Post by Beast on Jun 14, 2014 0:00:21 GMT -5
{Basic Info}
Thinking color: Crimson
Password 1: [Kuroi’s Shoes]
Password 2: [Midgets Can’t Dunk]
Type: [Freak]
Squad: [3]
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Name: [Grodd]
Age of Death: [8]
Real Age/Age of Appearance: [20/24]
Birthday (Month/Day): [November/8]
Blood Type: [G]
RP Sample (Optional): Come on, it’s me. Do you –need- an RP sample?
Thinking color: Crimson
-Opening-
Password 1: [Kuroi’s Shoes]
Password 2: [Midgets Can’t Dunk]
Type: [Freak]
Squad: [3]
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-Basic Information-
Name: [Grodd]
Age of Death: [8]
Real Age/Age of Appearance: [20/24]
Birthday (Month/Day): [November/8]
Blood Type: [G]
RP Sample (Optional): Come on, it’s me. Do you –need- an RP sample?
{Appearance}
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Height/Weight: [6’7” 154 lbs]
Physical Description:
After being purified from a Hollow into a Shinigami, Grodd lost the majority of his bestial looks. Rather than appearing like the great gorilla that he had been in life and as a Hollow, the purifying powers of Konso granted him a humanoid form. His body is quite slim and muscular, lanky even as he stands over six and a half feet tall. However, he barely ever stands up straight. From his life as a gorilla, he is much more frequently seen hunched over as his knuckles drag across the ground. When he’s slouched over like this so severely, he looks much less intimidating, especially when he doesn't weigh nearly three hundred pounds anymore.
One thing that really stands out with Grodd is that he doesn't wear a lot of clothes. His Shinigami uniform is wrapped around his torso like a loincloth, but he can’t stand to have it cover the rest of his body. He tolerates the fabric covering up the parts of him that allow him to walk around in public in a way that is socially tolerable, but if he had it his way, he wouldn't be wearing any clothes at all. However, he doesn't get his way ever, so he sucks it up and ties the black fabric around his waist in a very loose manner, to let his genitals breathe. He was very used to having them just hang out as a Hollow and as a gorilla, so it is very restricting for him to have to wear clothes.
Nudity, to Grodd, is freedom and courage. It represents an exposure to the elements that is unafraid of what they might hold, unafraid of the biting wind and the freezing rain. It represents being strong enough to stand in the weather without care, without holding back, and just "take it like a man". And while society makes him cover up, suppresses his freedom and courage, he only suppresses the bare minimum required him. While he considers rebelling against that social code frequently, he's wary of the backlash that would come about of it.
This dichotomy between pride in his body and fear of society is very conflicting for the Soul Reaper. On the one hand, he is not ashamed of his appearance, and he's not ashamed to walk tall with his chin up high and chest out. When he's alone, out in nature, he does walk this way. He walks with life and energy and pride. His eyes are skyward, his posture is straight up and down, and there's a bit of a bounce in his step. He's not afraid to run, jump, and climb up things.
However, when there is any possibility of people being around, his posture is completely opposite. His past has only taught him that being proud of who he is as a person, that is being comfortable with an unclothed body, is wrong. He is wrong to not wear clothes and he should be ashamed for thinking that way. His posture, slumped over with his knuckles dragging, shows the signs of a soul that has been crushed under the weight of beatings, beratings, and hopelessness.
As a result of not wearing clothes like the rest of the normal people, Grodd’s skin is quite tan. His skin has the sort of complexion that can only be described as sun kissed. His skin shines in the sunlight, and it's possible that quality comes from the thin layer of sweat that is nearly always present on his body or simply the smooth texture of his skin. Either way, his skin is definitely very healthy looking, especially in the sun. Most of his day is spent outside, his skin exposed to the open air and the light, and as a result his skin shows that exposure through its tone.
His slim and muscular body is accentuated by the tan, showing off his well-honed physique. He's not the roided up kind of muscular, but the kind of muscular that comes from a life of cardio and everyday exercise. His hands and his feet are highly calloused from his walking around without shoes and using his hands for rough manual labor so often, and his knuckles always look extremely raw from him dragging them around so frequently. It’s almost as if the skin has given up growing there and has just left the area, revealing the bone underneath.
One of the things that Grodd is still particular about is his hair. His thick brown hair extends past his shoulder blades because he rarely cuts it. He keeps it trimmed and neat, but he likes it very long. He rarely ties it up, preferring it to fall loosely at his back. Although the hair is trimmed to avoid split ends and uncooperative strands, the long loose hair gives him a very uncivilized look. The first impression people get of him, besides him not wearing clothes, is that he does not look like a professional. He looks like the kind of punk to only be able to find work at a fast food joint.
In keeping his hair out of his face, Grodd unknowingly shows off his striking deep green eyes. The emerald orbs are very narrowed, most of his eyelids covering them in a scowl most of the time. When visible, the green eyes seem wild and unafraid. That is the one part of him that the Shinigami cannot hide. No matter how beaten down he may be emotionally, there is still a rebellious determination in his eyes. They have a sort of glow to them that rarely dims. Only when he is feeling utterly lost and dejected to those bright eyes begin to fade in luster.
If he were to smile, the person looking at him would notice the extremely sharp pointed canines that are much larger than the rest of his teeth. Even while his mouth is closed, hiding the oversized fang-like teeth is difficult for him. His mouth is much more often closed in an unemotional face or barred in a frustrated angry snarl rather than smiling. Even when he is alone with just himself and his thoughts, he doesn't smile. Rather, his face is heavy and droopy, as if burdened with a lot of thoughts, or just burdened with fear. The only time that he truly smiles is when he is in his Inner World with Oerwoud. Then, even his outward face is calm and relaxed, almost as if he is asleep.
Grodd has a few tattoos on his body. The first is the kanji for three inked onto his right shoulder in a solid black color. As he doesn’t like to wear clothes, he opted to instead tattoo his shoulder with the symbol of his squad. The three horizontal lines of various lengths take up the whole shoulder, stretching from the front side to the back side of the socket. This tattoo represents his loyalty to his squad. No other squad will do for Grodd. Even if his only friend, Meian, were to leave the squad, he can't imagine leaving it. This Squad is his first real place he felt like he could call home, and as such he has branded himself with its symbol.
His second tattoo is one that no one but himself generally sees. It is on his left leg, all the way up right next to his groin, and is a tattoo of a broken chain. This tattoo has special meaning to himself and to himself alone. While the special meaning is fairly cliche, he still holds tightly onto its secret. The chain represents all obstacles holding him back from his life. Namely it represents the Beast in his dreams. The chain is shattered to represent his determination to overcome these obstacles.
The most noticeable feature of his appearance is the scar across his throat. The scar takes up most of his neck, as if his head was nearly severed by the blow that caused it. The white scar is thin, though long, and not jagged at all. The blow that caused it was a clean slice through his flesh, and it is as healed as it is going to get. This damaged skin does not tan with the rest of his body, causing a clear contrast between the scar tissue and the healthy flesh. This scar doesn’t hurt him, nor does it bring painful memories, so he doesn’t hide it in any way.
In actuality, the blow that caused the scar nearly did take off his head. When the Hollow form of Grodd had been cut open, slicing through his mask and dissolving his bestial body, the blade of the Shinigami had cut deep into his throat. It hadn't completely severed the head, but had done enough damage. The scar still remains even as Grodd has developed from a Rukongai soul into a Shinigami, and though it doesn't remind him of the fight that he and Meian had, it is a clear sign of the brutally effective attack.
When flexing his reiatsu in front of those who can see it, the energy pouring off of his body is a sharp forest green color. Though its size doesn't actually change, the fluctuating of the reiatsu comes in waves, making the aura appear to always be growing larger and larger. This appearance of growth is indicative of both his Zanpakutou powers, as well as his core philosophy of life. Never stop growing.
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-Appearance-
Height/Weight: [6’7” 154 lbs]
Physical Description:
{Image}
After being purified from a Hollow into a Shinigami, Grodd lost the majority of his bestial looks. Rather than appearing like the great gorilla that he had been in life and as a Hollow, the purifying powers of Konso granted him a humanoid form. His body is quite slim and muscular, lanky even as he stands over six and a half feet tall. However, he barely ever stands up straight. From his life as a gorilla, he is much more frequently seen hunched over as his knuckles drag across the ground. When he’s slouched over like this so severely, he looks much less intimidating, especially when he doesn't weigh nearly three hundred pounds anymore.
One thing that really stands out with Grodd is that he doesn't wear a lot of clothes. His Shinigami uniform is wrapped around his torso like a loincloth, but he can’t stand to have it cover the rest of his body. He tolerates the fabric covering up the parts of him that allow him to walk around in public in a way that is socially tolerable, but if he had it his way, he wouldn't be wearing any clothes at all. However, he doesn't get his way ever, so he sucks it up and ties the black fabric around his waist in a very loose manner, to let his genitals breathe. He was very used to having them just hang out as a Hollow and as a gorilla, so it is very restricting for him to have to wear clothes.
Nudity, to Grodd, is freedom and courage. It represents an exposure to the elements that is unafraid of what they might hold, unafraid of the biting wind and the freezing rain. It represents being strong enough to stand in the weather without care, without holding back, and just "take it like a man". And while society makes him cover up, suppresses his freedom and courage, he only suppresses the bare minimum required him. While he considers rebelling against that social code frequently, he's wary of the backlash that would come about of it.
This dichotomy between pride in his body and fear of society is very conflicting for the Soul Reaper. On the one hand, he is not ashamed of his appearance, and he's not ashamed to walk tall with his chin up high and chest out. When he's alone, out in nature, he does walk this way. He walks with life and energy and pride. His eyes are skyward, his posture is straight up and down, and there's a bit of a bounce in his step. He's not afraid to run, jump, and climb up things.
However, when there is any possibility of people being around, his posture is completely opposite. His past has only taught him that being proud of who he is as a person, that is being comfortable with an unclothed body, is wrong. He is wrong to not wear clothes and he should be ashamed for thinking that way. His posture, slumped over with his knuckles dragging, shows the signs of a soul that has been crushed under the weight of beatings, beratings, and hopelessness.
As a result of not wearing clothes like the rest of the normal people, Grodd’s skin is quite tan. His skin has the sort of complexion that can only be described as sun kissed. His skin shines in the sunlight, and it's possible that quality comes from the thin layer of sweat that is nearly always present on his body or simply the smooth texture of his skin. Either way, his skin is definitely very healthy looking, especially in the sun. Most of his day is spent outside, his skin exposed to the open air and the light, and as a result his skin shows that exposure through its tone.
His slim and muscular body is accentuated by the tan, showing off his well-honed physique. He's not the roided up kind of muscular, but the kind of muscular that comes from a life of cardio and everyday exercise. His hands and his feet are highly calloused from his walking around without shoes and using his hands for rough manual labor so often, and his knuckles always look extremely raw from him dragging them around so frequently. It’s almost as if the skin has given up growing there and has just left the area, revealing the bone underneath.
One of the things that Grodd is still particular about is his hair. His thick brown hair extends past his shoulder blades because he rarely cuts it. He keeps it trimmed and neat, but he likes it very long. He rarely ties it up, preferring it to fall loosely at his back. Although the hair is trimmed to avoid split ends and uncooperative strands, the long loose hair gives him a very uncivilized look. The first impression people get of him, besides him not wearing clothes, is that he does not look like a professional. He looks like the kind of punk to only be able to find work at a fast food joint.
In keeping his hair out of his face, Grodd unknowingly shows off his striking deep green eyes. The emerald orbs are very narrowed, most of his eyelids covering them in a scowl most of the time. When visible, the green eyes seem wild and unafraid. That is the one part of him that the Shinigami cannot hide. No matter how beaten down he may be emotionally, there is still a rebellious determination in his eyes. They have a sort of glow to them that rarely dims. Only when he is feeling utterly lost and dejected to those bright eyes begin to fade in luster.
If he were to smile, the person looking at him would notice the extremely sharp pointed canines that are much larger than the rest of his teeth. Even while his mouth is closed, hiding the oversized fang-like teeth is difficult for him. His mouth is much more often closed in an unemotional face or barred in a frustrated angry snarl rather than smiling. Even when he is alone with just himself and his thoughts, he doesn't smile. Rather, his face is heavy and droopy, as if burdened with a lot of thoughts, or just burdened with fear. The only time that he truly smiles is when he is in his Inner World with Oerwoud. Then, even his outward face is calm and relaxed, almost as if he is asleep.
Grodd has a few tattoos on his body. The first is the kanji for three inked onto his right shoulder in a solid black color. As he doesn’t like to wear clothes, he opted to instead tattoo his shoulder with the symbol of his squad. The three horizontal lines of various lengths take up the whole shoulder, stretching from the front side to the back side of the socket. This tattoo represents his loyalty to his squad. No other squad will do for Grodd. Even if his only friend, Meian, were to leave the squad, he can't imagine leaving it. This Squad is his first real place he felt like he could call home, and as such he has branded himself with its symbol.
His second tattoo is one that no one but himself generally sees. It is on his left leg, all the way up right next to his groin, and is a tattoo of a broken chain. This tattoo has special meaning to himself and to himself alone. While the special meaning is fairly cliche, he still holds tightly onto its secret. The chain represents all obstacles holding him back from his life. Namely it represents the Beast in his dreams. The chain is shattered to represent his determination to overcome these obstacles.
The most noticeable feature of his appearance is the scar across his throat. The scar takes up most of his neck, as if his head was nearly severed by the blow that caused it. The white scar is thin, though long, and not jagged at all. The blow that caused it was a clean slice through his flesh, and it is as healed as it is going to get. This damaged skin does not tan with the rest of his body, causing a clear contrast between the scar tissue and the healthy flesh. This scar doesn’t hurt him, nor does it bring painful memories, so he doesn’t hide it in any way.
In actuality, the blow that caused the scar nearly did take off his head. When the Hollow form of Grodd had been cut open, slicing through his mask and dissolving his bestial body, the blade of the Shinigami had cut deep into his throat. It hadn't completely severed the head, but had done enough damage. The scar still remains even as Grodd has developed from a Rukongai soul into a Shinigami, and though it doesn't remind him of the fight that he and Meian had, it is a clear sign of the brutally effective attack.
When flexing his reiatsu in front of those who can see it, the energy pouring off of his body is a sharp forest green color. Though its size doesn't actually change, the fluctuating of the reiatsu comes in waves, making the aura appear to always be growing larger and larger. This appearance of growth is indicative of both his Zanpakutou powers, as well as his core philosophy of life. Never stop growing.
{Personality}
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Dislikes:
Likes:
Flaws:
Habits:
Fears:
Goals:
Alignment: [Chaotic Neutral]
Overall Personality:
Grodd is first and foremost a freak. He lives his life by the beat of a drum that is so against the grain to normal human interaction that people generally avoid him. For one, he’s nearly a nudist. He would be a nudist if he wasn’t punished so severely for walking around naked, so he compromises by wearing the bare minimum amount of clothing required to avoid reproach. This is just one of the many ways that he demonstrates his freakish and unnatural personality.
As a mute, the Shinigami has an extremely weakened ability to communicate with his fellow peers. He cannot talk at all, nor make any sort of sounds. He is completely reduced to charades and sign language, but sign language is very subjective. The sign that he has made for tree matches what he feels about trees, and as a result, his own personal language doesn’t match anyone else’s. His hand motions appear to be gibberish, even to the trained eye. In time, he may find someone who could understand him to the point of responding in kind, but without a pattern to his sign language, only imitation can be possible.
This inability to communicate forms huge barriers and is the backbone of Grodd’s personality. The majority of the motives behind his actions stem from needing to grow up from a new Rukongai Soul into a Shinigami, with little ability to learn how to live like others do. Because he’s not deaf, and has never been deaf, he entered the Rukongai with the basic knowledge of understanding spoken language, but without the ability to replicate it, he cannot inquire for more information, nor can he ask for unpleasant stimuli to be ceased. As a result, to many people he seems distant and cold. This arises from people avoiding him and/or rejecting his attempts to communicate for the entirety of his life that he can remember.
Around people, Grodd is very reserved. Even from the time as a Rukongai soul, for all of Grodd's "reborn" life he has been treated as inferior. As someone who, because they cannot communicate with words, does not have an opinion that matters. He has been conditioned into not using his hands to communicate, as the motherly figures of the Rukongai used to swat at him with reeds if he tried to talk to them with his hands. He knows that his only way of communication is considered inferior and unworthy of attention, so he just doesn't try often.
A lot of Grodd’s personality is very childish. He arrived to the Soul Society with but one memory, of Meian cutting through his head, saving him from what he had been. He is fully aware that he was a monster, and he is fully willing to repent of that, but he doesn’t know how to do that in a socially acceptable way. He has only spent a few years in the Soul Society, and needed to form an entire sense of self around his interactions. Without having the ability to interact with people effectively, being shunned for his nudist tendencies, he was forced to create his own sense of self that doesn’t necessarily reflect what is “correct”.
To other people, Grodd seems feral. It's not that he's wild and aggressive, he just seems untamed. He refuses to wear clothes, he talks with his hands, and scrapes his knuckles on the ground as he walks. He is quick to turn away from someone talking to him, because people repeatedly show him that they don't care what he has to say. They want to talk at him, not converse with him. This makes him appear short tempered and rude, even though he's just doing what comes naturally.
Even though he justifies those qualities of rudeness and short temper with his conditioned tendencies, he really isn't a nice person. He doesn't really like people, and he's not patient enough to deal with them until they go away. He makes obscene gestures, even to small children, and isn't above making awful faces at them to get them to cry and leave him alone. In short, he's a jerk, and he doesn't care. He just wants to be free of people who talk at him, usually very very loudly.
To him, growing stronger is not only a goal, but a fact of life. People grow from child to adult, getting stronger as they do so, just as trees grow from sprout to mighty oak. If someone refuses to grow stronger, then they are blatantly unfit for life. This is one of Grodd’s philosophies of life that he has come to feel as fact. He only knows of what his eyes can observe, and the natural world thrives off of growth. So, growth is a natural and necessary thing. People who get complacent are wrong, and to be wrong is to be against nature, and to be against nature is to deserve your nutrients to be recycled.
The part of Grodd’s personality that he doesn’t like to admit to anyone, especially himself, is how close to a beast he is. He is not free of his Hollow and animal like tendencies, and though many times he can force them to be quiet, the impulses and the commands that come from his inner hollow are rarely ignored for long. One of the ways his old life manifests is his taste for raw meat. While this isn’t a very extreme example, though it is strange and considered freakish, it is more his taste for blood that can consume him.
In the event that the Soul Reaper comes across the sight of blood, his attention is fully affixed to it. His mouth begins to water and his stomach starts to hunger. If he tastes blood, especially his own, he has effectively given his Inner Hollow the reigns to his actions. While the Beast isn’t forced into a full takeover of Grodd’s body, his inhibitions are stripped away. He becomes like an alpha gorilla, completely losing his humanity in the process.
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-Personality-
Dislikes:
- Extremely loud people: People who just can’t stop talking are the worst. They will never understand me, because they refuse to listen to my hands. They can’t get over the sound of themselves, and thus will never be people that I like to be around. I can hear just fine, and it is a pain to have to block out these annoying people, and yet they don't seem to ever stop talking. It is as if their lungs are capable of breathing in and out at the same time, expelling giant amounts of noise. Those kinds of people are the worst.
- Loud noise in general: The dark part of my soul would have me believe that I come from a wide plain where no humans dare to live. Maybe this is why loud noises are so grating to my ears. I, however, do not know for sure why it is that I can’t stand loud noises. Maybe it is because I can't really make noises myself except what other people call "clapping". Maybe it's because the stillness of a civilization free land is where I feel most at home. Maybe it's because I don't like people in general.
- The Beast Within: The beast that hides deep in my soul, rarely coming out, is a filthy and uncouth being. He is loud and obnoxious, very rude, and unpleasant to be around. He also stinks. A lot. He actually enjoys hurting people. I don't enjoy hurting people, even when they don't understand me. I may be good at it, because I'm stronger than the average person, but it's not like it is fun for me. I don't go out of my way to inflict pain, not like the Beast does. He truly is a terrible thing, something to dislike with a passion.
- People who smell bad: I keep myself very clean, and I don’t even wear clothes. I get so much dirt and filth in my toes by the end of the day, and I never smell as bad as some people do. It’s just not cool when they breathe their filthy mouth gasses into your face. And the stench that comes from their wet armpits... It lingers in their clothes and gets everywhere. I don't wear clothes, so I don't have that wet stain on all my pit regions. You can clearly see yellow stains in some people's shirts, and that is downright disgusting.
- The Rain: I don’t mind the theory of rain, the stuff that waters the banana trees and such, but I can’t stand being wet. Rain is cold, dreary, and not at all pleasant. It messes up my hair every time I have to walk out in it, and makes my skin cold. I don't mind the cold so much, because I'm tough, but wetness is just unpleasant. If I have to pick being dry and freezing over being wet and warm, I'd still pick being dry. Maybe it's because warm wetness is usually not rain...
- Clothes: Clothes are so very restrictive, and extremely unpleasant. I refuse to wear anything except the bare minimum to be considered socially presentable in public. Clothes are the embodiment of cowardice and imprisonment. They restrict my freedom to be open and in the air, and yet for some reason, everyone loves wearing them. They parade them around saying they are "expressions of their inner selves." Well I think that my inner self is just as naked as my outer self. Except my outer self has to be more covered than my inner self can be. Lucky inner self...
- Fire: Fire is hot, and incredibly dangerous. I personally dislike it because of my exposed skin, which the wild and unpredictable element does not treat kindly. My beautiful hair could also be caught up in the blaze… and then I would be incredibly sad when it was gone. Fire doesn't care whether or not it destroys everything, just like the Beast. It doesn't care whether or not the person inside it, or beautiful hair inside it, deserves to live and flourish. It just destroys.
- Alcohol: I tried that stuff once, and was disgusted by it. It tastes awful and bitter, and those people who consume too much of it lose their sense of self. Alcohol is not for me at all. It does not improve strength, it weakens it. Those consumed by it are not sure of feet, nor of self, tottering around and falling over on a whim. It is for cowards who cannot get by in life of their own strength.
- Men: Men are smelly, unwashed, and loud mouthed. They tend to hit things first and ask questions later, which means they don't even try to understand me. Definitely not the kind of people I want to be around. Men talk big and don't follow through. Men are focused too much on wooing women, being around women, and being with women. And then when they have a woman, they only want to be away from her, with the guys, drinking. It's a confusing and stupid cycle.
- Women: Women... talk too much. They never pause to let you collect your thoughts, and their topic of conversation bounces around like a monkey in a tree. Getting caught in between two talking females is equivalent to being thrust into a thorny thicket. Totally not fun.
- Children: See above with women. Children talk way more, ask too many stupid questions, and kick you in the shins when you don't respond. I can't talk, you little twigs. Kids are weak, and don't take anything seriously. Sure, they grow, but in their puny and high pitched forms they are ugly and stupid. Not to mention, they are loud. So loud. Not cool at all.
- Soap: Soap weakens the skin, removes all of the fine layer of protective dirt that I have built up on my skin. It makes it slippery and weak. If I bathe, then any new walking or climbing or lying down makes my skin feel uncomfortable. If I just let it keep that layer of dirt then it won't be bothered at all.
- Operas: I accidentally walked into one of those once. It was a bunch of people sitting around listening to another person wail and scream loudly without any ability to understand any of it. It isn't even English, and it definitely isn't intelligible for whatever language it is. Why do people go and enjoy the inability to understand, when they shun me for not being understandable? Hypocrisy and prejudice, I tell you, that's why.
- Blood: Blood... makes me crazy. From whatever the Zookeeper did to me, seeing too much blood that's not from an animal causes my eyes to glaze over and then I wake up later and everything is broken to pieces. It's definitely unnerving, and frightening to see everything so destroyed and to know that I did it. It's not fun to see people's lives broken like that either. I've harmed friends and foes alike in a blood lust.
Likes:
- Meian Nakazawa: This man is all that I can remember. He purified me as a Hollow, allowing me to have sentience once more. I owe him more than I can imagine. I don't care if he can't understand me, no one can. But I owe him patience and I owe him respect. Even though me might do things that annoy me, I still like him. It's that kind of relationship. I think they call that friendship?
- Bananas: What, do you have something against fruit? Why can’t a guy like fruit? So what if it makes me resemble a gorilla… The soft, squishy flesh of the fruit is delicious, and the peel makes a good insect bite cure. The large leaves make a great shade, and seeing the trees give me warm feelings. Like I belong among them or something.
- Trees: Trees and I have a special connection. They never make noise, never expect me to listen to long boring lectures, and will let me sign to them all day long if I wanted to. Besides Meian, trees are my best friends.
- Raw Meat: The taste of blood and of flesh is absolutely amazing. The way the flesh squishes in my mouth and the blood moistens up my throat is unmatched in any other food. Even bananas aren’t as good as raw meat. I love how the meat makes me stronger, consuming more of it gives me more energy, and just makes me feel better about myself. The raw meat is the easiest to consume too. It is the softest and juiciest form of meat, and its almost like a food and a drink at the same time!
- My Hair: I am very proud of the straight hair that I ensure is so well kept and neat. I can’t remember exactly, but I feel as though my hair used to have a much bigger part in my life, but even still now I am very pleased by it.
- The Wind: I just love how a slight breeze caresses my skin. I don’t know how people can enjoy nature at all while wearing clothes, because they can’t feel it like I can. The cool night wind is so gentle, and is so comforting. It is as if nature itself is dancing its fingers across my body, playing with me as well as touching me as though lovers do. Its our little secret, the Wind and I, because no one else immerses themselves in it like I do.
- Silent Movies: These, these are what I live for... kinda... I just feel really connected to the black and white films that were borrowed from the land of the living. The people on the films are just like me. They try to talk, and they just can't. Their mouths move, but no words come out. As a mute myself, I love these things so much. I identify with their struggles, and am glad that someone had the care to put little notes with their words, so that they didn't have to sign anything. Nobody understands my signs, so why would I understand anyone else's?
- Dirt: Dirt is something that my feet are used to. While some people wear shoes and sandals and other foot coverings, they can’t understand how the ground beneath them is made to be walked on and enjoyed. To be honest, little rocks used to hurt, but you quickly get over that as you continually walk on the ground barefoot.
- Men: Of the two genders of people, Men are the ones that I most identify with. Yes, we both have penises, but other Men also like to grow. They are constantly trying to improve their bodies and grow stronger, which I definitely identify with.
- Women: Maybe it's just "human nature" but... The female body is attractive. Sure, I'm pretty sure that the male body is the same, but at least the female body has more entrances. Is that necessarily a good thing? I can only really use one at a time... Anyways, women have some redeeming characteristics. They are nearly always clean, and smell really nice, as compared to the nasty stench of men.
Children: I lied, there are no redeeming factors in children. Not even that they are little sprouts working on growing. Children are awful.- Soap: For all of its annoying properties, Soap does help keep people from running away from me. I don't know why, but if I don't bathe for a couple weeks, even if I don't smell they turn up their noses and even cross the street to get away from me. If by using it, people will actually look at me and pretend that I am normal, despite my relative lack of clothes, then so be it, I'll use it.
Flaws:
- Grodd smells really bad. He is always walking around and sweating as the sun directly hits his skin, and he has no real understanding of civilized hygiene. To him, splashing water on one’s self is good enough, so as a result, he always smells really bad. This causes people to be repulsed by him, often, further developing and causing his isolation from society. They treat him poorly because he is unbathed, and he feels as though they treat him poorly because of his inability to speak. This disconnect is problematic.
- He has no idea that he smells bad, and is very aggressive to those who would try and tell him otherwise. He feels as though he smells fine, and that other people that smell bad are filthy disgusting people, so he’s a big hypocrite in this scenario. It is possible that he is just used to his own stench, and that is why he doesn't understand that to other people he is revolting, or it may just be that he doesn't care enough to pay attention.
- Grodd is completely mute. He can’t even grunt or make any sort of noise to come out of his throat. He just doesn’t have any working vocal chords in his respiratory system, so making civilized noises is impossible for him. As such, this creates a slew of problems for the Shinigami. Being unable to speak leads to difficulty with Kidou, releasing, and just functioning in society. Not having the ability to communicate puts him at a huge disadvantage compared to the rest of the Soul Society.
- Grodd's personal way of communicating, with his hands, is baffling to other people. Not only does it follow no standard language for signing, but sometimes he's just too lazy to make the entire word that he has created, so he short hands it. Even if someone was extremely talented at Sign Language, he still wouldn't be able to communicate with them effectively. His only other way of communicating, writing on a piece of paper, is offensive to him. He feels that it is beneath him to have to write down his messages to others. He avoids the only efficient way of communicating at all attempts.
- Much to the disgust of others, Grodd likes his meat raw. It is considered barbaric and uncivilized by many others for him to do so, but he doesn’t really care. He enjoys the taste of the raw meat, and enjoys that it takes less time to go from the no food to full stomach phase if you don't have to cook it.
- Grodd does not like to wear clothes, and would be nude all the time if he had his way. Unfortunately, those with more power than him dictate that he must wear something to cover up his genitals, so he tolerates a loincloth. However, even just wearing a loincloth is enough to make people grossed out by him.
- Grodd is a huge tree hugger. Both literally and figuratively. While hugging trees is something that he would do, as he feels they are his best friends, he also is fiercely protective of the large plants, going so far as to possibly choose their wellbeing over the wellbeing of other living creatures.
- Grodd doesn't understand the difference between a speaker or lecturer and someone who is very arrogant. As a result, his classes in the Shino Academy were always a pain, as there was one central professor talking to the rest of the class without stopping. Other situations like this, such as a pep rally or a Captain addressing his Squad could be volatile situations if Grodd gets annoyed or bored.
- The gorilla like man has no idea what gender he is attracted to. He doesn't even understand the concept of attraction. He knows that stimulation feels good, and he doubts that he cares what gender he penetrates, but he doesn't really understand the concepts of love and attraction.
- Grodd still thinks that Meian is alive. He sees him down the corridors, he hears him talking to him as an equal, he signs to him even though he was killed on a mission that Grodd was on. He refuses and is completely unable to cope with the fact that his only 'friend' is actually dead.
Habits:
- Because he cannot talk, Grodd frequently uses sign language to try and communicate. People rarely understand him though, which is frustrating, but he continues to keep trying.
- Grodd talks to trees. Well, he doesn’t verbally talk, but he often will sit down next to a tree and just start signing, talking to the inanimate object about all his frustrations.
- Grodd walks around barefoot all the time, refusing any and all forms of foot coverings. Even if someone forced him into a suit and tie, he’d rather bite them than wear shoes.
- Even though it seems… unlikely, because he doesn’t wear much clothes, there is always tucked into the folds of his loincloth at least one banana. He’s gotten very good at securing the fruits to not be shaken loose while he moves, but he can’t guarantee that will not happen.
- He purposefully and systematically ignores the long winded people who just like to hear themselves talk. If they aren't going to stop for a moment and read his hands, then he’s not going to pay any attention to them either.
Fears:
- Fire: Grodd is extremely frightful of fire, especially in big and grand forms. While he’s never met Kaen, the Vice Captain would definitely make this Shinigami very afraid.
- The Beast Within: The dark and angry gorilla inside my soul is frightening, and extremely aggressive. He can talk, unlike the kind spirit on my shoulder, and he always says the worst of things.
- Little Girls: I have heard horror stories of things called “tea parties” and “dress-up” and can only imagine that these things are torture devices made to maim and utterly destroy men. As a result, the origin of these torture devices must be avoided at all times.
- Baldness: I love my hair, and would be afraid to have it leave my head.
- Animals bigger than him: While he no longer is a large gorilla, he still feels like one, so coming across feral animals that are bigger than him tends to make him feel a bit afraid, if not defensive. This is a primal, unconscious sort of fear. He doesn't know why it makes him feel afraid, he only knows that his initial response is to run away.
- Blood Lust: I fear the lack of self control and the rage that comes when I see too much blood, or especially if I get a small taste of it. The drive to pursue it and chomp down on flesh is utterly overpowering and it frightens me. Especially when I wake up and everything around me is completely destroyed.
Goals:
- First and foremost, Grodd wants the Beast inside his soul to leave, whether it needs to be forced out or it give up and just leave his soul. However, he doubts that the latter will happen. So he works towards accomplishing the goal of being able to force it out.
- As cliché as it is, Grodd needs to get stronger. He is aware that in order to defeat the creature inside his soul, he needs to fight, and in order to fight, he needs to be strong. Thus, he gets stronger so he can have harmony in his soul again.
- This man’s most secret desire is to swim in a pool filled with bananas. Not eat any of them, just swim all day in their slippery peels and squishy fruit flesh.
- Due to his amnesia, he cannot remember any of his life before he was a Shinigami, except for the face of Meian saving him from a wild and uncontrolled rampage due to hunger. He wishes to unlock more of his past, finding out where he came from, and especially finding out if he has any loose ends in his past, things left undone for example.
- Grodd wishes to come to terms with his sexuality. He isn’t sure if he is bisexual, heterosexual, or just plain asexual. As he has a hard time communicating with others, it is very hard to understand a concept such as sexuality. For some animals, penetration is a form of showing dominance, but for humans it is a form of showing love. He wishes to understand how he feels about other people, rather than just going through the motions.
- Grodd wishes to once, just once, see and/or taste blood and overcome the blood lust that usually takes him over in body and mind. He doesn't know how he could possibly ignore such a primal desire and urge, but he is constantly trying and seeking to find a way to do so.
Alignment: [Chaotic Neutral]
Overall Personality:
Grodd is first and foremost a freak. He lives his life by the beat of a drum that is so against the grain to normal human interaction that people generally avoid him. For one, he’s nearly a nudist. He would be a nudist if he wasn’t punished so severely for walking around naked, so he compromises by wearing the bare minimum amount of clothing required to avoid reproach. This is just one of the many ways that he demonstrates his freakish and unnatural personality.
As a mute, the Shinigami has an extremely weakened ability to communicate with his fellow peers. He cannot talk at all, nor make any sort of sounds. He is completely reduced to charades and sign language, but sign language is very subjective. The sign that he has made for tree matches what he feels about trees, and as a result, his own personal language doesn’t match anyone else’s. His hand motions appear to be gibberish, even to the trained eye. In time, he may find someone who could understand him to the point of responding in kind, but without a pattern to his sign language, only imitation can be possible.
This inability to communicate forms huge barriers and is the backbone of Grodd’s personality. The majority of the motives behind his actions stem from needing to grow up from a new Rukongai Soul into a Shinigami, with little ability to learn how to live like others do. Because he’s not deaf, and has never been deaf, he entered the Rukongai with the basic knowledge of understanding spoken language, but without the ability to replicate it, he cannot inquire for more information, nor can he ask for unpleasant stimuli to be ceased. As a result, to many people he seems distant and cold. This arises from people avoiding him and/or rejecting his attempts to communicate for the entirety of his life that he can remember.
Around people, Grodd is very reserved. Even from the time as a Rukongai soul, for all of Grodd's "reborn" life he has been treated as inferior. As someone who, because they cannot communicate with words, does not have an opinion that matters. He has been conditioned into not using his hands to communicate, as the motherly figures of the Rukongai used to swat at him with reeds if he tried to talk to them with his hands. He knows that his only way of communication is considered inferior and unworthy of attention, so he just doesn't try often.
A lot of Grodd’s personality is very childish. He arrived to the Soul Society with but one memory, of Meian cutting through his head, saving him from what he had been. He is fully aware that he was a monster, and he is fully willing to repent of that, but he doesn’t know how to do that in a socially acceptable way. He has only spent a few years in the Soul Society, and needed to form an entire sense of self around his interactions. Without having the ability to interact with people effectively, being shunned for his nudist tendencies, he was forced to create his own sense of self that doesn’t necessarily reflect what is “correct”.
To other people, Grodd seems feral. It's not that he's wild and aggressive, he just seems untamed. He refuses to wear clothes, he talks with his hands, and scrapes his knuckles on the ground as he walks. He is quick to turn away from someone talking to him, because people repeatedly show him that they don't care what he has to say. They want to talk at him, not converse with him. This makes him appear short tempered and rude, even though he's just doing what comes naturally.
Even though he justifies those qualities of rudeness and short temper with his conditioned tendencies, he really isn't a nice person. He doesn't really like people, and he's not patient enough to deal with them until they go away. He makes obscene gestures, even to small children, and isn't above making awful faces at them to get them to cry and leave him alone. In short, he's a jerk, and he doesn't care. He just wants to be free of people who talk at him, usually very very loudly.
To him, growing stronger is not only a goal, but a fact of life. People grow from child to adult, getting stronger as they do so, just as trees grow from sprout to mighty oak. If someone refuses to grow stronger, then they are blatantly unfit for life. This is one of Grodd’s philosophies of life that he has come to feel as fact. He only knows of what his eyes can observe, and the natural world thrives off of growth. So, growth is a natural and necessary thing. People who get complacent are wrong, and to be wrong is to be against nature, and to be against nature is to deserve your nutrients to be recycled.
The part of Grodd’s personality that he doesn’t like to admit to anyone, especially himself, is how close to a beast he is. He is not free of his Hollow and animal like tendencies, and though many times he can force them to be quiet, the impulses and the commands that come from his inner hollow are rarely ignored for long. One of the ways his old life manifests is his taste for raw meat. While this isn’t a very extreme example, though it is strange and considered freakish, it is more his taste for blood that can consume him.
In the event that the Soul Reaper comes across the sight of blood, his attention is fully affixed to it. His mouth begins to water and his stomach starts to hunger. If he tastes blood, especially his own, he has effectively given his Inner Hollow the reigns to his actions. While the Beast isn’t forced into a full takeover of Grodd’s body, his inhibitions are stripped away. He becomes like an alpha gorilla, completely losing his humanity in the process.
{Powers}
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Fighting Style:
Grodd fights in an unorthodox manner, or so he thinks. He’s not quite sure how the majority of other people fight, but he is aware of how the Academy wanted him to fight. They trained him in the way of Kendo for years, but that was never his strong suit. His talents were in Boxing and Hakuda, the hand to hand striking arts. He completely forgoes the use of bladed weapons such as swords, which is unusual for a Shinigami due to sealed Zanpakutou being bladed weaponry. As a result, the majority of his attacks are blunt force focused.
Grodd is a fairly strong fighter, but lacks any sort of proficiency in speed. As a result, his actions are anchored in connecting a single hit that can take out an opponent. While brute force may be the answer in many cases, Grodd would rather use a bit of intelligence. The backbone of his fighting style is based off of counter attacks. He tends to use his above average strength to knock away opponent’s blows, even if it would cause him harm. He’s not afraid to take an attack in order to connect one of his own, which can get him into trouble.
While fighting alone, in a one on one situation, Grodd would prefer his opponent to come to him. That way he can react to their attacks and counter, rather than having to come up with an offensive strategy on his own. His standard stance is a mixture of a Boxing stance with his arms covering his lower face and upper chest and a Hakuda stance with his legs firmly on the ground planted for stability. While this stance tends to lower his mobility which would be poor form for Boxing, it allows him to have good defense, stability, and opportunity to lash out in reaction.
Grodd's main fighting style is weak to fighting alone in a multiple opponents vs one situation. In this kind of combat, the Shinigami is forced to adopt a more aggressive style as letting enemies come to him will only overwhelm him. He is forced to go on the offensive in these situations, however his methodology does not change in most circumstances. He singles out a target, picking on the weakest first, and moves to them, attempting to provoke an attack which he will counter. In some circumstances, the man will even make the first attack if he believes that he can take out an enemy in one blow.
Admittedly, while his personality and handicap make it difficult for him to make friends and harder to keep allies close to him, his strengths make him most powerful in a group of allies verses one enemy situation. In this mob situation, at least one ally can act as distraction, allowing Grodd with his great strength to get behind the enemy. From there, either a powerful Shockwave or an equally devastating blow to the back of the spine can be debilitating if not lethal. It's a bit ironic that the Shinigami who has the hardest time making allies is the most dangerous when he has them around him.
His training in boxing is currently only average, as a result, he knows how to throw a punch effectively, and he understands the concept of making sure one’s vital organs such as the head are protected. However, he is very likely to take a body shot if he can connect a blow to the face, and he tends to leave his core open to attack in order to facilitate that kind of counter strike. With his strength, he’s also not above catching an attack and following up with a jab from his opposite arm. In the future, as his skill develops, his movements will become much more refined.
Hakuda, to Grodd, is about orienting his spiritual and physical talents and putting them into one attack. Open palm strikes are common when he switches to Hakuda maneuvers, which he commonly falls back to if his opponent cannot be whittled down by boxing techniques. Hakuda allows Grodd to use techniques that harness his reiatsu into physical forces, maximizing his strength of muscle and strength of reiatsu. Most of the Shinigami's Hakuda knowledge is based on defenses, counter attacks, attacks that create openings, or attacks that take advantage of openings.
There are many times when the Soul Reaper is unaware of when to quit. He is naturally resistant to pain, and as a result he doesn’t know where the line between friendly sparring and bone breaking fight exists. This also comes back to haunt him as he may be more damaged than he understands, especially when his core style revolves around taking an attack to deliver a better one. He’s quick to underestimate the efficacy of an attack and end up more hurt than he had planned for.
As stated before, Grodd does not fight with his sealed Zanpakutou. If he needs the kind of force his fists cannot provide, he’s not ashamed to release. While his release is quite draining on him, the power and range it grants him is something that he isn’t ashamed of. He tends to start fighting with his fists of flesh, accompanied by his fist of hair. If two armored hands and an additional limb aren’t good enough to take down an opponent, he frequently goes to his techniques that he uses liberally. This exhausts him quickly, but his goal is to end the fight just as quickly.
His Bankai is something that he rarely uses, though. While it is his ultimate power, the way in which he has little to no control over “mercy” and “compassion” is very off putting for him. However, in a serious situation, with things he cares about on the line, he’s not going to hold back his Bankai just to save his own conscience. In Bankai, he fights like a berserker, breaking everything that he can in an attempt to put the enemy to rest.
While Grodd is not yet very skilled in combat, he will eventually become a special master of Boxing and of Hakuda. His mixture of the two styles is very versatile. While Boxing favors being light on ones feet and being able to avoid an attack just as easily as deal one out, Hakuda favors devastating attacks. And moreso than just devastating attacks, Hakuda has a slew of powerful countering techniques. Grodd tends to rely heavily on these techniques in order to get the upper hand.
Grodd's favorite Hakuda techniques to rely on are Mushi and Do, both powerful and very contrasting counter techniques. While Do can stop a weapon in its tracks, allowing for a counter to come from a hook from the opposite arm, Mushi is an attack of its own, damaging the person trying to attack them. The damage that Mushi inflicts is better for getting an opening for another attack, but Do is able to be used in a broader variety of circumstances. Do can stop a blade with the right force, while Mushi needs the strike to hit the limb of the attacker.
Grodd's go to follow ups for his Hakuda counters are Sei Shin Suikyou Shou and Denden. The former is for armored opponents like Arrancar, and is capable of dealing the most damage in the fewest strikes. The magnitude of that one corkscrew attack is overwhelming, capable of destroying the target completely, especially with Grodd's much higher than average strength. Denden is much weaker, in fact, it doesn't do any damage, but the ability to put an opponent off balance so efficiently is quite effective.
Grodd's Boxing is highly aggressive, so much more so due to the mixture of Hakuda. When combined with moves like Do, Grodd is fully capable of switching to very defensive to fully offensive on a dime, blocking an attack barehanded and following up with a critical hook to the face. Rather than outlast by dodging and staying on his toes, Grodd would rather outperform and devastate his opponent with non-lethal but incredibly debilitating attacks.
Despite his aggressive and bestial nature when it comes to fighting, it does take a bit of effort to get that side out of Grodd. Drawing his blood, even in just a nick, will always get a rise out of him, especially if he sees it, and seeing someone else bleeding, someone that he knows, will usually also cause him to intervene. Insulting his way of life and his inability to speak also are easy ways to get him to fight. Once he's started fighting seriously, he tends to lose himself more and more to the Beast Within. Whether or not he's actually being possessed by the Inner Hollow, he usually tends to feel guilty about the fight when looking in hindsight.
Zanpakutou Spirit Appearance(Optional): [Grodd’s Zanpakutou Spirit is complicated. He has the Inner Hollow which is the bestial nature of his former life sealed in deepest parts of his soul, but the bestial nature of his former life is also his Zanpakutou Spirit. While the Inner Hollow is nothing more than rage and hunger in the form of a large gorilla, the Zanpakutou Spirit is much more serene, and appears to be a much smaller monkey, one who can easily fit on Grodd’s shoulder. His Zanpakutou spirit knows no words in any human language, rather being able to communicate only through sign language. To be fair, Grodd can only communicate the same way, so it doesn’t really affect him.
Inner World(Optional): [What else would the Inner World be but a vast Jungle? It’s a vast jungle. There is one spot of the jungle, however, that is different. It is the realm of the Beast Within, a dark and tortured area. While the main portion of the forest is full of life, both flora and fauna, this dark forest is completely devoid of life. The trees are dead and scorched black, while the very center of it is even devoid of the dead trees. It is a burnt crater measuring more than three miles across, and at the very center sits the Beast Within]
Zanpakutou Appearances:
His sealed Zanpakutou is nothing special. It is a simple dagger, measuring three inches in blade length, with a polished bamboo handle barely big enough for a single handle. There is a small plain guard between the hilt and the blade, and there is a small metal pommel that is rounded and kept polished. This weapon is extremely small and nearly useless for fighting, and is plain just not Grodd’s kind of tool for combat, so it is kept strapped to his right leg underneath his loincloth at all times.
When, with practiced precision, Grodd pulls out the dagger from his leg, writes the release phrase in the air, and pulls the blade from the hilt, his release is activated. This method of releasing his Zanpakutou was required due to his inability to speak, and while it may seem as though he is showing irreverence to the weapon and her spirit, it is a ritual that is not inherently painful to the spirit. The blade is made to disconnect from the hilt with relative ease by applying pressure onto the guard. The words that he is writing appear in the air like green shimmering reiatsu that linger for a moment until he pulls apart the weapon.
When Grodd releases his Shikai, the sword disappears in a flash of leaves, leaving his arms covered in the armor like weapon that is the Shikai. The gauntlets are made out of white bone, and cover just the outside of his arm. The first strip of bone stretches from his elbow to his wrist, and the second one covers his knuckles. They are attached by the same hair-like wrappings that hold the weapon onto his hand and arm. The strip that covers the hand is carved with tight curls, while the strip that covers the forearm is plain.
In order to release his Bankai, Grodd first needs to ask his Zanpakutou’s forgiveness. After writing the release phrase in the air, he then proceeds to take a big bite out of his weapon, initiating the release to Bankai. Leaves made up of reiatsu pour out of his body like wind as whips made of spine-like bone segments pour out of his head, quickly measuring two hundred feet in length. What had been a small thin bone guard on his arm has become a large full gauntlet of dense bone, three inches thick. The large fists are a foot wide, similar to very large boxing gloves, but made of solid bone.
In addition to the fists and the giant lengths of bone, Grodd is equipped with a heavy plate like armor also made of shiny bone. In addition to the guantlets, the head hair, and the plate armor, Grodd also gets two bone boots. These bone boots have two over sized spiked toes, and spiked heels. All in all, his Bankai is fairly big in size, but more bestial and raw than flashy and energetic. The entirety of this bone is equivalent in durability to a normal zanpakutou.
Zanapkutou Release Names(Include both Shikai and Bankai names, and call out phrases) [Help me Grow, Oerwoud Hart! (Jungle Heart)/ Let the Growth be Maximized, Onbeskofte Siel! (Bestial Soul)]
Overall Ability:
Grodd’s overall power revolves around the theme of “Wild Growth”. Upon releasing either level of his Zanpakutou, he gains full control over his hair and fingernails, while gaining limited control over his bones. In Shikai he has a much weaker control, while in Bankai his control is greatly magnified. The control he has over his body is only the first ability that he has in his released state. The three things that he has control over, his bones, his nails, and his hair, also begin to grow while he is released, giving him more raw material to work with.
The rates of growth vary between the two release states and between the three different extensions of his body. His bone growing allows him to get taller and get longer arms, slowly gaining a better reach and becoming more intimidating, while his nails growing allows him to pierce enemies much easier. The growth of his hair, though, is very important to him. His hair acts as an extra limb, which is very effective when worked with his fighting style. It can defend his back or attack his front, whatever he needs.
Shikai Overall Ability:
In Shikai, Grodd’s natural hair grows at a set rate of one foot per post. For a cost of 50 reiatsu he can wind up his hair and fortify it, giving it Zanpakutou durability, but this makes it rigid and unable to move. If he doesn’t do this, the hair just has normal durability based on his strength. A superior offensive stat to his strength can cut right through it. His hair isn’t the only thing that grows while he’s released in Shikai.
While in Shikai, Grodd grows one inch taller every post, with his arms extending the proper distance as well to be perfectly proportional. He also has his fingernails increase in size by an inch every post. His fingernails aren’t just for slashing, though. When his fingernails are at least two inches long (has grown them for at least two posts) he can push them out of his hand at strength and speeds equal to 300 each. This does leave him vulnerable for a post, however, as the part of his nail that protects the sensitive flesh is gone until the next post.
In Shikai, the hair that Grodd controls has a set speed and strength that they move with. His hair is capable of moving at 400 stat speed and exerting blows of 600 stat strength. His nails and bone growth is so limited in Shikai that they do not have this set speed or strength. They do not get to move on their own independent of Grodd’s arm, so their power is based off of his own stats. In Bankai, however, there are changes to all of these three materials.
Bankai Overall Ability:
In Bankai, the bone whips grows at a set rate of five feet per post, and is naturally Zanpakutou durable without having to pay an extra cost. He grows six inches taller each post, still having his arms extending to be proportional. In Bankai, bone and nail growth is much less limited, while hair growth just gets more powerful. His hair (the whips) in Bankai doubles in efficacy, being able to move at 800 stat speed and exert blows of 1200 stat strength. Because his hands are covered up by the bone gloves, Grodd needs a different way to be able to grow his nails.
Nails can be grown from any part of Grodd’s body, going from no growth to six inches in the first post, and then increasing by three inches ever post thereafter. They can be fired out the post after they form at strengths and speeds of 500 each. Grodd is especially able to grow his nails in his hair, giving his hair attacks greater efficiency piercing attacks, or ranged attacks at a flank if he desires. He also has an increased ability to grow bone. Every post, the bone gauntlets and shoes gain a retractable set of three spikes in between the knuckles and toes that grow six inches every post, starting at one foot long when he first releases.
It is worth reminding that Bankai causes Grodd to become very much like a berserker. He can with very increased difficulty determine ally from enemy, however, he is much more likely to just lash out at everything, including the environment and possible innocents. The size of his destructive hair is capable of dealing a lot of damage to the area around him.
Zanpakuto Techniques:
Mask Appearance: The Mask of Grodd’s release reflects the Hollow mask he had in his Hollow life. The Tiki-like mask is covered in small carvings, and has a closed mouth. When Grodd accidentally is forced into his ressurection for the first time, the mouth of his mask opens and the carvings become etched in green.
Ressurection Appearance:
Grodd’s Ressurection returns him to the bestial form of his youth, but even more powerful. He is returned to his full gorilla form, looking as he would have in Adjuchas form. Once again he is a powerful gorilla with a thick fur. He is now 7'4" and weighs 382 pounds. His feet are fully made primate, able to grip things just like hands, especially tree branches and the like, allowing him to hang upside down. His legs have shrunk in perspective, though his arms have increased in size, becoming massive. His fists in his Ressurection stage are larger than basketballs Behind his mask is his eyes, which have lost the white sclera. Just the green iris and the pupil are left.
Ressurection Powers:
The Inner Hollow, The Beast Within, embodies the Aspect of Gluttony. It is selfish, hungry, and never satisfied. It takes everything that it can from others, never giving it back, never even acknowledging what it took. It consumes and forgets, because it is always hungry. The Ressurection form of the Hollow, as well as Grodd if he ever kills it, also embodies this Ravenous Gluttony that is unrelenting.
First, the Ressurection form gains a form of Gonzui that is a bit different than the normal technique. Rather than pulling in souls, Grodd and his Hollow are capable of opening their mouths really wide and chomping down on reiatsu techniques. The mouth is able of opening bigger than the entire face, a gaping maw with the ability to eat anything of inferior offensive stat. Even 1 point higher in offensive stat is able to deliver the full force of the attack to the inside of the Ressurection's mouth.
For when the mouth still isn't big enough when opened wide, by sucking in deeply and paying a reiatsu cost of 200, all of the reiatsu techniques one foot in front of the Ress's mouth are pulled in and compressed to the size where they can be consumed. Eating a technique does not restore reiatsu, rather, it hoards the element within the stomach of Grodd. They just sit there, hoarded from the world, however, the meal still never satisfies.
The Beast Within also embodies the Aspect of Rage. While the Gluttonous side of the Beast hoards everything, the Rage side gives out everything... in lethal doses. Rage is unthinking, uncaring, it breaks and destroys without thought. Rage is also selfish, but in a different way than Gluttony. While Gluttony serves to uplift itself, Rage serves to tear down others.
When Grodd or the Hollow have collected an element in their stomach, that element can be expunged through the fists. For two posts at a time, the fists are covered in that element. It is two inches wide off the surface of the massive fists, and is not applicable to class clashes. It is unclassed, so it is simply an offensive stat vs offensive stat clash when it collides with reiatsu techniques. Obviously, Grodd cannot eat the expunged element in order to keep it refreshed in his stomach.
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-Powers-
Fighting Style:
Grodd fights in an unorthodox manner, or so he thinks. He’s not quite sure how the majority of other people fight, but he is aware of how the Academy wanted him to fight. They trained him in the way of Kendo for years, but that was never his strong suit. His talents were in Boxing and Hakuda, the hand to hand striking arts. He completely forgoes the use of bladed weapons such as swords, which is unusual for a Shinigami due to sealed Zanpakutou being bladed weaponry. As a result, the majority of his attacks are blunt force focused.
Grodd is a fairly strong fighter, but lacks any sort of proficiency in speed. As a result, his actions are anchored in connecting a single hit that can take out an opponent. While brute force may be the answer in many cases, Grodd would rather use a bit of intelligence. The backbone of his fighting style is based off of counter attacks. He tends to use his above average strength to knock away opponent’s blows, even if it would cause him harm. He’s not afraid to take an attack in order to connect one of his own, which can get him into trouble.
While fighting alone, in a one on one situation, Grodd would prefer his opponent to come to him. That way he can react to their attacks and counter, rather than having to come up with an offensive strategy on his own. His standard stance is a mixture of a Boxing stance with his arms covering his lower face and upper chest and a Hakuda stance with his legs firmly on the ground planted for stability. While this stance tends to lower his mobility which would be poor form for Boxing, it allows him to have good defense, stability, and opportunity to lash out in reaction.
Grodd's main fighting style is weak to fighting alone in a multiple opponents vs one situation. In this kind of combat, the Shinigami is forced to adopt a more aggressive style as letting enemies come to him will only overwhelm him. He is forced to go on the offensive in these situations, however his methodology does not change in most circumstances. He singles out a target, picking on the weakest first, and moves to them, attempting to provoke an attack which he will counter. In some circumstances, the man will even make the first attack if he believes that he can take out an enemy in one blow.
Admittedly, while his personality and handicap make it difficult for him to make friends and harder to keep allies close to him, his strengths make him most powerful in a group of allies verses one enemy situation. In this mob situation, at least one ally can act as distraction, allowing Grodd with his great strength to get behind the enemy. From there, either a powerful Shockwave or an equally devastating blow to the back of the spine can be debilitating if not lethal. It's a bit ironic that the Shinigami who has the hardest time making allies is the most dangerous when he has them around him.
His training in boxing is currently only average, as a result, he knows how to throw a punch effectively, and he understands the concept of making sure one’s vital organs such as the head are protected. However, he is very likely to take a body shot if he can connect a blow to the face, and he tends to leave his core open to attack in order to facilitate that kind of counter strike. With his strength, he’s also not above catching an attack and following up with a jab from his opposite arm. In the future, as his skill develops, his movements will become much more refined.
Hakuda, to Grodd, is about orienting his spiritual and physical talents and putting them into one attack. Open palm strikes are common when he switches to Hakuda maneuvers, which he commonly falls back to if his opponent cannot be whittled down by boxing techniques. Hakuda allows Grodd to use techniques that harness his reiatsu into physical forces, maximizing his strength of muscle and strength of reiatsu. Most of the Shinigami's Hakuda knowledge is based on defenses, counter attacks, attacks that create openings, or attacks that take advantage of openings.
There are many times when the Soul Reaper is unaware of when to quit. He is naturally resistant to pain, and as a result he doesn’t know where the line between friendly sparring and bone breaking fight exists. This also comes back to haunt him as he may be more damaged than he understands, especially when his core style revolves around taking an attack to deliver a better one. He’s quick to underestimate the efficacy of an attack and end up more hurt than he had planned for.
As stated before, Grodd does not fight with his sealed Zanpakutou. If he needs the kind of force his fists cannot provide, he’s not ashamed to release. While his release is quite draining on him, the power and range it grants him is something that he isn’t ashamed of. He tends to start fighting with his fists of flesh, accompanied by his fist of hair. If two armored hands and an additional limb aren’t good enough to take down an opponent, he frequently goes to his techniques that he uses liberally. This exhausts him quickly, but his goal is to end the fight just as quickly.
His Bankai is something that he rarely uses, though. While it is his ultimate power, the way in which he has little to no control over “mercy” and “compassion” is very off putting for him. However, in a serious situation, with things he cares about on the line, he’s not going to hold back his Bankai just to save his own conscience. In Bankai, he fights like a berserker, breaking everything that he can in an attempt to put the enemy to rest.
While Grodd is not yet very skilled in combat, he will eventually become a special master of Boxing and of Hakuda. His mixture of the two styles is very versatile. While Boxing favors being light on ones feet and being able to avoid an attack just as easily as deal one out, Hakuda favors devastating attacks. And moreso than just devastating attacks, Hakuda has a slew of powerful countering techniques. Grodd tends to rely heavily on these techniques in order to get the upper hand.
Grodd's favorite Hakuda techniques to rely on are Mushi and Do, both powerful and very contrasting counter techniques. While Do can stop a weapon in its tracks, allowing for a counter to come from a hook from the opposite arm, Mushi is an attack of its own, damaging the person trying to attack them. The damage that Mushi inflicts is better for getting an opening for another attack, but Do is able to be used in a broader variety of circumstances. Do can stop a blade with the right force, while Mushi needs the strike to hit the limb of the attacker.
Grodd's go to follow ups for his Hakuda counters are Sei Shin Suikyou Shou and Denden. The former is for armored opponents like Arrancar, and is capable of dealing the most damage in the fewest strikes. The magnitude of that one corkscrew attack is overwhelming, capable of destroying the target completely, especially with Grodd's much higher than average strength. Denden is much weaker, in fact, it doesn't do any damage, but the ability to put an opponent off balance so efficiently is quite effective.
Grodd's Boxing is highly aggressive, so much more so due to the mixture of Hakuda. When combined with moves like Do, Grodd is fully capable of switching to very defensive to fully offensive on a dime, blocking an attack barehanded and following up with a critical hook to the face. Rather than outlast by dodging and staying on his toes, Grodd would rather outperform and devastate his opponent with non-lethal but incredibly debilitating attacks.
Despite his aggressive and bestial nature when it comes to fighting, it does take a bit of effort to get that side out of Grodd. Drawing his blood, even in just a nick, will always get a rise out of him, especially if he sees it, and seeing someone else bleeding, someone that he knows, will usually also cause him to intervene. Insulting his way of life and his inability to speak also are easy ways to get him to fight. Once he's started fighting seriously, he tends to lose himself more and more to the Beast Within. Whether or not he's actually being possessed by the Inner Hollow, he usually tends to feel guilty about the fight when looking in hindsight.
Zanpakutou Spirit Appearance(Optional): [Grodd’s Zanpakutou Spirit is complicated. He has the Inner Hollow which is the bestial nature of his former life sealed in deepest parts of his soul, but the bestial nature of his former life is also his Zanpakutou Spirit. While the Inner Hollow is nothing more than rage and hunger in the form of a large gorilla, the Zanpakutou Spirit is much more serene, and appears to be a much smaller monkey, one who can easily fit on Grodd’s shoulder. His Zanpakutou spirit knows no words in any human language, rather being able to communicate only through sign language. To be fair, Grodd can only communicate the same way, so it doesn’t really affect him.
Inner World(Optional): [What else would the Inner World be but a vast Jungle? It’s a vast jungle. There is one spot of the jungle, however, that is different. It is the realm of the Beast Within, a dark and tortured area. While the main portion of the forest is full of life, both flora and fauna, this dark forest is completely devoid of life. The trees are dead and scorched black, while the very center of it is even devoid of the dead trees. It is a burnt crater measuring more than three miles across, and at the very center sits the Beast Within]
Zanpakutou Appearances:
His sealed Zanpakutou is nothing special. It is a simple dagger, measuring three inches in blade length, with a polished bamboo handle barely big enough for a single handle. There is a small plain guard between the hilt and the blade, and there is a small metal pommel that is rounded and kept polished. This weapon is extremely small and nearly useless for fighting, and is plain just not Grodd’s kind of tool for combat, so it is kept strapped to his right leg underneath his loincloth at all times.
When, with practiced precision, Grodd pulls out the dagger from his leg, writes the release phrase in the air, and pulls the blade from the hilt, his release is activated. This method of releasing his Zanpakutou was required due to his inability to speak, and while it may seem as though he is showing irreverence to the weapon and her spirit, it is a ritual that is not inherently painful to the spirit. The blade is made to disconnect from the hilt with relative ease by applying pressure onto the guard. The words that he is writing appear in the air like green shimmering reiatsu that linger for a moment until he pulls apart the weapon.
When Grodd releases his Shikai, the sword disappears in a flash of leaves, leaving his arms covered in the armor like weapon that is the Shikai. The gauntlets are made out of white bone, and cover just the outside of his arm. The first strip of bone stretches from his elbow to his wrist, and the second one covers his knuckles. They are attached by the same hair-like wrappings that hold the weapon onto his hand and arm. The strip that covers the hand is carved with tight curls, while the strip that covers the forearm is plain.
In order to release his Bankai, Grodd first needs to ask his Zanpakutou’s forgiveness. After writing the release phrase in the air, he then proceeds to take a big bite out of his weapon, initiating the release to Bankai. Leaves made up of reiatsu pour out of his body like wind as whips made of spine-like bone segments pour out of his head, quickly measuring two hundred feet in length. What had been a small thin bone guard on his arm has become a large full gauntlet of dense bone, three inches thick. The large fists are a foot wide, similar to very large boxing gloves, but made of solid bone.
In addition to the fists and the giant lengths of bone, Grodd is equipped with a heavy plate like armor also made of shiny bone. In addition to the guantlets, the head hair, and the plate armor, Grodd also gets two bone boots. These bone boots have two over sized spiked toes, and spiked heels. All in all, his Bankai is fairly big in size, but more bestial and raw than flashy and energetic. The entirety of this bone is equivalent in durability to a normal zanpakutou.
Zanapkutou Release Names(Include both Shikai and Bankai names, and call out phrases) [Help me Grow, Oerwoud Hart! (Jungle Heart)/ Let the Growth be Maximized, Onbeskofte Siel! (Bestial Soul)]
Overall Ability:
Grodd’s overall power revolves around the theme of “Wild Growth”. Upon releasing either level of his Zanpakutou, he gains full control over his hair and fingernails, while gaining limited control over his bones. In Shikai he has a much weaker control, while in Bankai his control is greatly magnified. The control he has over his body is only the first ability that he has in his released state. The three things that he has control over, his bones, his nails, and his hair, also begin to grow while he is released, giving him more raw material to work with.
The rates of growth vary between the two release states and between the three different extensions of his body. His bone growing allows him to get taller and get longer arms, slowly gaining a better reach and becoming more intimidating, while his nails growing allows him to pierce enemies much easier. The growth of his hair, though, is very important to him. His hair acts as an extra limb, which is very effective when worked with his fighting style. It can defend his back or attack his front, whatever he needs.
Shikai Overall Ability:
In Shikai, Grodd’s natural hair grows at a set rate of one foot per post. For a cost of 50 reiatsu he can wind up his hair and fortify it, giving it Zanpakutou durability, but this makes it rigid and unable to move. If he doesn’t do this, the hair just has normal durability based on his strength. A superior offensive stat to his strength can cut right through it. His hair isn’t the only thing that grows while he’s released in Shikai.
While in Shikai, Grodd grows one inch taller every post, with his arms extending the proper distance as well to be perfectly proportional. He also has his fingernails increase in size by an inch every post. His fingernails aren’t just for slashing, though. When his fingernails are at least two inches long (has grown them for at least two posts) he can push them out of his hand at strength and speeds equal to 300 each. This does leave him vulnerable for a post, however, as the part of his nail that protects the sensitive flesh is gone until the next post.
In Shikai, the hair that Grodd controls has a set speed and strength that they move with. His hair is capable of moving at 400 stat speed and exerting blows of 600 stat strength. His nails and bone growth is so limited in Shikai that they do not have this set speed or strength. They do not get to move on their own independent of Grodd’s arm, so their power is based off of his own stats. In Bankai, however, there are changes to all of these three materials.
Bankai Overall Ability:
In Bankai, the bone whips grows at a set rate of five feet per post, and is naturally Zanpakutou durable without having to pay an extra cost. He grows six inches taller each post, still having his arms extending to be proportional. In Bankai, bone and nail growth is much less limited, while hair growth just gets more powerful. His hair (the whips) in Bankai doubles in efficacy, being able to move at 800 stat speed and exert blows of 1200 stat strength. Because his hands are covered up by the bone gloves, Grodd needs a different way to be able to grow his nails.
Nails can be grown from any part of Grodd’s body, going from no growth to six inches in the first post, and then increasing by three inches ever post thereafter. They can be fired out the post after they form at strengths and speeds of 500 each. Grodd is especially able to grow his nails in his hair, giving his hair attacks greater efficiency piercing attacks, or ranged attacks at a flank if he desires. He also has an increased ability to grow bone. Every post, the bone gauntlets and shoes gain a retractable set of three spikes in between the knuckles and toes that grow six inches every post, starting at one foot long when he first releases.
It is worth reminding that Bankai causes Grodd to become very much like a berserker. He can with very increased difficulty determine ally from enemy, however, he is much more likely to just lash out at everything, including the environment and possible innocents. The size of his destructive hair is capable of dealing a lot of damage to the area around him.
Zanpakuto Techniques:
{Roofdier}
Technique Name: Stil Roofdier (Silent Predator)
Release Levels: Shikai Only
Technique Description and Effect: Stil Roofdier stands for Silent Predator, which describes the kind of hunter that stalks his prey without noise. This technique is activated passively when the Shikai is released. Hidden in between the skin of his hand and the bone plate over his fingers is very tightly coiled hair. This hair isn’t spiritual, so it cannot be sensed or seen. This hair simply grows, doubling in size for each post that it remains wound. At will, for a cost of 200 reiatsu, Grodd can allow the hair to explode outwards in three braids per hand. These stop growing after being released, and cannot be rewound to increase the growth. He only gets one shot at it per release, and would have to completely seal and re-release his Shikai in order to gain access to it, a very costly choice.
Drawback: Large reiatsu cost, and the inability to perform it again. If used too soon, it can be weak, and if not used at all, it goes wasted. The hair is vulnerable to Fire when released.
Technique Name: Stil Roofdier (Silent Predator)
Release Levels: Shikai Only
Technique Description and Effect: Stil Roofdier stands for Silent Predator, which describes the kind of hunter that stalks his prey without noise. This technique is activated passively when the Shikai is released. Hidden in between the skin of his hand and the bone plate over his fingers is very tightly coiled hair. This hair isn’t spiritual, so it cannot be sensed or seen. This hair simply grows, doubling in size for each post that it remains wound. At will, for a cost of 200 reiatsu, Grodd can allow the hair to explode outwards in three braids per hand. These stop growing after being released, and cannot be rewound to increase the growth. He only gets one shot at it per release, and would have to completely seal and re-release his Shikai in order to gain access to it, a very costly choice.
Drawback: Large reiatsu cost, and the inability to perform it again. If used too soon, it can be weak, and if not used at all, it goes wasted. The hair is vulnerable to Fire when released.
{ Oerwoud Skild}
Technique Name: Oerwoud Skild (Jungle Shield)
Release Levels: Shikai/Bankai
Technique Description and Effect: Oerwoud Skild is a simple defense technique that suddenly causes a mass amount of growth. In Shikai, Grodd’s entire body becomes covered in tightly woven hair, while in Bankai it becomes covered in thick layered bone. This shell of a defense costs 100 reiatsu and lasts for one full post before falling apart. Both of these defenses are as durable as a Zanpakutou, however, the hair version is very vulnerable to fire. Any fire of at least 25% of Grodd’s RS will burn through the hair defense. The bone in the Bankai version is not vulnerable to fire.
Drawback: Reiatsu cost, short duration, weakness to Fire in Shikai.
Technique Name: Oerwoud Skild (Jungle Shield)
Release Levels: Shikai/Bankai
Technique Description and Effect: Oerwoud Skild is a simple defense technique that suddenly causes a mass amount of growth. In Shikai, Grodd’s entire body becomes covered in tightly woven hair, while in Bankai it becomes covered in thick layered bone. This shell of a defense costs 100 reiatsu and lasts for one full post before falling apart. Both of these defenses are as durable as a Zanpakutou, however, the hair version is very vulnerable to fire. Any fire of at least 25% of Grodd’s RS will burn through the hair defense. The bone in the Bankai version is not vulnerable to fire.
Drawback: Reiatsu cost, short duration, weakness to Fire in Shikai.
{Rigting}
Technique Name: Rigting (Direction)
Release Levels: Shikai/Bankai
Technique Description and Effect: Sometimes, the body isn’t good enough to move on its own. Rigting allows Grodd to grow hair around his arms/legs, or manipulate the bones of his body to keep moving even when he should be spent. This technique functions very similarly to Ransotengai. In Shikai, Grodd gets a thin coating of hair over his body. This hair is not defensive at all, in fact it is very brittle, but it is able to regrow at a rate of two inches per post if it needs to reconnect itself due to being cut. In Bankai, the very bones of Grodd’s body are manipulated, allowing him to move his body even if the muscles give out. This technique is draining, requiring 50 reiatsu per post to maintain it.
Drawback:Ongoing reiatsu cost, Shikai version is weak to fire, Shikai version is vulnerable to being cut and invalidated.
Technique Name: Rigting (Direction)
Release Levels: Shikai/Bankai
Technique Description and Effect: Sometimes, the body isn’t good enough to move on its own. Rigting allows Grodd to grow hair around his arms/legs, or manipulate the bones of his body to keep moving even when he should be spent. This technique functions very similarly to Ransotengai. In Shikai, Grodd gets a thin coating of hair over his body. This hair is not defensive at all, in fact it is very brittle, but it is able to regrow at a rate of two inches per post if it needs to reconnect itself due to being cut. In Bankai, the very bones of Grodd’s body are manipulated, allowing him to move his body even if the muscles give out. This technique is draining, requiring 50 reiatsu per post to maintain it.
Drawback:Ongoing reiatsu cost, Shikai version is weak to fire, Shikai version is vulnerable to being cut and invalidated.
{Stil Sprinkaan}
Technique Name: Stil Sprinkaan (Silent Devourer)
Release Levels: Bankai Only
Technique Description and Effect: As evidence by a similar theme in name, Stil Sprinkaan is the Bankai version of Stil Roofdier. Because of the power differential, it is not enough for Stil Roofdier to have a Bankai power up in the technique slot, no, the Bankai gets its own technique slot dedicated to this kind of technique. Stil Sprinkaan is more than just hair building up until Grodd releases it. Stil Sprinkaan has the hair that coils inside the gauntlets, but instead of just three tendrils of hair bursting out, when the technique is released for a massive cost of 400 reiatsu, the hair carries sharp bone with it.
The hair passively starts coiled up at five feet as soon as Bankai is released, and doubles every post that it is kept in hiding. When released, the hair is shielded by bone, not only protecting it from any fire that may try and burn it, but it is also extremely sharp, capable of penetrating opponents with much greater efficacy than the blunt hair was before.
Drawback:Large reiatsu cost, one shot attack.
Technique Name: Stil Sprinkaan (Silent Devourer)
Release Levels: Bankai Only
Technique Description and Effect: As evidence by a similar theme in name, Stil Sprinkaan is the Bankai version of Stil Roofdier. Because of the power differential, it is not enough for Stil Roofdier to have a Bankai power up in the technique slot, no, the Bankai gets its own technique slot dedicated to this kind of technique. Stil Sprinkaan is more than just hair building up until Grodd releases it. Stil Sprinkaan has the hair that coils inside the gauntlets, but instead of just three tendrils of hair bursting out, when the technique is released for a massive cost of 400 reiatsu, the hair carries sharp bone with it.
The hair passively starts coiled up at five feet as soon as Bankai is released, and doubles every post that it is kept in hiding. When released, the hair is shielded by bone, not only protecting it from any fire that may try and burn it, but it is also extremely sharp, capable of penetrating opponents with much greater efficacy than the blunt hair was before.
Drawback:Large reiatsu cost, one shot attack.
{ Groei van die Lewe}
Technique Name: Groei van die Lewe (Growth of Life)
Release Levels: Bankai Only
Technique Description and Effect: This technique is started by Grodd hawking up a hairball and spitting it onto the ground while filling it with 200 reiatsu. This small hairball measures six inches tall, and is in the shape of a small gorilla. This gorilla doubles in size every post, but never increases in stats, having 400 strength and 200 speed. As it is made up of hair, it is weak to fire. There can only be one growth active at a time.
Drawback:Reiatsu cost, limited quantity, fairly weak strength/speed, weakness to fire.
Technique Name: Groei van die Lewe (Growth of Life)
Release Levels: Bankai Only
Technique Description and Effect: This technique is started by Grodd hawking up a hairball and spitting it onto the ground while filling it with 200 reiatsu. This small hairball measures six inches tall, and is in the shape of a small gorilla. This gorilla doubles in size every post, but never increases in stats, having 400 strength and 200 speed. As it is made up of hair, it is weak to fire. There can only be one growth active at a time.
Drawback:Reiatsu cost, limited quantity, fairly weak strength/speed, weakness to fire.
{Evolusie}
Technique Name: Evolusie (Evolution)
Release Levels:Bankai Only
Technique Description and Effect:This technique is Grodd’s last ace in the hole. It costs a whopping 1000 reiatsu to activate, which is huge for Grodd. However, the effect is very simple. Grodd evolves, making every part of his body completely made out of bone for five posts. His skin becomes bone, his hair becomes bone, and even his eyes become bone. He becomes very durable, as this bone is naturally Zanpakutou durable, however, the lack of sight can be difficult to work with. When it starts, Grodd’s Bankai timer becomes negligible, because it actually consumes the Bankai in order to activate. When it ends, Grodd will be unable to use his Bankai or Shikai or Soulbind for the rest of the thread.
Drawback:Absolutely massive reiatsu cost, complete blindness, inability to use release afterwords.
Technique Name: Evolusie (Evolution)
Release Levels:Bankai Only
Technique Description and Effect:This technique is Grodd’s last ace in the hole. It costs a whopping 1000 reiatsu to activate, which is huge for Grodd. However, the effect is very simple. Grodd evolves, making every part of his body completely made out of bone for five posts. His skin becomes bone, his hair becomes bone, and even his eyes become bone. He becomes very durable, as this bone is naturally Zanpakutou durable, however, the lack of sight can be difficult to work with. When it starts, Grodd’s Bankai timer becomes negligible, because it actually consumes the Bankai in order to activate. When it ends, Grodd will be unable to use his Bankai or Shikai or Soulbind for the rest of the thread.
Drawback:Absolutely massive reiatsu cost, complete blindness, inability to use release afterwords.
Mask Appearance: The Mask of Grodd’s release reflects the Hollow mask he had in his Hollow life. The Tiki-like mask is covered in small carvings, and has a closed mouth. When Grodd accidentally is forced into his ressurection for the first time, the mouth of his mask opens and the carvings become etched in green.
{Image}
Ressurection Appearance:
Grodd’s Ressurection returns him to the bestial form of his youth, but even more powerful. He is returned to his full gorilla form, looking as he would have in Adjuchas form. Once again he is a powerful gorilla with a thick fur. He is now 7'4" and weighs 382 pounds. His feet are fully made primate, able to grip things just like hands, especially tree branches and the like, allowing him to hang upside down. His legs have shrunk in perspective, though his arms have increased in size, becoming massive. His fists in his Ressurection stage are larger than basketballs Behind his mask is his eyes, which have lost the white sclera. Just the green iris and the pupil are left.
Ressurection Powers:
The Inner Hollow, The Beast Within, embodies the Aspect of Gluttony. It is selfish, hungry, and never satisfied. It takes everything that it can from others, never giving it back, never even acknowledging what it took. It consumes and forgets, because it is always hungry. The Ressurection form of the Hollow, as well as Grodd if he ever kills it, also embodies this Ravenous Gluttony that is unrelenting.
First, the Ressurection form gains a form of Gonzui that is a bit different than the normal technique. Rather than pulling in souls, Grodd and his Hollow are capable of opening their mouths really wide and chomping down on reiatsu techniques. The mouth is able of opening bigger than the entire face, a gaping maw with the ability to eat anything of inferior offensive stat. Even 1 point higher in offensive stat is able to deliver the full force of the attack to the inside of the Ressurection's mouth.
For when the mouth still isn't big enough when opened wide, by sucking in deeply and paying a reiatsu cost of 200, all of the reiatsu techniques one foot in front of the Ress's mouth are pulled in and compressed to the size where they can be consumed. Eating a technique does not restore reiatsu, rather, it hoards the element within the stomach of Grodd. They just sit there, hoarded from the world, however, the meal still never satisfies.
The Beast Within also embodies the Aspect of Rage. While the Gluttonous side of the Beast hoards everything, the Rage side gives out everything... in lethal doses. Rage is unthinking, uncaring, it breaks and destroys without thought. Rage is also selfish, but in a different way than Gluttony. While Gluttony serves to uplift itself, Rage serves to tear down others.
When Grodd or the Hollow have collected an element in their stomach, that element can be expunged through the fists. For two posts at a time, the fists are covered in that element. It is two inches wide off the surface of the massive fists, and is not applicable to class clashes. It is unclassed, so it is simply an offensive stat vs offensive stat clash when it collides with reiatsu techniques. Obviously, Grodd cannot eat the expunged element in order to keep it refreshed in his stomach.
{History}
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Birthplace: [Africa]
Current Residence: [Squad 3 Barracks]
Memorable Figures: [The Zookeeper, Meian Nakazawa, Vanessa Parker]
History:
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-History-
Birthplace: [Africa]
Current Residence: [Squad 3 Barracks]
Memorable Figures: [The Zookeeper, Meian Nakazawa, Vanessa Parker]
History:
{Life as a Soul (Hollow)}
Africa, the land of the wild natives, the wild animals, and the wild heat that scorches the earth. It was an untamed region where a small group of gorillas wandered. And in that hot and sparse area, a baby was born. Like all the other gorilla, it was raised to be strong, raised to be its own creature. And it grew quickly. This gorilla was weaned earlier than usual, it was finished with its mother at the young age of 3, a whole six months before most young gorillas were done with the mother's milk. He was destined to be an alpha male. The strongest of his herd, one who could leave.
But that all changed when the poachers attacked. It had been a few years and the once infant gorilla had become full sized, and was a feral beast. When humans first came into his territory, he beat them to a pulp and ate their soft flesh and sucked on their bones. The other members of the herd weren't so aggressive, but their opinions were irrelevant. This Gorilla wanted to feast, and these squishy slow moving creatures were delicious. That night, retaliation struck. The gunshots were fierce, they stung at the ears of the herd and disoriented them. And when they hit, they felt like giant bee stings. In a rage, the alpha gorilla struck down a great many poachers before he himself fell and his body was collected.
He couldn't explain it, but even after being filled with so many bullets, still he awoke. Out of the center of his chest was a chain, and his head ached. Language crept into his mind. Words for things, how to move vocal chords to say things, how to interpret the scribbles on a piece of paper. He looked down and saw his body, torn to pieces for it's fur and fangs. Rage built up inside him, and he let out a massive howl. None of the squishies would survive. He went to move, but felt his chain being tugged on from an outside force. He turned around to see a man standing on top of the hood of the truck that the gorilla's body was riding in. "I'm the Zookeeper. You'll be coming with me." Who was this squishie to boss around the alpha gorilla who had survived a massacre and needed revenge? He'd be taught a lesson.
Before the gorilla could react, the Zookeeper tossed a set of pages at him. "You'll be called Grodd. Your History is immortalized in those pages. I gave you your knowledge of speech and though, so I expect that you live up to my debt." The newly christened Grodd snarled at the squishie who dared think himself superior, but with a snap electricity arced through Grodd's chain and left him in extreme pain. While he still hated serving underneath a squishie who had devastated his herd, still he had to follow the rules of Nature. The Alpha Male was the leader. And this guy with Nature at his fingertips. Begrudgingly, Grodd submitted to the man and poured over the past of his name. Or was it a past version of him?
Here was the representation of an alpha male Gorilla, one who had speech, though through technology, and had sentience. This Comic version of Grodd was a brutal warlord, surpassing Alpha Male to dominate all of his kind and many of other kinda. He forged the Gorilla race into an Army that was destroying the very nature of the system that dared to call them inferior. A rumbling laugh echoed through the air as the new Grodd reveled over the old Grodd's exploits. But then... Then he got to the last page of the comic book. An arrow pierced the old Grodd's skull from a so called Hero. The Green Arrow had slain him, sending the simian race back to oblivion and inferiority. "Ggggrrroooooddddd!"
The new Grodd had to take up the mantle of the fallen King. He had to become everything to all simians. To be their arm, their head, their heartbeat. But what could he do as just an average soul of a slightly above average Gorilla? He had to get stronger, and to do so, he'd need to go along with the Zookeeper. "So, what are you going to do, primate?" Grodd just spoke what first came to his feeble mind. "I eat, I devour. That is my purpose. I will do just that." The Zookeeper let out a cackle of a laugh before saying, "You'll do just fine. You won't need this though." With one hand, the Zookeeper slashed at the chain connecting Grodd to his mortal body. Soon it began to eat itself and in a matter of moments the entirety of the chain had disappeared and there was a hole in his chest.
Suddenly, as the hole opened up, there was a blast of pain that shook through Grodd's entire being. First his hair burned off, then his hands began to rapidly decompose. The skin fell off, showing just a blood filled mess of muscle. That too dissolved into the wind, leaving nothing but bone. This repeated all the way up to the shoulders. When there was nothing but bone and tendon, the white calcium rich portion of the body started to become black and shriveled up until there was nothing left of it, simply a black nub where Grodd's shoulders had been. This repeated for his whole body, until nothing but his head was left. I eat, I devour. That is my purpose. I will be reborn." The last thing that he heard before he blacked out was a last statement by the Zookeeper. "Of course. You wouldn't have any use to me otherwise." The last thing to disappear into reiatsu particles were the pair of green eyes staring at the Zookeeper even as they dissolved.
A long distance away from Africa, in a nearly instantaneous time away, a singularity started to form. Reiatsu particles gathered over the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, first forming a sphere of flesh. When that flesh had been formed, limbs grew out of it until it resembled a headless gorilla, with more arm size than normal. When the head formed, it was empty devoid of features besides the gaping mouth full of sharp teeth. Out of this mouth spewed a massive amount of white liquid, forming a tall and rectangular mask. It was symbolic of a Tiki Mask, though it lacked tribal markings characteristic of them. "I eat, I devour. That is my purpose. Feed..." The process of going from Spirit to Hollow had robbed him of his short term memory, but Grodd knew one thing. He must work to satisfy a gnawing hunger, and he must feed.
Grodd lived and scraped out a meek existence in Karakura Town and in the sands of Hueco Mundo. Without the ability to really see well or plan for anything, Grodd merely wandered, grabbing a meal where possible. At times he wandered through other Hollows’ Garganta, taking him to Hueco Mundo, or back into the Land of the Living. With his slow lumbering speed and his short attention span, he found himself incapable of getting a satisfying meal, if that ever existed for a Hollow. He found that he could only ever eat when the enemy was stupid, weak, or not paying attention very much.
Grodd found that he bit off way more than he could chew when he found two arguing Academy students who were lost in a sewer and shoved them down his throat, relishing in the feel of their crunching bones. The meal was delicious, however, it alerted the Shinigami to how much of a threat he was, and a Soul Reaper was sent to purify him. That Soul Reaper went by the name of Meian Nakazawa, an Unseated officer from the Third Division of the Gotei 13. Meian showed up to purify the beast, and the Shinigami was victorious in that endeavor.
Grodd was slain, but the process of Konso was imperfect. Grodd wasn’t a typical hollow, as he was originally an animal who had been forced into spirit form, then forced into becoming a Hollow. The process of Konso should have worked fine for purifying him, but the beast wasn’t fully transformed into a pure soul. Some of his bestial tendencies were locked deep inside his soul, which allowed him to become much more humanoid when he arrived in the Soul Society. Not having any real memories to make a life off of, Grodd could do only one thing. Join the Gotei 13 himself.
Africa, the land of the wild natives, the wild animals, and the wild heat that scorches the earth. It was an untamed region where a small group of gorillas wandered. And in that hot and sparse area, a baby was born. Like all the other gorilla, it was raised to be strong, raised to be its own creature. And it grew quickly. This gorilla was weaned earlier than usual, it was finished with its mother at the young age of 3, a whole six months before most young gorillas were done with the mother's milk. He was destined to be an alpha male. The strongest of his herd, one who could leave.
But that all changed when the poachers attacked. It had been a few years and the once infant gorilla had become full sized, and was a feral beast. When humans first came into his territory, he beat them to a pulp and ate their soft flesh and sucked on their bones. The other members of the herd weren't so aggressive, but their opinions were irrelevant. This Gorilla wanted to feast, and these squishy slow moving creatures were delicious. That night, retaliation struck. The gunshots were fierce, they stung at the ears of the herd and disoriented them. And when they hit, they felt like giant bee stings. In a rage, the alpha gorilla struck down a great many poachers before he himself fell and his body was collected.
He couldn't explain it, but even after being filled with so many bullets, still he awoke. Out of the center of his chest was a chain, and his head ached. Language crept into his mind. Words for things, how to move vocal chords to say things, how to interpret the scribbles on a piece of paper. He looked down and saw his body, torn to pieces for it's fur and fangs. Rage built up inside him, and he let out a massive howl. None of the squishies would survive. He went to move, but felt his chain being tugged on from an outside force. He turned around to see a man standing on top of the hood of the truck that the gorilla's body was riding in. "I'm the Zookeeper. You'll be coming with me." Who was this squishie to boss around the alpha gorilla who had survived a massacre and needed revenge? He'd be taught a lesson.
Before the gorilla could react, the Zookeeper tossed a set of pages at him. "You'll be called Grodd. Your History is immortalized in those pages. I gave you your knowledge of speech and though, so I expect that you live up to my debt." The newly christened Grodd snarled at the squishie who dared think himself superior, but with a snap electricity arced through Grodd's chain and left him in extreme pain. While he still hated serving underneath a squishie who had devastated his herd, still he had to follow the rules of Nature. The Alpha Male was the leader. And this guy with Nature at his fingertips. Begrudgingly, Grodd submitted to the man and poured over the past of his name. Or was it a past version of him?
Here was the representation of an alpha male Gorilla, one who had speech, though through technology, and had sentience. This Comic version of Grodd was a brutal warlord, surpassing Alpha Male to dominate all of his kind and many of other kinda. He forged the Gorilla race into an Army that was destroying the very nature of the system that dared to call them inferior. A rumbling laugh echoed through the air as the new Grodd reveled over the old Grodd's exploits. But then... Then he got to the last page of the comic book. An arrow pierced the old Grodd's skull from a so called Hero. The Green Arrow had slain him, sending the simian race back to oblivion and inferiority. "Ggggrrroooooddddd!"
The new Grodd had to take up the mantle of the fallen King. He had to become everything to all simians. To be their arm, their head, their heartbeat. But what could he do as just an average soul of a slightly above average Gorilla? He had to get stronger, and to do so, he'd need to go along with the Zookeeper. "So, what are you going to do, primate?" Grodd just spoke what first came to his feeble mind. "I eat, I devour. That is my purpose. I will do just that." The Zookeeper let out a cackle of a laugh before saying, "You'll do just fine. You won't need this though." With one hand, the Zookeeper slashed at the chain connecting Grodd to his mortal body. Soon it began to eat itself and in a matter of moments the entirety of the chain had disappeared and there was a hole in his chest.
Suddenly, as the hole opened up, there was a blast of pain that shook through Grodd's entire being. First his hair burned off, then his hands began to rapidly decompose. The skin fell off, showing just a blood filled mess of muscle. That too dissolved into the wind, leaving nothing but bone. This repeated all the way up to the shoulders. When there was nothing but bone and tendon, the white calcium rich portion of the body started to become black and shriveled up until there was nothing left of it, simply a black nub where Grodd's shoulders had been. This repeated for his whole body, until nothing but his head was left. I eat, I devour. That is my purpose. I will be reborn." The last thing that he heard before he blacked out was a last statement by the Zookeeper. "Of course. You wouldn't have any use to me otherwise." The last thing to disappear into reiatsu particles were the pair of green eyes staring at the Zookeeper even as they dissolved.
A long distance away from Africa, in a nearly instantaneous time away, a singularity started to form. Reiatsu particles gathered over the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, first forming a sphere of flesh. When that flesh had been formed, limbs grew out of it until it resembled a headless gorilla, with more arm size than normal. When the head formed, it was empty devoid of features besides the gaping mouth full of sharp teeth. Out of this mouth spewed a massive amount of white liquid, forming a tall and rectangular mask. It was symbolic of a Tiki Mask, though it lacked tribal markings characteristic of them. "I eat, I devour. That is my purpose. Feed..." The process of going from Spirit to Hollow had robbed him of his short term memory, but Grodd knew one thing. He must work to satisfy a gnawing hunger, and he must feed.
Grodd lived and scraped out a meek existence in Karakura Town and in the sands of Hueco Mundo. Without the ability to really see well or plan for anything, Grodd merely wandered, grabbing a meal where possible. At times he wandered through other Hollows’ Garganta, taking him to Hueco Mundo, or back into the Land of the Living. With his slow lumbering speed and his short attention span, he found himself incapable of getting a satisfying meal, if that ever existed for a Hollow. He found that he could only ever eat when the enemy was stupid, weak, or not paying attention very much.
Grodd found that he bit off way more than he could chew when he found two arguing Academy students who were lost in a sewer and shoved them down his throat, relishing in the feel of their crunching bones. The meal was delicious, however, it alerted the Shinigami to how much of a threat he was, and a Soul Reaper was sent to purify him. That Soul Reaper went by the name of Meian Nakazawa, an Unseated officer from the Third Division of the Gotei 13. Meian showed up to purify the beast, and the Shinigami was victorious in that endeavor.
Grodd was slain, but the process of Konso was imperfect. Grodd wasn’t a typical hollow, as he was originally an animal who had been forced into spirit form, then forced into becoming a Hollow. The process of Konso should have worked fine for purifying him, but the beast wasn’t fully transformed into a pure soul. Some of his bestial tendencies were locked deep inside his soul, which allowed him to become much more humanoid when he arrived in the Soul Society. Not having any real memories to make a life off of, Grodd could do only one thing. Join the Gotei 13 himself.
{Life as a Soul (Purified)}
So Grodd had decided that he was going to join the Gotei 13… but he had no idea how he was going to do that. He had woken up in a middle to lower class district of the Rukongai. It wasn’t a dirty mud pile, but it wasn’t a fancy area either. He had woken up completely naked, no clothes on his body, and he felt great. Without any fur, he was a bit chilly in the breeze, but he felt alive for the first time. He could see things clearly, he could hear things as well, and his brain could hold a thought for more than a split moment.
Above all, he wasn’t hungry. Not at all. The immense hunger that had overtaken his entire being when he was a Hollow was gone. Not only did he not feel hunger, but he felt satisfied. Full, even. Life here in the Soul Society was brighter, and so much more peaceful than on earth had been. The man was happy. Full of glee and joy, he walked towards the sounds of laughter and joy that he heard. Was it children playing? Was it women singing? He was about to find out.
As Grodd made his way into the district square, the joyful noises turned to horrified gasps and screams. He wasn’t sure why the children ran and hid from him, or the mothers covered their eyes. And why were the fathers grabbing sticks?? And they were all coming after him, and then laying into him with the sticks. The pain hurt so much more than when he had been a Hollow… but he didn’t remember any of that… all he could remember right now was waking up as if from a dream, and a single face.
The man who had been his savior before (savior from what??) wasn’t here, there were just a bunch of mean people. They shouted at him “put some clothes on, you pervert!” and hit him until he left the area. He tried to call out to them, to tell them that it was alright, that he felt great without any clothes, but nothing came out of his throat. He cried for the first time that night, huddled against a tree nursing his growing bruises.
He dreamed of little that night. He had flashes of memories of hunger and anger, and then being saved, but he wasn’t sure of what he had been saved from. He, however, saw clearly the face of him who he could only label as “savior”. When he awoke, there was a figure standing over him. The sunrise at its back cast a shadow over the entire front of the figure, making it unable to tell what they looked like or what gender they were.
The figure threw a lump of cloth onto him, and told him to put it on. It was a male voice, from what Grodd could figure, a very authoritative one at that. However, the new soul was not about to lose his freedom. The open air felt so good, so he cast away the cloth. No, he tried to say, no I will not wear those; they restrict my freedom. But nothing came out of his throat. When he put his hand to his neck, he could feel the white scar etched across it. But he didn’t know where it came from or who caused it. He only knew that he was incapable of speaking.
The man reiterated that he should put on the clothes, but again Grodd stubbornly refused. The man left, only to return the next day. That day had been filled with beatings and shunning, making the new soul want to just give up. He once again curled up under the tree, only to wake up with the man standing by him. It took days of this process for Grodd to finally take the cloth and just wrap it around his genitals. This appeased the man, who then left and was never seen by Grodd again.
Wandering into town, Grodd wasn’t treated with scorn, but merely with unease. They didn’t understand him, so they avoided him. He tried making motions with his hands, trying to explain what was going on, but they didn’t understand and didn’t try to. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months. Grodd had, by then, been much more proficient at talking with his hands, but it wasn’t like anyone tried to understand.
The kids avoided him, or threw rocks at him, and when he copied some of the rarely used hand gestures, such as a single raised finger, they scurried off to complain to their mothers, which only resulted in Grodd being struck by a broom. A lot. He tended to stay away from the hot spots of people, especially the loud ones, and stuck to himself a lot.
The trees were where Grodd spent most of his time. They didn’t judge him, didn’t beat him with brooms, and definitely didn’t care whether or not he wore the scrap of cloth that was forced upon him. He could be free and alone in the forests just outside the Rukongai. Going any farther was dangerous, but right at the edge, it was serene and peaceful.
As Grodd spent more time in the forests, running and climbing and flying through the air, the more he noticed something not right about himself. While he had observed other people to the best of his ability, which wasn’t terribly much, he had noticed that none of them had to eat. About a year after his arrival in the Rukongai, he began to hunger. First he was nibbling on tree bark to keep himself from passing out, and then he took to having to pursue and catch some of the wild animals of the wilderness in order to get an actually satisfying meal.
This hunger reminded him of a dark and dismal past that was mostly lost in his mind. In his nightmares he saw bits and pieces, and felt the hunger involved. It was a hunger that was never satisfied, unlike the hunger he felt now. When he ate, he felt full, and could survive for days without having another hunger pang. However, with the hunger frequently at his door, life became very dreary and depressing. While other souls enjoyed life, he was just scraping by in pains.
In one of these bouts of pain and hunger ridden weakness was the first time he met The Beast Within. It was not a pleasant experience. In a feverish daze, Grodd found himself in a vast forest, lost and unable to find his way out. As he wandered, tripping over the dark and burnt trees he found himself in a crater, with a large boulder like lump at the center. The boulder like lump turned out to be a great Gorilla, laughing hysterically and roaring at him simultaneously.
He was ravaged by fear, and delirious from the lack of nutrition, so this Beast appeared twenty feet tall and hungry enough to consume him whole! The Beast simply laughed, though, and cast him out of the forest back into his body. ”You’ll be back. And you’ll be stronger. And when you are, then I will eat you. Grow fat, my sheep. Grow strong, my puppet. Then my meal will taste all the sweeter.”
When Grodd awoke from his nightmare, a woman in black robes stood above him. ”Found another one that hungers. Let’s get him cleaned up and over to the Academy. We need all the recruits we can get.” His weak and limp body was lifted up over someone’s shoulder and carried away from the Wilderness. The last thing he remembered seeing was the Seireitei Wall looming in front of him, and the Gate moving to let them pass.
So Grodd had decided that he was going to join the Gotei 13… but he had no idea how he was going to do that. He had woken up in a middle to lower class district of the Rukongai. It wasn’t a dirty mud pile, but it wasn’t a fancy area either. He had woken up completely naked, no clothes on his body, and he felt great. Without any fur, he was a bit chilly in the breeze, but he felt alive for the first time. He could see things clearly, he could hear things as well, and his brain could hold a thought for more than a split moment.
Above all, he wasn’t hungry. Not at all. The immense hunger that had overtaken his entire being when he was a Hollow was gone. Not only did he not feel hunger, but he felt satisfied. Full, even. Life here in the Soul Society was brighter, and so much more peaceful than on earth had been. The man was happy. Full of glee and joy, he walked towards the sounds of laughter and joy that he heard. Was it children playing? Was it women singing? He was about to find out.
As Grodd made his way into the district square, the joyful noises turned to horrified gasps and screams. He wasn’t sure why the children ran and hid from him, or the mothers covered their eyes. And why were the fathers grabbing sticks?? And they were all coming after him, and then laying into him with the sticks. The pain hurt so much more than when he had been a Hollow… but he didn’t remember any of that… all he could remember right now was waking up as if from a dream, and a single face.
The man who had been his savior before (savior from what??) wasn’t here, there were just a bunch of mean people. They shouted at him “put some clothes on, you pervert!” and hit him until he left the area. He tried to call out to them, to tell them that it was alright, that he felt great without any clothes, but nothing came out of his throat. He cried for the first time that night, huddled against a tree nursing his growing bruises.
He dreamed of little that night. He had flashes of memories of hunger and anger, and then being saved, but he wasn’t sure of what he had been saved from. He, however, saw clearly the face of him who he could only label as “savior”. When he awoke, there was a figure standing over him. The sunrise at its back cast a shadow over the entire front of the figure, making it unable to tell what they looked like or what gender they were.
The figure threw a lump of cloth onto him, and told him to put it on. It was a male voice, from what Grodd could figure, a very authoritative one at that. However, the new soul was not about to lose his freedom. The open air felt so good, so he cast away the cloth. No, he tried to say, no I will not wear those; they restrict my freedom. But nothing came out of his throat. When he put his hand to his neck, he could feel the white scar etched across it. But he didn’t know where it came from or who caused it. He only knew that he was incapable of speaking.
The man reiterated that he should put on the clothes, but again Grodd stubbornly refused. The man left, only to return the next day. That day had been filled with beatings and shunning, making the new soul want to just give up. He once again curled up under the tree, only to wake up with the man standing by him. It took days of this process for Grodd to finally take the cloth and just wrap it around his genitals. This appeased the man, who then left and was never seen by Grodd again.
Wandering into town, Grodd wasn’t treated with scorn, but merely with unease. They didn’t understand him, so they avoided him. He tried making motions with his hands, trying to explain what was going on, but they didn’t understand and didn’t try to. The days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months. Grodd had, by then, been much more proficient at talking with his hands, but it wasn’t like anyone tried to understand.
The kids avoided him, or threw rocks at him, and when he copied some of the rarely used hand gestures, such as a single raised finger, they scurried off to complain to their mothers, which only resulted in Grodd being struck by a broom. A lot. He tended to stay away from the hot spots of people, especially the loud ones, and stuck to himself a lot.
The trees were where Grodd spent most of his time. They didn’t judge him, didn’t beat him with brooms, and definitely didn’t care whether or not he wore the scrap of cloth that was forced upon him. He could be free and alone in the forests just outside the Rukongai. Going any farther was dangerous, but right at the edge, it was serene and peaceful.
As Grodd spent more time in the forests, running and climbing and flying through the air, the more he noticed something not right about himself. While he had observed other people to the best of his ability, which wasn’t terribly much, he had noticed that none of them had to eat. About a year after his arrival in the Rukongai, he began to hunger. First he was nibbling on tree bark to keep himself from passing out, and then he took to having to pursue and catch some of the wild animals of the wilderness in order to get an actually satisfying meal.
This hunger reminded him of a dark and dismal past that was mostly lost in his mind. In his nightmares he saw bits and pieces, and felt the hunger involved. It was a hunger that was never satisfied, unlike the hunger he felt now. When he ate, he felt full, and could survive for days without having another hunger pang. However, with the hunger frequently at his door, life became very dreary and depressing. While other souls enjoyed life, he was just scraping by in pains.
In one of these bouts of pain and hunger ridden weakness was the first time he met The Beast Within. It was not a pleasant experience. In a feverish daze, Grodd found himself in a vast forest, lost and unable to find his way out. As he wandered, tripping over the dark and burnt trees he found himself in a crater, with a large boulder like lump at the center. The boulder like lump turned out to be a great Gorilla, laughing hysterically and roaring at him simultaneously.
He was ravaged by fear, and delirious from the lack of nutrition, so this Beast appeared twenty feet tall and hungry enough to consume him whole! The Beast simply laughed, though, and cast him out of the forest back into his body. ”You’ll be back. And you’ll be stronger. And when you are, then I will eat you. Grow fat, my sheep. Grow strong, my puppet. Then my meal will taste all the sweeter.”
When Grodd awoke from his nightmare, a woman in black robes stood above him. ”Found another one that hungers. Let’s get him cleaned up and over to the Academy. We need all the recruits we can get.” His weak and limp body was lifted up over someone’s shoulder and carried away from the Wilderness. The last thing he remembered seeing was the Seireitei Wall looming in front of him, and the Gate moving to let them pass.
{Life as a Student}
The first thing Grodd remembered when waking up was that he was far too clothed. He woke up with a shirt AND pants on! He squirmed out of both of them, just leaving the undergarments that covered up his genitals. They were tight, but he didn’t want to be broom whipped again so he left them on. While he waited in the blank, empty room, his hands idly moved. He was chatting with himself, describing the room idly while commenting on how lifeless it was. There wasn’t even a potted plant in the room.
As he wandered around the room, talking to himself about the lack of anything green or nice to look at, a tray of food slid under the door to the only exit from the white room. The food looked delicious, and as soon as Grodd smelled it, he wanted to eat it. The vegetables were alright, but the chicken was absolutely amazing. As he ate his first cooked meal since becoming a soul, shoving it in his face and getting it everywhere, he could hear talking from the other side of the door. And they weren’t being quiet at all.
”So… what is he? He really doesn’t like wearing clothes at all…” Giggling commenced. At least one girl was behind the door. ”Yeah, and he’s kinda cute too.” More giggling. What were they talking about? What was this word “cute”. It was not in Grodd’s vocabulary. ”Shush up, you flirts. The instructors want to know what he is, not how attractive he is. His being found in the forest nearly naked makes them think he’s Beast Clan, not a Rukongai soul. Which could explain him being hungry and so vicious with his food.”
What was a Beast Clan? What was the Rukongai? These were all terms that Grodd was not familiar with. People didn’t give him the time of day, so he only knew what he could pick up from conversations in hushed whispers. People didn’t usually talk loud when the strange man was around. They could probably see him, so he began to talk to them. His hands moved in the ways he was comfortable with. They didn’t move so fast as to be a blur, but they moved fluidly from word to word.
He said “Hi, my name is Grodd, I think. It’s the only word I know to describe myself with. How are you? Will you talk to me and listen to my hands?” The talking from behind the door stopped nearly immediately. ”Not feral, but not normal either. He must be some sort of handicapped kid.” Handicapped… It was a word that Grodd had never heard before, but the way in which it was said made him extremely sad. All he knew was that he definitely didn’t want to be described as “handicapped”
The three girls walked into the room, all wearing the same clothes. Well, not the same pair of clothes, but the same style of clothes. Grodd thought that the kids talked about this kind of this as a “uniform”. Whatever it was, the red and white cloths were kind of interesting. However, Grodd’s fascination with the clothes didn’t last long. The three girls started talking really fast, all at the same time. He would try to make words, and one of them actually grabbed his hands to stop him.
This annoyed him. Very. Very. much. He made the gesture with his finger that the kids ran away from, but the girls just gasped. One of them slapped him in the face!! This was not the expected result from his actions. Usually people left him alone when he made rude gestures, but these girls became offended and offensive. ”Well he made be cute, but he’s not my type.” Sticking her tongue out, grossed out by his actions, she turned and walked off out of the room.
Meanwhile, Grodd tried to talk again with his hands. Every time, the girl who appeared to be the leader of the three grabbed his hands to stop him. ”If we’re going to make this kid into our pet project, we’re going to need to stop this nervous twitch of his.” Whatever this woman was talking about, she was only making Grodd angry. He shoved her back, but she wouldn’t budge. She didn’t appear to be strong, but she was incredibly capable, physically. ”Aww, he thinks he can brawl… but he’s trying to mess with the Top Student of Duel Class 4.”
None of that made any sense to Grodd, but he did recognize her strength and backed off. She was the Alpha male, even if she wasn’t a male. He backed off and stopped signing, but hating her for making him stop. He just wanted to communicate, and she refused to let him. He hated her more than the men and women who rejected his clothes preferences, and hated her more than the children who pestered him until he snapped. He hated her so much… And in her hate, his vision started to become red with blood.
Claw her throat out… Eat her…
The voice inside his head was overpowering, speaking louder than anything he had ever heard before. He stumbled backwards, dizzy, and nearly passed out, afraid of the voice that told him to destroy the woman in front of him. He resisted, and calmed down, but was visibly shaken by the whole matter. Thinking it just part of his mental handicap that she presumed him to have, the woman just laughed it off.
”I’m Vanessa. Welcome to your education.”
For weeks, this Vanessa painstakingly took the time to teach Grodd how to read and write. It was excruciatingly difficult, but she managed tokeep her calm force Grodd to behave. It took days for him to understand that she was trying to teach him the alphabet, and days more for him to understand that when he copied the letter like she wrote, he was rewarded with fewer beatings. By the time that the summer months had dwindled to nothing, he finally knew how to read and write. Couldn’t talk, but he was effectively literate.
For a week he had a break from the rigorous training. He was let on a small leash, meaning he could explore the building he had been in, rather than being confined to the white empty room and the adjoining bathroom. It was a nice place, with very very few people, in fact, just the three girls lived there. They called it “off-campus housing” or something like that, which Grodd didn’t understand, but he didn’t try to either. Conversations with those three were always a pain.
After that week, Vanessa said it was time to “show him off”. He didn’t like that, especially because shepersuaded forced him to wear the same kind of clothes that she wore, only in blue instead of red. She then forced him to leave the building and make a short walk, upright, without slouching, to a courtyard with thousands of people all wearing the same kinds of clothing. The noise was so awful, Grodd wanted to rip some faces off, but Vanessa kept a tight hold over the back of his neck, keeping him in line.
They got up to the front after what seemed like hours, and Grodd was, not so gently, encouraged to sign up. He was required to sign his name, which may have been why he had been taught to read and write. When he did so, Vanessa pulled out some cash for his entrance fee, and he was given a scroll with words he didn’t recognize on it. “Kido” and “Kendo” to name a few. But before his first class, which Vanessa had to explain to him the meaning of, she hauled him off to one of her classes.
”I present to you my fifth year Capstone project. This is Grodd, a mentally handicapped boy with an above average spiritual presence. He was rescued in the Wilderness, and was incapable of speech, reading, writing, or any form of communication. He now knows how to read and write, and has been accepted at this institution as a student. This is my project to apply for early graduation into Squad 1.”
Grodd was angry, angrier than he had ever been. This chick had used him for her own personal gain. Had treated him with rough scorn, had suppressed his communicating with his hands, and she had even made him wear these stupid clothes, just so she could claim that he was handicapped and that she “fixed him” What a load of garbage. Grodd’s blood began to boil again, and he was unnerved by the voice that once again spoke to him, told him to do bad things.
”It will be better for you if she dies.”
Grodd immediately did not like the voice, especially when it was right inside his head and was so violent. He didn’t want to kill her, he didn’t want to kill anything at the moment, but the voice was so tempting and he was so angry. However, the last time he pushed her didn’t go so well, because she was much stronger than he was. She was a fifth year now, and he was a first year, if that. So he took the insults without acting on them, though he loathed the woman all the more.
She was granted her graduation, because the professors actually thought that she was a good leader if she could teach a handicapped person to read and write. Grodd wanted to scream at them all, but nothing would have come out anyways. So he entered a heavily depressed state instead, turning off any sort of emotion of happiness that he could have felt. The next weeks and months were a blur to him. His professors couldn’t get through to him, and he didn’t care.
He was getting failing scores in all of his classes, because he couldn’t really understand anything that was going on. History sucked the most because all the professor did was lecture, and Grodd had no frame of reference on all this material. He didn’t know what a Shinigami was, or a Zanpakutou, or anything that was being covered. All of his tests were turned in blank because he wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to do with them.
When the half way grades came around, he had Fs in all of his classes except Boxing which had a B-. He knew how to hit things really well. Everything else was failing because he couldn’t effectively communicate with his professors or understand what they were saying. He desperately needed a tutor, but he was too depressed and too rude to people for a tutor to be able to help him enough. The second half of the semester started out just like the first, with one small change.
The Spirit Communications professor was requested for active duty in the Gotei 13, so an adjunct professor took his place while a permanent teacher was found for the class. This adjunct professor noticed that Grodd was struggling and really put more effort into helping him. Because the class was based on self-awareness and meditation, it was the perfect environment for Grodd to receive special sessions via chalkboard.
The reason that the adjunct professor was so encouraging was that she too was mute. They could only communicate through the written word, because their signing didn’t match up at all, but they managed to talk. She told him about the transfer of souls and the three worlds, including Hollows and all manner of other races. He learned so much in that class, even though he hadn’t managed to communicate with the spirit inside of him. He, however, never mentioned the voice that wanted to kill everything. He was hoping that the voice did not belong to this Zanpakutou Spirit that was inside of him in order to guide him and empower him.
His grades started to improve. By the end of the semester, he had pulled up all of his grades to at least Ds, which were passing. By the end of the first year, he had Cs in all classes, and high Bs to low As in all of the physical classes such as Kendo and Boxing. The second year went very similarly to the first. It wasn’t until the third year that Grodd was able to actually meditate to the point where he could voluntarily enter his Inner World.
He recognized the forest; he had been there before. When he arrived, there was no beast of a gorilla, nor was there a scarred and tortured landscape. There was simply a small monkey sitting in a tree, looking at him with large oversized eyes. Grodd didn’t see any paper with which to write on to talk to the monkey, but he was shocked to not need it. The monkey started signing to him, in his own language! Tears nearly ran down his face as he found that he was able to talk in the way that made him feel accepted.
The two signed for a long time, but Grodd never did get the monkey’s name. She refused to give it to him when he asked. Said that he was not yet ready for it. Regardless, the biggest encouragement to Grodd was his Spirit told him that the Gorilla was not his guide, she was. He was to be wary of the Gorilla, and tell no one about him. He also was to be proud of his signs, and not stoop so low as to write on a pad for them to understand. He realized that in some cases he would need to, and she agreed, however she said not to forget his signs. They were the true form of communication.
The Professor of his class had to actually shake him out of his meditation to get him out. They thought that he had just fallen asleep, and didn’t believe him when he said he had seen his Spirit. Either way, he didn’t care about what they thought. The next years were a blur for him as he learned, a new sense of pride found in who he was. This lead to him being a bit more brash and rude to those who would not listen to his hands, but his Spirit soothed his anger when they lashed out at him for his actions. He had pride in himself, and that allowed him to get through the Academy with average grades. They weren’t spectacular, but they were passing.
Throughout the years, the biggest mystery to Grodd was the face of him who he called “savior” He had been able to see a roster of the Gotei 13 in one of his History classes, and recognized the man almost instantly in the Third squad. Not really knowing who he was, except for the fact that he had saved Grodd from something, he knew that he had no choice but to join that squad when he graduated. His fifth year was spent making sure he had all the prerequisites for the squad, and when he finally passed everything, he was finally accepted as a Shinigami.
The Beast Within him had been dormant and silent ever since Vanessa had left the school, and while Grodd wasn’t sure as to the reason for its inactivity, he was still ever wary for his return. That fearsome, angry, hungry voice was frightening, and not something that Grodd wanted to deal with any more. His Spirit, however, warned him that there would come a day when the Beast Within might strike, and that Grodd would need to overcome him, or be overcome himself.
The first thing Grodd remembered when waking up was that he was far too clothed. He woke up with a shirt AND pants on! He squirmed out of both of them, just leaving the undergarments that covered up his genitals. They were tight, but he didn’t want to be broom whipped again so he left them on. While he waited in the blank, empty room, his hands idly moved. He was chatting with himself, describing the room idly while commenting on how lifeless it was. There wasn’t even a potted plant in the room.
As he wandered around the room, talking to himself about the lack of anything green or nice to look at, a tray of food slid under the door to the only exit from the white room. The food looked delicious, and as soon as Grodd smelled it, he wanted to eat it. The vegetables were alright, but the chicken was absolutely amazing. As he ate his first cooked meal since becoming a soul, shoving it in his face and getting it everywhere, he could hear talking from the other side of the door. And they weren’t being quiet at all.
”So… what is he? He really doesn’t like wearing clothes at all…” Giggling commenced. At least one girl was behind the door. ”Yeah, and he’s kinda cute too.” More giggling. What were they talking about? What was this word “cute”. It was not in Grodd’s vocabulary. ”Shush up, you flirts. The instructors want to know what he is, not how attractive he is. His being found in the forest nearly naked makes them think he’s Beast Clan, not a Rukongai soul. Which could explain him being hungry and so vicious with his food.”
What was a Beast Clan? What was the Rukongai? These were all terms that Grodd was not familiar with. People didn’t give him the time of day, so he only knew what he could pick up from conversations in hushed whispers. People didn’t usually talk loud when the strange man was around. They could probably see him, so he began to talk to them. His hands moved in the ways he was comfortable with. They didn’t move so fast as to be a blur, but they moved fluidly from word to word.
He said “Hi, my name is Grodd, I think. It’s the only word I know to describe myself with. How are you? Will you talk to me and listen to my hands?” The talking from behind the door stopped nearly immediately. ”Not feral, but not normal either. He must be some sort of handicapped kid.” Handicapped… It was a word that Grodd had never heard before, but the way in which it was said made him extremely sad. All he knew was that he definitely didn’t want to be described as “handicapped”
The three girls walked into the room, all wearing the same clothes. Well, not the same pair of clothes, but the same style of clothes. Grodd thought that the kids talked about this kind of this as a “uniform”. Whatever it was, the red and white cloths were kind of interesting. However, Grodd’s fascination with the clothes didn’t last long. The three girls started talking really fast, all at the same time. He would try to make words, and one of them actually grabbed his hands to stop him.
This annoyed him. Very. Very. much. He made the gesture with his finger that the kids ran away from, but the girls just gasped. One of them slapped him in the face!! This was not the expected result from his actions. Usually people left him alone when he made rude gestures, but these girls became offended and offensive. ”Well he made be cute, but he’s not my type.” Sticking her tongue out, grossed out by his actions, she turned and walked off out of the room.
Meanwhile, Grodd tried to talk again with his hands. Every time, the girl who appeared to be the leader of the three grabbed his hands to stop him. ”If we’re going to make this kid into our pet project, we’re going to need to stop this nervous twitch of his.” Whatever this woman was talking about, she was only making Grodd angry. He shoved her back, but she wouldn’t budge. She didn’t appear to be strong, but she was incredibly capable, physically. ”Aww, he thinks he can brawl… but he’s trying to mess with the Top Student of Duel Class 4.”
None of that made any sense to Grodd, but he did recognize her strength and backed off. She was the Alpha male, even if she wasn’t a male. He backed off and stopped signing, but hating her for making him stop. He just wanted to communicate, and she refused to let him. He hated her more than the men and women who rejected his clothes preferences, and hated her more than the children who pestered him until he snapped. He hated her so much… And in her hate, his vision started to become red with blood.
Claw her throat out… Eat her…
The voice inside his head was overpowering, speaking louder than anything he had ever heard before. He stumbled backwards, dizzy, and nearly passed out, afraid of the voice that told him to destroy the woman in front of him. He resisted, and calmed down, but was visibly shaken by the whole matter. Thinking it just part of his mental handicap that she presumed him to have, the woman just laughed it off.
”I’m Vanessa. Welcome to your education.”
For weeks, this Vanessa painstakingly took the time to teach Grodd how to read and write. It was excruciatingly difficult, but she managed to
For a week he had a break from the rigorous training. He was let on a small leash, meaning he could explore the building he had been in, rather than being confined to the white empty room and the adjoining bathroom. It was a nice place, with very very few people, in fact, just the three girls lived there. They called it “off-campus housing” or something like that, which Grodd didn’t understand, but he didn’t try to either. Conversations with those three were always a pain.
After that week, Vanessa said it was time to “show him off”. He didn’t like that, especially because she
They got up to the front after what seemed like hours, and Grodd was, not so gently, encouraged to sign up. He was required to sign his name, which may have been why he had been taught to read and write. When he did so, Vanessa pulled out some cash for his entrance fee, and he was given a scroll with words he didn’t recognize on it. “Kido” and “Kendo” to name a few. But before his first class, which Vanessa had to explain to him the meaning of, she hauled him off to one of her classes.
”I present to you my fifth year Capstone project. This is Grodd, a mentally handicapped boy with an above average spiritual presence. He was rescued in the Wilderness, and was incapable of speech, reading, writing, or any form of communication. He now knows how to read and write, and has been accepted at this institution as a student. This is my project to apply for early graduation into Squad 1.”
Grodd was angry, angrier than he had ever been. This chick had used him for her own personal gain. Had treated him with rough scorn, had suppressed his communicating with his hands, and she had even made him wear these stupid clothes, just so she could claim that he was handicapped and that she “fixed him” What a load of garbage. Grodd’s blood began to boil again, and he was unnerved by the voice that once again spoke to him, told him to do bad things.
”It will be better for you if she dies.”
Grodd immediately did not like the voice, especially when it was right inside his head and was so violent. He didn’t want to kill her, he didn’t want to kill anything at the moment, but the voice was so tempting and he was so angry. However, the last time he pushed her didn’t go so well, because she was much stronger than he was. She was a fifth year now, and he was a first year, if that. So he took the insults without acting on them, though he loathed the woman all the more.
She was granted her graduation, because the professors actually thought that she was a good leader if she could teach a handicapped person to read and write. Grodd wanted to scream at them all, but nothing would have come out anyways. So he entered a heavily depressed state instead, turning off any sort of emotion of happiness that he could have felt. The next weeks and months were a blur to him. His professors couldn’t get through to him, and he didn’t care.
He was getting failing scores in all of his classes, because he couldn’t really understand anything that was going on. History sucked the most because all the professor did was lecture, and Grodd had no frame of reference on all this material. He didn’t know what a Shinigami was, or a Zanpakutou, or anything that was being covered. All of his tests were turned in blank because he wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to do with them.
When the half way grades came around, he had Fs in all of his classes except Boxing which had a B-. He knew how to hit things really well. Everything else was failing because he couldn’t effectively communicate with his professors or understand what they were saying. He desperately needed a tutor, but he was too depressed and too rude to people for a tutor to be able to help him enough. The second half of the semester started out just like the first, with one small change.
The Spirit Communications professor was requested for active duty in the Gotei 13, so an adjunct professor took his place while a permanent teacher was found for the class. This adjunct professor noticed that Grodd was struggling and really put more effort into helping him. Because the class was based on self-awareness and meditation, it was the perfect environment for Grodd to receive special sessions via chalkboard.
The reason that the adjunct professor was so encouraging was that she too was mute. They could only communicate through the written word, because their signing didn’t match up at all, but they managed to talk. She told him about the transfer of souls and the three worlds, including Hollows and all manner of other races. He learned so much in that class, even though he hadn’t managed to communicate with the spirit inside of him. He, however, never mentioned the voice that wanted to kill everything. He was hoping that the voice did not belong to this Zanpakutou Spirit that was inside of him in order to guide him and empower him.
His grades started to improve. By the end of the semester, he had pulled up all of his grades to at least Ds, which were passing. By the end of the first year, he had Cs in all classes, and high Bs to low As in all of the physical classes such as Kendo and Boxing. The second year went very similarly to the first. It wasn’t until the third year that Grodd was able to actually meditate to the point where he could voluntarily enter his Inner World.
He recognized the forest; he had been there before. When he arrived, there was no beast of a gorilla, nor was there a scarred and tortured landscape. There was simply a small monkey sitting in a tree, looking at him with large oversized eyes. Grodd didn’t see any paper with which to write on to talk to the monkey, but he was shocked to not need it. The monkey started signing to him, in his own language! Tears nearly ran down his face as he found that he was able to talk in the way that made him feel accepted.
The two signed for a long time, but Grodd never did get the monkey’s name. She refused to give it to him when he asked. Said that he was not yet ready for it. Regardless, the biggest encouragement to Grodd was his Spirit told him that the Gorilla was not his guide, she was. He was to be wary of the Gorilla, and tell no one about him. He also was to be proud of his signs, and not stoop so low as to write on a pad for them to understand. He realized that in some cases he would need to, and she agreed, however she said not to forget his signs. They were the true form of communication.
The Professor of his class had to actually shake him out of his meditation to get him out. They thought that he had just fallen asleep, and didn’t believe him when he said he had seen his Spirit. Either way, he didn’t care about what they thought. The next years were a blur for him as he learned, a new sense of pride found in who he was. This lead to him being a bit more brash and rude to those who would not listen to his hands, but his Spirit soothed his anger when they lashed out at him for his actions. He had pride in himself, and that allowed him to get through the Academy with average grades. They weren’t spectacular, but they were passing.
Throughout the years, the biggest mystery to Grodd was the face of him who he called “savior” He had been able to see a roster of the Gotei 13 in one of his History classes, and recognized the man almost instantly in the Third squad. Not really knowing who he was, except for the fact that he had saved Grodd from something, he knew that he had no choice but to join that squad when he graduated. His fifth year was spent making sure he had all the prerequisites for the squad, and when he finally passed everything, he was finally accepted as a Shinigami.
The Beast Within him had been dormant and silent ever since Vanessa had left the school, and while Grodd wasn’t sure as to the reason for its inactivity, he was still ever wary for his return. That fearsome, angry, hungry voice was frightening, and not something that Grodd wanted to deal with any more. His Spirit, however, warned him that there would come a day when the Beast Within might strike, and that Grodd would need to overcome him, or be overcome himself.
{Life as a Shinigami (Academy Graduate)}
Just graduating the Academy wasn't good enough to be accepted into a Squad. Most of the Squads had applications, examinations, and initiations. There was only one Squad option for Grodd, the Third Squad. Meian's Squad. Nothing else would do. So, when Grodd found out what he'd have to do in order to get into that Squad... Well... His heart was a little broken. The written application was fine and all, ever since Vanessa had taught him how to write and such, but when he heard about the Examination to even be Unseated in the Squad, he doubted his ability and his skill. And if he couldn't join this Squad, then he would have nothing to live for.
Grodd had no idea how to complete this task, and was woefully unprepared to try and gather information from people. He didn't know what the Third Division knew about and what they didn't know about, and he definitely didn't know if he could even begin to communicate with someone in order to get them to help. Just when he was about to give up, another recent graduate saw the same sign he was looking at. When she finished reading it, she grabbed his arm and started to squeal. "Oh, you must come with me! You're so strong, we could definitely do this together!"
Grodd had never seen her before, didn't know her name, didn't know anything about her, but she had just fallen into his lap and he wasn't about to give her up. He nodded once before making some sign language gestures. He slid his finger down his forearm from elbow to wrist, then formed a fist with his right hand and gently rocked it left and right. The girl looked confused, but rolled with it. She took his fist and pulled him towards the Senkaimon that already knew there was going to be a large influx of students being examined.
While waiting in line, she whispered into Grodd's ears so he could hear her while no one else could. "And here you thought that dying would keep you away from my Collection." All of a sudden very dizzy, Grodd had to grab onto her to stabilize himself. The voice that was whispered into his ear was not the same voice of the girl at the billboard. The voice was incredibly familiar, but he could not put his finger on where he had heard it. All he knew was that it filled him with an immense feeling of dread.
Upon reaching the end of the line, a Shinigami of Squad 13 stopped them and asked what Squad they were looking to join. Cheerfully, the girl piped up. Which helped, since Grodd couldn't speak at all. "Squad Three, oh big and manly Officer, sir!" Whatever the face behind facade was, the incredibly flirty nature of this woman scared Grodd more than the thought of being in a Collection of a man who could hide behind the face of a woman. True, it was probably just an act, but it reminded Grodd of Vanessa and her circle. How he had been used. As he thought about that, the Shinigami gave them a quick rundown on the Senkaimon and gave them a Hint provided by the Third Division for some hot spots for information.
As soon as the two passed through the Senkaimon, Grodd felt like something was wrong. They barely touched the ground before another portal opened up. And this portal wasn't like the door they had passed through so peacefully. This howling vortex of black energy seemed hungry, angry. The girl held up her right hand, revealing a ring with a black pearl set into it. This pearl seemed to be glowing, and any simpleton could figure out that it was causing this portal to be created. "In, Grodd. You do remember your name, right? The one I gave you?" Upon uttering those words, the girl started to shimmer, as if liquid light was falling off of her body.
When it was done falling, what stood in her place was a man. A tall man, in brown clothes with a funny hat. In his right hand was a bullwhip, and in his left a Herding Noose. How he hid those from Grodd, the man didn't know. All he knew was that he felt trapped, and felt like he should definitely be getting as far away as he could from that place. But before he could react, before he could run, Gravity was weighing down on him like a building being pressed on his shoulders, and the noose was being slipped around his neck. Only then did the Gravity relax, and he was thrust into the portal regardless of his will. Whoever this man was, he had enough strength to push even the abnormally strong Grodd without even straining.
When they emerged from the dark tunnel, which felt like an eternity of walking, they came out into a dark and barren landscape filled with sand as far as the eye could see. A lonely moon hung in the sky, if you could even call it a sky. It was as black as ink and extremely devoid of life. "Welcome to your new home. We'll head down to my Zoo now." The ring on his finger shining again, a pit opened up as the sand fell away, revealing a long winding set of stairs. Once again, Grodd was coerced into moving where the man wanted. The talk of a Zoo stirred memories in the Shinigami, but he didn't yet remember who the man was.
Whoever he was, he claimed to have named Grodd and he owned a Zoo. And as they descended, suddenly the winding stairs were not moving through sand, but were moving through air. Looking up, a ceiling of sand could be seen. Looking down... some sort of forest. The stone staircase continued to wind down all the way to the ground and after descending for what felt like at least a mile, the two finally reached the floor of the forest. The air seemed cold, like a graveyard might, but it did not feel still. There was movement happening all around, and various bestial roars could be heard in the distance.
The ring finally stopped glowing, and the stone stairs lost their support, and they fell to the ground as sand. This sealed Grodd's fate. Even if he wanted to, there was no way to escape and travel upwards more than a mile just to reach a ceiling of stone that he could not travel through on his own. All hope lost, he would have collapsed to the ground if it weren't for the rope around his neck still forcing him to travel in the direction that the other man wanted. They trudged through the forest of quartz-like trees, heading for some unknown location.
Before getting there, a roar shook the air as a monster rushed in from Grodd's left flank. He hadn't heard or seen anything due to his being distracted with walking and not being pushed over onto the ground. However, his captor was less surprised. Lifting up a leg, a knife was drawn out of his boot in one fluid motion. In the same movement as pulling it free, he also slashed outwards, sending a wave of reiatsu outwards. The towering black beast with the white mask was cut completely in half. Disappearing into thin air as if it was turned to ash, the man wasted no time in pushing Grodd forwards again like a brutal taskmaster.
Grodd had seen pictures and video of Hollows, but he had never seen a Menos class Gillian before. It was frightening to see something so large, towering far above him. Even if he had been able to react like his captor had, he wasn't quite sure that he would have had the courage to attack and not flee. Creatures bigger than him sparked some primal fear, but he still was nowhere closer to understanding who he had been. He only knew himself better than he had before. Which was good, but not satisfying.
It didn't take long before they ended up where the Zookeeper had planned for them to go. The structure was absolutely massive, and yet it couldn't be seen until you were right up next to it due to all of the crystal trees. What Grodd found to be his new home, this "Zoo", was an imitation of the Roman Coliseum, only it was at least four to five times bigger in size. Well, for all Grodd knew, the Roman Coliseum was an imitation of this place. It was incredibly large, with many entrances that were all impossible to see into. The darkened tunnels extended who knows how deep into the building. And towards the main tunnel, the one bigger than the others, Grodd was herded like cattle.
"Take one last look at the outside, Grodd. No one has ever escaped my Zoo." Not one to normally take orders from a captor, especially orders so grim, the Shinigami did turn back as best he could, considering the noose around his neck, to view the sand and crystal trees. He had been in their midst all of a few hours, but he would have rather been free in an unfamiliar forest with no way back to the Soul Society than inside that tunnel. But the Zookeeper had other plans, and pushed him onward.
The darkness enveloped Grodd, and he felt like he was being lead to a grave or tomb. The air grew colder as they continued walking deeper into the Coliseum or the Zoo, whatever it was. As they walked for what felt like a quarter mile, a pale light started to be visible at the end of the tunnel. When reaching it, the Shinigmai found himself thrust into a massive cavern, many miles across in diameter. While it may have once been an arena for sport, what occupied the bulk of the round floor were immense metal cages that looked out of place among the ancient stone that the outer structure was made out of.
Inside all of the cages were animals and beasts of all kinds. Grodd noticed Hollows of every evolution he had been taught about in school, even including Vasto Lorde, and some kinds of creatures that he had never imagined. While he didn't know what they were, he could read the plaques and see the odd names. Hason, Bount Doll, Beast Clan, Mod Soul. These were names that Grodd was not familiar with, but the creatures inside were fascinating. While some of them were just round orbs on pedestals, some of them were monsters that appeared straight from Hell.
If only Grodd knew that they -were- from Hell...
The Shinigami found himself in a cage much like all the rest, and from what he could see, his Plaque read "...la, Former Hollow, Shinigami" He couldn't stretch around enough to see the first half of the plaque, so whatever it said, the information on who he used to be was still hidden from him. Well, at least he knew now that he used to be a Hollow. That would explain his visions of Meian as his Savior. Meian must have purified him. Grodd made a mental note (that he would completely forget later, unfortunately) to try and thank Meian if he ever got out of this Zoo.
But as time went on, Grodd became more and more hopeless. With no sun or moon to chart the days and no change in the constant dim light that filled the Zoo, the Shinigami had no idea how long he had been down there. At first he had tried to smash the doors of the cage, but that only caused him pain as they were not only much stronger than he could hope to weaken but also electrified as to discourage touching. Digging also brought no escape as the stone was harder than any material Grodd had seen before. With absolutely no way out, that he could see, the Shinigami went into a gloom and despair that lasted for many days, or at least it felt like many days.
In reality, his caged time lasted three months. Three long months of basic sustenance and being on display for the Zookeeper. This arena was much less like a Zoo and more like a Collection or an Archive, seeing as there were never any gawking visitors, or any visitors for that matter except the Keeper. That is, until there was a familiar face that stood in front of Grodd. He thought it a hallucination when he saw the face, he thought himself crazy when he heard the voice. "Well, would you look at that. The Soul Society thinks you're dead. But here you are, either captured or simply incognito. Did you think that this would work to get into the Third Division? Because in that cage you can't really gather any information."
What was she doing here? Vanessa Parker, the woman who had used him for her own goals, and suppressed his natural tendencies of speech and nudity. Vanessa Parker, Unseated Shinigami of the First Division... Well, now it looked like she had a seat, as evidence by the band on her arm. What was she doing in this Zoo? Grodd had no time (and let's be real, no ability) to ask her why she was here, but in truth he was glad to see an allied face. And with her Zanpakutou in hand, she managed to cut at the electrified bars and sever them with no damage to herself. So that made him really glad to see her.
As he hurried to try and keep up with her, she rattled off what she knew. "So there's been a lot of abducted Shinigami lately, most of them being formerly hollow or formerly animals in past lives. We managed to trace one here, but it was too late, the poor girl killed herself because of the depression from being caged. She had been a bird, with so much freedom..." Grodd didn't know why Vanessa was suddenly talking to him like an actual person rather than just a dumb animal who was a tool for her success, but he was sort of comforted by it.
Vanessa moved quickly, freeing a couple other captured Shinigami and some Beast Clan for some reason. Grodd had yet to come across that race, so he was not aware that they were a Soul Society dwelling race. But he was happy to be rescued, so he continued moving on. It didn't take long, however, for a feeling of dread and force to weigh down on all of the people being rescued. The Zookeeper had returned to find some of his Collection escaping, and he was not amused. He was applying Gravitational Pressure to all of the escaping "collections", and only Vanessa was able to stand against it.
She turned and charged at the man, her katana changing into a massive Buster Sword as she called out. "Crush, Ryū no ken!" Swinging the large weapon at the Zookeeper, in a flash his sword was also raised, attempting to parry hers aside. With a blast of fire the point at which her weapon came into contact with his exploded, sending his arm reeling backwards and his body skidding aside. It was then that Grodd saw the ring with the black pearl fall to the ground. The ring that had created the portal from this world to the Human world.
A Shunpo, the only really complicated move that Grodd knew, brought him to the ring, which he scooped up from the ground which it had fallen to. This caused the Zookeeper to turn his attention to the man, but Vanessa wasn't having any of it. "I didn't come all the way down here just to lose someone! And I definitely didn't take the time to teach you to read and get you into the Academy just to watch you die!" This struck Grodd deeply. Vanessa could actually have cared for him? Absurd. Her methods were rough and her treatment of him poor. He barely believed it. But here she was, saving him, and now she was stepping in front of him with her own step technique.
She did not have time to move her large sword into a defensive position, and as the Zookeeper's slash was already headed in the direction to cut into Grodd, Vanessa was right in the path of the attack. Blood spattered the ground and painted Grodd's side red as Vanessa's right arm was sliced from her body. The sight of the blood caused a rise in the male Shinigami, something that he had never felt before. And as he felt himself losing control of his emotions and his sense of self, he heard an all too familiar voice inside his head. One that he had not heard in some time.
The voice of the Beast Within.
"Blood... Bring me Blood... SHED MORE BLOOD! SHED ALL OF THE BLOOD!"
With no control of himself, the Shinigami charged at the Zookeeper, powerful fists slamming into the man's torso unexpectedly as the man's skill in boxing was shown. The keeper took a few blows that seemed to cause some internal damage as blood started to drip from his mouth, but he recovered from the surprise and slapped aside Grodd. "Know your place, animal." As the bruises from the painful Cutback effect started to take their toll on the Shinigami's arms, he collapsed, his bloodlust already sated due to exhaustion. This seemed to be the end.
But Vanessa wasn't yet done with the fight. She had recovered from the pain of losing an arm and was swinging her large sword at the Zookeeper's side. The man was ready for her attack, and expecting the explosion of force and heat, but he wasn't expecting her technique that gave her the edge. Having been distracted with Grodd for a split moment, Vanessa had managed to charge up the energy she needed to unleash a much bigger attack. "Meteor Strike Alpha!" Rather than just an explosion of heat, what shot out of the buster sword's blade was a flaming boulder headed straight for the zookeeper's side.
Not expecting anything more than melee attacks, the man was swept aside by the boulder and thrust into one of his own cages, which was promptly locked by a Shinigami on the sidelines who wanted revenge. As Grodd's senses started to come to, he remembered the ring with the pearl, which was their ticket home. He didn't know exactly how to use it, but he could try, and he poured all of his effort and reiatsu into the ring, hoping to go home. The portal sputtered open, to his satisfaction, and the rescued inhabitants of the Zoo poured in, with Grodd and Vanessa close behind.
Well, not close enough for one of them.
The Shinigami of the First Division suddenly stopped running, which confused Grodd. He turned to see Vanessa's waist wrapped by a whip coming out from behind bars. Grodd wanted to intervene, but the bars were being torn apart by the Zookeeper from the inside, his sword cutting them apart. "Fly, you fool." Not needing to be told twice, Grodd fled through the portal, it closing behind him, thankfully. He ran and he ran until he reached the end of the portal into the Land of the Living, where a Shinigami rescue party from the 13th Division was already ferrying people through the Senkaimon.
Once back into the Soul Society, Grodd took the ring that he received to the Third Division. He wrote up a report, even though he hated writing, about his experiences against the Zookeeper, and gave them the Ring as a way to study/use portals between worlds. This was acceptable enough for a barely passing grade, which entered the man into the division he had hoped to be in ever since finding out about Meian. The ordeal had caused him to forget why Meian was his "savior" but he still knew it to be true.
If only he had known that Meian had been dead for some time...
Just graduating the Academy wasn't good enough to be accepted into a Squad. Most of the Squads had applications, examinations, and initiations. There was only one Squad option for Grodd, the Third Squad. Meian's Squad. Nothing else would do. So, when Grodd found out what he'd have to do in order to get into that Squad... Well... His heart was a little broken. The written application was fine and all, ever since Vanessa had taught him how to write and such, but when he heard about the Examination to even be Unseated in the Squad, he doubted his ability and his skill. And if he couldn't join this Squad, then he would have nothing to live for.
Examination for the Third Division
The Applicant must travel into another World, whether it be the World of Humans or Hollows or Hell.
The Applicant must return with scouted Knowledge previously unknown to the Third Division.
The Applicant may complete this task with another Applicant and/or up to 1 Shinigami of the 3rd Squad.
The Applicant has no time limit.
The Applicant must, upon completing this task, report their findings to a Seated Officer.
The Applicant must travel into another World, whether it be the World of Humans or Hollows or Hell.
The Applicant must return with scouted Knowledge previously unknown to the Third Division.
The Applicant may complete this task with another Applicant and/or up to 1 Shinigami of the 3rd Squad.
The Applicant has no time limit.
The Applicant must, upon completing this task, report their findings to a Seated Officer.
Grodd had no idea how to complete this task, and was woefully unprepared to try and gather information from people. He didn't know what the Third Division knew about and what they didn't know about, and he definitely didn't know if he could even begin to communicate with someone in order to get them to help. Just when he was about to give up, another recent graduate saw the same sign he was looking at. When she finished reading it, she grabbed his arm and started to squeal. "Oh, you must come with me! You're so strong, we could definitely do this together!"
Grodd had never seen her before, didn't know her name, didn't know anything about her, but she had just fallen into his lap and he wasn't about to give her up. He nodded once before making some sign language gestures. He slid his finger down his forearm from elbow to wrist, then formed a fist with his right hand and gently rocked it left and right. The girl looked confused, but rolled with it. She took his fist and pulled him towards the Senkaimon that already knew there was going to be a large influx of students being examined.
While waiting in line, she whispered into Grodd's ears so he could hear her while no one else could. "And here you thought that dying would keep you away from my Collection." All of a sudden very dizzy, Grodd had to grab onto her to stabilize himself. The voice that was whispered into his ear was not the same voice of the girl at the billboard. The voice was incredibly familiar, but he could not put his finger on where he had heard it. All he knew was that it filled him with an immense feeling of dread.
Upon reaching the end of the line, a Shinigami of Squad 13 stopped them and asked what Squad they were looking to join. Cheerfully, the girl piped up. Which helped, since Grodd couldn't speak at all. "Squad Three, oh big and manly Officer, sir!" Whatever the face behind facade was, the incredibly flirty nature of this woman scared Grodd more than the thought of being in a Collection of a man who could hide behind the face of a woman. True, it was probably just an act, but it reminded Grodd of Vanessa and her circle. How he had been used. As he thought about that, the Shinigami gave them a quick rundown on the Senkaimon and gave them a Hint provided by the Third Division for some hot spots for information.
As soon as the two passed through the Senkaimon, Grodd felt like something was wrong. They barely touched the ground before another portal opened up. And this portal wasn't like the door they had passed through so peacefully. This howling vortex of black energy seemed hungry, angry. The girl held up her right hand, revealing a ring with a black pearl set into it. This pearl seemed to be glowing, and any simpleton could figure out that it was causing this portal to be created. "In, Grodd. You do remember your name, right? The one I gave you?" Upon uttering those words, the girl started to shimmer, as if liquid light was falling off of her body.
When it was done falling, what stood in her place was a man. A tall man, in brown clothes with a funny hat. In his right hand was a bullwhip, and in his left a Herding Noose. How he hid those from Grodd, the man didn't know. All he knew was that he felt trapped, and felt like he should definitely be getting as far away as he could from that place. But before he could react, before he could run, Gravity was weighing down on him like a building being pressed on his shoulders, and the noose was being slipped around his neck. Only then did the Gravity relax, and he was thrust into the portal regardless of his will. Whoever this man was, he had enough strength to push even the abnormally strong Grodd without even straining.
When they emerged from the dark tunnel, which felt like an eternity of walking, they came out into a dark and barren landscape filled with sand as far as the eye could see. A lonely moon hung in the sky, if you could even call it a sky. It was as black as ink and extremely devoid of life. "Welcome to your new home. We'll head down to my Zoo now." The ring on his finger shining again, a pit opened up as the sand fell away, revealing a long winding set of stairs. Once again, Grodd was coerced into moving where the man wanted. The talk of a Zoo stirred memories in the Shinigami, but he didn't yet remember who the man was.
Whoever he was, he claimed to have named Grodd and he owned a Zoo. And as they descended, suddenly the winding stairs were not moving through sand, but were moving through air. Looking up, a ceiling of sand could be seen. Looking down... some sort of forest. The stone staircase continued to wind down all the way to the ground and after descending for what felt like at least a mile, the two finally reached the floor of the forest. The air seemed cold, like a graveyard might, but it did not feel still. There was movement happening all around, and various bestial roars could be heard in the distance.
The ring finally stopped glowing, and the stone stairs lost their support, and they fell to the ground as sand. This sealed Grodd's fate. Even if he wanted to, there was no way to escape and travel upwards more than a mile just to reach a ceiling of stone that he could not travel through on his own. All hope lost, he would have collapsed to the ground if it weren't for the rope around his neck still forcing him to travel in the direction that the other man wanted. They trudged through the forest of quartz-like trees, heading for some unknown location.
Before getting there, a roar shook the air as a monster rushed in from Grodd's left flank. He hadn't heard or seen anything due to his being distracted with walking and not being pushed over onto the ground. However, his captor was less surprised. Lifting up a leg, a knife was drawn out of his boot in one fluid motion. In the same movement as pulling it free, he also slashed outwards, sending a wave of reiatsu outwards. The towering black beast with the white mask was cut completely in half. Disappearing into thin air as if it was turned to ash, the man wasted no time in pushing Grodd forwards again like a brutal taskmaster.
Grodd had seen pictures and video of Hollows, but he had never seen a Menos class Gillian before. It was frightening to see something so large, towering far above him. Even if he had been able to react like his captor had, he wasn't quite sure that he would have had the courage to attack and not flee. Creatures bigger than him sparked some primal fear, but he still was nowhere closer to understanding who he had been. He only knew himself better than he had before. Which was good, but not satisfying.
It didn't take long before they ended up where the Zookeeper had planned for them to go. The structure was absolutely massive, and yet it couldn't be seen until you were right up next to it due to all of the crystal trees. What Grodd found to be his new home, this "Zoo", was an imitation of the Roman Coliseum, only it was at least four to five times bigger in size. Well, for all Grodd knew, the Roman Coliseum was an imitation of this place. It was incredibly large, with many entrances that were all impossible to see into. The darkened tunnels extended who knows how deep into the building. And towards the main tunnel, the one bigger than the others, Grodd was herded like cattle.
"Take one last look at the outside, Grodd. No one has ever escaped my Zoo." Not one to normally take orders from a captor, especially orders so grim, the Shinigami did turn back as best he could, considering the noose around his neck, to view the sand and crystal trees. He had been in their midst all of a few hours, but he would have rather been free in an unfamiliar forest with no way back to the Soul Society than inside that tunnel. But the Zookeeper had other plans, and pushed him onward.
The darkness enveloped Grodd, and he felt like he was being lead to a grave or tomb. The air grew colder as they continued walking deeper into the Coliseum or the Zoo, whatever it was. As they walked for what felt like a quarter mile, a pale light started to be visible at the end of the tunnel. When reaching it, the Shinigmai found himself thrust into a massive cavern, many miles across in diameter. While it may have once been an arena for sport, what occupied the bulk of the round floor were immense metal cages that looked out of place among the ancient stone that the outer structure was made out of.
Inside all of the cages were animals and beasts of all kinds. Grodd noticed Hollows of every evolution he had been taught about in school, even including Vasto Lorde, and some kinds of creatures that he had never imagined. While he didn't know what they were, he could read the plaques and see the odd names. Hason, Bount Doll, Beast Clan, Mod Soul. These were names that Grodd was not familiar with, but the creatures inside were fascinating. While some of them were just round orbs on pedestals, some of them were monsters that appeared straight from Hell.
If only Grodd knew that they -were- from Hell...
The Shinigami found himself in a cage much like all the rest, and from what he could see, his Plaque read "...la, Former Hollow, Shinigami" He couldn't stretch around enough to see the first half of the plaque, so whatever it said, the information on who he used to be was still hidden from him. Well, at least he knew now that he used to be a Hollow. That would explain his visions of Meian as his Savior. Meian must have purified him. Grodd made a mental note (that he would completely forget later, unfortunately) to try and thank Meian if he ever got out of this Zoo.
But as time went on, Grodd became more and more hopeless. With no sun or moon to chart the days and no change in the constant dim light that filled the Zoo, the Shinigami had no idea how long he had been down there. At first he had tried to smash the doors of the cage, but that only caused him pain as they were not only much stronger than he could hope to weaken but also electrified as to discourage touching. Digging also brought no escape as the stone was harder than any material Grodd had seen before. With absolutely no way out, that he could see, the Shinigami went into a gloom and despair that lasted for many days, or at least it felt like many days.
In reality, his caged time lasted three months. Three long months of basic sustenance and being on display for the Zookeeper. This arena was much less like a Zoo and more like a Collection or an Archive, seeing as there were never any gawking visitors, or any visitors for that matter except the Keeper. That is, until there was a familiar face that stood in front of Grodd. He thought it a hallucination when he saw the face, he thought himself crazy when he heard the voice. "Well, would you look at that. The Soul Society thinks you're dead. But here you are, either captured or simply incognito. Did you think that this would work to get into the Third Division? Because in that cage you can't really gather any information."
What was she doing here? Vanessa Parker, the woman who had used him for her own goals, and suppressed his natural tendencies of speech and nudity. Vanessa Parker, Unseated Shinigami of the First Division... Well, now it looked like she had a seat, as evidence by the band on her arm. What was she doing in this Zoo? Grodd had no time (and let's be real, no ability) to ask her why she was here, but in truth he was glad to see an allied face. And with her Zanpakutou in hand, she managed to cut at the electrified bars and sever them with no damage to herself. So that made him really glad to see her.
As he hurried to try and keep up with her, she rattled off what she knew. "So there's been a lot of abducted Shinigami lately, most of them being formerly hollow or formerly animals in past lives. We managed to trace one here, but it was too late, the poor girl killed herself because of the depression from being caged. She had been a bird, with so much freedom..." Grodd didn't know why Vanessa was suddenly talking to him like an actual person rather than just a dumb animal who was a tool for her success, but he was sort of comforted by it.
Vanessa moved quickly, freeing a couple other captured Shinigami and some Beast Clan for some reason. Grodd had yet to come across that race, so he was not aware that they were a Soul Society dwelling race. But he was happy to be rescued, so he continued moving on. It didn't take long, however, for a feeling of dread and force to weigh down on all of the people being rescued. The Zookeeper had returned to find some of his Collection escaping, and he was not amused. He was applying Gravitational Pressure to all of the escaping "collections", and only Vanessa was able to stand against it.
She turned and charged at the man, her katana changing into a massive Buster Sword as she called out. "Crush, Ryū no ken!" Swinging the large weapon at the Zookeeper, in a flash his sword was also raised, attempting to parry hers aside. With a blast of fire the point at which her weapon came into contact with his exploded, sending his arm reeling backwards and his body skidding aside. It was then that Grodd saw the ring with the black pearl fall to the ground. The ring that had created the portal from this world to the Human world.
A Shunpo, the only really complicated move that Grodd knew, brought him to the ring, which he scooped up from the ground which it had fallen to. This caused the Zookeeper to turn his attention to the man, but Vanessa wasn't having any of it. "I didn't come all the way down here just to lose someone! And I definitely didn't take the time to teach you to read and get you into the Academy just to watch you die!" This struck Grodd deeply. Vanessa could actually have cared for him? Absurd. Her methods were rough and her treatment of him poor. He barely believed it. But here she was, saving him, and now she was stepping in front of him with her own step technique.
She did not have time to move her large sword into a defensive position, and as the Zookeeper's slash was already headed in the direction to cut into Grodd, Vanessa was right in the path of the attack. Blood spattered the ground and painted Grodd's side red as Vanessa's right arm was sliced from her body. The sight of the blood caused a rise in the male Shinigami, something that he had never felt before. And as he felt himself losing control of his emotions and his sense of self, he heard an all too familiar voice inside his head. One that he had not heard in some time.
The voice of the Beast Within.
"Blood... Bring me Blood... SHED MORE BLOOD! SHED ALL OF THE BLOOD!"
With no control of himself, the Shinigami charged at the Zookeeper, powerful fists slamming into the man's torso unexpectedly as the man's skill in boxing was shown. The keeper took a few blows that seemed to cause some internal damage as blood started to drip from his mouth, but he recovered from the surprise and slapped aside Grodd. "Know your place, animal." As the bruises from the painful Cutback effect started to take their toll on the Shinigami's arms, he collapsed, his bloodlust already sated due to exhaustion. This seemed to be the end.
But Vanessa wasn't yet done with the fight. She had recovered from the pain of losing an arm and was swinging her large sword at the Zookeeper's side. The man was ready for her attack, and expecting the explosion of force and heat, but he wasn't expecting her technique that gave her the edge. Having been distracted with Grodd for a split moment, Vanessa had managed to charge up the energy she needed to unleash a much bigger attack. "Meteor Strike Alpha!" Rather than just an explosion of heat, what shot out of the buster sword's blade was a flaming boulder headed straight for the zookeeper's side.
Not expecting anything more than melee attacks, the man was swept aside by the boulder and thrust into one of his own cages, which was promptly locked by a Shinigami on the sidelines who wanted revenge. As Grodd's senses started to come to, he remembered the ring with the pearl, which was their ticket home. He didn't know exactly how to use it, but he could try, and he poured all of his effort and reiatsu into the ring, hoping to go home. The portal sputtered open, to his satisfaction, and the rescued inhabitants of the Zoo poured in, with Grodd and Vanessa close behind.
Well, not close enough for one of them.
The Shinigami of the First Division suddenly stopped running, which confused Grodd. He turned to see Vanessa's waist wrapped by a whip coming out from behind bars. Grodd wanted to intervene, but the bars were being torn apart by the Zookeeper from the inside, his sword cutting them apart. "Fly, you fool." Not needing to be told twice, Grodd fled through the portal, it closing behind him, thankfully. He ran and he ran until he reached the end of the portal into the Land of the Living, where a Shinigami rescue party from the 13th Division was already ferrying people through the Senkaimon.
Once back into the Soul Society, Grodd took the ring that he received to the Third Division. He wrote up a report, even though he hated writing, about his experiences against the Zookeeper, and gave them the Ring as a way to study/use portals between worlds. This was acceptable enough for a barely passing grade, which entered the man into the division he had hoped to be in ever since finding out about Meian. The ordeal had caused him to forget why Meian was his "savior" but he still knew it to be true.
If only he had known that Meian had been dead for some time...
{Stats And Abilities}
Strength - [300 x1.25 (375)] Points
Speed - [150] Points
Spiritual Pressure - [200 x.75 (150)] Points
Reiatsu Strength - [200 x1.25 (250)] Points
Light Aura - [35] Points
Dark Aura - [65] Points
Instinct - [200 x.75 (150)] Points
Senses - [100] Points
Energy sensory - [50 x1.25 (63)] Points
Healing Expertise - [0] Points
Total SP: [1200] Points
Skills
[Boxing] {2}
[Hakuda] {2}
[Pain Tolerance] {2}
[Strength of Will] {2}
Damage Recovery] {2}
[Cold Tolerance] {1}
[Mental Incantation] {1}
Strength - [300 x1.25 (375)] Points
Speed - [150] Points
Spiritual Pressure - [200 x.75 (150)] Points
Reiatsu Strength - [200 x1.25 (250)] Points
Light Aura - [35] Points
Dark Aura - [65] Points
Instinct - [200 x.75 (150)] Points
Senses - [100] Points
Energy sensory - [50 x1.25 (63)] Points
Healing Expertise - [0] Points
Total SP: [1200] Points
Skills
[Boxing] {2}
[Hakuda] {2}
[Pain Tolerance] {2}
[Strength of Will] {2}
Damage Recovery] {2}
[Cold Tolerance] {1}
[Mental Incantation] {1}