Character Information (New Babylon)
Jul. 24th, 2012 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eviltransferstudent| CANON: Saiyuki
| NAME: Hazel Grouse
| AGE: 20
| APPEARANCE:
Very much the same as in canon, except perhaps even prettier. His parents wanted a perfect little angel, and you cannot look at Hazel without seeing the careful work of a genetic artist. His hair is naturally silver, his eyes are far too blue, his teeth are a little too straight. and he's never had a pimple or blemish in his young little life.
The additional exception to Hazel's canon appearance are the two curious lumps along his shoulderblades. These are the scars left over from when his bioware wings were surgically removed following his possession (see AU Concept & History). He has blocked out the memory of ever having said wings and in NB at least, only Gat is aware of the scars' existence. Hazel, if he is subconsciously aware they are there, is very good at avoiding thinking about them.
| CANON HISTORY:
Hazel Grouse was the ward of Bishop Filbert Grouse in Some Vaguely Western Land across the ocean. Bishop Filbert was a famous monster slayer and exorcist and Hazel wanted nothing more than to be acknowledged as Filbert's successor, but Filbert refused to teach Hazel spells for exorcism until he was older.
Upset and spurred on by Ukoku Sanzo, who was visiting from the East, Hazel studied spells on his own and grew increasingly resentful of Filbert Grouse, who soon after Ukoku's visit died at the hands of a demon named Valhael (Varuharu, Varharl, Balhal, etc, in various translations).
This demon then possessed Hazel, who blocked out the trauma of the possession, and went about his life taking over as an exorcist in his dead master's stead. Hazel became headstrong and cavalier, taking on stronger and stronger demons without concern for his own safety, in some sense attempting suicide-by-monster because his life still had no meaning. During a case in which a monster killed a human father and left his daughter near death, Hazel discovered an innate ability to transfer souls and was able to revive the little girl, reassuring her that her father "was inside her now."
Seeing this as an opportunity to create a new purpose in life for himself, Hazel used this soul transfer power to slay demons and use their souls to resurrect their human victims. It was on one such mission that he accidentally killed the Native American Gatti Nenehawk, whom he revived and took responsibility for from then on "as penance." (Gat then became Hazel's tireless, endlessly revivable bodyguard, so it's not entirely clear where Hazel's penance actually comes in with that arrangement.)
Hazel, together with Gat, then headed to Ukoku Sanzo's homeland of Tougenkyo to eradicate the monsters he so hated where they were most populous. There, he ran across Genjo Sanzo's pilgrimage and eventually made a bargain with Son Goku that he could eliminate all the youkai before Sanzo-ikkou stopped the Calamity which was turning the youkai in Tougenkyo into the feral monsters Hazel recognized.
The two sides never get to see who wins the bet, as during a confrontation with Ukoku Sanzo Gat is permanently killed and Hazel is triggered into remembering his possession, allowing Valhael to emerge from his subconscious and take over his body. The Sanzo-ikkou manage to bring Hazel's consciousness back, but in the end Ukoku manages to cast Hazel over the edge of a cliff into presumably certain death.
While Hazel doesn't die, he is gravely injured and loses his memory. When he awakes from his coma in the care of a Chinese peasant, he seems to recall nothing, and it's uncertain whether he's still possessed or Valhael has fled his body.
| AU CONCEPT & HISTORY:
Hazel Grouse (born Hazel Amorthson) began life in one of the other surviving cities, "far to the West." Little is known of his birth parents except they were apparently well-to-do, enough that they were able to afford extensive prenatal genetic conditioning to ensure their little angel really did come out looking as angelic as possible. Despite this, at an early age he turned up on the steps of an impoverished orphanage in the lower districts, his parents the speculated victims of a mob hit or some far less dramatic change of heart.
The orphanage being run by the local Catholic diocese, Hazel was quickly brought into the care of Bishop Filbert Grouse, who took him on as his ward and student. Hazel threw himself whole-heartedly into religion and flourished under Bishop Grouse's care, excelling in both secular and religious study. He soon professed an interest in following in Grouse's footsteps as an ordained exorcist. Grouse, however, feared the boy was still too young, and refused to train him in the rites of exorcism or allow him to accompany him on assignments. Hazel interpreted this as a sign Grouse did not trust him, and these frustrations began feeding into his underlying fears about abandonment and worthlessness.
These anxieties only intensified when Filbert Grouse's church received a visit from the cyberneticist and bioengineer Kenyuu, a recent arrival to the city. Kenyuu was ostensibly visiting the church as Grouse's consultant in updating some of the tech used in the diocese's ordained exorcisms, but he seemed to have a little too much time to spend on Hazel, subtly goading him into hacking into Bishop Grouse's restricted files to research the rites of exorcism on his own time. Hazel got more than he bargained for: he inadvertedly downloaded a copy of the private decryption key Filbert used in conjunction with his V.A.L.H.A.E.L. virtual intelligence, the managing software Filbert was developing to coordinate the complex logarithms involved in an unknown project.
In truth, Bishop Grouse had been coordinating with black market pharmaceuticals in the city to develop the Lazarus System, a combination of bio-engineering and nanotechnology which could repair any dead tissue, including brain matter, instantaneously. Effectively, a system for resurrection. (See more under Powers & Abilities.)
More to the point, Kenyuu was after this data. And while Hazel was busy recoiling from a crisis of faith as he picked up further morsels of data pointing to his mentor's involvement in illegal biomedical research, Kenyuu was using the opportunity to perform his own espionage on the diocese and Bishop Grouse's files.
It's unknown what exactly Kenyuu was looking for or if he found it. What is more certain is that in the process of extracting files from Grouse's database, Kenyuu introduced the catalyst that changed Filbert's master copy of the V.A.L.H.A.E.L. virtual intelligence program from its discordant strands of logarithms and genetic memory based on mutant stem cells into a coherent consciousness, and thus effectively created Valhael, the AI.
Valhael is not a human-like intelligence, but is fully sentient nonetheless. It acts independently and is capable of self-modification to its programming, improving its ability to operate invisibly through a user's neural jack or wearable... and now, both Filbert Grouse and his ward had his decryption key, marking them as ready and willing hosts.
Self-aware by the time Kenyuu made his departure from Filbert Grouse's church, Valhael copied the new, "mutated" version of his code into Grouse's brain, possessing him completely. Grouse fought the possession but only after Valhael forced Grouse to kill himself, right in front of Hazel. Floating free in the network, the Valhael AI found an open port right beside his last host's body, and forced himself into Hazel's mind.
In the midst of all this, Hazel blacked out. When he came to, he was in an upper level hospital with two recent wounds healing over his shoulderblades, and a nun from his diocese seated at his bedside. She informed him that a riot had broken out in the lower levels the same night Bishop Grouse had died, and blamed the mutants involved for desecrating the diocese, killing the bishop and nearly murdering Hazel as well.
Mortified, and unable to recall the specifics of that night, Hazel accepted the nun's story as gospel.
It wasn't until several years later, as an ordained priest and exorcist in training, that Hazel began to suspect there was more to the story. After a botched exorcism left a patient dead, Hazel felt the pull of -something- inside him to do more. Treating it as instinct or holy inspiration, he started making the necessary arrangements to reactivate Filbert Grouse's laboratories in the lower levels, and to complete Filbert's research on the Lazarus System. Almost overnight, without any tech expertise or assistance to speak of, as if by miracle (but really, by Valhael), he finished it: while the Lazarus System couldn't exactly bring a subject back from brain death, it could do virtually everything short of that, making it a very convincing resurrection system for desperate grieving parents and gullible believers.
There was nothing to be done about the patient already gone, but the next time Hazel found himself working a high-risk case, he was prepared. A mere few months later, faced with a girl comatose and bleeding out from self-mutilation, Hazel placed his smartgloved hands over the corpse's eyes. Within seconds, the young girl's wounds healed, and she awoke and sat up.
Word spread fast about 'Bishop' Hazel's ability to raise the dead. He made a name for himself and gained a considerable following in his home city-- but also suspicion about his methods. After coming under police scrutiny for violating the religious beliefs of his clients by reviving a patient erroneously declared dead during his exorcism, Hazel decided it was time for Hazel to pull the plug on his hometown ministry, pack up his belongings and Gatti Nenehawk, the man he had 'resurrected,' and set up shop elsewhere... And by accident or design, that 'elsewhere' led him to following in Kenyuu's footsteps, to New Babylon.
With funds pulled from his former diocese, Hazel was able to establish a new legal identity as Hazel Grouse, an ordained Catholic bishop, and quickly founded a modest church on L4. It wasn't long before Kenyuu, now Nii Jianyi, caught wind of Hazel's arrival and established contact again, setting Hazel up with laundered Branch Industries funding to continue and advance research on the Lazarus System.
Within a year, Hazel was able to move from his small church into a new, larger establishment on L6 (a healthy distance away from any Buddhist monasteries). Through Branch he was able to set up a complete network of labs in the lower levels, harvesting mutants from the general population through various fronts such as free clinics and food kitchens. Culling is done in low enough frequencies over a broad enough spectrum of subjects that, to date, authorities have not been able to trace the disappearances to their source.
Flourishing in a city where his abilities, while still miraculous, seem a little less out of place, Hazel is able to practice his ministry with minimal fear of federal crackdown. Low regulatory oversight and the protection of Branch Industries keeps his harvesting operations off law enforcement radar while his falsified status as an ordained bishop ensures reasonable support from the local Catholic diocese and other Christian groups and foundations. His willingness to heal fatally injured mobsters and politicians alike also ensures him plenty of favors, should he ever need to cash in.
Now having spent over a year in New Babylon, Hazel is expanding his ministry to NB's social networks, including daily telecast sermons, many of which speak on the moral obligation of healthy humanity to purge the mutants from the city.
| PERSONALITY:
Public/Private Face:
Like Kougaiji, Hazel Grouse is intended as a foil for Genjo Sanzo. Where Sanzo is sullen and impersonal, Hazel is garrulous and outgoing. He's quite capable of striking up a conversation with almost anybody, and will often do so with great gusto. Unless you're a mutant. Or uncouth. Or an uncouth mutant sympathizer. You get the idea.
The truth is that Hazel's bubbly, chatty personality is, like most things about Hazel, just another facade. We see pretty clearly that when he's alone with his manservant Gat that he drops the cheerful routine and speaks quite candidly of his plans. Like his 'mentor' Kenyuu/Ukoku, Hazel likes to be in control of the situation while revealing as little as possible to his opponents. So it is that in speaking with Chinese layfolk, he nonchalantly smoothtalks them into praying directly to him rather than god, and while in the company of Sanzo-ikkou, he maintains a cheerful demeanor while slipping in passive-aggressive attacks and manipulative statements as often as possible. This passive-aggressiveness has led to some comparisons with Hakkai, with whom he probably has the most openly vitriolic relationship. In the native AU, he's much the same, if perhaps even more reliant upon Christian rhetoric to back up his cutting statements.
Relationships:
Hazel professes open affection for his deceased guardian Filbert Grouse, from whom he adopted a surname and a career as an exorcist. Beyond this, the only individuals Hazel has expressed fondness for are Ukoku Sanzo and Gat, the former as a mentor and the latter as a devoted companion. All other relationships, including his open flirtation with Genjo Sanzo, have to be understood through the lens of Hazel's sociopathy, as a victim of a deep-seated inferiority complex who manages his self-presentation through carefully asserted control and emotional manipulation.
This said, as a sociopath he is able to affect the appearance of social normality quite well, and likes to think of himself as maintaining a good rapport with the people who count, such as wealthy parishioners and corporate donors. He's a charmer at secular gatherings among a certain tier of the NB elite, and a, let's say, notorious patron at some of the gay clubs.
Mental Health:
It is implied in Hazel's backstory chapters, "Sunspot", that he suffers from a deep-seated inferiority complex, stemming from parental abandonment. Kenyuu/Ukoku latches onto this in Hazel and magnifies these feelings, telling him he is worthless and leading him to accept that it's only through power and strength that he can be useful. All of this catalyzes with the death of Filbert Grouse, which Hazel, as a child, was helpless to prevent, and years later as a teenager he discovered even his revival technique could not reverse. The only thing left to Hazel from this trauma was the rock-solid belief that mutants were monsters, sources of unrest and a blight upon humanity, and they deserve total extermination for these crimes.
In canon, Hazel's faith in this belief is shaken not when he makes a wager with Goku, but only when he discovers he, himself, harbors the soul of one of the creatures he's devoted his life to eradicating. The discovery that he, a competent manipulator in his own right, has been outmaneuvered in turn, and undermined by his own past trauma does much further damage than a direct assault could ever do. It's this revelation, together with Gat's impending death, that sufficiently puts Hazel over the edge to turn on Ukoku Sanzo, so it's clear that to learn of this as a native AU would similarly wreck him psychologically.
Alternate Personality, Valhael (the V.A.L.H.A.E.L. AI):
V.A.L.H.A.E.L. (Virtual Assistant for Liturgical Haptic Augmentation and Electrolysis, Lazarus system) was originally a virtual intelligence (poor AI) designed to manage the many thousand computations involved in nanite transfer and tissue reconstruction in direct treatment of Lazarus System subjects. Filbert Grouse initially intended the program to manage an entire automated rejuvenation facility, but downloaded it into his implants via his neural jack for mobile testing. The virtual intelligence soon began passively interlinking with mutant nanites Filbert had self-administered, and after a while these nanites and their digitized logarithmic genetic fragments began to aggregate into something approaching a genetic subconsciousness.
It is unknown exactly what Kenyuu did to its master program that jump-started it into a full-blown AI, but self-awareness did not sit well with Valhael. When the new version of the master program synced with Filbert Grouse, it completely took over his body, hijacking his brain stem and forcing Filbert to disembowel himself. From there it was able to copy itself, including digital images of Filbert's aggregated nanites, into the young Hazel's mind, latching onto his still-developing brain matter to begin evolving its own programming.
Valhael is not humanlike in personality. It was designed to oversee the mulching up of bodies into nanites and the repairing of dead tissue-- and it will continue to do so until it finds a reason not to. But it is also very, very angry, and the parts of it that remember being mutants don't appreciate Hazel's sermons calling for their complete extermination. To be fair, though, Valhael doesn't appreciate much of anything.
*Note: I know that various translations call for the demon's name to be Varuharu, Valharl, and so on. As there's no official localization for his name, I took a bit of liberty with the katakana and went with Valhael, which recalls the naming conventions of several other angels (and fallen angels) from the Bible.
| POWERS & ABILITIES:
The Lazarus System + V.A.L.H.A.E.L. (Healing and Pseudo-Resurrection):
Hazel Grouse is a complete fraud. His only powers to speak of are his tremendous charisma and cunning, helped along by a pretty face. His 'exorcisms' are all smoke and mirrors while his resurrections and restorations are merely advanced biotech disguised as religious miracle, activated through smartgloves and other concealed devices.
Filbert Grouse was developing a system to rejuvenate any human tissue. Known as the Lazarus System, this process could in theory heal any injury almost instantaneously, up to and including brain death, meaning it could even resurrect the dead. Of course, the system doesn't quite go as far as resurrection in this game, but it can rapidly heal virtually any injury, giving the appearance of resurrection (which Hazel plays up as the real deal through his showmanship).
The Lazarus System works on the harvested stem- and t-cells of mutant humans, who are then digitized and processed into living technorganic nanites. These nanites retain the ability of stem cells in that they can become any human cell-- the nanite versions, working in concert with V.A.L.H.A.E.L., intelligently replace and repair large quantities of human cells in a very rapid fashion, instantly restarting a body from the verge of brain death, jump-starting hearts, and regrowing lost limbs. Mutations are rare and almost always qualify for a refund.
20ccs of these nanite mutant stem cells is generally enough to return the individual from the brink of death. Hazel keeps two such vials strapped to his wrists beneath his sleeves while on cases, with more surreptitiously hidden elsewhere (maybe his hat?). These vials are wired with his smartgloves, which hide microsyringes capable of administering the vials' contents through a thin area of skin or, more usually, the pupils of the eyes, which causes the irises to discolor (usually to a strong yellow). Laying on hands is not necessary in the cases of open wounds as the hypos will produce the nanites as a fine, glowing mist which instinctively travels toward damaged tissues.
Hazel is aware that this is a mechanical process, not divine power, but is completely ignorant of the actual mechanisms involved. He believes he is just intuiting the ability and that the right formula for the nanites' harvesting was holy inspiration, when in fact, both the refinement of the Lazarus System and its implementation is owed to V.A.L.H.A.E.L.. Valhael operates in concert with Hazel, masking its processes from Hazel's own neural jack and disguising outgoing data behind so much digital chaff that even to a trained hacker it seems like a large glowing stream of light. The AI itself is nestled behind several layers of ICE, taking a skilled hand or even set of hands (Level 17 or above) to have any hope of cracking into.
As for his patients, most suffer no ill effects from rejuvenation, apart from the eye discoloration. One exception to this is that many begin to feel ill, nauseous or anxious around mutated individuals, with some developing headaches, rashes, and bursts of paranoia. All these symptoms can exacerbate any underlying phobia toward mutants the patient has, sometimes leading to violent episodes or altercations.
Athletics:
Having grown up on two things, Jesus and sports, Hazel has little by the way of actual self-defense training but is phenomenal at fighting instinctively. His Native AU version is a little less practiced with hand-to-hand, as most of his exorcisms consist of a person being strapped down to a bed instead of ten feet tall and covered in claws, but he can still handle himself in a corner.
He can also run really fast, for such a little guy.
Rites of Exorcism:
Not an ability so much as a trade, there are specific Rites of Exorcism laid out in Catholic dogma which Hazel has mastered, in addition to techniques found in several other branches of Christianity and Judaism. Some of it is, sadly, lost to time, and other bits now incorporated we would recognize as actually being from famous movies, and other less-than-orthodox sources.
Exorcism doubles as stage magic for Hazel so in addition to reciting lots of Latin he's practiced with hidden wires, fake blood drips, electrical currents, holographic apparitions, and so on. For a good visual reference for a lot of these (except the holograms), The Last Exorcism gives a pretty detailed take.
| ECONOMIC STANDING, EQUIPMENT & PETS:
Hazel is fairly well to do for a man of the cloth. While his church, St. Filbert's, exists on L6, his own residence is on L7, where he lives alone with his manservant Gat, a couple dogs, and whatever boytoy interests him this month. He keeps several other properties on L6 and L4, most of which he simply rents out to church staff, while his properties on L3 and below mainly relate to his harvesting operations (see AU Concept & History).
| ALIASES:
None. He's a pretty public individual, apart from the whole Soylent Sparkle Is People thing.
| PROFESSION:
He is an ordained Catholic priest and exorcist and has falsified the record to appear as a bishop. Much of his income not provided by Branch is derived from parishioner donations, especially those wealthy donors who pay quite well for being saved from (near) death. His ministry is also expanding into its own business enterprise with a daily broadcast sermon and the like.
| CONNECTIONS:
Branch Industries covertly funds St. Filbert's and the L4-and-below medical facilities where Hazel harvests his victims. As far as parishioners and the other church staff are aware, they are simply graced with a generous anonymous benefactor.
As his primary connection with Branch and a latter-day mentor figure, Hazel maintains an amicable relationship with Nii Jianyi and is happy to provide the good doctor with whatever he needs, be it a safehouse or free access to his L7 wine cellar.
| NAME: Hazel Grouse
| AGE: 20
| APPEARANCE:
Very much the same as in canon, except perhaps even prettier. His parents wanted a perfect little angel, and you cannot look at Hazel without seeing the careful work of a genetic artist. His hair is naturally silver, his eyes are far too blue, his teeth are a little too straight. and he's never had a pimple or blemish in his young little life.
The additional exception to Hazel's canon appearance are the two curious lumps along his shoulderblades. These are the scars left over from when his bioware wings were surgically removed following his possession (see AU Concept & History). He has blocked out the memory of ever having said wings and in NB at least, only Gat is aware of the scars' existence. Hazel, if he is subconsciously aware they are there, is very good at avoiding thinking about them.
| CANON HISTORY:
Hazel Grouse was the ward of Bishop Filbert Grouse in Some Vaguely Western Land across the ocean. Bishop Filbert was a famous monster slayer and exorcist and Hazel wanted nothing more than to be acknowledged as Filbert's successor, but Filbert refused to teach Hazel spells for exorcism until he was older.
Upset and spurred on by Ukoku Sanzo, who was visiting from the East, Hazel studied spells on his own and grew increasingly resentful of Filbert Grouse, who soon after Ukoku's visit died at the hands of a demon named Valhael (Varuharu, Varharl, Balhal, etc, in various translations).
This demon then possessed Hazel, who blocked out the trauma of the possession, and went about his life taking over as an exorcist in his dead master's stead. Hazel became headstrong and cavalier, taking on stronger and stronger demons without concern for his own safety, in some sense attempting suicide-by-monster because his life still had no meaning. During a case in which a monster killed a human father and left his daughter near death, Hazel discovered an innate ability to transfer souls and was able to revive the little girl, reassuring her that her father "was inside her now."
Seeing this as an opportunity to create a new purpose in life for himself, Hazel used this soul transfer power to slay demons and use their souls to resurrect their human victims. It was on one such mission that he accidentally killed the Native American Gatti Nenehawk, whom he revived and took responsibility for from then on "as penance." (Gat then became Hazel's tireless, endlessly revivable bodyguard, so it's not entirely clear where Hazel's penance actually comes in with that arrangement.)
Hazel, together with Gat, then headed to Ukoku Sanzo's homeland of Tougenkyo to eradicate the monsters he so hated where they were most populous. There, he ran across Genjo Sanzo's pilgrimage and eventually made a bargain with Son Goku that he could eliminate all the youkai before Sanzo-ikkou stopped the Calamity which was turning the youkai in Tougenkyo into the feral monsters Hazel recognized.
The two sides never get to see who wins the bet, as during a confrontation with Ukoku Sanzo Gat is permanently killed and Hazel is triggered into remembering his possession, allowing Valhael to emerge from his subconscious and take over his body. The Sanzo-ikkou manage to bring Hazel's consciousness back, but in the end Ukoku manages to cast Hazel over the edge of a cliff into presumably certain death.
While Hazel doesn't die, he is gravely injured and loses his memory. When he awakes from his coma in the care of a Chinese peasant, he seems to recall nothing, and it's uncertain whether he's still possessed or Valhael has fled his body.
| AU CONCEPT & HISTORY:
Hazel Grouse (born Hazel Amorthson) began life in one of the other surviving cities, "far to the West." Little is known of his birth parents except they were apparently well-to-do, enough that they were able to afford extensive prenatal genetic conditioning to ensure their little angel really did come out looking as angelic as possible. Despite this, at an early age he turned up on the steps of an impoverished orphanage in the lower districts, his parents the speculated victims of a mob hit or some far less dramatic change of heart.
The orphanage being run by the local Catholic diocese, Hazel was quickly brought into the care of Bishop Filbert Grouse, who took him on as his ward and student. Hazel threw himself whole-heartedly into religion and flourished under Bishop Grouse's care, excelling in both secular and religious study. He soon professed an interest in following in Grouse's footsteps as an ordained exorcist. Grouse, however, feared the boy was still too young, and refused to train him in the rites of exorcism or allow him to accompany him on assignments. Hazel interpreted this as a sign Grouse did not trust him, and these frustrations began feeding into his underlying fears about abandonment and worthlessness.
These anxieties only intensified when Filbert Grouse's church received a visit from the cyberneticist and bioengineer Kenyuu, a recent arrival to the city. Kenyuu was ostensibly visiting the church as Grouse's consultant in updating some of the tech used in the diocese's ordained exorcisms, but he seemed to have a little too much time to spend on Hazel, subtly goading him into hacking into Bishop Grouse's restricted files to research the rites of exorcism on his own time. Hazel got more than he bargained for: he inadvertedly downloaded a copy of the private decryption key Filbert used in conjunction with his V.A.L.H.A.E.L. virtual intelligence, the managing software Filbert was developing to coordinate the complex logarithms involved in an unknown project.
In truth, Bishop Grouse had been coordinating with black market pharmaceuticals in the city to develop the Lazarus System, a combination of bio-engineering and nanotechnology which could repair any dead tissue, including brain matter, instantaneously. Effectively, a system for resurrection. (See more under Powers & Abilities.)
More to the point, Kenyuu was after this data. And while Hazel was busy recoiling from a crisis of faith as he picked up further morsels of data pointing to his mentor's involvement in illegal biomedical research, Kenyuu was using the opportunity to perform his own espionage on the diocese and Bishop Grouse's files.
It's unknown what exactly Kenyuu was looking for or if he found it. What is more certain is that in the process of extracting files from Grouse's database, Kenyuu introduced the catalyst that changed Filbert's master copy of the V.A.L.H.A.E.L. virtual intelligence program from its discordant strands of logarithms and genetic memory based on mutant stem cells into a coherent consciousness, and thus effectively created Valhael, the AI.
Valhael is not a human-like intelligence, but is fully sentient nonetheless. It acts independently and is capable of self-modification to its programming, improving its ability to operate invisibly through a user's neural jack or wearable... and now, both Filbert Grouse and his ward had his decryption key, marking them as ready and willing hosts.
Self-aware by the time Kenyuu made his departure from Filbert Grouse's church, Valhael copied the new, "mutated" version of his code into Grouse's brain, possessing him completely. Grouse fought the possession but only after Valhael forced Grouse to kill himself, right in front of Hazel. Floating free in the network, the Valhael AI found an open port right beside his last host's body, and forced himself into Hazel's mind.
In the midst of all this, Hazel blacked out. When he came to, he was in an upper level hospital with two recent wounds healing over his shoulderblades, and a nun from his diocese seated at his bedside. She informed him that a riot had broken out in the lower levels the same night Bishop Grouse had died, and blamed the mutants involved for desecrating the diocese, killing the bishop and nearly murdering Hazel as well.
Mortified, and unable to recall the specifics of that night, Hazel accepted the nun's story as gospel.
It wasn't until several years later, as an ordained priest and exorcist in training, that Hazel began to suspect there was more to the story. After a botched exorcism left a patient dead, Hazel felt the pull of -something- inside him to do more. Treating it as instinct or holy inspiration, he started making the necessary arrangements to reactivate Filbert Grouse's laboratories in the lower levels, and to complete Filbert's research on the Lazarus System. Almost overnight, without any tech expertise or assistance to speak of, as if by miracle (but really, by Valhael), he finished it: while the Lazarus System couldn't exactly bring a subject back from brain death, it could do virtually everything short of that, making it a very convincing resurrection system for desperate grieving parents and gullible believers.
There was nothing to be done about the patient already gone, but the next time Hazel found himself working a high-risk case, he was prepared. A mere few months later, faced with a girl comatose and bleeding out from self-mutilation, Hazel placed his smartgloved hands over the corpse's eyes. Within seconds, the young girl's wounds healed, and she awoke and sat up.
Word spread fast about 'Bishop' Hazel's ability to raise the dead. He made a name for himself and gained a considerable following in his home city-- but also suspicion about his methods. After coming under police scrutiny for violating the religious beliefs of his clients by reviving a patient erroneously declared dead during his exorcism, Hazel decided it was time for Hazel to pull the plug on his hometown ministry, pack up his belongings and Gatti Nenehawk, the man he had 'resurrected,' and set up shop elsewhere... And by accident or design, that 'elsewhere' led him to following in Kenyuu's footsteps, to New Babylon.
With funds pulled from his former diocese, Hazel was able to establish a new legal identity as Hazel Grouse, an ordained Catholic bishop, and quickly founded a modest church on L4. It wasn't long before Kenyuu, now Nii Jianyi, caught wind of Hazel's arrival and established contact again, setting Hazel up with laundered Branch Industries funding to continue and advance research on the Lazarus System.
Within a year, Hazel was able to move from his small church into a new, larger establishment on L6 (a healthy distance away from any Buddhist monasteries). Through Branch he was able to set up a complete network of labs in the lower levels, harvesting mutants from the general population through various fronts such as free clinics and food kitchens. Culling is done in low enough frequencies over a broad enough spectrum of subjects that, to date, authorities have not been able to trace the disappearances to their source.
Flourishing in a city where his abilities, while still miraculous, seem a little less out of place, Hazel is able to practice his ministry with minimal fear of federal crackdown. Low regulatory oversight and the protection of Branch Industries keeps his harvesting operations off law enforcement radar while his falsified status as an ordained bishop ensures reasonable support from the local Catholic diocese and other Christian groups and foundations. His willingness to heal fatally injured mobsters and politicians alike also ensures him plenty of favors, should he ever need to cash in.
Now having spent over a year in New Babylon, Hazel is expanding his ministry to NB's social networks, including daily telecast sermons, many of which speak on the moral obligation of healthy humanity to purge the mutants from the city.
| PERSONALITY:
Public/Private Face:
Like Kougaiji, Hazel Grouse is intended as a foil for Genjo Sanzo. Where Sanzo is sullen and impersonal, Hazel is garrulous and outgoing. He's quite capable of striking up a conversation with almost anybody, and will often do so with great gusto. Unless you're a mutant. Or uncouth. Or an uncouth mutant sympathizer. You get the idea.
The truth is that Hazel's bubbly, chatty personality is, like most things about Hazel, just another facade. We see pretty clearly that when he's alone with his manservant Gat that he drops the cheerful routine and speaks quite candidly of his plans. Like his 'mentor' Kenyuu/Ukoku, Hazel likes to be in control of the situation while revealing as little as possible to his opponents. So it is that in speaking with Chinese layfolk, he nonchalantly smoothtalks them into praying directly to him rather than god, and while in the company of Sanzo-ikkou, he maintains a cheerful demeanor while slipping in passive-aggressive attacks and manipulative statements as often as possible. This passive-aggressiveness has led to some comparisons with Hakkai, with whom he probably has the most openly vitriolic relationship. In the native AU, he's much the same, if perhaps even more reliant upon Christian rhetoric to back up his cutting statements.
Relationships:
Hazel professes open affection for his deceased guardian Filbert Grouse, from whom he adopted a surname and a career as an exorcist. Beyond this, the only individuals Hazel has expressed fondness for are Ukoku Sanzo and Gat, the former as a mentor and the latter as a devoted companion. All other relationships, including his open flirtation with Genjo Sanzo, have to be understood through the lens of Hazel's sociopathy, as a victim of a deep-seated inferiority complex who manages his self-presentation through carefully asserted control and emotional manipulation.
This said, as a sociopath he is able to affect the appearance of social normality quite well, and likes to think of himself as maintaining a good rapport with the people who count, such as wealthy parishioners and corporate donors. He's a charmer at secular gatherings among a certain tier of the NB elite, and a, let's say, notorious patron at some of the gay clubs.
Mental Health:
It is implied in Hazel's backstory chapters, "Sunspot", that he suffers from a deep-seated inferiority complex, stemming from parental abandonment. Kenyuu/Ukoku latches onto this in Hazel and magnifies these feelings, telling him he is worthless and leading him to accept that it's only through power and strength that he can be useful. All of this catalyzes with the death of Filbert Grouse, which Hazel, as a child, was helpless to prevent, and years later as a teenager he discovered even his revival technique could not reverse. The only thing left to Hazel from this trauma was the rock-solid belief that mutants were monsters, sources of unrest and a blight upon humanity, and they deserve total extermination for these crimes.
In canon, Hazel's faith in this belief is shaken not when he makes a wager with Goku, but only when he discovers he, himself, harbors the soul of one of the creatures he's devoted his life to eradicating. The discovery that he, a competent manipulator in his own right, has been outmaneuvered in turn, and undermined by his own past trauma does much further damage than a direct assault could ever do. It's this revelation, together with Gat's impending death, that sufficiently puts Hazel over the edge to turn on Ukoku Sanzo, so it's clear that to learn of this as a native AU would similarly wreck him psychologically.
Alternate Personality, Valhael (the V.A.L.H.A.E.L. AI):
V.A.L.H.A.E.L. (Virtual Assistant for Liturgical Haptic Augmentation and Electrolysis, Lazarus system) was originally a virtual intelligence (poor AI) designed to manage the many thousand computations involved in nanite transfer and tissue reconstruction in direct treatment of Lazarus System subjects. Filbert Grouse initially intended the program to manage an entire automated rejuvenation facility, but downloaded it into his implants via his neural jack for mobile testing. The virtual intelligence soon began passively interlinking with mutant nanites Filbert had self-administered, and after a while these nanites and their digitized logarithmic genetic fragments began to aggregate into something approaching a genetic subconsciousness.
It is unknown exactly what Kenyuu did to its master program that jump-started it into a full-blown AI, but self-awareness did not sit well with Valhael. When the new version of the master program synced with Filbert Grouse, it completely took over his body, hijacking his brain stem and forcing Filbert to disembowel himself. From there it was able to copy itself, including digital images of Filbert's aggregated nanites, into the young Hazel's mind, latching onto his still-developing brain matter to begin evolving its own programming.
Valhael is not humanlike in personality. It was designed to oversee the mulching up of bodies into nanites and the repairing of dead tissue-- and it will continue to do so until it finds a reason not to. But it is also very, very angry, and the parts of it that remember being mutants don't appreciate Hazel's sermons calling for their complete extermination. To be fair, though, Valhael doesn't appreciate much of anything.
*Note: I know that various translations call for the demon's name to be Varuharu, Valharl, and so on. As there's no official localization for his name, I took a bit of liberty with the katakana and went with Valhael, which recalls the naming conventions of several other angels (and fallen angels) from the Bible.
| POWERS & ABILITIES:
The Lazarus System + V.A.L.H.A.E.L. (Healing and Pseudo-Resurrection):
Hazel Grouse is a complete fraud. His only powers to speak of are his tremendous charisma and cunning, helped along by a pretty face. His 'exorcisms' are all smoke and mirrors while his resurrections and restorations are merely advanced biotech disguised as religious miracle, activated through smartgloves and other concealed devices.
Filbert Grouse was developing a system to rejuvenate any human tissue. Known as the Lazarus System, this process could in theory heal any injury almost instantaneously, up to and including brain death, meaning it could even resurrect the dead. Of course, the system doesn't quite go as far as resurrection in this game, but it can rapidly heal virtually any injury, giving the appearance of resurrection (which Hazel plays up as the real deal through his showmanship).
The Lazarus System works on the harvested stem- and t-cells of mutant humans, who are then digitized and processed into living technorganic nanites. These nanites retain the ability of stem cells in that they can become any human cell-- the nanite versions, working in concert with V.A.L.H.A.E.L., intelligently replace and repair large quantities of human cells in a very rapid fashion, instantly restarting a body from the verge of brain death, jump-starting hearts, and regrowing lost limbs. Mutations are rare and almost always qualify for a refund.
20ccs of these nanite mutant stem cells is generally enough to return the individual from the brink of death. Hazel keeps two such vials strapped to his wrists beneath his sleeves while on cases, with more surreptitiously hidden elsewhere (maybe his hat?). These vials are wired with his smartgloves, which hide microsyringes capable of administering the vials' contents through a thin area of skin or, more usually, the pupils of the eyes, which causes the irises to discolor (usually to a strong yellow). Laying on hands is not necessary in the cases of open wounds as the hypos will produce the nanites as a fine, glowing mist which instinctively travels toward damaged tissues.
Hazel is aware that this is a mechanical process, not divine power, but is completely ignorant of the actual mechanisms involved. He believes he is just intuiting the ability and that the right formula for the nanites' harvesting was holy inspiration, when in fact, both the refinement of the Lazarus System and its implementation is owed to V.A.L.H.A.E.L.. Valhael operates in concert with Hazel, masking its processes from Hazel's own neural jack and disguising outgoing data behind so much digital chaff that even to a trained hacker it seems like a large glowing stream of light. The AI itself is nestled behind several layers of ICE, taking a skilled hand or even set of hands (Level 17 or above) to have any hope of cracking into.
As for his patients, most suffer no ill effects from rejuvenation, apart from the eye discoloration. One exception to this is that many begin to feel ill, nauseous or anxious around mutated individuals, with some developing headaches, rashes, and bursts of paranoia. All these symptoms can exacerbate any underlying phobia toward mutants the patient has, sometimes leading to violent episodes or altercations.
Athletics:
Having grown up on two things, Jesus and sports, Hazel has little by the way of actual self-defense training but is phenomenal at fighting instinctively. His Native AU version is a little less practiced with hand-to-hand, as most of his exorcisms consist of a person being strapped down to a bed instead of ten feet tall and covered in claws, but he can still handle himself in a corner.
He can also run really fast, for such a little guy.
Rites of Exorcism:
Not an ability so much as a trade, there are specific Rites of Exorcism laid out in Catholic dogma which Hazel has mastered, in addition to techniques found in several other branches of Christianity and Judaism. Some of it is, sadly, lost to time, and other bits now incorporated we would recognize as actually being from famous movies, and other less-than-orthodox sources.
Exorcism doubles as stage magic for Hazel so in addition to reciting lots of Latin he's practiced with hidden wires, fake blood drips, electrical currents, holographic apparitions, and so on. For a good visual reference for a lot of these (except the holograms), The Last Exorcism gives a pretty detailed take.
| ECONOMIC STANDING, EQUIPMENT & PETS:
Hazel is fairly well to do for a man of the cloth. While his church, St. Filbert's, exists on L6, his own residence is on L7, where he lives alone with his manservant Gat, a couple dogs, and whatever boytoy interests him this month. He keeps several other properties on L6 and L4, most of which he simply rents out to church staff, while his properties on L3 and below mainly relate to his harvesting operations (see AU Concept & History).
| ALIASES:
None. He's a pretty public individual, apart from the whole Soylent Sparkle Is People thing.
| PROFESSION:
He is an ordained Catholic priest and exorcist and has falsified the record to appear as a bishop. Much of his income not provided by Branch is derived from parishioner donations, especially those wealthy donors who pay quite well for being saved from (near) death. His ministry is also expanding into its own business enterprise with a daily broadcast sermon and the like.
| CONNECTIONS:
Branch Industries covertly funds St. Filbert's and the L4-and-below medical facilities where Hazel harvests his victims. As far as parishioners and the other church staff are aware, they are simply graced with a generous anonymous benefactor.
As his primary connection with Branch and a latter-day mentor figure, Hazel maintains an amicable relationship with Nii Jianyi and is happy to provide the good doctor with whatever he needs, be it a safehouse or free access to his L7 wine cellar.
