Rinkei
CosmicInBlue
- Created
- 5 years, 1 month ago
- Creator
- CosmicInBlue
- Favorites
- 5
Profile
About
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Name
Ikenaga Rinkei (池永凛恵)
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Nickname
N/A
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Age
1000+(?) (Eternally 25!)
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Gender
Female (Cis)
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Pronouns
She/Her
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Alignment
Chaotic Good
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Sexuality
Pansexual
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Species
Dog (Hokkaido-inu), Youkai (Rokurokubi)
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Occupation
Librarian
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Birthday
Apr 23 (World Book Day)
Amicable Spirit of the Boundless Archive
Knowledge was her sanctuary. She had lived to learn, and then she died. And then she was alive again, and so she learned again.
She peered at her high-strung retainer from behind a book. "Relax those muscles, dear," came a honeyed voice. "I've just read it here; a frown is a thing that poorly serves the skin."
Challenged, her retainer's frown intensified. But it didn't last, and soon gave way to a smile. The lady laughed at this; her sound was mirth, warmth, and everything in between.
Likes
- Books
- Desserts
- Jokes
Dislikes
- The overly-serious
- Sour foods
Hobbies
- Reading
- Playing pranks
- Exploring the living world
Good Points
- Jovial
- Driven
- Good-humored
Bad Points
- Straightforward
- Pompous
- Voracious
Skills
- Blood magic proficiency
Biography
In life, Rinkei was a dispassionate young noblewoman, the daughter of a mother and father who operated directly beneath the emperor of her time. Though she once held aspirations to see the world, she herself was fearful and lethargic, pressured by the duties given to her by her own overbearing family. Finding herself in terrible circumstances, the girl instead came to loathe other people for finding happiness and success where she did not. Affirming that she had nothing to look forward to, she shut herself off from others and lived a lonely and tragic existence fueled by unhappiness and envy. It seemed like a mercy of the universe, then, that she soon found herself struck down within the sanctity of her own home, by enemies of her family and the emperor. A swift execution - her head removed from her body in a single, powerful stroke of the blade. Death welcomed her with open arms, and with that she found life in what lie beyond.
The woman awakened in the world of spirits, a head and a body, both lost and with only a vague idea of their previous existences. Rinkei began to seek knowledge of the earthly world, and of the realm of spirits. Time passed, and with what she learned came a chance to find happiness. Her former memories and demeanor returned to her, but her death appeared to have granted her something she had lacked her entire life - the opportunity for change. Throwing her old self aside, she began to take on a kinder disposition, willing to make the most of her nigh-eternal life in undeath. Her thirst for knowledge persisting, and her aspirations renewed, Rinkei soon carved herself a new living in the realm of spirits as the owner and manager of Ikai’s Red Moon Archive. She now had more than enough ways to explore the world and understand others, thanks to fate's blessing allowing her to take a new initiative.
The Red Moon Archive is one of the largest libraries in the realm of spirits, housing over 50 million items of both earthly and spirit realm origin. Founded by the generous nukekubi herself, she has dedicated her existence in the realm of spirits to obtaining knowledge from both worlds, replicating ancient literature and cataloguing existing texts. One can expect to be greeted with a smile as they enter those doors, knowing an expanse of knowledge is at the grasp of any who enter. Though much of the woman’s time is spent working the library, one can often find her wandering the village to observe and record the progress of the living - and to satiate her powerful craving for blood.
Though she has an ethereal appearance, Rinkei is an easygoing and earthly woman with a passion for knowledge. Amicable and well-spoken, she carries herself with a great sense of dignity and personal pride, and is quite the conversationalist, with much to say. Her years roaming the earth curiously haven't dulled her moral compass in the slightest, and she maintains kindness and empathy for the living. Her sense of goodwill even extends to her natural lust for blood, as she works diligently to address her urges in a managable way and avoid causing serious harm to others. Rinkei has a great sense of humor and is full of laughter - in particular she indicates a fondness for morbid comedy and puns.
Blood Magic: Rinkei possesses the ability to tap into her reserves of blood to cast various spells. If she runs out of blood, she is effectively vulnerable and without offense, as well as anemic.
Youkai biology: Being a nukekubi, Rinkei’s main trait is her unique ability to detach her head. She cannot be beheaded in any form, and may control her head independently of her body. As a youkai, she is immune to most physical attacks from mortals - attacks of a spiritual nature are the only things capable of causing her earnest harm.
Trivia / Playlist
- English voice claim is Brina Palencia (Holo, Spice & Wolf)
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Inspirations were Yukari Yakumo (Touhou Project), Holo (Spice & Wolf), Toriel (Undertale), Kagerou Imaizumi (Touhou Project), and Sekibanki (Touhou Project)
- PiSk - Black Coffee
- Enigma - The Screen Behind The Mirror
- Jamiroquai - Space Cowboy
Design Notes
Rinkei came about as a result of me needing a youkai character for a friend's universe idea. I always found youkai incredibly interesting, though I'll admit I, like many others, only know about the majority of them through Touhou Project and Yokai Watch! I thought it would be a lot of fun to have this new character be a nukekubi, a variant on the rokurokubi youkai who can detach their head and feeds off of blood. I feel like the ability to remove one's head could lead to a lot of humorous scenarios - though in the end what ended up being just as fun was that she craved blood, and her personality surrounding that.
I wanted to create a character with a "mominous" aura!!! This was in part due to being inspired by depictions of Yakumo Yukari from Touhou Project, though interestingly she's actually far closer in demeanor and backstory to Yuyuko.
She was meant to look motherly and cool, but also feel slightly eerie. I gave her a naturally low-lidded gaze and rounded eyes so as to imply a calmness, but then a tsurime-style eye shape to give an assertive aura. Her palette has a lot of cool, calming colors, like blues and purples, but then there's the accents of black - and more importantly, the piercing crimson of her eyes. All of this was meant to come together to make her seem like someone who could probably treat you well, but at the same time you were never quite sure if you wanted to let your guard down around her. Her glasses are a simple element to convey her studious nature, and to give her something to adjust when she's not doing anything! In later depictions of her I've swapped the tight high collar for a significantly chunkier and higher turtleneck look, in order to better draw attention to her head and neck.
She is overall a kind woman, but there's quite an interesting energy, isn't there? The way she speaks in the stories involving her is meant to be modern, but sliiightly antiquated and old-fashioned sounding - I took a lot of inspiration from Brina Palencia's performance as Holo in Spice & Wolf's English dub in determining her dialogue and speech patterns. The character was meant to be far more morally ambiguous, but in the end I found it more appealing that she was a genuinely sweet lady who simply had to live a life as a blood-sucking apparition.
