Post by Victor Beaumont on Feb 3, 2024 22:13:10 GMT -5
-Opening-
Member's Discord Name (include nicknames): [Nihlus]
Password 1: [Kitai's Debt]
Password 2: [Sanctus Teamwork]
Type: [Cunning]
Affiliation: [Uzaki Enterprises]
Rank: [Manager]
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-Basic Information-
Name: [Victor Maximillian Beaumont]
Real Age/Age of Appearance: 1216/25]
Birthday (Month/Day): [November 17]
Blood Type:
RP Sample (Optional): [Insert Here]
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-Appearance-
Height/Weight: [5’8/140 lbs]
Physical Description:
Faceclaim: Tristan (Fate/Grand Order)
[Victor is a lithe built male with long red hair, and emerald eyes to match. He is of a Caucasian skin tone, typically carrying himself with a serious expression upon his face. As mentioned above, he stands 5 foot 8, and is about a hundred and forty pounds. Despite having some muscle to him beneath his usually ornate clothing, Victor has a certain fragility in how he carries himself.
Going in deeper, and to start with the face, Victor’s most striking features are his long red hair, and emerald eyes. Victor’s eyes are deep, and old. The wisdom of ages is apparent in how he looks around and views people, and despite their vibrant color, can appear deep as an abyss and draw onlookers in. His hair contrasts and complements his eyes nicely, kept relatively straight and his hair extends down past his shoulders. Although it is long, it is rarely unkempt or unclean; whether by spiritual ability or just very good personal hygiene, Victor keeps his face immaculate. He has a small, delicate nose, and a row of pearly whites beneath it. Thin-lipped, Victor’s mouth is rarely the sort to make particularly exaggerated expressions, usually restricted to small frowns or smiles as his main means of expressing his mood.
With regards to apparel, Victor usually dresses quite well, if a touch elaborate. While he’s no stranger to the suit and tie affairs, he usually likes to dress a tiny bit more ornately. All of his outfits are meticulously clean and tidy, and usually incorporate some manner of gold trim or design. Many of his outfits resemble that of aristocracy of old, albeit cleaned and tidied up and “modernized” for the more normal business setting. A suit-jacket, with gold trim, atop a red button-up shirt, with black patterns, dress pants and shoes are his typical apparel for business meetings but it can’t be understated that whenever possible Victor likes to glam it up a bit more than that.
Victor carries himself seriously, but not unkindly. Straight backed and deliberate in his movements, with the slightest air of grace about him. If you were told this man was upper-class in the elder eras, you wouldn’t be surprised by how he carries himself. Every movement is with purpose, or at least most of them. Victor maintains a respectful air in any and all conversations that he engages in.
As far as unusual markings go, Victor has but one—a deep scar that runs down his chest, courtesy of a battle with a Shinigami long ago. The scar has turned black and gray, and is very prominent—one of the reasons for Victor’s taste in full-covering elaborate clothing, always making sure that his outfit covers the scar adequately. It’s something he’s a little sensitive about, so best not to mention it to him.
Victor, of course, always carries around his three dolls with him, which take the forms of a pendant necklace (Gardene), a diary (Leurre), and a golden ring with a sapphire gemstone (Morte). The diary is a small pocketbook which has very clearly seen the passage of time. It is worn and slightly tattered, bound in leather and with pages that have yellowed from age. A black cover with intricate silver vine and leaf designs about the corner, and Victor’s name embossed on the front. Inside the diary, as if by some eldritch magic, is a countless number of pages. Perhaps subtly influenced by Victor’s spiritual power, the diary has as many pages as Victor needs, and it is indeed just that, a diary detailing many of the events of Victor’s life, all one thousand years of them. Though there are certainly gaps in the dates, Victor maintains a semi-consistent pattern throughout the centuries, and as such his diary has more pages filled in than most best-sellers, all written in Norman-French, rendering it generally illegible to any but historians and ancient linguists.
The pendant is of silver, slightly blackened by what appear to have been burns, and has a small clasp, allowing it to be opened and closed. There is no decorative jewelry, and the only design on the silver is, similarly to the diary, a classical ivy-leaf design carved into its face, around a pair of doves. Inside the locket is a very small portrait of a woman, the paint likely only preserved by the protection of the locket, and the lingering spiritual power around it. The locket is on a silver chain that is clearly more recent, and has likely been replaced more than once. Despite the burns, the locket is maintained well, and shows signs of evident care, regularly polished and cleaned of any blemishes besides the scorches that seem to simply be a part of the ornament by this point.
Lastly there is the sapphire ring that Victor wears on his ring finger. A simple golden band with no decoration, and a small sapphire jewel inlaid in the ring. It is clear this item is of great importance to Victor for it is kept as meticulous as the rest of his appearance, if not moreso. Not a blemish to be seen upon the ring, and it seems Victor’s finger has grown accustomed to it, for the ring can no longer be removed from his finger, evidently worn for literal centuries. Although it is a relatively simple item, it is still clearly a piece of great value, both monetary and sentimentally.]
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-Personality-
Dislikes:
Poor personal hygiene: It REALLY doesn’t take that much effort to take care of yourself and make sure you’re clean and presentable. There’s no excuse for going into the office with bed-hair, failing to brush your teeth, or not showering. Come on now.
Fire: Victor has an… unpleasant association with fire. He isn’t afraid of it or anything, but it is not something he takes great comfort in.
The British: Honestly, this is simply a matter of spending so long in France, that Victor has taken a strong disdain towards the British as a matter of “national” pride.
Genocide: This should be self explanatory; doubly so for a Bount.
A messy workplace: Keep! Things! Organized people! Really! Take pride in your workplace, keep it organized, and you’ll find everything you need to and get your work done more efficiently.
Beer: It’s the drink of plebians. Wines are much more sophisticated and appropriate.
Swords: Specifically katana. Victor may not carry deepseated hatred of Soul Society, but he does still carry an aversion to the katana for the roles they’ve played in the worst parts of his life.
Likes:
Looking his best: Victor is always out intending to dress to impress. He will not have it said that he dresses slovenly or below-standard. Suits, ties, jackets, formalwear, he’s all about it, and has his clothes expertly tailored to ensure that he can be both comfortable and classy, regardless of what he’s wearing.
Quincy: Vandenreich aside, Victor has a soft spot in his heart for others that have known the persecution of the Seireitei and has sympathies towards Quincy at first contact. Free Quincy, at least.
Red Wine: After spending so much of his time in France, Victor has developed a real taste for the beverage. It’s a classy drink and perfect for romantic evenings.
His diary: Even after all these years, Victor still continues to use the same diary he had been given when he had been created by Soul Society, the sole connection to his life before the purge.
Roses: A hapless romantic in his youth, before life took its toll, Victor still has some sentimental affection for red or white roses.
Colette: His fiance, in centuries past. Although their romance ended in tragedy, Victor still loves her even so long after her death.
France: Although Victor’s origins may have been in Soul Society, he considers himself of French nationality, due to many of the key events in his life taking place in the country, even though his nostalgia and joy is borne from ancient France and not the modern nation.
Reading: Victor is an avid reader. He still vividly remembers the time where the ability to read was not taken for granted, and actively enjoys the gift of literacy.
People watching: As someone who has lived so long, Victor has grown to appreciate the day-to-day lives of individuals, and in his downtime or when eating lunch, enjoys taking in the scenery.
The countryside: While Victor is perfectly fine with the regular day-to-day lifestyle of the city, he does have a certain longing for the rural countryside of his (relative) youth and enjoys the fresh, natural feel of such locations.
Doing good deeds: A lifetime of hard knocks has not broken Victor out of being a fundamentally decent person and he still likes the idea of doing good for others in the world.
Cigarettes: Victor was around when tobacco was all on the rise, and although he himself no longer partakes, he still has a fondness for the narcotic.
Guns: Victor was never HUGE on melee combat, often letting Leurre handle most of the fighting for him, so the advent of firearms has been something that Victor is quite fond of. He practices his shooting moderately regularly and is a pretty decent shot, all things considered. He’s not quite gun-nut levels of obsessed but he does like his firearms.
Flaws: [Low self esteem: Victor doesn’t have much of it. While he may carry himself professionally, he doesn’t have tremendous amounts of faith in his abilities beyond his skills as a manager and organizer. It’s one of the reasons he adopts such brutal and cheap combat tactics.
Grief: Moved on or not, Victor still carries the death of his fiance, and the life they could have had together with him, and in his lowest moments, he can still yet succumb to the wistful fantasies of what could have been.
Hermit: While Victor isn’t rude persay and he can navigate conversations well enough, he does not care for the company of others, and has gotten quite used to being alone. When left to his own devices he will typically avoid others, and is less inclined to ask others for help, even when he needs it. Victor has been burned too many times in the past for reaching out to others, making him very reluctant to do so even now.
Fear of loneliness: Kinda funny given the previous flaw, but as much as Victor pushes for his own company he is also afraid of truly being alone. He is torn between fearing connections with others for his past, and being alone for fear of being left with his own thoughts. Gardene has been a tremendous help in pushing him through this fears, but she’s still got a lot of work to do.]
Habits: [Staring off into space: One of the few social graces Victor has failed to develop is he’s not so good at making eye contact with those gorgeous green eyes of his. Instead, when available, Victor will often stare off into the horizon or sky, even if he’s having a conversation with someone. And especially if he’s not having a conversation with someone.
“Fake” smoking: Victor was a smoker when it was popular to do in early France, and although he quit a long time ago, he still finds himself going through the motions, even without a cigarette. Pen, pencil, or even just the air between his fingers, he’ll occasionally lift up to his face before remembering its not a cigarette.
Deep sighs: Victor, despite his best efforts, still has a bit of a depressive atmosphere about him, and it probably is reinforced by a deep, dramatic sigh anytime he’s asked to do… well… most things he doesn’t want to or received bad news.]
Fears:
[Living Forever: Yep. Victor has wanted to pass on for a long, long time. He may have pushed through his depression brought on by his wife’s death, and recovered from the Bount purge, but he still finds himself a bit aimless. Victor doesn’t want to die senselessly or without accomplishing something, but he also still carries his fair share of burdens and would like to be relieved of them one day.]
Goals:
[Find a purpose: Victor has been aimless for centuries, since the death of his fiance. Although he has moved on and found closure from her death, he finds himself stuck. Victor has never been an especially driven individual and now after twelve hundred years finds himself lost and without a goal to pursue. Victor’s primary goal at this juncture is to figure out what he can truly feel invested in, a goal he can fully commit himself to.
Find his fiance: Victor knows it’s unlikely, he knows it’s ridiculous to conceive of, but a small part of Victor hopes that perhaps if he can find a way to return to Soul Society, he might be able to track down what happened to his fiance after she passed on. He knows full well the odds of finding out what happened to a 17th century French woman, with above average spiritual sensitivity is nigh impossible, and that in all honesty she has likely returned to the soul cycle long ago, but Victor still can’t help but wonder, and hope.
Find out what happened to his creator: The former fourth officer of the 12th Division Hanashi Shiryo. Victor has not heard of what happened to his creator, and the last time they ever crossed paths was when Shiryo had cut down Victor’s doll Leurre, after apologizing to the Bount for the genocide of his people. That was almost a thousand years ago, and Victor never heard hide nor hair of him since. The Bount had once been very close with the Shinigami and would at least like to know what happened to him.]
Alignment: [True Neutral]
Overall Personality: “Reserved and professional” are the first words probably that best describe Victor. “Kind” would be a distant third, and then you have all the other traits of his personality. Victor’s a bundle of issues, collected over his twelve hundred-and-change years of life, but none of it has truly impacted his ability to be a good person. This is reflected in his dolls as well, but we’ll get to them in a bit. Let’s start with the first words that describe Victor. Reserved and professional.
Victor is not a man of grand gestures, or great exuberance. He takes life’s knocks and pleasures with quiet contemplation. While that’s not to say it’s hard to tell what he’s thinking, he’s not the kind of person to burst out weeping, or come rushing in, boisterously laughing. He’s reserved, not cold. He is amiable enough if you talk to him, but won’t usually go out of his way to talk to others. If not for his amiable nature you could almost say he comes off a bit gloomy, but he is still nice enough and does his best not to seem put-upon when others ask things of him.
Professional too though. Victor is a consummate professional. When in a work-setting he is exacting in his words and body language, as mentioned in his appearance. He is work-oriented, and commits himself to the task at hand, with minimal distractions, save matters of utmost crisis and urgency. He carries out his work brusquely, efficiently and cleanly, and with the same care he puts into his usually immaculate appearance.
But Victor is kind. Very much so, a personality trait that has emerged in his doll Leurre. Victor wants to help others, he does not want to see others hurt. While he is aloof, he is always ready and willing to help the less fortunate. Indeed, Victor is aloof and reserved not because he doesn’t care, but because he fears caring too much. The few times Victor has gotten close to someone it has always burned him, because he empathizes too well, and feels the pain of others as his own. And, historically, has always caused him great distress when he decides to leave, due to his nature as a Bount.
Speaking of being a Bount, how does Victor’s kindness account for the Bount’s dietary needs? Well…. It doesn’t. It’s an unpleasant necessity that Victor puts off as long as he possibly can, and when he must succumb to his diet, he tries to look for someone deserving of it at least. He would subsist entirely off of animals if it was possible to do so, and actually still privately looks for ways to supercharge animals so he can sate his hunger WITHOUT eating sentient beings. Still working on that though, and he’s not very scientifically minded so…. eh…
Rolling back, as indicated in his Flaws, Victor is a man who both prefers and abhors his own company, just as he dislikes but needs the company of others. A man with many burdens he is used to pushing others away out of fear of attachment to them. However, as a man with as many demons as Victor has, it’s bad for him to be left alone TOO long, and he has started to realize this. Victor often attempts an awkward dance between embracing the company of others but not getting TOO close, a dance that he is currently very, very bad at.
Speaking of attachment when it comes to romance, Victor simply isn’t ignorant. He has loved one woman, only one, and that was enough for him. It may have been a brief candle amidst an ocean of dark, but Victor wouldn’t trade those six years of bliss for anything in the world. This isn’t a “oh woe is me” either, Victor’s satisfied when it comes to romance. He has never married, has fathered no children, but he doesn’t feel the need to look for a romantic partner. If he finds love again, he’ll greet it then, but he’s not looking for it, nor will it find him. Besides, even if he did, he’d fear the Shinigami taking it away from him again.
With that awkward segway out of the way, Victor actually harbors no true grudge or hatred of the Gotei 13. He can’t, they were once his family, and although they betrayed him, he can’t help but feel that the Shinigami who turned their blades on him did not do so because they wanted to, but because they had to. Individual Shinigami are naught but tools, and those who purged Victor are long since dead. He has only truly felt hatred for a small handful of Shinigami, who are long since dead at the hands of Mallveillance, his doll, in who lies the incarnation of that hatred. Maveillance aside, who whispers poisons in Victor’s ears, which Leurre and Gardena work to counteract, Victor has no true hatred of Shinigami, though that does not mean he likes them either. Rather he is ambivalent towards them, and will judge each Shinigami on a case by case basis. He does not blame them for their duty, but neither will he keel over and die. If Shinigami come for Victor, he will defend himself. And if Malveillance comes out to play, so much the better.
Truth be told though, Victor is still admittedly a bit depressed and grief-stricken. It doesn’t interfere in his daily life much, but it can still be seen in his soul. He fights it off each day, pursuing tomorrow with all the fervor he can muster. He has not given in. He loses fights against it on some days, and some days he wins. Each day is a struggle, but Victor will continue to meet them until his last.
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-Powers-
Fighting Style: Victor doesn’t believe in a fair fight, and this is the basis of his fighting style. To whit; “A fair fight is a fight you can lose.” He overwhelms, he cheats, he fights dirty. Bount have the ability to summon extra hands in a fight, and Victor is all but ready to execute on that plan. When Victor fights, he very rarely settles for only using a single doll; Victor will use all three dolls at once. An exception may occasionally be made against opponents far below Victor’s caliber, in which case only Leurre is needed, but against most opponents that Victor anticipates might have a chance of defeating them? He will take that chance away.
Victor always focuses on overwhelming offense, coupled with misdirection, ideally outmatching his opponent before they can get a read on him. Leurre often takes front and center in Victor’s tactics as the most combat-proficient doll, with Malveillance taking a supportive or distracting roll. Gardena will typically support the group with her barriers, and Victor will use various tools, techniques, traps and firearms to engage an opponent from a distance, or otherwise using his doll’s abilities to keep him safe and out of harm’s way as best as possible.
Overall Victor prefers to keep his personal distance from combat, leaving that task to Leurre and Malveillance, as both of those dolls are significantly better equipped for close quarter combat than Victor. Leurre in particular, Victor has few qualms engaging in suicidal tactics for the benefit of the team, and Leurre accepts this as part of his role, and does not hold it against Victor. The body-double doll will freely take hits to give them (or to enable an ally to give a hit) if need be. Even if Leurre goes down, Victor has faith in Gardena and Malveillance to survive the heat long enough for Leurre to get back into the fight, assuming Leurra couldn’t cripple an opponent when he went down. Indeed while Gardena and Malveillance are dangerous in their own rights, it’s often Leurre that Victor relies upon to deliver the coup de grace.
Victor’s not afraid to get his hands dirty, of course, he’s just less proficient at it than some other Bount have become. If melee combat is a necessity, he will utilize various close quarter Bount techniques to try and maintain an upper hand, or otherwise use Gardena’s barriers to try and hold his own, though his win condition remains surviving until his dolls can take out his opponent for him in most cases.
If the opponent can outlast his initial offense, Victor is fine with protracted fights as well. Malveillance in particular is adept at attacking from the shadows, and with four combatants, Victor wears down a quarter the speed of his opponents. Victor is fine playing the long game, of cat and mouse with his opponent, disengaging and coming at them in different ways and angles. In fact, with his abilities through Leurre to be in two places at once, Victor is often almost guaranteed to find his opponent before his opponent finds Victor, giving him the advantage in such combats.
But overall, Victor does prefer up and out straight fights, to resolve quickly, using teamwork and his doll’s abilities in tandem to catch and quickly subdue an enemy. This tactic does mean Victor works well in a team setting, able to quickly assess his allies’ abilities and coordinate with them effectively to utilize their powers in the best manner he can picture.
Doll 1 Appearance and Overall Ability: Leurre is the spitting image of Victor himself. Quite literally, to the letter. While Leurre’s clothing may change depending on his mood or purposes, by default, Leurre will appear in whatever outfit that Victor is wearing, and otherwise resembles his master identically. Same eyes, same hair, same scar on the chest. Everything. And that is very, very important for Leurre’s purposes, because Leurre’s primary ability as a Doll, is the ability to act as an emissary of Victor, and be in multiple places at once. A body-double, and one of the ways Victor has ensured his survival all of these years. No doubt Shinigami records have confirmed Victor’s death at least half a dozen times, when in fact, they only succeeded in executing Leurre.
In short, Leurre’s abilities are designed to allow him to stand in for Victor and serve as Victor’s body double for almost all intents and purposes, save one. Leurre cannot duplicate any (mechanical) items that Victor carries on his person, nor can Leurre create duplicates of Victor’s other dolls. Leurre is limited to what Victor himself is capable of, sans one exception, which is detailed below (“Swap”). He does, however, come with a copy of the diary used to summon him, though this copy is little more than a completely ordinary book.
Leure Techniques:
Technique template: As a copy of Victor, and designed to be able to pull off a perfect impersonation of Victor, Leurre is capable of using any Non-Release techniques that Victor can use. For techniques that have durations, only one can be in use at any given time. For certain Non-Release techniques, like Cutback Assault, Victor can also choose to use the technique from Leurre’s location instead of his own (though costs and drawbacks must still be paid by the original caster).
La mort ne coûte pas cher: Unlike Victor’s other dolls, Leurre is expected to die. To some extent it is his purpose, to die in his master’s stead. Consequently, unlike most Bount, Leurre does not cause particularly adverse harm to Victor when he dies. When Leurre is killed, drawbacks for losing a doll are halved; Victor only loses 200 reiatsu, while he suffers discomfort at his doll’s death he does not experience the wracking crippling pain, and Leurre can be re-summoned after two posts instead of five.
Swap: As a final trick as a body double, Leurre is capable of switching places with Victor, or any of his other dolls at any time. The switch is instantaneous, though whether the posture is copied over is entirely optional to the two being switched out. This technique is capable of working even on or while under the effects of by Gardene’s Personal Shield ability (see below).
Doll 2 Appearance and Overall Ability: Malveillance is Victor’s second doll, born out of his resentment for Soul Society, and his most dangerous one. While Victor’s other dolls more or less resemble humans, Malveillance takes the form of a cloaked, shadowy figure with huge, lashing insect-like legs emerging from his back. Each of these legs is covered with razor sharp, steel barbs, and Malveillance’s hands, hidden beneath robed sleeves, are in fact, claws, allowing him to rip and tear at enemies. Each of Malveillance’s legs are roughly six feet in length, giving him tremendous reach over many of his opponents.
Malveillance Appearance
Malveillance’s powers all revolve around trickery and deception. He’s an illusionist, made to mislead his enemies right up until the killing blow. He makes it impossible for enemies to trust their eyes, misjudge distances, and expose themselves to counterattacks, or misjudge timings. All of Malveillance’s abilities are designed to ensure that Victor’s enemies die in as much pain and fear as Victor’s “siblings”.
Malveillance Techniques:
For a cost of 300 reiatsu, Malveillance can apply this effect to a nearby object or ally by making physical contact with them. When applied this way, the effect lasts for three posts unless Malveillance spends another 300 reiatsu to renew the effect. Physical contact is not required to renew the effect.
Chaff: Malveillance can release a cloud of black-sootlike material in a conical blast from his mouth, which clings to that which it touches. Individuals who are touched by this material are unable to accurately sense with energy sensory or any energy sensing techniques, which instead return a sort of mental “Static” to the user. Additionally, if he is able to hit the target’s face, the chaff can cover their eyes, blinding the user. The chaff is sticky and difficult to remove, and cannot simply be wiped off without tearing at the skin beneath it, though it only adheres to the upper layer of skin– this is less helpful if one’s eyes are covered by it, but it means that if attached to the rest of the user’s body it can simply be scratched off with some effort. If left to its own devices, the chaff will disintegrate on its own within three posts.
In addition, individuals covered by the chaff cannot be detected BY energy sensory abilities, allowing Malveillance to use this for both disruption and stealth purposes if he so chooses.
Doppleganger: Malveillance also possesses the ability to create illusory duplicates of anything within his sight. He has full control over the duplicates, and can have them move around freely, though once he has created a doppleganger, he cannot change the doppleganger’s appearance. Malveillance must initially at least, create a doppleganger within twenty feet of himself, after which it is free to exceed that distance. While there is no maximum distance at which Malveillance can send his illusory creations, unlike Leurre, Malveillance cannot see through his dopplegangers, meaning that he cannot let them get too far away, lest he lose the ability to allow them to respond to their surroundings. Malveillance also cannot create an illusion of entire buildings, and is generally relegated to only being able to produce illusions as large as an average bedroom at the most. Each individual illusion costs Malveillance 100 reiatsu to create, though there is no upkeep. The dopplegangers cannot physically interact with their environment, but they can still make realistic noises as if they were. A 1 in illusion resist allows someone to tell which dopplegangers are fake at less than ten feet. A 2 in illusion resist allows one to discern the illusion at twenty feet. A 3 in illusion resist allows one to determine which dopplegangers are fake at up to 40 feet. A 4 in illusion resist allows one to discern which illusions are fake at any distance provided they are at least close enough to clearly see the dopplegangers.
Overload: While misdirection and deception are all well and good, an assassin needs a way to kill his prey, and Malveillance keeps to his methods like this. While Malveillance’s additional limbs are certainly deadly, Malveillance has one final trick up its sleeves. By making physical contact with an individual, Malveillance can push its illusory powers to the maximum overloading his opponents senses. It can only afflict single sense at a time, but is able to produce an intense illusory sensation to overwhelm the sense in question with a negative experience, whether it be convincing the eyes that they are being subjected to an unendurable blinding light, afflicting the sense of touch to cause such agonizing pain, or even taste, causing the subject to endure the most vile, disgusting taste imaginable.
In any of these cases, the experience is so visceral and real that the target is overwhelmed by the sensation, and depending on how many times Malveillance has used this ability on them, they will have a different effect, each of which lasts for only a single post. Malveillance must use this ability on the target five times, and each time must afflict a different sense. Upon the first use, the experience is endurable, but disrupts the target, preventing techniques that require concentration and otherwise mentally perturbing or disrupting the target. On second use, a target may be briefly immobilized for a single post by the intense sensation, unable to move from their current location (though still able to attempt to defend themselves), in addition to the initial effects. On third use, the experience is so intense the illusion causes the target to collapse on the spot, rendering them vulnerable to follow-up attacks. Upon striking a target with this technique four times, the experience completely overloads a target’s senses and causes them to fall to the ground completely immobilized, and a fifth will cause the experience to be so powerful that the subject suffers a heart attack and dies.
This technique costs 400 reiatsu per use. Additionally, whatever sense Malveillance targets, the victim loses use of that sense except for enduring the effects of this technique for that post. Malveillance cannot target a given sense more than once and cannot affect a target with Overload more than once per post.
Doll 3 Appearance and Overall Ability: Gardene takes the form of a petit woman, with Caucasian skin much like Victor himself, though she has long black hair that extends down almost to her waist. She is adorned in very casual clothing, a navy-blue jacket, overtop a white, ruffle-collared shirt. Gardene wears black slack pants, but does not wear shoes, as in place of normal human feet, Gardene as a pair of birdlike talons. She also wears a copy of the sapphire ring that Victor himself wears. Though most people are going to be less inclined to notice these details and more inclined to notice that the right half of her body is horrifically burned. Every inch of the right hand side of her body is covered in severe burns and blackened skin, leaving only her right eye in-tact which is typically covered by her hair. This does not affect her combat abilities but can be potentially startling or uncomfortable to look at. Gardene’s main notable non-human feature is a pair of functional, black-feathered angel wings that extend from her back with a total wingspan of about eight feet. A literal guardian angel.
Gardena's Appearance
Gardene, as her name suggests, is the protector of Victor’s dolls, and her abilities revolve around creating protective barriers and shields for herself and allies. Although her direct offensive abilities are somewhat limited, she can prove a daunting obstacle for enemies to get through her barriers and shields. As a rule of thumb, Gardene’s barriers are translucent unless otherwise noted, and glow with a soft blue shimmer.
Gardene Techniques:
Personal Shield: A much more advanced barrier, this technique costs Gardene 400 reiatsu to use. Unlike her previous Barrier ability, Personal Shield creates a malleable, skin-tight forcefield around the target of her choice, that moves with the user. This technique obeys all the previous rules of her barrier, including the two-way rule. While a target covered by this barrier is very well protected, they cannot use most ranged or projectile abilities, such attacks hitting their side of the barrier. This also applies to abilities like the Shinigami kido spell Rikujokoro. In essence it traps the target’s spiritual energy inside the barrier, rendering them unable to use their spiritual abilities to affect the outside, but in exchange, the target is covered by a personal barrier than moves as they do. Gardene is unable to telekinetically control her Personal Shield ability as she does her Barrier technique.
Razor Edge: This ability is an exception to Gardene’s normal inability to alter the form of her barriers after creating them, and allows her to make the edges of her barriers razor sharp. This can apply to her panel barriers or her Personal shield, and also unlike her previous abilities, Gardene can be selective about where on the barriers these razor edges are. Functionally, whatever area of the barrier is affected by Razor Edge gains cutting strength, allowing Gardene to use her barriers offensively to cut through targets. It costs 100 reiatsu to modify a pre-existing barrier, or an additional 100 reiatsu is added to the cost to create a barrier with Razor Edge in effect. Note that the shunting effect is still applicable even with Razor Edge—Gardene cannot use Razor edge to create a shield through someone’s neck to decapitate them. She still needs to create the barrier first and then swing shields around.
Shield phase: This is an ability that can only be used on pre-existing shields. Essentially, for a cost of 200 reiatsu, Gardene can render any currently active shields “phased out” in which they are able to be passed through freely on both sides. Alternatively Gardene can move her barriers through objects during this time as well. At any point during this effect, Gardene can “phase in” a barrier for no additional cost, which unlike its creation will NOT shunt material caught in it away, but will instead lock that matter in place, trapping it in the barrier. This renders targets vulnerable to follow-up attacks, or, if need-be, Gardene can choose to apply “Razor Edge” to cut through any matter trapped in a barrier in this fashion.
Other Techniques:
Energy Generate
Kraft (Force)
Starker Korper
Schiene
Rauch
Movement
Physical Manifestation: Willpower
Willpower Mastery: Razor
Geist
Schwarm
Nebel
Nagel
Könige Befehl
Combat Cutback
Advanced Air Ground
Redirection
Energy Generate: Bullet
Birthplace:[Soul Society]
Current Residence: [Karakura Town]
Memorable Figures:
[Colette, Victor’s fiance.
Shiryo Hanashi, Victor’s creator]
History:
Victor is among the original Bounts created by Soul Society, made nearly fifteen hundred years ago. Originally a weapon and loyal to the Seireitei, he was sent on numerous missions to the Human World to exterminate Hollows and serve as support for Shinigami. As far as an original Bount’s life went, his was as ordinary as you get being a test-soldier for Soul Society. Probably a fair bit of maladjustment to society, but otherwise functional. He got on well with other Bount as well as Shinigami, though was, from the very beginning a more quiet and reserved individual. On the day of his creation, Victor was gifted a diary from his creator, for him to keep a log of all his adventures and journeys (allegedly for further study and research). Victor appreciated the gift and began meticulously detailing his battles with Hollows, their abilities and the like.
So great was Victor’s attachment to his diary that it ultimately became the sealed form of his doll, Leurre, whom he developed as his powers grew. Leurre was a source of great amusement for Victor in the beginning, and as close to a child-like pranks as Victor ever allowed himself to partake in, often using his doll to switch places and play jokes on the various researchers or his fellow Bount. Only Victor’s creator, the Shinigami researcher, Fourth seat Shiryo of the 12th Division, knew of Leurre’s development and powers, and Victor got on well with his “father”. The Shinigami instilled in Victor a passion for learning, for reading. When Victor experienced fear of battle, Shiryo helped Victor overcome it. The two were close, and although the feelings were likely stronger on Victor’s side (after-all he was but one of hundreds of other Bount), it did seem that Shiryo had some affection for his red-haired creation.
But of course, everything changed when the Central 46 judged the Bount a failed experiment, and more dangerous to the Soul Cycle than helpful and the purge of the Bounts began. Victor had been operating in the human world at the time, on the coast of modern day Japan, when the Shinigami strikeforce arrived. He and his unit of Bount had been assigned to exterminate a nest of Hollows that were preying on souls near modern day Okinawa. Unfortunately, this was nothing but bait for a Shinigami ambush. The attack was sudden and unexpected, and remorseless. Victor and his colleagues were overwhelmed in the sudden assault, only Leurre allowing Victor to survive. Victor had summoned his doll as a sentry, and it was only through that which allowed Victor to switch places with the doll, causing the Shinigami attackers to believe they’d kill Victor instead.
Victor was initially unsure of what happened so he sent Leurre back to Soul Society for information. Was this some unruly band of Shinigami? Traitors? Something more insidious? Leurre was admitted back into the Seireitei, where Victor noticed a strange lack of other Bount. Something was wrong, but it was not until he reunited with his father, did Victor understand. The look of resignation and acceptance on Shiryo’s face as he welcomed back Leurre. His father deigned to tell Victor of the decision Soul Society had come to. He offered a hollow apology for his actions, and apologized for giving Victor life, that he might know this kind of betrayal and pain. And then Shiryo cut Leurre down in a single stroke. It was possible, perhaps, that Shiryo knew that it was Leurre he cut down rather than Victor, or suspected it, but if so, then this was the final gift the father could give his son. Confirmation of Victor’s death.
Back in the Human World, Victor fled Japan, escaping across the seas. He didn’t know where other Bount were, or if he was already the last of his kind. He didn’t know what to do or where to go, only that he had to find a way to run beyond the reach of Soul Society and lay low, until the Seireitei acknowledged their mistake, or stopped looking for him. Something would happen… Surely. Surely something would go his way.
Victor escaped into Europe of the early 11th century, and there he resided for six hundred years. He kept his head down and laid low, living as a hermit on the outskirts of a local village in Normandy. He went about his day, hunting for food in the woods, and making his living as a hunter, providing the village with fresh hunts. As a Bount, he was required to subsist on living beings, but he was able to make do with animals and Hollows for extended periods of time. To Victor’s chagrin it was true that the occasional traveler would mysteriously disappear in the village, but such was Victor’s lot in life. Of course, he could not stay in one place for long. Victor lived a nomadic existence, traveling around Normandy and the lands that would become modern day France, Spain and Austria, never staying in one place for more than two decades, lest the locals grow suspicious.
It wasn’t perfect of course. Once in awhile he would be outed as a witch, monster or whatever it may have been, and Victor would be forced to use Leurre to convince the village that he had been properly killed, and allow him to make his getaway. He traveled without much purpose or reason for six centuries, merely existing, until one day, while living in Paris in the 17th century, he was approached by a wounded woman. She had some limited spiritual sensitivity about her, and this had attracted all manner of malign influences– namely Hollows. She believed that she was cursed, and had been cast out of her home by her parents. Some strange force had drawn her to Victor’s cottage on the edge of Paris– drawn perhaps by the Bount’s spiritual energy.
She admitted she did not know what had drawn her to the strange, red haired man who kept to himself, but she said she believed God had sent her to him for a reason. Victor, who had grown unaccustomed to company in the six centuries, beyond passing greetings with his neighbors, reluctantly took her in. He helped Colette settle in, giving the woman his own bed, and settling for sleeping at the hearth for a time, whilst he built a new one for himself. At first it was uncomfortable and strange for Victor to have to provide for two, and he made his fair share of mistakes, but as the weeks passed he found Colette to be surprisingly welcome and charming company, and Victor found that he had truly come to miss real interaction. A part of himself had been closed off by Shinigami betrayal and he had kept it buried for centuries, only now to be unearthed by Colette’s kindness and sweet demeanor.
Victor became a sort of guardian to Colette, and so long as she resided with Victor, her “curse” never seemed to come about again. The people around her no longer got hurt. She no longer came home with strange injuries she couldn’t explain. And Victor? Well, unlucky travelers stopped disappearing when they stopped in town. Victor had found new prey to hunt and pursued Hollows as his meal of choice instead.
Hollows could put up a terrific fight to be sure, but Victor was trained by Soul Society, and significantly more powerful than most. He did not fear the Hollows and after so long, he no longer feared discovery by Soul Society. Surely if the Seireitei could find him, they would have done so by now, and Hollow attacks were not common enough that he expected to be making significant changes to the spirit cycle. He was sure this would be fine.
Victor did, however, become increasingly worried about Colette, however. The woman had taken a liking to Victor it seemed as her protector, and had begun to take care of the house while he was out hunting. Victor was not stupid and could see that she had affection for him, and if he was being honest, the feelings were mutual. But Victor was a Bount. A near-immortal creature that had lived for centuries, and Colette had only just had her 21st birthday. The two had been living together for six months, so Victor did not expect any friction yet, but surely, if nothing happened (or if something did) she would begin to notice that her protector did not age. Victor could always pack up and leave, but then what? Could he be so callous as to abandon Colette alone like that in ten years?
The Bount agonized for some time about what to do and when to say it. Whether he should commit to this woman, who would live a fleeting, brief candlelight of a life, or if he should spare himself and her alike the pain of watching their worlds collide and then separate once more. He struggled with it day and night, and eventually, Colette noticed something was wrong. One night, Victor came home from a day of hunting, a deer slung over his shoulders. While he readied the knife to begin preparing the animal, Colette approached him and implored him to tell her what was troubling him. When Victor told her she would not believe him, or worse, think him mad, she promised she would not. She pressed him, and at last Victor told her the truth, or at least parts of it.
He revealed to Colette that he was an ancient being, centuries old, with fantastic powers beyond humans, and that he was the one that had been protecting her. He told her that he could not reside in Paris forever, and that one day he would have to leave. He admitted his feelings to her, and the guilt he felt that he feared that this would only cause her pain.
Colette was shocked, of course and asked for some time to process this. Victor assured her before she left that he would not hold her prisoner and that if she wished to leave in the wake of this news, he would not stop her. He would resume his solitary lifestyle, and promised that he would use what means he had to allow her to set herself up to live independently of him, and then disappear from her life forever. This he swore to her, and left the woman to her thoughts.
It was a long, and tense night. Victor prepared the meal, and left a plate inside, but dared not enter the cottage that night. He slept outside beneath the stars, letting Colette have her thoughts. He could not help but recognize the fear in his heart that she would choose to leave him, and he found himself hoping desperately that she wouldn’t. And simultaneously hoping desperately that she would, for he knew to stay with him would be to risk unbearable hardship in the years to come.
But when Victor awoke the next morning at first light, he found Colette sitting beside him against the wall of the cottage. She thanked Victor for his honesty, and asked the Bount to let her stay with him as long as her mortal life allowed. She suggested to him that they pack up and leave Paris for the rural countryside, and live out a quiet life there together in each other’s company. It was here that the two shared their first kiss, and Victor agreed.
The two left that day, leaving naught but questions and mysteries behind to those who now found the empty cottage on the edge of town, and the two traveled into northern France where they settled in a quiet little village by the river. There again they resumed their life, as a couple, Victor doing his part to provide for Colette and himself. This far out in the countryside, Hollows were less common, but now for the sake of the woman he loved, Victor refrained from eating humans. This did cause him to weaken bit by bit over time, but he was willing to endure it. Perhaps, he thought…. Perhaps if he was lucky, then he might weaken enough that he might die along with Colette, and spare both of them the pain of living without the other.
As the months and years passed the two grew even closer, and Victor made it his task to see Colette’s dreams come true. The woman admired the aristocracy of ancient France from afar, and though she knew she could not reach those heights, she hoped that she might for a time, live like they do. Even for just a single day. Victor did what he could to make her comfortable, working himself and Leurre to the bone to keep their house as clean and pristine as possible. He taught Colette to read and write like the nobility she so admired. He bought the best clothes for Colette as he could, and although that was not too much, six centuries had left him with a respectable fortune he could spend on her. Colette, for her part, returned the favor to him by commissioning a locket from a silversmith in town, with a small painting of her inside, to keep her close to Victor’s heart– a gift the Bount accepted respectfully and warmly.
The two grew closer, and one day, Victor told Colette he was leaving on a long hunting trip. He left Leurre to look after the woman in his absence so that they could remain together and traveled back to Paris, where he bought a ring for Colette. A golden band, with a sapphire jewel. It was a wedding ring. Upon his return to their village he presented the ring to Colette beneath an ancient oak by the river and asked the woman to marry him. Though it had only been some six years since they had met, little more than a blink in Victor’s ancient life, Colette had given him more joy, and peace than he had known in his entire life until this point. Not even the comradery with his fellow Bount, or the approval of his creator had given him this happiness, and he wanted to repay it in turn. Colette agreed, and the two were engaged.
The next period of time was the happiest of Victor’s life, as the two prepared for their life together. They would spend their days in each other’s company, planning for the future. At this time Victor did not know Bount were sterile, and so the two often wondered as to what their child would be like. If it might inherit some of Victor’s abilities or if it would be like Colette instead. They talked of their wedding clothes, and whether to invite some of Colette’s friends from the village (as Victor, trained by years of the hermit life, still had trouble making friends). Things seemed to be going Victor’s way for once.
Of course for a Bount, a happy ending is only ever a fleeting prospect. Time marches on in all its cruelty. A Hollow may have been little threat to Victor, but he had not been as subtle as he’d thought. Though it had taken some time, Victor’s hunting of Hollows in Paris had drawn the eye of Soul Society, and a group of Shinigami had begun to search the area. They did not know they were tracking a Bount of course, but they were looking for some manner of creature that could eradicate the soul of another from the Soul Cycle. It had taken them some months once the search began but eventually they followed residual trails of reiatsu to the sleepy village in the countryside by the river. They found Victor and Colette, and they attacked.
The battle was short but brutal. One would expect such a monumental death to Victor’s life as happened here to be a matter of great drama and importance. As such the swiftness of it shocked even Victor. One moment he was battling one of the Shinigami alongside Leurre. The next, a kido exploded, shattering Victor’s home and killing Colette nigh instantaneously. There was no opportunity for grief, for prevention, or last words. One moment she was there, and the next, only a corpse, her body scarred and burned from the blast.
Despair, grief and sorrow in equal measure erupted in Victor and from this fury and passion came an utter lack of self preservation. Using forbidden Bount arts that he had used to create Leurre all those centuries ago, Victor pushed himself beyond his limits, invoking arcane powers to create a second doll on the spot, a process that should have (and Victor had hoped it would) killed the Bount. But it didn’t, and from this rage and despair was born Malveillance. The wicked spirit was not as obedient as Leurre and it set about ripping Shinigami limb from limb, overwhelming them and slaughtering them en masse. And Victor…. Victor didn’t care. All he hoped was that when the creature he had created was done with the Shinigami it would turn on him.
But it didn’t. Malveillance instead found its home within the ring on Colette’s finger. The creature’s new home. A living testament to remind Victor that from great joy could be birthed such agonizing pain as that which struck him now. Pain he knew he must face one day, but had prayed to the Soul King he would not.
And his pain was not yet over. Colette’s mortal body may have perished but her soul had not, and her Plus then approached Victor. Victor embraced her, wracked with grief, and Colette’s spirit did what she could to comfort her fiance. The two agreed on burying her body beneath the same tree he had proposed to her under, where Colette could lie forever in the place that had made her happiest. She asked Victor to take the wedding ring he had given her to keep her in his heart, along with the locket, which had become scorched by the same blast that had killed her.
Colette’s burial was a quiet and somber affair with only Victor in attendance. He buried her by the river beneath a large tree, in a grave he dug himself by hand. He offered a few small prayers and then took up the Zanpakuto of one of the Shinigami. He knew, as he would tell Colette, that if she remained in this world, her chain of fate would break down and she would become a Hollow, a monster, like those that had once harassed her. Victor would spare her from this fate. He performed the Konso ritual and sent Colette on to the next world, with a final promise of love to her, and a final farewell. Victor knew there was no place for him in Soul Society, and even should Colette ride the cycle of reincarnation to be born again, he would never see her again.
Victor left France that day, traveling back Eastward. No small part of him hoped that he would encounter Shinigami yet again and perhaps one of them could put an end to his misery. He wandered without purpose, in a fugue state, not caring or noticing where he ended up, until he found himself at last back on the shores of Japan, in the mid-19th century. Even so long after the fact, grief still struck at his heart. He returned to the original scene of his world changing, the coastal Okinawan village, which had now risen up into a full town.
Victor did his best to try and extend his feelings out to the villagers. He tried to push himself into the community, but regardless, he could never feel like a part of the village. Every day he went back home in a deep depression, and would watch the sea until sleep took him.
Victor’s grief pushed him into creating a third and final doll. He began the rituals as he had with Leurre a thousand years ago, the art somehow still fresh in his mind. For several months he abided in his house, slowly building up the doll, working on the mental image, until he had crafted her. Gardene, a doll in nearly the spitting image of his wife, save for the black-feathered angel wings, born out of Victor’s misguided and (he knew) false hope that she’d somehow gone up to the Heaven she’d always believed in.
Victor would speak with Gardene at length, and from his doll he received the encouragement to move on. He received closure, and tried to live as he expected Colette would have wished him to, not shackled by her death but inspired by her life.
Victor moved away to central Japan, a new territory and began to grow his roots in the community. His nature as a Bount forced him to live a reclusive lifestyle, and he would occasionally have to get down into illicit underworld dealings for fake identities– something he got increasingly good at as the years passed. Victor became a figure of some obfuscation, Leurre helping him to maintain some nine or ten identities at any given time– identities Victor would eventually, after a few decades, allow to “die” at which point he’d step out of the public eye, living on the proceeds of his business ventures for a decade or two, before resurfacing, and building up again from the ground up.
Victor worked in charity ventures, but also, inspired by Colette, leaned into a variety of clothing and jewelry businesses, and became very competent at starting up his businesses, and then eventually retiring, and resuming again under a new alias. And so Victor slowly made his way into the modern era, where organizations like XCution and eventually Uzaki Enterprises made their appearances. At last now… At last Victor saw an opportunity to advance among spiritual peers, who would not shun or try to slay him for what he was. And so the Bount applied for Uzaki Enterprises, his knowledge of the spiritual world and power built over centuries accumulating into a meteorically fast rise, surpassed only by Luke Clyburn and Zeich Yajuu.
Though Victor realized Luke’s identity as a Bount, he never stepped forth to reveal himself. Truth be told in the centuries since the purge, Victor had never quite settled on his feelings for his peers, and to know Luke lived was a strange feeling– even moreso that there had been another Bount, Jin, who had become a fairly prominent figure. Even so… Victor ultimately found closer bonds with the humans around him, than his fellow Bount, and so kept his silence on his identity. To Victor, ultimately it didn’t matter. To Victor it only mattered that he had once again found a home.