Kuraino Mau / Nemesis / Sailor Nemesis
Comments?: Please read the whole app before you go up in flames about anything -- it's supposed to go all together and some oddish things early on get explained later.
Character Info:
Name(s): Kuraino Mau. Not her birth name.
Birth Name: Shin'en Kangeki. japanese. shin'en=passion / profound, deep, unfathomable; kangeki=deep emotion, impression, inspiration
Meaning(s): japanese. kurai=dark, gloomy; no=of; mau=to dance, to flutter about, to revolve
Nickname(s): she usually prefers to be called Nemesis
Sex: Female.
Age: 32
Birthday: October 31, scorpio/aquarius/pisces
Lives Where?: A very little house on the palace grounds in the Kurai Dimension.
Family member(s):
Mother: Shin'en Keisei (beauty/siren + passion)
Father: Shin'en Yaten (night sky + passion)
Half-sister: Hoshi Myouri (luck star)
Cat: Mau-hime
Physical Description:
Mau stands 5'7" in bare feet, and her weight is simply not to be mentioned. A regimen of fasting keeps her weight below normal. Deadly grace marks her every movement. She tends not to move very much, hoarding her energy for particular times and then moving in a burst of speed, not unlike a predator.
Her hair is extremely long, reaching to her ankles, and is sheer black with silver streaks randomly through it. She never wears it up or in any style other than completely loose. When she used to wear it shorter, her hair was curly, but now that it's so long the weight pulls all the curls out. The innate magic of the Kurai Dimension helps her take care of all that hair. (Longhaired bad guys never have hair problems, didn't you know that?)
Mau's eyes are brilliant gold in colour. They seem very flat and shallow, hiding nearly impenetrably her true personality and motives. She keeps her secrets well, but her anger always sparks a response in her eyes, turning them darker and bringing a flash to them like fire. Her dark, narrow brows and long eyelashes enhance this effect. If her natural expression weren't so cold, Mau would be something of a beauty like her mother. but she almost never smiles, and what smile she shows is much more of a grimace, a baring of teeth.
Mau's skin is very pale, almost literally white, with a bluish undertone. It looks perfect, poreless and smooth, which is odd since her natural hair colour is black. She seems almost reptilian in her smoothness. She has no scars, which is also a bit odd. Like her expression, Mau's voice is chill, all but emotionless. She is an alto, but since she doesn't sing no-one knows what her singing voice would sound like.
Mau dresses like a callgirl, very provocatively. The Senshi fuku isn't much of a change for her from her usual sorts of clothing. Colors are whatever comes to hand that day, but there's a lot of black, silver, gold, and red in her closet.
Emotional Description:
Mau has a rather quiet exterior, but inwardly she is under a great deal of mental pressure and a constant flow of undercurrents. She usually seems to be absorbed in another sphere of existence, above being actively involved in mundane activities surrounding her. She is very aloof and standoffish, putting many people away from her, which is just fine with her. She doesn't want a lot of people close to her. The only being for whom she demonstrates and real affection is her cat.
Her personality blends emotional force, determination and will power with originality and ingenuity. She is strongwilled and has deeply fixed attitudes and ideas. Keen judgment of human nature and the ability to sense the motives of others gives her a good knack for handling people -- if she ever used it. But she is a rough boss, for once she loses respect for someone's ability to think and reason, she has no use for them in any way. Never showing this outwardly, she can always be polite and civil, while feeling nothing but scorn and disgust. She doesn't believe in showing her emotions, so she hides the intolerance she can't help but feel.
She has a need for adulation, but unless she feels that she deserves it -- which is almost never -- she resents people that flatter and compliment her. She has a strong ability to influence people and as she climbs up the ladder, she becomes surrounded by "yes men", for whom she holds no respect. Shallowness or superficiality completely throw her off. She has a profound mind that is broad and tolerant (at least in theory), and quite creative. Pride is strongly marked in her nature, and she sets great store by intellectual and artistic accomplishment. There is a depth to her nature and her emotions that few can understand. Passion is the key to her hidden emotions.
Passion is the emotion Mau thrives on. Angry passion gives her enemies into her hands, intellectual passion enables her to use her talent of lightning control, and hateful passion holds her on track to her ultimate goal: the overthrow of the Emperor. Not that Mau sees the Emperor as evil. Mau just wants to rule. And she'll sacrifice almost anything for that. Including her allies, if need be. But first she requires something to get her close to the Imperial family.
To her, the ideal would be to capture Sailor Adrasteia, present her to the Emperor, and kill them both. Her one great weakness is her deep and abiding hatred for all Sailor Senshi. Deep inside, she knows she's doing wrong, but refuses to admit it. Pain and anger are what she thrives on, living on the idea that the Sailor Senshi betrayed her into the Kuraijin.
Who are you?: I will have revenge on the Senshi. They betrayed me, forsook me and left me to be taken by the Kuraijin. I had no choice but to join them, join them or die. But I won't die until I have achieved my goal. There is nothing else that is important. My sister, the Senshi ... they left me behind, and they will pay! My name may be Kuraino Mau, now, but the only face they will see will be that of Nemesis, Soldier of Vengeance.
Hobbies: playing flute and harp, meditation, martial arts such as capoeira, drinking
Friend(s) and Acquaintance(s): errr ...
Mau knows a lot of people ... but being FRIENDS with them is something else. She's just not the kind of person who MAKES friends anymore. Given that Mau spends a lot of time in the nightclub, looking for "leads" -- in the bottom of a glass -- she's well-aquainted with Nadine and others associated with the club.
Love Interest (if any): Mau has a love/hate relationship with her Emperor. Sleeping around to get what she wants, though ... that happens a lot.
History:
Once upon a time, not really all that distant from the current battle, a girl was born to a woman and her second husband. The girl grew up in close company with her half-sister and three others, and upon their 14th birthdays, the five became Senshi together. Their names were Themis -- our protagonist -- Tyche -- her sister -- Aletheia, Nike, and Ananke. Because they each represented a certain type of virtue, they became known as the Virtue Senshi.
As the Kingdom expanded, the five were used as a sort of roving police force, moving among the planets to keep the law -- which was, after all, what their patronages were centered around. This worked very well for a while. They got older, gained experience, turned 18, gained more experience -- and met up with a group of outlaws who would prove to be their undoing.
It's not a pretty part of the Lunar history, and very little is known now about this band of outlaws, known as the Shinka Syndicate. She remembers a lot, though. They were extremely smart, comparable to the white-collar criminals of today, and they were almost too smart for Themis and her team. After a final, pitched battle which destroyed a number of asteroids in the Belt, the Virtue Senshi finally defeated the outlaws.
But at a terrible cost.
Aletheia died. Ananke went insane at the terrible result of their strongest powers. Nike and Tyche both suffered from near-debilitating grief and guilt. Themis pulled through the best, but the team was recalled to Crystal Tokyo rapidly. As a distraction, the Queen sent the remaining three -- Themis, Tyche, and Nike -- on a celebratory tour of the Lunar Kingdom. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea, but she was young, and new to ruling, and didn't know what else to do.
So the three went. And a heretofore unsuspected malfunction in the FTL drive caused their ship to drop not one dimension below normal, but two -- right into Kurai space. They managed to coast the crippled ship to a stable landing, and began to juryrig a fix in an attempt to get out of where they knew they probably weren't supposed to be.
They were discovered, attacked.
Only Tyche escaped that encounter, escaping back to the Lunar Dimension and the capital in their broken ship. Nike vanished utterly. And Themis was captured.
Her memories are extremely hazy of this time. And no wonder. Exploration in old Kurai records will show that she was tortured, raped repeatedly, and beaten, before they turned an expert loose on her. The records do not show whom. This person played her like a lute, holding her grief and guilt at the fates of her teammates before her and twisting her with it.
She recalls wondering why no one came to save her. She recalls screaming and struggling as the Kuraijin put her into a deep sleep and sealed her up.
When she woke up again, hundreds of years had passed. The Kuraijin were opening the portal to the Lunar Kingdom, and apparently some rare kindly soul had thought that maybe she could go back.
But it was much, much too late. The results weren't readily apparent, but Mau was insane, an insanity built upon old guilt and grief and hazy, mangled memories. She had come, over the centuries of sleep, to believe that her Senshi teammates Tyche and Nike had betrayed the team to the Shinka Syndicate, betrayed her into the grasp of the Kuraijin. Some part of her, buried deep, still remembered that she was supposed to hate the Kuraijin, so she did. But she also hated her half-sister and teammate for leaving her there, not coming to save her. She barely remembers anything at all of her days as a true Senshi.
She changed her name, her appearance, and her Senshi title, and begged place from the Emperor. God only knows why he gave it to her. Maybe she was convincing enough in her madness. Maybe he saw a use for her.
Her life centers now on seizing power from the Emperor, enough power to enable her to time travel, enough power to protect her from anything. Deep down inside, she fears what she's become. She fears that the Emperor will one day find her expendable and get rid of her. So her driving goals are twofold: win her way close enough to the Emperor to assume his place and power, and then use that power to find her last remaining teammate, her half-sister, and die with her.
Warrior
Name(s): Sailor Nemesis. usually called Nemesis
Team / Affiliation: Kuraijin
Physical Description: Nemesis' general physical appearance doesn't change at all; only her outfit. She wears a Super Senshi fuku, but her bodysuit and gloves are grey, to signify the fact that she has been corrupted. Her bows are a metallic gold, and skirt, collar, gloverings, boots are all black. The center of the bow on her chest sports her double-crescent symbol. Her tiara also has a black gemstone in it.
Symbol (if any): two crescent moons back2back, one black, one gold
Transformation (if any): Nemesis Darkness Power make-up
Mau waves her henshin pen in the air and whispers the words, before a whirling blur of deepest shadow sweeps up and envelops her. As it vanishes upwards, her skirt, collar, and bows all blow upwards as in a wind, then settle back down with her hair. Usually, she is already in the process of aiming her crossbow when the henshin ends.
Powers:
- lightning arrow
Nemesis calls out the words while cocking a crossbow which forms out of lightning in her hands. A brilliant, crackling bolt of lightning appears on the stock, which she fires at the target.
The arrow has a voltage the same as a normal American electric socket (I guess that's about 10V? Iunno.) It can't get any less or more. Aside from the obvious magicality of the lightning bolt (ooh, a pun, a pun!), this power is exactly the same effects, strengths, and weaknesses as firing her regular nonmagical crossbow would be. With respect to the lightning bolt, the effect on hitting the target is as if they stuck their finger in the aforementioned electric socket.
- sonic boom
Nemesis calls out the words, and bolts of electricity begin to zap back and forth between her hands, held out, palms facing, before her. Over the course of 30 seconds the voltage builds up higher and higher, to approximate that of a fairly huge lightning bolt. Then she smacks her hands together, and the power discharges through her, creating a really LOUD thunderclap.
Nemesis is magically immune to the effects of her own powers, but this one tends to put even her a bit off -- the effect of all that electricity grounding through her. She becomes effectively deaf for about 10 minutes afterward. Plus, really loud sounds can generate physical forces, which all avenge themselves on her, putting her to her knees; the only effect that the target gets is the sound. Generally, the level of the thunderclap is quite enough to send the target to their knees with hands clapped to ears; more sensitive people may pass out and in really extreme cases their eardrums may burst. This last is VERY VERY rare, however, about one chance in 1000 of occurring.
Nemesis could, if she had the stamina, build up the level of voltage even higher and thus generate the actual equivalent of a sonic boom, but the released forces would probably kill her. At the VERY least, she'd be knocked out for several days and deaf for some days after that, before beginning to regain her hearing.
- lightning hurricane
Nemesis calls out the words while raising her hands to the sky. Lightning crackles from fingertip to fingertip, then to the sky where dark clouds are forming over her head. More and more lightning dances around her, and a rising stormwind blows her hair wildly. After about a minute of this, Nemesis is sheathed in a whirling cyclone of electricity. Whomever she first touches after completing the power-gathering phase of the spell will recieve the full discharge of the lightning through their body, which may be up to several thousand volts. Nemesis will recieve the backlash of that discharge.
Both will die.
This is a sacrificial, one-time use spell. There is no possibility of Nemesis surviving. The chances of the target surviving are the same chances as surviving a direct, major lightning strike to the head (whatever that is, pretty low I should think).
Nemesis can only 'hang' this power for about 5 minutes before the electricity starts to bleed away into the atmosphere around her. Then she turns into this walking static cling person, and no matter what she does, her touch will result only in a small shock to both parties. It's highly embarassing, for one, and awfully painful to Nemesis for two -- something on the order of having your blood slowly drain out, I guess.
After all the power drains away, Nemesis would go comatose for a week or so. Random lightning would zap off of her during this entire time, and any machines hooked up to her would short out rapidly. Batteries would explode. But Nemesis is saving her one use of this spell for when she finds her sister -- its proper name ought to be 'lightning vengeance'.
Fighting Style: Vengeance can't be achieved in death, so, 'stay alive' is the important thing.
Weapons: crossbow (non-magical)
Items: henshin pen - black topped by the back2back crescent moons
Strengths / Weaknesses: Not the strongest of the Empire's warriors, but definitely the most ruthless. Her power as a Sailor Senshi is augmented by her role as a Kuraijin. Her skill with the crossbow is renowned, and superhuman strength means she can fire more rapidly than a normal human. Add her uncanny abilities with lightning, and any sane person would cut and run. But throw her obviously former status as a Sailor Senshi in her face and you might get somewhere without feathers decorating your butt.
Ways of Getting Your A$$ Beaten:
- recall her former status as a trusted Sailor Senshi
- ground yourself against her lightning powers
- take her henshin pen away from her -- she IS still a Senshi and DOES still have to transform
Slogan: Behold the face of vengeance.
Other titles: formerly Sailorthemis, the Soldier of Divine Justice
Soldier of Vengeance
Writing Samples(required!):
1) Social Situation:
Mau swished into Anarchist's Paradise. Her long hair, black streaked with silver, flowed out behind her. Across the bar, people turned and stared, then whispered to their neighbors. Then, they did that everytime she came in. Mau shrugged. It meant nothing to her. She smoothed her black miniskirt over her thighs and settled on a stool right at the bar. The two men seated on either side started to move in close, but she gave each of them a cold glance, and they hurriedly moved away.
"Vodka on the rocks," she called.
Nadine smiles slightly, yet could not hide the confusion in her eyes. "Vodka *pause* on the rocks?" There were obvious cultural differences flashing through Nadine's brain as she bent over and punched a few buttons into a machine out of Mau's field of vision. "One second"A few moments later, a pouring sound could be heard as Nadine came back up. In her hand lay a glass of vodka..and floating inside the vodka were some red and blue striped rocks.
"Here you go,"
Mau took the glass without even blinking. Thank GOD this was a place where she didn't get ice in her drink. Then again, it WAS run by Kuraijin, so that fact was unsurprising. But all the other bars in town -- she sneered, then knocked half the drink back. She gasped for breath afterward. Kurai vodka, as well, not that puny Earth stuff. A woman could get drunk off this.
"Any news, lately?"
"Of course, many news lately." Nadine could only smile. "None that we're looking for, but there's lots of news."
Of course Nadine knew that Mau did NOT want to hear about that.
"Oh, by the way. You're working the club tonight." She could barely contain her snicker.
"Yes, someone signed you up for dancing on the 'Passerelle,' I think that's what you people call it. Anwyay, it's guys night tonight, so I suggest you change into something a little more....revealing."
Nadine gave a small laugh and turned about, retrieving some goblets from the shelves behind her.
Mau came back to Earth with something of a jerk. "Wait ... back up there." She practically dropped the glass back down to the bar. "I'm supposed to do what?" 'Not that I mind, so much, especially if I can take someone back with me afterward, but this is beyond ... beyond something!' "Whose bright idea was that?" She smoothed out her miniskirt again, wondering why she would need to change ... unless they didn't want a striptease ...
"The Passerelle? That would be our glorious Empress. And you working it? Who knows, probably someone in the kitchen. You know how those guys are: they don't get out much, but they really do seem to enjoy the human form in particular."
Nadine smiled again, could only imagine what a tenticle beast would do to a woman like Mau. She blinked and smiled evily.
"And yes, change." Nadine peeked over to assess Mau's choice of clothing, "Having on revealing clothes isn't against the rules for our club, taking clothes off is another matter: we don't want to pay any more fines."
Nadine pulled off a small tag number and gave it to Mau, "A few more citations and they'll try to close us down. Here, take this tag to the back and give it to one of our children. It'll bring you clothes to try on."
Mau accepted the ticket without further comment. Whatever it took to keep her integrated with the society, she'd do. By now, she believed, very few remembered that she truly wasn't one of them at all ...
2) Fighting Situation:
Nemesis exploded off of one wall, ricocheting with her superior strength and agility from rooftop to rooftop. Nothing could catch her now, nothing, not even the puny so-called Senshi behind her. Sailoruranus! Hah. Nemesis sneered in her face. Sailorneptune. Even worse.
Whipping around on a precarious perch, Nemesis raised her crossbow, sighted along it. Blue-and-gold figure, running with the strength of the wind … leaping, leaping, it would leap -there- into the sights of the crossbow … she pulled the trigger. The bolt leapt forward, impelled by principles of leverage and Nemesis' undying hatred for all things Senshi - even herself. It sped forward, throwing off one brilliant sparkle under the afternoon sunlight of Tokyo … and buried itself up to the feathers between the elegantly shod feet of Sailorneptune.
Nemesis frowned harder. Their teamwork was astounding. And annoying! A vague flicker of memory obtruded … "You are only as strong as your weakest member, but together you are greater than the sum of your parts." Impatiently, angrily she shoved it away. That was the past, a past she refused to remember. Some things were best forgotten.
Nemesis leapt away again, forcing the two Senshi to follow her. Spotting in mid-jump the exact kind of blind alley she needed, she dropped down into it, landing in a crouch she kept to. She slotted another bolt into the crossbow, then cocked it and propped in her pocketspace, easily to hand.
Hatred danced living in her gold eyes as she confronted, face-to-face, the last two Senshi who would ever exist. After these two, there would be no more. A smile, devoid of all joy, crawled across her face. Uranus returned a stare as hostile. From these two, there would be no mouthings of how they were all Senshi, couldn't they talk together? Nemesis was thankful for that. For that, she would give them a clean death. They would fight, instead of talk, and for that they DESERVED the clean death. She raised a hand, lightning already beginning to spark around it, and pointed at the two Senshi. "Are you ready to die?"
"Who ARE you?" Neptune snapped.
"Vengeance in mortal form. That is all you need to know."
Uranus didn't waste time asking useless questions; she attacked. Nemesis retaliated with equal power, and they sprang apart again, stalemated.
"Do you see now? This is the end."
"No." Just that one word, but it pulled fury to full life in Nemesis. How dared they tell her no! She was the living incarnation of the universe's vengeance on all things Sailor Senshi, and no was not a word she would hear. She advanced on them, slowly, with the implacable force of an avalanche, faking the beginnings of her attack again. At point blank range, with bare milliseconds before the two senshi would launch their own, dual attack, she ripped out the crossbow and fired into Neptune's chest.
"NO!" Uranus screamed, despair ringing true in her magnificent voice. Nemesis gloried in that sound.
"We are the last, now, Ten'ou Haruka, Sailoruranus. After you, there will be no more true awakened Senshi."
Uranus only bared her teeth, tearstreaks running crystal paths down her face.
3) Insignificant Situation: "brush hair"
Mau sprawled out on the lounge chair, lazy and lust-sated. She attempted to run a hand through her hair to smooth it out of her face and encountered a large knot. Apparently, the magic of the Kurai Dimension did NOT run to bedsport. Unfortunately. Things were a lot less fun afterward, especially when her partner got away before she could tell them to brush her hair.
She pulled the ankle-length mass over her body and luxuriated in the feel of it -- or tried to. Usually it felt like silk, or velvet, like a warm, living cape enclosing her body, but right now it felt more like wool. Itchy. She flicked her wrist and summoned her brush out of the subspace pocket.
Sitting up, she began to methodically pull the brush through the ends of her hair, restoring it to the usual soft feel. The brush was black with shed hair, and long strands soon littered the floor around her. She worked her way as far as her waist from the bottom before she began to hit the really tough knots. Pausing to let her arm rest, Mau smoothed a perfectly formed hand over the hair. Soft to the touch, almost living -- her one great beauty. The silver streaks glittered like actual metal, but to the fingertips they felt even silkier than the darkness surrounding.
Mau gritted her teeth and set the brush back to a strand of hair near her waist. Slowly, with infinite patience, she pulled downward, downward, a foot two feet three feet … and the brush hit and pulled out of the end of the lock of hair. Set, pull, repeat, over and over. The rhythm became hypnotic. She used long fingernails to work out some of the really tough knots, and vowed inwardly to find another way to deal with this. Maybe if she stayed on top …
Comments?: The theme here is of misapplied justice, vengeance. Nemesis is, properly, the goddess of divine vengeance. Another of her names was Adrasteia, which is more usually identified as the goddess of inescapable justice (so as not to step on V's toes). Themis was the goddess of divine justice. Astraea and Dike were her daughters, the goddess of merciful justice and human justice, respectively.
Aletheia is the goddess of truth; Tyche the goddess of luck; Ananke the goddess of unavoidable destiny; and Nike the goddess of victory.
read review
© Panya Covin-Gwynn & PawPrint Productions.