Character personality: Because he is an Undead, Hajime has trouble with things that humans take for granted. He understands battle and having enemies quite well. Those are normal things for an Undead. What baffles him is the human capacity to care for others, in some cases to care for them more than one cares for oneself. Amane's early declaration that she'd love him even if he were a monster caught him totally off-guard, and Kenzaki's self-sacrifice for him in the finale is another thing he's unprepared to face.
He is aware of the fact that he has become more human in mind if not in body, and it initially worried him. Early on in the series, he tries to avoid the call of other Undead to come fight as much as he possibly can, only willingly leaping into action when the Kuriharas are in danger somehow. He isn't overly concerned with collateral damage otherwise, and other characters do comment on this, initially thinking of him as some kind of monster that only derives pleasure from fighting. He would prefer to be thought of that way--he seems equipped to be able to deal with that, but he is at a loss when other people call him out on the way he has come to care for his adopted family. Other Undead, when they learn of the connection or of the way Hajime has been hiding himself among the humans, are quick to use this as an insult, saying Hajime has gone soft or has grown weak thanks to this human influence. It takes him a while to accept that he has formed attachments and also to view these attachments as a source of strength.
When he fights, Hajime fights to win. He would also prefer to be in the thick of battle himself. He carries a bow, true, but he's more likely to use it as a bludgeoning instrument than he is as a ranged weapon. He's smart enough to back off and watch his opponent for a bit, searching for a weakness, but when he has decided to act, look out. He is absolutely vicious in battle, and he does not take losing well. It's in part a hard-wired Undead instinct, for to an Undead, a loss can be as good as dying. It's also an ego thing--he is the strongest, he needs to fight and win in order to prove that. This is also something he looks at with a bit of bitterness--the one time he wanted to lose, needed someone to be stronger than them and seal him, Kenzaki surprised him with another option. The Battle Fight is still ongoing.
Hajime is not good at explaining things. When confronted about some oddity or another, his preferred reaction is to go very quiet, look away, and then try to leave. Physical combat, he can handle. Verbal combat, not so much. He would rather leave awkward silence and unanswered questions in his wake than have to lie about something. Part of this is just due to his inexperience as a human--he doesn't have any decent alternatives to give as a lie in part because he doesn't know any.
Hajime builds up friendships very slowly, and this is not helped along by the fact that love and friendship tended to escape him at first in his existence as a human. His friendship with Kenzaki builds up in starts, with Hajime attacking him after the first time they fight a common enemy together. It’s not until Kenzaki insists on treating Hajime’s wounds after a battle with Garren that Hajime begins to warm to him, albeit in a slow, distant way. Even when he and Kenzaki have seemingly established a fairly strong level of trust, there are times when Hajime is still prone to claim that the only way they can really understand each other is through battle. Even though Kenzaki pretty much becomes his best friend, they still come close to killing one another on several occasions, in part because Hajime can be a pretty lousy conversationalist.
Hajime loathes the Joker aspect of himself. He has ever since he started assuming Human Undead’s form and the identity of Hajime Aikawa. Calling him Joker is a huge insult, and he desperately wants to get away from that side of himself and the path fate has lain out before him. He doesn’t want to destroy the world anymore. Thanks to the way his canon treated him at series’ end, Hajime is about as stable as he’ll ever be, humanity-wise. He’s been shown love and sacrifice. His best friend made a tremendous sacrifice so that Hajime would be able to live among the humans and his adoptive family, and he’s trying very, very hard to live up to that. He’s mellowed a little bit, although he remains quick to defend those he cares about and still will not back down from a fight.
Character abilities: Hajime is an Undead, which means he cannot die, only be sealed into a Rouse Card after being defeated in battle. This also means that he has green blood and enhanced speed, reflexes, senses, and strength when compared to a normal human. He also does not appear to need to eat or sleep in the way a human might--he doesn't seem to get how to sleep in a bed and is often confused by offerings of food.
Hajime is the Joker Undead, which allows him to take the form of any other Undead that has been sealed into a Rouse Card. He uses the Two of Hearts, the Human Undead, to pass as a human, and he uses the Ace of Hearts, the Mantis Undead, to fight as Kamen Rider Chalice. If he uses the King of Hearts card while he is Chalice and has all thirteen of the suit of Hearts in his possession, he can take Chalice Wild Form, which is more powerful. As Chalice, he can also use these cards to perform special attacks. There is a list of all the cards he possesses and their effects here on his journal. In his Joker form, he's a large insectoid monster who will fight tirelessly and relentlessly, firing blasts of green energy at his enemies.
It is important to note that Hajime absolutely hates his Joker form, and he would do anything to avoid taking it again. The power of all of his cards combined keeps his Joker instincts and Joker's power at bay. If his cards are lost or taken from him, he will have trouble keeping it together--the best he can do is exert a considerable amount of will to essentially make himself go into a coma for a little while. If the cards are not returned to him, he will rampage.
In his human guise, Hajime is a freelance photographer. He's got a lot of experience maintaining and using film cameras and has a darkroom.
AU nature: Here, Hajime has become a demon. His demonic form is, for the most part, his Undead form--that of a bipedal bug monster. He has the ability to make a partial transformation into his demon form, which gets him his far less risky transformation into Chalice. At least his returning to a human form no longer hinges on whether or not he possesses a certain playing card.
He is now making use of Exploits and Embeds to mimic several of the powers he had in canon. He can shake off amounts of damage that would greatly wound or kill an ordinary human, can still kick things hard enough that they explode, and still has an inhumanly fast reaction time.
Because he's a demon, he has suddenly become a very competent liar, though he still prefers to avoid having to do so with people he actually likes.
He also has three glitches directly related to what he was in canon: one of them is green blood even in his Cover's human form. The other is that he's got a compulsion to always carry with him a partial deck of cards--just the suit of hearts. He will become agitated when separated from his cards, though they're just normal playing cards in this case. The third is that when he causes something to explode, he feels compelled to pose dramatically in front of it for a few moments.
AU history: Hajime was originally an angel who existed to destroy things for the God-Machine. This all came to an end in his Fall, which happened when he witnessed one human willing to be self-sacrificing for another. This caused him to show mercy for the first time. Like all fallen demons, he immediately adopted a Cover and went into hiding. He is still on his first Cover, and he is becoming quite attached to it despite himself. He has also made a pact with a young takoyaki seller for a secondary Cover in the future, though the takoyaki seller has no idea what sort of deal he's really made and Hajime's in no rush to either follow up on the deal or to tell him what he agreed to.
His current Cover is currently that of a freelance photographer who is boarding with the Ichinose family, which consists of a father, Yuichi, and his teenage son, Jin. The two of them do not get along well. Jin's in that rebellious stage where all he wants to do is run away from home and become a musician, while Yuichi's insisting that his son get his head out of the clouds and go for a more realistic goal. Hajime tries to stay out of these conflicts as much as he can, preferring to remain neutral in these very human arguments as he learns more about human relationships.
Hajime's Cover doesn't have much in the way of actual family or existing relationships of note, and so it's important to him to start building those up--even if he isn't quite sure what he's doing. He gets along well with his new family even with all the father-son spats, and he's had a couple of close calls regarding blowing his Cover in having to fight a few angels and other demons here and there. Unfortunately for him, Jin has caught a few glimpses of these fights. He does not know that, and he is unaware that Jin is laboring under the delusion that Hajime is secretly a transforming superhero like what you'd see on TV.
Justification: In canon, Hajime is a monster who tries to stop being a monster. Hajime met a dying human whose primary concern was for his family, not himself, and this leads Hajime to try living as a human. Here, his Fall was triggered by seeing a similar display, causing him to show mercy towards his would-be victims. He'll be hiding among the humans dealing with human emotions all the while being something that's very much not human.
The Undead are all organized by a fairly rigid hierarchy and all ultimately exist to serve one purpose--to fight and, in Hajime's case as the Joker, to destroy. Hajime wants to break free of that purpose, but he feels he's fated to end the world no matter what. As a demon, he originally would have existed for the purpose of destroying things in the God-Machine's name. He still gets the confusion about humanity and human emotions in general that he had in canon, just filtered through a different sort of monster background.
no subject
Character personality: Because he is an Undead, Hajime has trouble with things that humans take for granted. He understands battle and having enemies quite well. Those are normal things for an Undead. What baffles him is the human capacity to care for others, in some cases to care for them more than one cares for oneself. Amane's early declaration that she'd love him even if he were a monster caught him totally off-guard, and Kenzaki's self-sacrifice for him in the finale is another thing he's unprepared to face.
He is aware of the fact that he has become more human in mind if not in body, and it initially worried him. Early on in the series, he tries to avoid the call of other Undead to come fight as much as he possibly can, only willingly leaping into action when the Kuriharas are in danger somehow. He isn't overly concerned with collateral damage otherwise, and other characters do comment on this, initially thinking of him as some kind of monster that only derives pleasure from fighting. He would prefer to be thought of that way--he seems equipped to be able to deal with that, but he is at a loss when other people call him out on the way he has come to care for his adopted family. Other Undead, when they learn of the connection or of the way Hajime has been hiding himself among the humans, are quick to use this as an insult, saying Hajime has gone soft or has grown weak thanks to this human influence. It takes him a while to accept that he has formed attachments and also to view these attachments as a source of strength.
When he fights, Hajime fights to win. He would also prefer to be in the thick of battle himself. He carries a bow, true, but he's more likely to use it as a bludgeoning instrument than he is as a ranged weapon. He's smart enough to back off and watch his opponent for a bit, searching for a weakness, but when he has decided to act, look out. He is absolutely vicious in battle, and he does not take losing well. It's in part a hard-wired Undead instinct, for to an Undead, a loss can be as good as dying. It's also an ego thing--he is the strongest, he needs to fight and win in order to prove that. This is also something he looks at with a bit of bitterness--the one time he wanted to lose, needed someone to be stronger than them and seal him, Kenzaki surprised him with another option. The Battle Fight is still ongoing.
Hajime is not good at explaining things. When confronted about some oddity or another, his preferred reaction is to go very quiet, look away, and then try to leave. Physical combat, he can handle. Verbal combat, not so much. He would rather leave awkward silence and unanswered questions in his wake than have to lie about something. Part of this is just due to his inexperience as a human--he doesn't have any decent alternatives to give as a lie in part because he doesn't know any.
Hajime builds up friendships very slowly, and this is not helped along by the fact that love and friendship tended to escape him at first in his existence as a human. His friendship with Kenzaki builds up in starts, with Hajime attacking him after the first time they fight a common enemy together. It’s not until Kenzaki insists on treating Hajime’s wounds after a battle with Garren that Hajime begins to warm to him, albeit in a slow, distant way. Even when he and Kenzaki have seemingly established a fairly strong level of trust, there are times when Hajime is still prone to claim that the only way they can really understand each other is through battle. Even though Kenzaki pretty much becomes his best friend, they still come close to killing one another on several occasions, in part because Hajime can be a pretty lousy conversationalist.
Hajime loathes the Joker aspect of himself. He has ever since he started assuming Human Undead’s form and the identity of Hajime Aikawa. Calling him Joker is a huge insult, and he desperately wants to get away from that side of himself and the path fate has lain out before him. He doesn’t want to destroy the world anymore. Thanks to the way his canon treated him at series’ end, Hajime is about as stable as he’ll ever be, humanity-wise. He’s been shown love and sacrifice. His best friend made a tremendous sacrifice so that Hajime would be able to live among the humans and his adoptive family, and he’s trying very, very hard to live up to that. He’s mellowed a little bit, although he remains quick to defend those he cares about and still will not back down from a fight.
Character abilities:
Hajime is an Undead, which means he cannot die, only be sealed into a Rouse Card after being defeated in battle. This also means that he has green blood and enhanced speed, reflexes, senses, and strength when compared to a normal human. He also does not appear to need to eat or sleep in the way a human might--he doesn't seem to get how to sleep in a bed and is often confused by offerings of food.
Hajime is the Joker Undead, which allows him to take the form of any other Undead that has been sealed into a Rouse Card. He uses the Two of Hearts, the Human Undead, to pass as a human, and he uses the Ace of Hearts, the Mantis Undead, to fight as Kamen Rider Chalice. If he uses the King of Hearts card while he is Chalice and has all thirteen of the suit of Hearts in his possession, he can take Chalice Wild Form, which is more powerful. As Chalice, he can also use these cards to perform special attacks. There is a list of all the cards he possesses and their effects here on his journal. In his Joker form, he's a large insectoid monster who will fight tirelessly and relentlessly, firing blasts of green energy at his enemies.
It is important to note that Hajime absolutely hates his Joker form, and he would do anything to avoid taking it again. The power of all of his cards combined keeps his Joker instincts and Joker's power at bay. If his cards are lost or taken from him, he will have trouble keeping it together--the best he can do is exert a considerable amount of will to essentially make himself go into a coma for a little while. If the cards are not returned to him, he will rampage.
In his human guise, Hajime is a freelance photographer. He's got a lot of experience maintaining and using film cameras and has a darkroom.
Samples: I've got a TDM thread here and here.
AU nature: Here, Hajime has become a demon. His demonic form is, for the most part, his Undead form--that of a bipedal bug monster. He has the ability to make a partial transformation into his demon form, which gets him his far less risky transformation into Chalice. At least his returning to a human form no longer hinges on whether or not he possesses a certain playing card.
He is now making use of Exploits and Embeds to mimic several of the powers he had in canon. He can shake off amounts of damage that would greatly wound or kill an ordinary human, can still kick things hard enough that they explode, and still has an inhumanly fast reaction time.
Because he's a demon, he has suddenly become a very competent liar, though he still prefers to avoid having to do so with people he actually likes.
He also has three glitches directly related to what he was in canon: one of them is green blood even in his Cover's human form. The other is that he's got a compulsion to always carry with him a partial deck of cards--just the suit of hearts. He will become agitated when separated from his cards, though they're just normal playing cards in this case. The third is that when he causes something to explode, he feels compelled to pose dramatically in front of it for a few moments.
AU history: Hajime was originally an angel who existed to destroy things for the God-Machine. This all came to an end in his Fall, which happened when he witnessed one human willing to be self-sacrificing for another. This caused him to show mercy for the first time. Like all fallen demons, he immediately adopted a Cover and went into hiding. He is still on his first Cover, and he is becoming quite attached to it despite himself. He has also made a pact with a young takoyaki seller for a secondary Cover in the future, though the takoyaki seller has no idea what sort of deal he's really made and Hajime's in no rush to either follow up on the deal or to tell him what he agreed to.
His current Cover is currently that of a freelance photographer who is boarding with the Ichinose family, which consists of a father, Yuichi, and his teenage son, Jin. The two of them do not get along well. Jin's in that rebellious stage where all he wants to do is run away from home and become a musician, while Yuichi's insisting that his son get his head out of the clouds and go for a more realistic goal. Hajime tries to stay out of these conflicts as much as he can, preferring to remain neutral in these very human arguments as he learns more about human relationships.
Hajime's Cover doesn't have much in the way of actual family or existing relationships of note, and so it's important to him to start building those up--even if he isn't quite sure what he's doing. He gets along well with his new family even with all the father-son spats, and he's had a couple of close calls regarding blowing his Cover in having to fight a few angels and other demons here and there. Unfortunately for him, Jin has caught a few glimpses of these fights. He does not know that, and he is unaware that Jin is laboring under the delusion that Hajime is secretly a transforming superhero like what you'd see on TV.
Justification: In canon, Hajime is a monster who tries to stop being a monster. Hajime met a dying human whose primary concern was for his family, not himself, and this leads Hajime to try living as a human. Here, his Fall was triggered by seeing a similar display, causing him to show mercy towards his would-be victims. He'll be hiding among the humans dealing with human emotions all the while being something that's very much not human.
The Undead are all organized by a fairly rigid hierarchy and all ultimately exist to serve one purpose--to fight and, in Hajime's case as the Joker, to destroy. Hajime wants to break free of that purpose, but he feels he's fated to end the world no matter what. As a demon, he originally would have existed for the purpose of destroying things in the God-Machine's name. He still gets the confusion about humanity and human emotions in general that he had in canon, just filtered through a different sort of monster background.