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Application
Jul. 9th, 2012 11:47 pmUser Name/Nick: Amanda
User DW: n/a
AIM/IM: on file
E-mail: on file
Other Characters: Amanda Young
Character Name: Mariska
Series: Lollipop Chainsaw
Age: Unknown, but she's definitely of age for this game. She was 18 at the youngest when she died, and existed undead in the Rotten World for decades until being summoned back to the world of the living in 2012.
From When?: After Killabilly is defeated and her soul is released.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Mariska actively tries to kill the protagonist of her canon, and furthermore, donates her soul towards the creation of an uber-zombie with the goal of overrunning the world with the undead.
Item: N/A
Abilities/Powers: As a video game boss, Mariska has a slew of special abilities and powers. Here's the list, and how I'm hoping they'd be reduced on the barge. I'd prefer for nearly all of them to be removed, and others reduced in severity.
- Zombie physiology: there are several of these, which I will be tackling separately.
--- Bites and infection: By biting people, Mariska is able to turn them into zombies. There is a "venom" in her saliva, and it must enter the bloodstream of infectees to change them. The rules for ordinary zombies in the Lollipop Chainsaw universe are a bit different; they retain their memories/personalities, power of speech and basic intelligence, but receive increased strength and stamina (not on par with Mariska's, as she's a different kind of zombie and can't create more of her exact kind), base impulses and aggression; they also begin to rot and are overwhelmed by a hunger for living flesh. This zombifications extend to animals, as well, though they're far more docile than their human-zombie counterparts. This will be removed.
--- Enhanced strength: Mariska has enhanced physical strength. It's above standard human ability--think vampire-level strength. I'd like for this to be reduced, but not removed.
--- Pain threshold: Mariska's ability to feel pain is greatly reduced. She is able to experience it, but it's negligible at first. As more damage is dealt to her, the pain worsens. Because of her undead status, pain doesn't interfere with her ability to function, but if she's harmed a lot it will hurt badly.
--- Resiliency to damage: Mariska is just as capable of sustaining bodily damage as an average person; bullets, blades and the like can all do harm to her, but typically, it's negligible unless heavy damage is dealt. Unlike standard zombies, removing/destroying the head is not an instant kill. Very heavy damage must be dealt; then, taking off the head will finish her. On-barge, however, destruction of the brain should be rendered an instant kill regardless of her physical resiliency, as it is for everyone else aboard. A bullet to the brain would be as effective for killing her as any normal human.
--- Loss of limbs/other bodily parts: Being undead and stitched together, this is much less of a problem than it might seem. I'll cover this in the "dismemberment and replication" section.
- Psychedelic powers: Again, there are a bunch, and I will tackle them separately.
--- Dismemberment and replication: If Mariska is cut in two, or if she decides to tear herself in two (she is normally capable of this), she can turn each half into a full replication of herself. She can then tear each replication of herself in two and create more; she can create seven of these "clones," making the grand total eight when her original "self" is included. She maintains full control over all of them, and they all possess her powers at full strength. Once these have been created, the extras must be destroyed before she can be killed; however, it is much easier to destroy the extras, as it will only take the equivalent of a few shotgun blasts to make them poof into the ether. I'd like for this to be almost completely nerfed, with only the ability to re-attach body parts that might be torn off in an accident remaining.
--- Levitation/teleportation: She is able to levitate an indefinite distance off of the ground. While she does, an iridescent, translucent sphere surrounds her. While in this bubble, she can teleport short distances. She is able to encase other people in these bubbles to lift them off the ground as well; she can also make these bubbles cause them pain if she wishes, or leave them harmless. I'd like for her ability to cast these bubbles upon others/ability to use them for harmful reasons and the ability to teleport removed, but for her personal levitation to remain intact, just reduced so that she can float no more than four feet in the air.
--- Mental landscape projection: Mariska can project her mental landscape onto the surrounding environment, completely subsuming it. She can then incorporate elements from the normal setting into her zone; for example, when she projected her mind while on a farm, she was able to utilize farm equipment to attack the protagonist and spawn giant mechanical chicken monsters. This can be completely removed.
--- Parasitic butterflies: Mariska is able to generate "hallucinatory" shimmering butterfly images. In addition to looking pretty, she can make these latch onto others. This causes them pain and physical harm, but the victim will be able to remove them by moving too fast for them to keep clinging. When unattached to anyone, they dissipate into nothingness on their own after ten seconds. I'd like for her to be able to cast these butterflies as illusions, but for them to be rendered benign, unable to cling to anyone and/or cause harm. She'd only create them because they're pretty.
--- Projectile energy ballistics: Mariska can draw on the ~energies~ around her and send streams of pure, luminescent energy out as an attack; they look and sound like fireworks. She can generate many (20-30) of them at once, and they function as blunt blows to opponents. This power will be removed.
--- Telepathy: Mariska can speak to others using her mind. However, she can't read minds, so the communication is one-way. This power will be removed.
--- Magic mushrooms: Mariska can quickly grow enormous mushrooms. When these are destroyed or opened in some way, they release spores that cause terrifying hallucinations of an altered world with monsters and phantom versions of herself upon inhalation. These illusions can cause physical harm to the person hallucinating them. This power will be removed.
--- "Shape shifting": Mariska can take on the appearances and voices of others. Her mirror reflection while in this state, however, will betray her rotten skin and weird eyes. This power will be removed.
--- Magnified hands: Mariska can bring forth and use giant versions of her hands and arms without altering the ones attached to her. This power will be removed.
--- Rocket ship: She can summon a large rocket ship and use the exhaust system to set enemies on fire/burn them. I don't even know WHY...maybe because the Space Race took place in the 1960s? This will be removed.
- Other: These aren't powers, but I still feel that they're worth mentioning, because they'll give an idea of certain day-to-day behaviors and requirements.
--- Special diet: As a zombie, Mariska's normal diet is kicking and screaming human beings. However, so long as the cafeteria can provide her with raw, unprocessed red meat and blood, she can definitely subsist on that. Of course, that doesn't mean she has to like it, or that she won't be tempted...
--- Being undead, Mariska has no need for sleep, though she does meditate to ~re-align her energies.~ She does, however, still need to bathe.
--- Despite being a partially decayed corpse, her decay does not progress past the point at which she's shown, and she don't smell of rot. Body parts don't fall off on their own, either--they must be being ripped off to detach.
--- So long as she dresses conservatively, only a small number of her stitches will be visible. Aside from that, her green skin and odd eyes (one white-blue and filmed over, one yellow) are the only things about her physiology that would really make people look twice. She used to be human, after all. In other words, she'd be able to pass for human in ports, as far less human-looking characters have before. If her warden provides her with colored contacts, she could use those to make herself look even more normal.
Personality:
Mariska is a bit of a conundrum. In life, she was a standard pacifist hippie who protested war and couldn't bring herself to eat meat. Having been a zombie for so long, her views on violence have changed...somewhat. While she prefers to be at peace, and won't attack people indiscriminately unless provoked (or ordered to by someone who's summoned her), she will not hesitate to maim, infect or kill once she deems it to be right. She also eats meat, as it is a necessity of her new physiology, and her flesh of choice is live human. The reason for the conundrum is that she doesn't see these zombie behaviors to be at odds with her old philosophies. This is partially due to her post-zombification views on death, and partially because she feels that she's kept to the biggest principles of the hippie lifestyle in her heart.
Since she acquired her powers after death, she feels not only like dying was the best thing to happen to her, but that true enlightenment is only possible through death, period. As such, she doesn't feel like killing people is that cruel. She's able to frame her zombified aggression to be compatible with her old philosophy by taking the view that death and zombie-ism are gifts she can bestow upon her victims. This renders any murders she commits as a sort of necessary evil if her new concept of "peace" is to dominate the world. It is largely because of this that she feels her hippie beliefs and zombie nature are, in fact, complimentary rather than contradictory. After all, who's going to care if she takes a chomp out of them once they've realized they don't need living bodies? Speaking of her new concept of peace: she now believes that "chaos is all there is." Peace comes from accepting and using that chaos.
She's a very friendly, open and welcoming person on some level, even to those she intends to kill (ESPECIALLY to them, in fact). She invites them to voyage into altered states of consciousness with her, and calls them all by "sister" and "brother." The concept of community is vitally important to her, although this tends to be overridden by her killer instincts in the case of living beings. Despite not sharing any interests with her fellow Dark Purveyors, she values their company. She lets rude comments towards her roll off her back, and she's used to receiving a LOT. Part of this can be attributed to her belief that one should accept their plight and live with it. She's prone to laughing softly in-between statements, as well.
Despite her positive traits, Rotten World has left her with a really nasty side as well. Once that side of her surfaces, she seems like an entirely different person from the welcoming hippie chick everyone first encounters. She laughs while experiencing physical pain. She delights in tormenting the people who get in her way, and doesn't consider that to contradict her former opinion that she's giving them a gift when she kills them. As she considers the world of the living to be intolerable, she has no qualms about terrorizing it...especially since she'll only be giving its inhabitants the 'gift' of death anyway. The living world now sickens her, in fact, to the point where she says that it makes her want to vomit. Compared to Rotten World, she sees it as being full of pretensions, lies, materialism, consumerism and mindless herd behavior (the last of which is rather ironic, considering the behavior of a normal zombie). Even though Rotten World is Lollipop Chainsaw's analogue to Hell, being the place of demons and the undead and suffering, she feels it's a place that doesn't bullshit anyone, so her views on the concept of Hell are also positive.
She still espouses and lives by many naturist, hippie and transcendental principles, and engages in appropriate hobbies. Though she doesn't need sleep, she meditates extensively. Not only does it help her to center herself and stay reasonably calm, it also functions to assist in focusing her powers, as well: she typically uses all of them from the lotus position. She enjoys 'being one with' nature, although she alters it to her crazy specifications if it's within her power. She is a highly creative person, who enjoys arts such as painting, sewing and carving, and other such related activities. She writes poetry. She sings very well and plays the guitar and sitar, having actually made her current sitar herself.
Though she would not say no to drugs, she doesn't actually need them anymore, as her powers allow her to attain altered states of consciousness at will. Whether drugs would even work for her if she took them is unlikely, but the ritual aspect, the ability to revisit that part of her life, would appeal to her. As the "dirty hippie" archetype she also has trouble with personal hygiene, bathing very infrequently and replacing deodorant with patchouli.
Upon finding herself aboard the Barge, Mariska would be mildly puzzled; as far as she's aware, the universe is divided into only three worlds. However, as her view on reality is rather more fluid than most, there would be no panic and she'd acclimate to the idea fairly quickly. The same goes for species that don't exist in her canon, such as Time Lords. She'd welcome the brand-new experiences as something to expand her mind, and if she learned that many aboard are fictional in other worlds, well, she'd be wowed rather than worried, even if she herself was fourth-walled. She'd greet floods and breaches with the same attitude, rather than feel like her "self" had been violated somehow.
Path to Redemption: Appealing to her more peaceable tendencies will have some success over the long-term, if she can be made to understand that her pleasant experience with death doesn't justify killing other people. What certainly WON'T work is telling her she needs to become living again, as she will refuse to adjust her behavior if it involves needing to give up her current physical state. As she isn't an average zombie, controlling her impulses is within her ability, so returning to life wouldn't be necessary. This has nothing to do with her redemption, but hopefully her warden will also force her to take a shower once in a while.
History:
Not much is known about Mariska's early life, but certain things can be extrapolated. She was a young adult in 1960s America, and was part of the hippie counterculture at the time. At 16, she dropped out of school and ran off to join a hippie commune on O'Bannon Farm in San Romero, California, where everyone engaged in free love, drug use, meditation and self-sufficiency (growing their own food, making many of their own clothes, etc). She was a gentle, accepting soul, enthusiastic about the lifestyle, believing fully in the principles of peace and love. She was an extraordinarily talented musician and singer (taking much of her inspiration from Jefferson Airplane), as well, and a voracious reader (she particularly enjoyed the works of Aldous Huxley).
Her downfall came in her search for "enlightenment." She supplemented her meditative introspection with the use of Psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, mescaline and marijuana. Although she used these substances for years with no ill effect, a poorly thought-out decision to take a greater amount of mushrooms and mescaline (in combination) than usual in an attempt to expand her mind further led to an incredibly bad trip. Convinced she was being fed upon by vampiric butterflies, she ran through a field of wheat that some of her fellows were harvesting...and eventually right into a combine some of her fellows were using to harvest the crop. It tore her body to pieces.
After dying, she ended up in Rotten World (Lollipop Chainsaw's version of hell); the reason why is unknown, but it may be due to her manner of death. At first, she was quite understandably terrified...and then she inhaled a gas common to that world which turns people into zombies. Due to her musical strength, the infection didn't turn her into a normal zombie; those undead who most embody different styles of rock music in Rotten World mutate the virus by sheer force of the POWER OF ROCK. As a result, she became the only female elite zombie, or "Dark Purveyor"--the zombie queen of psychedelia. This bestowed upon her not only standard zombie powers, but psychedelic ones as well (along with complete fluency in Latin, for some reason). Through transcendental meditation, she was able to hone these for precise use. At the same time, Rotten World's nature corrupted her own and turned her into someone she never would have been in life. She began to be grateful for her death and infection, and to delight in the use of her powers and the sheer chaos she could inflict with them, particularly her ability to subsume environments and trap people in hallucinations. As she said, although "everything is a lie," that "all is lies, yet truth" as well. She began to regard death and zombification as being a gift to everyone, which worked out great for her newfound bloodlust.
Mariska dwelt in Rotten World for decades until 2012. That year, a "goth" man named Swan, a student at San Romero High School in California, used a combination of black magic and explosives to open a door between Rotten World and the world of the living. For being mocked and ostracized by his peers, he decided to get revenge by "rotting the world": overrunning it with the undead and killing or infecting everyone. He used a ritual to summon the five bosses of zombie rock in order, each from a different genre in the "pantheon": Zed, of punk rock; Vikke, of viking metal; Mariska, of psychedelia; Josey, of funk; and Lewis Legend, of rock and roll. Once summoned, they were bound to obey him, and he pitted each in turn against a zombie-slaying cheerleader named Juliet Starling, who he'd had a crush on and came to believe had rejected him.
Each Dark Purveyor was sent to an area of San Romero that they most corresponded to in terms of personality, each point serving as part of an enormous pentagram. Mariska was sent to O'Bannon Farm, the very place of her death. She infected the inhabitants upon subsuming the territory into her mental landscape. Juliet entered the farm to take her on after defeating Zed and Vikke, and Mariska used her shape shifting abilities to take the form of Juliet's younger sister to lure her deep into her illusory world (unbeknownst to Juliet, who thought she had traversed all the land that made up the farm, she didn't walk more than a few yards in real space). Mariska and Juliet finally went toe-to-toe, during which Mariska utilized all of her powers to fight her. When she was dealt the penultimate blow, she didn't protest her defeat or freak out, like her fellow rock lords. Instead, she laughed and said "peace out" before Juliet chopped off her head. As her soul departed her body, she recited something in Latin: "Meus Vita, Rege, pro nefario coepto."
Once Juliet had taken out all of the lords and confronted Swan, he revealed that she had been a pawn in the ritual: by slaughtering the five preselected zombies, who had all chanted "My life, O Lord, for your dark enterprise" in Latin as their souls abandoned their bodies, he would be able to combine their souls (including Mariska's), the bodies of the remaining "normal" zombies, and his own body and soul into the ultimate zombie, Killabilly. He brought the gargantuan zombie boss into existence, and after Killabilly's inevitable demise, the souls of the elite were released back to Rotten World.
Except, of course, for Mariska. She ended up on the Barge.
Sample Journal Entry:
Brothers and sisters: greetings. I am Mariska.
I just got here, and I must say, this is a really heavy trip to be dealing with. Seems like I stepped outside the boundaries of the universe, and while I've read enough to get the gist of this vessel, the particulars are unknown to me. I seek those truths. My mind and heart are open to whatever you're willing to tell me. If you're looking for payment, I have no money...ahahahaa...but I'll gladly trade you a song.
Speak vibrantly. Alter my perceptions, hahaha...
Sample RP:
Legs folded in their customary lotus position, Mariska floated several feet in the air above the common room carpet. Engulfing her was a translucent, iridescent sphere, flowing with colors like some kind of psychedelic soap bubble. She'd settled her handcrafted sitar across her lap, and slid her thumb lazily up and down the strings every so often to clear her mind. Every so often, the image of pink and purple butterfly wings constructed of colored light appeared behind her, making it seem like she'd sprouted them from her back. They faded nearly as quickly as they appeared, however, dispelling that illusion.
She sang in a soft voice, too quiet for anyone to make out most of the words; if one tried, one might pick up the phrase "zombie chickens." Those words repeated often, along with repetitive notes as she lightly plucked her sitar. She was trying to write a verse to a song, and the instrumentals and those two words--"zombie chickens"--were the only things she'd settled on thus far. She'd been working on it, floating peacefully in the common room for hours, without getting impatient or frustrated. She'd had the patience of a saint in life (even when she was giddy or worried over possibilities), and death had only cemented that trait. After all, there was no point worrying about how long something would take when she had eternity to work it out. And it wasn't as though writing the song was something she must do. She simply wished to, having already written verses about zombie cows and horses. There was something to be said for completeness.
...and for chickens, too, she mused. Maybe she'd be able to persuade one of the 'wardens' of this place to gift her with one. She'd zombify it, of course, once she'd wrested that particular power back from The Man (the Admiral)--she couldn't imagine why they'd object to her making it into a zombie, since zombie chickens were docile and unable to spread the infection. Then perhaps she'd name it Chat the Second. That zombie-hunting cheerleader had slaughtered the first Chat, and while any chicken she might end up receiving aboard the Barge wouldn't approach the size of that giant monstrosity, it would be nice. She liked that name.
Special Notes: Please let me know if I need to revise anything. I'd be more than happy to if something is objectionable.
User DW: n/a
AIM/IM: on file
E-mail: on file
Other Characters: Amanda Young
Character Name: Mariska
Series: Lollipop Chainsaw
Age: Unknown, but she's definitely of age for this game. She was 18 at the youngest when she died, and existed undead in the Rotten World for decades until being summoned back to the world of the living in 2012.
From When?: After Killabilly is defeated and her soul is released.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Mariska actively tries to kill the protagonist of her canon, and furthermore, donates her soul towards the creation of an uber-zombie with the goal of overrunning the world with the undead.
Item: N/A
Abilities/Powers: As a video game boss, Mariska has a slew of special abilities and powers. Here's the list, and how I'm hoping they'd be reduced on the barge. I'd prefer for nearly all of them to be removed, and others reduced in severity.
- Zombie physiology: there are several of these, which I will be tackling separately.
--- Bites and infection: By biting people, Mariska is able to turn them into zombies. There is a "venom" in her saliva, and it must enter the bloodstream of infectees to change them. The rules for ordinary zombies in the Lollipop Chainsaw universe are a bit different; they retain their memories/personalities, power of speech and basic intelligence, but receive increased strength and stamina (not on par with Mariska's, as she's a different kind of zombie and can't create more of her exact kind), base impulses and aggression; they also begin to rot and are overwhelmed by a hunger for living flesh. This zombifications extend to animals, as well, though they're far more docile than their human-zombie counterparts. This will be removed.
--- Enhanced strength: Mariska has enhanced physical strength. It's above standard human ability--think vampire-level strength. I'd like for this to be reduced, but not removed.
--- Pain threshold: Mariska's ability to feel pain is greatly reduced. She is able to experience it, but it's negligible at first. As more damage is dealt to her, the pain worsens. Because of her undead status, pain doesn't interfere with her ability to function, but if she's harmed a lot it will hurt badly.
--- Resiliency to damage: Mariska is just as capable of sustaining bodily damage as an average person; bullets, blades and the like can all do harm to her, but typically, it's negligible unless heavy damage is dealt. Unlike standard zombies, removing/destroying the head is not an instant kill. Very heavy damage must be dealt; then, taking off the head will finish her. On-barge, however, destruction of the brain should be rendered an instant kill regardless of her physical resiliency, as it is for everyone else aboard. A bullet to the brain would be as effective for killing her as any normal human.
--- Loss of limbs/other bodily parts: Being undead and stitched together, this is much less of a problem than it might seem. I'll cover this in the "dismemberment and replication" section.
- Psychedelic powers: Again, there are a bunch, and I will tackle them separately.
--- Dismemberment and replication: If Mariska is cut in two, or if she decides to tear herself in two (she is normally capable of this), she can turn each half into a full replication of herself. She can then tear each replication of herself in two and create more; she can create seven of these "clones," making the grand total eight when her original "self" is included. She maintains full control over all of them, and they all possess her powers at full strength. Once these have been created, the extras must be destroyed before she can be killed; however, it is much easier to destroy the extras, as it will only take the equivalent of a few shotgun blasts to make them poof into the ether. I'd like for this to be almost completely nerfed, with only the ability to re-attach body parts that might be torn off in an accident remaining.
--- Levitation/teleportation: She is able to levitate an indefinite distance off of the ground. While she does, an iridescent, translucent sphere surrounds her. While in this bubble, she can teleport short distances. She is able to encase other people in these bubbles to lift them off the ground as well; she can also make these bubbles cause them pain if she wishes, or leave them harmless. I'd like for her ability to cast these bubbles upon others/ability to use them for harmful reasons and the ability to teleport removed, but for her personal levitation to remain intact, just reduced so that she can float no more than four feet in the air.
--- Mental landscape projection: Mariska can project her mental landscape onto the surrounding environment, completely subsuming it. She can then incorporate elements from the normal setting into her zone; for example, when she projected her mind while on a farm, she was able to utilize farm equipment to attack the protagonist and spawn giant mechanical chicken monsters. This can be completely removed.
--- Parasitic butterflies: Mariska is able to generate "hallucinatory" shimmering butterfly images. In addition to looking pretty, she can make these latch onto others. This causes them pain and physical harm, but the victim will be able to remove them by moving too fast for them to keep clinging. When unattached to anyone, they dissipate into nothingness on their own after ten seconds. I'd like for her to be able to cast these butterflies as illusions, but for them to be rendered benign, unable to cling to anyone and/or cause harm. She'd only create them because they're pretty.
--- Projectile energy ballistics: Mariska can draw on the ~energies~ around her and send streams of pure, luminescent energy out as an attack; they look and sound like fireworks. She can generate many (20-30) of them at once, and they function as blunt blows to opponents. This power will be removed.
--- Telepathy: Mariska can speak to others using her mind. However, she can't read minds, so the communication is one-way. This power will be removed.
--- Magic mushrooms: Mariska can quickly grow enormous mushrooms. When these are destroyed or opened in some way, they release spores that cause terrifying hallucinations of an altered world with monsters and phantom versions of herself upon inhalation. These illusions can cause physical harm to the person hallucinating them. This power will be removed.
--- "Shape shifting": Mariska can take on the appearances and voices of others. Her mirror reflection while in this state, however, will betray her rotten skin and weird eyes. This power will be removed.
--- Magnified hands: Mariska can bring forth and use giant versions of her hands and arms without altering the ones attached to her. This power will be removed.
--- Rocket ship: She can summon a large rocket ship and use the exhaust system to set enemies on fire/burn them. I don't even know WHY...maybe because the Space Race took place in the 1960s? This will be removed.
- Other: These aren't powers, but I still feel that they're worth mentioning, because they'll give an idea of certain day-to-day behaviors and requirements.
--- Special diet: As a zombie, Mariska's normal diet is kicking and screaming human beings. However, so long as the cafeteria can provide her with raw, unprocessed red meat and blood, she can definitely subsist on that. Of course, that doesn't mean she has to like it, or that she won't be tempted...
--- Being undead, Mariska has no need for sleep, though she does meditate to ~re-align her energies.~ She does, however, still need to bathe.
--- Despite being a partially decayed corpse, her decay does not progress past the point at which she's shown, and she don't smell of rot. Body parts don't fall off on their own, either--they must be being ripped off to detach.
--- So long as she dresses conservatively, only a small number of her stitches will be visible. Aside from that, her green skin and odd eyes (one white-blue and filmed over, one yellow) are the only things about her physiology that would really make people look twice. She used to be human, after all. In other words, she'd be able to pass for human in ports, as far less human-looking characters have before. If her warden provides her with colored contacts, she could use those to make herself look even more normal.
Personality:
Mariska is a bit of a conundrum. In life, she was a standard pacifist hippie who protested war and couldn't bring herself to eat meat. Having been a zombie for so long, her views on violence have changed...somewhat. While she prefers to be at peace, and won't attack people indiscriminately unless provoked (or ordered to by someone who's summoned her), she will not hesitate to maim, infect or kill once she deems it to be right. She also eats meat, as it is a necessity of her new physiology, and her flesh of choice is live human. The reason for the conundrum is that she doesn't see these zombie behaviors to be at odds with her old philosophies. This is partially due to her post-zombification views on death, and partially because she feels that she's kept to the biggest principles of the hippie lifestyle in her heart.
Since she acquired her powers after death, she feels not only like dying was the best thing to happen to her, but that true enlightenment is only possible through death, period. As such, she doesn't feel like killing people is that cruel. She's able to frame her zombified aggression to be compatible with her old philosophy by taking the view that death and zombie-ism are gifts she can bestow upon her victims. This renders any murders she commits as a sort of necessary evil if her new concept of "peace" is to dominate the world. It is largely because of this that she feels her hippie beliefs and zombie nature are, in fact, complimentary rather than contradictory. After all, who's going to care if she takes a chomp out of them once they've realized they don't need living bodies? Speaking of her new concept of peace: she now believes that "chaos is all there is." Peace comes from accepting and using that chaos.
She's a very friendly, open and welcoming person on some level, even to those she intends to kill (ESPECIALLY to them, in fact). She invites them to voyage into altered states of consciousness with her, and calls them all by "sister" and "brother." The concept of community is vitally important to her, although this tends to be overridden by her killer instincts in the case of living beings. Despite not sharing any interests with her fellow Dark Purveyors, she values their company. She lets rude comments towards her roll off her back, and she's used to receiving a LOT. Part of this can be attributed to her belief that one should accept their plight and live with it. She's prone to laughing softly in-between statements, as well.
Despite her positive traits, Rotten World has left her with a really nasty side as well. Once that side of her surfaces, she seems like an entirely different person from the welcoming hippie chick everyone first encounters. She laughs while experiencing physical pain. She delights in tormenting the people who get in her way, and doesn't consider that to contradict her former opinion that she's giving them a gift when she kills them. As she considers the world of the living to be intolerable, she has no qualms about terrorizing it...especially since she'll only be giving its inhabitants the 'gift' of death anyway. The living world now sickens her, in fact, to the point where she says that it makes her want to vomit. Compared to Rotten World, she sees it as being full of pretensions, lies, materialism, consumerism and mindless herd behavior (the last of which is rather ironic, considering the behavior of a normal zombie). Even though Rotten World is Lollipop Chainsaw's analogue to Hell, being the place of demons and the undead and suffering, she feels it's a place that doesn't bullshit anyone, so her views on the concept of Hell are also positive.
She still espouses and lives by many naturist, hippie and transcendental principles, and engages in appropriate hobbies. Though she doesn't need sleep, she meditates extensively. Not only does it help her to center herself and stay reasonably calm, it also functions to assist in focusing her powers, as well: she typically uses all of them from the lotus position. She enjoys 'being one with' nature, although she alters it to her crazy specifications if it's within her power. She is a highly creative person, who enjoys arts such as painting, sewing and carving, and other such related activities. She writes poetry. She sings very well and plays the guitar and sitar, having actually made her current sitar herself.
Though she would not say no to drugs, she doesn't actually need them anymore, as her powers allow her to attain altered states of consciousness at will. Whether drugs would even work for her if she took them is unlikely, but the ritual aspect, the ability to revisit that part of her life, would appeal to her. As the "dirty hippie" archetype she also has trouble with personal hygiene, bathing very infrequently and replacing deodorant with patchouli.
Upon finding herself aboard the Barge, Mariska would be mildly puzzled; as far as she's aware, the universe is divided into only three worlds. However, as her view on reality is rather more fluid than most, there would be no panic and she'd acclimate to the idea fairly quickly. The same goes for species that don't exist in her canon, such as Time Lords. She'd welcome the brand-new experiences as something to expand her mind, and if she learned that many aboard are fictional in other worlds, well, she'd be wowed rather than worried, even if she herself was fourth-walled. She'd greet floods and breaches with the same attitude, rather than feel like her "self" had been violated somehow.
Path to Redemption: Appealing to her more peaceable tendencies will have some success over the long-term, if she can be made to understand that her pleasant experience with death doesn't justify killing other people. What certainly WON'T work is telling her she needs to become living again, as she will refuse to adjust her behavior if it involves needing to give up her current physical state. As she isn't an average zombie, controlling her impulses is within her ability, so returning to life wouldn't be necessary. This has nothing to do with her redemption, but hopefully her warden will also force her to take a shower once in a while.
History:
Not much is known about Mariska's early life, but certain things can be extrapolated. She was a young adult in 1960s America, and was part of the hippie counterculture at the time. At 16, she dropped out of school and ran off to join a hippie commune on O'Bannon Farm in San Romero, California, where everyone engaged in free love, drug use, meditation and self-sufficiency (growing their own food, making many of their own clothes, etc). She was a gentle, accepting soul, enthusiastic about the lifestyle, believing fully in the principles of peace and love. She was an extraordinarily talented musician and singer (taking much of her inspiration from Jefferson Airplane), as well, and a voracious reader (she particularly enjoyed the works of Aldous Huxley).
Her downfall came in her search for "enlightenment." She supplemented her meditative introspection with the use of Psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, mescaline and marijuana. Although she used these substances for years with no ill effect, a poorly thought-out decision to take a greater amount of mushrooms and mescaline (in combination) than usual in an attempt to expand her mind further led to an incredibly bad trip. Convinced she was being fed upon by vampiric butterflies, she ran through a field of wheat that some of her fellows were harvesting...and eventually right into a combine some of her fellows were using to harvest the crop. It tore her body to pieces.
After dying, she ended up in Rotten World (Lollipop Chainsaw's version of hell); the reason why is unknown, but it may be due to her manner of death. At first, she was quite understandably terrified...and then she inhaled a gas common to that world which turns people into zombies. Due to her musical strength, the infection didn't turn her into a normal zombie; those undead who most embody different styles of rock music in Rotten World mutate the virus by sheer force of the POWER OF ROCK. As a result, she became the only female elite zombie, or "Dark Purveyor"--the zombie queen of psychedelia. This bestowed upon her not only standard zombie powers, but psychedelic ones as well (along with complete fluency in Latin, for some reason). Through transcendental meditation, she was able to hone these for precise use. At the same time, Rotten World's nature corrupted her own and turned her into someone she never would have been in life. She began to be grateful for her death and infection, and to delight in the use of her powers and the sheer chaos she could inflict with them, particularly her ability to subsume environments and trap people in hallucinations. As she said, although "everything is a lie," that "all is lies, yet truth" as well. She began to regard death and zombification as being a gift to everyone, which worked out great for her newfound bloodlust.
Mariska dwelt in Rotten World for decades until 2012. That year, a "goth" man named Swan, a student at San Romero High School in California, used a combination of black magic and explosives to open a door between Rotten World and the world of the living. For being mocked and ostracized by his peers, he decided to get revenge by "rotting the world": overrunning it with the undead and killing or infecting everyone. He used a ritual to summon the five bosses of zombie rock in order, each from a different genre in the "pantheon": Zed, of punk rock; Vikke, of viking metal; Mariska, of psychedelia; Josey, of funk; and Lewis Legend, of rock and roll. Once summoned, they were bound to obey him, and he pitted each in turn against a zombie-slaying cheerleader named Juliet Starling, who he'd had a crush on and came to believe had rejected him.
Each Dark Purveyor was sent to an area of San Romero that they most corresponded to in terms of personality, each point serving as part of an enormous pentagram. Mariska was sent to O'Bannon Farm, the very place of her death. She infected the inhabitants upon subsuming the territory into her mental landscape. Juliet entered the farm to take her on after defeating Zed and Vikke, and Mariska used her shape shifting abilities to take the form of Juliet's younger sister to lure her deep into her illusory world (unbeknownst to Juliet, who thought she had traversed all the land that made up the farm, she didn't walk more than a few yards in real space). Mariska and Juliet finally went toe-to-toe, during which Mariska utilized all of her powers to fight her. When she was dealt the penultimate blow, she didn't protest her defeat or freak out, like her fellow rock lords. Instead, she laughed and said "peace out" before Juliet chopped off her head. As her soul departed her body, she recited something in Latin: "Meus Vita, Rege, pro nefario coepto."
Once Juliet had taken out all of the lords and confronted Swan, he revealed that she had been a pawn in the ritual: by slaughtering the five preselected zombies, who had all chanted "My life, O Lord, for your dark enterprise" in Latin as their souls abandoned their bodies, he would be able to combine their souls (including Mariska's), the bodies of the remaining "normal" zombies, and his own body and soul into the ultimate zombie, Killabilly. He brought the gargantuan zombie boss into existence, and after Killabilly's inevitable demise, the souls of the elite were released back to Rotten World.
Except, of course, for Mariska. She ended up on the Barge.
Sample Journal Entry:
Brothers and sisters: greetings. I am Mariska.
I just got here, and I must say, this is a really heavy trip to be dealing with. Seems like I stepped outside the boundaries of the universe, and while I've read enough to get the gist of this vessel, the particulars are unknown to me. I seek those truths. My mind and heart are open to whatever you're willing to tell me. If you're looking for payment, I have no money...ahahahaa...but I'll gladly trade you a song.
Speak vibrantly. Alter my perceptions, hahaha...
Sample RP:
Legs folded in their customary lotus position, Mariska floated several feet in the air above the common room carpet. Engulfing her was a translucent, iridescent sphere, flowing with colors like some kind of psychedelic soap bubble. She'd settled her handcrafted sitar across her lap, and slid her thumb lazily up and down the strings every so often to clear her mind. Every so often, the image of pink and purple butterfly wings constructed of colored light appeared behind her, making it seem like she'd sprouted them from her back. They faded nearly as quickly as they appeared, however, dispelling that illusion.
She sang in a soft voice, too quiet for anyone to make out most of the words; if one tried, one might pick up the phrase "zombie chickens." Those words repeated often, along with repetitive notes as she lightly plucked her sitar. She was trying to write a verse to a song, and the instrumentals and those two words--"zombie chickens"--were the only things she'd settled on thus far. She'd been working on it, floating peacefully in the common room for hours, without getting impatient or frustrated. She'd had the patience of a saint in life (even when she was giddy or worried over possibilities), and death had only cemented that trait. After all, there was no point worrying about how long something would take when she had eternity to work it out. And it wasn't as though writing the song was something she must do. She simply wished to, having already written verses about zombie cows and horses. There was something to be said for completeness.
...and for chickens, too, she mused. Maybe she'd be able to persuade one of the 'wardens' of this place to gift her with one. She'd zombify it, of course, once she'd wrested that particular power back from The Man (the Admiral)--she couldn't imagine why they'd object to her making it into a zombie, since zombie chickens were docile and unable to spread the infection. Then perhaps she'd name it Chat the Second. That zombie-hunting cheerleader had slaughtered the first Chat, and while any chicken she might end up receiving aboard the Barge wouldn't approach the size of that giant monstrosity, it would be nice. She liked that name.
Special Notes: Please let me know if I need to revise anything. I'd be more than happy to if something is objectionable.
