Post by GoldenKitten on Mar 23, 2009 19:00:14 GMT -4
Arrancar
Name: Gale
Gender: Male
Age: 44
Ranking: Fraccion
Number: N/A
Base Type: Nondescript, possesses regular hollow to Vasto Lorde forms.
Physical Description
An unfortunate accident during his arrancarization left Gale in a painful (for him) and hilarious (not so much for him) sort of state. To understand one must first understand his powers which are described in detail below, however for the sake of ease I will give a basic explanation here. Gale has the ability as an arrancar to manipulate his body into the form of any humanoid he has consumed, likewise as a hollow he could take the form of any hollow he consumed. A side-effect he never imagined was that when Gramica forced the arrancarization upon him that he would claim the human form of the hollow whose shape he had taken as his own permanent form. While he can change out of this form for a time there is a time limit and so he is simply forced to grow content within this new body.
This change was perhaps the greatest it could have been for him since he was a teenager who was rather tall for his age, well built and quite attractive. But the sad fact is that face and that form are lost to him now amongst the myriad of forms he has to choose from. Instead he is now stuck for the larger part of his waking life in the body of a young girl no older than ten years of age. It is a fact that for right now he considers himself a mind trapped in a different body though he knows it is not true, regardless for the time he considers “He” and “She” as quite separate entities. Appearing to be of western Caucasian heritage she is an exceedingly petite little thing standing no taller than 4'1. She has pale skin and a lanky sort of dancers form with no real weight on her at all, her limbs and digits all long and detailed. She has bright blue eyes and long blond hair as yellow as wheat which “he” usually keeps in long-pigtails or occasionally in a flowing mane though thanks to his tendency to speed around this proves impractical. It is painful to admit but he has taken to painting his or rather “her” nails as he sees it the color of the clothing he is currently wearing. The remains of his mask are small and in fact could very readily be mistaken as something other than a mask entirely, it rests on the bridge of his nose and has the appearance of a “nasal strip”, one of those adhesive strips one wears to allow easier breathing. He has no visible hole as it is through his neck which is covered by his collar but in fact it would be hard to see even without as it is little more than a pencils diameter.
Though it would be hard to call Gale plain he does indeed opt for more practical clothing for function over looks. He wears a large floppy white cotton t-shirt that is three sizes to large for his body, it possesses a high collar that stands up straight and comes all the way up to his mouth hiding his chin. The sleeves drop low down to his wrists and the lower portion bell-bottoms almost at his knees. He wears a black pair of jean-shorts but due to the length of his shirt this is rarely seen when hes just standing around though due to his acrobatic tendencies they can be seen while he jumps around quickly. He wears a black pair of Rollerblades on his feet which he pilfered from the real world and via some basic spiritual trickery was able to coat them in reiatsu meaning he can roll around on any surface and very quickly at that. He wears a small pair of circular sunglasses low on his nose so that hes not actually looking through them, making them purely ornamental as well as a giant pair of 80's style beatbox headphones most of the time.
((Note - Referencial Image - This Image is purely for basic referencial concepts. Gale does not wear the clothing of this character and I didn't want to give people the wrong idea by putting the image directely in to the profile when it was not an accurate account. Simply use the physical image as a starting point and accept that there are some changes such as the change in eye color.))
Personality
Annoying, brash and fiery are some of the words one could use to explain Gale. He's Mr. Proactive and prefers to be on the run and getting something done to sitting around contemplating possibilities. Taking particular joy in annoying the hell out of serious people this has only amplified since his transformation where he takes out his repressed emotions about the accident out on people, typically Gramica. He enjoys a good argument and tries his damnedest to get into a decent sized one on a daily basis, it doesn't matter if its about kittens or about the psychological status of the hollow being, its the process he enjoys. He almost always keeps a chipper and upbeat personality on and does his best to simply enjoy himself, this usually involves skating around, finding the highest places to jump from, people to beat up and others to argue with.
But all isn't as it seems on the surface, though far from the tortured soul hiding behind the cheerful facade he is still far more “human” than his outer slapstick mask might suggest. Well studied and an exceedingly thoughtful philosophizer these facts are perhaps the basis of his desire to always argue, his brain wheels always turning, new thoughts always coming to the forefront and wanting a creative outlet to push them on. As well he is far from the optimist his outer excess would suggest, he is a downright fatalist and is convinced quite readily that everyday will be the worlds last and that the worst is always bound to happen.
Moreover while he has quickly taken to hiding his emotions about the matter he still possesses significant mental scars about being turned into a little girl as would anyone. He tends to play it off as inconsequential since he can readily change his appearance on a whim but in truth it picks at his mind greatly, he still has to transform into the body of a man anytime he wants to use the restroom or the body of a boy the size of his regular body anytime he wants to change clothes. These feelings are also where the name Gale came from, this obviously not being his real name, he simply thought of a word that could be used for either sex and fit his motto of always keeping on the move.
So it would seem odd that he would come across so chipper but indeed this is why I called him proactive. He would prefer to be doing something come the end than sitting around waiting for it and indeed he has dreams of grandeur, he dreams of being a hero. Sitting back in his ever ticking mind, contemplating the future and the world around him he longs to be needed, particularly by someone who sees him as important and necessary. He tends to keep thoughts like these out of his mind since he knows the unlikelihood of such a picturesque event ever occurring but that doesn't keep him from occasionally considering the matter and falling into a depression.
So all these things considered he is indeed a introverted hermit hiding behind a wall of extroverted tendencies, part as a natural personality, part as a way to deal with his changing status and the changing status of the world. He is easily embarrassed about certain things, especially when speaking with girls though Gramica does not count as he holds mixed feels for her of somewhere between a big-sister and somewhere between a grudge for what she forced upon him. His outward extroverted comments tend to be of the sarcastic variety but this is not because he is naturally hateful but because it is the best cover he can provide. Better that he be slightly annoying but interesting than being a pitiable recluse or endure the painful humiliation of trying to be the front man. Thus it is in fact these introverted feelings that form the basis of his extroverted self, by being outgoing and chipper he gives both himself less time to think about the deeper matters that disturb him and keeps others from noticing his true self. It is an unfortunate side-effect that this keeps just how deep and interesting a person he really is from most people, the irony is not lost on him and he desperately wishes to change but lacks the convictions with which to set off to such a conclusion.
His thoughts on his own and other species vary. He has no great love or brotherhood for his own species the hollows, most of his opinions are based on what he thinks of peoples personalities and not what they are. Thus he gets along well enough with even tempered hollows, he doesn't mind a little greed or lust, he realizes people aren't perfect and doesn't hold them to saint like requirements but he can't get along with the truly evil and insane variety either. He has no particular view on shinigami as he spent most of his hollow life in Hueco Mundo consuming other hollows instead of living souls due to the way his power worked. For this reason he considers them mostly irrelevant though in the event he met one his actions would depend entirely on whether they acted aggressively or left him alone, he would of course return the act. Humans are somewhere along the lines of shinigami for him, he to has never consumed a human soul unless it acted aggressively toward him or perhaps if one was unlucky enough to wind up in Hueco Mundo before he had the sentience to act on his own will. Overall Gale enacts a policy of an eye for an eye, only reacting violently if acted violently against while leaving people alone or getting along if the individual is agreeable themselves. Speaking of acting violently the seriousness with which Gale battles depends entirely on how strong his opponent is, he tends to be energetic and annoyingly talkative to his opponent if hes in no real danger but also knows when to get cold and hard, taking his opponent seriously. Gale is one of the most experienced arrancar in battle due to the state of his ever growing powers even if the form of those powers kept him from ever being the strongest.
Personal beliefs include a strict regimen of oranges every day...or well in reality when he can get them...since he likes them...not really a strict regimen. He's a fan of birds, particularly eagles and falcons, he does not like pet like animals such as dogs or cats. He is particularly fond of riding around everywhere on his skates and rarely walks which usually drives whoever he is with insane after a while since he refuses to rest. Unlike the 80's skater generation fad he came from his musical tastes have changed over the years and he is no longer a big fan of dance, trance or “phat beats”. He prefers grand sounds as he does grandeur and enjoys orchestral melodies as well as the current human fad of symphonic metal. He rarely isn't listening to music through at least one of his ears and often uses it as a way to escape from the situation around him. He does however refuse to listen to rap or punk music, at least of the current generation which he feels has lost its purpose though he doesn't mind the original groups.
History
-:: Welcome to the Rebellion
Gale was born in 1965 by the name of Mikaiel Zeilinski the son of a pair of Polish immigrants come to America to strike it rich and follow the American dream. Unfortunately they could not have picked a worse time, America was finally in a recession after its long economic boom from World War II. Thus people were being let go from their jobs right and left, employers weren't looking to hire new workers, they were already shaving off individuals they didn't need. Within four months his parents whom had already spent everything they had to move to America and purchase a small house in Brooklyn had succumbed to their fate, convinced they could do nothing more his father found work in the office of a local pawn shop and his mother, well his mother just worked as a maid at first. Off of these funds the Zeilinski's lived a life, not a good one but they at least kept themselves off the street and their young boy's belly full. In his early years his old Bernard proved the stern but understanding father figure and his mother Harietta the loving and caring female who in his eyes could do no wrong. But like most such tales the illusion only lasted as long as the innocence of youth can.
Perhaps these were the posts his parents initially took but they, like the small amount of money they could make in them, didn't last long. The pawn shop his father worked at like most of the day was owned by a loan shark with direct connections to the Mafia and it wasn't long before his father was taking side-jobs, first to make money for the family, later because he liked it. The same could be said for his mother and while she held out longer as her husbands interest dwindled with every passing year she eventually resorted to selling herself, at first she to did it for herself and her son. But as time went by she developed great pleasure from her customers perhaps as a way to replace what was lost in her life. Either way by the time Mikaiel was ten what had appeared a picturesque home to him was torn apart and he rarely saw his parents, not that, that was a bad thing in his mind as his father became ever more aggressive and drunk when he was around. Luckily the fledgling public school systems of the major cities took off around this time and Mikaiel was given something else to think about.
He attended of his own volition, already having learned to care for himself after his parents increasing uncaring had begun at around the age of seven. Up until that point he had simply wandered the seedy underbelly of the city and gotten into trouble, nothing major but he had become something of a brat in that time. However Mikaiel was born to be a genius, his parents might not have guessed it, the people he knew on the street might not have guessed it, hell he had probably never even guessed it but his mind was a sponge and information the water. He had shown signs of this on the street learning the tricks of the street trade quickly and how he might make a quick buck here and there with the upmost speed but no true story of grandeur can strive in such a place. So perhaps it was fate, or maybe in the back of his mind he knew he could learn things given this new opportunity but whatever the case he joined. It is just a shame he never got to utilize the subjects he would come to learn, but for the cruel machinations of circumstance he might have gone on to be something grand in the chronicles of the living world.
-:: A Fickle Thing
And for the first five years he was exactly that, an unstoppable force of intelligence that put his fellow students to shame. His teachers knew he was great, he absorbed science and history at an astounding rate, he flattened mathematics making it look simple and perhaps most frightening he understood the growing state of economics in the nation often better than adults. So complicated were his thoughts that by his tactics did one of his favorite teachers make a small fortune in the stock market. He would go on to take part in a state-wide science fair and win which at the time was a significant thing, he would write his own book about the economy which though a brilliant read would see little publication due to his age and lack of fame and he would begin work on creating a set of self-help studies than anyone could pick up and read allowing people on the street or with little time to learn about subjects they otherwise never would. His public social life was also something of desire for many, he would craft his own fiscal way through the world and made more than his father could ever have dreamed (though his parents cared so little that they never knew any of this), he would start to be noticed by important scientific circles and perhaps most important to the other students around him he became best friends with the most popular girl in school. Her name was Ashley and she could only be described as a blond bombshell still blooming, and yet for all that she was intelligent and friendly, relying on her personality instead of her looks. It would be easy to assume they were a future couple and yet though Mikaiel indeed had such dreams they never did grow to be more than friends. Regardless for all of his living life Mikaiel held out hope, and at little beyond, but alas I get ahead of myself.
As to the reason why nothing ever became of them the reasons are many but at the time it was unfathomable for Mikaiel to think of anything. He was as they say in the throws of puppy love and could not see beyond his perfect little vision to see the problems at hand. Namely that he wasn’t particularly good with girls despite his intelligence coming across as more of the friend type as well as turning a blind eye to an obvious budding relationship between Ashley and a fellow friend named Roger. More than anything though was perhaps the fact that Mikaiel had never quite lost the trappings of his youth. He continued to work on the streets for most of his life and during the early 80’s he fell in with what most would have called a bad crowd. Of course like most things what translates to a bad crowd is simply the unaccepted social stigma of the day and several years later would be the norm, that is to say the new skate generation of the 80’s. While this trend would pick up in cutting edge cities like New York, Brooklyn was in the death throws but still very powerful age of intolerance and such outright rebellion against the norm was unheard of, the music, the movements and the culture were all outright blasphemy. It was getting caught up in this trend that distanced him from people, even other young individuals like his old friend Ashley.
It was thus a byproduct of this that perhaps ended their friendship but which certainly ended his life. One night after school Mikaiel requested that she come with him, unwilling to tell her where they would go since he was afraid she would leave and so he instead played coy to get her interested. Upon arriving at the place where he had funneled her they found an underground party which was a mix of his own social group amongst many of the other trends formulating in the states at that time but still dogged on by the local police. Ashley protested but after some clever words from Mikaiel and the overpowering desire not to stick out she decided to just stand around until she could find a good time to make an exit. In all his life all he had ever wanted from Ashley was for her to see him as a sort of hero and to care for him but while he had failed this in previous attempts he outright broke it this time. Becoming excessively drunk his inhibitions had disappeared and while he wasn’t of the personality to force himself on anyone he still made a forward attempt to kiss her when it obviously wasn’t welcome. All he knew was that she had pulled back, he had fallen on his face and by the time he was awake and sober enough to know what had happened it was very late and most everyone was already gone…oh and that most of his stuff had been stolen in his drunken coma.
He had immediately gotten up and made his way toward her home in the high-end of town. He quickly realized that showing up in the middle of the night was as bad an idea as he previous actions, especially since she was probably still furious. Thus with patience and grace he had simply waited on her for as long as it took, and it took until late in the morning when he finally spotted her coming out of her house. Though he tried to make his way out of the shadows so that she wouldn’t run off before he got a chance to talk with her she happened to spot him a few yards away at that point during a curious turn of her head. Her face had immediately grown angry and she tried to walk off in a huffy hissy-fit at a brisk pace while Mikaiel had found himself walking after her, calling out to everyone arounds amusement that it had been an accident. Ashley though would have nothing to hear about it and in an attempt to get away had quickly dashed out to cross the street.
Mikaiel had always wanted to be a hero in this girls eyes, he never knew if he was, he rather doubted it after what he did though he always kept up his hopes, either way he was dead and it no longer mattered. The car had come on to quickly to stop and in a matter of split seconds Mikaiel had run up behind Ashley and tossed her across the road while being hit hard by the vehicle. It had not been a pretty scene, it might have been heroic but looking back on it her certainly had never expected it to be so unappealing, for there to be so much blood, and so little left of him. The car had been going nearly eighty miles-per-hour and it didn’t take the paramedics who arrived many minutes later to tell most people that he had died on impact. Viewers gathered, police arrived, his body was wrapped and taken away and Ashley stood by horrified obviously unsure what to think, all unaware as to the possible greatness that had lay within this now crumpled mass of flesh. And standing behind them, unseen by all was Mikaiel, unable to process what was happening.
-:: The Crawling Chaos
When he finally realized what had happened Mikaiel wasn’t sorry for what he had done, it quite fit his idealistic notions of heroism even if it hadn’t gone down as he pictured it. Though he spent some of his time rambling to himself with philosophical musings about his current predicament he spent more time seeing how his loss had been viewed, namely by Ashley. He had checked in with his parents of course but their daily habits hardly seemed edited in the least, surprisingly enough they had held a small memorial for him though he had been quite sure he had been unwanted but either way that matter quickly fell to the back of his mind. Instead he spent his days stalking Ashley growing more and more unstable with every day she spent no visible time remembering him. It had started off plainly enough a little voice in the back of his head worrying that his act of heroism had been in vain but he paid it no mind thinking that perhaps she was thinking it inwardly. And yet though he kept telling himself this logically he grew restless the longer he waited, the logic making him feel better less every time he said it.
You wouldn’t have called Mikaiel insane though he might have bordered it a few times. “Obsessed” is both more polite and more accurate to describe what occurred, he couldn’t let go. He wasn’t really angry at her at first, he was disturbed that the greatest sacrifice he could possibly have made went seemingly unobserved by the person it was for while others he had hated and whom he thought had hated him in return had spent him a moment. Mikaiel waited and with every passing moment was filled with greater and deeper despair than he had the moment before. Soon his obsession and randomly aimed anger began finding a specific target and turned to rage, though for the time he could do nothing about it. This target was Roger the miserable wretch Ashley had show affections for long before Mikaiel had died, while these affections and those returned by Roger had gone unobserved by the young-man in life he now saw them with fiery passion. He burned with internal anger toward that man, unable to move on and wishing him nothing but as pained a death as he. And ever so slowly his anger turned on Ashley as well, how could she forget him and his sacrifice for some piece of meat that had never shown her half as much loyalty?
The chain on his chest, which he had long ago stopped contemplating as his mind descended into chaos, didn’t just eat away, it completely fractured. In the brief instant between light and darkness the true might of the young-man came to the forefront and he realized he had made the worst decision of his life, it was a brief thought and quickly lost to darkness and a blinding red rage but for that blink of ones eye it was like scouring his own soul with a blade. Before either of the others present knew what was happening the building they had been in and everyone there died. But not Roger, the creature that now stood in Mikaiels place had made sure of that, and ever so slowly he removed the mans limbs with his giant maw while Roger stared on in horror and confusion, the same confusion and horror that had burdened Mikaiel since the hour of his death…perhaps since the hour of his birth.
-:: Thy Name art Legion: For we are Many
So did the Mikaiel beast become a thing of instinct and brutality, murdering the cities inhabitants as it saw fit. Somewhere in its mind swam the fractured remains of Mikaiel screaming to get out, uncertain of what was happening but quite certain that the murders which he saw as something of a disembodied dream as he spun around within a surreal status at the back of the creatures mind were his doing, and he feared. But for a time these thoughts went unnoticed and it did what all hollows do, it killed, it killed humans, it killed hollows and when the shinigami finally took notice and came hunting it, it killed them to, and then it ate them and absorbed their power.
And so it was that the creature discovered its power thought it did so instinctively and from far away Mikaiel watched. Though many of his forms have been lost to his mind after carrying thousands of them in his repertoire his initial form is still well known, not for sentimentality toward it but rather for what it would later symbolize. However for now let it be said that he took the form of a giant white wolf standing as tall as two men and long with a coat that rippled like silver fire and a tail which was like the finest sash, his mask was also the visage of a wolf though bare of fur and with livid red eyes. But after killing these creatures it naturally adapted their own forms, it did this easily with hollows and while its human mimics were less believable as it was incapable of rational thought and speech and bore signs of hollowization they still worked to lure prey in. And so with these new skills under its command it killed, and killed and killed until all was death and it sat upon a throne as the strongest hollow in the locality. Hollows feared it, shinigami hunted it to no avail and humans wondered at the mysterious murders that abounded with no obvious cause. It seemed Mikaiels one indiscretion in death would see the birth of one of the vilest beings to grace the soul plains in many ages unless of course a miracle occurred.
-:: The Birth of a Guardian: Rebirth, Honor and Tragedy
The beast had hunted and then it had hunted some more, its hunger for souls no matter their origin never sated and greater numbers deemed paltry with every passing day. Its mind was like a finely tuned radar to the slightest release of spiritual energy and dozens met their end at its claws and maw daily. It shot through dark alleys and pushed through the tightest cracks in walls all to catch the prey it needed in ever-increasing quantities. It broke down the stoutest of barriers and sometimes ran right down brightly lit streets in the mid-day heat uncaring of who saw it, confident in its own infallibility. And with every soul consumed and every life take that egotism boomed and the creature grew certain and it took on greater opponents, and it consumed and it grew into something even more feared than it had once been. It was known by a name and that name was Gale, it, like the sweeping winds of fate and the indeterminate direction of said winds could take on any form it wanted, and when it came knocking all met their ends. So one night as a great spiritual energy exploded on to the scene of the great city attracting from hollows all around it knew that this soul to would fall to its infinite gluttony, as to would any who attempted to take it from its grasp. If only it had known that this would be the end of its unbridled terror and power it might well have stayed away and kept its own counsel for that much longer, but that night Mikaiel would retain control, and he would do everything he could to repent for his sins.
Hollows gathered from all around, as did a few shinigami though they were greatly outnumbered, the unimaginable power of the signature a luxurious meal to some and a thing to be treasured by others. No matter their attractions to the source the congregation numbered over a hundred and a great war amongst the multitude of creatures present began. Collateral damage was so high after the event that many loopholes in the shinigamis placed excuse existed and every hollow involved believed to have survived was placed on the list of actively hunted, of course the Gale had long been on this list anyway. For once the Gale prowled the streets quietly without instigating battle in others, instead letting them deal with each other as it stalked the sweetest prey down, the one that had started all this. From time to time it ran into one who attempted to stand in its way but none of them lasted very long for it was superior to all, one shinigami held its ground against it for a time but the shinigami to fell to the Gales mighty wrath. It came closer and closer to the source and eventually those around were actively avoiding it, realizing just what sort of horror had arrived to the massive fight. As it came within striking distance of the source it laid low and crawled forward preparing to pounce on its prey and devour it whole when it suddenly realized two other hollows already had it surrounded. The Gale had not time to notice what the source was or if it could be killed in confrontation with such a powerful creature, it headed straight for those trying to consume it, they would not have its trophy.
They fell like all the others, the Gale ran forward at speeds that defied reality and in a single strike had ripped the throat straight out of one and in a moment had absorbed the creatures life essence as the body turned into a misty soup and sucked down the Gales gaping jaws. In an instant the Gales body warped as it took on the form of its newly gathered body and in a terrifying instant mastered the controls and extended the creatures long saw arm through the other hollow which had been aiding the first. It to consumed this creature though it simply stored its body for a later time and remained in the form of the last. With that it turned around to face the source and though the Gale had no emotions per-se something of amusement, confusion and anger all at once arose when it found it was a little girl. She was blond with bright blue eyes and could have been no more than ten yet held such power, her face was of fear though and she clearly knew not how to wield it. The Gale turned upon her preparing to consume her soul as well and then make off with its newly found treasure chest or spiritual energy when suddenly the girl who still looked quite frightened but was trying to hold it in while looking up high into the Gales face spoke, with a wavering cry.
“T…thank you for saving me!” she nearly screeched.
The Gale wasn’t a master of human emotions and it hardly understood their language but it knew something odd was happening here. Regardless it had no care for the feelings of anything but itself and so looked down on her with uncaring eyes and prepared to consume her when it was suddenly struck with a fit of paralysis. At first the creature still firmly in control of its own mind thought it had been struck by and outside force and attempted to wrestle free from whatever trap had bound it. However it soon realized none were near and that its body was free, confusion reigned supreme and then it got a horrible feeling in the pit of its gut that soon played into its mind as it began hearing a faraway voice. The voice was urgent, scared and angry all at the same time and cursed the beast for what it was. The Gale went from simply hearing this voice to feeling it to the core of its body and mind as it had the overwhelming feeling that something was taking over, and taking over it was. For all the Gales strength it lacked the mental willpower to fight this, it was little more than hunger and rage, how could it fight all the emotions that surged through the original owner of this body like a flood? Mikaiel called out to his savage other, in a moments time they fought the clash of titans, but this clash was in the mind, and then all at once it was over. The Gale returned to the form of the large wolf it held before, it looked from left to right and then down on the little girl and spoke.
“Are you ok?” It said in a calm and serene voice.
The little girl still a little wary simply nodded.
“We need to flee this place.” And now it was clear, this was the voice of Mikaiel.
“What is your name?” she asked wearily.
Mikaiel thought about this for a long time before answering, “Gale, my name is Gale.”
The girl took a little more prodding to get to move but soon even she realized more of the creatures roaming around were coming close and that this strange wolf was the only one that hadn’t tried to attack her. So she climbed on to his back and in a moments time he sped off into the night far from the beasts that surrounded them, some attempted to follow but most were to slow and those capable of catching up fell from a quick blow. Though Mikaiel might have been new to controlling this himself he had seen it through the creatures eyes and moreover this body was simply trained to fight, acting almost as instinctively as it had on orders. He ran for as long as he could, until they had left the city, left the county, left all civilization and all the horrors within. Only then did the newly renamed Gale stop to let his passenger off and it was then that he had found she had long since fell asleep and so Gale lay down under a large tree.
But no sleep greeted him his mind focused only on the indeterminate time in which that creature had controlled him. So he thought and he thought and like the genius he had always been he came to the real and horrible conclusion that the creature had to have been him, perhaps a perversion of his emotions, but born of them none the less. His time within that mind had not been kind, he no longer remembered much of his past but he knew he had lusted and he knew he had grown angry. Perhaps this was his punishment for that crime, but if it was he thought it terribly disproportionate. He thought of all the lives to which his former self had ended and had the unsettling feeling that what he had seen was hardly half of what he had done. So he stayed where he was and though hollows have no soul or so they say he wept for his lost innocence, his lost honor and his lost humanity. It would only be later that he questioned why he had saved the girl, or in fact why it seemed she was intrinsically linked to his freedom from the shackles of rage and instinct. Unlike before the thought came straight to his mind though he knew not why or of whom the thought spoke, “She is like her”. His old self had killed many females and so he was liable to believe this random thought, this girl whoever she might be looked like someone he had cared for and though he knew it was shallow when he hardly even knew this spirit girl, for she was a plus, he was going to protect her no matter what.
Her name was Mimi, she had been a spirit for just a little while and hardly even understood that she was dead yet. What she did know was that ever since then she had been chased by all manner of beasts such as those Gale dispatched, of course only Gale realized this was because of her amazing spirit power. When he thought about it he realized even he had little knowledge of the spirit world from first hand experience but had gathered much from being a back-seat viewer so to speak. He tried to explain this to the girl, she seemed to understand on some basic level though she was hardly the genius Gale had been at her age, whatever the case she understood it meant they needed to stay out of the cities where countless Hollows lurked. She warmed to the big fluffy wolf quickly as well though Gale himself held her at arms length…or well, paws, something to be admired and kept pristine and not touched. She on the other hand quickly got over her trepidations about him and went on to start calling him “Mr. Wolfy” though she sometimes called him Gale if she was getting on to him and used him like a bed every night. He worried about her, uncertain if she would become like him for he had a dreading fear of the chain on her chest though he was still uncertain of its purpose, he also feared others would eventually come none did for several months. For a time this was how things remained, nobody came for them in the wild and the girl adapted to her new surroundings quickly, plenty happy so long as she wasn’t in danger.
The first outsiders to arrive were shinigami, looking back on it now had he known what shinigami did he would have let Mimi go with them but at the time all he knew was they were a threat to him and possibly her. So he eliminated them, despite his time in the wilderness without fighting hollows to not diminish as humans do and his strength was off the scale though his instinctive skills had perhaps been found lacking. Either way they would soon get plenty of exercise, after eliminating the shinigami he took Mimi and they moved away as he remembered from his past memories that if one shinigami died many more would flock to that area soon enough. However as if a beacon to every type of being imaginable the hills and forest soon flooded with adversaries both hollows and black cloaked shinigami, and yet still others. Time and time again Gale eliminated them all, falling back into a pattern of infinite combat he had hoped he would never be involved in again, but he did it for Mimi and so he did it without complaint. To his great horror but with gradually diminishing strength each time it occurred he would consume the body of the creature he defeated almost without question, as if on a primal level it had to be done upon victory. He soon realized that just as he had before he could utilize these forms as he wished, and so he became an ever more powerful guardian. He cut and killed all the while and yet Mimi never grew scared of him for he was her constant friend and companion, protecting her from the bad people, and so Gale’s faith was reaffirmed.
The final day of this bonding began like any other; amongst the plains where the duo had since been driven after a rather large entourage of shinigami had appeared trying to hunt Gale down after having taken so many lives. Mimi was collecting berries from a tree while Gale lay down on the ground and rested for but the briefest moment, a short misstep in his near constant vigil. Though Mimi was aware they were often attacked it seemed she still did not quite grasp that it was in fact she that was drawing their foes to this place, and so as Gale fell into a momentary sleep she wandered off in an innocent attempt to collect different kinds of berries from different trees. Gale awoke less than ten minutes later and slowly got up, then in an instant he was hit by a wave of intense reiatsu and sprung to the defense. He took a quick look around and instantly realized that Mimi was not there and with the force of a thousand runners sprinted off in the direction of the reiatsu. In his mind he prayed she would not be there but was painfully aware only a power this strong could have eclipsed the girls own rather powerful soul power vibe from his senses.
He broke out on the nearest field and instantly spotted her but let out a great howl as he came upon the scene. A giant creature standing no less than ten feet tall with a lanky almost human form stood in the middle of the field, its form was ridiculously thin and looked almost like bone but with appendages four times to long for a human. Its arms ended in massive clawed hands and its neck was long with an eerie doll like mask for a face, from almost every crevice in its body a long organic blade stuck out deadly enough to kill anything. And kill it had, one long blade from its wrist had pierced Mimi’s chest and the creature held the girl high above and seemed to be speaking before it opened its previously tiny doll mouth in an unnatural snake like gape in an attempt to eat her. However its attention was taken away at the last second as Gale let out his mighty howl and in the next second he had taken the creature off its feet and separated him from Mimi. The creature fell back and delivered a mighty and speedy blow to Gale knocking the wolf of its feet and breaking its carapace in several places, the beast was incredibly strong. It looked down at him for a moment and then turned around flicking its wrist as a swirling circle of energy appeared before it, shortly before walking through it turned to him and spoke in a wispy sinister voice.
“I Gabriel of Styx had heard that a powerful young girl existed on this side that had become the target of many hollows. But I was more interested in her supposed hollow guard…they spoke with such fear I thought it was someone I truly had to meet and destroy or welcome into my ranks. To bad, such a disappointment.”
Gale had lain on the ground for less than ten seconds but surely it would have been enough to kill him had the beast decided to. By the time he did the attacker was long gone and instead he found himself alone with Mimi on the ground nearby. He had run to her but her eyes were already hollow and long gone, her body leaking a blue snow like energy only this snow moved upward, even as he watched he knew without knowing how they were the spirit particles of which her body was comprised, leaving this world to rejoin the soul stream. The world spun around Gale and he began breathing quickly as he stumbled about, his eyes located the basket the girl had been carrying with the berries it appeared she had been coming back and amongst the berries were several oranges, Gale had loved oranges they were surely for him. And suddenly all the rage he had suppressed, all the anger he had trapped within him was lay bear and he let out a massive howl. Whether by instinct or through sheer force of will a tear just like the one the monster had created was torn in reality, he knew, like most things instinctively, where this portal would take him. He had always known but had never gone for it was a place of evil and his place had been here protecting Mimi. But as he turned and watched as the last of the little girls spirit particles vanished leaving nothing behind he gave a mighty roar and charged through without a second thought.
He gave no time to sadness or regret.
His place was on the other side.
For his mission had changed.
The monster that killed Mimi would die and then, as his enemy bled out beneath his feet, they would both regret.
-:: Death World
The other side was exactly as Gale had always envisioned it; he rationalized in the back of his head that perhaps his other self had been here before though he never remembered seeing it. The white sands of the endless desert were devoid of one thing he realized though, they held no hollows. He had of course seen one here or there and quickly disposed of them, a growing hatred he had always had but that was now out control since Mimi’s death requiring him to kill every single one he saw.
((OOC: Not finished))
-:: And the Blood shall Flow like Rivers ~ Revenge on The Order of Styx One
A figure stood at the allotted place upon the sands of Hueco Mundo where The Order of Styx would come to look over and approve any new members into its order. The sands of Hueco Mundo were of course completely bear so how one might know this was the place would be unknown to those without the eyes. Two things were required, power and intelligence over that of the average bestial hollow and even then you had to look in the right place at the right time, fufill these requirements though and the area was quite clearly marked. Or at the very least that’s what one could assume, there were not visual marks but there was something of a hollow sixth sense that told those who possessed it that something was out of place, this was one such place. In the coming days as it got closer to the time for the sand-carriage to arrive it was likely others would appear.
The figure or rather the hollow that stood here was not an unknown; this was Gale in the form of one of the many hollows he consumed in the Menos Forest. He was massive and long limbed with significant bulk, his arms were long ending in massive claws and his head was shaped something like a guillotine and was just as sharp. His days had not been spent idly standing by for in the short period of six months in which he spent there he became something of a legend, consuming so many hollows that other hollows actually began forming hunting groups to consume him. All had of course failed but they did provide one useful aspect unfortunately for him, they brought him more forms and more power to consume. Then with three weeks left Gale had left the Menos Forest and traveled to the surface sands to begin his search for the place he now stood. Of course calling it a search might not have been accurate, after all Roarke had spilled everything he had needed to know to find it but even so the sands of Hueco Mundo were endless and still took time to traverse. Now he was here but the time spent reaching this place had been spent perfecting the plan he had long spent dreaming up in the forest. In the end it was more straightforward than he had initially thought would be necessary but with time he realized that he would have to fight one way or another so the best option was to create chaos and use it to his advantage instead of trying to subversively deconstruct the system from the inside. For this he had a perfect plan but for a time he waited.
It was on the second day of his wait that another individual finally showed up, a much smaller creature compared to his current form that looked something like an imp out of legends. Though he might not have looked like much Gale of course realized he had to be capable to have found this place. For a long time they had stared at each other and then the little Imp’s face who was more telling that his own, which in this form was non-existent, cracked a smile.
“And here I thought I would be the first…you must be more clever than your big dumb brute visage suggests.” The little hollow said.
“It’s a distinct possibility,” replied Gale not sounding like a joke, one might note he had not killed the creature like he normally did hollows, but then he had a plan.
The imp sized him up and then turned his back, obviously not intent on fighting when he had finally found his way here. However Gale called out from behind him and said in a plain non-threatening but obviously malicious tone.
“You should leave this place, soon it shall flow red with the blood of all who come.”
The little imp stared at him for some time and again the face of the hollow that Gale had chosen as his form was impossible to read. After a long time the imp walked away and stood a good distance from him, making this statement might have seemed foolish but Gale had been waiting for just such an individual as this one to say these exact words to. With that complete he turned around and walked off into the desert.
Over the next few days more and more individuals joined up, so many that by the second to last day that one could get lost in the crowd. Gale had long since lost sight of the little imp though he was certain it was still here, more importantly he had been spending his days wisely. The sand-barge could be coming from any direction and it was his job to make sure all these different direction were prepared without exposing his plan to anyone, save the imp. The failing of the Order of Styx would be that they put so much trust in this invincible sand-barge, they would of course very soon find the fault in this logic but it would be all to late. It would be to late for Gabriel to and with that though in mind he savored every single moment of every single day so that it would be all the sweeter once it came. Gale had, had time to grow since last he and the Vasto Lorde met, he was much stronger but more important he was level headed, he would enjoy bringing righteous judgment to this creature and its brethren but he would do so with the calm calculating tactics that he would become known for. So with that in mind he looked around him, at the countless hollows around knowing that they all wished to join the Order of Styx thinking it would bring them power. It seemed he had one more job to complete before the barge arrived.
When the final day rolled around Gale was thankfully validated in his belief that this was indeed the correct place as a glowing symbol no doubt used to guide the barge in formed in the sand. It was not as if he had, had a doubt but it helped ease ones minds when they knew they had so much to do in a very short time in the future. At what Gale imagined was roughly noon as far as the time cycle of this worlds inhabitants cared he felt a slight tremble in the same beneath his feet. He had expected the barge to appear quickly after that but this continued for nearly five minute with growing intensity all the while until it was practically causing earthquakes and then Gale made out the sight of two red glowing eyes in the distance. As it closed Gale was quite thankful he had arranged his strategy to accommodate any size for the barge was a thing of Olympian legend, beyond simple terms such as large or massive. It was beyond gargantuan or any word usually dictated to such things it was Gale decided to say, best called, monolithic. It was a thing of metal and bone; the metals from an unknown source but the bones quite clearly of every origin imaginable include the skull of a hollow so massive on its front that it defied imagination. It rolled on massive cogwheels that developed so much traction that even the sand could not stop them. However most impressive of all was the driving force, the massive hollow skull was not alone for a living, breathing example road affront it like a horse drawing a chariot, it was a snake like thing though it had four massive legs that caused the ground to shake with every step. By the time it was on top of Gale he could tell that the carriage was no less than the comparison of a forty-story building and the beast hauling it was nearly comparable. As if prodded by an invisible driver the beast who while incredibly powerful appeared to be no smarter than an average hollow or animal, decided to read back and slow the entire contraption to a stop though it slid while doing this kicking up a hundred foot wave of sand that showered over Gale.
When it had come to a complete stop there was a long period of waiting and then several gears holding a bone door up on the side of the carriage lowered and a stocky hollow that Gale imagined was supposed to look intimidating came out. Even before the man arrived he could see the looks of confusion as he looked around, for all about Gale there was not a single soul. Clearly this stocky man was used to large groups, much like the one that had adorned this area much as they had yesterday, of course Gale had made certain to take care of that problem. So the stocky hollow man who had a large crown-like protrusion from his forehead sauntered up to Gale, he gave him a close look for a time and then spoke in a gruff voice. This to Gale imagined was supposed to be imposing, but this man creature couldn’t have frightened Gale if he had, had an army to back him up.
“You the only one? Impossible?” Said the man but before Gale could even think of responding the very first part of this plan he had set up appeared.
“SIR!!! HE KILLED THEM SIR!!! HE’S AN ENEMY!!!” The little imp ejected from the sand.
To the Order of Styx killing other hollows was looked down upon, only when a fair complaint was lodged was such action allowed. After all they wanted nothing more than to be the most powerful force in Hueco Mundo and if your people were always killing each other how could that ever happen. But before the stocky man creature could even throw Gale a disgusted eye Gale had his sharp bladed nails straight through its head, blood leaked out for a moment and then Gale tossed it to the side. He had fought with all his strength and won not to consume this pathetic thing, it was not the time. Instantly the door he had come out of closed while the giant carriage began moving again, clearly they thought he might have been the first in an attempted attack. If only they had known how right they were.
From high above energy users rained cero down upon him but these were not powerful things, they only came from regular hollows and were almost laughable especially in his current form which was speedier than it first appeared. Before to long the carriage or rather the barge as they called it had put room between them and was on its way to putting itself far from him, however had he had a readable face he would have been smiling. He walked after it slowly for a moment, walking right past the little imp who stared in horror at his lost attempt to join what was no doubt to him a prestigious order. Then as he continued to watch the imps face a massive red explosion went off in front of the carriage and even from here he heard the beast drawing the construct give out a mighty howl. He doubted this or what happened next would kill such a mighty beast but he was glad to see his enemy had fallen so easily into his trap. Then with one more look at the imp who continued to stare in amazement as first the beast disappeared into a newly wrought hole that was spilling into the ground and then the carriage he finally broke into a run after it. This was not a fast thing, the beast as well as the carriage were massive and they dried to fight the downward spiral but they were failing, Gales calculations were perfect. Then all at once the sand simply ran out, unable to support such wait anymore and the ground fell beneath them all at once, a great gaping black maw opened up and then they were lost to the darkness below, they were lost to the Menos Forest.
Gale ran up to the edge, looked down while counting to ten and then with a staunch inner-commitment to do whatever was necessary jumped off the edge and took the plunge.
All following chapters are under construction but have been named as placeholders to remind me what needs to be done.
-:: Exodus of the Burning Chariot of Sin ~ Revenge on The Order of Styx Two
-:: Clash Upon the Back of the Wailing Doom ~ Revenge on The Order of Styx Finale
-:: Captus Imperium
-:: Here they Come Ten-Thousand Strong
-:: Flight of the White Wyrm
-:: The Land of Floating Ash and the Exodus of Gale
General Info
Name: Gale
Gender: Male
Age: 44
Ranking: Fraccion
Number: N/A
Base Type: Nondescript, possesses regular hollow to Vasto Lorde forms.
Physical Description
An unfortunate accident during his arrancarization left Gale in a painful (for him) and hilarious (not so much for him) sort of state. To understand one must first understand his powers which are described in detail below, however for the sake of ease I will give a basic explanation here. Gale has the ability as an arrancar to manipulate his body into the form of any humanoid he has consumed, likewise as a hollow he could take the form of any hollow he consumed. A side-effect he never imagined was that when Gramica forced the arrancarization upon him that he would claim the human form of the hollow whose shape he had taken as his own permanent form. While he can change out of this form for a time there is a time limit and so he is simply forced to grow content within this new body.
This change was perhaps the greatest it could have been for him since he was a teenager who was rather tall for his age, well built and quite attractive. But the sad fact is that face and that form are lost to him now amongst the myriad of forms he has to choose from. Instead he is now stuck for the larger part of his waking life in the body of a young girl no older than ten years of age. It is a fact that for right now he considers himself a mind trapped in a different body though he knows it is not true, regardless for the time he considers “He” and “She” as quite separate entities. Appearing to be of western Caucasian heritage she is an exceedingly petite little thing standing no taller than 4'1. She has pale skin and a lanky sort of dancers form with no real weight on her at all, her limbs and digits all long and detailed. She has bright blue eyes and long blond hair as yellow as wheat which “he” usually keeps in long-pigtails or occasionally in a flowing mane though thanks to his tendency to speed around this proves impractical. It is painful to admit but he has taken to painting his or rather “her” nails as he sees it the color of the clothing he is currently wearing. The remains of his mask are small and in fact could very readily be mistaken as something other than a mask entirely, it rests on the bridge of his nose and has the appearance of a “nasal strip”, one of those adhesive strips one wears to allow easier breathing. He has no visible hole as it is through his neck which is covered by his collar but in fact it would be hard to see even without as it is little more than a pencils diameter.
Though it would be hard to call Gale plain he does indeed opt for more practical clothing for function over looks. He wears a large floppy white cotton t-shirt that is three sizes to large for his body, it possesses a high collar that stands up straight and comes all the way up to his mouth hiding his chin. The sleeves drop low down to his wrists and the lower portion bell-bottoms almost at his knees. He wears a black pair of jean-shorts but due to the length of his shirt this is rarely seen when hes just standing around though due to his acrobatic tendencies they can be seen while he jumps around quickly. He wears a black pair of Rollerblades on his feet which he pilfered from the real world and via some basic spiritual trickery was able to coat them in reiatsu meaning he can roll around on any surface and very quickly at that. He wears a small pair of circular sunglasses low on his nose so that hes not actually looking through them, making them purely ornamental as well as a giant pair of 80's style beatbox headphones most of the time.
((Note - Referencial Image - This Image is purely for basic referencial concepts. Gale does not wear the clothing of this character and I didn't want to give people the wrong idea by putting the image directely in to the profile when it was not an accurate account. Simply use the physical image as a starting point and accept that there are some changes such as the change in eye color.))
Personality
Annoying, brash and fiery are some of the words one could use to explain Gale. He's Mr. Proactive and prefers to be on the run and getting something done to sitting around contemplating possibilities. Taking particular joy in annoying the hell out of serious people this has only amplified since his transformation where he takes out his repressed emotions about the accident out on people, typically Gramica. He enjoys a good argument and tries his damnedest to get into a decent sized one on a daily basis, it doesn't matter if its about kittens or about the psychological status of the hollow being, its the process he enjoys. He almost always keeps a chipper and upbeat personality on and does his best to simply enjoy himself, this usually involves skating around, finding the highest places to jump from, people to beat up and others to argue with.
But all isn't as it seems on the surface, though far from the tortured soul hiding behind the cheerful facade he is still far more “human” than his outer slapstick mask might suggest. Well studied and an exceedingly thoughtful philosophizer these facts are perhaps the basis of his desire to always argue, his brain wheels always turning, new thoughts always coming to the forefront and wanting a creative outlet to push them on. As well he is far from the optimist his outer excess would suggest, he is a downright fatalist and is convinced quite readily that everyday will be the worlds last and that the worst is always bound to happen.
Moreover while he has quickly taken to hiding his emotions about the matter he still possesses significant mental scars about being turned into a little girl as would anyone. He tends to play it off as inconsequential since he can readily change his appearance on a whim but in truth it picks at his mind greatly, he still has to transform into the body of a man anytime he wants to use the restroom or the body of a boy the size of his regular body anytime he wants to change clothes. These feelings are also where the name Gale came from, this obviously not being his real name, he simply thought of a word that could be used for either sex and fit his motto of always keeping on the move.
So it would seem odd that he would come across so chipper but indeed this is why I called him proactive. He would prefer to be doing something come the end than sitting around waiting for it and indeed he has dreams of grandeur, he dreams of being a hero. Sitting back in his ever ticking mind, contemplating the future and the world around him he longs to be needed, particularly by someone who sees him as important and necessary. He tends to keep thoughts like these out of his mind since he knows the unlikelihood of such a picturesque event ever occurring but that doesn't keep him from occasionally considering the matter and falling into a depression.
So all these things considered he is indeed a introverted hermit hiding behind a wall of extroverted tendencies, part as a natural personality, part as a way to deal with his changing status and the changing status of the world. He is easily embarrassed about certain things, especially when speaking with girls though Gramica does not count as he holds mixed feels for her of somewhere between a big-sister and somewhere between a grudge for what she forced upon him. His outward extroverted comments tend to be of the sarcastic variety but this is not because he is naturally hateful but because it is the best cover he can provide. Better that he be slightly annoying but interesting than being a pitiable recluse or endure the painful humiliation of trying to be the front man. Thus it is in fact these introverted feelings that form the basis of his extroverted self, by being outgoing and chipper he gives both himself less time to think about the deeper matters that disturb him and keeps others from noticing his true self. It is an unfortunate side-effect that this keeps just how deep and interesting a person he really is from most people, the irony is not lost on him and he desperately wishes to change but lacks the convictions with which to set off to such a conclusion.
His thoughts on his own and other species vary. He has no great love or brotherhood for his own species the hollows, most of his opinions are based on what he thinks of peoples personalities and not what they are. Thus he gets along well enough with even tempered hollows, he doesn't mind a little greed or lust, he realizes people aren't perfect and doesn't hold them to saint like requirements but he can't get along with the truly evil and insane variety either. He has no particular view on shinigami as he spent most of his hollow life in Hueco Mundo consuming other hollows instead of living souls due to the way his power worked. For this reason he considers them mostly irrelevant though in the event he met one his actions would depend entirely on whether they acted aggressively or left him alone, he would of course return the act. Humans are somewhere along the lines of shinigami for him, he to has never consumed a human soul unless it acted aggressively toward him or perhaps if one was unlucky enough to wind up in Hueco Mundo before he had the sentience to act on his own will. Overall Gale enacts a policy of an eye for an eye, only reacting violently if acted violently against while leaving people alone or getting along if the individual is agreeable themselves. Speaking of acting violently the seriousness with which Gale battles depends entirely on how strong his opponent is, he tends to be energetic and annoyingly talkative to his opponent if hes in no real danger but also knows when to get cold and hard, taking his opponent seriously. Gale is one of the most experienced arrancar in battle due to the state of his ever growing powers even if the form of those powers kept him from ever being the strongest.
Personal beliefs include a strict regimen of oranges every day...or well in reality when he can get them...since he likes them...not really a strict regimen. He's a fan of birds, particularly eagles and falcons, he does not like pet like animals such as dogs or cats. He is particularly fond of riding around everywhere on his skates and rarely walks which usually drives whoever he is with insane after a while since he refuses to rest. Unlike the 80's skater generation fad he came from his musical tastes have changed over the years and he is no longer a big fan of dance, trance or “phat beats”. He prefers grand sounds as he does grandeur and enjoys orchestral melodies as well as the current human fad of symphonic metal. He rarely isn't listening to music through at least one of his ears and often uses it as a way to escape from the situation around him. He does however refuse to listen to rap or punk music, at least of the current generation which he feels has lost its purpose though he doesn't mind the original groups.
History
-:: Welcome to the Rebellion
Gale was born in 1965 by the name of Mikaiel Zeilinski the son of a pair of Polish immigrants come to America to strike it rich and follow the American dream. Unfortunately they could not have picked a worse time, America was finally in a recession after its long economic boom from World War II. Thus people were being let go from their jobs right and left, employers weren't looking to hire new workers, they were already shaving off individuals they didn't need. Within four months his parents whom had already spent everything they had to move to America and purchase a small house in Brooklyn had succumbed to their fate, convinced they could do nothing more his father found work in the office of a local pawn shop and his mother, well his mother just worked as a maid at first. Off of these funds the Zeilinski's lived a life, not a good one but they at least kept themselves off the street and their young boy's belly full. In his early years his old Bernard proved the stern but understanding father figure and his mother Harietta the loving and caring female who in his eyes could do no wrong. But like most such tales the illusion only lasted as long as the innocence of youth can.
Perhaps these were the posts his parents initially took but they, like the small amount of money they could make in them, didn't last long. The pawn shop his father worked at like most of the day was owned by a loan shark with direct connections to the Mafia and it wasn't long before his father was taking side-jobs, first to make money for the family, later because he liked it. The same could be said for his mother and while she held out longer as her husbands interest dwindled with every passing year she eventually resorted to selling herself, at first she to did it for herself and her son. But as time went by she developed great pleasure from her customers perhaps as a way to replace what was lost in her life. Either way by the time Mikaiel was ten what had appeared a picturesque home to him was torn apart and he rarely saw his parents, not that, that was a bad thing in his mind as his father became ever more aggressive and drunk when he was around. Luckily the fledgling public school systems of the major cities took off around this time and Mikaiel was given something else to think about.
He attended of his own volition, already having learned to care for himself after his parents increasing uncaring had begun at around the age of seven. Up until that point he had simply wandered the seedy underbelly of the city and gotten into trouble, nothing major but he had become something of a brat in that time. However Mikaiel was born to be a genius, his parents might not have guessed it, the people he knew on the street might not have guessed it, hell he had probably never even guessed it but his mind was a sponge and information the water. He had shown signs of this on the street learning the tricks of the street trade quickly and how he might make a quick buck here and there with the upmost speed but no true story of grandeur can strive in such a place. So perhaps it was fate, or maybe in the back of his mind he knew he could learn things given this new opportunity but whatever the case he joined. It is just a shame he never got to utilize the subjects he would come to learn, but for the cruel machinations of circumstance he might have gone on to be something grand in the chronicles of the living world.
-:: A Fickle Thing
And for the first five years he was exactly that, an unstoppable force of intelligence that put his fellow students to shame. His teachers knew he was great, he absorbed science and history at an astounding rate, he flattened mathematics making it look simple and perhaps most frightening he understood the growing state of economics in the nation often better than adults. So complicated were his thoughts that by his tactics did one of his favorite teachers make a small fortune in the stock market. He would go on to take part in a state-wide science fair and win which at the time was a significant thing, he would write his own book about the economy which though a brilliant read would see little publication due to his age and lack of fame and he would begin work on creating a set of self-help studies than anyone could pick up and read allowing people on the street or with little time to learn about subjects they otherwise never would. His public social life was also something of desire for many, he would craft his own fiscal way through the world and made more than his father could ever have dreamed (though his parents cared so little that they never knew any of this), he would start to be noticed by important scientific circles and perhaps most important to the other students around him he became best friends with the most popular girl in school. Her name was Ashley and she could only be described as a blond bombshell still blooming, and yet for all that she was intelligent and friendly, relying on her personality instead of her looks. It would be easy to assume they were a future couple and yet though Mikaiel indeed had such dreams they never did grow to be more than friends. Regardless for all of his living life Mikaiel held out hope, and at little beyond, but alas I get ahead of myself.
As to the reason why nothing ever became of them the reasons are many but at the time it was unfathomable for Mikaiel to think of anything. He was as they say in the throws of puppy love and could not see beyond his perfect little vision to see the problems at hand. Namely that he wasn’t particularly good with girls despite his intelligence coming across as more of the friend type as well as turning a blind eye to an obvious budding relationship between Ashley and a fellow friend named Roger. More than anything though was perhaps the fact that Mikaiel had never quite lost the trappings of his youth. He continued to work on the streets for most of his life and during the early 80’s he fell in with what most would have called a bad crowd. Of course like most things what translates to a bad crowd is simply the unaccepted social stigma of the day and several years later would be the norm, that is to say the new skate generation of the 80’s. While this trend would pick up in cutting edge cities like New York, Brooklyn was in the death throws but still very powerful age of intolerance and such outright rebellion against the norm was unheard of, the music, the movements and the culture were all outright blasphemy. It was getting caught up in this trend that distanced him from people, even other young individuals like his old friend Ashley.
It was thus a byproduct of this that perhaps ended their friendship but which certainly ended his life. One night after school Mikaiel requested that she come with him, unwilling to tell her where they would go since he was afraid she would leave and so he instead played coy to get her interested. Upon arriving at the place where he had funneled her they found an underground party which was a mix of his own social group amongst many of the other trends formulating in the states at that time but still dogged on by the local police. Ashley protested but after some clever words from Mikaiel and the overpowering desire not to stick out she decided to just stand around until she could find a good time to make an exit. In all his life all he had ever wanted from Ashley was for her to see him as a sort of hero and to care for him but while he had failed this in previous attempts he outright broke it this time. Becoming excessively drunk his inhibitions had disappeared and while he wasn’t of the personality to force himself on anyone he still made a forward attempt to kiss her when it obviously wasn’t welcome. All he knew was that she had pulled back, he had fallen on his face and by the time he was awake and sober enough to know what had happened it was very late and most everyone was already gone…oh and that most of his stuff had been stolen in his drunken coma.
He had immediately gotten up and made his way toward her home in the high-end of town. He quickly realized that showing up in the middle of the night was as bad an idea as he previous actions, especially since she was probably still furious. Thus with patience and grace he had simply waited on her for as long as it took, and it took until late in the morning when he finally spotted her coming out of her house. Though he tried to make his way out of the shadows so that she wouldn’t run off before he got a chance to talk with her she happened to spot him a few yards away at that point during a curious turn of her head. Her face had immediately grown angry and she tried to walk off in a huffy hissy-fit at a brisk pace while Mikaiel had found himself walking after her, calling out to everyone arounds amusement that it had been an accident. Ashley though would have nothing to hear about it and in an attempt to get away had quickly dashed out to cross the street.
Mikaiel had always wanted to be a hero in this girls eyes, he never knew if he was, he rather doubted it after what he did though he always kept up his hopes, either way he was dead and it no longer mattered. The car had come on to quickly to stop and in a matter of split seconds Mikaiel had run up behind Ashley and tossed her across the road while being hit hard by the vehicle. It had not been a pretty scene, it might have been heroic but looking back on it her certainly had never expected it to be so unappealing, for there to be so much blood, and so little left of him. The car had been going nearly eighty miles-per-hour and it didn’t take the paramedics who arrived many minutes later to tell most people that he had died on impact. Viewers gathered, police arrived, his body was wrapped and taken away and Ashley stood by horrified obviously unsure what to think, all unaware as to the possible greatness that had lay within this now crumpled mass of flesh. And standing behind them, unseen by all was Mikaiel, unable to process what was happening.
-:: The Crawling Chaos
When he finally realized what had happened Mikaiel wasn’t sorry for what he had done, it quite fit his idealistic notions of heroism even if it hadn’t gone down as he pictured it. Though he spent some of his time rambling to himself with philosophical musings about his current predicament he spent more time seeing how his loss had been viewed, namely by Ashley. He had checked in with his parents of course but their daily habits hardly seemed edited in the least, surprisingly enough they had held a small memorial for him though he had been quite sure he had been unwanted but either way that matter quickly fell to the back of his mind. Instead he spent his days stalking Ashley growing more and more unstable with every day she spent no visible time remembering him. It had started off plainly enough a little voice in the back of his head worrying that his act of heroism had been in vain but he paid it no mind thinking that perhaps she was thinking it inwardly. And yet though he kept telling himself this logically he grew restless the longer he waited, the logic making him feel better less every time he said it.
You wouldn’t have called Mikaiel insane though he might have bordered it a few times. “Obsessed” is both more polite and more accurate to describe what occurred, he couldn’t let go. He wasn’t really angry at her at first, he was disturbed that the greatest sacrifice he could possibly have made went seemingly unobserved by the person it was for while others he had hated and whom he thought had hated him in return had spent him a moment. Mikaiel waited and with every passing moment was filled with greater and deeper despair than he had the moment before. Soon his obsession and randomly aimed anger began finding a specific target and turned to rage, though for the time he could do nothing about it. This target was Roger the miserable wretch Ashley had show affections for long before Mikaiel had died, while these affections and those returned by Roger had gone unobserved by the young-man in life he now saw them with fiery passion. He burned with internal anger toward that man, unable to move on and wishing him nothing but as pained a death as he. And ever so slowly his anger turned on Ashley as well, how could she forget him and his sacrifice for some piece of meat that had never shown her half as much loyalty?
The chain on his chest, which he had long ago stopped contemplating as his mind descended into chaos, didn’t just eat away, it completely fractured. In the brief instant between light and darkness the true might of the young-man came to the forefront and he realized he had made the worst decision of his life, it was a brief thought and quickly lost to darkness and a blinding red rage but for that blink of ones eye it was like scouring his own soul with a blade. Before either of the others present knew what was happening the building they had been in and everyone there died. But not Roger, the creature that now stood in Mikaiels place had made sure of that, and ever so slowly he removed the mans limbs with his giant maw while Roger stared on in horror and confusion, the same confusion and horror that had burdened Mikaiel since the hour of his death…perhaps since the hour of his birth.
-:: Thy Name art Legion: For we are Many
So did the Mikaiel beast become a thing of instinct and brutality, murdering the cities inhabitants as it saw fit. Somewhere in its mind swam the fractured remains of Mikaiel screaming to get out, uncertain of what was happening but quite certain that the murders which he saw as something of a disembodied dream as he spun around within a surreal status at the back of the creatures mind were his doing, and he feared. But for a time these thoughts went unnoticed and it did what all hollows do, it killed, it killed humans, it killed hollows and when the shinigami finally took notice and came hunting it, it killed them to, and then it ate them and absorbed their power.
And so it was that the creature discovered its power thought it did so instinctively and from far away Mikaiel watched. Though many of his forms have been lost to his mind after carrying thousands of them in his repertoire his initial form is still well known, not for sentimentality toward it but rather for what it would later symbolize. However for now let it be said that he took the form of a giant white wolf standing as tall as two men and long with a coat that rippled like silver fire and a tail which was like the finest sash, his mask was also the visage of a wolf though bare of fur and with livid red eyes. But after killing these creatures it naturally adapted their own forms, it did this easily with hollows and while its human mimics were less believable as it was incapable of rational thought and speech and bore signs of hollowization they still worked to lure prey in. And so with these new skills under its command it killed, and killed and killed until all was death and it sat upon a throne as the strongest hollow in the locality. Hollows feared it, shinigami hunted it to no avail and humans wondered at the mysterious murders that abounded with no obvious cause. It seemed Mikaiels one indiscretion in death would see the birth of one of the vilest beings to grace the soul plains in many ages unless of course a miracle occurred.
-:: The Birth of a Guardian: Rebirth, Honor and Tragedy
The beast had hunted and then it had hunted some more, its hunger for souls no matter their origin never sated and greater numbers deemed paltry with every passing day. Its mind was like a finely tuned radar to the slightest release of spiritual energy and dozens met their end at its claws and maw daily. It shot through dark alleys and pushed through the tightest cracks in walls all to catch the prey it needed in ever-increasing quantities. It broke down the stoutest of barriers and sometimes ran right down brightly lit streets in the mid-day heat uncaring of who saw it, confident in its own infallibility. And with every soul consumed and every life take that egotism boomed and the creature grew certain and it took on greater opponents, and it consumed and it grew into something even more feared than it had once been. It was known by a name and that name was Gale, it, like the sweeping winds of fate and the indeterminate direction of said winds could take on any form it wanted, and when it came knocking all met their ends. So one night as a great spiritual energy exploded on to the scene of the great city attracting from hollows all around it knew that this soul to would fall to its infinite gluttony, as to would any who attempted to take it from its grasp. If only it had known that this would be the end of its unbridled terror and power it might well have stayed away and kept its own counsel for that much longer, but that night Mikaiel would retain control, and he would do everything he could to repent for his sins.
Hollows gathered from all around, as did a few shinigami though they were greatly outnumbered, the unimaginable power of the signature a luxurious meal to some and a thing to be treasured by others. No matter their attractions to the source the congregation numbered over a hundred and a great war amongst the multitude of creatures present began. Collateral damage was so high after the event that many loopholes in the shinigamis placed excuse existed and every hollow involved believed to have survived was placed on the list of actively hunted, of course the Gale had long been on this list anyway. For once the Gale prowled the streets quietly without instigating battle in others, instead letting them deal with each other as it stalked the sweetest prey down, the one that had started all this. From time to time it ran into one who attempted to stand in its way but none of them lasted very long for it was superior to all, one shinigami held its ground against it for a time but the shinigami to fell to the Gales mighty wrath. It came closer and closer to the source and eventually those around were actively avoiding it, realizing just what sort of horror had arrived to the massive fight. As it came within striking distance of the source it laid low and crawled forward preparing to pounce on its prey and devour it whole when it suddenly realized two other hollows already had it surrounded. The Gale had not time to notice what the source was or if it could be killed in confrontation with such a powerful creature, it headed straight for those trying to consume it, they would not have its trophy.
They fell like all the others, the Gale ran forward at speeds that defied reality and in a single strike had ripped the throat straight out of one and in a moment had absorbed the creatures life essence as the body turned into a misty soup and sucked down the Gales gaping jaws. In an instant the Gales body warped as it took on the form of its newly gathered body and in a terrifying instant mastered the controls and extended the creatures long saw arm through the other hollow which had been aiding the first. It to consumed this creature though it simply stored its body for a later time and remained in the form of the last. With that it turned around to face the source and though the Gale had no emotions per-se something of amusement, confusion and anger all at once arose when it found it was a little girl. She was blond with bright blue eyes and could have been no more than ten yet held such power, her face was of fear though and she clearly knew not how to wield it. The Gale turned upon her preparing to consume her soul as well and then make off with its newly found treasure chest or spiritual energy when suddenly the girl who still looked quite frightened but was trying to hold it in while looking up high into the Gales face spoke, with a wavering cry.
“T…thank you for saving me!” she nearly screeched.
The Gale wasn’t a master of human emotions and it hardly understood their language but it knew something odd was happening here. Regardless it had no care for the feelings of anything but itself and so looked down on her with uncaring eyes and prepared to consume her when it was suddenly struck with a fit of paralysis. At first the creature still firmly in control of its own mind thought it had been struck by and outside force and attempted to wrestle free from whatever trap had bound it. However it soon realized none were near and that its body was free, confusion reigned supreme and then it got a horrible feeling in the pit of its gut that soon played into its mind as it began hearing a faraway voice. The voice was urgent, scared and angry all at the same time and cursed the beast for what it was. The Gale went from simply hearing this voice to feeling it to the core of its body and mind as it had the overwhelming feeling that something was taking over, and taking over it was. For all the Gales strength it lacked the mental willpower to fight this, it was little more than hunger and rage, how could it fight all the emotions that surged through the original owner of this body like a flood? Mikaiel called out to his savage other, in a moments time they fought the clash of titans, but this clash was in the mind, and then all at once it was over. The Gale returned to the form of the large wolf it held before, it looked from left to right and then down on the little girl and spoke.
“Are you ok?” It said in a calm and serene voice.
The little girl still a little wary simply nodded.
“We need to flee this place.” And now it was clear, this was the voice of Mikaiel.
“What is your name?” she asked wearily.
Mikaiel thought about this for a long time before answering, “Gale, my name is Gale.”
The girl took a little more prodding to get to move but soon even she realized more of the creatures roaming around were coming close and that this strange wolf was the only one that hadn’t tried to attack her. So she climbed on to his back and in a moments time he sped off into the night far from the beasts that surrounded them, some attempted to follow but most were to slow and those capable of catching up fell from a quick blow. Though Mikaiel might have been new to controlling this himself he had seen it through the creatures eyes and moreover this body was simply trained to fight, acting almost as instinctively as it had on orders. He ran for as long as he could, until they had left the city, left the county, left all civilization and all the horrors within. Only then did the newly renamed Gale stop to let his passenger off and it was then that he had found she had long since fell asleep and so Gale lay down under a large tree.
But no sleep greeted him his mind focused only on the indeterminate time in which that creature had controlled him. So he thought and he thought and like the genius he had always been he came to the real and horrible conclusion that the creature had to have been him, perhaps a perversion of his emotions, but born of them none the less. His time within that mind had not been kind, he no longer remembered much of his past but he knew he had lusted and he knew he had grown angry. Perhaps this was his punishment for that crime, but if it was he thought it terribly disproportionate. He thought of all the lives to which his former self had ended and had the unsettling feeling that what he had seen was hardly half of what he had done. So he stayed where he was and though hollows have no soul or so they say he wept for his lost innocence, his lost honor and his lost humanity. It would only be later that he questioned why he had saved the girl, or in fact why it seemed she was intrinsically linked to his freedom from the shackles of rage and instinct. Unlike before the thought came straight to his mind though he knew not why or of whom the thought spoke, “She is like her”. His old self had killed many females and so he was liable to believe this random thought, this girl whoever she might be looked like someone he had cared for and though he knew it was shallow when he hardly even knew this spirit girl, for she was a plus, he was going to protect her no matter what.
Her name was Mimi, she had been a spirit for just a little while and hardly even understood that she was dead yet. What she did know was that ever since then she had been chased by all manner of beasts such as those Gale dispatched, of course only Gale realized this was because of her amazing spirit power. When he thought about it he realized even he had little knowledge of the spirit world from first hand experience but had gathered much from being a back-seat viewer so to speak. He tried to explain this to the girl, she seemed to understand on some basic level though she was hardly the genius Gale had been at her age, whatever the case she understood it meant they needed to stay out of the cities where countless Hollows lurked. She warmed to the big fluffy wolf quickly as well though Gale himself held her at arms length…or well, paws, something to be admired and kept pristine and not touched. She on the other hand quickly got over her trepidations about him and went on to start calling him “Mr. Wolfy” though she sometimes called him Gale if she was getting on to him and used him like a bed every night. He worried about her, uncertain if she would become like him for he had a dreading fear of the chain on her chest though he was still uncertain of its purpose, he also feared others would eventually come none did for several months. For a time this was how things remained, nobody came for them in the wild and the girl adapted to her new surroundings quickly, plenty happy so long as she wasn’t in danger.
The first outsiders to arrive were shinigami, looking back on it now had he known what shinigami did he would have let Mimi go with them but at the time all he knew was they were a threat to him and possibly her. So he eliminated them, despite his time in the wilderness without fighting hollows to not diminish as humans do and his strength was off the scale though his instinctive skills had perhaps been found lacking. Either way they would soon get plenty of exercise, after eliminating the shinigami he took Mimi and they moved away as he remembered from his past memories that if one shinigami died many more would flock to that area soon enough. However as if a beacon to every type of being imaginable the hills and forest soon flooded with adversaries both hollows and black cloaked shinigami, and yet still others. Time and time again Gale eliminated them all, falling back into a pattern of infinite combat he had hoped he would never be involved in again, but he did it for Mimi and so he did it without complaint. To his great horror but with gradually diminishing strength each time it occurred he would consume the body of the creature he defeated almost without question, as if on a primal level it had to be done upon victory. He soon realized that just as he had before he could utilize these forms as he wished, and so he became an ever more powerful guardian. He cut and killed all the while and yet Mimi never grew scared of him for he was her constant friend and companion, protecting her from the bad people, and so Gale’s faith was reaffirmed.
The final day of this bonding began like any other; amongst the plains where the duo had since been driven after a rather large entourage of shinigami had appeared trying to hunt Gale down after having taken so many lives. Mimi was collecting berries from a tree while Gale lay down on the ground and rested for but the briefest moment, a short misstep in his near constant vigil. Though Mimi was aware they were often attacked it seemed she still did not quite grasp that it was in fact she that was drawing their foes to this place, and so as Gale fell into a momentary sleep she wandered off in an innocent attempt to collect different kinds of berries from different trees. Gale awoke less than ten minutes later and slowly got up, then in an instant he was hit by a wave of intense reiatsu and sprung to the defense. He took a quick look around and instantly realized that Mimi was not there and with the force of a thousand runners sprinted off in the direction of the reiatsu. In his mind he prayed she would not be there but was painfully aware only a power this strong could have eclipsed the girls own rather powerful soul power vibe from his senses.
He broke out on the nearest field and instantly spotted her but let out a great howl as he came upon the scene. A giant creature standing no less than ten feet tall with a lanky almost human form stood in the middle of the field, its form was ridiculously thin and looked almost like bone but with appendages four times to long for a human. Its arms ended in massive clawed hands and its neck was long with an eerie doll like mask for a face, from almost every crevice in its body a long organic blade stuck out deadly enough to kill anything. And kill it had, one long blade from its wrist had pierced Mimi’s chest and the creature held the girl high above and seemed to be speaking before it opened its previously tiny doll mouth in an unnatural snake like gape in an attempt to eat her. However its attention was taken away at the last second as Gale let out his mighty howl and in the next second he had taken the creature off its feet and separated him from Mimi. The creature fell back and delivered a mighty and speedy blow to Gale knocking the wolf of its feet and breaking its carapace in several places, the beast was incredibly strong. It looked down at him for a moment and then turned around flicking its wrist as a swirling circle of energy appeared before it, shortly before walking through it turned to him and spoke in a wispy sinister voice.
“I Gabriel of Styx had heard that a powerful young girl existed on this side that had become the target of many hollows. But I was more interested in her supposed hollow guard…they spoke with such fear I thought it was someone I truly had to meet and destroy or welcome into my ranks. To bad, such a disappointment.”
Gale had lain on the ground for less than ten seconds but surely it would have been enough to kill him had the beast decided to. By the time he did the attacker was long gone and instead he found himself alone with Mimi on the ground nearby. He had run to her but her eyes were already hollow and long gone, her body leaking a blue snow like energy only this snow moved upward, even as he watched he knew without knowing how they were the spirit particles of which her body was comprised, leaving this world to rejoin the soul stream. The world spun around Gale and he began breathing quickly as he stumbled about, his eyes located the basket the girl had been carrying with the berries it appeared she had been coming back and amongst the berries were several oranges, Gale had loved oranges they were surely for him. And suddenly all the rage he had suppressed, all the anger he had trapped within him was lay bear and he let out a massive howl. Whether by instinct or through sheer force of will a tear just like the one the monster had created was torn in reality, he knew, like most things instinctively, where this portal would take him. He had always known but had never gone for it was a place of evil and his place had been here protecting Mimi. But as he turned and watched as the last of the little girls spirit particles vanished leaving nothing behind he gave a mighty roar and charged through without a second thought.
He gave no time to sadness or regret.
His place was on the other side.
For his mission had changed.
The monster that killed Mimi would die and then, as his enemy bled out beneath his feet, they would both regret.
-:: Death World
The other side was exactly as Gale had always envisioned it; he rationalized in the back of his head that perhaps his other self had been here before though he never remembered seeing it. The white sands of the endless desert were devoid of one thing he realized though, they held no hollows. He had of course seen one here or there and quickly disposed of them, a growing hatred he had always had but that was now out control since Mimi’s death requiring him to kill every single one he saw.
((OOC: Not finished))
-:: And the Blood shall Flow like Rivers ~ Revenge on The Order of Styx One
A figure stood at the allotted place upon the sands of Hueco Mundo where The Order of Styx would come to look over and approve any new members into its order. The sands of Hueco Mundo were of course completely bear so how one might know this was the place would be unknown to those without the eyes. Two things were required, power and intelligence over that of the average bestial hollow and even then you had to look in the right place at the right time, fufill these requirements though and the area was quite clearly marked. Or at the very least that’s what one could assume, there were not visual marks but there was something of a hollow sixth sense that told those who possessed it that something was out of place, this was one such place. In the coming days as it got closer to the time for the sand-carriage to arrive it was likely others would appear.
The figure or rather the hollow that stood here was not an unknown; this was Gale in the form of one of the many hollows he consumed in the Menos Forest. He was massive and long limbed with significant bulk, his arms were long ending in massive claws and his head was shaped something like a guillotine and was just as sharp. His days had not been spent idly standing by for in the short period of six months in which he spent there he became something of a legend, consuming so many hollows that other hollows actually began forming hunting groups to consume him. All had of course failed but they did provide one useful aspect unfortunately for him, they brought him more forms and more power to consume. Then with three weeks left Gale had left the Menos Forest and traveled to the surface sands to begin his search for the place he now stood. Of course calling it a search might not have been accurate, after all Roarke had spilled everything he had needed to know to find it but even so the sands of Hueco Mundo were endless and still took time to traverse. Now he was here but the time spent reaching this place had been spent perfecting the plan he had long spent dreaming up in the forest. In the end it was more straightforward than he had initially thought would be necessary but with time he realized that he would have to fight one way or another so the best option was to create chaos and use it to his advantage instead of trying to subversively deconstruct the system from the inside. For this he had a perfect plan but for a time he waited.
It was on the second day of his wait that another individual finally showed up, a much smaller creature compared to his current form that looked something like an imp out of legends. Though he might not have looked like much Gale of course realized he had to be capable to have found this place. For a long time they had stared at each other and then the little Imp’s face who was more telling that his own, which in this form was non-existent, cracked a smile.
“And here I thought I would be the first…you must be more clever than your big dumb brute visage suggests.” The little hollow said.
“It’s a distinct possibility,” replied Gale not sounding like a joke, one might note he had not killed the creature like he normally did hollows, but then he had a plan.
The imp sized him up and then turned his back, obviously not intent on fighting when he had finally found his way here. However Gale called out from behind him and said in a plain non-threatening but obviously malicious tone.
“You should leave this place, soon it shall flow red with the blood of all who come.”
The little imp stared at him for some time and again the face of the hollow that Gale had chosen as his form was impossible to read. After a long time the imp walked away and stood a good distance from him, making this statement might have seemed foolish but Gale had been waiting for just such an individual as this one to say these exact words to. With that complete he turned around and walked off into the desert.
Over the next few days more and more individuals joined up, so many that by the second to last day that one could get lost in the crowd. Gale had long since lost sight of the little imp though he was certain it was still here, more importantly he had been spending his days wisely. The sand-barge could be coming from any direction and it was his job to make sure all these different direction were prepared without exposing his plan to anyone, save the imp. The failing of the Order of Styx would be that they put so much trust in this invincible sand-barge, they would of course very soon find the fault in this logic but it would be all to late. It would be to late for Gabriel to and with that though in mind he savored every single moment of every single day so that it would be all the sweeter once it came. Gale had, had time to grow since last he and the Vasto Lorde met, he was much stronger but more important he was level headed, he would enjoy bringing righteous judgment to this creature and its brethren but he would do so with the calm calculating tactics that he would become known for. So with that in mind he looked around him, at the countless hollows around knowing that they all wished to join the Order of Styx thinking it would bring them power. It seemed he had one more job to complete before the barge arrived.
When the final day rolled around Gale was thankfully validated in his belief that this was indeed the correct place as a glowing symbol no doubt used to guide the barge in formed in the sand. It was not as if he had, had a doubt but it helped ease ones minds when they knew they had so much to do in a very short time in the future. At what Gale imagined was roughly noon as far as the time cycle of this worlds inhabitants cared he felt a slight tremble in the same beneath his feet. He had expected the barge to appear quickly after that but this continued for nearly five minute with growing intensity all the while until it was practically causing earthquakes and then Gale made out the sight of two red glowing eyes in the distance. As it closed Gale was quite thankful he had arranged his strategy to accommodate any size for the barge was a thing of Olympian legend, beyond simple terms such as large or massive. It was beyond gargantuan or any word usually dictated to such things it was Gale decided to say, best called, monolithic. It was a thing of metal and bone; the metals from an unknown source but the bones quite clearly of every origin imaginable include the skull of a hollow so massive on its front that it defied imagination. It rolled on massive cogwheels that developed so much traction that even the sand could not stop them. However most impressive of all was the driving force, the massive hollow skull was not alone for a living, breathing example road affront it like a horse drawing a chariot, it was a snake like thing though it had four massive legs that caused the ground to shake with every step. By the time it was on top of Gale he could tell that the carriage was no less than the comparison of a forty-story building and the beast hauling it was nearly comparable. As if prodded by an invisible driver the beast who while incredibly powerful appeared to be no smarter than an average hollow or animal, decided to read back and slow the entire contraption to a stop though it slid while doing this kicking up a hundred foot wave of sand that showered over Gale.
When it had come to a complete stop there was a long period of waiting and then several gears holding a bone door up on the side of the carriage lowered and a stocky hollow that Gale imagined was supposed to look intimidating came out. Even before the man arrived he could see the looks of confusion as he looked around, for all about Gale there was not a single soul. Clearly this stocky man was used to large groups, much like the one that had adorned this area much as they had yesterday, of course Gale had made certain to take care of that problem. So the stocky hollow man who had a large crown-like protrusion from his forehead sauntered up to Gale, he gave him a close look for a time and then spoke in a gruff voice. This to Gale imagined was supposed to be imposing, but this man creature couldn’t have frightened Gale if he had, had an army to back him up.
“You the only one? Impossible?” Said the man but before Gale could even think of responding the very first part of this plan he had set up appeared.
“SIR!!! HE KILLED THEM SIR!!! HE’S AN ENEMY!!!” The little imp ejected from the sand.
To the Order of Styx killing other hollows was looked down upon, only when a fair complaint was lodged was such action allowed. After all they wanted nothing more than to be the most powerful force in Hueco Mundo and if your people were always killing each other how could that ever happen. But before the stocky man creature could even throw Gale a disgusted eye Gale had his sharp bladed nails straight through its head, blood leaked out for a moment and then Gale tossed it to the side. He had fought with all his strength and won not to consume this pathetic thing, it was not the time. Instantly the door he had come out of closed while the giant carriage began moving again, clearly they thought he might have been the first in an attempted attack. If only they had known how right they were.
From high above energy users rained cero down upon him but these were not powerful things, they only came from regular hollows and were almost laughable especially in his current form which was speedier than it first appeared. Before to long the carriage or rather the barge as they called it had put room between them and was on its way to putting itself far from him, however had he had a readable face he would have been smiling. He walked after it slowly for a moment, walking right past the little imp who stared in horror at his lost attempt to join what was no doubt to him a prestigious order. Then as he continued to watch the imps face a massive red explosion went off in front of the carriage and even from here he heard the beast drawing the construct give out a mighty howl. He doubted this or what happened next would kill such a mighty beast but he was glad to see his enemy had fallen so easily into his trap. Then with one more look at the imp who continued to stare in amazement as first the beast disappeared into a newly wrought hole that was spilling into the ground and then the carriage he finally broke into a run after it. This was not a fast thing, the beast as well as the carriage were massive and they dried to fight the downward spiral but they were failing, Gales calculations were perfect. Then all at once the sand simply ran out, unable to support such wait anymore and the ground fell beneath them all at once, a great gaping black maw opened up and then they were lost to the darkness below, they were lost to the Menos Forest.
Gale ran up to the edge, looked down while counting to ten and then with a staunch inner-commitment to do whatever was necessary jumped off the edge and took the plunge.
All following chapters are under construction but have been named as placeholders to remind me what needs to be done.
-:: Exodus of the Burning Chariot of Sin ~ Revenge on The Order of Styx Two
-:: Clash Upon the Back of the Wailing Doom ~ Revenge on The Order of Styx Finale
-:: Captus Imperium
-:: Here they Come Ten-Thousand Strong
-:: Flight of the White Wyrm
-:: The Land of Floating Ash and the Exodus of Gale