Taiya [Approved; 5-1]

Coding In Template By: [THEFROST]

» Name: Taiya
» Gender: Female
» Age: 350
» Height: 6’3” ft
» Weight: 200 lbs

» Association: Shinigami

» Appearance Written: Taiya is a rather tall and muscular young woman. Her fair skin is not without its fair amount of scuffs, scratches, and scars, though most are in areas she can easily keep concealed. Taiya has long reddish brown hair that if left to its devices, could certainly reach her rear. She generally keeps her hair up in some rather simplistic fashion to get it out of the way. It also means that it only reaches about her mid back in that form. Her choice of attire is usually what seems most comfortable. When Taiya has the choice to wear anything but her uniform, she will pick almost anything else. Jeans, shorts, cut off t-shirts and tank tops are her most commonly worn items. Though she does own a dress or two, they’re rarely ever seen on her person. Despite the sweet innocent look one might get from her golden eyes, it's easy to see she’s a rough and rugged woman.

» Appearance Image:





» Personality: Taiya is certainly short for words among most folk though she tends to talk a little too much once she’s comfortable. Her bubbly personality leads her to smile a little too much and a little too easily. It has led many to just assume she’s an overall happy person. She is, though her smile is mostly given out of ease rather than anything else in particular. Despite her tough exterior and her amiable personality, Taiya is quite easy to make shy or embarrassed. It's certainly chief among reasons why she’s never dated. Despite living and hanging around the same and opposite sex, she’s never quite pursued anyone. She’s also never entertained the idea of anyone pursuing her. In a way, her martial arts, her missions, and her hobbies are a way to distract herself from the possibility of romance and love.



» History: She couldn’t really tell you all that went out before she ended up at Soul Society. In her mind, she couldn’t recall, therefore, it didn’t matter all that much. What mattered to her at the time was making the best of the life she had, in wherever she had been left to. In due time she learned what she needed to get by in the afterlife. It was just enough not to starve, but not much more beyond that. As it turned out, she had what some called a rather unique and overflowing amount of spiritual energy. They could call it whatever they wanted it, but Taiya knew the truth. She was just hungry, a bit fatty, and she just loved to eat.

With a bit of luck and some ruckus on her end, she managed to attract enough attention to make the Shinigami notice her and her potential. In due time she was invited to join the Shinigami Academy, where besides all the learning, she also had food in spades. At the academy the young woman realized she actually performed pretty poorly in some areas and surprisingly good in others; go figure. She had quite the skill in martial arts, and picked up new concepts and techniques far quicker than her peers. Perhaps she had been some sort of badass before she got sent to the afterlife. Kido on the other hand was just as bad it could be. Most other things fell somewhere in between. In the end, the more physically demanding the area was, the more likely was for Taiya to perform decently.

Towards the very end of her academy years, she managed to get close enough to her Asauchi to try and learn its name. She did. Most of her peers always seemed proud of their spirit and would go on for hours and hours about how they looked, what they did, and that sort of nonsense, but not her. Taiya never once spoke about her inner world or her spirit to others. It's not that she didn’t like it, there just seemed to be reasons she chose to keep those sort of things almost entirely private. When it came time to be situated in a division, she did have to make some minute mensions to those recruiting. It certainly earned chuckles despite their best intentions, but alas, it couldn’t be helped.

The Fourth Division’s emphasis on combat seemed to be the best fit for her. Within their ranks were a lot of like minded people that like her, preferred to punch first and ask questions second. It was to be her home. Despite the initial choice to join the Shinigami being based mostly on the need to be fed and survival reasons, Taiya soon discovered a sort of loyalty and belonging to these people. At their side she trained and carried missions both around Seireitei and in the world of the living. She battled Hollows, Demons, Arrancars, and many more. During that time she learned and practiced a number of martial arts well beyond the point of competence. Some she more or less found on her own, and some were taught and practiced through her peers or Humans.

With every encounter she learned and grew stronger in her position. Be her enemies Demons or Quincy, she always managed to get a little lesson from every victory and every defeat to make her more apt at surviving the next go around. She thought she was getting closer to unlocking her bankai, though going by word of mouth, she still needed some more time. Taiya also had no interest to lead in any sort of leadership role within her organization. As a result, she kept the nature of her insistence for Bankai mostly silent. As it was, the young woman chose to fight primarily with her body. The use of her Shikai was rare, and only when absolutely needed or useful.

As a way to give back to her peers, Taiya had actually set up a pretty extensive gym in Seireitei, resembling those typically seen in the western areas of the world of the living. It allowed for weight lifting, martial arts, and plenty of other things. When not on missions, Taiya took to a hobby not quite as popular among her comrades. She took to fixing items that were more or less useless for the Shinigami. She had an interest in cars, motorcycles, and other earthly equipment such as microwaves, refrigerators, and cooking ware. Most of those things were useless to people that could travel far faster on their own or create just about anything they needed, but she enjoyed it.




» Hakuda: Taiya has learned and practiced a number of martial arts to better round up her physical prowess. Muay Thai, Taekwondo, and Jiu Jitsu are among the ones she practiced the most. From the very start she showed a talent and potential for it that extended beyond just her physical looks and nature. She was skilled and quick to pick up on concepts. The young woman had a ‘can do’ attitude that always made her keep going even in the face of defeat. Through her triumphs and defeats, she was able to become quite a formidable martial artist that was just as fearsome with a blade as without one.



» Zanpakutô Name: Shokunin

» Zanpakutô Spirit Appearance: Shokunin appears to look like a monk with beer belly, not unlike some depictions of Buddha. Within his garment he keeps an assortment of different cooking and eating utensils.

» Inner World: Her inner world is mostly black and gray with almost nothing within it. However, wherever her zanpakuto spirit is at any time, there will always be gigantic portions of food in unreal sizes.

» Zanpakutô Appearance: Taiya’s Zanpakuto looks like an ordinary katana, with a brown sheath and an intricate guard. The weapon itself is rarely ever seen however. Despite her lack of skill with Kido, there was one she managed to perfect. She had the blade stored within a tattoo seal by her left shoulder. Since she relies on her body, the zanpakuto is almost never retrieved unless she needs to access its release state.

» Sealed Zanpakutô Power: Throughout the years, Taiya noticed that her zanpakuto was able to aid her even when it was not released. The extent of what it could do was very limited, but welcomed nonetheless. It simply made her body a bit more sturdy and tough. She was able to handle grazin against rough surfaces or stones a little easier for instance. It didn’t prevent real damage. But if something would have caused a small scratch it generally did not. It wasn’t remotely close to hierro, but it helped. It also allowed her to feel a little less pain when doing things such as punching through or against a tough surface. Once more it didn’t eliminate pain, it just numbed the area lightly to feel less the impact of things she did quite often.




» Shikai Release Phrase: Slice and stir, Shokunin

» Shikai Release Action: She runs one of her hands over the length of her blade.

» Shikai Appearance: Though Taiya’s physical form does not change, her zanpakuto does. Initially, her zanpakuto takes on the form of a one handed metal mace that looks quite sturdy and strong.

» Shikai Abilities: The main ability of her Shikai is being able to alter the form of her weapon some. Though the mace looks like a war weapon it's actually meant to be a form of kitchen utensil either to stir or to smash things such as garlic… in way too big a mortar. However, the weapon can be made to change the top end to look either like a spatula, a two pronged fork, a kitchen spoon or a steak knife. Some of those shapes are far less useful than others. The size of the weapon does not change, only the general shape and utility of it. There are no other abilities tied to the weapon beyond the strength increase the weapon gets from going into shikai. However, Taiya is able to channel her spiritual energy to fire out of her weapon in unique forms depending on its shape. For instance, the mace may create a form of energy attack that is pressing in nature while the steak knife may cause a slash that’s meant to cut, or the fork one that’s meant to pierce.



Note: Bankai is incomplete and will be finished when the character is ready to learn it, and presented for review.

» Bankai Release Phrase: Present and Render, Shokunin

» Bankai Release Action: Taiya extends her other hand out.

» Bankai Appearance: Taiya gains what looks like a metal shield on her other hand. Her body is also mostly clad in a similarly looking metal armor.



» Bankai Abilities: Just like with her Shikai, things are not often as simple as they appear. The mace, shield, and armor function just as they would for any other warrior, as warring equipment. The main intent of the form however is to serve as a sort of pressure cooker. The form continuously builds pressure and steam within Taiya to be delivered either in the form of a physical attack or defense, or in an energy attack projection of her own devices. Though her bankai is quite not mature yet, she seems to be working in unlocking an ability that allows her to try and take hits to build up a sort of internal pressure to deliver a far stronger form of attack or defense than she could have otherwise.

Pressure Internalization: At some point, she’s able to condense the entirety of her armor, the shield, and the mace into nothingness. Their power and pressure is instead internalized to try and enhance Taiya’s own physical characteristics in combat.



(To Find Out about what these skills are for, please READ THIS THREAD before you try doing anything to it. After you have read it, do not fill your skills out until a staff member has graded your thread. The staff member checking your app will also give you Will Skills in which you can add to your app when approved. Click the spoiler below to see what tier gets what kind of skills.)

Spoiler:

General Skills

• Durability: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Trained/Beginner/Untrained
  
• General Speed: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Strength: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Weapon Skill: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  

Shinigami Skills

• Hoho: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Kidō: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Zanjutsu: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Hakuda: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained

Will Skills

• Willpower/Determination: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Mental Deduction: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  
• Focus: Elite/Advanced/Adept/Beginner/Untrained
  

» Roleplay Sample:

”No, no, I didn’t say I was going to break his nose. I said, if he kept going I might break his nose.” Judging by the way the mother stormed out of her office, it didn’t seem like she agreed with what Taiya had told her son. Oh well. From time to time she had to remind herself that teaching children was often more difficult than training adults. You couldn’t just beat them and blame something else; only parents and police could do that. To put that aside though, she locked her gym and headed out into the floor to get a much needed relaxing workout in. It involved lifting a bunch of weight, and punching a bunch of bags in rather extreme sort of ways.

Nothing to do now but chill and-shit… Her time had yet again gotten the best of her. She had promised she would meet some friends that night for some wraps and protein shakes. Like always, she had meant to just cancel at the last minute but this time she had forgotten. As quickly as she could she jumped into the showers, and grabbed whatever item of clothing from her bag that smelled the least awful. It turned out to be shorts and a cut off t-shirt with a less than family friendly text on it. Making sure she locked the doors behind her, she jumped into her motorcycle and sped off. She hated last minute surprise social interactions. But much more than that, she hated being late.

END OF THE POST