Vakala Morden

Female

18

Pirate

Entertainer

Vakala's dream is to see the world in a beautiful light for the first time. However, to truly feel as though she's accomplished this dream, Vakala will have to complete two steps. First, she'll have to rendezvous with the mysterious Skypiean who made her body anew, and properly thank him for saving her life. Second, in order to free her mindscape of nightmares, Vakala must track down and kill Saint Fouquet, the Celestial Dragon that had kept her as a slave and abused her all this time, and whose knife made the cut on her throat that caused her spiral of near-death misfortune to begin with. Only with both of those steps completed can Vakala's dream come to fruition.

Standing at 175cm (5' 9"), Vakala is technically taller than the average female, although not to an outstanding degree, and her body has a voluptuous, if all in all bottom-heavy form to it, with a BWH ratio of 29-21-40 if measured in inches and 74-53-102 if measured in centimeters. However, in spite of wielding an amiably thin waistline and what that would suggest, Vakala actually tips the scales at a whopping 122kg (269lbs)! The massive jump in weight is likely due to the Seastone & iron plating that had been installed inside her for her protection. Aside from those curves of hers and her natural tan skin, Vakala's most identifiable features are her ruby red eyes and her shoulder length, faint blonde hair, in which she adorns a single rose to the left side. Her waist, her back, her neck, a minute fraction of an inch above the knees downwards and the entirety of her arms no longer possess skin; in its place is a type of wax that had fused itself with her skin whilst in liquid form, only to take on similar properties and yet feels ever so slightly different to the touch when set.

Expressionless. Hypnotic lethargy in her voice. A mouth that doesn't move when she speaks. Eyes near as much devoid of life, that only return a cold, blank stare upon meeting her gaze. It really does feel as though Vakala is just a giant life-sized doll as opposed to a proper human being. Perhaps that's all anyone sees in her... or rather, all she sees in herself. Truth be told, this is the heavy chain that despair had wrapped around Vakala's heart; and because of this, Vakala has gotten so used to the darkness all around her that she can't even see the light at the end of the tunnel any more. It's sad, honestly, but those were the cards that were dealt to her in life. That's not something Vakala has the power to change, so it is something that she has learnt to accept.

Vakala does have aspirations though, as well as a dream that provides her reason to live. However, first and foremost, she needs to survive. Every action she takes is based on that prospect of survival, as well as her decisions that regard the people around her. Who to remain loyal to. Who she can trust for the moment. Who she needs to keep her guard up against. She relies heavily on her Observation Haki for all of this, and can't bring herself to put blind faith in a complete stranger who may approach her. That may be the very reason Vakala tends to be so cold and aloof to most everyone at first glance, even though she means no toxicity or ill will as a whole.

Now that she has the means to do combat if need be, Vakala may very well start to develop a sense of justice throughout her journey as a pirate. If she has to fight at all, she'd rather fight honorably, and she'd rather not have to use any dirty tricks if she can help it. She's also a strong believer in the give & take philosophy; as such, she won't be made to steal, and she'll respectfully decline any gifts one may want to bestow upon her, until she can negotiate a way for her to repay such kindness. Vakala will always honor her end of any deal she has agreed to, but she'll expect the very same from the other party. If they decide to neglect that honor on a whim, she can always find a way to make them pay for that transgression, so long as it doesn't threaten her own chances of survival. Vakala may not be an inherently violent person herself, but she has been condition into regarding violence as acceptable punishment for wrongdoing. As such, she'll show no remorse upon killing or maiming an opponent, least of all to those who had proven themselves unjust.

Not many people can claim to have been born on the day of a heavy storm. But Vakala Morden is one such person, the sound of rolling thunder burned into her memory of that day. The pregnancy with Vakala had particularly been taxing on her mother, a frail woman who was never fit to reproduce in hindsight. Midway through her pregnancy, the doctors had given Vakala's mother two options; terminate the pregnancy with Vakala right then and there, or die bringing her into the world. Evidently she had chosen the latter.

Without a mother figure to call her own, Vakala spent the vast majority of her life neglected. Her father would spend time out working until very late at night, only to come home drunk, with women or both, and leave early in the morning again. Still, Vakala's father did take the small amount of time he had at home not sleeping to take the girl aside, feed her and quench her thirst for the day, and walk her through what she was allowed to do for the day and what she wasn't. But even then, it was rare for it to take more than ten minutes to relay all these instructions to her and ensure she understood them, and then Vakala would be left all alone again. One night, Vakala woke to an argument that her father had with a dancer he was responsible for managing, which had got physical when she came to investigate. It was here that Vakala finally came to realize the stress her father was under, coming to the conclusion that she was little more than a burden. Unable to bear the gravity of that epiphany, Vakala spent the next day crying in depression.

Vakala had since taught herself how to dance in an alluring manner, in hopes that, once she went through puberty and her assets developed, she could start bringing in some money for herself and her father. Her training had paid off, and she became the star of the show, much to the other dancers' ire. Some of them had tried to demoralize her just because they were jealous of her success, but nothing they said could ever phase her, which would frustrate them even more. Thus, Vakala remained an outcast, with no true place to belong. But it was a step in the right direction if nothing else, so she persevered through her suffering.

Life would ultimately turn for the worse for Vakala, however, upon the arrival of a Celestial Dragon known as Saint Fouquet. Out of all the dancers that danced for him in the quaint little plaza of the town oasis he just happened to make a stop in during his vacation in the West Blue, Vakala was the one that managed to catch Saint Fouquet's attention. Saint Fouquet approached Vakala's father, they made negotiations, and then seconds later, Vakala was officially sold off as a new slave to Saint Fouquet for a cool 1,000,000 Beri. That was the beginning of what would almost be her end, but alas, it didn't stop there. From the moment she boarded Saint Fouquet's personal ship, Vakala was subject to even more conditioning, forced to endure and adapt to Saint Fouquet's cruel and unusual punishment.

The final straw came in the form of Vakala feeling crushed under Saint Fouquet's weight when he'd pinned her down and forced himself on top of her in a sexual manner. Not liking what that might've implied when she told him this, Saint Fouquet pulled out a collapsible knife that he had in one leg pocket and pressed it against Vakala's throat, daring her to "mock him for his obesity again and see what happens". Vakala only had one chance to get out of that deadly situation, and it had presented itself in the form of Saint Fouquet's negligence; while he was careful enough to maintain the pin he had on her arms, he ironically never considered to lock down Vakala's legs. With those free legs and all the might she could summon, Vakala shoved Saint Fouquet off of her, before bolting out into the front deck of the ship and diving into the sea with reckless abandon. It was safe to say that Saint Fouquet was stunned, unable to bring himself to act until long after Vakala vanished from his sight. All he could do was request an investigation from a Marine Admiral.

It would be a surprising thing that Vakala was found alive at all, never mind in the state she in. Her throat had looked to be slashed, most likely because Saint Fouquet put so much pressure on the knife hand that any movement on Vakala's end would make the knife cut into it anyway, and her arms and legs seemed to have been ripped off from her and eaten by Sea Kings that were native to that specific ocean she was ultimately found in. She'd lost consciousness completely, surrounded by a pool of her own blood and left to die afloat.

A hooded stranger of Skypiean origin had found Vakala in this state. He took one look at Saint Fouquet's ship and the Marines that were onboard at the time, before collecting Vakala's body and driving off in his Waver. This stranger had taken Vakala to a warehouse in South Port in which he had access to, set her body down on a table in its basement and set to work on stabilizing her and making her into a cyborg. This took nigh on a full month to complete, all that time in which Vakala remained completely unconscious. His job done, the Skypiean faded into the shadows, but not before leaving a manifesto at Vakala's side, with details of all the modifications he made on Vakala's body and how they worked, and some matches to burn it with after she was done reading it as instructed.

Observation: B
Armament: A
Conqueror's: D

Swordsman

True Four Sword Style: Much like the original Four Sword Style, True Four Sword Style specializes in overwhelming singular opponents, and is at its most effective when the practitioner (Vakala in this case) is on the offensive. However, due to actually having four swords to defend with if need be, being forced on the backfoot isn't nearly as crippling, as there are plenty of techniques that can be used as a means of recovery. True Four Sword Style can only be used by cyborgs as far as practicality is concerned, since while the human hand is perfectly designed for the use of a sword, the human foot is not. There are also more than a few sub-divisions to the True Four Sword Style as well, since not all four swords are used at the same time most of the time.

• The Ranked Sword Style Sub-Divisions: These indicate which single one of the four swords the practitioner is using, and are effectively One Sword Style techniques that are slightly more telegraphic in nature. First Sword Style uses the sword in the left hand. Second Sword Style uses the sword in the right hand. Third Sword Style uses the sword that takes the place of the practitioner's right leg, and Fourth Sword Style uses the one that takes the place of the left.
• The Dual Sword Style Sub-Divisions: A total of 6 different Sword Style sub-divisions are dedicated for all the different ways the practitioner can use two of the four swords at once. There is Arm Sword Style which uses the swords in both the practitioner's hands. Leg Sword Style does the same for the swords that takes the place of the legs. Left Sword Style uses the swords on the left side of the practitioner's body, and Right Sword Style uses the swords on the right side. The most interesting sub-divisions are Odd Sword Style, which uses the left-hand and right-leg swords, and Even Sword Style which uses the right-hand and left-leg swords.
• The Negare Sword Style Sub-Divisions: Much like First Sword Style, Second Sword Style, Third Sword Style and Fourth Sword Style, Negare First Sword Style, Negare Second Sword Style, Negare Third Sword Style and Negare Fourth Sword Style specifically reference the left hand, right hand, right leg and left leg respectively. However, these four sub-divisions of the True Four Sword Style have a unique correlation with the referenced sword. That is to say, it's not that referenced sword that drives the offensive presence behind a technique of those sub-divisions, but the other three! In truth, the referenced sword is either denied activity for the technique outright in this scenario, or its contribution takes on a supportive function; primarily in the form of anchoring the practitioner while the technique itself is being conducted.

Jeannie Tirado (En)/Reina Ueda (Jp)