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Jul. 15th, 2013 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sleepingstar[nick / name]: Katie
[personal LJ/DW name]:llamafordrama
[other characters currently played]: Korra | Legend of Korra |anatural
Nyota Uhura | Star Trek VII |universaltranslator
[e-mail]: partyinthehermitcave@gmail.com
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badlifechoices
[series]: Darker than Black
[character]: Xing (codename: Pai (the English transliteration of "Bai" and the current DtB cast's preferred form of her name))
[character history / background]: Pai | Darker than Black wiki
The tl;dr version is that Pai was raised by her older brother, codename Hei. When she was 9 years old, the real stars vanished, the Gates appeared, and she was one of the thousands of people turned into Contractors -- beings with remarkable powers that could only be used for a price. Pai's ability was molecular manipulation, and the price she paid was sleep. Every time she uses her power, she passes out afterwards. Because of her powers and the poverty that she and Hei lived in, she was forced to join the Syndicate. Her brother joined as well in order to protect her.
She and her brother were sent to fight a war in South America. When she was 14, she realized that the Syndicate was planning to destroy all Contractors using a device called Heaven's Gate. She was the only one with the power to destroy the Gate -- an act that would save Contractors, but would destroy half of South America and kill her as well.
Despite these negatives, she does indeed destroy the Gate. In the process, she merges a portion of her existence with her brother, giving him the ability to use her Contractor powers but without the need to pay a renumeration.
Of course, she didn't tell Hei about any of this, leading to the central mystery of season one: what happened to Pai?
[character abilities]:
She has the ability to alter matter on a quantum level. Usually she uses this to generate and discharge electricity, but she can also use it to actually change molecules. (More details are in her wiki linked above). Like all Contractors, the use of her ability comes at a price, and hers is sleeping. She is one of the most frighteningly powerful Contractors in existence, but every time she uses her powers, she passes out afterwards, leaving her vulnerable.
[character personality]:
The first thing you need to know about Pai is that she is a Contractor.
At one point, all Contractors were human beings, but when the Gates appeared and the real stars vanished, they became something else. They gained various supernatural abilities, abilities they could only use for a price. If they were still considered human beings, they would be called sociopaths. They don't experience emotion the way humans do; they don't really feel happiness or sadness, anger or affection. They lack the capacity for empathy. They are creatures of pure rational self-interest.
This, at least, is the common belief about Contractors, even amongst themselves. Like most broad generalizations, it is not entirely true.
Pai has an extremely limited capacity for empathy. She has killed thousands of people, human and Contractor alike, and she feels neither compunction nor guilt. Because of her Contractor powers, she was taken by the Syndicate to be used as a weapon; her brother Hei joined to protect her. Both of them were raised as child soldiers, but Hei is haunted by the people he kills while Pai is not at all bothered. She had to kill them, so she did.
But she is not completely without the ability to care. She loves her brother completely and unequivocally. It doesn't bother her to kill, but she hurts every time he kills because she knows it hurts him. She doesn't want him to suffer. This is why she encourages him to solve problems without killing. She takes the form of his conscience not because she has one of her own, but because she sees more clearly than he does the emotional toll violence and bloodshed have on him.
Her mannerisms are very sweet and childlike, even for 14. She does not behave the way you would expect a child who has grown up in battle. This is a deliberate presentation on her part. When she first became a Contractor, she frightened Hei with her lack of feeling. (This is not something we see in flashbacks; however, it can be inferred by his reaction to Mai, a girl Pai's age who becomes a Contractor.) Because she wants her brother to be happy, Pai acts sweet, cheerful, and innocent, even as she's slaughtering people on the battlefield. It's a facade, but not one that she finds difficult or tiring.
At first, Hei is the only person Pai cares about, just as other Contractors only care about themselves. But as time passes, she and many other Contractors begin to evolve. They form interpersonal bonds and not only see themselves as a species separate from humans, but care about their species. They develop the capacity for self-sacrifice.
Pai is not only powerful, but extremely smart and perceptive. She is the first person to realize that the Syndicate, the organization they ostensibly work for, actually intends to eradicate all Contractors, using a device called Heaven's Gate. Pai is the only person with the ability to destroy the Gate - an action that would kill millions of humans and destroy South America. It would also destroy her.
Pai is cold-hearted enough to sacrifice those millions to save the few thousand Contractors in the world -- a sacrifice that her human brother, who grew up surrounded by Contractors and who managed to pass as a Contractor for five years, could not make when he was faced with the same decision at Hell's Gate. But she is tender-hearted enough to sacrifice herself to save her fellow Contractors, and to hide this from Hei so that he would not have to choose between humans and Contractors. She also becomes part of him, giving him her Contractor power so that he can protect himself.
She doesn't just die to save her species. She dies because she knows that Hei only kills in order to protect her, and that makes him desperately unhappy. More than anything else, she wants her brother to be free from the life her Contractor abilities forced them both into.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Technically pre-series; after she makes the decision to use her power to destroy Heaven's Gate but before she actually does so
[journal post]:
[Pai is in the Underground, waiting for her mark to leave the bar. She'd underestimated his thirst, though, and she's beginning to get very bored. She decides to pull out her network device and make a post. That's what people do here -- they make posts on the network. She does't really follow the whys and wherefores, but she is trying to fit in, for Hei's sake.
Catching sight of some mangy, half-starved kittens a few feet away, she gets an idea for a post.]
[ video ]
[The screen is carefully angled so that you can't tell where in the Underground she is; she doesn't want anyone to connect her to her mark, even if they assume she's just a witness. All that's visible are the kittens, mewling piteously.]
Aren't they so cute?!
[Pai comes into view, and you'd certainly be forgiven for wondering what a sweet little thing like that is doing in the Underground. (It doesn't occur to her that people might wonder why she's there. She grew up in slums and battlefields; the Underground is normal to her.) She reaches out a hand to pet them.]
Ah!
[The screen abruptly goes black. Did she drop the device? Accidentally turn it off? Get kidnapped by someone unsavory? No, her mark just decided to exit the bar. No time for pointless network posts -- she has a job to do.]
[third person / log sample]:
[Lying on her back, the grass scratchy against her neck, Pai stares up at the sky.
She reaches an arm up and covers one of the stars with her thumb. Look, brother! I made another star fall! Except it's still there; all she has to do is move her hand. She doesn't have to kill anyone anymore.
For a human being, such a thought would probably bring relief, but Pai is a Contractor and so indifferent. She takes no particular pleasure in the act of killing, but neither does she feel guilt. When murder is a matter of survival, guilt is irrational. Unlike her brother, Pai is entirely rational.
If she takes any pleasure in the relative peace of City life, it's for her brother's sake. Her beloved, irrational brother, who has always hated killing but evidently continued to do it even after her "death" because…well, she doesn't really understand why. She had destroyed Heaven's Gate not only to save her species, but to save him. Her sacrifice had been meant to free him from killing. And yet he had continued.
It's frustrating. He's frustrating. He's fallen into the habit of paranoia -- he doesn't trust the peace, doesn't remember who he is outside of the Syndicate's control. She can see how fear haunts his every step; she can feel it in the way he looks at her, like she's a snowflake and the sun is rising. It's a waste of precious time and energy, but it's also so very human of him. Pai isn't bothered by the uncertainty. It's irrational to worry about something so completely out of her control. (Yet that doesn't stop her from doing her research, making plans and setting up contingencies. She's placid, not passive, and what she & Hei have here is too precious, too perfect to leave unprotected.)
She watches as a star falls in the sky above her, and she smiles. In her world, a falling star means another Contractor has died. When she was younger, she used to take pride in how she could make the sky rain stars. When she was older, she quietly grieved each death, knowing that each loss put her entire species in danger.
Here, a falling star is just a falling star. It's as devoid of meaning as everything else in life. That may sound depressing, but to Pai, the meaninglessness is liberating. For the first time in her life, she feels free. (And if that is not an entirely rational feeling…well, Contractors don't know themselves as well as they might think.)]
[personal LJ/DW name]:
llamafordrama[other characters currently played]: Korra | Legend of Korra |
anaturalNyota Uhura | Star Trek VII |
universaltranslator[e-mail]: partyinthehermitcave@gmail.com
[AIM / messenger]:
[series]: Darker than Black
[character]: Xing (codename: Pai (the English transliteration of "Bai" and the current DtB cast's preferred form of her name))
[character history / background]: Pai | Darker than Black wiki
The tl;dr version is that Pai was raised by her older brother, codename Hei. When she was 9 years old, the real stars vanished, the Gates appeared, and she was one of the thousands of people turned into Contractors -- beings with remarkable powers that could only be used for a price. Pai's ability was molecular manipulation, and the price she paid was sleep. Every time she uses her power, she passes out afterwards. Because of her powers and the poverty that she and Hei lived in, she was forced to join the Syndicate. Her brother joined as well in order to protect her.
She and her brother were sent to fight a war in South America. When she was 14, she realized that the Syndicate was planning to destroy all Contractors using a device called Heaven's Gate. She was the only one with the power to destroy the Gate -- an act that would save Contractors, but would destroy half of South America and kill her as well.
Despite these negatives, she does indeed destroy the Gate. In the process, she merges a portion of her existence with her brother, giving him the ability to use her Contractor powers but without the need to pay a renumeration.
Of course, she didn't tell Hei about any of this, leading to the central mystery of season one: what happened to Pai?
[character abilities]:
She has the ability to alter matter on a quantum level. Usually she uses this to generate and discharge electricity, but she can also use it to actually change molecules. (More details are in her wiki linked above). Like all Contractors, the use of her ability comes at a price, and hers is sleeping. She is one of the most frighteningly powerful Contractors in existence, but every time she uses her powers, she passes out afterwards, leaving her vulnerable.
[character personality]:
The first thing you need to know about Pai is that she is a Contractor.
At one point, all Contractors were human beings, but when the Gates appeared and the real stars vanished, they became something else. They gained various supernatural abilities, abilities they could only use for a price. If they were still considered human beings, they would be called sociopaths. They don't experience emotion the way humans do; they don't really feel happiness or sadness, anger or affection. They lack the capacity for empathy. They are creatures of pure rational self-interest.
This, at least, is the common belief about Contractors, even amongst themselves. Like most broad generalizations, it is not entirely true.
Pai has an extremely limited capacity for empathy. She has killed thousands of people, human and Contractor alike, and she feels neither compunction nor guilt. Because of her Contractor powers, she was taken by the Syndicate to be used as a weapon; her brother Hei joined to protect her. Both of them were raised as child soldiers, but Hei is haunted by the people he kills while Pai is not at all bothered. She had to kill them, so she did.
But she is not completely without the ability to care. She loves her brother completely and unequivocally. It doesn't bother her to kill, but she hurts every time he kills because she knows it hurts him. She doesn't want him to suffer. This is why she encourages him to solve problems without killing. She takes the form of his conscience not because she has one of her own, but because she sees more clearly than he does the emotional toll violence and bloodshed have on him.
Her mannerisms are very sweet and childlike, even for 14. She does not behave the way you would expect a child who has grown up in battle. This is a deliberate presentation on her part. When she first became a Contractor, she frightened Hei with her lack of feeling. (This is not something we see in flashbacks; however, it can be inferred by his reaction to Mai, a girl Pai's age who becomes a Contractor.) Because she wants her brother to be happy, Pai acts sweet, cheerful, and innocent, even as she's slaughtering people on the battlefield. It's a facade, but not one that she finds difficult or tiring.
At first, Hei is the only person Pai cares about, just as other Contractors only care about themselves. But as time passes, she and many other Contractors begin to evolve. They form interpersonal bonds and not only see themselves as a species separate from humans, but care about their species. They develop the capacity for self-sacrifice.
Pai is not only powerful, but extremely smart and perceptive. She is the first person to realize that the Syndicate, the organization they ostensibly work for, actually intends to eradicate all Contractors, using a device called Heaven's Gate. Pai is the only person with the ability to destroy the Gate - an action that would kill millions of humans and destroy South America. It would also destroy her.
Pai is cold-hearted enough to sacrifice those millions to save the few thousand Contractors in the world -- a sacrifice that her human brother, who grew up surrounded by Contractors and who managed to pass as a Contractor for five years, could not make when he was faced with the same decision at Hell's Gate. But she is tender-hearted enough to sacrifice herself to save her fellow Contractors, and to hide this from Hei so that he would not have to choose between humans and Contractors. She also becomes part of him, giving him her Contractor power so that he can protect himself.
She doesn't just die to save her species. She dies because she knows that Hei only kills in order to protect her, and that makes him desperately unhappy. More than anything else, she wants her brother to be free from the life her Contractor abilities forced them both into.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Technically pre-series; after she makes the decision to use her power to destroy Heaven's Gate but before she actually does so
[journal post]:
[Pai is in the Underground, waiting for her mark to leave the bar. She'd underestimated his thirst, though, and she's beginning to get very bored. She decides to pull out her network device and make a post. That's what people do here -- they make posts on the network. She does't really follow the whys and wherefores, but she is trying to fit in, for Hei's sake.
Catching sight of some mangy, half-starved kittens a few feet away, she gets an idea for a post.]
[ video ]
[The screen is carefully angled so that you can't tell where in the Underground she is; she doesn't want anyone to connect her to her mark, even if they assume she's just a witness. All that's visible are the kittens, mewling piteously.]
Aren't they so cute?!
[Pai comes into view, and you'd certainly be forgiven for wondering what a sweet little thing like that is doing in the Underground. (It doesn't occur to her that people might wonder why she's there. She grew up in slums and battlefields; the Underground is normal to her.) She reaches out a hand to pet them.]
Ah!
[The screen abruptly goes black. Did she drop the device? Accidentally turn it off? Get kidnapped by someone unsavory? No, her mark just decided to exit the bar. No time for pointless network posts -- she has a job to do.]
[third person / log sample]:
[Lying on her back, the grass scratchy against her neck, Pai stares up at the sky.
She reaches an arm up and covers one of the stars with her thumb. Look, brother! I made another star fall! Except it's still there; all she has to do is move her hand. She doesn't have to kill anyone anymore.
For a human being, such a thought would probably bring relief, but Pai is a Contractor and so indifferent. She takes no particular pleasure in the act of killing, but neither does she feel guilt. When murder is a matter of survival, guilt is irrational. Unlike her brother, Pai is entirely rational.
If she takes any pleasure in the relative peace of City life, it's for her brother's sake. Her beloved, irrational brother, who has always hated killing but evidently continued to do it even after her "death" because…well, she doesn't really understand why. She had destroyed Heaven's Gate not only to save her species, but to save him. Her sacrifice had been meant to free him from killing. And yet he had continued.
It's frustrating. He's frustrating. He's fallen into the habit of paranoia -- he doesn't trust the peace, doesn't remember who he is outside of the Syndicate's control. She can see how fear haunts his every step; she can feel it in the way he looks at her, like she's a snowflake and the sun is rising. It's a waste of precious time and energy, but it's also so very human of him. Pai isn't bothered by the uncertainty. It's irrational to worry about something so completely out of her control. (Yet that doesn't stop her from doing her research, making plans and setting up contingencies. She's placid, not passive, and what she & Hei have here is too precious, too perfect to leave unprotected.)
She watches as a star falls in the sky above her, and she smiles. In her world, a falling star means another Contractor has died. When she was younger, she used to take pride in how she could make the sky rain stars. When she was older, she quietly grieved each death, knowing that each loss put her entire species in danger.
Here, a falling star is just a falling star. It's as devoid of meaning as everything else in life. That may sound depressing, but to Pai, the meaninglessness is liberating. For the first time in her life, she feels free. (And if that is not an entirely rational feeling…well, Contractors don't know themselves as well as they might think.)]