Post by hei on Nov 13, 2011 13:47:12 GMT -5
Hei has had two diverging identities. One is Li Shengshun, the good natured, timid Chinese boy who tries to help others but otherwise generally keeps to himself, the person Hei was before as a child. The other is the Reaper, a ruthless, calculating assassin, who will sooner kill you than shake your hand. Hei's behaviour and reactions are strange considering both his upbringing and supposed status as a Contractor, which taught him to evaluate things through logic based on a gain vs cost basis, but since leaving the Syndicate he has let his emotions dictate his course of action just as often as he would logic. This makes him somewhat enigmatic to his employers and many other people he encounters. He displays a deep love for his sister, Pai, who was went missing during a an operation in South America, and he is easily influenced by stimuli related to her. As far as the world is concerned, Hei is a normal, albeit extremely skilled and almost supernaturally feared, human. Finally, there is Hei's prodigous appetite - never allow him to order whatever he wants in a restaurant if you're treating him to a meal, or he will empty your wallet then and there.
Friends:
While it may not seem it at first glance, these people are Hei's life - his comrades, his family, his sole reason for existing after discovering the fate of his sister, and he would go to any lengths, do anything to protect them and when possible keep them happy as well. They are his moral compass, and the ones who keep him honest, no matter how far he may slip towards the darkness. The last time Hei was deprived of them he spiralled into a deep depression, becoming even more ruthless than he had ever been in his past as well as a raging drunk at times, having resorted to alcohol in an attempt to simply make it all go away - while he will likely never go back to drinking as a result of a promise he once made after climbing out of his first depression, it is unlikely that he'd survive it a second time, or if he did, the result would likely be far more permanent than before.
While many people may call themselves his friends and honestly believe that to be the case (more often than not as a result of his much more friendly civilian persona), becoming an actual friend is not something that can be forced, and it rarely happens overnight. Hei's seemingly cold and stoic personality when able to show his true self doesn't exactly help matters either, although if someone watched long enough or was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, they would see that he is genuinely a good person at heart, despite the atrocities he has committed as the Reaper. He has bent or outright broken rules several times in the past in order to be merciful when possible, on at least two occassions putting his very life at risk to do so, and it was in showing mercy that he began to climb out of his first depression, taking a young Contractor who had just recently lost everything she knew before gaining her powers under his wing, something he was in no way obligated to do, and despite gaining nothing out of the arrangement himself he went through great trouble to protect her.
In conclusion, friends, true ones, people he can trust and people he would literally die for, are something that Hei desperately needs, if only to keep him from slipping too far and becoming little more than the heartless assassin and murderer that most of the world sees him as. Said friends can be from any age group, but the younger, the better - Hei's humanity has always come closest to the surface when confronted with others who had been forced or otherwise coerced into a role that differed from that of a normal life while young, as it was something he could relate to, and it is most often this group of individuals that Hei had deliberately gone out of his way to show mercy to in the past. Apprentices aren't out of the question either, especially those with newly awakened abilities - while not exactly the kindest mentor, often teaching through example and sparring, Hei has been shown to demonstrate an excellent ability to train up raw talent, and such students could not ask for better protection or a more experienced mentor.
Pai
Contractor - Sister, real name Xing
Status: Deceased, with her powers absorbed into Hei
Havoc
Regressor - Real name Carmine, comrade in Arms, later a friend
Status: Deceased - killed by MI6 to prevent her from regaining her Contract
Amber
Contractor - comrade in arms, friend, past love interest
Status: Deceased due to overusing her ability
Suou Pavilichenko
Contractor - Former apprentice
Status: Alive but MIA - killed by Yin's awakened Observation Specter and later reborn in a seperate reality, stripped of her Contract and memories, in essence made human again
Huang
Comrade, friend
Status: Deceased - killed warning Hei about the Syndicate's betrayal and while buying enough time for him, Yin and Mao to escape
Yin
Doll - comrade, unofficially adopted sister following the Hell's Gate Incident
Status: Deceased, killed by Hei's own hand to prevent a second Hell's Gate incident
Mao
Contractor - comrade in arms, close personal friend
Status: Alive but MIA, seperated from Hei in the aftermath of Yin's awakening and death. Currently with Section 3.
Enemies:
Given his reputation as the Black Reaper, a heartless, merciless assassin and mercenary for hire who would kill you just as soon as look at you, it is inevitable that Hei would have made enemies, and a lot of them. While countless governments and organizations would drool over the opportunity to make him one of their own, their are equally as many who would prefer to take him out of the game altogether, permanently if possible. As a result Hei has been chased almost the entire time since the fall of the Syndicate and the loss of their protection, with countless assassins and mercenaries, some from what remains of the Syndicate and some from other governments, all gunning for him with the intent to kill. While Hei has already dealt with enough of these pursuers to deter many of them, there are doubtless still many after him, and there is always the possibility of the organizations chasing him hiring outside help rather than risking their own people.
On top of that, even the civil services have been shown to have knowledge of him, and have almost invariably been shown to have orders to either detain or kill him if he resists, which seems to happen every time. While few, if any, such police forces have a prayer of catching the man, escpecially as they only know what his mask looks like, they still pose enough of a threat that Hei tends to lay low when possible. By extension it is quite likely that his name has managed to percolate to the ranks of the meta and super humans, hero and villain alike - while the vast majority of the world believes him to be an ordinary human (albeit with near supernatural skills), enough people know that not to be the case that heros and villains will likely pursue him as well on reputation alone, with the former believing it to be their duty to catch him and the latter most likely wanting to recruit him. The fact that he has on occassion acted as a vigilante, often dispensing his own rather vicious brand of justice, hasn't done much to help clarify which side he's fighting for - one day he might be working for a villain or rather dubious organization just to survive, and the next moment hunting down kidnappers and murderers who just happened to cross his path, in major cases outright acting in humanity's best interests to preserve life and the peace rather than taking or disrupting it. In either case, though, his abilities were considered a closely guarded secret to those who knew him, and with the fall of the Syndicate there is no one left who knows exactly what his powers are.
Romance:
Having been used as a human weapon from his early teens onwards and having been concerned with little else beyond protecting (and following her disappearance, finding) his sister and close friends, it is highly unlikely that Hei has seriously considered this aspect of his life at length, although it may have happened once or twice in the past - first with Amber, who was clearly shown to have loved him with her sole desire to see him happy, something most considered impossible given her status as a Contractor, although this was never elaborated upon and nothing likely happened, both due to his focus at the time being his sister's safety and Heaven's War, in which he, Pai and Amber were all soldiers in. The second time, however, he was shown to have been aware of the other person's attraction to him, only to have dismissed it out of hand, citing both their disparate ages and the fact that they had more important things to be focused on.
In short, possible but highly unlikely, unless said person confronted him right out or unless it was shoved in his face by someone else, as it had been the second time by Mao (a long time friend and fellow Contractor). If confronted about it, though, in all truth Hei would probably have no idea how to react, assuming that the other person knew him as Hei and not as Li or one of his other personas (in which case he would merely decline or pretend not to have heard). Given his devotion to those he considers friends, though, such a person would not find someone more loyal or committed than Hei, although exactly how close he would be to such a person would be anyone's guess - again, as no such relationship has actually definitively existed as of yet, at least not with Hei reciprocating or aware of it, this is uncharted territory, although open to anyone who wanted to give it a try. Good luck, though - you'll need it.
Other:
Fairly well aware that the above categories don't exactly cover everything, so feel free to speak up if you have any other ideas that can't be placed in one of those categories! I'm open to pretty much everything, so feel free to mention whatever is on you mind, no matter how crazy it is - as long as it's at least possible, I can try and find a way to make it work!
Friends:
While it may not seem it at first glance, these people are Hei's life - his comrades, his family, his sole reason for existing after discovering the fate of his sister, and he would go to any lengths, do anything to protect them and when possible keep them happy as well. They are his moral compass, and the ones who keep him honest, no matter how far he may slip towards the darkness. The last time Hei was deprived of them he spiralled into a deep depression, becoming even more ruthless than he had ever been in his past as well as a raging drunk at times, having resorted to alcohol in an attempt to simply make it all go away - while he will likely never go back to drinking as a result of a promise he once made after climbing out of his first depression, it is unlikely that he'd survive it a second time, or if he did, the result would likely be far more permanent than before.
While many people may call themselves his friends and honestly believe that to be the case (more often than not as a result of his much more friendly civilian persona), becoming an actual friend is not something that can be forced, and it rarely happens overnight. Hei's seemingly cold and stoic personality when able to show his true self doesn't exactly help matters either, although if someone watched long enough or was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, they would see that he is genuinely a good person at heart, despite the atrocities he has committed as the Reaper. He has bent or outright broken rules several times in the past in order to be merciful when possible, on at least two occassions putting his very life at risk to do so, and it was in showing mercy that he began to climb out of his first depression, taking a young Contractor who had just recently lost everything she knew before gaining her powers under his wing, something he was in no way obligated to do, and despite gaining nothing out of the arrangement himself he went through great trouble to protect her.
In conclusion, friends, true ones, people he can trust and people he would literally die for, are something that Hei desperately needs, if only to keep him from slipping too far and becoming little more than the heartless assassin and murderer that most of the world sees him as. Said friends can be from any age group, but the younger, the better - Hei's humanity has always come closest to the surface when confronted with others who had been forced or otherwise coerced into a role that differed from that of a normal life while young, as it was something he could relate to, and it is most often this group of individuals that Hei had deliberately gone out of his way to show mercy to in the past. Apprentices aren't out of the question either, especially those with newly awakened abilities - while not exactly the kindest mentor, often teaching through example and sparring, Hei has been shown to demonstrate an excellent ability to train up raw talent, and such students could not ask for better protection or a more experienced mentor.
Pai
Contractor - Sister, real name Xing
Status: Deceased, with her powers absorbed into Hei
Havoc
Regressor - Real name Carmine, comrade in Arms, later a friend
Status: Deceased - killed by MI6 to prevent her from regaining her Contract
Amber
Contractor - comrade in arms, friend, past love interest
Status: Deceased due to overusing her ability
Suou Pavilichenko
Contractor - Former apprentice
Status: Alive but MIA - killed by Yin's awakened Observation Specter and later reborn in a seperate reality, stripped of her Contract and memories, in essence made human again
Huang
Comrade, friend
Status: Deceased - killed warning Hei about the Syndicate's betrayal and while buying enough time for him, Yin and Mao to escape
Yin
Doll - comrade, unofficially adopted sister following the Hell's Gate Incident
Status: Deceased, killed by Hei's own hand to prevent a second Hell's Gate incident
Mao
Contractor - comrade in arms, close personal friend
Status: Alive but MIA, seperated from Hei in the aftermath of Yin's awakening and death. Currently with Section 3.
Enemies:
Given his reputation as the Black Reaper, a heartless, merciless assassin and mercenary for hire who would kill you just as soon as look at you, it is inevitable that Hei would have made enemies, and a lot of them. While countless governments and organizations would drool over the opportunity to make him one of their own, their are equally as many who would prefer to take him out of the game altogether, permanently if possible. As a result Hei has been chased almost the entire time since the fall of the Syndicate and the loss of their protection, with countless assassins and mercenaries, some from what remains of the Syndicate and some from other governments, all gunning for him with the intent to kill. While Hei has already dealt with enough of these pursuers to deter many of them, there are doubtless still many after him, and there is always the possibility of the organizations chasing him hiring outside help rather than risking their own people.
On top of that, even the civil services have been shown to have knowledge of him, and have almost invariably been shown to have orders to either detain or kill him if he resists, which seems to happen every time. While few, if any, such police forces have a prayer of catching the man, escpecially as they only know what his mask looks like, they still pose enough of a threat that Hei tends to lay low when possible. By extension it is quite likely that his name has managed to percolate to the ranks of the meta and super humans, hero and villain alike - while the vast majority of the world believes him to be an ordinary human (albeit with near supernatural skills), enough people know that not to be the case that heros and villains will likely pursue him as well on reputation alone, with the former believing it to be their duty to catch him and the latter most likely wanting to recruit him. The fact that he has on occassion acted as a vigilante, often dispensing his own rather vicious brand of justice, hasn't done much to help clarify which side he's fighting for - one day he might be working for a villain or rather dubious organization just to survive, and the next moment hunting down kidnappers and murderers who just happened to cross his path, in major cases outright acting in humanity's best interests to preserve life and the peace rather than taking or disrupting it. In either case, though, his abilities were considered a closely guarded secret to those who knew him, and with the fall of the Syndicate there is no one left who knows exactly what his powers are.
Romance:
Having been used as a human weapon from his early teens onwards and having been concerned with little else beyond protecting (and following her disappearance, finding) his sister and close friends, it is highly unlikely that Hei has seriously considered this aspect of his life at length, although it may have happened once or twice in the past - first with Amber, who was clearly shown to have loved him with her sole desire to see him happy, something most considered impossible given her status as a Contractor, although this was never elaborated upon and nothing likely happened, both due to his focus at the time being his sister's safety and Heaven's War, in which he, Pai and Amber were all soldiers in. The second time, however, he was shown to have been aware of the other person's attraction to him, only to have dismissed it out of hand, citing both their disparate ages and the fact that they had more important things to be focused on.
In short, possible but highly unlikely, unless said person confronted him right out or unless it was shoved in his face by someone else, as it had been the second time by Mao (a long time friend and fellow Contractor). If confronted about it, though, in all truth Hei would probably have no idea how to react, assuming that the other person knew him as Hei and not as Li or one of his other personas (in which case he would merely decline or pretend not to have heard). Given his devotion to those he considers friends, though, such a person would not find someone more loyal or committed than Hei, although exactly how close he would be to such a person would be anyone's guess - again, as no such relationship has actually definitively existed as of yet, at least not with Hei reciprocating or aware of it, this is uncharted territory, although open to anyone who wanted to give it a try. Good luck, though - you'll need it.
Other:
Fairly well aware that the above categories don't exactly cover everything, so feel free to speak up if you have any other ideas that can't be placed in one of those categories! I'm open to pretty much everything, so feel free to mention whatever is on you mind, no matter how crazy it is - as long as it's at least possible, I can try and find a way to make it work!
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