[b]Name: Akira Kagemusha
Gender: Male
Age: 24[/b]

[b]Alternative Form:[/b] Gorgon

[b]Appearance:[/b] Akira’s appearance has somewhat unusual features due to his biracial heritage –half Japanese, half white- , with distinctively Asiatic features intermingling with more distinctive western facial structure and physical build. He has thick glossy black hair, well kept in a short back and sides cut, occasionally spiking up into curls at odd places, and quite unusual sharp amber eyes flecked with sparks of green and quite pale white skin. He is a well built person with a well proportioned amount of muscle and is physically athletic, standing about 5,9 in height. His arms are covered in Yakuza tattoos of green knotted serpents, which end at the pectoral muscles and look almost alive and writhing across his skin when he moves. His face is covered in a near perpetual smirk of amusement due to a scar which runs along his right cheek, making him always look like he is up to something crafty. Despite the scar, Akira could be said to be quite good looking, indeed the scar may even add to the effect, giving an element of suggestive danger to him. 

[b]Shifter Appearance:[/b]

[b]Appearance One:[/b] Akira’s first form is a relatively human form consisting of the basic physiology of a Homo Sapien, but with serpentine features such as scales, strange eyes, a nest of snakes for hair. What is more disturbing about his features whilst he is in his form is his glowing, swirling pupil-less eyes which have the ability to paralyse any foe taking on a direct stare with Akira, if the gaze is broken then the foe will be able to move again, but will experience intense headaches and physical pain afterwards. His weird half serpentine form makes him look extremely unearthly, furthered by the writhing nest of black serpents which replace his hair, each of their reptilian eyes glowing as ominously as their masters. In this form he stands at a height of six foot four and is considerably more muscled in this form than in his natural state. Each of his scales is tipped strangely in an amber like golden hue and provide relatively good protection, although not to the same level as his second form. His mouth, much like his hair, consists of fangs dripping with noxious poison which can either beor injected directly into the victim, inevitably leading to a considerable amount of time in complete agony. Despite this benefit, the poison is considerably weaker and more diluted in this form, and is largely curable by conventional means if seen to swiftly.

[hider=Shifter Appearance 2][img]http://www.kianleong.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/f947e___wrath-of-medusa.jpg[/img][/hider]

[b]Appearance Two:[/b] Shaking off most semblance of a human form, Akira’s second form is even more monsterous than the first. With the change his lower body has been reduced to a massive body of a serpent, one meter thick and 8 meters long, making him physically tower above his opponents. Physically he is much slower in this form in terms of maneuverability and speed than either of his other forms, but is capable picking up surprising speed in close quarters combat. The twisting coils of his lower body, mixed with his increased strength and heavy scaled armour make for a deadly constrictive power, and he is able to increase it to such an extent to crush bones and skulls under its ever tightening folds. In this form his eyes are visibly blazing with power, causing their victims to feel pain far beyond his first form upon meeting their gaze. His upper body -although remaining human- has become even more physically powerful and toned, and his features become both utterly horrific and terrible, whilst showing a great and unearthly grace. In this form he is disturbingly uncanny, barely looking human under a series of ever growing serpentine features, and almost all of his body covered in thick amber hued scales which seem to pulse with unnatural light. 

[b]Abilities:[/b] Despite his unnatural abilities and urban origins, Akira is a surprisingly good archer, something which he took up as a hobby in his spare time, he is also an accomplished street fighter and has some skill with both European and Asian sword techniques. He can also speak two languages, English and Japanese. However, much of his skill lies in his shifter form, and he is generally more of a capable opponent whilst like this. Due to his previous life before the change, he is effective at stealth and assassination and knows many ways of killing a man, both through weaponry, poison, as well as physical strength.

[b]Powers: [/b]

[b]Scale Mail[/b] When in his second shifter form Akira's scales take on a much denser quality, like overlapping platelets of armour which coats the entire body asides from select points such as the underbelly of the serpentine coils, under the arm and along the neck and head. With significant protection across the chest, upper arms and back. taking piercing weapons to the hide is not the most effective policy as they generally lack purchase and slide off. Bludgeoning weapons are much more effective and quite painful if they manage to break one of the scales. Piercing weapons however have purchase in the above less protected portions of the body, and can still be used effectively in such places to deliver injuries.

[b]Paralytic Gaze/Gaze of the Gorgon:[/b] Akira has a penetrating gaze in his shifter form which can render his foes paralysed so long as he is able to maintain permanent eye contact with the victim. So long as they are under his gaze they will be unable to move and will experience varying levels of pain which can affect the victim long after the gaze has been broken, and may cause serious psychological trauma in his second form. Limitations to this however extend over distance the requirements of a foe making eye contact with him for longer than a flash glance. The pain also differs when in alternate form, with his first form being notably weaker when the gaze is averted, only causing throbbing headaches and the occasional nosebleed. The second form however would be comparable to placing one's hand in hot coals and even with his gaze averted it can take several minutes to stop feeling lancing pains all of the muscles of the body.

Rules of the gaze:
-Limited movement is capable of being done for a few seconds into the gaze, but the longer it goes on the more the body becomes rigid, with 5 seconds until complete immobility and increasingly sluggish movement before that.
-Aversion of gaze: so long as you look away immediately upon connecting with his gaze you will be able escape it, longer than that and you fall into the above situation. The gaze does not work on reflective items, nor does it work if you are moving at such a speed as to make perfect eye contact impossible. Whilst the opponent is in pain whilst looking into the eyes there is an allure to them that makes the body want to look deeper, if the opponent can overcome the allure and the pain he can avert the gaze with only residual pain from the gaze effecting him. 
-Pain levels differ in terms of the form, the first form feels like buckets of ice has been thrown over you repeatedly, mixed with intensive heartburn and headaches. Upon aversion of the eyes the feeling dissipates, but the awful headache will continue for several minutes afterwards, disorientating the person.
-Level two is much more intensive pain, and the aversion of the gaze is much harder to achieve but still possible for particularly strong willed characters , in this state the pain is comparable to being showered with hot coals.
-The gaze requires intensive concentration, any distraction which might avert Akira from his gaze will let the character go. Once utilizing the gaze he is mostly unable to shift it without freeing the character, leaving him open to attack from multiple opponents.
-The eyes of the afflicted can still move about to a limited degree several seconds into the gaze, but much like a dancing cobra to the tune of a snake charmer, he will sway back and forth with them to keep them in his gaze.

[b]Stygian poison:[/b] Akira’s venom is probably his most unpleasant feature, a deadly neurotoxin unmatched anywhere else on earth by its utterly vicious and deadly effects. Each fang of Akira is dripping in the substance, the bite of the Gorgon, is extremely deadly, leading to an intensive, near incurable, agonised existence before inevitable death. Once this is inflicted, the subject –depending on the dosage of the poison- may either linger for days or hours in a state of perpetual pain, with no easy form of relief available. Indeed the toxin is so dangerous that even after death it continues to affect the body, making the muscles turn rigid in their last twisted forms and physically calcifying the flesh into hideous statues. The poison can be exercised from the subject in three know ways ( and one unknown one), either through intensive regenerative/healing magic, extreme bloodletting which will leave the person anemic and weak, or through forcing the agonised victim to drink the blood of the Gorgon himself, which contains the antidote. Despite this cure, the path to health will take many days and residual effect will continue to afflict the person at random intervals for perhaps a week after the original bite. Akira frequently bottled the liquid whilst in his form and often used it to poison his opponents. 

[b]Background:[/b] Akira grew up as a street rat in the bustling labyrinths of Toyko and never knew or could not remember his parents, although he theorises he may have been an unwanted child, possibly due to his biracial nature. He is uncertain of his birthday, but he believes it must have been about the sixth year of Heisei, or 1995, somewhere around December or November. Whilst life was hard on the streets with frequently children falling victim to gang violence, trafficking, narcotics and prostitution, Akira seemed to thrive in the difficult situation with a swift with and a talent for manipulation and street wits, swiftly finding his feet after living as a thief and part time bōsōzoku for many years in the city, and then joining the Yakuza as a small time member. 

For many years into his life he effectively functioned as an envoy and spy due to his speed and size, which proved to be both difficult and rewarding, both in payment and the skills required at not being caught. Eventually he entered the hierarchy of the Yakuza around 2014 and served as a minor enforcer, a Shatei –or younger brother- after the traditional sake ritual. For many years his illiteracy had proved to be an issue in his promotion, but by the time of his acceptance into the full organisation he had become quite erudite and scholarly and had devoured an extensive number of books on politics, subterfuge, religion, history and warfare. With access to such an extensive amount of information and bolstered by his own street wits, he continued to prove himself to the syndicate and began to rise through the ranks at an alarming rate. Eventually he became the syndicate’s top assassin due to his skills, and even rose to the position of second lieutenant, or Shateigashira in his syndicate, serving under the Oyabun directly. During this time he had his tattoo’s applied to his body using the painful and expensive irezumi technique, which was further effected years later by his sudden capabilities as a shifter, making the snakes look more alive than ever.

Ever since he had risen from the streets, Akira had been consumed by the ambition to gain a prominent position of power. Despite his already important position in the syndicate, he desired to replace the current head, or Oyabun of the organisation, beginning a series of power struggles with the first lieutenant over who would succeed the increasingly aging old man. This continued for years, and despite the tension the syndicate continued to flourish in its business, however the old Oyabun continued to favour his first lieutenant over the rising star of Akira, distrusting him as an outsider and not placing as much faith in him. This left Akira infuriated but impotent against the combined might of his two opponents, and he was left fearing that with the old leader’s death he might be assassinated by the more powerful lieutenant in order to consolidate his control. 

It was only in the turn of 2018 where Akira gained his strange powers when the balance of power definitely changed in his favour. Akira, whilst being very surprised and alarmed to suddenly wake up in the coils of a titanic serpent and some looking like something out of Clash of the Titans, was quite pleased about the change when he realised it was him, and that he could shift back and forth between forms, eventually coming to love the freedom his unnatural shifter shape gave him. He kept his condition a secret from almost all of his clan asides from his inner circle and quickly began to extensively experiment with his powers, testing both the poison and his gaze on animals in order to figure out how far his powers went. Quickly he realised the opportunities open to him now that he could do things not many other people could, as well as the sudden shift in power that had been directed in his favour.

Hiring one or two corrupt shifters from the underground for an extortionate price, and combined with his own deadly powers and his loyal yakuza, he attacked his opponents in a coup and physically killed the first lieutenant and the old Oyabun himself using his poison and petrifying gaze. Their forms became the first of a series of pseudo-statues in a garden which surrounded his house, and were swiftly joined by all other internal opponents which rejected his rule. With his control established Akira’s syndicate spread further and grew in more and more power, crushing rival Yakuza clans and maintaining heavily influence in many of Japans most prosperous cities. As his power spread so did rumours of his shifter powers, and what had happened during his coup of the clan, which served marvellously in cowing his opponents who feared the same thing might happen to them. Others had to be dealt with through such violent means, and in macabre humour Akira began to use the petrified corpses of other clan leaders to represent classical art. By the time of his sudden transportation into an alien world by 2020, he had nearly completed a blackly humorous representation of the Last Supper of Christ, only missing a clan leader to represent St Peter in his collection. He once even sold a statue to an art gallery, supposedly representing his Japanese interpretation of Michelangelo’s “David”, leaving the gallery owners being none the wiser to its origins and wondering about the “fantastic realism” of the piece. 

By the time of his sudden disappearance, Akira was enjoying an extreme level of power in his clan and had successfully risen to a level of prominence in the family itself. He had realised his dream, and he thought that nothing would be able to take that away from him… how wrong he was.

[b]Personality:[/b] Despite being a criminal and being utterly ruthless towards both his political and criminal enemies, Akira is a surprisingly reasonable and amiable character, and very easy to get on with. He expresses the strange code of the Yakuza which supports the principles of ninkyo. Thus there is a duality to the character, on one side, the Machiavellian criminal, unforgiving, manipulative, wildly intelligent and vicious, and on the other a friendly figure with a strong sense of justice and a desire to assist the worst off of society. As stated above Akira is an extremely scholarly figure and holds knowledge on a wide range of subjects, and he is able to surprise a treasure throve of information if anyone bothered to ask him (or even if they didn’t). He is a strangely philosophical and poetic fellow, but also a bit of a tease with the ladies and finds it very amusing when they blush. He has a somewhat black sense of humour, as suggested by him repurposing his dead enemies as works of art. Akira values friendship and loyalty above all things and if you can make him your friend you can always count on him to back you up in times of trouble, regardless of how high the odds are stacked against you. Despite this however, he often attempts to play the long game, using various people as tools to further his goals, which can frequently alienate people from him and cause rifts in previously close friendships. Although Akira prefers negotiation and manipulation over outright conflict, he is a proven fighter in battle and can be a formidable opponent if he sees no alternative, or if the simplest alternative is most likely to remove the threat most quickly e.g. kill his opponent.

Other:
I don’t have anything right now, I’ll come back to it if I think of something.