Peace At Last.

» Name Of Character: Yaksha

» Link To Character: https://www.platinumhearts.net/t16789-yaksha-approved-1-4?highlight=yaksha

» Upgrading: Updating Yaksha's personality:

Having finally achieved his evolution into a Vasto Lorde, Yaksha has shucked off much of the doubt and uncertainty that previously tainted him. While he is still well aware that he's a man with dubious goals, and his services are as much illusory as legitimate, he has little emotional or ethical constraints about this fact. Pragmatism itself has become Yaksha's lifesblood, and he hesitates little, if at all, to tell lies or to confess to the truth as needed.

Yaksha's hatred of combat has remained well intact, but for far different reasons now; he has grown a thicker skin, well capable of taking strike after strike, to allow his opponents to wear themselves down relentlessly. It's the act of breaking bones and shedding blood of others that causes Yaksha's stomach to churn, and his emotions to roil. He strives to understand and be understood as much as possible, and swings his blade only as an action to convey the depths of his certainty and resolve. In the vast majority of cases, if Yaksha takes up his blade, he's already willing to concede his defeat. The act of fighting is simply a formality, another way of driving home a point he wishes to make.

His flair for the dramatic remains intact, even enhanced as a vasto lorde; indeed, he has even mastered the talent of delivering exceptionally weighty news with the same air he would any mundane statements. His emotional fragility seems to have disappeared entirely, leaving his voice with an almost monotone quality to it, unless he wishes to let his feelings shine through. He is still every bit as prone to cavorting about and attracting attention, but it's far harder to understand -why- now. Certainly, he doesn't seem to gather any real enjoyment out of it, as best anyone can tell. There are few things as unsettling as seeing a man with a deadpan expression as he hogs the spotlight.

Yaksha's temper is still present, and still quite capable of being inflamed, but he is an entity of patience and resolve now, moreso than passion. He will gladly wait months or years to set up a response to a slight he has perceived, all the time playing nice and hiding daggers behind smiles. He moves hideously slowly in most aspects of his life, from conversations to combat, but this slowness is like that of a lizard, merely waiting for the ideal moment to move in a dizzying burst of action.

Hedonism intact, enhanced, and embellished, Yaksha loves to surround himself with expensive and ostentatious things whenever possible. It's not uncommon to see him with great amounts of jewelry or piercings covering his form, in a manner akin to an old lord, or an especially vain celebrity. He seems most at home when surrounded by symbols of status, though he rarely feels a need to directly mention them or bring them up. Indeed, if probed on the topic, he will often sheepishly refer to them in terms one normally reserves for a safety blanket, or some beloved family heirloom.

Yaksha's somberness and humor juxtapose in a way that is exceptionally hard to follow, or comprehend. He seems to love spitting in the eyes of tyrants and hideously powerful people, as he always has, but now he does so with far more vigor and zeal, giving it a tailor-made edge that cuts all the deeper. His words, each carefully selected, hit home and press against soft spots in a way most would imagine nearly impossible for a casual acquaintance.

Deeply moral and driven by a set of ethics that only he seems to understand, Yaksha displays warmth and compassion to everyone he meets, without ever once coming across as disingenuine; while discussing compensation for lives lost or for wrongdoing, Yaksha seems to exhibit a deep and pervasive sense of goodwill, as if he is undergoing a tedious task he doesn't enjoy, or as if he were desperately trying to nudge things towards the least acrimonious end. Having finally achieved his peace in evolution, Yaksha seems to exude a calm and serenity, a personal and persistent sense of charity, that most could form religions around.

In addition, upgrading Yaksha's focus to Grandmaster.

» Why: As a hollow, Yaksha has spent literally hundreds of years trying to make peace with his own flawed existence, and to overcome urges that he found noxious. He dealt with it through heavily unhealthy methods, including self-harm, sexual promiscuity, and constantly talking. These were all major plot points for him, personality features he tried and failed countless times to overcome. I could link to at least 5-6 threads where he exhibited enough metacognition to understand his own thought processes and struggle against them, to little real success.

Each soul Yaksha ate tainted his soul further, added yet another struggling existence trying to drag his mind into the gutter. He reached a point in-character where he sought to fast, simply to starve out the voices in his head; this ended quite unsuccessfully, but did eventually give him the inspiration to turn towards alternative forms of sustenance, allowing him to effectively live off of bread and water. Far from nourishing, but enough to silence the maelstrom of souls within himself.

As part of his evolution to Vasto Lorde, Yaksha has managed to find peace within himself. The souls inside of him have largely become silenced, speaking out in more coherent manners, inconsistently, as opposed to when they were constantly talking in the back of his head. His focus is still split inwards as well as outwards though, his eyes constantly probing over his own mind and thoughts for any hints of alien or inappropriate impulses. With a mindfulness that few humans can manage, he can calmly and selectively file away the thoughts for later contemplation, without ever letting them reach his conscious mind. He's achieved a level of zen that most humans spend long periods meditating to achieve, but that should hardly surprise anyone given the lifetimes he had to build the framework.

Also I got a cash to check.

» Extra: I may or may not end up winning a second OTY; in the event the staff feel this is on the fence, or not quite ready to be justified, I'm willing to sacrifice my second OTY request to push this through.