Ghost Story Character Info

Introducing the Defenders~

See this for what they look like: fav.me/d5mdp8q

From left to right:
Row One:
Hildegarde Salz: Foul-mouthed, overconfident, and bloodthirsty, Hildegarde is one of the assassins of the Defenders. While definitely not as skilled and discreet as Shashi Simmons, her specialty is mass assassination. She is a close and mid-range fighter. Not above trash-talking her opponents, Hildegarde will taunt them to make the first move (she considers it a courtesy). However, she is quick to anger, and lets that rage affect her fighting. Despite this, she is actually a decent strategist.
She is also the most sadistic and unstable member of the Defenders, and enjoys seeing blood flow from her victims.
Before she joined the Defenders, she was Morte's Grim Reaper. Despite being alive (she is a Spirit), her job was to assign Ghosts the regions they'd live in. She also frequently visited the Human World and Scaladigrigi to end the lives of people who were on their deathbed.
Bored with this job and wanting one that involves more bloodshed, Hildegarde becomes an assassin-for-hire. However, because of her...enthusiasm...and her messy kills, she is not hired often. She catches the eye of the Defenders, who want someone who knows her way around Morte, as well as someone who is willing to kill for their goals. Hildegarde joins instantly, eager to finally be a part of this exclusive organization. However, her enthusiasm falters when she is partnered with Coulter Keller, her foil.
Her trademark weapon is her scythe (she's the Grim Reaper, after all). Despite her foul-mouth, she is surprisingly religious, and worships Kali, the Hindu goddess of death, destruction, and rebirth, as well as the other Hindu deities, despite her contradicting attitude and lifestyle. (She learned about them during her frequent visits to the Human World, and was fascinated by them.) She is from Klippe (a country similar to the Human World's Germany).
Because she participated in a ritual involving drinking Human blood and reciting an incantation to become a more powerful version of the Grim Reaper, she was immortalized at the age of twenty-two. Her true age is seventy-eight.
*Fun facts: She pins her hair back because she hates getting blood in it. Her design is based off of Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as a stereotypical vampire.*

Coulter Keller: Coulter is a calculating, intelligent woman with a talent for swindling people. Because of cruel scientific experimentations performed on her when she was a small child, countless stitches cover her body, the most noticeable being the ones forming a 'Glasgow smile'.
She was sold to the research facility because her parents needed the money, so after she escapes, she becomes obsessed with earning it and saving it. She is extremely frugal, greedy, and miserly. However, though she loves money, she is against stealing it because that would be the 'easy way' to get it; she wants to make it herself. When someone asks her for a loan, they can be sure that there will be a hell of a lot of interest to pay, though.
She is known in Scaladigrigi as the Bogeyman, one of the only buyers and sellers of organs on the black market. Because she wears a thick cloak with a hood and a mask covering her mouth to muffle her voice, her clients think she is male. Her prices are outrageous, but since she is the only consistent organ seller, she has many clients. Once her gender and name are revealed, she becomes known as 'Coulter the Heart Stealer', since hearts and lungs are her specialty. Because of the experiments done on her, Coulter is able to remove her own organs since she can manipulate the stitching on her body, as well as her nerves, meaning that when they fail, she can replace them using the organs she acquires (meaning from the people she killed to steal them from...). Because of this, she is able to prolong her life extensionally. Also a side-effect of the experiments, she stopped aging at twenty-four. In reality, she is eighty-three. If she keeps replacing her organs when they start to fail, she can remain immortal.
She has the power of healing herself and others by focusing energy into her hands, though she can also use this energy to tear muscles and ligaments, break bones, etc. She can also vary the thickness of the threads in her body, meaning that depending on the wound, she can tailor the thread to stitch it. Her thread is also permanent and waterproof, as well as immune to infection. The Defenders invite her to join because they needed a healer, as well as someone experienced to manage their money.
She is excited to join, since she wants to get back at the research facility that experimented on her and basically made her into a monster. However, her excitement turns to annoyance when she is partnered up with Hildegarde Salz, who is her opposite.
*Fun facts: Coulter is an atheist. Her design is based off of Oogie Boogie and Sally the Ragdoll from The Nightmare Before Christmas. She gets a lot of the organs she sells from people who don't pay their loans back, as well as people who sell children. (Basically, she kills them, XD.)*

Zen Morrow: When she was alive, Zen was an introverted but likable woman who lived an ordinary life in London. That changes when she becomes a contestant on a reality TV show called 'Everest Survivor'. She and four other contestants are flown to Mount Everest, where they live in a small cabin and compete in various challenges. After an unexpected avalanche, the four other contestants as well as the camera crew (minus one) die. Zen and the camerawoman are now trapped alone on the mountain. Since everything is being broadcast live, they try to plead for help, but since rating skyrocketed since the avalanche, they are forced to continue the show. As the week goes on, the food runs out, and the heat turns off. The camerawoman dies of hypothermia, and Zen is left alone. Because she doesn't want to starve, Zen cuts off the camerawoman's arm and eats it. This is caught on camera, but Zen no longer cares. She dies of hypothermia the day later.
When she arrives in Morte, people avoid her and shun her, calling her 'Zen the Cannibal'. Saddened by the fact that even when she's dead, she's still an outcast, Zen doesn't bother going outside. Because she died lonely, Zen has the ability to split herself into two people. However, these forms take half of her personality traits; one is pessimistic and cynical, while the other is optimistic and friendly.
When Kiki Conan is visiting Morte in order to scout for possible recruits for the Defenders, she comes across Zen and befriends her. Not wanting to lose her only friend, Zen agrees to join. This is where she meets and is partnered up with Irika Untoka. Despite their different personalities, they become close friends.
*Fun fact: When Zen splits, one copy of herself has black hair and wears a black dress, while the other has white hair and a white dress. When she is complete, she has grey hair and wears a dress that is half black and half white.*

Kiki Conan: Kiki is the second-in-command of the Defenders. She was the first member recruited by Naaz.
When she was alive, Kiki was a beautiful woman who men loved. However, she did not love them back; she was attracted to women. Because of her orientation, she was murdered. She lived in Morte for awhile before Naaz finds her when looking for potential members for the organization. She is drawn to Kiki instantly, and the two become lovers.
Kiki has an eye on the back of each hand. These eyes can gauge the skill level and exact power of another person, as well as their unique energy signature. She is very self-conscious about the eyes, and always wears gloves to cover them.
*Fun facts: I was coming up with her name when Conan O'Brien was on. I couldn't figure out a last name for her, so I was just like 'What the hell, Conan it is.' Her extra eyes are blue, while her actual eyes are grey.*

Naaz Tohru: Naaz is the mysterious leader of the Defenders. Not much is known about her save the fact that she desperately wants to bring down the governments of Scaladigrigi and put herself as the one true ruler. She is tired of all the wars between the different countries, and wants peace. She is a Ghost, and it is implied that she held a government position in her home country before she was murdered.
Naaz has one eye, but she can move it to either side of her face. She has the ability to travel between the three worlds.
*Fun fact: She was the first character I created for this story, but sadly the least focused-on.*

Tsunami Jenson: Tsunami is the sole human in the organization. Because she preferred drawing over athletics or fashion, she was considered an outcast at her college. While walking to the mall one day, she spots Naaz on one of her patrols in the Human World. Intrigued, she confronts her. Naaz is surprised, since typically, humans can't see her. She is about to go back to Scaladigrigi when Tsunami grabs her hand to get her to stop moving. However, this backfires, and Tsunami ends up flying with Naaz back to Scaladigrigi. Unable to get back home, she stays with Naaz, and gets introduced to the organization. She is extremely terrified of most of the members, but she is moved by Naaz's passion and Kiki's kindness. She, much to Sofia and Shashi's distaste, becomes the final member of the Defenders. Later on, she discovers her own power of making her drawings come to life, literally.
*Fun fact: She was supposed to be the main protagonist, but I sort of pushed her to the background in favor of Shashi and Luna, XD.*

Ljótur Deindóttir (Stage name: Luna Dein): Luna was a popular singer until her career--and her life--was cut short by an explosion (her stage pyrotechnics malfunctioned). Despite dying and losing her left eye from one, Luna becomes interested in and obsessed with explosions. When she discovers her power to control sound waves, this becomes her explosive medium of choice. Bored with living in Morte, she finds a way to sneak into Scaladigrigi. Once there, she becomes a bomber-for-hire to earn money (though she also sings in nightclubs and other establishments as a side job). Because she knows that people will go to another world when they die, she has no problems with killing people and has fun with it, making her 'shows' as theatrical and dramatic as possible. She also likes to have an audience when she blows stuff up, and will interact with them before she kills them. Because her explosions are caused by sound waves, and are pretty much untraceable, she becomes famous (well, infamous) among Scaladigrigi's crime world, as well as being wanted by the government. She's happy working as a 'freelancer' until she catches the eye of the Defenders. Luna doesn't want to be tied to a specific organization, so when Blue and Sofia confront her, she condescendingly refuses to join. This causes the two to make a bet with her. If she beats both of them in a fight, she can go back to being a rogue bomber. If she loses, however, she has to join the Defenders. Being the overconfident teenager (she's nineteen when she died, meaning she'll stay the same age forever) she is, Luna accepts, and picks Sofia to fight first, thinking that her thin figure would be a snap to blow up in comparison to Blue, who is 6'5 and muscular, XDD. However, she doesn't know that Sofia's abilities are more trained (and generally superior) to hers, and ends up losing. (Basically, by looking into Sofia's eyes, a person gets frozen on the spot [sort of like Medusa's power, accept that the person is not literally turned into stone], and trapped in what is called the Nightmare Realm, a terrifying illusion created by Sofia's bloodline that can literally scare someone to death.) Because Sofia only wanted to prove a point, she doesn't torture Luna in the Nightmare Realm, and just freezes her motions for a few moments. Because of this, Luna begrudgingly joins the Defenders. For most of the story, though, she has a bitter grudge against Sofia for humiliating her so easily. (But poor Sofia has no ill-will towards Luna, so Luna is just setting herself up as the 'jerk', XD.)
She and her partner, Shashi Simmons, have a complex relationship. They are so similar, yet are too stubborn to acknowledge this. Luna, though she acts bratty and cocky towards Shashi, desperately wants her approval.
*Fun facts: Luna is Icelandic, but in order to appeal to Americans, she uses a stage name that is easier to pronounce. She covers the left side of her face with her bangs/fringe because she is self-conscious of the fact that she lost her eye. She has a slight accent, but she masks it well. However, when angered or flustered, it becomes very prominent.*

Shashi Simmons: Shashi is a stealthy, doll-faced killer with a seemingly-apathetic demeanor. Her specialty is silent assassination. Though she, on the surface, seems to be one of the more reasonable members, if she is angered, she is the worst opponent someone could have. She is cool, calm, and collected, even in battle, and is a master manipulator. She is a talented strategist who plans future moves in advance. As a person, Shashi is an intellectual. She shares a love of literature and linguistics with Sofia Untoka, and the two get along well due to their similar personalities. However, Shashi is even more solitary than Sofia. She also loves science, especially chemistry and biology, and uses her extensive knowledge on the subjects to create poisons for the Defenders, and for her own research. One of Shashi's most notable traits, however, is the fact that she is a sculptor. She has very specific views on art, and thinks that music (meaning Luna's singing) is inferior to visual arts like sculpting, drawing, etc. She respects Tsunami more because she is a 'visual artist'. When interacting with people whom she deems inferior to her, she is cold, blunt, and condescending.
Shashi was the princess of a country called the Western Sands after her parents died fighting in a war with Kage (which is the home country of Sofia and Irika Untoka. It's pronounced KAH-gay). She 'led' the country until she discovered that her position was just for show, and that the Council of the Western Sands was pulling all the strings. Disgusted with being manipulated (especially since she thought she was the one controlling everything), Shashi defects from her country and goes into hiding in Kage. There, she uses her talents to create her now-infamous weapons. Her own sculptures. Ever since she was small, Shashi could manipulate energy and transfer it to inanimate objects to make them walk, fight, etc. The catch is that she can only use it on objects she herself created, though later, she realizes that she can use it on people as well. (However, she almost never manipulates living people, since they are unpredictable.)
Needing money for sculpting materials and other necessities, Shashi begins working as a professional assassin. (She realizes that she doesn't mind killing after she murders the original Council of the Western Sands.) Naaz and Kiki are interested in Shashi's unique talents, as well as her almost-flawless kills. It takes them awhile to find her, since Shashi is a master of disguise, and has countless aliases. However, once she is found, she agrees to join, wanting more revenge on the Western Sands. She expects to work alone, and is outraged when she is partnered up with Nobara Nara (who later defects from the Defenders and is replaced by Luna).
When Shashi is partnered with Luna, the two seemingly hate each other and don't get along. However, deep down, Shashi cares for Luna (though she rarely shows it), and is fiercely protective towards her as the story goes on. (Though she would rather cut out her own heart than admit it; Shashi is such a tsundere, XD.)
*Fun facts: She is my favorite character, XD. Luna nicknames her 'Sassy' due to her condescending attitude, and it unfortunately sticks. She, like many people from the Western Sands, is a redhead. Because red hair is very rare in Scaladigrigi (Sands is the only place where redheads can be found), she wears a wig whenever she goes on missions. She also wears prosthetic skin to make the disguise complete. Her most-used alias is 'Hanabi', who is a woman with choppy dark brown hair and light brown skin.*

Irika Untoka: Irika Untoka is one member of the infamous Untoka bloodline. She, though she has the characteristic red eyes, cannot access the Nightmare Realm. Instead, her power manifested as the ability to teleport. Also unlike her twin, she is energetic, optimistic, and a bit childish. (However, a lot of this is just an act to brighten up the other members' days, though they think that she's stupid and annoying most of the time.) Despite her irritating personality (haha, 'Irika the Irritating'), Irika is very perceptive and very smart.
She is one of the original members of the Defenders (the others being Naaz, Kiki, Sofia, Blue, Shashi, and Nobara). She originally was not going to be a member because of her…loud…personality, but Naaz let her join anyways because of the horrifying circumstances surrounding her and Sofia's reason for being on the run. (This will be explained in Sofia's profile.) She, like Sofia, was a former member of the Shadow Sector, Kage's most ruthless and agile branch of the police.
When Luna joins the Defenders, Irika becomes infatuated with her. (She loves the way that Luna, like herself, brightens up the organization, as well as her personality. [She thinks that Luna is so filled with life, despite being dead].) She follows Luna around constantly (usually annoying her in the process) and looks up to her. When Shashi goes missing and is presumed dead, Irika becomes Luna's new partner, much to her distaste. (However, when Shashi, who was taken by Nobara Nara as revenge on the organization, returns, Irika grudgingly lets her be Luna's partner again.)
Usually, Irika is partnered with Zen, and the two have an unusual friendship. When Zen splits, she prefers to be around her light half, and doesn't like the dark half very much.
*Fun facts: Irika's favorite color is orange, and she, like Sofia, has a sweet tooth. She enjoys Luna's music, and will criticize Shashi's sculptures to make Luna happy. When she later meets with Nin Landau of Team Falcon to discuss information about the rogue Charon Untoka, she uses the alias 'Maddy'.*

Sofia Untoka: Sofia is Irika's twin, and another member of the Untoka bloodline. Before she was exiled, she was considered to be the most talented member. Sofia gained the ability to send people into the Nightmare Realm when she was very young, younger than the average Untoka gets the ability. (She was eleven, while the average is fifteen.) Because of this, as well as her above-average intelligence, a lot of pressure was put on her to be the best, while Irika was often ignored. She was recruited into the Shadow Sector at the age of fifteen (the average age for joining is twenty). She was known for her mastery of strategy, her dedication to missions, and desensitization to blood and gore. Irika joined the force when she was seventeen. Right after she was inducted, a report came to the head of the Shadow Sector. Greyson Untoka (Irika's and Sofia's cousin) was found murdered, her eyes completely removed. The culprit was Sasha Untoka, Greyson's twin, who killed Greyson and stole her eyes in order to use them as spares if her own eventually failed. (Poor vision is a side-effect of constant use of the Nightmare Realm illusion. Sasha was part of the interrogation corps, so she used it all the time.) However, the Untoka bloodline was protecting Sasha, refusing to hand her over to the Shadow Sector. Because of Sofia's strategy skills, as well as the fact that she is an Untoka too, she is given the mission to assassinate Sasha. She does, but she is discovered by her other cousin Charon Untoka. She alerts the elder Untokas, and Sofia flees, knowing that she would be put to death for betraying her bloodline. Irika follows her because she would be killed as well, just for being Sofia's twin. For most of the story, it is Charon's goal to find Sofia and kill her, since Sasha's assassination caused the Untoka bloodline to become infamous across Scaladigrigi.
When Sofia was recruited by Naaz, she is partnered with Blue Rogers. The two are the only partnership (besides Naaz and Kiki) who really get along, and are friends. Blue is loyal to Sofia, and Sofia is loyal to Blue. If one of them would want to leave the organization for whatever reason, the other would follow. (Meaning they are more loyal to each other than to the Defenders.)
Sofia's power is one of the strongest in the Defenders, despite her young age (twenty-one). By looking into her eyes, a person gets frozen on the spot (sort of like Medusa's power, accept that the person is not literally turned into stone), and trapped in what is called the Nightmare Realm, a terrifying illusion created by Sofia's bloodline that can literally scare someone to death. The strength of the illusion depends on how much energy Sofia gives it.
Sofia is also extremely beautiful, and is considered to be the best-looking member of the Defenders. Her eyes are especially gorgeous. Because of her power and appearance, she catches the eye of Nobara Nara, who wants to kill Sofia and take her ocular powers for herself. Luckily, that plan is foiled when she is kicked out of the organization for attempting to betray one of their own, but she still holds a deep, ugly grudge against the Defenders, and especially against Sofia (as well as Shashi, her former partner).
*Fun facts: Sofia has a terrible sweet tooth. She loves old literature, especially romance novels. If she uses the Nightmare Realm illusion for too long, her eyes bleed (which is a rare, but terrifying and painful, side-effect.)*

Blue Rogers: If Blue was part of a 'five-man band' (TV Tropes ftw), she'd be the 'Big Guy'. At six-foot five, she's the tallest member of the Defenders, towering over everyone, even Coulter. For a woman, she's quite muscular, and she's the strongest (physically). Despite her intimidating appearance, she's quite friendly, and never hesitates to crack jokes or pat someone on the back (more like knock them over with her strength). Her weapon of choice is an oversized pair of hedge trimmers she named 'Ginormous Decapitation'. She uses it to snap her targets' necks and decapitate them.
Blue is part of a unique amphibious race that is half-Spirit and half-fish. She herself is half-Spirit, half-angler fish. Until she turned twenty, she lived in an underwater city called Trident. Wanting to see what life was like above the surface, and bored with the monotony of a semi-utopia, she ventures onto land. Needing a job to pay her rent, she ends up working as a chef for a steakhouse (her culinary skills are surprisingly advanced). She also helps people fix their technology as another side job, which catches the eye of Naaz and Kiki. They were looking for someone to build a state-of-the-art security system, and decided that Blue was qualified enough for the job. Blue agrees, eager to show off her skills, as well as join a revolutionary organization (she did not like how the governments on land were being run, and thought that Naaz's ideals were similar to the leader of Trident's. She agrees with them, so she is happy to join).
She is partnered up with Sofia as soon as Sofia joins the organization. Like I mentioned in Sofia's profile, the two are close, and are the most loyal partnership in the organization. (Though this proves to be disastrous when Nobara uses Blue as a way to get to Sofia.)
Blue has the power of hydrokinesis (cliché, right? XD), as well as communicating with fish via echolocation underwater.
*Fun fact: Blue will cook almost anything but fish. She gets offended when people eat fish in front of her. She is the Defenders' cook, as well as their tech specialist.*

Note: Technology is very limited in Scaladigrigi. It exists, but it is very primitive by today's standards. There are no computers and no Internet, either.