A new addition to the pack - Astrid/Odalis JT

[Astrid Vess]

A period of time had passed since Astrid had her sit down with Marik. It was hard to determine how long time had passed by given there wasn't exactly a moon or sun in the Menos Forest. If anything, it only made certain to blend time even easier given the only thing you could truly count was how many hollows one would interact with. Which surprisingly was far and few between, at least as far as Astrid was concerned. Especially considering she was in the home world of hollows. She expected that there were many more, enough that she'd bump into them like she did shinigami in the Soul Society. However, that didn't seem to be the case for her second visit. Now mind you, she HAD participated in a frenzied consumption event that nearly created a new gillian or . . . something else. As she came to find out later.

So that might also explain why for the time being she'd seen little to no hollows. In truth that was fine though, she was here to see if she could run into Sonadora again or perhaps meet another hollow of note. Which . . . she kind of had though the bird hollow she'd met really only brought up more questions than answers. Questions really about how capable she was by comparison. It wasn't like Astrid was as weak as when she woke up in Hell. Or really had been even several months ago. However, she still relied on others to actually make things happen whereas her newest acquaintance managed to produce a feat all by themselves. About the only thing Astrid genuinely managed to get done by herself was increasing the capabilities of the sigil magic she'd been learning. Such as the sigil she was producing now.

It was a curious sigil that she'd managed to learn about given it was going around the hason in the Sanctus. Her last visit there had informed her that hason too had rediscovered the means to leave hell on their own. . . sort of. Ultimately it worked when it worked but considering you needed to leave Hell in the first place to even get out of it, at best it just allowed hason to traverse Hell itself at their "leisure". Which was better than nothing. Astrid thankfully, had been out to several realms and thus was effectively no longer bound to Hell or any one realm because of this sigil. If anything, it actually ended up making her travels far more significant and help her develop given she had needed to acquire materials for it.

She shook her head and focused back on the sigil she was drawing out. It was something of a personal sigil she'd started making as the "world shift" sigil. Right now, it was a circle, broken into fourth, with different colored reiatsu that represented each realm, along with a single identifying feature. Hell, notably had flames, Hueco Mundo had the forest, Soul Society had a katana, and the Human World had a very simple building. With the sigil having been drawn up she "poked" on the building section, which allowed the sigil to change color going from a light orange brown to a bright blue color. Likely representative of the worlds blue sky. From there the sigil was placed on the ground and Astrid simply stepped upon it and willed it to take her to somewhere in the Human World. Not terribly concerned where she'd end up.

In truth she likely should have been. Within moments the world warped and twisted before suddenly changing into a bright and open sky. She was in Karakura now standing upon her sigil which at this point was hard to see given the sky's color and her sigil matched. This city however was not one she'd seen before. Granted the only city she'd really went to was a "Tokyo". Wherever the hell that was in the world. Astrid had. . . vehemently disagreed on the concept of "learning" about "countries" and other "places" in the Human World. Alastor had been the one to specifically try to push her in that direction, meanwhile Astrid couldn't be asked to give a fuck. She'd eat people, eat the hollows that came after her, absolutely brutally hunt shinigami, and god help anyone else that was stupid enough to get in Astrid's way.

Still if there was one thing Astrid knew, it's that she needed to scope out this city some. For a Human World it was strangely humming with energy. Which is saying something considering Astrid herself had by far the shittiest capability of sensing energy and specifically needed her spirits to do that for her. Speaking of which, Astrid needed to summon them. Or at least a handful. Thus, she took a moment to "look within" and grabbed a few of the usual crew. Namely her canine hollow companion, a couple humanoid wisps, and a couple draconic hollow chicks. Much to Astrid's surprise they actually managed to stand in the air. Which truthfully Astrid hadn't even thought about the fact that summoning something in the air should have made it fall headfirst into the ground below. Yet it seemed like in the Human World, that wasn't exactly the case. Something Astrid made certain to keep in mind.

With her spirits summoned and her teleporting from Hueco Mundo to the Human World dealt with she could now do what she had intended to do. Hunt. Humans were easy enough to deal with given they couldn't see her nor her spiritual help. However Sonadora's words rang in her mind that the Shinigami kept eyes on the Human World, and thus she needed to be careful. . . Or did she? Astrid, wasn't quite as careful as Sonadora. She truly preferred to make sure she attracted shinigami if only to kill them on the spot. So today, that's what she'd do. She'd just start killing, hopefully run into a hollow or two that would willingly hunt with her, and god willing find some shinigami and rip them to fucking shreds. She nodded as a malicious smiled started to form on her face, even the bones that produced her "jaws" tilting to the side to give her smile more of a darker edge.

Without wasting anymore time she took in a deep breath and let out as loud a roar as she could. Something that, should get the attention of anyone nearby. Though to anyone that wasn't a hellion this roar would sound strange. Pained, far more coarse in sound. It was like something was being worn away and crushed at the same time. Like an avalanche of stones falling down a hill. It was, simply put, unnatural and feral. Her spirits, joined in with her by howling out in their own cacophony though their addition was brief.

From there she literally barked out an order to descened into the park below them where a large number of people were either walking around, sitting down on benches or on the grass, or doing any number of other things. All the while keeping note that her more ground based minions could "hop" from spaces in the air to other spaces in the air. She had to wonder if she could do the same but would test it out after her feeding frenzy was completed. Right now, she needed to focus on consuming the living and attracting those nearby. Something she excelled at. How unfortunate for those in the park today, especially those right under Astrid's pack. They simply didn't stand a ghost of a chance when they couldn't sense or detect them.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Astrid stats / skills}
Current Stats:

Strength: 50 (35)

Speed: 300 (220)

RS: 50 (35)

SPPR: 340 (1020)

Instinct: 180 (126)

Senses: 180 (126)

ES: 0

HE: 0


LA: 0

DA: 100



Current Skills: (14/15)

Sigil - 2

Strength of Will - 2

Pain Tolerance - 2

Poison Tolerance - 2

Lack of Fear - 2

Damage Recovery - 2

Leadership - 2

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spirit pack info}
Total number of spirits: 5

Spirit pack consists of:
-1 canine hollow
-2 humanoid wisps
-2 hollow dragon chicks

All are within 2-3 feet of one another, with Astrid riding on the canine's back.

All are class 5.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spirits stats}
Strength: 200

Speed: 150

Reiatsu Strength: 0

Spiritual Pressure: 0 (immune to cutback)

Instinct: 100

Senses: 100

Energy Sensory: 50

Healing Expertise: 0

Durability (HP): 300

SPOILER: Click to show

{Image references for the spirits}
Canine Hollow:



Humanoid Wisps:



Draconic hollow chicks:

[Odalis Delgado]

Another day, another hunt. Only this time it was actually day. Odalis much preferred stalking the streets of the human world at night. The comfort of cool moonlight shining down upon her made things feel at least somewhat similar to the hollow world. It was of course lacking in the featureless, barren wasteland composed of nothing but white sand. With the occasional withered tree or grey rock breaking up the dreary monotony. Odalis rather appreciated the rocks in particular. A nice tall rock with a flat surface was the perfect spot to rest upon while giving a good vantage point of the surrounding area. And while to others the landscape might indeed seem dreary, she found it relaxing. Though that could just be the enriching atmosphere influencing her opinion.

Odalis brought up a hind leg and scratched herself behind her mask, furiously swiping away at the irritation in her skin as she looked down into the alley below. She paused, considering to herself why she didn't use her tentacles to scratch herself. That was way more convenient than adjusting your whole posture to reach with your legs. "Am I actually developing more animal like instincts?" She mused aloud to herself, not remembering if she'd ever done that before. She might have scratched herself in such a fashion during the three year period of wild, senseless consumption that marked her initial period as a Hollow. But certainly never after that.

She looked back down at her prey for the day. Well, one of them at least. Today she was feeling particularly peckish so just this one wouldn't satisfy her. This at least was an animalistic instinct she'd had for a long time now. The urge to hunt. While largely to assuage her hunger, the sheer thrill of it excited her greatly. There were even times she did it despite not being hungry at all. Allowing nothing to get in the way of the simple joy found in the anticipation of finding a mark and satisfaction of dealing a killing blow in one swift strike.

This particular mark was some wobbly drunk. She doubted her soul would taste good. But it would fill her nonetheless. The woman stumbled in her heels, blonde curls bouncing as she stumbled and leaned on the wall for support. Her outfit looked rather...risqué. Odalis was honestly surprised she recognized it as such. The judgment being borne out of a very human sense of morals after all. Morals that seemed all so distant to her now as she licked her lips at the thought of her jaws clamping down on that frail form. "Possibly a...hooker. Yes, a hooker. I think I remember those being a thing. If I remember correctly I must be doing her a favor by ending it for her."

With that callous thought, Odalis pounced down from the low roof and landed right behind the woman. Poor thing wasn't even aware of her, couldn't even hear the landing. Without the distraction of honor, Odalis struck the woman across the back with a spiked tentacle. With a shriek the woman collapsed, clawing at the ground and babbling to herself as she tried to escape her unseen attacker. "Damn, should have just bitten the head off. Guess I don't hit with enough force with these to make for a proper decisive blow. Well, at least I tried." Odalis shrugged as she pounced onto the crawling escort, her jaws coming down on the exposed neck.

Now the real snack revealed itself. Standing off to the side in utter bewilderment, the blonde haired woman stared at her own corpse and the nightmarish beast standing over it. Blood dripped from Odalis' fangs as her red eyes met the woman's blue. She stalked towards her prey as it stood frozen in terror. A delicate hand touched the chain coming from her chest and she began to laugh. It was a soft, nervous laugh born from a complete inability to process what was going on. She laughed right up until Odalis shot forward, jaw opening and closing around her prey's head. Odalis had been right. The woman didn't taste particularly good. She didn't spend much time devouring the little morsel, meager as it was. She had prey to find, more souls to consume.

But then, a roar. A terrible roar unlike any Odalis had ever heard before. It didn't sound like any other Hollow she'd come across. Theirs had been almost empty, while this felt like a gnashing of boulders in her ears. The unearthly sound was joined by others, creating a harmony of distortion. Immediately Odalis took up a guarded pose, muscles poised to dash any which way in case this roar signaled an attack against her. But none came. As the roar died out Odalis could make out roughly where it had come from and on consideration it had been relatively far away. Not close enough to pose an immediate threat to her. Though certainly if she were to approach it.

However, threat or not, Odalis could not deny the curiosity it sparked in her. This was something new. Yet another thing about this ghostly life she was unaware of and she couldn't very well just leave it be. "This is no doubt incredibly stupid. But I simply must see what the hell that's all about." She said to herself as she dashed out of the alley, past the terrified group of people who'd heard the woman's scream and came to discover her mangled corpse. She paid them no mind and rushed straight towards a scream of her own to investigate. Which apparently seemed to be taking her to the park.

Running past the trees, the joggers, old men on their daily stroll and the occasional couple sharing timid glances at one another, Odalis soon spotted what she assumed to be the roar's origin. The sight as monstrous as the sound had indicated. Now, the irony of Odalis calling something monstrous was not lost on her. But what else could one call this mockery of life that descended from the sky alongside a gaggle of ghosts, both human- and beastlike? The creature of warped flesh, jutting bones and twisting vines was, much like the sound it produced, unlike anything Odalis had ever seen. She'd seen plenty of Hollows and even if that creature had carried the same mask and familiar piercing hole in its body, Odalis still would have struggled to put it in the same category.

No, this had to be something entirely different. Something pointing to an even greater piece of this new world Odalis had known nothing about in life and clearly still knew practically nothing even in death. Again the voice of reason urged Odalis to stay away. But the far louder voice of reckless discovery smothered the other at birth. This she simply had to learn more about. And who knows? Maybe it'll be friendly. A farfetched idea for sure, if one were to think as a human. But if Odalis, as a beast of terror herself could consider it. Surely the possibility existed that this creature did as well. It was certainly worth a shot and if worst came to worst she could always find out what it tastes like.

Considering her options for getting the monster's attention, Odalis immediately struck down the idea of opening up with a simple "Hey, how are you? Nice weather we're having." That didn't seem like the proper opener. What did seem appropriate, was to deliver a roar of her own. With her head raised high, Odalis unleashed a rumbling roar that sounded like the reverberations of a bottomless pit. Despite the plain, open area it seemed to echo off the air itself. Now, with the creature's attention surely focused on her, Odalis figured perhaps trying the mundane approach as well couldn't hurt. If the creature could converse, it would certainly be a better way of exchanging info than simply making noises at each other. "Hello there. I must say I've never seen anything like you before. Care to tell me exactly what you are? Oh, right, I'm Odalis. Pleasure to meet you."

SPOILER: Click to show

{Consumption}1x Class 8 Human

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats and Stuffs}
Strength - 40[-33%]=27
Speed - 30
Spiritual Pressure - 30
Reiatsu Strength - 38[+50%]=57
Light Aura - 50
Dark Aura - 50
Instinct - 70[-33%]=47
Senses - 50
Energy sensory - 17[+50%]=25
Healing Expertise - 25[-66%]=9

Reiatsu: 300/300

Skills:
Beastly Fighting: Fang, Claw and Tentacle: 1
Battle Analysis: 1
Battle Focus: 1
Stealth: 1
Anti-Stealth: 1
Analysis: 1

[Astrid Vess]

Astrid had just landed behind a woman and her friends. All at a table and just idly chatting away over the weather or something. Astrid wasn't completely able to tell what exactly they were talking about, but she knew all too well what they were doing. And truthfully? She was kind of sick of talking, she wanted screams, roars, and really just the sounds of the hunt. However, she had an idea in mind of how she would get it. She'd just allow her canine to bring her right up to the woman and bite through her skull in one fell swoop. Or rather. . . She would have, had a sound not called out to her. Directly. One that genuinely sounded like something from a hole, a deep, dark hole. It reminded her of the bestial hunger she was starting to feel again. And to her surprise was a monster before her.

At least that was her first thought until she recognized the hollow hole and mask. This was by far the most monstrous hollow she'd seen in a long while. And she'd just come out of Hueco Mundo not but a few minutes ago. Admittedly she'd actually go so far as to say she was impressed. Namely for having attracted a hollow so quickly. She hadn't really expected one to show up so soon, still she wasn't against it. And thankfully given how monstrous this was looked and sounded it was more beast than person. A fucking welcome change for Astrid. She was genuinely starting to tire from the constant talking she had done with Marik, Sonadora, and others around her. Those in the Sanctus alone made her want to grind her teeth together and start lashing out wildly.

This appreciation quickly faded though as it actually spoke. And spoke so well that it reminded her of Alastor. A thought. . . she was not fond of. Still their roar was impressive on their own and for one so monstrous in appearance, Astrid could genuinely say she felt more kinship with them already than she had others. Akando up until this point had been the most "kin" among those she'd come to meet with. Namely due to his speech choices and his appearance. And oddly enough his smell. But that was neither here nor there. Odalis, if that was the word she chose for a name, seemed to be invested in her for one reason or another. If the wandering eyes were anything to go off of. Astrid frowned some, namely at her form again doing this. She wasn't fond of it, but it was how she looked at her base. And nothing but a singular technique she knew was going to change that. Still now wasn't the time for it.

Instead, she needed to decide on what she wanted to do. Aside from hunt and kill and cause a massive commotion. For a few moments the two simply looked at one another, namely due to Astrid's uncertainty for how she should handle Odalis. A speaking monster. A well-spoken one at that. Astrid glanced at her prey before growling lowly at her ride to look at Odalis. This of course had all the spirits present look directly at her, but given their forms weren't tense, it was safe to assume Astrid, nor her spirits were going to be aggressive. . . yet. Or at least, not unless Odalis decided to be. Which seemed like a longshot at this point. Another moment of looking over Odalis and Astrid finally spoke, still as rough and unnatural as before but much quieter.

"Me. . . Astrid. . .You. . Od. . A. . Lis? . . Astrid rubbed her "neck", really a collection of vines and growled to herself. The sensation of speech just as weird and unnatural to her as ever. Still perhaps in her monstrous visitor was a pack mate in the waiting. A strong one, if looks were anything. Thus after a moment Astrid started speaking again as she pointed to herself then Odalis. ". . . Hell. . .Hollow. . . Yes? If yes. . . Hunt? . . Pack. . . eat more. . . alone is. . . less. . ." While Astrid returned her hand to her neck again to rub it some her six eyes did not waver from Odalis. She wasn't about to be caught off guard if the other decided to attack. And in truth, there was actually a part of Astrid that wondered if any speaking hollows even would attack.

So far, any that could speak had seemed to want to work together. Sonadora aside, until she'd realized that Astrid could help. However, Akando and Marik had almost readily agreed. After trying to attack her in some manner of course. . . Perhaps that was just how hollows said hello at this point. She could certainly see the merit in it. Why bother with someone who couldn't stand up to you in some manner? Especially if you both could be stronger as a pack. Perhaps in that light the other two were testing her. That thought was definitely something she'd think on more but right now she needed to focus on Odalis and make sure she pieced together what she said. Words were difficult for her if her broken speech was anything to go by. And Odalis was leagues better than her at speaking. Like those with her skills in speech, she'd have to spare no brain cells in deciphering her words.

[✠Asmoskon Masurao✠]

26 Paragraphs so 130 TP for the both of ya