like faithfulness to Myou Dha doctrine, her father's approval, and loyalty to doing what is right no matter the cost or how misguided she turns out to be.
She still is this woman even after the end of the Impure King incident- but she is a woman who knows she's committed a grave mistake, and can't begin to make up for the trust she's betrayed. She's accepted that she will be punished. She will be stripped of her True Cross Order rank, and probably operate only within the confines of Myou Dha in the future. She has accepted Juuzou's marriage proposal as well, and her feelings for him. She's realized her life is going to change- well. It definitely will now.
✖ SAMPLES:
"Zodion" First-Person Network Entry:
What is the meaning of this?!
[The video is activated with a demand best described as a near screech, the view being a pair of pale hands before the fumbling of the woman holding it offers a brief glimpse of her... lovely and calm visage-]
[Okay, not the most dignified of faces, but it's a glimpse, before the only thing on the screen is darkness. ... She's put it up to her ear, yes. What? She thinks it's just a phone!]
Whoever you twelve are, I'll be having a word with you! Presently. I have things to do! [Like cover up her actual fear and nerves with a big front, apparently.] Do you know who I am? I am a Houjou. I have duties to attend to, a wedding to arrange, and a shinbu to repair, and I will not tolerate this!
I'm leaving. Now.
[The frustrated, strangled sort of noise is the last thing heard before she... hangs up. Yes, network. You've been hung up on!!]
"Zodionlogs" Third-Person Prose Entry:
For a moment, when she had imagined the life that awaited her after her recovery, Mamushi had thought things might be... dull. Her father had been right, after all. The True Cross Order surely wouldn't want anything to do with her since her accusations against Mephisto Pheles, since her betrayal and theft of the Right Eye. Yaozō had told her to expect their representative within the day to deliver the Order's judgement.
... She was surprised that Myou Dha wanted anything to do with her.
The guilt weighed down on her like a weight on her heart, making her lash out at those around her. Even if she denied that was the reason... she knew it was. Knew the reason that her voice had a sharper, more desperate edge to it, knew why she snapped and shouted at Juuzou, despite what she'd been forced to admit about her feelings for him. Why she was examining the look in the others' faces, watching for the hints of their inability to trust her again, looking for a harshness in their faces when they looked at the bandage across her face, the right eye of hers that might never be the same again, blackened and wounded by the Impure King's.
Her father might forgive her. The Head Priest might forgive her. Of course her sisters did. Juuzou had, and still asked her to be his wife despite what she'd done- but what of the others? The family she'd betrayed because she'd been so stupid, a naive girl led astray by the very types of demons she was supposed to exorcise?
Another night where she took it out on those around her- Juuzou, again, this time. Snapped and bit, that if he didn't like it, why had he asked to marry her in the first place? It was cruel to say, but she said it without thinking, slamming the screens to her rooms shut before she let her expression fall, let her back hit the wall before she slid down and hung her head in her hands, masochistically deriving some pleasure from the pain in her damaged eye- it was sharp, and it was not as much as she deserved.
It had hurt more when she'd begun to cry, striving to keep it silent because she knew he was still standing outside. She'd heard him sit down, and every now and then he'd hurl words through her door. Loud and abrasive- but kinder words than she'd thrown. Fighting with him-
When was the last time she'd been free of these feelings? Before Saburota had been her teacher? Before the Head Priest had handed over their sect to the True Cross Order, and she'd taken it for abandonment? Before she'd ever heard that Mephisto Pheles was rearing Satan's son in secret?
It didn't end, and her fingers had clenched angrily, futilely, in to the fabric of her kimono, (not her uniform- maybe she'd never be trusted enough to wear that uniform again, maybe she'd never be trusted to walk the paths of the shinbu again, maybe she'd never be trusted to conduct the rituals again, do an exorcism again-), and she'd fallen asleep like that, curled in on herself and her new fiance outside the door.
She didn't wake like that, cramped and sore from her odd choice in sleeping position. Didn't wake tucked in to her futon thanks to someone else coming in her room after she nodded off.
Mamushi woke before a temple, and knew it for that immediately, not just because of the architecture, not just because growing up in a religious environment gave her experience with holy ground- she just knew. Just as she just stepped toward it without thinking, bare feet padding silently over the grass, then the stone, then the ring of water-
That sprung up, and made her start, jolting her out of the near daze she had been in, with her automatic movements. Mamushi's head whipped about, long hair followed, before she froze at the sight of her own reflection.
Naked.
Even in this situation, she could flush red with embarrassment, shame, and fury all in one, and she would have stayed that way, if it weren't for the slight pain that emanated from her right eye. It was too soon for her to differentiate, the pain of the eye itself or the skin around it, and her hands had flown to her face in sheer panic, the embarrassment dying in her throat with a choked half-cry.
The Impure King had been defeated. The Doctors had cleansed her eye of its taint- they'd said so. It couldn't still be roiling inside of her skull, full of poison and miasma.
It couldn't. Her undamaged left eye caught the glow in her reflection, and she forced herself to shakily remove her hands, uncover the mark that now framed what remained of her right eye.
Any other girl her age in Japan would probably know what it meant. Gemini. They'd know, because they read their horoscopes, or played some silly themed game, or watched the news and waited for their fortunes to be displayed for the day. But most girls weren't raised in out of the way temples in Shungendo sects in Kyoto, and Mamushi did not know what it meant.
Knew she had to get herself under some semblance of control, though, and managed it, long enough to make it to the alter, to pull the device and the letter out of the box that had beckoned her.
For her conviction? Twelve? The fate of the cosmos?
What was this? A dream? Pheles' idea of some sick joke? Was this part of her punishment? A demon could conjure something like this, perhaps-
Mamushi didn't realize she was gritting her teeth, that she was supporting herself over the alter with the heel of one hand pressed to her eye until she tasted the blood in her mouth.
She'd thought it might turn out dull.
... It would have been better if it had been, wouldn't it?
