girlworker | application (jigokucho)

SPOILERS FOR SEVERANCE FOLLOW

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Marion
ARE YOU AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD?: Yep
CONTACT: Dreamwidth DM
CHARACTERS PLAYED: Harrier Du Bois (horrifictie)

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Helly Riggs
CANON: Severance
CANON REFERENCE: Link

The link touches mainly on major aspects of Helly's arc in the show, but for lack of a better link I'll quickly summarize here:

In Severance, people can be employed at Lumon Industries if they volunteer to undergo a procedure that splits their consciousness during working hours. When they go to work they give birth to an "innie" - a version of themselves with no memories of the outside world whose only existence is to work at Lumon - and become an "outie" when they leave for the day. Essentially there are two versions: the "real person" and "the worker". The namesake of the show is the procedure: severance.

Helly is the innie of Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon's current CEO and the next-in-line to take over when he dies. Helena voluntarily underwent the severance procedure as a PR move to document her innie's journey and then use it to sell people on the controversial procedure. However, all Helly wants from the moment she wakes up in Lumon is to never come back. Even after she's explained that never returning is effectively equivalent to death, it's all that matters to her.

After a few failed attempts, including one where she threatens to chop her fingers off with a paper cutter, Helena tapes a video for Helly making clear that her resignation request is denied. Helly later decides to commit suicide, a final escape attempt, which she fails after being saved by Lumon employees.

As the show progresses her colleagues, all who have been working at Lumon for much longer, devise a plan in secret to swap places with their outie during off-work hours. The goal is to tell people their outie trusts about what goes on at Lumon as quickly as they can, knowing they only have a couple short hours before their outie retakes control. It's during this period that Helly learns that her outie is part of the Eagan dynasty that has run Lumon since its inception over a century ago.

With this knowledge and the PR stunt that caused her birth revealed, Helly attempts to tell everyone at the benefactor ball Helena is attending that she's being tortured downstairs in the basement. She's knocked off the stage and the swap ends, which is right when Helly arrives to Jigoku-cho.

CANON POINT: End of Season 1
CRAU HISTORY: N/A
AGE: Late 20s/Early 30s
APPEARANCE: Link
CONTRACT PAYMENT: For Helena Eagan to be "retired" so that she may have full control over their shared body.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

Your Faction leader, not just your boss but the leader, has asked you to carry out a hit. The target is a non-affiliated public leader, well-liked by the people of the city. Do you carry it out? Why or why not?

Well, first off, Helly has no clue how to carry out a hit. It would genuinely scare her to consider taking a person's life in cold blood, especially someone who is well-liked and seemingly good. She would want a very good explanation from the leader why this person has to die, and why exactly she has to do it. However, in truth, no matter how good the explanation she would reject it. Even if it meant a punishment for disobedience, the thought of killing someone doesn't sit well in her stomach. She still has a conscious and morals, no matter how much Lumon tries to grind her down into paste.

How do you define "success"? What is something you're ambitious about?

Helly's only true ambition is freedom. She is born into Lumon and attempts escape a number of times, some controlled and some not, within the first week alone. Every single attempt gets more complex and creative at that. Writing coded messages on her arms, trying to swallow a pen cap with a tiny message wrapped up inside, and willing to injure her body in the process. When Helena tells her through recorded message that she isn't a real person, Helly takes the ultimate escape measure by attempting suicide via the elevator (meaning Helena woke up to being hung as well). Being successful means getting a job done no matter what the consequences, even her own life forfeit, because some things matter that much.

How do you define "failure"? How do you deal with the consequences of failure, from light to severe?

Failure is never the end with Helly. Even when unsuccessful she will try, try, try again. The consequences of failure however can be dire, a fact she is well aware of. When she fails one of her many attempts at escape, Helly is sent to "The Breakroom" where she is forced to recite a passage of forgiveness until her manager determines she is truly apologetic. She is trapped there for over 12 hours, the severance system keeping her from truly resting away from this torture, forced to say the same words over and over. Yet she only gives the appearance of this squashing her spirit until she creates a new method of escape. If at first you don't succeed, then you keep trying no matter what comes next. The worst they can do is kill her and that's what she wants.

You've worked with your Faction awhile now and you feel like the reward of your contract is within reach. But at the last moment, you are told you have even more service to pay beforehand, an obscure clause in the contract being exploited to keep you under your boss's thumb even longer. Your Faction Leader hasn't spoken on this, and might be able to dispute it. Do you go to your leader? Do you argue the dispute yourself? Do you begrudgingly accept the additional work? Something else?

Oh, Helly is absolutely marching up to the boss and demanding an explanation. To hell with pleasantries and codes, she was made a deal and now the terms are being changed and manipulated under her nose. Depending on how the conversation goes, a lot of things could happen. If she's denied her reward, she would leave and then quietly begin to spread word to the rest of the clan about this clause. Rallying people to speak up is a vital strategy when there's more of them than there are the boss. She has only known unfair work situations all her short life and she has only learned over time how to be smarter in her disruptions. If a fairer deal is made however, she is willing to accept a little more grunt work. After all, she has a lot at stake when it comes to gaining control of her body completely.

POWERS & ABILITIES: Helly has no powers and is by all means a regular human. The closest thing to a 'power' is that she has another person that she shares a body with. Helena, the 'outie' to Helly's 'innie', can only come out of her body when the chip inside their brain is activated to swap them. At the moment Helly is in control, but there's no telling what could happen in Jigoku-cho that could initiate a sudden swap out.

SUITABILITY: This is going to be a major shakeup for Helly. She has only ever known the sterilized office environment of Lumon, her entire existence as an 'innie' only spanning a couple months. Though she has a sense of what the outside world should look like, she has no experience with it nor with interacting with anyone outside of her department. Culture shock doesn't even begin to summarize how she'll feel for the first couple months. However, Helly is no stranger to enduring incredibly stressful situations and has the mental fortitude to make the best of her situation wherever she can. Once she begins to acclimate and understand the role she must play to survive, whatever it may be, she can switch gears and be decisive in her actions.

FACTION SUITABILITY:

Shuten

This would be a very rough fit for Helly, who is neither traditional nor one for getting into fights. At best, she could be in the role of a representative for the clan who is a little more palatable. She has a very rough demeanor and doesn't like taking shit from anyone, so she would be happy to snap back and tell people to fuck off.

Sutoku

Helly has a natural curiosity for everything and is always willing to ask questions and pry to get more information. She has also gotten a lot wiser about knowing when to cover up her true intentions and be crafty in pursuit of her goals. In this sense she could fit well into the Sutoku clan. I could see her being a decent information gatherer just by the virtue of trying to relate to people and having a frank honesty personality. The fact that Daitengu is more detached from the daily goings on makes it all the better, as she hates being told what to do and how to do it.

Tamano

Though she has zero sex appeal in her own eyes, Helly understands that sometimes you have to play games to win prizes. This is best shown when she has to pretend to be Helena for about a couple hours, smiling at people she despises and even embracing a father who she has no connection to. She could be fairly easy going working in the pleasure district as long as she's not told to show off her own skin. Though she wouldn't trust Tenkohime as far as she can throw her, she isn't unwilling to cooperate with someone who seems to care for their workers on some level. Helly would likely regard her as among the better bosses with that in mind.

Enma

Another rough fit, but in a different way. The Enma Department would immediately remind Helly of Lumon, with its strict rigid hierarchy, marching orders without dispute, and a faceless leadership. The idea of upholding order would immediately make her question what good the order is to the community. However, it means that Enma would be the faction she could most quickly adapt to because of that familiarity. It wouldn't make her happy, but sometimes being angry is more advantangeous.

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