S038 - Kawazoe, Jessica "Jess" [DECEASED]

[Deamon]

Name: Jessica “Jess” Kawazoe
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Grade: 12
School: John Endecott Memorial Academy
Hobbies and Interests: EDM music (listening, producing, creating, remixing), handheld video games, partying, urban exploration, walking, travel

Appearance: Jess is a very short girl, with her height only just reaching 5'1". She is Japanese-American, and has fairly pale skin, a byproduct of many days spent indoors due to illness and her main hobby of music production confining her to her room. With a weight of 102lbs, Jess appears quite frail; an appearance that belies her sheer exuberance and lust for life. Another factor that is quite at odds with her small frame is her voice; she has a surprisingly deep voice, one that has occasionally taken people by surprise the first time they hear it.

Despite her small stature, Jess still stands out in a crowd due to her personal aesthetic. Her choice of clothing, accessories, and makeup suggests she is part of some goth subculture, trending towards dark colours and skull and skeleton aesthetics, but in truth, she doesn’t consider herself to be goth in any way, and simply took a shine to a colour scheme comprising of mostly black and purple. She has a heart-shaped face, a mouth often formed into a broad smile with a thin lower lip, and a rather sharp and pointed nose, the latter of which is her most disliked physical feature by far. Jess doesn’t normally wear makeup at school, normally saving it for parties and other events, but when she does she favours black lipstick and eyeshadow, along with mascara. Her eyes are naturally brown, but she’ll either wear violet coloured contact lenses or, on sunny days, a pair of large round sunglasses. She also paints her fingernails; again, using either black or dark purple nail polish.

Jess’ hair is long, straight, and dark black. Hanging loose, it reaches past her waist at the back. However, Jess prefers to keep it tied up into large pigtails, and uses a pair of black and white striped ribbons to keep them secured. She also maintains a hime cut fringe at the front. Jess partially dyes her hair; she dyes a purple streak into her fringe, and about a foot of hair from the tips is also dyed purple.

A lot of Jess’ clothing is either loose, such as a collection of oversized band t-shirts, or relatively revealing, such as her penchant for crop tops and denim cutoffs or daisy dukes. She dislikes wearing jeans, and never wears skirts; she will very begrudgingly wear dresses for events such as weddings and the like. She also frequently wears leggings or knee socks with her outfits. Jess has no piercings, but wears a couple of black metal bangles on each wrist, and a plain black leather choker. The one constant in each of Jess’ outfits is a pair of headphones, either on her head or around her neck. These are black in colour, with a black cartoon skull on a white circular background printed onto each earpiece.

Jess’ favourite outfit consists of a dark mauve spaghetti strap crop-top with a picture of a white cartoon skull, similar to the design on her headphones, and a pair of black cutoff shorts over the top of a pair of black and white horizontally striped leggings. The outfit also contains a pair of black platform sandals, two black bangles of various thickness on either wrist, her black leather choker, and her headphones. As her favoured outfit breaks school dress code, she generally wears an oversized t-shirt with the logo of one of her favourite artists, such as Swedish House Mafia, while at school, keeping her crop-top in her bag to change into later.

For the school trip, Jess had to make some notable adjustments to her usual ensemble, thanks to the cold weather. She wore a dark purple tank-top under a long-sleeved black t-shirt, both of which were a lot closer-fit than she was usually accustomed to wearing. The tank-top had neon blue text on it that said 'BAD AT VIDEO GAMES', and the t-shirt was a custom design in a thicker material, and had 'DJ JAZZY JESS' in holographic text at an angle printed on the front. She also wore a pair of grey hiking boots with red laces instead of her usual pair of sandals. She kept her cutoff shorts and black-and-white striped leggings, as she believed they would be enough to keep her warm, but she also had a pair of black windpants in her bag, just in case. Her mauve crop-top and platform sandals were also in her bag, as was a puffy maroon jacket that she was desperately hoping she wouldn't need to wear. In terms of accessories, Jess wore her striped ribbons in her hair, her black leather choker, two black metal bangles on each wrist, a K/DA Akali facemask on, and her skull-print headphones around her neck.

Biography: Jess is the oldest child of Yuki and Miyu Kawazoe, a pair of Japanese immigrants who work as a marketing director and a nurse in Salem respectively. She has a younger brother, Samuel, who is known by most as Sammy. Both the Kawazoe children were given traditional American names in order to better help them fit in at school and other social situations. Jess has lived all her life in Salem; the majority of her extended family remains in Osaka, Japan, with the exception of an uncle and aunt on her father’s side. Although the family doesn’t own any traditional pets, Jess has had a habit since she was much younger of catching bugs while out on walks and keeping them for a few days before releasing them again. Currently, she has a snail in a tupperware container on her windowsill named ‘Dashiell’.

Jess has always been rambunctious and energetic, ever since she was very young, but as a child a lot of that energy was tempered by the fact that she was also very frail and sickly. She had a very weak immune system, and would frequently catch particularly bad head colds, sometimes severe enough that it prevented her from going to school for a couple of days. Flu season was particularly bad for her, and to this day she never goes anywhere without a couple of packs of tissues and a facemask, just in case.

Despite the fact that wet weather made a lot of her symptoms flare up, Jess loved the rain, whether she was indoors or outdoors. She loved the sound of rain on the windows while she slept, and she loved walking around outside while it rained. She already spent much of her free time running around outside - both to burn off some of the huge amounts of energy contained within her tiny body, and to make up for the time spent confined to her bed - but she particularly loved being outside in the rain due to how different everything felt, and how different the atmosphere of the great outdoors felt with grey skies and much fewer people about. Whenever it rained and she was not waylaid by illness, Jess would go for long walks round the neighbourhood or to nearby parks, accompanied by her parents. To this day, on most rainy weekends or afternoons after school, Jess can be found outside, midway through a long, rambling trek through the city.

Being confined to her bed so frequently was an incredibly frustrating ordeal for Jess, not least because of the hacking cough or blocked nose that would accompany it. She was able to keep in contact with her friends from school via Facebook, but she missed out on a number of parties and other events due to being sick, something that upset and annoyed her greatly. One of her main refuges while bedridden was the Nintendo DS she had received for her sixth birthday, as many of her classmates also had games consoles and she wanted to join in with the fun they seemed to be having; because Jess did not have a TV in her room, she was much more interested in the handheld consoles available. Following advice from her friends, the first two games Jess picked up were New Super Mario Bros. and Pokemon Diamond, and she was instantly hooked, marveling at the vastly different gameplay and worlds that each game presented. On days that she was ill, she would spend hours playing, charger cable plugged in to ensure she didn’t run out of battery, frequently hiding under the covers in order to keep playing past her bedtime. She would save up her pocket money to buy new games every few months, taking into account recommendations from her friends and from reviews online. Jess particularly gravitated towards the Pokemon series, as she loved the concept of travelling across the world with a group of fantastical creatures, fighting bad guys, meeting new people, and visiting cities and other landmarks across the region; the latter in particular appealed to her, especially when her health condition was at its worst, as it gave her the wish fulfilment of being able to see new sights when she was unable to leave her bed. She still plays video games fairly frequently, mostly on long car trips, and notably, will buy any Pokemon games as soon as they’re released, often pre-ordering the main series’ titles.

The other way in which Jess passed the time whenever she was stuck in bed was to listen to music. There were a number of ways in which she did this; she had an iPod that mostly contained songs she’d heard on the radio or that her parents sang while working around the house, she would listen to music on YouTube while trawling through the internet, or she would leave her DS open and her game paused in order to listen to the soundtrack. The latter inspired the majority of her online music choices, as she would search for songs she particularly liked from the games she played, or the soundtracks from games she had not played yet or was unable to play, in order to listen to them in higher quality. Inevitably, searching for these on YouTube introduced her to various game remixes, both official and fanmade, which immediately piqued her interest. She felt that the majority of the ‘metal’ or orchestral remixes she heard, particularly the fanmade ones, were poorly made or used cheap sounding instrumentation, but she was immediately hooked by the EDM remixes she stumbled upon, buoyed by the fact that due to the sheer volume of them, the good ones outweighed the bad ones. She loved the high energy, high tempo nature of them, as it matched her own, and she found that the genre allowed for much more experimentation, leading to songs with a completely different feel to the original, while still retaining the same motifs and overall tune.

Jess’s health situation started to take a turn for the better when she was around 11 years old; although she was still more likely to catch illnesses than her classmates, it was much less frequent than in years prior, and she spent much shorter periods in bed recuperating from them. Jess was obviously delighted at this, and, eager to make the most of her newfound health and her independence as she reached her teenage years, started going for long walks around Salem after school. Initially, she was just interested in spending time outside, but one day, she overheard a group of classmates planning on sneaking into a recently shut down and abandoned retirement home. Intrigued, she asked if she could join them on this, and she was instantly enthralled by the experience; it felt, to her, like she was walking into a place frozen in time, with sunlight filtering through boarded up windows and things like medical records and pill bottles left behind and forgotten about. She started seeking out other avenues of urban exploration, looking up buildings in Salem that had recently been abandoned or that were currently being unused, and sneaking into them once a month, generally under the cover of rain so she wouldn’t be spotted or caught, taking as many photos as she can before leaving. Jess is aware of how dangerous urban exploration can be, and so she tries to only explore buildings that have recently been abandoned; if she does break into an area that has been abandoned for a long period of time, she will only remain in the grounds or, at most, the ground floor. She also refuses to explore locations such as storm drains or transit tunnels, due to the high risk involved with doing so.

As Jess grew older, her love of EDM only grew too, and she began to consider how to go about creating her own music. There were several songs on her iPod or YouTube playlists that she enjoyed, but that she thought were missing something; a beat that dropped too late, or a choice of instrument that made the song weaker, rather than enhancing it. After trawling through several forums and blogs dedicated to making music electronically, and watching a huge number of videos instructing people on how to create EDM songs, she downloaded the demo version of REAPER and started playing around with it, taking a DnB song she thought was lacking and attempting to improve it to her preferences. It took her the majority of the 60-day trial period to figure her way around the program, but she was pleased with the end results, and started saving up for the full version, along with a number of recommended instrument packs.

At first, Jess simply continued to edit and make changes to songs she thought could do with improvement, but as she grew older still and more adept with the software, this blossomed into fully fledged remixes, both of other artists’ EDM tracks and of music from the games she played. Eventually, she was happy enough with a remix of a song from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl to upload it to her own YouTube channel. Although it didn’t receive a huge amount of attention, the comments she received were mostly positive, and inspired her to keep producing more content. She started spending more time in her room, working on music production, and started saving up and asking for more software and hardware to help her with this. Her parents were concerned at first, worried that something was wrong with Jess and keeping her confined to her room, and confused when she first explained what she was doing, but when they realised she was being productive and making music, they were much more supportive, and encouraged her to keep doing what she loved.

By the time she was 16, Jess had uploaded a half dozen remixes to her channel, each one of notably higher quality and production values than the last. Thanks to encouragement from comments and subscribers to her channel, and her own self-confidence, Jess began work on an original house track inspired by artists such as Vicetone, Avicii, and Bob Sinclair. Although it took longer to complete than her previous remixes and arrangements, not helped by her losing an entire day’s work after falling asleep on the keyboard and closing REAPER without saving, she was eventually satisfied with what she had created, and uploaded it under the title ‘Solar’. To her delight, the song was a success, and she immediately got to work making another original composition. She changed the name of her channel to ‘DJ JAZZY JESS’, a name she fully admits was inspired by DJ Jazzy Jeff; even though the genres they work in are completely different, she liked the name too much to pass it up.

As with many of her other interests, Jess developed her current fashion style through her time spent online, in this case by seeing photos of friends wearing goth-inspired clothing on social media, and of casual gothic photosets on the street fashion blogs she occasionally stumbled upon. She loved how distinctive it was, and how much it allowed the people who wore it to stand out from the crowd without necessarily needing to be too fancy or ostentatious. She grew more and more interested in the idea of what she would look like in a similar fashion style, and bought a few items of clothing to try it out, including the choker she wears to this day. She really enjoys how much it allows her to stand out and differentiate herself from many of her peers, and she also likes how the dark colours and skull motifs are a direct contrast to her energetic and positive nature. Additionally, she uses her distinctive look as part of her online brand, with skull patterns and black, dark purple, and dark blue colour schemes forming the banners for her YouTube channel, Twitter profile, and various avatars on other social media sites.

Most of Jess’ life has been spent in Salem, and she has only really traveled to other towns and cities within Massachusetts such as Boston and Gloucester; the exception to this is the handful of times she’s traveled to Osaka to visit her extended family. Jess is desperate to travel further afield to other places in the USA, and eventually to other countries too. She loves experiencing new cities and comparing how different or similar they are to her hometown, and wants to see how much greater these differences are the further away from home she goes. She is particularly interested in how music develops differently across the country and across the globe, and seeing which genres are more popular in different locations.

Jess maintains a good relationship with her family, despite the fact they couldn’t be less alike. Neither Yuki nor Miyu truly get their daughter’s preferred genre of music to listen to, nor her taste in clothes, but they are wholly supportive of her anyway; they were concerned for several years that she’d be confined to her bed for most of her life, and are glad that she’s spending so much time up and about and doing something she loves. Although Jess and Sammy don’t spend too much time together normally, as again, their interests are almost entirely different, she is fiercely protective of her younger brother, as his timid, gentle nature makes him an easy target for bullying. She will stand up for him at a moment’s notice if she feels he is being targeted, no matter who is picking on him; although she’s not always taken seriously due to her small size, Sammy completely looks up to her because of it.

Jess is also generally well-liked around school thanks to her upbeat demeanour, friendliness, and general lust for life. She easily slots into the party-going crowd at John Endecott, feeling completely at home at house parties and the like. Even those who don’t know her too well often end up inviting her to house parties because of the positive energy she brings, although some people only invite her because she infamously cannot hold her alcohol at all. Jess also often uses house parties as an easy way to plug her own music, sneaking one of her remixes or original songs into the playlist whenever she gets an opportunity. There are downsides to the fact that Jess rarely seems to have an ‘Off’ switch, however, with many people complaining that she can be loud, obnoxious, and too much to deal with on a regular basis. She also has a tendency of inserting herself into conversations she’s not a part of and making them about herself, leading to many people regarding her as self-centered, something that isn’t strictly true; she simply gets overexcited with what she’s talking about and is unable to filter herself. Jess is pansexual, and while she’s open about this at school, she is still in the closet at home; she doesn’t think her parents will react poorly, but she can’t be 100% certain, so she is still keeping it hidden from them for the time being. Because of this, aside from a handful of flings at parties and such, she has only been in relationships with guys to date.

Academically, Jess is average across the board, with the notable exception of music, which she excels at. She struggles to comprehend subjects such as science and maths, and finds little interest in subjects such as English. Jess does not plan on pursuing these subjects after school, but she still tries her hardest to maintain a passing grade in everything she does, as she doesn’t want to disappoint her parents. Because of this, she always makes sure any homework or coursework is completed and handed in to class in time, no matter how long it takes or how difficult she finds it. However, this comes with its own drawbacks; Jess will frequently spend all night working on a piece of homework, as she is dedicated and determined to complete anything she tries her hand at. On these occasions, Jess spends the following day incredibly lethargic, using most of her energy to stop herself from falling asleep at her desk. A handful of teachers have reached out to her because of this, and upon hearing her explanation, have suggested she look into tutoring or mentoring for the classes she struggles most with. However, Jess has rejected all of these suggestions, as she is also incredibly stubborn, and doesn’t want any assistance with any tasks that she has already started, wanting to prove that she has the capability to complete them by herself.

Currently, Jess is feeling good about life and about her future. She has a fairly small but dedicated fanbase that listens to her music, and she frequently posts to her Twitter account to give updates on her music, as well as her daily life. She attempts to post at least one remix per month, while original songs have a more erratic schedule due to her focus on school. However, she recently had her track ‘Divination’ released by NoCopyrightSounds, something she is absolutely delighted by, as artists such as Alan Walker worked with the label before reaching global success. After graduating, Jess hopes to increase her productivity in regards to composing and posting new music, to have more of her music released by NCS, and to start up a Patreon so that she can make a start on producing songs full time. Her dream is to start touring Massachusetts, playing her music at clubs and the like, before eventually touring the rest of America and, hopefully, the world.

Advantages: Jess is full of energy, maintains a positive outlook no matter the situation, and has a great desire to live life to the fullest; she always gives 100% at everything she puts her mind to, and so it may take longer for her to be worn down by the events that occur on the island. She is friendly and personable, meaning she has a number of pre-existing allies and is likely to gain more without too much trouble. She has some minor experience with traversing unfamiliar terrain due to her urban exploration habits, which may come in handy. Finally, Jess has an unshakeable determination to complete any task she attempts, no matter how hard it may be or how long it may take.
Disadvantages: However, that same determination comes with a number of drawbacks. First and foremost, the fact that Jess will persist at any task for any duration of time means she frequently works late into the night or for long, interrupted hours, which leads to her being very lethargic afterwards. Jess is not physically strong in the slightest, but may still attempt physical tasks that are beyond her capabilities, and will not give up on them unless she is actively prevented from doing so. Jess is also very stubborn, and will reject any help or assistance on anything she is attempting, which may upset or put off potential allies. In that vein, Jess’ exuberant and excitable personality has annoyed people in the past, and may do so on the island as well if she is unable to tone it down. Finally, her immune system, while better than it used to be, is still much weaker than many of her classmates’, and she may seriously suffer if she catches anything due to poor weather conditions.

Designated Number: Student No. 038

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Designated Weapon: MAC-11

Conclusion: Breaking news! DJ JAZZY JESS found dead in the snow! Thought to have been killed for being too fucking annoying!! Wow!!! - Josie Knight