✖ Jigoku Apartments: Application ✖

[wolfishsurvivalist]

PLAYER:

Name: Ziri
Personal Journal: zirio
Contact Info: AiM: ShikaNoOkami, ZiriO
Invited by: Crow did it.

CHARACTER:

Name: Mika Whitepaws
Source: Original

History: Her Earth is not unlike the one we know today, but whether it was by magic, natural selection, or human design, several species similar to humans but with more animal traits began to appear over the course of history dating as far back as the middle ages. No one quite knew their origins, but there are stories among the older clans of a trickster, a liar that fooled the once proud animals into taking a relic that would make them safe from harm by man's hand, that transformed them into what they are now, but that's just an old folktale. In the earliest stories, the animals would disguise themselves as humans in order to interact with the local villages. Whenever they were discovered, the humans were usually hostile and the demihumans were forced to flee. When the forests of Europe were no longer safe, the demihumans once again disguised themselves as humans to make the trip to the New World. Many of them either fled to the wilderness or were forced to live their lives hiding what they were. They still have to deal with being treated like domesticated livestock on occasion, which always gets awkward. Humanity is still trying to get used to the demihumans (who are genetically far closer to animals than humans in spite of looking far more like the latter), but the situation is still rocky at best.

Even in their new state, wolves are still wolves. Pack hierarchy is law within a house, with the alpha pair as the rulers of the den. Dominance scuffles are common among the children, with the fiercest cub rising to the top as the beta regardless of birth order. The omega is the one most willing to submit to the others, putting up the least amount of resistance. Deltas are one step above an omega, submissive but still trying to scramble for a foothold on the pack totem pole. The lower ranks are also the ones usually tasked with babysitting duty when the alphas and betas are busy. Mika is a delta, and while having gotten along reasonably well with her big brother who babysat her the most, she was often given the brunt of her middle sibling's irritability at being trapped under the rule of their parents. Her sister was already showing the signs of being an alpha at a young age, and was quick to show her younger sibling who was boss since Mika was so easy to bully. As soon as her sister moved out and found a place of her own, Mika's relations with her improved greatly. Being the runt and a natural delta left Mika with a tendency towards avoiding problems and a knack for running away. It also left her skittish and defensive, quick to snap back when someone tried to push her around.

Her father was the one that introduced her to comics and anime when she was small, spending hours with her as he read to her. Mika grew up with a broad ranged knowledge of fantastical lore, science fiction, and a love for horror, mecha, explosions, and magical girls. Most of her spare time was spent reading, and when she was old enough to get her own computer and game console whatever time she had left was gone. She's well read and her interests were wildly varied, but oftentimes more suited to a boy's taste than a girl's. Not that she cared, really.

After she and her friends were out of college, they usually only got together to see a movie or sit around playing video games all day. This time was different, as they were all fans of spooky things, so when the rumors of a local haunted spot cropped up, Mika and a small group of friends piled into a car and went to go check it out. Most of them didn't find a thing in the quiet little forested spot with the rundown house. No one did except for Mika. She disappeared without a trace, and when they did find her she looked like a different person entirely.

Parts of her previously brown fur had turned white, her frame gaunt, as if her very life had been frightened from her body. Rambling manically about a haunted town, it took a few days to sort out what had happened from her feverish raving. While they'd explored the house, Mika had been following a strange smell and a feeling that had left her fur standing on end. She'd missed a step on the basement stairs and cracked her forehead on a low beam. When she'd woken up, she was in a ghost town.

Literally.

Hours had felt like days, years even, as she'd scrambled around trying to find a way out. Was it a dream? An out-of-body experience? Mika had no idea, save for the gut feeling that everything that she'd experienced in that place had been real. All the creatures that had chased her, all the ghosts she'd fought off. She'd been dead set to pass it off as a wild dream if it hadn't been for the drastic changes to her body and the one piece of evidence that had shown the most wear; her notebook. Pages of scrawled notes, mysterious stains and sketches, hurried scribbles of what was almost nonsense filled it almost from cover to cover. It was undeniably Mika's writing, and it was found lying outside the house, far from where she'd been found sprawled face-first on the basement floor. Shaken, Mika and her friends piled into the car and put the place behind them, afraid to ever mention it again.

Rattled from her experience, Mika needed her own space away from her people. Too many times she'd tried to explain her experiences and got only blank stares and questions about her sanity. She withdrew socially, with only a few (albeit very confused) friends who stood by her. A year passed, her family grew more accustomed to her fragile mental state, and slowly over the course of time Mika was relaxing and getting used to a life away from the apartments. After such abysmal luck rearing its ugly head, Mika was grateful for the return to apparent normalcy, her relationship with her friends and family were tenuous but improving, and things were looking up. Unfortunately it was little more than wishful thinking.

It was nearly a year to the day when she awoke in her bed in the apartments again. Hysteria and panic were at their all-time highs, and yet it barely took Mika a week before she'd settled back into her routines. Months passed, she saw new people come and go, only it seemed as if more people were fading from the apartments than arriving. The end of the year came, and it was one frosty day in mid-winter when she realized that aside from a German shepherd puppy rescued by another tenant, she was now alone in the apartments.

It's been two years since then.

Personality: Being a wolf, Mika is a very social animal. She loves people and craves strong relationships, building a network of friends as close as family wherever she goes. To her, having a pack is very important, and her pack keeps her sane and steady no matter what happens around her. She is loyal to her family and friends, and always willing to be there for them no matter why or when they need her. Supportive and trusting, it might make her easy to bully but she'll be steadfast unless given more than enough reasons not to be.

However when around people she isn't comfortable with Mika can be sarcastic and snarky, prone to bitter comebacks and snapping when bothered. This is a defensive mechanism to distance herself from others, a way to weed out people that might ultimately cause her more harm. Much more prone to reacting aggressively when she feels threatened now, she's not above baring her fangs and snarling in a display of dominance. She is also very anxious and skittish, and flinches from loud noises thanks to her time in the apartments.

The town has left a very large mark on her, physically and mentally. Mika is terrified of being truly alone anywhere, gets nervous in thick fog, and favors her right side. Between an attack by a lake monster and being shot by another tenant in the apartments, her right leg was left weakened due to scarring in the muscles of her thigh, and any perceived threat coming from that side will trigger an immediate response. This is the biggest reason why Mika is very skittish, jumping at shadows and things she sees out of the corner of her eye.

The lake monster attack itself was one of the worst experiences in her life, being her worst death experience. The scars on her side and thigh are very deep, as if large chunks of muscle have been torn away, and Mika is very self-conscious of them. She wears clothes that keep the scars hidden most of the time, as it keeps off the sun and gives her some level of protection. She still suffers from nightmares because of that incident.

Still, even if she's not comfortable with them, Mika isn't so heartless as to not help someone in need. She is usually willing to set aside her differences in order to help anyone at any time, her better nature breaking through the fear that threatens to consume her when she's out of her element. If trouble comes up and there's anything she can do to lend a hand, Mika will be one of the first to jump in without even thinking about her better interests. She might not think she has much to offer, but she'll always try to give her best when it counts the most.

Biggest Fear: Becoming one of the town monsters.

Powers: None, though she is rather genre-savvy.

SAMPLES:

Third Person: As soon as she woke up to the bite of cinnamon in her mouth, Mika sat up and spat the candy out. The thick scent of mildew and mold assaulted her sensitive nose, and she kicked off the covers and stuffed her feet into the slippers that had somehow been left neatly beside the bed. She was covered in the stink of the sheets now, her hackles up as she yanked her clothes off the nightstand and stormed out of the bedroom as fast as her bad leg could carry her.

Last night, she'd been sleeping on the couch. Mika hadn't slept on a bed for over two years, finding the relative safety away from the walls and things that could lurk beneath the bedframes more conducive to a full night's rest. Ears perked for out of place sounds, it wasn't long before she heard the sharp canine keening and the scraping of claws on wood that had probably woken her up in the first place. A moment's stumbling over furniture that had been rearranged over night and she'd yanked a door open and released the German shepherd that had been her lone companion since everyone had left. It took a long time before the dog's frazzled nerves were soothed, or perhaps it was less Zita's nerves and more Mika's own that needed the comforting. After all, this kind of radical change hadn't been seen around town in ages.

Not since...

That thought made her blood run cold. The town hadn't been this active since before everyone else had gone. She didn't even notice the cold nose smearing her palm with snuffles, didn't notice the faint groaning sound of the dead pressing against the walls. Suddenly she was more awake than she'd been in a long time, heart pounding as the dread kicked in.

The town was awake again, and it was stronger.

The tape wards she's left on the entire apartment had been ripped away. Furniture rearranged while she slept. Mika herself moved to the bed from the couch in the living room. She was already tearing the flat apart before she found the phone. Shaking fingers had just touched the plastic when the first alert she'd heard in years seemed to cut through the oppressive silence of the apartment like a knife.

Where the hell am I??|

Her hand shook, thumbs hovering over the touchpad for a heartbeat that seemed to stretch on forever before she replied with a single word.

Jigoku.

First Person: [She sighs, rubbing the back of her neck to ease an ache, Zita's head resting on her knee as she looks at the supplies spread out across the top of the coffee table. Her apartment sounds hollow, save for the ever-present noises of the other residents that seemed to have turned to little more than white noise to her now. Glancing down at the dog, her own ears flick forward and her eyebrows arch.]

Well, Zita? Looks like we're not alone anymore, doesn't it. [The dog's eyebrows arch as Zita looks up at the wolf girl, who simply ruffles the shepherd's ears.]

Might as well say hello, right? [Mika looks back at her phone, her ears twitching forward as she regards the video feed.]

To anyone who might be listening, welcome to hell. You now live in the Jigoku Apartments until further notice. Have fun with that.

Notes: Any way she can keep her old apartment?