Jaquinda Suero [APPROVED. 2-4]

The night is passing. It is fishing-time.
I must rehearse the sin that binds me.

I have read in tales of a foreign land
How sin-laden the souls of the dead
Have toiled at bitter tasks;
But strange, before my eyes
To see such penance done!

He waved the smeared torches.
Girt up his coarse-spun skirts.
Then he opened the basket,
And those fierce island-birds
Over the river-waves suddenly he loosed . . .

See them, see them clear in the torches' light
Hither and thither darting,
Those frightened fishes.
Swift pounce the diving birds,
Plunging, scooping,
Ceaselessly clutch their prey:
In the joy of capture
Forgotten sin and forfeit
Of the life hereafter!
Oh if these boiling waters would be still,
Then would the carp rise thick
As goldfinch in a bowl.
Look how the little ayu leap
Playing in the shallow stream.
Hem them in: give them no rest!
Oh strange!
The torches burn still, but their light grows dim;
And I remember suddenly and am sad.
It is the hated moon!

The lights of the fishing-boat are quenched;
Homeward on the Way of Darkness
In anguish I depart.

- Name: Jaquinda Suero
- Titles: Signo de Pavor (Symbol of Dread)
- Gender: Female
- Age Of Death: 2k
- Appearance Age: early twenties
- Age: ca. 400 years, +/- 20
- Affiliation/Rank: Vasto Lorde, rogue

- Appearance Description:

With a height of 5'4, arms and legs like twigs and a prominently showing ribcage beneath her pale skin, she looks as scrawny and miserable as it gets. Greasy, untidy black hair hangs down to her jawbones, covering her ears and most of her cheeks. An aquiline nose marrs an otherwise elegant, sharp featured face. Cold, smoke-grey eyes hide behind long lashes, often looking at the ground in shame.

The ascension to the state of Vasto Lorde made her leave most of her avian form behind.

As an Adjuchas-class Hollow, Jaquinda sports a long-beaked mask resembling a cormorant's skull, covering most of her face. She has reverse jointed legs and two humongous cormorant wings , covered in oily, black feathers and spanning almost thirty feet. The characteristic bone armor only leaves her abdomen bare - a protective collar covers her face up to the base of her nose. A long spike shoots upward from the backplate, ending in a cage which harbors a crackling, bright fire. Both hands sport sharp claws easily capable of piercing the armor of regular hollow or even adjuchas.

- Appearance Picture: GFX will follow on approval.
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- Personality: "I'm not taking chances anymore...for peace in oblivion I did not find. Only violence...violence eternal." - Jaquinda

"I want a cup that overflows with love
Although it's not enough to fill my heart
I want a barrel full of love
Although I know it's not enough to fill my heart
I want a river full of love
But then I know the holes will still remain
I need an ocean full of love
Although I know the holes will still remain"

Jaquinda is a miserable, pain-wrecked creature. Her fragile resolve to march on and rise to new heights of power is fueled by fear rather than hope - the fear of getting devoured by someone of similar or even greater strength. She has no understanding of the nature or reason of the torment she has to endure, and no matter how desperately she tries to fill that unsightly hole in her neck, relief is temporary at best, even after devouring foes worthy of her attention. Her intense distrust borders on paranoia - the only company she ever kept were her two skeletal cormorants, Acrux and Mimosa, who always seem to return to her, even if they perish during the slaughter. She is tormented by a constant sense of loss and guilt which seem to be devoid of any reason. Not being able to discern the origin of these emotions, she often blames them on the actions she took for the sake of survival, which led to a profound sense of disgust and hatred towards herself. The pain of solitude grows stronger every day, as does the threat of getting cut down by the agents of the citadel, slowly overshadowing the aching of this existence. It remains to be seen whether she manages to find company caring to look behind the facade of terror and savagery, and whether she is capable of finding solace in said company.


- Likes:

- She adores flying, especially gliding. The pleasant feeling of letting go without the danger of falling is intoxicating in its entirety to her.

- Her trusted birds provide her with an unmatched sense of safety, as they never failed to return. It could very well be the case that they were her only anchor to sanity.

- She is prone to wallow in self-pity and developed a discomforting taste for masochistic acts - as long as her life or evolution aren't in jeopardy.

- Dislikes:

Given that her existence, akin to most Hollow, is one of endless violence and torment, noting minor dislikes would be somewhat trivial due to her unstable state of mind. That said, she dislikes unneccessary cruelty, bland stagnation, and, strangely, solitude.

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- Hollow type: Vasto Lorde Adjuchas

- Hollow Power:

Acidic Touch: Her acidic touch is the least developed of her abilities, since she never traveled to other realms before.

Cero: Her fighting style pushed the evolution of her Cero to the limit of her current form, making it the strongest of all the Hollow abilities she possesses. Dark purple in color, the blast is strong enough to cut vast pathways into the Forest of Menos or blast entire dunes into oblivion - not to mention the devastating effect on anything that is even remotely organic. She fires her Cero from the throat of the cormorant skull on her left hand.

Descorrer/Garganta: Though potentially capable of these techniques, she never ventured into the living world after her transformation.

Hierro: She only possesses the natural armor provided by the Reiatsu of a Vasto Lorde[strike] Adjuchas - compared to Hollow of similar level, even that would be considered below average.

High-Speed Regeneration: Her regenerative abilities are not particularly pronounced, even for a Hollow of her level.

Pesquisa: Paranoid and frightful, it is only natural that her ability of sensing Reiatsu evolved rather quickly and to a considerable magnitude.

Flight: Her humongous wings and small, maneuverable stature provide her a significant advantage over the poor footsloggers she usually faces, allowing her to outmaneuver them, charge them with tremendous force - or flee if the need arises.

Inmersión: To the shock of many an advesary, she can freely dive into the sands of Hueco Mundo, as if the white dunes were nothing but gushes of water. She retains a frightening amount of momentum and perception while submerged, and can propel herself out of the sand with ease.

La Sombra De La Cruz [Shadow of the Cross]: The cross-shaped shadow of the Great Cormorant smothers anyone obscured by it with feelings of awe and despair. Although the onset of these emotions is often as swift and powerful as a strike with a sledgehammer, victims often fail to grasp their supernatural origin - the results may vary from a momentarily lapse of courage to utter morale failure. The best defense against this ability is to attack from behind or above, where the blazing orb behind Jaquinda's head cannot cast a shadow or forcing her underground. Weaker foes succumb to the feeling instantly, for enemies of similar power (2 subtiers lower or higher) it takes a whole post to be affected, stronger advesaries (3 subtiers higher) are affected after 2 posts, although they are unlikely to be fazed by the power. Once the seed of despair has taken hold, entering the shadow again will cause the emotions to flare up again without delay.

Trago [Swallowing]: Similarly to Hanki, she can stop the motion of reiatsu projectiles and simply swallow them up. Her inhuman endurance allows her to store these destructive powers for a long time - this ability is not without a limit, however. She could easily store 5-10 regular ceros, but she couldn't hold a Lanza or a cero from Scarmask at all without seriously hurting herself in the process. This ability (and the reverse) was the main reason she managed to climb to the level of Vasto Lorde.

Escupalo [Regurgitating, lit. "spit it out"]: She can release all energy she swallowed along the fight to be released in one huge cero. Although this attack takes a heavy toll on her body (she usually coughs up plenty of blood after it), it can easily be fatal to unaware opponents.

Cardumen Repugnante [Sickening Shoal]: At her behest, a myriad of eel-like Hollow erupt from the sands - latching themselves to the newfound prey with their disgusting lamprey-mouths, they tear at the victim's reishi. At worst they provide a minuscule distraction, at best the prey succumbs to the mass of dreadful fish and is utterly consumed. Once witnessed, the underhanded assault is rather easy to dodge, provided one can fly or create reishi platforms. The shoal is fast, but not nearly fast enough to catch up with shunpo or similar abilities. If the lampreys manage to affix themselves on someone they are quite painful to remove - reiatsu similar or stronger than hers can and will slow down the process, a focused burst can even make the fish detach themselves or simply disintegrate them.

Pena del Retiario [Sentence of the Net-Caster]: By tearing into her body with her right hand, Jaquinda can gather a ball of her own Hollow reishi, form it into a ball or rod, and hurl it at her enemy with immense speed. The projectile expands mid-flight, similar to Bakudo #62: Hyapporankan, and forms a sticky, tight net around the victim, pinning him to the ground. The projectile itself is as fast as a Bala, the moment it expands it becomes considerably slower for a moment - a short window of opportunity presents itself to the observant foe to dodge the attack.

Cero Lacerante [Piercing Cero]: This technique compresses the full power of a [strike]Vasto Lorde's Cero into a thin, barely visible beam. Raw destructive power is sacrificed for penetration, and while it is entirely possible that the enemy doesn't even feel the sting of the modified cero, Hierro or similar techniques are highly unlikely to repel it. It is mainly used as a disabling-paralyzing technique, followed up by a regular Cero or, if the enemy is particularly tough, Ruptura. Cero Lacerante takes the same amount of time to charge up as a regular Cero, but travels as fast, if not faster than a Bala, with its low visibility making it very hard to dodge. The best defense against it is, surprisingly, canceling it out with Hanki or a Kido barrier of similar or greater power.

Ruptura [Rupture]: By infusing an opponent with reishi of her own (usually through a wound) she can turn a thin stab wound into a gaping hole by making the particles explode like a Cero inside the opponent's body. She is fully capable of severing her own appendages through the use of this technique. Ruptura requires her to touch the affected wound for [1/2 posts] unless the wound is located on her own body.

Fighting style/skills:

Her fighting style is mostly indirect and revolves around terrain/situational advantages (like her usual "opening move", La Sombra de la Cruz, which is heavily affecting the battle afterwards). She is using her various attacks to weaken and harass her enemy, create openings, while diving into the ground using Inmersión, and attacking from below/behind him. While on the defensive she prefers to evade attacks, but if she's caught by surprise, she's prone to defend herself with her steel-like wings. Only grave injuries seem to faze her considerably, and she is prone to do risky moves which can potentially damage herself, such as firing a cero from the hand that touches an enemy.


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- Background:

Jaquinda (born Anri Takahashi) was an orphan, granddaughter to an old Ukai fisherman from Kyoto. The appearance of motorized fisherboats slowly destroyed the business of the traditional cormorant-fishers, and the small family was more and more unable to live from either the scarce yield of the rivers or the tourism in the area. After a barge pushed their boat over in an accident, resulting in the death of the old man, she cursed the captain and his crew, and swore upon her grandfather's grave that she would avenge him. It only took her two weeks to accomplish the task she had in mind. The young girl set the barge ablaze at night with a makeshift petrol bomb, murdering nearly half of the crew, including the captain and his family. Although she got away unnoticed, it was only a matter of time 'til the authorities would catch up on the link between her and the recent accident; hopeless, shameful and without a future, she put an end to her misery by jumping into the ice cold streams from the Kamigamo Bridge. The last thing she did in her life was to free the cormorants of her grandpa, ignorant about the fact that the domesticated birds couldn't survive in the wilderness anymore.

The past has all but faded into nothingness. Forgotten is the lonesome roaming as a Hollow in the vast, lifeless deserts around the citadel formerly called Las Noches - even the horror of getting devoured by a Gillian is nothing more than a minuscule black patch on the fabric of her memory. Murky thoughts of centuries spent with a half-dormant mind, barely capable of conscious thought. The pain didn't fade however; resignation and inaction only fueled the bonfire. It grew brighter, hotter, day by day - in the end, her tormented mind consumed the monstrous Gillian shell, silencing the howling masses of devoured spirits until the time has come to sleep again. She adapted a less misshappen form to search for a cure - the reclaimed consciousness of the Adjuchas state brought with it not only a new understanding of the depths of her misery, but also dangers which were beyond her former comprehension. The choice between fight or flight was naturally slanted towards the latter, her large wings providing an excellent method of retreat from beasts such as herself. Solitude didn't bring solace however, as the unyielding hunger grew stronger with each passing day. She rejected to revert into a state of helplessness, even if this would mean that she'd need to hunt, slay and devour her kin. Decades passed, and despite of the disgust and revulsion she felt, the former prey became a ruthless predator, capable of attacking from land, air or from beneath the dunes. As Gillian barely presented a threat or nourishment, she began hunting Adjuchas, often overpowering powerful foes with sheer versatility and underhanded tactics.

Initially eschewing the proximity of the former Las Noches due to the fear of the monarch and her associates, desperation and the abundance of fitting prey drove her closer to the citadel every day. In time, her cross-shaped shadow became known as "Signo de Pavor", the Symbol of Dread - and as misfortune wills it, the name soon came to the attention of the court residing in the fortress, forcing her to retreat to the depths of the Forest of the Menos, a place she'd hoped to never see again.

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General Skills

• Durability: Adept
  
• General Speed: Adept
  
• Strength: Beginner
  
• Weapon Skill: Adept
  

Racial Skills

• Acid Skill: Beginner
  
• Garganta : Adept
  
• Cero/Bala: Adept
  
• Regeneration: Adept
  

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- Roleplay Sample:

//Excerpt from a Bleach - Wushu test we made with my former GM.
Training sequence, Squad 9 Barracks - Hisagi Shuuhei vs Cho Kawasaki (my OC)//

CHO: She falls to her knees, the blade hitting the ground with her. A shadow looms overhead, filled with killing intent. Even though she'd normally go great lengths to avoid using hakuda, the long sleeves of her dress got quite dirty in the maneuver. Something she dislikes quite a lot.
- How messy...- she hisses, going in for a flat leg sweep from this low position, forsaking her blade for the moment. She knows she needed to get up.

SHUUHEI In response to the leg sweep, he jumps.
- Bakudo #9: Geki! - he yells at the peak of his arc, followed by an elegant landing about 10 meters from you.
Palm outstretched, he starts to murmur the incantation of Hadō 31: Shakkaho.
- ...Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! - he finishes, letting loose a red globe of energy you know will blossom into a blazing inferno quite capable of enveloping your whole body.

CHO: She succumbs to the restraint of his Geki, with an indifferent, somewhat thoughtful look on her face. Something isn't right, quite obviously. She measures the strength to break free, and just as the follow-up Hadō would blast into her, she releases a numbing burst of reiatsu, gently stepping aside to let the roaring ball of flame burst into the fortified walls behind her.
- Bakudo #11: Horin.
A searing lash of flame erupts from her outstretched hands, as nimble as a serpent in the grass.
- Hadō #33, Soukatsui.
No incantation, no passion, not even a raised voice.

SHUUHEI: All things considered, he takes rather well to being roasted, although he emerges from the resulting pillar of smoke with quite a few scorch marks. A powerful blast of reiatsu dispels the lingering fumes.
- Reap, Kazeshini! - he whispers, almost worshipfully. He jumps, his weapon raised with killing intent, and in a dark green flash of light, he cleaves off a rather big part of the ceiling, jumping outside.

When you try to pinpoint his whereabouts using your reishi sense, you find no sign of him.
Then suddenly, the ceiling explodes again, raining debris on your head; you glimpse his uniform among the falling detritus, but lose him again in a flash, as searing pain explodes into your right shoulder...

CHO:: - ...Fukutaichou? - She lowers her weapon and steps towards the cloud, her voice revealing concern and a hint of regret. But then...
A shiver runs down her spine as she hear his release command. Kazeshini was rumored to be one of the most vicious Zanpakutō in all of Soul Society, witnessing its dark nature leaves her with one of the worst sensations she's ever felt. And then he just vanishes from the mind's eye. She squints her eyes, but can't make him out still. With a fearful voice, she uses a low level bakudo to disorient him, encasing herself in a puff of red smoke, and using shunpo to gain as much distance as possible. She needs more time. She misjudged his speed and got punished for it. Not only are her clothes torn now, she is too. Never let your guard down.

SHUUHEI- Bakudo #62: Hyapporankan! - you hear his voice through the red mists you conjured. Tens, if not hundreds of purple poles of energy rain down on your approximate location, smashing you towards the nearest wall with breathtaking force. Through the fog, you can see the lieutenant's dark shape advance towards you inexorably, surrounded by a halo of dark green fire.


CHO:She freezes in shock for a moment. It seems as if he had tripled his efforts. Is he going all out? An achievement, some might say.
- This is it... - She whispers, shrugging off the sharp pain in her shoulder.
Holding the sword in a horizontal, defensive stance, she finally yields to the pressure...
- Sever...Setsunai-yoru.
A deep, low sound, a greyish-black mist of reishi flows down the blade as it extends into a long, narrow-ended naginata. If he thinks she intends to defend against that kido with her weapon though, he'd quite mistaken.
- Bakudo #39: Enkosen! - She shouts, reinforcing the spell with the sheer power of her will. The shield shatters, but the pillars cannot reach her. The weapon swings upwards, reaching for his parrying sweep, practically inviting it.
- Hadō #11, Tsuzuri Raiden!
A crawling, crackling current of golden lightning travels through her Zanpakutō, engulfing the blade and chains of Kazeshini, scorching his master with unfettered power.

• Name [X]
  
• Appropriate Age [X]
  
• Gender [X]
  
• Appearance Present [X]
  
• Appearance Described in Appropriate Length OR Picture is Visible [X]
  
• Appearance is Not Claimed [X]
  
• 10 sentences for personality [X]
  
• History is of appropriate length [X]
  
• Powers are not Godmod/Overpowered [O]
  
• Powers are described reasonably enough [O]
  
• Application/RP Sample is not in First Person [X]
  
• Skills are not filled in (Omit if a Hollow)[X]
  
• RP Sample Present (Omit if this is not the first character) [X]
  
• RP Sample is 10 sentences [X]
  

• Willpower/Determination:
  
• Mental Deduction:
  
• Pain Endurance:
  
• Focus:
  

• Name [X]
  
• Appropriate Age [X]
  
• Gender [X]
  
• Appearance Present [X]
  
• Appearance Described in Appropriate Length OR Picture is Visible [X]
  
• Appearance is Not Claimed [X]
  
• 10 sentences for personality [X]
  
• History is of appropriate length [X]
  
• Powers are not Godmod/Overpowered [X]
  
• Powers are described reasonably enough [X]
  
• Application/RP Sample is not in First Person [X]
  
• Skills are not filled in (Omit if a Hollow)[X]
  
• RP Sample Present (Omit if this is not the first character) [X]
  
• RP Sample is 10 sentences [X]
  

• Willpower/Determination: Beginner
  
• Mental Deduction: Adept
  
• Pain Endurance: Advanced
  
• Focus: Beginner