Arrancar - Stour - [A-3]

[Stour]

Arrancar Application

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In Character

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General Information
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Name: Delicia, Stour
Actual Age: Around 300
Appearing Age: Late 20s
Gender: Male
Race: Adjuchas
Rank: Rogue. Formerly Szayel's fraccion.
Number: 38

Appearance

A strong-looking man of around six feet, he stands with a bit of a slouch. Stour has grown his hair into a long ponytail, tied back at the base of his skull, looking like a vivid purple rope down his spine. Stour is very toned, having a noticeable, although not an absurd amount of muscle. His face is relatively handsome, a strong jawline and cheekbones accent his powerful features. His eyes are bright amber, almost seeming to glow, though they have a stripe of red vertically running through each iris, and a red dot in the center of each pupil, apparently resulting from his old shape as an Adjuchas. His mask fragments sit one on each side of his mouth, a pair of sharp-looking fangs that run underneath his lower lip, starting each on either end of his lips, and running in a curve until they stop, a centimeter apart from each other, ending in very sharp points.

The slouching stance is extremely deceiving, hiding the agility and strength that hide behind it. He essentially looks older than he is, and a lot less stable than he is. His slouch leaves him appearing around five foot ten, while his true height is somewhere just over six feet. This is a curiosity worth mentioning as he usually only stands when he is angry or asserting a point, and suddenly gaining over two inches in height can give the illusion that he grew in size, asserting his points more aggressively.

Stour has discarded his old outfit in favor of a black robe of similar make, oddly long sleeves, and baggy pants that stop just short of his shoes. However, the outfit lacks the tear that left his hollow hole in view, instead wishing to hide the hole, rather than being proud of it, now that he has abandoned his home. Under this, he generally wears a white top and bottom, though he rarely removes the outfit. Now that he is in the human world, he dons a gigai from time to time. It makes his mask fragments entirely disappear, and has him wearing a simple black button up shirt, and a pair of grey slacks and black dress shoes. His nails are strikingly purple, and are rather sharp and hard, filed to points like claws. The painted nails and finely-sharpened tips augment the feminine appearance of his hands, long thin fingers, and smooth skin. On top of this, Stour has no body hair, not even facial hair, save for the thin dark black lines that make for his eyebrows.

Personality

Acting more as a bodyguard than an assistant in his own eyes, he likes only to be near his master. His desire to be seen as more than just a peon is foremost amongst Stour's personality quirks. He would go to almost any lengths requested by Szayel, if only to make him rise even the slightest in the eyes of his wonderful master. He longs to surpass anyone more powerful than himself, and as a result often absorbs qualities of others' styles into his own combat techniques. His extreme agility is how he tries to make up for his somewhat lacking intelligence. Not exactly dumb, he also doesn't have quite the potency for studying as his master. But rather than studying, he duplicates using his speed and strength. He can recreate styles of combat that he witnesses almost to a t with just time to watch.

Well, he used to be a bodyguard. Things change, and so do people. The difference in views finally took Stour from friend to foe, and caused him to realize that he has been foolish to act as he did towards others. He is still a strong presence, but he is much less quick to bite his tongue, as his opinions are differing with others' much less than he is used to. Luckily, finding this new part of himself is allowing him to explore his capacity to actually be charming. Something he'd always had, but was limited by arrogance and narcissism. He still has difficulties learning to respect others, but he is aware of when they deserve it. Though he used to snap into sinister reactions after petty annoyances, he finds his sadistic side only coming out when he engages in intense combat. During times like that, he finds himself enjoying the toying with his opponents if he gets annoyed enough.

The time that has passed has left Stour with a slight, strange feeling of wholeness. He is much happier than he ever was before. Unfortunately, he's also not very well-practiced with social interactions, leaving him with amazing skill at being extremely awkward, and saying the absolute worst things possible from time to time.

History

A human raised to an unspectacular life, with typical surroundings, Stour's human life was nothing but dullness and repetition. Standing still, essentially, until he was caught up in something he never should have been. He, of course, does not remember this, but it is what shaped him and destined him for an eternity as a hollow. He was young, and dumb, perhaps. But what else could you expect from someone who had just been hired to a low-end job at a high-end business. Pay was great for his simple job, which was essentially a secretary. For once, things in his life were panning out.

But how long could that really last? A few days later, a coworker asked him if he wanted to be in on a scheme the others had all been doing. See, they managed to steal from the company. The company had some illicit affairs on the side, and it was easy to snag money out of that income without them noticing. The others had been doing it for years. He agreed, of course, it seemed harmless. An extra hundred dollars a month was worth the risk of sneaking in every few weeks to the treasury.

But, it wasn't worth the risk. The whole thing was a prank, really. The coworkers typically did this to the new-hires, and they often just got scared right before they entered the room, which the coworkers assumed was empty.

Turns out the company did run some illicit affairs on the side, and they didn't like being snuck up on while discussing them. A couple of holes in his chest was evidence of that. He was dead before his body hit the floor, left standing over it in shock. A few moments later, the hate and rage set in. The man had shot at him with no hesitation, and the coworkers had set him up to die... There was no forgiving them. He looked around him, suddenly aware of himself. He was dead? But not?

He knew why he was still here. It was for vengeance. So, for weeks, he followed the perpetrators of the incident around, stalking them, knocking things around them over, even causing them physical harm when he felt particularly powerful, which was generally when they were terrified or weak. His chain was decaying rapidly, but he simply sped up his assaults, assuming that when the chain was gone, he would be dead for good.

Of course, he was wrong, as he dropped to his knees a few days later, feeling the hate and vengeance overwhelm all other feelings. He couldn't feel anything. Just hate. And... Suddenly, hunger. He was hungry. Very, very hungry. And there was food nearby, and it smelled wonderful.

Looking around him, a large white mask over his face, though he didn't notice, he saw another soul. The chain still intact on this one, and it looked horrified. Food. He didn't know what he was doing, but it happened. He leapt, higher, faster, and farther, than he was ever able to before, and grabbed the soul.

His hands? What was wrong with them? They were ghastly pale, ending in claws. It didn't matter, he had his food! He licked his prey, his tongue long, and thin.

What was going on? What was he?

And that was the last time he ever questioned himself. Eating the soul sated him, and his questions subsided. This was power. Power he had always wanted in life was finally his. And he was gonna use it.

Years later, he had devoured many a soul, especially the poor fools who had led him to this disaster. His hollow state was around a decade old at this point, and he had seen a few other hollows killed by black-garbed men and women. Luckily for him, he knew how to hide himself well enough. But their souls seemed strong. He might just ambush one next time they showed up...

Skip forward, Stour is now using his name, a very powerful hollow finally walking the sands of Hueco Mundo, devouring weaker souls. He found himself a group of others. All of them he had seen doing the same, devouring other hollows. It was play time!

Over the weeks, he stalked them, as they devoured each other, he would devour them. Eventually, there were other voices in his head, and he awoke amongst them, noticing he was massive, and massively strong. He felt a sharp pain as his mask warped, the first step in his leap towards greatness.

Weeks upon weeks of devouring other Gillian is mindless, mindless works. Of course, it went on for years and years, but Stour took no notice. He was satisfying his only desire. He was feeding, and becoming more powerful as a result. What else could possibly matter? Over time, it became obvious that he was becoming very powerful, vastly more so than the Gillian around him, who would, at times, just follow him around for days. A few more devourings done, and Stour fell asleep. He wasn't sure how long he was out when he woke up, but he felt... very different. He could see somehow better than before. Which was odd. He went to move his legs, and found himself on the ground. What had happened? He was... Small.

No bigger than a typical hollow, perhaps even smaller than his old hollow size. He turned his head to his body, finding what looked like a spider. A solid black exoskeleton with vivid purple lines running throughout it. Eight legs, and all. He looked around him. He was alone, for now. Was this what true power felt like? he supposed it was, as he took off running, learning to put each of his eight legs in the right position.

He was fast. Horrifyingly fast. And he knew it. He spun himself a web in between some trees, and curled up on it, hidden from sight amongst the branches.

Apparently, many Adjuchas and smaller hollow didn't know what the web was for, and would try to tear it down, finding themselves stuck to it, and soon after finding a stinger in their gut, they would begin to decay into pure energy, that Stour would then devour. This was when he first noted he could mimic his prey, following it in patterns similar to how it moved, copying its reiatsu patterns. He was avoiding detection, much like a spider stalking its prey, assuming he wasn't curled up in his web.

Many many years of this past, before he heard of Aizen's recruitment. The power-hungry Stour had no hesitation in scurrying over to Aizen's castle. He could be stronger! Stronger than ever! And he wanted it. Wanted it badly.

Finding himself with a newly shattered mask, and his new form rather comforting to himself, Stour only needed one more thing.

A place in the new world. A true leader, not some arrogant shinigami who thought he could control the hollows. Stour decided to find his place amongst the espada. Not as a member, but as a follower. A follower, devout in every way, did he become.

Feeling nothing but a strong urge to prove himself, he attempted to create an experimental device, allowing the manipulation of one's Hierro, similar to the way he could bend his own. Of course, when Stour used the ability on a weaker arrancar, they found it to be working great! Stour was so happy, he almost decided to not kill the volunteer, but he didn't want the surprise to be ruined!

Running to his master, he knocked on the door, not waiting for a response he ran in, and without waiting a moment, the device exploded in his face.

"Egh..." Said Stour through thick soot covering his face and body. "Nevermind..."

And he turned and walked away. These events would repeat, very often, most times Stour not even staying to see the look on Szayel's face when the device would {always} explode.

Well, more time passed, and Stour has forsaken his allegiance to Las Noches, and moved on into the Human realm. Freeing Kaki from Szayel was a risky endeavor, nearly ending with Stour getting captured, but it was a success. He is now a free arrancar, existing outside of the limitations of being a weak follower. Time in the human world has led him to be somewhat less evil, if evil was ever the right word. Now he is setting about working with The Haven, and advancing his standing among his new allies.

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Skills
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Skills

• Swordsmanship- Intermediate
  
• Cero - Advanced
  
• Sonído - Intermediate
  
• Hand to Hand - Advanced

Attributes

• Speed - Advanced
  
• Power - Advanced
  
• Stamina - Intermediate
  
• Intelligence - Intermediate
  

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Powers
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Natural Powers

• Cero - a fiery vivid purple blast, same as his own reiatsu, he can fire it from his palms or mouth.
  
• Garganta
  
• Hierro
  
• Pesquisa - Helps Stour in his mimicry of his opponents, by sensing how their reiatsu flows. It would be safe to say his pesquisa is acute.
  

Arrancar Abilities

Exoskeleton

• Description of Attack - Essentially an advanced version of hierro, Stour can pull the reiatsu coating parts of his body to specific locations. IE: His hands. Using this completely removes the Hierro from the location he pulls it from, leaving it open to attack, however the augmented Hierro can actually be used as a weapon if attached to his fists, arms, legs or feet.
  
  Typically applied to his forearms and hands, you can actually see the reiatsu as it is pulled, it's a whirl of purple before it settles on his hands, leaving what looks like straight-lined purple tattoos down his fingers, up to about to his elbow, stopping a few inches short. Looking closely at these lines would reveal tiny hair follicles that run up and down the tattooed areas, giving a spider-like styling. Anywhere he places Exoskeleton gains the tattoos. The ability has a size of a foot or so, before the augmented hierro ends. The augmented area has the strength of his own zanpakuto, giving him capacity to attack and defend with his bare hands to an otherwise unheard-of extent.
  
  To be clear, his hierro is missing from EVERYWHERE else, except where it is augmented, leaving him quite vulnerable.
  
• Type - Offensive/Defensive
  
• Range - Self
  
• Limitation - Of course, he is open to attack where Exoskeleton is not active. The ability isn't draining over short times, but upkeep requires severe reiatsu consumption. Easily upkept with no loss to reiatsu through blows of his level and below for 30 minutes, or 5 posts of combat. After this time, it begins to require upkeep of his reiatsu, and he often simply relieves the ability, which shatters his reiatsu, causing him to be drained for a few moments time.
  
  Anyone slightly stronger than him might be surprised by the durability {Two notches above his level}. He can take 2-3 direct blows to whatever area is covered by Exoskeleton, though when it shatters from damage, he cannot reacquire his Hierro until he is fully freed from the stresses of combat.
  
  Anyone stronger than that will shatter his armor, causing the lack of Hierro, with only one blow. Note: the one blow is only semi-deflected by exoskeleton, causing Stour some damage.
  

Playing With Food

• Description of Attack - A passive augmentation, Stour's reflexes, vision, and overall perception are highly acute and aware. He uses this in combat either fully defensively, to be able to be one step ahead almost all the time, or to duplicate the style of his opponent, given a certain amount of time of witnessing it. This can be a drastically powerful technique, and its limitations help keep it from being a game-breaker. Matching an opponent's style, mirroring them in combat, is Stour's true capability. He can do it almost effortlessly once he has mastered their style, so assuming they do not suddenly start fighting with no form, Stour can almost entirely anticipate their movements. Clever opponents will, of course, catch on.
  
• Type - Offensive/Sensory
  
• Range - Self
  
• Limitation - Anyone drastically faster {Two notches and up} will blast right through his increased perception and reflexes, and he cannot duplicate their style. One notch above, and Stour cannot duplicate, but can almost reliably move to defend himself, regardless of the damage the defending limb will take.
  
  At the same-ish level {one notch either direction, assuming no full tier gap occurs}, Stour can match almost any blow, and given four posts of the opponent in combat stances, he can duplicate their style, capable of matching them in combat blow-to-blow for as long as he can maintain increased focus, so assuming no distractions come along, and he is in single combat with only one opponent.
  
  Under his level, the opponent will find themselves being toyed with much like a fly in a web.
  
  The real limitation is in the cleverness of the opponent, anyone will catch on sooner or later, but the quicker they realize he needs time to mimic them, as he will slowly begin adopting others' techniques even early in a fight, should he catch them, the sooner they can react and become more unpredictable.
  

Spider Cero

• Description of Attack - A custom cero, it begins charging as a typical cero, but over time it becomes apparent it is not. As the orb charges in either palm, the arm fully extended, while the other arm reaches across to the elbow. {Not usable from mouth} After reaching normal potency size, it splits in two, which begin orbiting each other just outside his palm. Over the next few seconds six more, smaller, orbs burst into existence, and three quickly orbit each larger orb. The large orbs are six inches in diameter, the smaller only one and a half inches. When he launches them, the large orbs continue their orbit of eachother, while the six smaller orbs begin spinning randomly around each other, very rapidly, which then rocket on their own towards the target location, past the initial two, which move in a U shape, before moving in a straight line to impact the target after the first six impact. The first six orbs each have the capacity to disorient the opponent, acting almost as a flash bang would. The two others each have the potency of a single of Stour's ceros, making the attack rather devastating when truly succesful.
  
• Type - Cero
  
• Range - 75 yards
  
• Limitation - The six small ceros have no effect on anyone two notches above him in power. The two larger ones each have the potency of a single cero, so if they hit, they do at least some damage, unless the gap is so drastically huge that combat is pathetic to attempt, anyways.

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Zanpakutō
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Name: Aracnofobia
Translation - Arachnophobia, duh, lawl
Call Out Phrase: Tejer, Aracnofobia
Translation - Weave, Arachnophobia

Appearance

A sword-breaker parrying dagger that Stour wears inside the left side of his robe, hidden from sight, and out of his way, as he often fights with his hands. A sword-breaker is not necessarily used to break a sword, but it has grooves above the guard that allow it to catch the blade of a sword, moving it away, and pinning it so the opponent cannot use it. It is fairly obvious why it would be advantageous to Stour to have an opponent who cannot use their sword. The blade itself is as vivid purple as Stour's reiatsu, while the hilt and guard are jet black. When Stour wields it, he does so in the hand directly across from the one the opponent uses to wield their sword, leaving their entire body open should he catch their blade.

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Resurrección
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Appearance

Four extra limbs immediately become obvious, protruding from Stour's back, just above the tailbone, and being about twelve feet long, multi-segmented, thin {about two inches in diameter}, and coated in exoskeleton just like the rest of his body, black with the purple designs, they are great tools for parrying and striking, as they each end in a spike. In addition, Stour can stand on these legs, giving him enhanced speed, running on four or six legs, leaving his arms free. His mask fragment moves completely away, becoming black like his exoskeleton, and lines each of his now many eyes. Eight, to be exact, running from the pair in front of his face, to a pair on each temple, a pair right above his forehead, and the last pair above his ears. The extra pairs are all solid dark red, no pupil, and they do not seem to move. His two human-like eyes no longer have the red line down the center.

His body itself is now lined with the exoskeleton, incorporating his natural ability into his resureccion. His arms specifically are lined with it, though lose no flexibility. His hands now end in bright purple claws, each about four inches long, running down his even-longer fingers, each around six inches long. The purple coloration starts at each knuckle, and narrows to a point at the end of the claw. The entire body has segments of the shell, augmenting his damage dealt from these limbs, while only being as strong as typical hierro in his released state. It serves as a notice to both himself, and his opponent as to the state of his reiatsu consumption, by chipping away with severe damage, leaving parts of bare skin visible. The only exception is his extra legs, which will not chip away, but will shatter. When a limb shatters, Stour is often sent into a rage, rather more a danger to himself than his opponent.

His hair is actually neater in his released state, slicked back, leaving what looks like a short mohawk, leaving his eyes open to see clearly. His many eyes each see independently, but the side eyes can only give him the sense of movement, not actual pictures. It's sort of like exceptional peripheral vision, giving him a better chance to see attacks from behind, or flanks.

Each of his palms contain a small slit in the center. Rather than having the typical mouth of a spider, his released state can actually extend the fangs from his hands, injecting the poison mentioned in the ability through open palm strikes.

Abilities

Venom

• Description of Attack - Stour has, as mentioned, slits in his palms, which are only about a half-inch long. These slits open, as the three centimeter venom-filled fang pokes out, the fang itself is short and thin, only three centimeters from where his palm is, to the tip. Just enough to get the poison into the muscle tissue. He can use this reflex at will, and does not require any time to release the fangs, and can use them independently. The poison enters the bloodstream through a tiny pinprick, aided by the fact the venom itself relieves the initial sensation of the sting.
  
  After about two posts the effected person will begin to have the area that was pierced lose all feeling and go numb. The area, should it be an arm or leg, is still usable, but obviously at a bit of a disadvantage.
  
• Type - Offensive
  
• Range - Hand-to-Hand
  
• Limitation - Only one area can be effected by the poison at a time, and Stour only has enough venom in his released state for two stabs per fang. Overall time/effect relationship would be about five minutes to kick in, and lasting the same. {Approximately two posts each way.} By 'area' I mean the direct space around the puncture. Say the forearm gets hit, then that arm will go numb. Body? Kind of pointless having the opponents body go numb, but hey. Same goes for any area punctured, it effects the entire area. {Arms, legs, abdomen.}
  
  The head is not effected by the venom. Talk about unfair.
  
  Tier based:
  Above{One or more notch}: Will not have any effect from the venom, and as a result will feel the sting. Might induce paranoia. Could be funny.
  Same: Accurate to the effect listings.
  Below{Two or more notches}: Effectively numbs the area until combat is ceased.
  
  

As a note, Stour maintains Spider Cero, and Playing with Food. Exoskeleton is obviously actually fully active on him, his release coating him with it.

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OOC Information

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Sample Post
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Kicking up a cloud of dirt as he stood, bored, out in the wastes of the desert. He longed to hunt something strong. These were natural urges, of course, but he was doing his best to suppress them. His best was just almost good enough. He had spent so much of his past hunting the weak and strong alike, that suddenly being cut off from it was brutal, even if it had happened ages ago. Staring into the starless sky, at the reversed moon, he yawned. Maybe it was just the boredom setting in.

If only he was smart like Szayel, he could spend this time working on some secret experiment... Unfortunately, his always blew up. And he was getting quite tired of that. He was out of clean clothes for the weak, and he would not be cleaning them again until tomorrow. No. Way. In. Hell.

Instead, Stour stared off into space, contemplating a trip to the human world, crushing humans was always a lot of fun... But he was lazy, and bored of that, even. This happened sometimes, to him. He would sit for ages, not moving. Other times, he would vanish to the world, stuck in his mind, wandering the desert, exploring, and thinking, for weeks on end. He was beginning to think this was a good time to start one of these treks. But, right as he lifted his foot, a voice rang out from somewhere beside him.

"Stour!" Said the arrancar, panting, and running. Stour was confused, he didn't know this man, he'd never seen him before, in fact.

"Eh?" Was all Stour mustered as a response, not moving more than his eyes to look at the man, his foot still mid-step in the air.

"Uh, I'm supposed to bring ya a message! It's, uh..." The arrancar fumbled around his outfit, through many, many pockets, apparently looking for something. "It's, it's somewhere... It was important, too."

"Typical," Stour chuckled. "Trust a messenger, get what you deserve."

The messenger looked shocked at Stour's rudeness. What had he done to deserve that, after all? "Hey, I'm just doing my job!" The messenger said, looking hurt.

"Poorly," Stour said, raising his eyebrows. Was this guy serious? He obviously wasn't doing his job well anyways. Not by any means. "If that's how you're expected to do your job, ever thought about quitting?

"Who sent the message, anyways?" He added, before the arrancar messenger could respond with more than another hurt look.

"Uh... It's on the note..." The arrancar said, apparently beginning to agree with Stour about how bad he was at his job.

"Shocking," Stour said coldly, sending a chill down the arrancar's spine. He was half tempted to just bash the arrancar's head in, and go back to Las Noches, and see just who was looking for him and why, but the arrancar finally pulled out the note, a look of joy on his face.

"Ahem!" He said, obnoxiously pretending to clear his throat, as he tore open the seal, preparing to read the note. "To Stour, from..."

He stared blankly at the note.

"To... Sotur.." He said, quietly looking at the note, a deep blush coming over his face.

"Seriously?" Stour said more than asked. This guy had just wasted all of his time on a note that had nothing to do with him "A messenger that can't read? Maybe you'd do better without eyes."

At that, Stour was charging his cero, aimed right at the poor delivery arrancar, who was sprinting as fast as he could in the other direction, and barely rounded a corner before the sand where he had turned from blasted away from the cero.

"Idiots..." Stour mumbled, before walking out into the desert. Again.

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Rules and Guide Agreement
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• Have you read the full rules of this site, including Xat rules, and understand them? Y
  
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Moderator Use Only

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Reviewed by: Wicked
Tier Level: High Level Strong
Upgrade: 1

[Wicked]

Sure.