𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐔 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐓
GENERAL
Name: Hotaru Davis Birth Name: Shinsai Nakama Alias: Fate Date of Birth: 01 / 25 ( Aquarius ) Age: 26 Place of Birth: Los Angeles, CA Current Residence: Los Angeles, CA Pronouns: she / her Gender: trans woman Orientation: biromantic / bisexual Ethnicity + Nationality: Japanese-American Languages: English ( fluent ), Japanese ( conversational ), Korean ( conversational ) Occupation / Affiliation: bookkeeper / employee of Invigoration ( music club front, underground tensai fighting organization ) Height: 5'4 | 162cm Physical Description: Mid-length blunt haircut & straight bangs (natural black); thin / skinny build; pretty/soft features offset by dark circles and pallid skin; stark fully opaque white glowing eyes Disabilities: fully blind in both eyes due to tensai glow; uses white cane Species: Tensai - human subspecies born with abilities Tensai Classification: Mental tensai - member of Blessed Triptych ( other members - Shian Lin, Ji-Min )
Personality: While most see Hotaru as a pretty, charming young woman, with a light laugh and vibrant smile, that persona is all part of the con. In reality, Hotaru has become apathetic and exhausted in her years burdened with her ability, and the constant rejection of strangers - as well as the devastating loss of her fiance, whom she had almost saved with her ability - but had been too late, leaving her resentful and disgusted with it. She has turned to alcohol and drugs to cope with what she sees, finding pleasure in conning rich strangers and filling her apartment with things she loves with the cash. She looks out for herself and very few others, maintaining a fearsome reputation with Invigoration - the owners of the underground fighting ring she works for - in order to keep her income flowing. The affairs of humans and tensai, or anything in between, do not concern her. She is merely existing - unless given a reason to do otherwise.
Ability: Clairvoyance - able to see and predict the near future by touching a person or object Ability Evolution #1: Divine Sight - able to see the future at a maximum of one year ahead of that current day Ability Evolution #2: Divine Intervention - able to manipulate fates from options available, under certain circumstances and with limitations
ABILITY DESCRIPTION & MECHANICS
CLAIRVOYANCE
Seeing the near future/very very near future (seconds to minutes), placing her in the room and allowing her to ‘see’ her surroundings if she touches something within/near it, and allowing her to touch someone’s skin and view their immediate future. The effect wears off gradually over 24 hours and can only be ‘renewed’ by a new touch after that period of time
DIVINE SIGHT
Seeing the future at a much larger scale, but this evolution manifests gradually, like stretching neuroplasticity. The range of this ability stops at a max of 1 year from that day. If attempting to force premonitions beyond that, the tensai will experience physical, potentially lethal side effects; nose bleeds, migraines/mental strain, exhaustion/overexertion, death
DIVINE INTERVENTION
Able to manipulate fates from options available. The more drastic the fate changed, the higher likelihood the tensai will suffer from negative physical side effects. Additionally, there could be an unforeseen chain of events set off if the tensai is not careful in their choice (timing is crucial should the tensai wish to stop a fate they’ve chosen, causing significant strain on the body and risk of bodily harm)
CONDITIONS / LIMITATIONS
Cannot see her own future but she can see her own physical form in mirrors/glass/photos/phone screen etc when she touches a wall or object in the room
She cannot see the past
She cannot see the future of the other Blessed Triptych members ( Shian Lin and Ji-Min ), and cannot see Hayden Lee’s future if Triptych abilities are stolen (for 10 mins until it wears off) - but in that case, is able to see Shian and Ji’s physical forms and future when they are stripped of theirs - Ji-Min and Shian Lin appear only as smoke & rippling air like heat waves (respectively) but otherwise unrecognizable - but that in itself tells her who they are
COMPATIBILITY-
Strongest affinity with mental tensai. Mid with humans/elementals. Weakest with physical tensai (and beings removed from both human and tensai)
The futures of those with headstrong and consistent / immovable personalities or goals are easier to perceive and their fate is more difficult to change
BACKGROUND
The child of Keizo and Ai Nakama, Shinsai was born with a brilliant, thick film of solid white over his eyes, an indication of a powerful tensai; and rendering him completely blind. Quickly growing resentful of their disabled child, Keizo and Ai decided to drop the toddler off at the police station, abandoning him with no intention of returning.
Shinsai was placed in several foster homes, each quick to turn him back over to the state, only to pass him off to another family. It didn’t matter how well-behaved or kind he was; it seemed he was a problem child simply due to his existence. His ability began to manifest itself by the time he attended school.
With the touch of objects in a room or the skin of his foster family and classmates, Shinsai was able to witness the immediate future, placing him in his surroundings seconds ahead of where he was.
He kept that to himself.
Years passed in the one foster home that refused to give him to another, with ‘parents’ he should be grateful had kept him under their roof all this time. The only saving grace from their harsh discipline was the premonitions of their rage, and visions that revealed the hiding places in that room. No matter what Shinsai did, he could not see his own future. It was maddening, aggravating, as he moved through life unwanted at home and outcasted at school, where insults and laughter seemed to strike harder than any fist.
He learned to stand tall when he couldn’t avoid the abuse. He learned to clench his jaw, and not to flinch.
Though he could see his reflection in the room secondhand, with a mirror or a phone screen, something in his stomach always lurched at the sight. It didn’t look like him – but Shinsai couldn’t tell who should be gazing back at him in the mirror. He knew he liked his hair as it grew longer, and the softer features of his face; he liked the clothes of the smiling girls who seemed to be the only friends to him. He’d liked the brief reflection of himself, having shyly let them do his makeup, before he’d quickly washed it off.
A sudden vision of wrath and ruthless torment finally drove Shinsai to escape his ‘home’, thankfully taken in by the landlord of a nearby apartment complex. It woudn’t be until months later that safety came with a realization; that the person she saw in the mirror wasn’t what she was fated to be. No, as time passed and things fell into a merciful quietness, Shinsai – a name given by unknown parents – was traded in for Hotaru, a name that fit comfortably on her tongue.
The landlord, Ren, accepted sixteen-year-old Hotaru warmly. With his properties’ revenue, every voice lesson, every prescription was paid for, with no expectation of repayment; only Hotaru swore she would, as love and fondness grew for the man. One day, she would make sure he, with nothing but the properties to keep him company, wanted for nothing.
Still, resentment grew within her, frustrated and hurt that this ability she despised could not even spare her the pain of growing up as someone else.
The visions continued. Strangers that helped Hotaru navigate the streets, white cane in one hand and the other brushing their skin, would reveal to her a future of pain and torment that even her desperate warnings could not stop. It was exhausting, watching these people succumb to the pain and violence of Los Angeles – watching tensai march to their deaths at the hands of one businessman, the same one,, over and over. He had dark eyes and a face that left her disgusted. Hope was fading quickly… until Hotaru was caught by the strong arms of another, *good* businessman. Makai Davis.
He was warm and kind, loving and silly. Hotaru spent every waking moment with him, letting him guide her around the city, dinners and late nights, brunch the next morning. From him, there was never any resentment. In arguments, he never left her alone, to lick her wounds in private. Hotaru was herself around him, safe – despite the agony of not being able to see her own future with him.
Soon, they were engaged; and the sound of Hotaru Davis left her bursting at the seams for that wedding day. In private, she used it playfully – and one day, she could introduce herself as his wife, something so light and normal for a freak like her. A life with him, at peace and accepted.
Of course, it couldn’t end that way.
A fire. She could feel its scorching heat as she stood before a building now aflame, coughing up smoke as her body refused to move. An office building, where she’d gone to surprise Makai, the takeout bag now dropped to the ground beside her. It was bad enough to watch the fate of her fiance unfold through the eyes of the arsonist’s leader that had bumped into her in his haste, to have been helpless and desperate for some way to stop it -- but voices nearby seemed to cut through the haze. The doors were barred beforehand.
No survivors.
A paramedic touched Hotaru’s bare arm, trying to pull her away from the wreckage, hand touching her exposed shoulder. Before Hotaru’s eyes laid something different then. A choice.
Two endings could befall the man pulling her back, unfolding before the seer’s eyes; to get her to safety, or to run into the burning building. In her mind’s eye, Hotaru could see Makai being carried out in the paramedic’s grasp, coughing and weak but alive. She drew in a sharp breath, reaching for the tether attached to Makai’s safety --
Only for the thread to snap suddenly, the future of her fiance going up in smoke.
In its place formed another option; to force the paramedic to run into the building, unprepared and without reason. To run to his death and burn alive. In her grief, her rage, her heartache and agony, Hotaru snatched that strange tether, and the paramedic released her – running headfirst into the flames. Never to return.
She’d been given the option to choose fate. But now she fell to her knees in the ashes of everything that was good and whole in this world… what use was it?
Time went on. Nothing mattered, drugs and alcohol demanded upkeep by any means. Only Ren earned any of Hotaru’s smiles or fondness – fragments of what they used to be, while the rest of the world witnessed a woman whose charm was revealed solely to carry out a con; whether it be pickpocketing or white lies, for need or for fun, Hotaru grew exceptional using her disability to her advantage, learning the value of a pretty smile and sweet words to get what she wanted.
Soon, word got around that an underground fighting ring had emerged, fronted by a bar and club, Invigoration - popular and unassuming as tensai were pitted against each other beneath its floors. And Hotaru, fearless and without a single care, earned a spot as the house’s bookkeeper – with a few extra duties.
Using that same helpless act, Hotaru began to rig bets in the house’s favor, sly and subtle as she flirted with bettors and swayed their decisions a little bit to the left, careful and smart about each tactic. In exchange for her expertise, the house gave a sizable chunk of their earnings to her – and lo and behold, Ren would be comfortable for the rest of his days.
It wasn’t just for her brain and good looks that the house kept her around, but also the assurance that prospective fighters weren’t destined to betray them to men like Isen Reiou, the black-eyed businessman that invaded so many of her visions. But his son and heir, Yuki, couldn’t have been more different.
Something about Yuki kept Hotaru at ease. He was quiet and calm, and the way he refused the seer’s touch seemed so much different than the arrogant liars she’d encountered so often. In his initiation, she was asked if Yuki could be trusted. And with a kindness she didn’t know still lived within her, Hotaru had lied for him. For once, it was a decision that she didn’t regret.
Soon, Yuki stopped coming around. And when he returned, there were scars where his tattoos had been, and a different set to his shoulders. Something weary, but still standing; the stance of a survivor who had won. When he asked Hotaru to touch him, she was hesitant… but Yuki had proved himself ten times over. She supposed she could repay this small favor.
In his future there were two phantoms; bodiless, intangible beings, one of which she’d seen in her mind’s eye – a ripple in the air, as though coming off of something hot. This phantom lurked in the dark corners of LA, she knew. It stood above bodies, and it smelled of blood and sterile alcohol. A strange dichotomy, and yet her unease at the sight of this phantom paled in comparison to the next.
Smoke. Destructive, thick and black. The kind that robs your lungs of air, burns your eyes, carrying with it ash and burnt flesh. The kind she'd breathed in, standing before the inferno that had taken everything she’d loved.
At the heart of it all was a blonde person with stark, glowing white eyes. As though they were standing just where Hotaru had been. As though their knees were bound to hit the ground while everything burned around them. It wasn’t real, of course, this display of their agony – but maybe she saw something in this person. Maybe she saw how they looked back at Yuki, tears in their eyes and a hand reaching for him, like they couldn’t lose him, too.
Maybe it was all too familiar.
