Double Claw Mark 1

A Slit-mouthed woman.  

Upper Body Judo strikes, knife fighting.  

Physical Description: tan, female, brown hair to her shoulders, appears 22 years old.  127 cm tall.  She wears an oversized mask with a pointed metal tip that covers the entire bridge of her nose.  Her mask is unusually large, wrapping around some of her neck and folding under her chin.  But her piercing blue eyes remain completely exposed.  Much of her body is covered by a beige overcoat, with larger than normal sleeves that get broader as the arm progresses.  As the coat goes from the shoulder to the hem, it also progresses like this, although less noticeably.  Below her biggest garb is a pair of combat boots that rise up under the cloth.  There are Gators with pockets over the tops of the boots that are only visible when the coat moves in a jump or a fall.  Her hands are concealed with gloves with tiny metal spikes coming from each knuckles that have dulled from wear and tear.  The glove itself is eroded around them.  
Under her mask is a face without makeup.  Her signature slit mouth is always open where the cut is, because it has been cut through her muscle and skin.  There’s a little bit of damage to her right of her mouth, and incredible damage to her left.  Just underneath that damage is a beauty mark.  
When she possesses the body that rolls onto stage, she takes on its characteristics.  When she summons another body, it is her prior form.   The second body is 5’9” Tall, black haired without any shine.  The eyes are a darker piercing blue.

Additional info: Her name is drawn from Double-Finger, a term for New Year’s Day.  This is in reference to the end of Darkstalker’s time of rereleases and appearances in crossovers and the beginning of new games in the series.  The name is also a description of her scissors, made of two “claws”.  Given that she possesses women and wields her power through their bodies, she cannot truly be destroyed.  She is a Glacier, almost completely unheard of in female characters.  She has no kicks, instead having high and low arm strikes .  She can also set traps and teleport through these means.  The particular traps in question are a woman’s body rolling onto the stage that any character besides Double Claw will trip over if they land on her or attempt to walk across her.  Another Trap is that if her scissors are stopped enough consecutive times they will be knocked from her hand.  They subsequently land face up, able to perform the “Snip Snip” attack even when she isn’t holding them.  Walking, landing, striking, or running into them stops you in your tracks, doing as much damage as a weak punch on their own.  The fact that they appear to be manual Hedge Trimmers with very stunted handles only makes them worse.  And when she’s barehanded, her reach is the only part of her strike that is affected by dropping the scissors.  Unless they’re dropped when her EX Meter is full, then she retains both striking power AND reach, but because her reach is unseen, her striking capacity is deceptive to her foes.  



Her Rivals are Bishamon and Felicia.  She and Bishamon fight over the same victims, and their blades negate each others blows when they clash with each other.  Felicia is inclined to protect innocent children, and will not allow the Kuchisokke-Onna to do as she pleases with their lives.

Her stage is a poorly lit and run down alley, complete with patches made entirely of shadow.  The more lit regions feature posters for horror games not exported outside of Japan, I burning fire barrel, broken police baton crossed against a tonfa on the floor, a bent katana (Maybe Kien?), two knives going into the ground 8 paces from one another, 1 Wooden crate that’s intact adjacent to another one that has a metal barrel pile driven into it, a one half of a nun chukue dangling from a nail in the side of a wall.  On the right side edge of the stage is ambient light from outside the alley, illuminating faded grafftiti vertically arranged on the brick wall.  Two messages on the graffiti are Trouble Man, and Vampire is Reborn.  The left edge on the stage is completely black, the street lights on the side of the screen being broken or switched off.

Additional Fighting info.  Her attacks with scissors are

When she wins a round, She advances upon the fallen foe slowly, scissors out and open.  If she is not holding her scissors, they will fly to her hand as she passes them.  If they are behind her course to her opponent, they will fly to her immediately.

When she wins a match, she says “I am to cut,” while holding her fallen foe in one hand, and slicing their mouth with the scissors in another hand.

When she loses a match in her Short body, she screams “Cut.” This is a deliberate pun, signifying a command to stop that plays on her compulsion to slice people.  Her taller form says ”beautiful” in a dreamy tone as she falls.  This is just to be cryptic and unsettling.  Her second line for failing to win is her head falling off and landing away from the body.  This is the loss “quote” that accompanies any defeat by someone who handles or attacks the body of a bested round in their win pose.

Moveset:
Snip Snip: WP,MP.  The scissors will close, even while in motion.  This triples the offensive power of the strike, and makes 60% of the resulting damage chip damage.  
Scissors check: DF,F,UF,MK.  A projectile dispelling check.  She sweeps up her arm at (for her anyway) a moderate pace, stopping any attack she intercepts.  No matter which kick is used to initiate the move, the damage if it connects is only as much as one weak kick.  If Snip Snip is used during this move, any limb intercepted will be grabbed, even one of Lord Raptor’s chainsaw legs.  At which point Double Claw will keep hold of them until she strikes them once.  Given that this combination can be applied without an EX meter, It’s an impeccable way to lead into an Ultra combo.  WARNING: if you use this move, you will be stationary and unprotected from the waist down.  But on the flip side, if she has dropped her scissors when she does this, she will redirect the projectile, in a way that can be aimed with just adding one direction to the combination.

Scissors check: DF,F,UF,MK.  A projectile dispelling check.  She sweeps up her arm at (for her anyway) a moderate pace, stopping any attack she intercepts.  No matter which kick is used to initiate the move, the damage if it connects is only as much as one weak kick.  If Snip Snip is used during this move, any limb intercepted will be grabbed, even one of Lord Raptor’s chainsaw legs.  At which point Double Claw will keep hold of them until she strikes them once.  Given that this combination can be applied without an EX meter, It’s an impeccable way to lead into an Ultra combo.  WARNING: if you use this move, you will be stationary and unprotected from the waist down.  But on the flip side, if she has dropped her scissors when she does this, she will redirect the projectile, in a way that can be aimed with just adding one direction to the combination.

Howl of the Dispossessed: Fierce Punch.  The coat flies open of its own accord as the ghost of whichever woman she’s NOT possessing flies towards her target.

Mind Scar: A standard projectile that can be angled back, back up, up, up forward, forward, down forward, down and down back.  She lowers the mask on her face removes the mask from her face while the glove and sleeve keep that portion of her face completely concealed.  As she does this a scream is heard.  The blow is delivered instantly.  The time it takes to be initiated is the time an opponent has to dispel it.

Gravity Slash: Standard Throw.  Double Claw uses her scissors to grab an opponent’s shoulder and swing them overhead, crashing them down head first right at her feet.  This move is good for setting up for another less precise attack.

Impending gash: f Wk+wp.  This slit mouthed woman’s empty hand grabs the target, nullifying their block, and holding them in place until the attack buttons are released. This lasts for a maximum of 5 seconds.   When it is let go at that time, she performs a weak kick slash and a weak punch slash.

Gore Skewer: Stabs with scissors in a low kick style, then lifts the opponent with them, faces the screen while the target is hoisted into the air, and then slams them downward into the ground on top of the protruding weapon.  Then a Gravity Slash completes the assault.  This penetrates he defense known as

Crescent Blade Meteor: UF, F, DF, D +FP: Double Claw brings her blade down in a crescent formation and ends it stroke with a back attack that stabs whatever’s right behind her.  Stays still for this, but the strike leads right into her Crescent Blade Launcher.

Crescent Blade Launcher: DF, F, UF, U+FP: Same as Cresent Blade Meteor, but in an upward motion, leads right into a Crescent Blade Meteor.

Rising Crash Cutter: D DF F UF U UB B DB D WK MK FK FP.  From a crouching position she swings her scissors up and over her back till they hit the ground.  This hits twice, but it has a poor recovery time, unless she has a full ES meter, In which case she immediately brings it back in a reverse course to strike twice again, with no recovery time problem.

A Call into the Fall:  D, F, B, F, MK+FP+FK.  Another woman’s body rolls onto the stage from off screen.  If she is in her initial short form, she will summon her taller tanner for with the long hair.  If in the taller form, she will summon the original short brow-haired girl.  Pressing Up, Dn, WK+WP while she’s onscreen initiates the possession of this new addition and causes the previous host body to disintegrate.

EX moves:

EX 1: Kaiju kire: FP, FP, FP.  Two massive scissor blades with an emphasis on length appear behind her shoulder and rejoin in front of her hand in 0.2 seconds.  This move Turns the damage that would have been done by any projectile it intercepts into Stamina.  The Stamina progresses as a grey bar and the next time she’s hit, it stops.

EX 2: Graffiti Grater: Holds the target in place and strikes 28 times in 2.4 seconds with the scissors at various heights and angles.  These are each weak strikes, but they come from a powerful bruiser and they add up very quickly.

EX 3: Kuchisake Coming: Her coat flies open fluttering in the wind as an unseen and inescapable Tractor Beam that pulls her opponent towards her and leaves them hovering in front of her for 5 seconds, no matter what she does to them in the meantime.  She cannot jump or throw while this is happening, they cannot be switched out with another opponent, and wherever she moves on the screen, her victim stays just ahead of her.  This can be aimed forward or up and forward.  From a standing position on the ground.  Those are the only 2 ways to us it.

EX 4: Beautiful Symphony tunnel: She removes her mask and a massive face that is identical to the mutilated visage she’s wearing at the time launches towards the other side of the screen.  The mouth is open until it engulfs the target, then it closes.  A stream of ectoplasm follows the head and does not dissipate until the face is off screen.  Anyone who gets caught in the stream bounces along with the blunt force of several throws until the attack is over.  This is the only time we see the face of the Slit Mouthed Woman.

EX 4: Rising Revenge.  If is holding the scissors, has never summoned a spare body, has a full ES bar and has not used any ES moves and is brought down to 0 HP, The words “You Win” appear on the Screen.  Followed by the Stats menu, just like a typical win.  But the marker that says you won the match does not appear.  Then her gloved hand suddenly rises from the ground by your ankle and she screams “My Scissors Will Avenge me!” as she rises with you still secured in place.  Thus all of the indications that you won are a big psyche out.  Her HP will be restoring itself at a snail’s pace at this point, so after her initial salvo, she be relatively easy to slay.  This time for good.  Her ES will be depleted by this, and it can only happen once per match.  But be warned, her HP will completely refill itself this way if she doesn’t take a blow.

Creator Notes:

Double Claw was originally intended to be a shout out to characters from Streets of Rage and Eternal Champions.  Her first form resembles Blaze Fielding from Streets of Rage, and her second is Shadow Yamoto from Eternal Champions.  This was scrapped very early, but trace remain in the Judo strikes, the physical description and the Fierce Punch Projectile.  There was at one time the intent to have gators show up on her boots when she jumped, back when I thought Double claw would have body armor under her coat.  Then I thought she’d be an Eldricht Abomination underneath.  Since then I’ve decided NOT to decide the contents of her coat, just design her to not show anything underneath it.  This keeps her as mysterious and cryptic in appearance as possible, while retaining the aesthetic flavor that makes her so distinctive.


Midnight Bliss) Demetri turns her into a flasher with her leg out, black stockings and stilettos and an unmarked face.  She sends signals to Dmitri, as though he's curious about what she's wearing underneath.  

Hell Dunk) Double Claw becomes an antique street lamp bulb that shine for half a second and burns out.  

Pharoah's Judgement) The Biggest change to Double Claw seems to be her outfit.  In this form a print of tulips over blue, like might be found on a kimono is seen on her, as well as the outline of a scarf.  

San-Passare) Double Claws hips grow like Lilith's Chest does when it's exposed to this method.  When she finally gives way, her coat splits open to reveal the skulls of many children spilling out into a small hill.  At no point are any other contents of her apparel shown.