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OOC
Player/Contact: Brie / mackens @ plurk or brie#2641 @ discord
Other Characters: n/a
IC
Name: Ren Hana
Canon: Boyfriend to Death
Canon Point: Right before the ending branch.
Age: 21
History/Personality:
Content Warning for violence, kidnapping, torture, abuse, and captivity.
Wiki Page.
Before Strade, Ren was a fairly normal young adult, if isolated and lonely. He, by his own admission, had no friends and he believed his family hated him. He was nervous, timid, and generally didn't do well around other people. Nonetheless, Ren craved both friends and meaningful bonds. He went out of his way to try and meet a date and was genuinely upset when he was stood up. He was a hopeless romantic, delighting in magical girl anime and romance films. Despite his timidness, Ren was a kind person. He was trusting enough to follow Strade to what he believed was the bar bathroom, even though he really had no idea who the man was. He was nurturing, risking Strade's wrath to provide the victims in the basement a little bit of care. He took care of Strade, kept him from getting too worked up and going too far.
However, Ren was nowhere near perfect before he met Strade. Ren was, in the kindest way to put it, spineless. Protecting his own life was important to him and he placed his survival above all else. Yes, he would go into the basement to provide some aid and comfort to Strade's victims, but he would not risk freeing them and endangering himself. It was this spinelessness that caused Strade to become so interested in him in the first place. In the interest of self-protection, Ren obeyed Strade to a T. He must have because at some point the young man earned (monitored) internet privileges and free reign on the second floor of the house. Eventually, it wasn't just the shock collar on Ren's neck but a sense of loyalty that kept him doing as he was told.
There is no doubt that Ren developed severe Stockholm Syndrome during his time in Strade's 'care'. A combination of living in terror of being hurt and domesticity, affection, and being spoiled created a lot of confusion for Ren. At some point, he drew the conclusion that Strade loved him, though the man never actually said it. Strade hurt him, yes, but he took care of Ren too. Strade gave Ren whatever he wanted and in return Ren cooked, cleaned, and generally tended to his captor. The terrible things Strade did: Cutting Ren up, forcing him to take part in murder or watch his live streams, general violence for Strade's amusement...they were just another aspect of the man. His own special brand of love.
Ren after Strade is the warping and poisoning of a good person made manifest. No longer is the timid and shy, but now cheerful and confident. He seems to come more into himself after Strade's death, going so far as to reflect this newfound confidence by discarding his glasses and switching to contacts. He knowingly embraced the fact that he was 'cute', and learned to use it to his advantage.
Ren is less moral now than he was before. Where he seemed to hold guilt for the thing Strade did to his victims before, now he easily plans a kidnapping and drugs a drink just like Strade did, seeing nothing wrong with doing so. When MC appears and drinks the drugged drink instead of Lawrence, Ren happily changes his plans, dragging an innocent, unrelated person into his plans. Strade had taught him it was better to be flexible than to have a good plan, and he was excited at the chance to put it into action, to improvise on the spot. When MC stumbles into the alley, he easily lies and acts as if he has no idea why they are suddenly so sick, plying them with reassurances before they pass out. Upon MC waking up and panicking at finding themselves chained and collared, Ren deflects their concern, minimizes their worry as something trivial they would get over quickly. Hesitation in killing Lawrence is regarded not as a moral stance but as a personal failing born on not "hav[ing] the stomach for it". If Ren does it himself, he tortures Lawrence without a second thought, eventually disemboweling him. If not, he giddily watches as MC slits Lawrence's throat, praising them when it's done. He's manipulative, using affection and rewards to push MC toward doing what he wants.
However, the most prominent of his post-Strade behavior is that Ren developed a craving for control. He seeks out chances for control and doesn't hesitate to inflict pain to do so. Just getting to shock MC for their first act of disobedience, if they choose to do so, gives him such a power trip he turns around and feeds them from a dog bowl.
Inflicting pain and fear is no longer a terrible thing to him, and it's something he has come to enjoy for the sense of control it gives him.
But despite Ren's claims that Strade loved him and that Ren feels empty with him gone, he still harbors a lot of fear and pain. He holds huge amounts of fear and guilt over allowing Strade to die, though he was frozen by the memory of Strade's torture when he did so. Nightmares of Strade coming alive again for revenge are constant.
The truth is that Ren is still a sweet, friendly young man who just wants to find someone to love and be loved by in return. But, terrified of his past and refusing to face his trauma, he does what he can do to deny and escape it. His sadism is imitated, a weak mimicry of Strade was. Ren tries to be like him because he no longer remembers what it was like to be himself. Strade crawled inside of Ren and left pieces of himself to fester and rot; Ren doesn't know how to get them out and so instead he pretends he wants them there. He buries himself in layers of pretend behavior he's fooled himself into believing just to feel better. Truly, Ren isn't naturally very well suited to the cruel tormentor act, though he can become so if influenced enough.
The entire reason Ren plans to take Lawrence, even when he ends up taking MC instead, is that he's lonely. He wants someone by his side who cannot leave, who will love him unconditionally even if he has to force them to do so. He doesn't want to experience pain anymore.
Would you consider your character to be heroic? Why or why not?: Absolutely not. Ren is, to reiterate my earlier point, lacking in a spine. It's not that he's actively weasely or out to screw over anyone else, he just has very strong survival instincts. In the first game, he's willing to sneak down and nurse the MC's wounds a little but refuses to do anything to help them escape because it would be dangerous for him. If the MC tries to flee out the door, Ren yells for Strade, immediately giving them away and dooming them to death.
He's smart, but he's also small, so it's not hard to physically overtake him and this is something that his captivity with Strade taught him well. If someone has power over him, he will submit, or at least pretend to in order to stay alive and plan. Heroics are for the big and strong.
Powers/Abilities: Ren's own native powers are ones that come with his nature as a beastkin. A Beastkin is a creature born when a human with a magical ability or good luck is able to communicate with an animal and form a pact binding them together as one being and one family. The result is a creature that looks almost entirely like a human, save for animal features.
In specific, Ren is a fox beastkin, coming from a line of Japanese fox beastkin who were mistaken by humans for kitsune.
This grants Ren multiple features and abilities:
The features of a fox such as ears, tail, and retractable claws. He also bears markings of the bond made centuries ago, two triangular-shaped red spots on his cheeks. Ren is not capable of appearing more foxlike, only more human. As such, he is capable of hiding his ears and tail.
He also has better senses than a human, though they aren't as good as those of an actual animal. He can see better in the dark, hear higher pitches and further distances, and his sense of smell is quite a bit better. However, the sense of smell is entirely subconscious to spare his brain from being overloaded with information. As such he can't specifically pinpoint when someone is, say, sweating nervously or aroused or scared, but he reacts to it subconsciously.
He is also quicker than the average human, easily able to dodge and work around things such as (in the second game) MC kicking at him while he tries to use a knife on them. He is able to quickly react when jumped at or MC attempts to run, moving almost before they realize he has.
Ren also retains an animal enjoyment of raw meat along with normal food, such as chicken and human hearts. Also raw eggs. It's gross.
Inventory: Strade's knife and the clothes on his back.
Coterie: Vipers
Samples: 1, 2 (Earlier canon point)
I actually stopped playing Ren for a while in early 2020, so I also have a few threads that go past the 2-year requirement, but I feel they display other parts of Ren's personality. If the mods are willing to take them as just supplementary, I've linked them.
Ren is rescued from Strade's ghost, Ren has to fight yandere instincts (NSFW toward the end), Ren gets Factory Reset'd.
Player/Contact: Brie / mackens @ plurk or brie#2641 @ discord
Other Characters: n/a
IC
Name: Ren Hana
Canon: Boyfriend to Death
Canon Point: Right before the ending branch.
Age: 21
History/Personality:
Content Warning for violence, kidnapping, torture, abuse, and captivity.
Wiki Page.
Before Strade, Ren was a fairly normal young adult, if isolated and lonely. He, by his own admission, had no friends and he believed his family hated him. He was nervous, timid, and generally didn't do well around other people. Nonetheless, Ren craved both friends and meaningful bonds. He went out of his way to try and meet a date and was genuinely upset when he was stood up. He was a hopeless romantic, delighting in magical girl anime and romance films. Despite his timidness, Ren was a kind person. He was trusting enough to follow Strade to what he believed was the bar bathroom, even though he really had no idea who the man was. He was nurturing, risking Strade's wrath to provide the victims in the basement a little bit of care. He took care of Strade, kept him from getting too worked up and going too far.
However, Ren was nowhere near perfect before he met Strade. Ren was, in the kindest way to put it, spineless. Protecting his own life was important to him and he placed his survival above all else. Yes, he would go into the basement to provide some aid and comfort to Strade's victims, but he would not risk freeing them and endangering himself. It was this spinelessness that caused Strade to become so interested in him in the first place. In the interest of self-protection, Ren obeyed Strade to a T. He must have because at some point the young man earned (monitored) internet privileges and free reign on the second floor of the house. Eventually, it wasn't just the shock collar on Ren's neck but a sense of loyalty that kept him doing as he was told.
There is no doubt that Ren developed severe Stockholm Syndrome during his time in Strade's 'care'. A combination of living in terror of being hurt and domesticity, affection, and being spoiled created a lot of confusion for Ren. At some point, he drew the conclusion that Strade loved him, though the man never actually said it. Strade hurt him, yes, but he took care of Ren too. Strade gave Ren whatever he wanted and in return Ren cooked, cleaned, and generally tended to his captor. The terrible things Strade did: Cutting Ren up, forcing him to take part in murder or watch his live streams, general violence for Strade's amusement...they were just another aspect of the man. His own special brand of love.
Ren after Strade is the warping and poisoning of a good person made manifest. No longer is the timid and shy, but now cheerful and confident. He seems to come more into himself after Strade's death, going so far as to reflect this newfound confidence by discarding his glasses and switching to contacts. He knowingly embraced the fact that he was 'cute', and learned to use it to his advantage.
Ren is less moral now than he was before. Where he seemed to hold guilt for the thing Strade did to his victims before, now he easily plans a kidnapping and drugs a drink just like Strade did, seeing nothing wrong with doing so. When MC appears and drinks the drugged drink instead of Lawrence, Ren happily changes his plans, dragging an innocent, unrelated person into his plans. Strade had taught him it was better to be flexible than to have a good plan, and he was excited at the chance to put it into action, to improvise on the spot. When MC stumbles into the alley, he easily lies and acts as if he has no idea why they are suddenly so sick, plying them with reassurances before they pass out. Upon MC waking up and panicking at finding themselves chained and collared, Ren deflects their concern, minimizes their worry as something trivial they would get over quickly. Hesitation in killing Lawrence is regarded not as a moral stance but as a personal failing born on not "hav[ing] the stomach for it". If Ren does it himself, he tortures Lawrence without a second thought, eventually disemboweling him. If not, he giddily watches as MC slits Lawrence's throat, praising them when it's done. He's manipulative, using affection and rewards to push MC toward doing what he wants.
However, the most prominent of his post-Strade behavior is that Ren developed a craving for control. He seeks out chances for control and doesn't hesitate to inflict pain to do so. Just getting to shock MC for their first act of disobedience, if they choose to do so, gives him such a power trip he turns around and feeds them from a dog bowl.
Inflicting pain and fear is no longer a terrible thing to him, and it's something he has come to enjoy for the sense of control it gives him.
But despite Ren's claims that Strade loved him and that Ren feels empty with him gone, he still harbors a lot of fear and pain. He holds huge amounts of fear and guilt over allowing Strade to die, though he was frozen by the memory of Strade's torture when he did so. Nightmares of Strade coming alive again for revenge are constant.
The truth is that Ren is still a sweet, friendly young man who just wants to find someone to love and be loved by in return. But, terrified of his past and refusing to face his trauma, he does what he can do to deny and escape it. His sadism is imitated, a weak mimicry of Strade was. Ren tries to be like him because he no longer remembers what it was like to be himself. Strade crawled inside of Ren and left pieces of himself to fester and rot; Ren doesn't know how to get them out and so instead he pretends he wants them there. He buries himself in layers of pretend behavior he's fooled himself into believing just to feel better. Truly, Ren isn't naturally very well suited to the cruel tormentor act, though he can become so if influenced enough.
The entire reason Ren plans to take Lawrence, even when he ends up taking MC instead, is that he's lonely. He wants someone by his side who cannot leave, who will love him unconditionally even if he has to force them to do so. He doesn't want to experience pain anymore.
Would you consider your character to be heroic? Why or why not?: Absolutely not. Ren is, to reiterate my earlier point, lacking in a spine. It's not that he's actively weasely or out to screw over anyone else, he just has very strong survival instincts. In the first game, he's willing to sneak down and nurse the MC's wounds a little but refuses to do anything to help them escape because it would be dangerous for him. If the MC tries to flee out the door, Ren yells for Strade, immediately giving them away and dooming them to death.
He's smart, but he's also small, so it's not hard to physically overtake him and this is something that his captivity with Strade taught him well. If someone has power over him, he will submit, or at least pretend to in order to stay alive and plan. Heroics are for the big and strong.
Powers/Abilities: Ren's own native powers are ones that come with his nature as a beastkin. A Beastkin is a creature born when a human with a magical ability or good luck is able to communicate with an animal and form a pact binding them together as one being and one family. The result is a creature that looks almost entirely like a human, save for animal features.
In specific, Ren is a fox beastkin, coming from a line of Japanese fox beastkin who were mistaken by humans for kitsune.
This grants Ren multiple features and abilities:
The features of a fox such as ears, tail, and retractable claws. He also bears markings of the bond made centuries ago, two triangular-shaped red spots on his cheeks. Ren is not capable of appearing more foxlike, only more human. As such, he is capable of hiding his ears and tail.
He also has better senses than a human, though they aren't as good as those of an actual animal. He can see better in the dark, hear higher pitches and further distances, and his sense of smell is quite a bit better. However, the sense of smell is entirely subconscious to spare his brain from being overloaded with information. As such he can't specifically pinpoint when someone is, say, sweating nervously or aroused or scared, but he reacts to it subconsciously.
He is also quicker than the average human, easily able to dodge and work around things such as (in the second game) MC kicking at him while he tries to use a knife on them. He is able to quickly react when jumped at or MC attempts to run, moving almost before they realize he has.
Ren also retains an animal enjoyment of raw meat along with normal food, such as chicken and human hearts. Also raw eggs. It's gross.
Inventory: Strade's knife and the clothes on his back.
Coterie: Vipers
Samples: 1, 2 (Earlier canon point)
I actually stopped playing Ren for a while in early 2020, so I also have a few threads that go past the 2-year requirement, but I feel they display other parts of Ren's personality. If the mods are willing to take them as just supplementary, I've linked them.
Ren is rescued from Strade's ghost, Ren has to fight yandere instincts (NSFW toward the end), Ren gets Factory Reset'd.
