Played by: Vivi

Face Claim: Ghost in the Shell, Matoko Kusanagi 


Age: 18

Gender: Female

Occupation: Mercenary/Underground Fighter 

Weight and Height: 120 lbs, 5'2 

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    Vivi is a petite woman standing at just barely five foot two, but with a sturdy and curvaceous build. Her muscles are toned from constant activity and habitual training. Her purple hair is cropped short. It used to be waist length while she was in the middle of high school, but she cut it off for the sake of convenience and practicality in combat. She typically dresses in muted colors and can usually be seen in a jumpsuit and a light jacket. On her own time, she typically wears shorts and a tank top. Vivi fits the conventional definition of attractive in spite of the many scars that muddle her skin. One of the more faint ones reaches from the upper left side of her forehead to the corner of her eye, and larger ones mar her back. Her knuckles are scarred the worst of all from repeated damage.

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    Vivi is a relatively quiet woman with a dry sense of humor and no patience for bullshit. She’s generally very kind to people she first meets (who don’t pose a threat) but unintentionally comes across as very closed off, not wanting to dwell on details about herself or especially her past life. Part of this is due to her just being a private person in general, but a nagging sense of guilt from bad choices throughout her younger years causes her to steer away from talking or let alone even thinking about anything but the present.

    Those who take the time to get to know her will find she’s actually fun-loving and can be talkative with those she’s comfortable around. Her humor is quite dry with those she doesn’t know as well and she can get obnoxiously cheeky when she’s irritated enough, but she has a sillier side with her close friends. Vivi is also very loyal and emotionally supportive to the people she’s closest to, almost to the point where she’d blindly follow her closest friends into a fire if they assured her it was the right thing to do. In turn, she doesn’t take betrayal very well.

    Vivi has a terrible temper, but she can usually control it to an extent. She has a thick skin when it comes to personal insults about superficial things like her looks, skills or intelligence, but comments about her background, treating her friends badly, or just being flat out stupid can set her off. Vivi is a perceptive person and likes to weigh her options, but she doesn’t work well under pressure. In the midst of a tough situation she goes off instincts. She tends to throw herself into dangerous situations she’s severely underprepared for just for the sake of not being able to live with herself if she didn’t at least try to fight. Even if she’s broken down and can barely move, she’ll keep trying to fight until she’s unconscious.

    Vivi is extremely empathetic and considers it a curse of hers to feel so much. She often views it as one of her greatest weaknesses, and in turn, tries to cover up any acts of sympathy or kindness with a bullshit reason in an effort to come across as a hard ass. It’s difficult to earn her trust, but she’s a bit more vulnerable with those who managed to do so.



    Vivi was born as the third of six children in the Perish household. The Perish family was well thought of where they lived, but only because they were skilled liars with years of practice. Behind closed doors, the family been running an organized crime syndicate known as Avarice for years. The group was involved with some of the biggest heists and crimes in Michigan at the time they were settled there.

    Her parents Lathan and Azrielle Perish being involved in something so dangerous didn’t make for a good family life at home. Clients and allies who worked with the family often called Perish Manor the Disaster House, claiming that with their life style none of Lathan and Azrielle’s children would live past the age of eighteen.

    Lathan Perish made no effort to shield his children from his line of work, but instead trained them to become involved with it from a young age in order to turn them into assets for the future. Through fear and discipline Lathan trained his children not to speak a word of what went on behind the walls of their mansion. He told them to call him sir—never dad. As for their mother, she didn’t antagonize the children like Lathan, but she never made an effort to stop him.

With Lathan’s iron will and harsh methods of “parenting” all the children fell into line. Well, except one. You can probably guess who.

    Vivi grew up with an unstable and closed off demeanor. During a particularly rough time for the ‘family business’, Lathan and Azrielle sent their children away for a time. Vivi happened to be sent to a boarding school which mysteriously burnt down a year into her schooling, and she went missing for another six months after that. She hasn’t told a soul what happened in that span of time.

    When Vivi was returned to her family, she’d become even more of an unstable and angry child. This was around the time she became the problem kid. She wasn’t disobedient at first, but she eventually became the whipping child of the Perish family along with their clients and allies. She was the one who was punished for other people’s frustrations and short comings, and her older siblings all mercilessly antagonized her. This eventually led to her rejecting everything the family stood for which only made her situation worse. Vivi struggled to escape her family ties as well as the wrath of her many enemies, and for years she tried to take down Avarice with what little support from others she could muster. She doesn’t go into detail about her experiences in those years, but it was chaotic with more near death experiences and failures than she can count.

    Eventually Vivi shook Avarice after agreeing to something her wacko father referred to as “The Stairs of Redemption.” He set her to a series of tasks that were demanding, painful, and challenged her values. When she’d gained his trust, she was finally able to disappear.

    Vivi had finally freed herself after years of fear and abuse, and she was severely damaged physically and mentally. For a while, she lived on the streets and ran with a gang. She learned a lot during her time with them, but they didn’t treat her much better than the people she’d left. There are dozens of stories from her run with them, but that’s another part of her life she’d like to forget. Vivi often referred to her time with the gang as the ‘Devil’s Game’, because she felt like they were turning her into the people she tried to escape from.

    Vivi eventually reunited with her shady aunt (who some people believed to be a F.A.R.C terrorist, it’s hard to say where that rumor came from) who enrolled her in a high school she taught at. The school used corporal punishment and was constantly at the center for a struggle for power. When she first arrived she was a quiet girl with a fragile will and an angry mind. After being wrapped up in the chaos, she finally decided to start on a journey to change everything she knew. She was determined to make a beautiful life for herself someday and to destroy the guilt she constantly felt, and for a while, she thought she had a chance there. If anything, it helped her will to live as she believed she’d resigned to never making it out of high school alive. Vivi eventually rose to a position of power in the school before going missing after a brutal gang attack on the school.

    After her return, she kept to herself more. Vivi is currently still seeking some semblance of purpose in her life. At the moment, she believes that she may find some sort of redemption by saving people and doing something extraordinary. In spite of a desire to be heroic, she isn’t a conventional hero due to a tendency to resort to darker methods in order to reach her goals. When she was first relocated to the Astraeus Institute she viewed it as just another disaster in her train wreck of a life, but she’s slowly beginning to see it as having the potential to bring her the redemption and purpose she’s been searching for. Since her arrival in outer space, Vivi is continually drifting away from other people. What she views as trying to be self-sufficient might be turning into a refusal to ask for help, and at one point or another, she'll probably be alone when she faces difficult challenges. 

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Skills:

Strong Resolve: Sometimes it takes Vivi a while to make a decision, but once she’s made up her mind she knows what she has to do.

Street Smart: Vivi has a lot of experience and knowledge dealing with the dangers of life in an urban environment. Her (somewhat shady) line of work has also given her a tremendously helpful network out in the streets—knowing someone who knows someone who knows someone else… that kind of thing.

Brave: This is kind of the flip side of her recklessness. While it can definitely get her hurt, she isn’t afraid to risk her hide for a good outcome.


Weaknesses:

Reckless: Vivi goes into a lot of conflicts without really thinking about her odds of victory. She’s not a terrible strategist—when she actually decides to strategize at least. Heck, if a fifty foot tall person made a mean enough your mom joke she’d probably stab their big toe with a harpoon. And then get squashed.

Fiercely independent: This is a weakness in the sense that Vivi really hates to ask for help. Or she just doesn’t think to ask in the first place. Typically she sees asking for help as dragging people down with her in dark times. 

Physically Small: Vivi’s a little on the short side and doesn’t weigh all that much.

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T h e   S p e c t e r: 
Vivi is very much alive, but has gifts that are reminiscent of a ghost. She has the ability to manipulate what appears to be ectoplasm which is a supernatural viscous energy that is believed to be the material spirits are made of, along with other ghost-like powers. Her abilities have earned her the nickname 'Ghost' or 'The Specter' around the Astraeus Institute and surrounding areas. Enemies or people who have a general distaste for her tend to call her 'Spooks'.

Ectoplasm: Vivi has the ability to manipulate ectoplasm by concentrating it into blasts of energy. This can be used as a projectile, be let out in bursts in short quarters, or used to propel the user short distances quickly in a single direction.

Phantom: Vivi can render herself invisible only as long as she isn’t attacking. She can still be heard and can still physical affect the world around her, but as soon as she moves to attack or even travels in the direction of someone she intends to attack, she becomes visible. The use of this ability is meant for hiding and escape rather than for use in combat.

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