Post by Douglas Everheart on May 23, 2019 13:34:12 GMT -5
-Opening-
Discord/Chatango Username (include nicknames): Yaksha
Password 1: Sun Clap
Password 2: Moon Pray
Type: Kenpachi
Affiliation: Mercenary
Rank: 1
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-Basic Information-
Name: Douglas Everheart
Real Age/Age of Appearance: 73/73
Birthday (Month/Day): September 9, 1945
Blood Type: O-
RP Sample (Optional):
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-Appearance-
Height/Weight: 5'11, 170 lbs
Physical Description: Douglas looks far less physically impressive than he actually is, with hair that is extremely grey, and plenty of wrinkles. He's managed to maintain a very sophisticated and regal appearance, giving off the impression of someone who, in his younger years, was Yakuza or some similarly unsavory group. He's managed to keep his hair, and it grows in rich and very strong, making it easy to convince people he's somewhere in his 50s instead of a decade into retirement. He has extremely angular features, with cheekbones that look like they could cut a man, and a strong jaw that leaves little question as to the sort of attention he got in his youth. He typically wears military fatigues, though there are no dog-tags or actual identification to be found: only camoflauge and very baggy outfits.
Douglas moves exactly as you'd expect from a man in his 70s, under normal circumstances, with a plodding overly-cautious gait that makes it seem like he probably has bad hips, bad ankles, bad knees, and all around badness. His eyes, however, are a rich and vibrant brown that look like they belong in the head of someone half his age, brimming with exuberance and delight. He speaks with an American accent, most often claiming to hail from the Bible belt if pressed on the topic: Indeed, in the midst of combat one can hear a drawl enter his voice with increasing heaviness. It sometimes reaches the point that it's completely impossible to understand either his threats or his provocations if he's been in a long conflict.
In fights however, Douglas seems to change into another type entirely: He's -always- on the move, far more physically competent than his appearance and normal demeanor would imply. He ducks and weaves, pantomiming boxing moves, or dancing in place, always waiting for the next challenge, and facing it head-on without hesitation or complaint. Indeed, when fighting one can actually see a glimpse of the man he once was, full of more life and vitality than anyone his age should ever be able to drum up. He takes full advantage of this fact, always maintaining his fragile old man image until the time is just right to start turning enemies' expectations on their heads.
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-Personality-
Dislikes: Shinigami- For reasons Douglas rarely goes into, Douglas seems to look on shinigami and the Gotei with almost unilateral disdain: He'll insult them, draw weapons with little provocation, and generally always treats them as enemies whenever they're present.
Names- Douglas hates giving or asking for names, to the point that he'll sometimes interrupt others in the middle of introducing themselves. Nicknames and titles are almost always the norm with him, meaning that it's extremely hard to ever feel a real sense of connection to him.
Waiting- Douglas will skip to the front of lines, pull out his phone to check a text, and generally do anything one can imagine to show just how precious he values his own time on an everyday basis. He'll typically talk about timeframes in hilariously exaggerated terms, discussing the number of ice ages it takes to finish a subway ride, or the rise and fall of civilizations while he's using the bathroom. Always, Douglas seems to be itching to get on the move once more.
Soft foods- Douglas still has all of his original teeth, and takes great pride in it. Whenever someone offers to share ice cream, pudding, or any other food that one would normally think of giving to infants or the extremely elderly, Douglas will start to go on yet another tirade of some sort or another.
Silence- Douglas surrounds himself with noise and color at all times of the day. You can find him surfing his smart phone, listening to airpods, or generally engaging in the sort of hedonistic stimulation people expect from millenials. He rarely bothers to respond to those who point out this is abnormal, besides a vague grin.
Likes: Spicy foods- Douglas is a great fan of food in general, and will spend most of his free time trying whatever regional cuisine he can find while on the move. He particularly loves foods that would give him an ulcer, or cause indigestion, going out of his way to seek them out in instances where he otherwise could find a very fast and easy meal.
Vagueness- Getting Douglas to explain himself is almost always like pulling teeth: He'll smile smugly, make vague allusions, or outright insult anyone who asks him to explain himself or justify his statements. Playing mind games seems to delight Douglas more than it should, and he plays with all of his cards so close to his chest they're basically sewed onto his pectorals.
Smoking- Douglas doesn't vape, and makes his opinion on the topic well known. He'll smoke in very public areas, and get extremely sardonic or irate when asked to stop, littering in the process of putting out his cigarette or making sure to blow the remaining smoke directly into a fan or someone's face. He shows little respect for those who worry about health or well-being, once again acting as if he knows something they don't.
The Internet- Douglas browses various online communities, almost always looking for any reference to the supernatural or out-of-place. He's extremely literate in internet aphorisms, and spends no small amount of time playing first person shooters. Whenever not on a job, Douglas can usually be found seeking out the nearest internet cafe to start getting plugged in once more.
Kids- Douglas enjoys teaching, particularly when he finds youth that he can sense are coming into their awareness of the world hiding just behind their eyes and ears. He shows a soft side and an openness that adults can almost never drag out of him, often speaking with them as peers and sharing of various juvenile passtimes he's come to find in his spare time over the years. The few adults he can get along with are those who share in his juvenile tastes.
Anime- Douglas had far too much free time on his hands outside of his investments and returns, and often spent his free time with various pluses he met, introducing them to modern culture in various ways. With every passing year, he sought to introduce them to more and more modern amenities, and in that time he came to absorb and appreciate a great deal of culture from other countries. Douglas is well-versed in both animation and video games from Japan, in particular spending the last five years immersing himself heavily in preparation for a trip to Karakura.
Flaws:
Paranoid- Douglas seems to have a more-than-irrational fear of being lied-to and deceived, so he takes very careful note of everyone he's met and every interaction he's had. He's lost many friendships exploding into a rage over someone doing background checks on him, or bringing up a topic he doesn't remember bringing up himself. It's extremely easy to make Douglas go from 0 to 100, leading to violent outbursts and property damage, from something as simple as calling him by his last name.
Flippant- Douglas almost never takes things around him seriously, spouting jokes and trying to come up with hilarious names or anecdotes to discuss on the fly. He'll sing to himself while fighting, or start listening to music while cleaning a weapon he plans to use in the future. Despite his hair-trigger temper, Douglas is by far one of the least somber or professional people you'll meet, always moving and behaving as if he were completely detached from worldly concerns like money or reputation.
Dramatic- Douglas never takes half-measures, often clearing out entire buildings before starting conversations, and leading conversations with proclamations of doom, just to get everyone present worried that he's about to mention the start of the apocalypse. He's always trying to find a way to send a bigger, louder message, to drown out every other voice shouting for attention in a room, and to make himself stand out as the biggest swinging dick in the city.
Habits: Memes- Douglas is more up-to-date with internet culture than a lot of people half his age, and he'll often pepper his conversations with esoteric references or outright ridiculous quotes, for no other reason than to find others who have heard the same soundbite taken out of context, or those who wish to engage in a conversation of no real meaning with him.
Humming- Douglas is rarely silent, even in an empty room. He'll hum to himself, typically whatever song he most recently heard, while waiting for something to happen near him. If he isn't humming, it's probably because he's actually listening to music at that moment.
Fears:
Going Senile- Douglas fears for his sanity more than is healthy, even for a man at his age. He keeps constant meticulous notes, backed up in hard copy and electronically, and will always make sure he has two forms of backup to consult before he allows his own memories to be challenged.
His Past- Douglas doesn't enjoy talking about, confronting, or being reminded of what he's done to get to where he is. He maintains an aura of almost zen-like detachment, but it's quickly spoiled if anyone asks him about his place of birth or friends he's made previously. He seems to be outright -afraid- of past events, whether referring to himself or others, as if by acknowledging historical events he'll be inviting them to happen once again.
Goals: Topple the Gotei- No one is quite sure why, but Douglas -despises- the Seireitei, and holds little to no love for their everyday agents. He openly announces himself to be their opponent, and will almost always unilaterally deny any attempt at compromise or alliance proposed by a shinigami.
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Overall Personality: Douglas always claims to be a "young soul trapped in an old body" and the claim checks out when one looks into it. He's far less comfortable with silence or stillness than anyone who's lived to retirement should be, but he has little interest in actually being productive or helpful: Douglas is as happy watching a triple feature at a movie theater or bar crawling as he is hunting hollows, almost never being found reading books or sitting quietly. He's always making some noise of his own if there's none being made by others, and he's hard-pressed to take anyone else or their commentary seriously even in the worst of times. He'll crack wise the moment he hears someone else's name, as soon as they release their powers, and when he's on the verge of death, never once stopping to take into consideration the possibility that he'll actually suffer consequences.
He takes a perverse glee in confusing or overwhelming others: When meeting new humans who are just being introduced to the spirit world, he'll cram entire weeks' worth of information into their heads in short order, often laughing or waving off protests to slow down entirely. He acts in many instances as if he knows more than anyone else, as if he's already taken control of the situation, and he's loathe to give it up even when his life is at risk. His demeanor around anyone who's aware of the spirit world is one of a person far more well-learned than he has any right to be: He speaks of the Rukongai and Hueco Mundo as if he has first-hand experience of the words, he speaks of hollows and shinigami in flat declarative manners that almost brings to mind a soldier talking about enemies in a war. Whenever pressed on the topic, he simply laughs it off, but there's something undeniable about Douglas: He's far more knowledgeable than he should be.
Those who know Douglas well start to get a better sense of the reasons for his insane and out-of-place lifestyle: He never quite grew up after the age of 20. He's still trapped in his glory days, thinking about a world that he left behind long ago. Strangely enough, for someone who still considers himself to be of marrying age and has no real concept of his own mortality, Douglas is very good at keeping up with the times: He's up to date on current events, able to connect with younger audiences with little effort, and he feels no fear or loathing for the newer technological marvels that came with the advent of computers.
In truth, Douglas's problem is remarkably simple, though horribly obdurate: He believes nothing he's experiencing is real. Trapped with his own thoughts for a touch too long, Douglas cracked somewhere inside, and never fully mended; becoming fully aware of the fragility of sanity and how easily a person can be led to believe in lies, Douglas earnestly thinks everything supernatural is the result of his own diseased mind, some wish-fulfillment fantasy not unlike a video game or a cartoon. He treats the people he meets as an escapist fantasy, rarely stopping to care about feelings or long-term consequences. He's always confident that those who leave because of his behavior were programmed to do so long ago, and those who tolerate his shortcomings were always meant to. The idea that his own actions have real consequences just doesn't seem to connect with him, because he has a hard time ever believing he left the madhouse.
In the same vein, being intimately aware of how mad he himself is, he seems to enjoy psychologically torturing others more than he should. He enjoys lying outright, convincing people that their own memory or experiences can't be trusted. He seems to draw little real happiness from it, typically speaking in the same tone and behaving the same as he would while sharing a drink with a work friend or lecturing his son about their behavior at school. He's very tight-lipped as usual about the reasons for this, but the few times people catch onto his antics and call him out on them, insisting his behavior is cruel or deceptive, Douglas simply replies that "therapy is a massively undervalued field of medicine" and invites them to have the conversation in the proper context.
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-Powers-
Fighting Style: Douglas fights with little respect for form or finesse: Punches, kicks, biting, thumbs in eyes, anything goes for him. His typical fighting style resembles something between boxing and capoeira, relying on both amazing flexibility and great strength, giving him mobility that very few people would ever expect from him, even those who know he's spiritually aware. He's supremely confident in his ability to win in a direct slugfest, and generally always ensures that he can turn a fight into one: The entirety of his tactics and reasoning leads towards learning what gimmicks his enemy uses, and then smashing through them with overwhelming force. While far from stupid, Douglas takes more joy than he should in overwhelming spirit beings that have spent most of their life training to fight hollows or rogue shinigami to a standstill.
He prefers to fight in close range, but is still reasonably adept at mid range, after a lifetime training himself in firearms on firing ranges, and skeet shooting. While guns are not especially easy to come across in Japan, Douglas is still very confident in his capacity to use them to good effect: In particular, most spirit beings underestimate the weapons because they forget the possibility of them being wielded by humans with appreciable spiritual awareness to make them capable of hitting spirit beings. Douglas will almost always do his best to enter in close when a fight begins, hiding behind his masquerade of a vaguely confused old man, stumbling through a battlefield, until he's able to strike with the element of surprise. In the event that fails, he presses the advantage until the enemy retreats, and then draws whatever firearms he can find at the time, even if he has to subdue a police officer or cause damage to public property to obtain one.
Douglas is passably familiar with most weaponry, from swords to scythes to lances, but considers most of them unworth the effort: Too easy to disarm, too flimsy, and lacking in any real capacity to enhance his combat potential, Douglas disdains the use of tools in a fight, unless it's one that he's able to hold onto in a pinch. Brass knuckles and knives find their way into his rotation of battle tactics regularly, since they're both easy to hide and hard to get rid of once in a person's hand. The few times that blunt force doesn't seem to do the trick, Douglas will almost always have a weapon hidden in one of his pockets or sleeves, ready to pop free.
Shinigami in particular get the lion's share of Douglas's ire: Against hollows, bounts, or even demons, Douglas simply fights to intimidate and chase off the enemy, much in the same way a deer will try to scare away a would-be predator. He seems to have some instinctual understanding that these creatures are not a threat in any way but the personal, and he holds them no grudge as a result.Hollows are freely invited to retreat once he's cracked a few bones or drawn sufficient blood. If anything, Douglas seems to relish rematches with spirit beings he's fought before. But with shinigami, he allows no quarter and will almost always push the advantage past the point of common decency: From shooting a fleeing enemy, dragging innocents into the fray, to outright psychologically tormenting the shinigami, Douglas shows savagery and cruelty completely outside of his normal behavior when dealing with the Gotei's representatives.
Main Fullbring Appearances: Douglas's fullbring is one he has little real capacity to draw out the true form of, but all the same he keeps it on his person at all times. It's a diary, written with impeccable penmanship. Bound and cared for lovingly, Douglas rarely lets others see or touch it, typically keeping it in a leather clasp on his belt. He only ever takes it off when showering, to avoid letting it get wet, and even then he always makes sure it's somewhere close enough that he can stop others from peeking at it before he finishes.
Main Fullbring Name: Down the Rabbit Hole
Main Fullbring Level 1 Property: Douglas has no real affinity to invoke his fullbring's actual power, though he speaks of his innate power as if it were one. When he strikes a solid surface, he creates light and sound displays not unlike a firecracker going off. He can control the force with which it happens much the same way he can control his own momentum when punching, allowing him to either blind an entire room or just light up a dark corner by pressing his knuckles together. The amount of excess light and energy he can create with his impacts is largely dependent on how hard he's trying to strike them: At the highest level, it can be as disorienting as being right next to a lightning bolt, or a flashbang grenade, almost guaranteeing those with high senses will have a hard time adjusting on the fly to his next attacks.
The effective overflow on his attacks depends on how high his strength stat is at the time of the impact. With a Strength stat of 100 or less, the impact is about as distracting as staring into a camera flash, or hearing someone drop a book nearby. With a Strength score below 250, the impact is significant enough to be the equivalent of having a flashlight shined directly into one's eyes, and the sound is akin to gunfire going off directly near one's ear. With a strength score of 250 to 500, it can best be compared to the flashbang grenades typically used by military organizations, and at this point one approaches the levels where just closing your eyes or covering your ears is insufficient to protect yourself. When strength is below 800, Douglas's hits can be compared to the crack of lightning striking a focal point, often disorienting multiple people if it's not somehow parried or deflected. Exceeding 1000 Strength allows his blows to create such sound that it becomes a physical presence, capable of blowing away objects that aren't firmly anchored, or shatter the teeth of people unprepared for the impact. The light at this point is powerful enough to make permanent blindness a serious concern, if performed in quick succession.
At all levels of power, an opponent can expend spirit energy of their own to reduce Douglas's effective strength by an amount equal to the reiatsu spent. For instance, an opponent blocking one of Douglas's blows at 500 strength may spend 200 reaitsu to reduce his strength to 300 for the effective power of his lights and sounds. This has no impact on the force he exerts, meaning he still deals damage as if striking at 500 strength.
Main Fullbring Level 2 Properties: [Insert Here]
Secondary Fullbring Appearances: [Insert Here]
Secondary Fullbring Properties: [Insert Here]
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-History-
Birthplace: America, Arizona
Current Residence: America, New York
Memorable Figures: N/A
History: Douglas was born in circumstances many felt were unremarkable: His mother had to be sedated an hour into the procedure, as her screams of pain and distress began to take on too panicked and uncertain an edge. The final process was done via C-section, and he was held by neither his father nor mother for nearly 48 hours after leaving the womb. He didn't cry during this time, simply stuffing the corner of the blanket he'd been swaddled in between his lips and sucking it. It was a story told many a time by his family, particularly in discussing his odd behavior as a teenager and a young adult: Many of his deficits were attributed to the chemical imbalances caused by sedating his mother when she was giving birth.
As a teenager, Douglas began to see the ghosts of dead miners and native americans without end, everywhere he went. They were talkative and sociable, often far better company than humans were. He learned a great deal about the world around him from the spirits he met and learned about, becoming an almost unparalleled expert in history as a result. His own parents once more began to consider this odd behavior on his part, and began to despair that when he became an adult he would be unable to adjust to the real world, where mere factoids about settlers and indian tribes wouldn't do anything at all to help him stay fed or clothed.
At the age of 16, his parents made a choice that would haunt him forever, both figuratively and literally; Douglas was admitted to a sanitorium of the time period, documentation signed and notarized by his parents. From the moment he entered, he sensed something was very wrong, and he was completely right: The place was filled with spirits, but few of them were as sociable or helpful as the ones he'd been acclimated to up until then. Able to sense his blossoming powers, demihollows and hollows alike visited his room on an almost nightly basis, leading to violent conflicts. Each time Douglas would shout for help or demand assistance, until someone would come and release him from the room he'd been remanded to. Within a few months, there was no longer any room he could be moved to that wouldn't get demolished in short manner by one of the denizen hollows. Once content to simply wander the halls, mocking and teasing the mad souls there, waiting for the moment of expiration, Douglas's arrival seemed to have sparked something primal in them.
He was placed in solitary confinement as a temporary measure while the orderlies and the one in charge of the sanitorium decided the next step to contain him effectively. In this time, the attacks became near-insufferable in their intensity; hollows, unconcerned with barriers and windows, would visit him in the night, trying to take bites out of him over and over. So far from the watchful gaze of the Gotei, and thrust into a fresh hell by his own parents, Douglas died by degrees in that building, his mind weathered and worn by daily attacks. It was only by his own desperate flailings and attempts to defend himself that he was able to drive off the hollows.
The day of change came after his fifteenth day in solitary confinement: Whilst striking a hollow hard enough to drive it squealing away, he noticed a small hole had been dug beneath one of the cobblestones he'd unearthed in the conflict, to use as a weapon. He was unable to read it, but he kept it close, making certain not to lose sight of it at any point. He was released on the twentieth day, and began reading almost immediately. The writing had started from a scientist working at the facility, going only by the initial "G." He had been treating a severely delusional person, one who claimed to see angels and demons in actuality instead of in effigy.He performed any number of experiments on her, from electro-shock to lobotomies, to try and settle her madness, but in the end was unable to 'cure' her. Disgusted almost immediately, Douglas could see the future for himself all too clearly if he couldn't learn very well how to fake unawareness of the world around him.
The story, however, only grew more and more absurd as he read on. G was accosted one day, during a routine interview with another patient, suffering from similar delusions. Roughly thirty minutes into the interview, a man entered the room waving a sword around, shouting various allegations about infidelity, before being dragged off by orderlies. This story, lame as it sounded to Douglas, apparently ruffled G's feathers even worse: Not a single orderly could be found who claimed to have been present for the eviction of this man, but many confirmed the damaged state of the room after the interview. Baffled and confused by his own faulty memory, G checked himself into the facility as a patient.
Within a month, G was back to his own work, ready to help others overcome their madness: starting with the unnamed individual who had been party to the attack. He claimed to be having nightmares of the day, ones that G shared, and both were eerily clear in their description of a hollow: A creature Douglas was, by then, extremely familiar with. G had begun independent studies on his own, going abroad to other countries to find more people who had suffered from similar delusions. In an era just before World War Two, it wasn't too difficult to find passage into countries like Germany and Japan: and with each one, G's story only grew more whimsical. Douglas quickly grew accustomed to spotting out the alterations to the book...or to G himself, from the handwriting and the tone of certain pages. G, in the same vein, became increasingly agitated, uncertain of what was going on.
One page, near the halfway point, finally shined a light on the secret: G had witnessed another person in Japan, being accosted by a hollow, only for a humanoid in a black robe to arrive and strike it down. In the aftermath, they drew a lighter from their sleeve, using it on the victim...who thereafter had no memory of the event. This news rocked and horrified Douglas as much as it did G: If -someone- knew what was going on here, and that -someone- was hiding it, then certainly they were no ally to people like him, suffering in an institution because he couldn't ever be fully silenced. He read on, as G's accounts took a turn distinctly away from dry scientific curiosity into the occult. It continued, for another year and a half, before the final page.
G was being brought to the sanitorium once more, against his will this time: Others were beginning to fear for his well-being, mentally and physically, and with world war 2 in full swing at the time, people were concerned for his well-being. He remained there, leaving his diary behind for someone else to read and decipher in his absence. Through it, Douglas was able to glean enough of the shape of the real world: That there existed an organization, something looming and sinister, determined to keep people like him from speaking out about what was going on. The most shocking revelation, however, was the signature at the bottom of the final page: Grigor Everheart. Immediately after doing some research, Douglas was able to confirm a distant uncle of the family, one who had been unspoken of for his own madness, one his parents feared he had caught as well. In a very real sense, they were right.
From the moment he was released from the sanitorium, Douglas became desperate to find out as much as he could about the world that was hidden from him. He took work studies abroad, becoming an expert in history of almost -all- countries. This, unfortunately, did little to sate his curiosity: When one knows that memories can be stripped and altered, is there any veracity to be found even in first-hand reports of events? How many of the occult experiments performed by Nazis in World War Two were real, and silenced? Douglas could never be certain. He spent fourty years quietly, compiling information and learning as much as he could about the world...or at least the one that he was allowed to learn about. During this time, he was able to make a great deal of capital, both in the form of lost riches that were bequeathed to him by friendly spirits, and by those who hired him to speak on extremely esoteric notes of history.
By the year 2010, Douglas had amassed an income well into the eight figures, many of it invested cleverly with the aid of spirits that knew -far- more than him of stocks and bonds, and he was prepared to begin his studies in earnest. Beginning with Youtube and similar small websites, Douglas familiarized himself with the electronic world, and the new avenues it presented. He met countless people during that time, further solidifying his understanding of the nature of the spirit world. He continued to move quietly, carefully, doing everything he could to avoid attracting attention, until the day finally came he was ready to directly approach a shinigami and find out exactly what they stood to gain from leaving him, and countless others like him, to suffer.
From that moment forward, Douglas began to work more meticulously, leaving no real trail of his actions. Deleting old records, having himself scrubbed from online records, bribing people into silence...all manner of options to hide one's own identity are available to one who is able to speak to the world on a level beyond mere humans. Few if any government institutions build firewalls capable of keeping out a Fullbringer, and so Douglas is remarkably adept at throwing up smokescreens, creating and discarding names and lives as he sees fit, to best maintain his own air of mystery and uncertainty.[/quote]