Jolene Kamiensky

Jolene Kamiensky is a character in DEATHGAME 9000.

Description:
Jolene has close-cropped auburn hair, and is about 5'7'' tall. She is about middle-aged, of tall and athletic build: she had been an active member in the NYPD before being 'retired'. There are always dark circles under her eyes, contrasting sharply with her relatively young-looking face. When she speaks, it is always in a clear and somewhat forceful manner. She is used to remaining calm under intense pressure, but when she snaps, she becomes vindictive and determined to the point that she starts to move and act single-mindedly.''

Jolene can become very opinionated and will not hesitate to air her thoughts out if she feels it is needed. She is normally armed with a .45 caliber pistol.

Ability:
Jolene can control doubles, humanoids who look exactly like her but are invisible to everyone else but her. They can move, eavesdrop, and spy, reporting back to Jolene using telepathy. If they die they simply dissipate into air. They do not feel pain, fatigue or emotion but are still subject to normal laws of physics. She can control how many there are, but she gets more frantic, more stressed and is more and more pushed to insanity if she starts duplicating them beyond what her mind can deal with.

Biography:
Her name was Jolene Kamiensky. She was a former NYPD police detective. She worked as a detective for four years in the Major Case Squad (kidnappings were her specialty) before being transferred to the Special Victims Division, where her blazing passion and, above all, her unwavering compassion towards the victims made her seem like a natural at her job. And for the longest time, Jolene thought this was true, too. Each day she came home she felt enlightened, fulfilled.

Things didn't go well soon afterwards, however.

The problem was that she -- no, the problem was that they -- well. It was difficult to point out what exactly the problem was. It could have been the stress finally getting to her (a child, murdered! How was she supposed to deal with it? How was anyone supposed to deal with it?) or perhaps her age (she was thirty this summer, thirty long years) but she started imagining things. Started imagining that she, Jolene Kamiensky, nine years in the force, growing old, mom and dad Polish immigrants, normal, very very normal, started imagining that she was being followed by someone who looked exactly like her. A shambling humanoid, naked and haunched. But it was in fact, an exact copy of her in every way except for one major thing: The Other didn't have eyes. Where the eyes would be there was just flesh, rubbery flesh, covering everything. She wanted to scream. She tried to fill in her duties even with the distractions in her mind (what else were they but hallucinations?) but she broke down and bungled a case. And another. And another.

Nobody else could see them. She was suspended for two months. Her chief officer, a kindly man, they knew each other well, he said to her, "Jo, you need this break. Take a vacation. Take your mind off things." He slipped a piece of paper into her hands, whispered to her about a good psychiatrist he knows about. "This is his number", he said. Her hands shook. She was angry that this was happening to her, angry to the point of tears, but she was a professional. Jolene knew this was necessary, but it didn't stop the hurt.

It got worse when she started seeing more of them. And when they, somehow, started talking to her. No matter how far away they seemed to be she always seemed to hear their voices. The things they told her, they were things she would never had known about, like snippets of conversations she couldn't have heard because it happened a mile away.

Schizophrenia, the psychiatrist said.

Jolene was 'persuaded' to resign from the police force. She was stoic on the outside. But inside, finally, she burned and seethed with anger. This was necessary, yes, but they took away her life's work, her one passion, and all because of this. Because she couldn't control her visions. She didn't know at whom she was angry, was it her chief, or was it aimed at herself?

In time she would realize she could control her doubles. To some extent. They moved on their own, roamed the city without her telling them to, but she could tune in on what they were hearing or seeing (but how could they? They had no eyes. Yet they still told her what they saw) and, above all, she could set limits. Set simple commands. Don't go near me she screamed inside her head and, in time, in time, they would finally listen.

Jolene grew stronger. In the rural confines of her parental home, she tried to train the Others, like the way a dog would be trained. Slowly, she transformed her anger, her regret, her frustration, into a finely honed obsession. She would use this power. No matter how they disgusted her, she would use the Others to spy, to look, to enhance her intuition. Jolene Kamiensky, former NYPD Police Detective, prayed every night that one day she would overcome her horror, her shock, and learn to use the Others for the justice that she had loved.

I'm not crazy, she thought to herself, frantically. I'll show them. I'm better.

Development
Jolene started off stuck in a horror video game part of the Gamexus X99. She then spent most of her time acting as half of a buddy-cop duo with Keagan. She sort of mentored him, in that she was the more serious, mission-oriented half and was tired of all of this video game bullshit.

Death
Jolene over-exerted herself with her Others, who ended up getting noticed by Gomorrah. Gomorrah's influence caused her to experience a ghost-city sensory overload. Gomorrah continued to torture her, until one of its apparitions shot her in the back right as she was about to escape. Everyone cried and it was sad as hell.