application for deerington

[bearattack]

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Mazikeen
Canon: Lucifer (TV)
Canon Point: near the end of 4x01, "Everything's Okay"; specifically, right after she apologizes to Trixie

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Between her shoulderblades.
Current Health/Status: Alive and well.
Age: Older than the Earth itself, though specifics aren't really given beyond that.
Species: Demon

Content Warnings: Themes of violence/torture, fictionalized depictions of religion

History:
Her wiki page is incredibly bare-bones when it comes to her history/storyline, so I'll just write up a thing of my own:

Mazikeen (Maze to her friends) spent the first few million years of her life in Hell, though few details are known about her time there. As a demon, her role was to torture guilty souls and to protect Lucifer, the king of Hell, at all costs. In fact, she first comes up to Earth at the bidding of Lucifer; he'd decided to take a permanent vacation to Los Angeles, gotten involved in Some Shit, and needed her - the most talented torturer of them all - to interrogate a human for him. After, she ends up staying, serving as both Lucifer's bodyguard and as a bartender at his nightclub.

For five years, that's their status quo. Neither Maze nor Lucifer really get involved with humans or humanity other than partying with randos and granting the occasional favor, and though she tries to encourage Lucifer to find a more significant role for them on Earth, he's quite happy to stick with the partying. Things change, however, when Lucifer accidentally gets caught up in a murder investigation and decides to start volunteering his time as a consultant for the Los Angeles Police Department, partly because he finds the work fun but mostly because he's entranced by Chloe Decker, one of the force's homicide detectives. Maze is concerned that Lucifer's newfound emotional attachment to a human is fundamentally changing him, and she's feeling ready to go back to Hell by this point anyway, something that she cannot do without Lucifer's aid and cooperation. When she fails to talk Lucifer into going back on his own, she finally agrees to join forces with his angelic brother Amenadiel, who has been trying for a while to get her to help him strong-arm Lucifer into returning. Amenadiel tells her that all he needs from her is some information that he can use against his brother, so she gives him the name of Dr. Linda Martin, the therapist that Lucifer has been seeing. The plan fails, however, when Lucifer finds out what's up, and he furiously cuts off his friendship and partnership with Maze. She decides that ultimately, staying by Lucifer's side is more important to her than finding a way back to Hell, and she reluctantly accepts that this means she's going to be stuck on Earth for a while. She makes an appointment with Dr. Linda for herself, hoping that she can help her "be more normal" and blend in with the humans a bit more. Linda (who by this point still has no idea that these two particular patients are anything other than rather eccentric humans) suggests that Maze form more meaningful relationships with the people around her. Though Maze is initially dismissive of the idea, she ends up making a connection with Chloe Decker's eight-year-old daughter Trixie, a fact which she proudly reports to Linda at their next session. Linda responds that that's a good start, but that making friends with another adult would be even better; since Linda herself is another adult, Maze responds by asking her if she wants to hang out. Two human friends acquired!

Meanwhile, Maze is still determined to get back into Lucifer's good books, and so she offers to play double agent and try to get information out of Amenadiel, who they both assume is working on another plot to get Lucifer to go back home. She starts sleeping with him regularly, but despite her ulterior motive, ends up developing some level of feelings for him. When Lucifer orders her to kill him (which will get him sent back to Heaven and off of Lucifer's back), she hesitates just enough before doing the deed that he's able to see her coming at him with the hellblade, and he escapes. Later, he ends up stabbed with said same hellblade by a suspect in one of Lucifer's police cases; Maze patches him up, heals him with a feather from one of Lucifer's wings, and then promptly vanishes from both of their lives for a bit, determined to extricate herself from the celestial drama for long enough to figure out her own shit. She continues to see Linda during this time, mostly in a social capacity rather than a professional one - though that apparently doesn't stop her from occasionally showing up during Linda's lunch break at work to solicit some free therapy.

As time goes on, Maze ends up getting to know Chloe, Lucifer's cop friend; though she initially finds her dull, they bond during a girls' night with Linda and Ella, the LAPD's forensic pathologist, during which Maze defends Chloe from a belligerent patron and starts a bar fight on her behalf. At some point during the night, they agree to be roommates, since they're both in the market for a new place to stay. This ends up working out surprisingly well for a while, despite some initial setbacks (Chloe tells Maze that she can bring her furniture with her, so she hangs a sex swing in the living room and lets little Trixie play with it) as well as regular conflict about what constitutes proper home care (not knife holes in the walls), proper housework (not throwing dishes away instead of washing them, or putting bowls still filled with leftover food in the dishwasher), and proper child-friendly activities (not fighting lessons).

Despite her initial misgivings, Maze continues to settle in nicely on Earth. She ends up getting a job as a bounty hunter with the LAPD, which she loves ("Hunting humans is a job! Who knew?!"), and when Linda finds out about her and Lucifer's true natures and is understandably freaked out about it, Maze is the one who's able to get through to her and convince her to give them a chance to prove that they're not a danger to her. While off on a bounty-hunting mission, she ends up bonding with a guy (her falsely-accused bounty, it turns out) who sees her as a kindred spirit. He says that they're alike - "no roots, no family" - and invites her to run off with him to share a whirlwind life full of excitement and adventure. She turns him down, saying that unlike him, she does have roots now, and she wants to get back to them.

Alas, domestic bliss can't last forever. Linda and Amenadiel have been getting to know each other, and have actually recently started dating, a fact that they are actively trying to hide from Maze - Linda is her best friend and Amenadiel is her former it's-sort-of-complicated-fuckbuddy, and they both know that Maze can be overdramatic and possessive. Sensing some romantic tension between the two, Maze tells Linda that she wouldn't feel comfortable if they got together, because of her history with Amanadiel and because it would make her feel left out; Linda agrees, but is conflicted about it, and sees Amenadiel a few more times. Maze finds out, and immediately starts to spiral over it; in her mind, this is a massive betrayal. Though Linda makes every effort to make amends with her, even going so far as to break up with Amenadiel because Maze's friendship is too important to her to lose over this, Maze rebuffs her at every turn - even though there are times when it's clear she feels guilty for hurting Linda, she's too stubborn, confused, and hurt herself to relent. Her out-of-control bitterness starts to infect the other relationships in her life; she is noticeably more snappish with Chloe, and takes Lucifer's usual thoughtlessness more personally than she has in the past. At first, Trixie is the only one she doesn't take her anger out on. But then she gets into a fight with Dan, Trixie's father, over her childcare decisions (apparently, Maze was helping Trixie bake brownies to give to her teacher for Teacher Appreciation Day, and she decided to add pot to the recipe; what elementary school teacher wouldn't appreciate pot brownies, right?). Maze yells that she might as well just move out if they can't accept her for who she is, and declares that she's sick of Dan's "goody-two-shoes ex-wife and that stupid little brat of [his], anyway". Unbeknownst to her, Trixie has just arrived home, and she hears everything. Maze is immediately remorseful, but the damage has been done, and Trixie runs out of the house in tears.

Hurting Trixie is the straw the breaks the camel's back. Maze decides that life on Earth is too complicated, and caring about humans never ends well; she wants to go back to Hell, where at least things were simpler for her. Lucifer, however, refuses to take her; he can't just zip to and from Hell anytime he wants, and if he leaves to take her back, there's a solid chance of him not being able to return to Earth. Furious, she storms out, and is about to leave town on a bus when Cain (as in the biblical Cain, who is in LA for reasons that are too complicated to get into here and aren't particularly important to Maze's personal story) stops her, telling her that if she helps him out, he can help get her what she wants. Though initially suspicious, Maze ends up agreeing.

So here's Cain's deal: as the world's first murderer, he's been cursed with immortality as punishment for killing his brother Abel, and he desperately wants to die and be laid to rest. While working at the LAPD under an assumed name and identity, he becomes aware of the fact that Chloe has a strange effect on Lucifer (as something of a supernatural being himself, he's fully aware of what Lucifer/Maze/Amenadiel/etc. are): when she's near him, he's no longer as invulnerable as he should be. Cain assumes that this is because Chloe loves Lucifer (the real reason is slightly different; it's actually because Lucifer loves Chloe), and he's been quietly pursuing Chloe for a while, reasoning that if he can get her to fall in love with him, he too will no longer be immortal when she's near him. The plan that he ropes Maze into is to have her kill him once said immortality is nullified, and then to frame Lucifer; if he's accused of murder, he'll lose everything he cares about in his life on Earth, and will have no reason not to head back to Hell with Maze in tow. But then things go (from Maze's perspective) pear-shaped: Cain develops genuine feelings for Chloe, and decides that he can't go through with a plan that involves manipulating and hurting her. In fact, he realizes that he no longer wants to die just yet: he wants to live a life with Chloe first. Maze rejects this change of heart and is determined to kill him anyway, but he stops her by suggesting a compromise: they'll go through with the plan, but swap in a different victim, killing Amenadiel and framing Lucifer. Maze initially agrees, but then backs out at the last moment, in no small part thanks to Amenadiel showing that despite all she's put him through, he still cares for her and wants to be there for her. She goes back to Cain and tells him that the new plan is off and, as far as she's concerned, the old plan is back on. She tries once more to kill him, but he distracts her by implying that Linda is in danger; while she's taken off-guard, he knocks her out and locks her up, wanting to keep her out of his way. Maze breaks free and high-tails it to Linda's office, confirms that she's okay, and then promptly passes out from her injuries; breaking free had involved fighting through twelve armed guards, which is apparently enough to set even a demon back a little bit. Linda patches her up, but when Maze wakes, she immediately tries to leave - she'd made sure that Cain had been bluffing and that Linda is safe, and now she needs to go kill him and get back to Hell. She tells Linda that she can't stay on Earth, because dealing with emotions and relationships with humans make her weak; Linda says that no, emotions make her strong, and that the way she is right now - battered and bloody, after fighting to help her friend - is the strongest that she has ever seen her. Finally, Maze breaks down and apologizes for everything she's said and done, and the two hug.

In the weeks that follow, Maze decides to give up her plans to leave Earth, and she makes amends with nearly everybody that she wronged. Patching things up with Chloe, however, is more difficult than she'd anticipated: during all the drama with Cain, Chloe had ended up finding out the truth about Lucifer & co., and she now knows that Maze is a demon. Needing time away to process everything, she takes Trixie on month-long vacation to Europe. As soon as she returns, Maze goes to see her, and does her best to reassure her that nothing has really changed and that she would never be a danger to either her or Trixie. Chloe seems to accept this, but when Maze asks when she can see Trixie to apologize to her too, Chloe tells her that Trixie no longer wants any contact with her. This breaks Maze's heart, but she respects Trixie's wishes and doesn't reach out to her, even after she goes back to living at the apartment she'd previously shared with Chloe (Trixie is staying full-time at her dad's for a while, to make up for the time together that they'd missed while she was in Europe). The next time she sees Trixie in person is at the LAPD precinct, and she tries to sneak away, not wanting her to spot her and be upset. Trixie, however, does spot her, and ends up calling her over. Maze literally falls to her knees in front of the kid, apologizing profusely for what she said about her... and Trixie promptly runs over and hugs her, reassuring her that she could never have stayed angry at her forever. This, of course, proofs that Chloe was lying: she wasn't trying to keep Maze from talking to Trixie because Trixie was still upset and didn't want to see her. She was doing it because she didn't think Maze, a demon, was someone that she could trust around her child. It looks like settling back into her post-being-a-shithead life isn't going to be so straight forward after all.

Very soon after this point, she'll be pulled into Deerington.

Personality:
Think of the qualities that one might associate with demons, and chances are that Maze has at least some of them. She's prone to selfishness and hedonism, defaults to not giving much of a fuck about people, and has a keen interest in violence and weaponry. Lucifer calls her "Hell's most brutal torturer", which is a reputation that she whole-heartedly lived up to for the vast majority of her life, and one that she still takes some amount of pride in despite the fact that she's no longer active in the role; instead of torturing the guilty, she now captures them for the police. Maze is all about excitement, and working as a bounty hunter for the LAPD allows her to indulge in some of her favorite pursuits (physical fighting, verbal sparring with fellow assholes, the thrill of the chase) in a way that's at least sort of socially acceptable. Though she works to punish guilty people both in Hell and on Earth, it's not out of a high-minded desire to uphold some sort of moral system, or even out of a strong drive to protect the innocent: she's not the type to go on a random murder spree, but she's largely apathetic when strangers are in danger, only bringing herself to care when it's people who are already in her orbit that are affected. She's not unintelligent, but she is sort of small-minded, and despite the fact that she's a demon who, in many ways, ends up pretty strongly bucking against the trappings of her own demonic-ness, we rarely see much philosophizing or self-reflection from her. Brooding about the nature of good and evil just isn't her thing; she'd rather stick to more concrete stuff.

Over the course of the series, she's gone through something of a metamorphosis, becoming more and more willing to not only form bonds with the humans around her, but to actually try to improve herself in an attempt to do right by the ones she cares the most about. This has been a long, somewhat slow process for her: she's been on Earth for about five years at the beginning of the first season, and yet she hasn't made a genuine connection with a single human, nor has she made any real attempt to integrate into human society. Lucifer's refusal to take her back to Hell is what finally gets her to grudgingly start to settle in and make a place for herself on Earth, trying to reach out to people beyond one-night stands and looking for a purpose that doesn't revolve around Lucifer. In time, she proves herself to be fiercely protective and passionate towards the people she cares about - which, when taken too far, can easily lead her to be possessive and overly intense. She has a very "go big or go home" approach to most things, and this extends to her relationships with others. Her first reaction to people tends to be indifference, but when she decides that she kind of likes somebody after all, she can get very attached very quickly. Chloe's young daughter wraps her around her little finger in the span of about three minutes, and she goes from being annoyed by and suspicious of Chloe herself to becoming her roommate and being ride-or-die for her in a pretty short amount of time. At one point, Chloe finds herself exhausted by Maze's constant presence; she's always there, wanting to hang out and do stuff and spend time together. When she tries to tell Maze that maybe they'd both benefit from a little more time apart, either for solo time or to do things with other friends separately, Maze just... doesn't get it. They're Good Human Friends, after all, and hanging out constantly is what Good Human Friends do!

Demons in Hell don't have a lot of use for positive emotions, and they're something that Maze is still very much getting used to. It's not that she was emotionless before coming to Earth, but by and large, feelings were things to be tamped down on and ignored, not freely embraced and expressed. In a lot of ways, she has the emotional maturity of a particularly childish thirteen-year-old - and one who was raised in a cutthroat, feral society full of torture and mayhem to boot. She can be just plain off-putting sometimes, and while sometimes this is purposeful (when she's trying to intimidate a suspect in a case, for example), other times it's just total cluelessness: particularly when she's worked up or excited, it's easy for her to forget most "normal" people don't respond well to things like casual discussion of violence. Early on, she would write off people who were weirded out by her: if they can't accept her for who she is, then to hell (har har) with them. She still holds that attitude to some extent, but now, it's tempered somewhat; she's realized that if she doesn't want to completely alienate the people she cares about, she does need to make some concessions. It's a delicate balance for her to strike, and one she's still working on - and despite her normally high levels of self-confidence, this occasionally leads to insecurity, something that she's indirectly expressed in her sessions with Linda as well as (very occasionally) to Chloe. It's still totally lost on her why eight-year-old Trixie's parents might not be thrilled with her teaching their daughter how to fight and giving her weapons against their wishes, and when her friend Linda gets pregnant, her first idea for a baby shower gift is a knife for the infant (maybe when the kid is three or four, it'll be old enough for Maze to start teaching it how to hunt!). And yet after she's definitively told that the whole knife-for-a-baby thing is a terrible idea, she dedicates months to tracking down a better, more appropriate replacement gift, proving just how much care and effort she's become willing to put into someone other than herself.

Currently, Maze is about 95% of the way back from a massive self-destructive spiral that lead to her torpedoing basically all of her close relationships and spurning all her friends' attempts to figure out what went wrong and patch things up. While she's far from perfectly well-adjusted and being friends with her is still likely to be a trying experience in some ways, having another emotional meltdown and pushing everyone away to that extent again isn't very likely, as she's pretty well learned her lesson on that front. She's moved beyond mere adjustment and has finally started to evolve. She's now willing to humble herself and apologize (albeit sometimes grudgingly) when she's made a mistake; she'll try to awkwardly be there for her friends emotionally, even though touchy-feely stuff still makes her kind of antsy and uncomfortable; and she'll even allow herself to be vulnerable sometimes, even though that's not something that comes easily to her. This is not to say that she's all the way there yet, or that she'll never fuck up - but she's finally fully committed herself to trying, which is a big step for her.

By this point, Maze exists in kind of a weird place with regard to her demonic nature. She's not ashamed of what she is, nor has she fully renounced her demon-ness, but she's no longer fully embracing it, either. The fourth season is the first time we see her expressing any sort of regret towards how she was raised, mostly with regard to Hell's utter lack of the warmth or closeness she's come to enjoy on Earth, but even that is something she shows ambivalence towards (in one scene she's bitter that her mother wasn't caring or loving and that she never had the chance to be part of a proper family, but in another she speaks nostalgically of having been created to be a torturer and is happy to share the story of her first kill). One of the biggest problems from her perspective is that when people that she cares about have found out about her true nature, their reactions have been universally negative. Though she eventually came around, Linda was terrified at first, trying to quietly cut contact before finally admitting that she just didn't see how she could be friends with a demon. Chloe has only found out very recently, and is still insisting that everything is fine and that she is unbothered by the revelation - but she's clearly speaking from a point of numbing shock, and she's become noticeably more detached and aloof, doing her best to keep Maze away from her daughter Trixie, who Maze adores. Therefore, while Maze wants her friends to like her for her, she has no qualms about hiding this part of herself. Letting them know who she is is one thing, but letting them know what she is is quite another - and one that has proven to be far more trouble than it's worth.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:
Strength.

In canon: She is many times stronger than the average human, rendering her capable of doing things like lifting extremely heavy objects and sending people flying across a room with a single shove.

In game: She'll be every bit as strong as she is normally, but if she damages or destroys a physical object, then something of hers that is of equal size and value will be damaged or destroyed in turn. If she strikes out against a living being, then whatever force she applies to them will be applied back to her in equal measure. This will, however, only apply if she uses momentum: if she shoves someone hard enough to make them fly back into a wall, then she'll find herself flying backwards and hitting the opposite wall, but if she just uses her strength to grab and squeeze someone, then it won't have any adverse affect on her even if it does them damage.

Speed.

In canon: She can move with lightning speed, which can give her the appearance of being able to teleport if she hightails it into or out of a location fast enough. Her reflexes, too, are superhumanly good.

In game: Left as-is, other than the whole "brick wall of symptoms" thing if she attempts to speedrun out of town.

Stamina.

In canon: She can run, fight, etc. without getting tired for far longer than a human could.

In game: She will still have extreme stamina while she's moving, but once she stops, she'll be hit with equal amounts of extreme weariness. So if she tries to sprint for five miles, she'll be able to do it no problem, but afterwards she'll be totally wiped. Depending on the nature and duration of her physical exertion, it'll take anywhere from one minute (for something like a blink-of-an-eye dash out of a room) to one day (for something like that aforementioned five-mile sprint) for her to fully recover, and symptoms of her weariness could range anywhere from heavy breathing to complete collapse.

Durability.

In canon: It's possible to injure her, draw blood, etc., but in general, it's harder, and she can take a lot more damage than a human can.

In game: Her ability to sustain damage will be reduced to that of a normal human; however, tying in her her increased stamina, her ability to keep going despite injuries that aren't immediately fatal will remain untouched. This does mean that if she ignores any injuries incurred in order to keep moving/fighting/etc., those injuries will get worse and worse, just like they would for a human who - for example - broke their leg and continued to walk on it.

Immortality.

In canon: Demons don't age physically, and there are very few things that can kill them, all of which are either Hell- or Heaven-forged.

In game: Killing her might be a bit harder because of the aforementioned stamina, speed, and durability, but it won't be impossible, even for mortals. Anything that's deadly to a human will now be deadly to her.

Shape-shifting.

In canon: This is a very minor ability, but she can change into what we're probably supposed to assume is her "true" demon form. In this form, she looks largely the same as she does in her human form, just with (cw: gross) half her face looking ghoulishly rotten and degraded.

In game: Left as-is.

Mimicry.

In canon: Another minor ability, but once in canon, she's shown to be able to do a picture-perfect imitation of a large dog's snarling bark. She's able to make herself sound exactly like an animal, as opposed to a person imitating an animal.

In game: Left as-is.

Inventory:
- a set of Hell-forged blades (they aren't attached to each other can can be used separately, but they appear to come in pairs, and when she's seen fighting with them it's usually with one in each hand)
- one of her standard outfits (leather pants, an extremely skimpy top, combat boots)
- her makeup kit
- her cell phone
- a case of green tea coconut water (12 cans)
- Ms. Alien, a stuffed toy that Trixie has sent along on a trip with her at least once before

Writing Samples:
This TDM top-level has many threads attached to it; the most substantial ones are here (making a friend!), here (being an asshole!), and here (being an asshole x2, plus physical violence!).

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Iddy
Player Age: 29
Player Contact: ihdreniel

Other Characters In Game: n/a
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Mazikeen: Iddy
Permissions for Character: Here.
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Of the kind that appears in-game, sure!
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Unreality, paranoia, slow-burn creeping dread under a veneer of normalcy
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: n/a
Additional Information: n/a