ghostfromthemachine | A ROUGH TIMELINE: TUMBLR STYLE

Because sometimes it's a good idea to actually write down all the weird details about the OC you've been playing for like two or so years instead of just keeping them all in your head where they can vanish. Written up as rough summary slowly slipping into Tumblr bullet point fic style because that's what came easiest and prose would be so long, you guys.

Starting from here, which is old and thus overindulgent in purple prose, I'm so sorry. FROM THERE:

Kaiko hunted down her mother using information Miku had hunted down for her at one point for the purpose of getting them both some answers

At this point Kaiko met her younger sister Rin, who was fully robotic and did not have emotions due to that part of her programming being incomplete (since Kaiko had been intended to fix that part, and. well. things happened.)

Because Kaiko is incredibly extra, she decided the best way to go about revenge was to wait until Rin could feel fear/pain and then rip her apart while their mom watched. And then also tear their mother apart. ~~SHE'S STILL EMBARRASSED AND ASHAMED ABOUT THIS, what was she THINKING~~

Thisss all got interrupted. Kaiko'd lived in the same crappy part of town for a while and during that time picking fights with the local crime and stopping the occasional mugging, and got enough attention that a group of dudes got together to take her out so she'd stop interfering.

They had to chase her halfway across town and shoot her a bunch, but eventually she took a bullet somewhere vital enough that they could catch up and finish her off via headshot to the temple.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR THEM, getting chased halfway across town in increasing amounts of pain and terror gives you a lot of time to realize you're about to die, get a good look at all your regrets, and work up immense amounts of hate and anger. Combine that with her two driving forces being immense stubbornness and sheer spite, and you have a recipe for an murderously pissed off ghost.

Later news reports on the incident stated that the cause of death for the perpetrators was likely fear, despite the mysterious Lichtenberg figures found on their corpses. :)

Unfortunately this left Kaiko more or less stuck in the state she'd been when she'd died, since that's how ghosts roll. That essentially meant being mad and hurt enough to blindly haunt anyone that got too close to death.

FORTUNATELY STUBBORNNESS AND SPITE WERE STILL HER TWO DRIVING FORCES

It turns out when you spend your life trying to die so you stop accidentally hurting innocent people, when you finally do get to die but then are compelled to do that on purpose you're a little better equipped to go "...WAIT THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WANTED THOUGH? NO???"

Cue several weeks of fighting through what was basically nightmares mashed up with dream logic to try to stop doing the murder thing. She'd also realized as she died that she hadn't actually deserved that, and started applying that to other things, too. If she didn't deserve to die in pain, maybe she didn't deserve to live in pain, either? But also, she sure as hell didn't deserve being STUCK in an ALLEY while STILL SUFFERING just to GET MORE BLOOD ON HER HANDS!

did I mention spite as a motivating force. Also, being really good at turning fury into fuel. Eventually she got angry and frustrated enough with her circumstances to just grab everything, metaphorically shriek FUCK THIS THOUGH, and shove it all into a mental closet.

finally being able to think straight eventually let her realize that a: she could actually leave her alley as long as there wasn't anything there demanding her attention and b: she could go out and wander among people in broad daylight without getting screamed at

Going out in broad daylight also lead her to realize that her body was not quite what it had been while she'd been alive, or fully mired in her own grudge. She'd lost nearly a full foot in height and almost all of her scars— and for the first time, when she looked at her reflection she could recognize her face as her own.
SURPRISE, FREEDOM AND NOT DEALING WITH CONSTANT DYSPHORIA ALSO HELP WITH NOT BEING MAD ALL THE TIME.

The whole "technically still stuck partly in the moment she died" was still a real problem though. Did you know constant repression is exhausting. SO IS KNOWING THAT IF YOU STOP THERE IS A REAL POSSIBILITY YOU WILL KILL SOMEONE?

so she went to go find someone to ask for help. By which I mean headed for the first major shrine she could find. EITHER THEY'D HAVE ADVICE or they could exorcise her, which would suck but would also still be better than an eternity of murder and suffering or whatever

and that is how she scared the everloving hell out of a very nice shrine attendant who was NOT expecting the gnarliest onryou he had ever seen to just come wANDERING IN OUT OF NOWHERE.

Fortunately for the both of them, he was more or less level headed and thus willing to hear her out. He brought up the idea of deification, since at least one well-known kami was actually born from honoring an onryou to placate it.

(This turned out to be a natural route for her to take, since she'd already started getting attention in the form of urban legends etc. thanks to KILLING A BUNCH OF DUDES IN INCREDIBLY SPOOKY CIRCUMSTANCES.)

and then he fed her a meat bun since you're supposed to make offerings to the dead and obviously nobody had been doing that for her properly and it was what he had on hand. she inhaled it, popped into corporeality, and immediately developed a meat bun addiction.

turns out food was a way healthier and more pleasant link to the land of the living than all her regret and anger. EATING FEELINGS > HAVING THEM

since flipping out and killing people was no longer a pressing concern due to her new best friend slash meatbun dealer, she started thinking about the future.

This is when she solidified her decision to discard her old personality in favor of a new one, though she'd already undergone some drastic changes as part of the whole "fuck you I'm not going to be miserable anymore" spite mission

Eventually aimless wandering around trying to figure out what to do with herself took her to a library. BOOKS ALWAYS HAVE THE ANSWER

Sometimes they also have two resident kami who are mildly alarmed when an onryou comes wandering in. Yes, this is an ongoing theme.

Anyway Kaiko was raised by a woman with a huge insistence on manners so after falling all over herself apologizing and some explanation she got promptly adopted. (What else are you supposed to do when you're a grumpy old man and a very respectful absolute idiot of a child asks you for help?)

cue several weeks of sneaking training on library duties in around the mortal employees before a lot of string pulling to get her registered as employed

CUE SOME SERIOUS SIDE-EYE WHEN ALL PARTIES INVOLVED REALIZED SHE DIDN'T HAVE A NAME TO PUT ON PAPERWORK

she. She fixed that. This is when she picked the name "Kaiko Minaru" in a deliberate middle finger to her mother, who she'd found had also named her "Kaiko" with a different spelling— "aid/mediating child" vs "child who rectifies/puts right". (Kaiko thinks she's funny.)

It turns out having a wage and a legal identity means you can rent an apartment! and buy things. so many things. Hedonism is also a great coping mechanism when the goal is to remind yourself you're firmly a part of the world of the living.

somewhere in this, her mother finally visited the alley she'd died in. This was deeply upsetting because it pressed right on every murder button Kaiko had and she'd more or less packed that part of her grudge away after looking up more info on herself. When you're not obsessed with your own rage it's easier to look at interviews where your mom bites off the head of someone calling you a monster and think "oh. perhaps I was wrong about her hating and not wanting me?"

...somewhat easier. a little easier. ...not actually that much easier at all, but at least possible to do without your head immediately imploding from trying to think about it at all.

Anyway, Kaiko chased her away and then because she wasn't actually over her own hurt feelings proceeded to spend the next week or so pettily making the woman's life hell.

Eventually, she succeeded in driving her into a messy crying breakdown and promptly felt so sick over it (and sick over how good indulging that side of herself had felt) that she immediately had to leave. vengeance has been had, she's done, hanging around does absolutely nothing good for either of them so goodbye forever

Except then a few days later there's the something-popping-into-place feeling of a new shrine being created and when she goes to look her mom has set up a proper shrine honoring the dead for her. How is she supposed to feel about this.

...less in question is how she is supposed to feel about her sister. Who she starts using the shrine to keep an eye on. Who is still very much emotionless. Who... she doesn't know how she knows, but she can tell that unless a miracle happens, her sister will stay that way for a long time.

Building a "heart" is unquestionably going to be their mother's life's work. There's no way to tell how much of that life it will take.

... It was unfair enough that she had to grow up without their mother.

It turns out that she's enough of a god for miracles, and that generating the "spark of life" isn't that difficult for someone who can already control electricity.

It also turns out that when you basically kindle a soul in someone by striking sparks off of your own, and you are a spook, they gain the ability to see spooky things regardless of whether or not they want to be seen. This is a problem when that person is also your baby sister, and has a newly developed and very insistent interest in getting to know you and you feel too responsible for like... everything to bring yourself to say no.

SO MUCH FOR SNEAKING AROUND TO HER MOM'S HOUSE TO DO REGULAR CHECKUPS ON EVERYONE WITHOUT HAVING TO ACTUALLY INTERACT WITH ANYBODY, SPECIFICALLY HER MOM :(

enough awkward interaction and time does wonders in healing strained relationships some, though.

eventually, Kaiko asks the coworker that metaphorically adopted her for the contacts he'd gone through to get her a legal identity; there are some other legal papers she needs forged well enough to pass.

eventually, her mother finds the paperwork to add one "Kaiko Minaru" to her family registry as an adopted daughter sitting on the keyboard of her work computer.

...and that's it! This is the point I usually take her from when playing Kaiko in PSLs or games: more or less settled into her place in the world, with a decent support system of friends and a growing connection with her family. ~~All the better to rip it all away in games /evil laugh.~~