Valar can brighten or darken the area with his fruit, so he tried to use a flashbang technique called 'daybreak' at Willow, but Alesia attacked Valar before he could do anything with that moment's of distraction. In short, nothing much happened to Willow and she is on quite the safe side. But there's a dragonfire that would be looming down in any moment ~
[OOC] One Piece: The Scarlet Pirates (Reboot!) [Chapter 1 END] Page 7
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Archmage MC
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3 days ago
Welp, shes fine then, because shes flying over the fight after she sliced things. Like shes flying higher than baku.
I was really confused though xD
I was really confused though xD
GM
Posted, the past week wasn't really my week. But I'll be concluding the battle after the next round of posts.
GM
A small update here
Jerkchicken
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0-24 hrs ago
And I'll get to making that post asap so we can move on.
Stern Algorithm Loquacious Aggression
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21 min ago
By calling Arafael a dog, naming him Scruffy, and threatening to kill him with chocolate, Handel is basically doing this:
2x Laugh
EnterTheHero Heir to the Throne of the Roaming Rhullo
Member
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10 mos ago
GM
worked out a post, will be a bit dull for this one
Hi, I like One Piece and would enjoy a slower paced thing. This seems friendly enough C: Here's the char, originally went for a guy but I felt a need to balance the gender roster.
Name:
Erizalla "Fate Giver" Ismalanda
Age:
21
Bounty:
35.000.000
Gender:
Female
Appearance:
The above image is her working apparel as the "Fate Giver". Nowadays, she keeps it a bit more inconspicuous with basic, dark-themed clothing. A T-shirt and a pair of black jeans, leather boots, brown belt with two pistol holsters and a pair of black gloves. She's kept the shackles on her, because why not? 1m76 in height.
Personality:
Erizalla is not a good person. Opportunistic and lacking scruple are what defined this character during her young career in the underworld's markets. She is hypocritical with her unpleasant habit of one-upping others and poking fun at them as she is easily infuriated and susceptible to any sort of remark no matter how lighthearted they may be. Anger is overwhelmingly present in her person, with a need to lash out on what she considers below or weaker than her.
But she is not evil either, with many reservations when it comes to causing a deal of harm that is far bigger than she is willing to accept. Her sense of self-preservation is also through the roof, nullifying a good chunk of her otherwise stubborn and snake-like nature. Erizalla will still pick a fight if bored enough or feels like she needs to be concerned. Not the most pleasant of people, but one that will actually see reason if one bothers to communicate with her without triggering the beast.
Backstory:
Born of a not-so consensual relationship between a captured fishman woman and a henchman of an underworld lord, Erizalla's life was destined to be dysfunctional one way or another. Her mother was quickly discarded as a low-value commodity and was kept by her father to be raised as a useful asset to whatever black market endeavour his group would be involved in. Erizalla's heritage as a part-fishman was non-existent, leading to a total lack of knowledge of their techniques and some of their abilities.
Her father didn't live for too long. While she was a child, he was executed by a rival group, or maybe it was the marines? She didn't know, and didn't care. People came and went in this life. This applied to both the victims they sold as slaves and the individuals involved. All that mattered was "number one" in this practice and she stayed true to it to the bitter end.
As a pre-teen, she would utilize her uncommon genetics to gain the trust of wandering fishmen or even smaller groups to later capture and sell them to the highest bidder. Before long, she grew a taste for the chaos that was the action house of the underworld. The loud noises, the mutinies, the murders, the smoke, the money. And she was the one in the spotlight, guiding it and conferring the fate of the sold individual to whatever she deemed most lucrative or practical. Many slaves would grow to know the sharp toothed monster as the one who decided their future; whether they'd be tortured as playthings in Marijoie or turned pirate in some sleazy gang or even sold off to CP0 if they were young enough. The Fate Giver was the last face they would see before they'd lose everything and start anew without their freedoms.
People were not the only commodities sold, mind you. Devil Fruits had always been a lucrative market, and one fruit had gotten enough attention to warrant her superiors' action. A price of500.000.000 was put on the Cara-Cara No Mi. Far more than any slave she had ever sold. A high-priority sale that she had to secure, one that couldn't be messed up. And yet, as she had believed there was no such thing as justice in this world, a bizarre intervention occurred. Taken hostage by a masked figure, one powerful enough to defeat all the nearby guards without a sound and subdue her instantly, obligated her to consume the fruit at the risk of immediate execution. Thinking more about her impending doom, she did not think of the consequences of consuming the fruit until the assailant of 'justice' vanished without a trace.
She had consumed a fruit worth more than the lives of every person in this auction house. There was no explanation to be made, no packing or anything. Erizalla just ran as far as she could. Her bounty rose as fast as she sprinted to the nearest ship. The higher ups wanted justice for their profits and Erizalla was an easy target without a group to hide within.
For a year now, she's been on the run. Joining small groups only to have her either walk away or meeting their end at the hands of stronger groups.
Abilities:
Devil Fruit: Cara-Cara No Mi
It is the Caramel-Caramel Fruit, a Paramecia-type devil fruit that allows the user to generate many forms of caramel at will. The user can decide of the taste and texture of the candy as well as its shape. This extends to the temperature of the caramel to make it more liquid and even 'burning'. Erizalla is currently rather inexperienced with it.
Caramel Cuisine: A basic usage of her caramel abilities that allows the user to extend their reach and create structures made of caramel. The caramel can be hard or liquid with its consistency controlled by the user.
Caramel Blob: The stickiness of caramel is particularly grating, isn't it? Not only is it sticky, but it can be compacted into bullets and fired, only to explode in a big blank of caramel upon contact! Useful for trapping and immobilising foes. The strength of the stickiness is relative to her current power and can be increased as she grows (can be enhanced with haki when it is acquired).
Caramel Saute: Caramel heats up to boil. Erizalla fires it as a projectile to have it explode in a mess of searing blobs of sugary liquid and brown steam.
There are many ways to use the devil fruit as the limit is usually one's imagination. I'll update as things come up in the RP.
Gunslinger: Very accurate with a set of dual pistols as she used to only fight with those.
Hand-to-hand combat: With fishman genes, Erizalla is more capable in physical combat than anything else. While she may lack some finesse expected from a lady, she compensates with sheer brutality and will.
Helmsman: As a smuggler, she was the one steering the ship most of the time. These years of work have provided her a decent amount of experience in ship sailing.
Relationships:
The 'Contacts': Erizalla's former employers. They want to kill her. She wants to kill them and take their position.
Dreams:
Takeover the largest portions of the underworld and become its top broker, while executing those that green-lighted her. (This is destined to change of course)
Erizalla "Fate Giver" Ismalanda
Age:
21
Bounty:
35.000.000Gender:
Female
Appearance:
The above image is her working apparel as the "Fate Giver". Nowadays, she keeps it a bit more inconspicuous with basic, dark-themed clothing. A T-shirt and a pair of black jeans, leather boots, brown belt with two pistol holsters and a pair of black gloves. She's kept the shackles on her, because why not? 1m76 in height.
Personality:
Erizalla is not a good person. Opportunistic and lacking scruple are what defined this character during her young career in the underworld's markets. She is hypocritical with her unpleasant habit of one-upping others and poking fun at them as she is easily infuriated and susceptible to any sort of remark no matter how lighthearted they may be. Anger is overwhelmingly present in her person, with a need to lash out on what she considers below or weaker than her.
But she is not evil either, with many reservations when it comes to causing a deal of harm that is far bigger than she is willing to accept. Her sense of self-preservation is also through the roof, nullifying a good chunk of her otherwise stubborn and snake-like nature. Erizalla will still pick a fight if bored enough or feels like she needs to be concerned. Not the most pleasant of people, but one that will actually see reason if one bothers to communicate with her without triggering the beast.
Backstory:
Born of a not-so consensual relationship between a captured fishman woman and a henchman of an underworld lord, Erizalla's life was destined to be dysfunctional one way or another. Her mother was quickly discarded as a low-value commodity and was kept by her father to be raised as a useful asset to whatever black market endeavour his group would be involved in. Erizalla's heritage as a part-fishman was non-existent, leading to a total lack of knowledge of their techniques and some of their abilities.
Her father didn't live for too long. While she was a child, he was executed by a rival group, or maybe it was the marines? She didn't know, and didn't care. People came and went in this life. This applied to both the victims they sold as slaves and the individuals involved. All that mattered was "number one" in this practice and she stayed true to it to the bitter end.
As a pre-teen, she would utilize her uncommon genetics to gain the trust of wandering fishmen or even smaller groups to later capture and sell them to the highest bidder. Before long, she grew a taste for the chaos that was the action house of the underworld. The loud noises, the mutinies, the murders, the smoke, the money. And she was the one in the spotlight, guiding it and conferring the fate of the sold individual to whatever she deemed most lucrative or practical. Many slaves would grow to know the sharp toothed monster as the one who decided their future; whether they'd be tortured as playthings in Marijoie or turned pirate in some sleazy gang or even sold off to CP0 if they were young enough. The Fate Giver was the last face they would see before they'd lose everything and start anew without their freedoms.
People were not the only commodities sold, mind you. Devil Fruits had always been a lucrative market, and one fruit had gotten enough attention to warrant her superiors' action. A price of
500.000.000 was put on the Cara-Cara No Mi. Far more than any slave she had ever sold. A high-priority sale that she had to secure, one that couldn't be messed up. And yet, as she had believed there was no such thing as justice in this world, a bizarre intervention occurred. Taken hostage by a masked figure, one powerful enough to defeat all the nearby guards without a sound and subdue her instantly, obligated her to consume the fruit at the risk of immediate execution. Thinking more about her impending doom, she did not think of the consequences of consuming the fruit until the assailant of 'justice' vanished without a trace.She had consumed a fruit worth more than the lives of every person in this auction house. There was no explanation to be made, no packing or anything. Erizalla just ran as far as she could. Her bounty rose as fast as she sprinted to the nearest ship. The higher ups wanted justice for their profits and Erizalla was an easy target without a group to hide within.
For a year now, she's been on the run. Joining small groups only to have her either walk away or meeting their end at the hands of stronger groups.
Abilities:
Devil Fruit: Cara-Cara No Mi
It is the Caramel-Caramel Fruit, a Paramecia-type devil fruit that allows the user to generate many forms of caramel at will. The user can decide of the taste and texture of the candy as well as its shape. This extends to the temperature of the caramel to make it more liquid and even 'burning'. Erizalla is currently rather inexperienced with it.
Caramel Cuisine: A basic usage of her caramel abilities that allows the user to extend their reach and create structures made of caramel. The caramel can be hard or liquid with its consistency controlled by the user.
Caramel Blob: The stickiness of caramel is particularly grating, isn't it? Not only is it sticky, but it can be compacted into bullets and fired, only to explode in a big blank of caramel upon contact! Useful for trapping and immobilising foes. The strength of the stickiness is relative to her current power and can be increased as she grows (can be enhanced with haki when it is acquired).
Caramel Saute: Caramel heats up to boil. Erizalla fires it as a projectile to have it explode in a mess of searing blobs of sugary liquid and brown steam.
There are many ways to use the devil fruit as the limit is usually one's imagination. I'll update as things come up in the RP.
Gunslinger: Very accurate with a set of dual pistols as she used to only fight with those.
Hand-to-hand combat: With fishman genes, Erizalla is more capable in physical combat than anything else. While she may lack some finesse expected from a lady, she compensates with sheer brutality and will.
Helmsman: As a smuggler, she was the one steering the ship most of the time. These years of work have provided her a decent amount of experience in ship sailing.
Relationships:
The 'Contacts': Erizalla's former employers. They want to kill her. She wants to kill them and take their position.
Dreams:
Takeover the largest portions of the underworld and become its top broker, while executing those that green-lighted her. (This is destined to change of course)
GM
@Noodles
So I've had this in my subscribed threads for a while, but I've been a bit nervous about joining. I wanted to ask you a question first before I applied.
How much do I need to know of the source material to do well in this game? I've watched the anime somewhat, but I only got up to the Buggy's Revenge arc before I lost steam, and there is a lot of material in One Piece to get through.
So I've had this in my subscribed threads for a while, but I've been a bit nervous about joining. I wanted to ask you a question first before I applied.
How much do I need to know of the source material to do well in this game? I've watched the anime somewhat, but I only got up to the Buggy's Revenge arc before I lost steam, and there is a lot of material in One Piece to get through.
GM
Jerkchicken
Member
Seen
0-24 hrs ago
I will work on making a post soon.
1x Thank
vancexentan Hawk of Endymion
Member
Seen
2 yrs ago
Alright I think its about time I voluntarily dropped out. I'm honestly not having that much fun with Adam, and I don't see his situation changing that much for awhile, if at all considering how slow we've been moving. I appreciate the chance to try though and wish this rp luck.
Well, I got a WIP sheet up. I didn't bother completing it because I wasn't sure if this character would fit, for a variety of reasons, so I wanted @Noodles to take a look what I have so far. The backstory is 1,909 words, so it's pretty dense, and I wanted to see if he would fit in with the crew or the game concept before I finished the entire thing.
Name: Adrian "Shadow" Hex
Age: 23
Bounty: 50,000,000, WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE for 437 counts of first-degree murder, high treason against the World Government, 54 counts of impersonating a Marine, and associating with a group of like-minded traitors.
Gender: Male
Appearance:
Personality: Adrian, though a man in the pursuit of justice, is an assassin by trade, and it shows. As a former Nightblade, he is not without compassion, but he has been taught from an early age that, for many evildoers across the seas, death is the only just sentence. He will almost always kill a person he has decided is his next target, as few that he seeks out are worthy of a second chance. He is not all doom-and-gloom, however. He can be a fun-loving person outside of the battlefield, but he's slow to truly trust others, knowing that in the world of outlaws, and especially pirates, almost anyone you meet is willing to slit your throat in your sleep for a few dozen berries. It should be noted that he's convinced himself that simple violence won't fix the world, but will only be stopgap solution. Even so, he is willing to kill Marines, and both work with and kill pirates, out of simple necessity.
Backstory: Adrian was born to parents he never knew, the product of a one-night stand between a drunk pirate and a prostitute. He never knew his mother, the woman abandoning him as an infant. He somehow survived to adolescence, eking out out a miserable existence as a street urchin in the moderately-sized island city he was born in. Over time, he witnessed many Marines, whose job it was to guard the city, abuse their power on the regular. Running rackets against the citizens and beating those who couldn't pay, threatening to arrest anyone who dared inconvenience them, turning a blind eye to pirate dealings in exchange for bribe money, and sometimes even committing murder and getting away with it.
There was a Marine commander, one William Draco, in charge of this island, and he was by far the worst of the lot. There were few pies he didn't have a hand in, and very few crimes he had not committed during his career, though perhaps a more appropriate term by this point would be "reign." Commander Draco was a massive man, said to be capable of effortlessly tearing an ordinary person in half. He was an expert in armed combat. His weapon of choice was a massive, two-handed battleaxe modeled off of a Marine boarding ax, that he once used to cut down the support beams of an entire tavern that hadn't paid his protection money, collapsing the whole thing on top of himself and walking out unscathed. He was also an expert swordsman, easily disposing of the few pirates who dared attack him when he didn't have said battleaxe with the cutlass he kept on him at all times.
On the morning of Adrian's 16th birthday, he woke up to find the Marines shaken, their protection rackets no longer in effect, and no more crimes being committed. He asked one of the local street boys he knew what had happened.
"Didn't you hear?" he said. "Draco was killed an hour ago. They one second he was fine, beatin' the shit out of some kid who mouthed off to him, and the next his head just fell off. There was a rush of wind too. They think someone just...moved fast enough to decapitate the guy without anyone seeing him. An' then, five seconds later, there was a note on his carcass: 'Your commander has been executed by the Nightblades. Abuse your power again and you will meet his fate.'"
Adrian ran off, without another word, leaving the boy calling after him. He figured that the assassin couldn't have gone far. And maybe, just maybe, if he could catch the guy, he might be impressed enough to let him join these "Nightblades." It wasn't like his life was going anyplace good anyway, even with Draco short a head.
The only way on or off the island was a ship, and he figured the assassin would be wearing some kind of disguise. This was a decently-sized island, and he doubted the assassin could keep that speed up forever.
Sure enough, he caught what looked like an young Marine boarding a civilian ship at the docks, by himself. The people wouldn't question a Marine, no matter if he was familiar. Just because Draco was dead didn't mean the fear he instilled would go away, at least not immediately.
He tailed him, using the skills he had learned hiding from the Marines to sneak onto the ship. When it left the dock and was sufficiently out to sea, he came out of hiding and announced his presence. He was brought before the captain, arms tied behind his back, and held at swordpoint by the captain, who asked him why he'd stown away. The captain seemed to be smirking. Had she known that he'd been onboard the entire time? She might've thought he was a Marine spy, and as he had noticed the unique armbands the crew were equipped with (likely designating a secret ranking system), he smiled widely. He knew that he had come to the right place, and he needed to make sure she knew he wanted to join and wasn't here to hinder their plans. He announced then and there that he had hidden on their ship so that they'd be impressed enough to allow him to join, having figured out that this was a Nightblade vessel.
In response, the captain sheathed her sword...and decked him across the face hard enough to knock him over, saying, "The Nightblades are an assassin group. WE. KILL. PEOPLE. You shouldn't be so eager to take lives, nor throw your life away, just because we did a good deed for you. You need to carefully consider your course of action. You'll be fighting the cruelest pirates and the most corrupt Marines imaginable, and you'll see the worst humanity has to offer." She then pulled Adrian to his feet and put her face an inch from his, saying, "And you're going to kill them, or you're going to die. This isn't a life you sign up for because you want to rise above your station. You enter because you want to clean up the world, and you're willing to put your life and freedom on the line for that ideal. You're willing to become an enemy of both the World Government and the pirate community in the name of that goal, and devote yourself to the cause. You will murder, you will often fight for your life, and you may very well die in action. Or worse, be made an example of by the World Government. I can tell by looking at you that you're some homeless ragamuffin, and you've probably done all of this because you think that being one of us will give you a better life. Well no, it isn't. It's much, much more dangerous, even if you get fed more often."
She then dropped him to the ground. She said to her underlings, "Put him to work for now, give him a taste of the day-to-day life. I'll ask him how he feels about it in a week."
True to the captain's word, Adrian was put to work as a low-level crew member almost immediately. It was tedious and sometimes back-breaking labor, but he had gotten a feel for it over the course of the week. Of course, he hadn't joined for an easy way out of the homeless life, though that was certainly a contributing factor. No. He just wanted more people like Commander Draco to drop dead already. The world would be better off without them. In a week, he was asked his answer, and it was a resounding yes.
The ship eventually arrived at its destination: Seemingly a large deserted island covered in dense jungle, he was led to a hidden entrance at the base of the island's natural cliffs. Inside, he saw the Nightblade HQ in all its glory. They had hollowed out the entire cliffside, creating a colossal stone fortress, complete with folding-out openings for cannon emplacements and such, hidden in plain sight. A passing Marine ship would have no idea that that the Nightblade headquarters was within swimming distance, as, using a similar technology to that found in the motors of cyborgs, their vessels were hidden behind a sliding rock face at the back of the island's natural bay, kept in a grotto.
And it was in this base that Adrian would learn the ways of the Nightblade. It turned out that the group had been founded by a former CP9 member, a master of the seven techniques of the Rokushiki. Having overcome his brainwashing and become disillusioned with the World Government's warped sense of "Absolute Justice," he deserted the organization and founded his own group of killers, a group that, while no less lethal, would employ the nuance that the World Government sorely lacked.
Adrian became proficient in the six major Rokushiki techniques, never quite managing to master the seventh secret technique, but he became an established Nightblade in his own right over the course of 437 successful assassinations across the following five years. And yet...the jobs never stopped coming. He had killed hundreds of people by this point, ranging from small-time pirate captains (and their crews) all the way up to a Rear Admiral--though he barely escaped that fight with his life. Was he really helping the world, just by eliminating pirates and corrupt Marines? He was putting fear into the hearts of the World Government, for sure, but realized that one group of violent killers cannot change human nature. Murder, on a large scale or a small scale, couldn't change the world. Even killing the World Nobles would just cause a power struggle that would leave even more people dead. The Nightblades were self-defeating: All they would do is kill, solving nothing, until they were killed themselves.
And so, he asked the Council of Nine, the group's leaders, if he could leave the organization. They agreed. They would give him everything he needed to leave the island: A small vessel, enough supplies to reach civilization--as he had no bounty on him at the time, so impeccable was his record--and enough money to start a new life as anything he chose.
So, he packed his things, and left for the nearest civilized island. There, he tried to settle down, start something new with his life. Two years later, he had managed to become a small-time trader, and was traveling along one of the prime East Blue trade routes when his navigator caught sight of a formerly-deserted island to Starboard. The island, known for its natural cliffs, was thought to be uninhabited, but for some reason those beautiful cliffs had been utterly obliterated.
The navigator immediately called for his captain's attention, asking what they should do with this information. Captain Hex told him to move towards the island. And so, despite some shocked cries from the men, they did so dutifully. Adrian had thought that it couldn't be possible, but he knew the coordinates of the island well enough by this point. This was the NIghtblade hideout. And it was in ruins.
The cliffs had been reduced to little more than rubble, and beneath the rubble were bodies. Thousands of bodies. Nearly all of them had decayed into skeletons by this point, but he recognized a precious few. He left the island sullen and miserable, and he told the crew to never tell a soul about what they had just witnessed. They solemnly agreed, but when they arrived at their next stop, one crewmember, on the guise of heading to a tavern, alerted the local Marines to his captain's suspicious reaction, and almost immediately the Marines put two and two together: The man who captained this merchant ship, one Adrian Hex, was in fact the assassin who had been given the moniker "Shadow," a Nightblade who had managed to stay completely under the Marines' radar for over half a decade now. The annihlation of the Nightblade's order had caused the authorities to assume he was killed in the bloodshed. After all, who could have survived a Buster Call which warranted the personal intervention of the Fleet Admiral, two of the three regular Admirals, and five Vice Admirals?
But, due to an early retirement, Adrian had survived, and now he was a wanted man. Thanks to Soru, he could run farther than anyone else outside of CP-9. But eventually, he'd be caught, tried, and executed...right?
Abilities: A list of what your char can do. Does he or she have a devil fruit? How does he fight? Cutlass or Pistol for example.
Relationships: Can be left blank, optional. For crew, what does she do in the crew, and how much she like the captain for example?
Dreams: What does your character aspire to achieve? Can be anything, like personal motivation
Age: 23
Bounty: 50,000,000, WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE for 437 counts of first-degree murder, high treason against the World Government, 54 counts of impersonating a Marine, and associating with a group of like-minded traitors.
Gender: Male
Appearance:
Personality: Adrian, though a man in the pursuit of justice, is an assassin by trade, and it shows. As a former Nightblade, he is not without compassion, but he has been taught from an early age that, for many evildoers across the seas, death is the only just sentence. He will almost always kill a person he has decided is his next target, as few that he seeks out are worthy of a second chance. He is not all doom-and-gloom, however. He can be a fun-loving person outside of the battlefield, but he's slow to truly trust others, knowing that in the world of outlaws, and especially pirates, almost anyone you meet is willing to slit your throat in your sleep for a few dozen berries. It should be noted that he's convinced himself that simple violence won't fix the world, but will only be stopgap solution. Even so, he is willing to kill Marines, and both work with and kill pirates, out of simple necessity.
Backstory: Adrian was born to parents he never knew, the product of a one-night stand between a drunk pirate and a prostitute. He never knew his mother, the woman abandoning him as an infant. He somehow survived to adolescence, eking out out a miserable existence as a street urchin in the moderately-sized island city he was born in. Over time, he witnessed many Marines, whose job it was to guard the city, abuse their power on the regular. Running rackets against the citizens and beating those who couldn't pay, threatening to arrest anyone who dared inconvenience them, turning a blind eye to pirate dealings in exchange for bribe money, and sometimes even committing murder and getting away with it.
There was a Marine commander, one William Draco, in charge of this island, and he was by far the worst of the lot. There were few pies he didn't have a hand in, and very few crimes he had not committed during his career, though perhaps a more appropriate term by this point would be "reign." Commander Draco was a massive man, said to be capable of effortlessly tearing an ordinary person in half. He was an expert in armed combat. His weapon of choice was a massive, two-handed battleaxe modeled off of a Marine boarding ax, that he once used to cut down the support beams of an entire tavern that hadn't paid his protection money, collapsing the whole thing on top of himself and walking out unscathed. He was also an expert swordsman, easily disposing of the few pirates who dared attack him when he didn't have said battleaxe with the cutlass he kept on him at all times.
On the morning of Adrian's 16th birthday, he woke up to find the Marines shaken, their protection rackets no longer in effect, and no more crimes being committed. He asked one of the local street boys he knew what had happened.
"Didn't you hear?" he said. "Draco was killed an hour ago. They one second he was fine, beatin' the shit out of some kid who mouthed off to him, and the next his head just fell off. There was a rush of wind too. They think someone just...moved fast enough to decapitate the guy without anyone seeing him. An' then, five seconds later, there was a note on his carcass: 'Your commander has been executed by the Nightblades. Abuse your power again and you will meet his fate.'"
Adrian ran off, without another word, leaving the boy calling after him. He figured that the assassin couldn't have gone far. And maybe, just maybe, if he could catch the guy, he might be impressed enough to let him join these "Nightblades." It wasn't like his life was going anyplace good anyway, even with Draco short a head.
The only way on or off the island was a ship, and he figured the assassin would be wearing some kind of disguise. This was a decently-sized island, and he doubted the assassin could keep that speed up forever.
Sure enough, he caught what looked like an young Marine boarding a civilian ship at the docks, by himself. The people wouldn't question a Marine, no matter if he was familiar. Just because Draco was dead didn't mean the fear he instilled would go away, at least not immediately.
He tailed him, using the skills he had learned hiding from the Marines to sneak onto the ship. When it left the dock and was sufficiently out to sea, he came out of hiding and announced his presence. He was brought before the captain, arms tied behind his back, and held at swordpoint by the captain, who asked him why he'd stown away. The captain seemed to be smirking. Had she known that he'd been onboard the entire time? She might've thought he was a Marine spy, and as he had noticed the unique armbands the crew were equipped with (likely designating a secret ranking system), he smiled widely. He knew that he had come to the right place, and he needed to make sure she knew he wanted to join and wasn't here to hinder their plans. He announced then and there that he had hidden on their ship so that they'd be impressed enough to allow him to join, having figured out that this was a Nightblade vessel.
In response, the captain sheathed her sword...and decked him across the face hard enough to knock him over, saying, "The Nightblades are an assassin group. WE. KILL. PEOPLE. You shouldn't be so eager to take lives, nor throw your life away, just because we did a good deed for you. You need to carefully consider your course of action. You'll be fighting the cruelest pirates and the most corrupt Marines imaginable, and you'll see the worst humanity has to offer." She then pulled Adrian to his feet and put her face an inch from his, saying, "And you're going to kill them, or you're going to die. This isn't a life you sign up for because you want to rise above your station. You enter because you want to clean up the world, and you're willing to put your life and freedom on the line for that ideal. You're willing to become an enemy of both the World Government and the pirate community in the name of that goal, and devote yourself to the cause. You will murder, you will often fight for your life, and you may very well die in action. Or worse, be made an example of by the World Government. I can tell by looking at you that you're some homeless ragamuffin, and you've probably done all of this because you think that being one of us will give you a better life. Well no, it isn't. It's much, much more dangerous, even if you get fed more often."
She then dropped him to the ground. She said to her underlings, "Put him to work for now, give him a taste of the day-to-day life. I'll ask him how he feels about it in a week."
True to the captain's word, Adrian was put to work as a low-level crew member almost immediately. It was tedious and sometimes back-breaking labor, but he had gotten a feel for it over the course of the week. Of course, he hadn't joined for an easy way out of the homeless life, though that was certainly a contributing factor. No. He just wanted more people like Commander Draco to drop dead already. The world would be better off without them. In a week, he was asked his answer, and it was a resounding yes.
The ship eventually arrived at its destination: Seemingly a large deserted island covered in dense jungle, he was led to a hidden entrance at the base of the island's natural cliffs. Inside, he saw the Nightblade HQ in all its glory. They had hollowed out the entire cliffside, creating a colossal stone fortress, complete with folding-out openings for cannon emplacements and such, hidden in plain sight. A passing Marine ship would have no idea that that the Nightblade headquarters was within swimming distance, as, using a similar technology to that found in the motors of cyborgs, their vessels were hidden behind a sliding rock face at the back of the island's natural bay, kept in a grotto.
And it was in this base that Adrian would learn the ways of the Nightblade. It turned out that the group had been founded by a former CP9 member, a master of the seven techniques of the Rokushiki. Having overcome his brainwashing and become disillusioned with the World Government's warped sense of "Absolute Justice," he deserted the organization and founded his own group of killers, a group that, while no less lethal, would employ the nuance that the World Government sorely lacked.
Adrian became proficient in the six major Rokushiki techniques, never quite managing to master the seventh secret technique, but he became an established Nightblade in his own right over the course of 437 successful assassinations across the following five years. And yet...the jobs never stopped coming. He had killed hundreds of people by this point, ranging from small-time pirate captains (and their crews) all the way up to a Rear Admiral--though he barely escaped that fight with his life. Was he really helping the world, just by eliminating pirates and corrupt Marines? He was putting fear into the hearts of the World Government, for sure, but realized that one group of violent killers cannot change human nature. Murder, on a large scale or a small scale, couldn't change the world. Even killing the World Nobles would just cause a power struggle that would leave even more people dead. The Nightblades were self-defeating: All they would do is kill, solving nothing, until they were killed themselves.
And so, he asked the Council of Nine, the group's leaders, if he could leave the organization. They agreed. They would give him everything he needed to leave the island: A small vessel, enough supplies to reach civilization--as he had no bounty on him at the time, so impeccable was his record--and enough money to start a new life as anything he chose.
So, he packed his things, and left for the nearest civilized island. There, he tried to settle down, start something new with his life. Two years later, he had managed to become a small-time trader, and was traveling along one of the prime East Blue trade routes when his navigator caught sight of a formerly-deserted island to Starboard. The island, known for its natural cliffs, was thought to be uninhabited, but for some reason those beautiful cliffs had been utterly obliterated.
The navigator immediately called for his captain's attention, asking what they should do with this information. Captain Hex told him to move towards the island. And so, despite some shocked cries from the men, they did so dutifully. Adrian had thought that it couldn't be possible, but he knew the coordinates of the island well enough by this point. This was the NIghtblade hideout. And it was in ruins.
The cliffs had been reduced to little more than rubble, and beneath the rubble were bodies. Thousands of bodies. Nearly all of them had decayed into skeletons by this point, but he recognized a precious few. He left the island sullen and miserable, and he told the crew to never tell a soul about what they had just witnessed. They solemnly agreed, but when they arrived at their next stop, one crewmember, on the guise of heading to a tavern, alerted the local Marines to his captain's suspicious reaction, and almost immediately the Marines put two and two together: The man who captained this merchant ship, one Adrian Hex, was in fact the assassin who had been given the moniker "Shadow," a Nightblade who had managed to stay completely under the Marines' radar for over half a decade now. The annihlation of the Nightblade's order had caused the authorities to assume he was killed in the bloodshed. After all, who could have survived a Buster Call which warranted the personal intervention of the Fleet Admiral, two of the three regular Admirals, and five Vice Admirals?
But, due to an early retirement, Adrian had survived, and now he was a wanted man. Thanks to Soru, he could run farther than anyone else outside of CP-9. But eventually, he'd be caught, tried, and executed...right?
Abilities: A list of what your char can do. Does he or she have a devil fruit? How does he fight? Cutlass or Pistol for example.
Relationships: Can be left blank, optional. For crew, what does she do in the crew, and how much she like the captain for example?
Dreams: What does your character aspire to achieve? Can be anything, like personal motivation
GM
@Genon ~ The bounty is too high. As long as Adrian isn't the one who personally kills a Noble of the Heavenly Dragon, and isn't the leader of the Hashashin Nightblades group.
Judging from the feats alone he would be about 50 million, or 88 million at most. Still you can put him as 500 million if you want, but what I can say is that a bounty like this is going to shorten the crew's lifespan, even before heading to the Grand Line.
Judging from the feats alone he would be about 50 million, or 88 million at most. Still you can put him as 500 million if you want, but what I can say is that a bounty like this is going to shorten the crew's lifespan, even before heading to the Grand Line.
1x Thank
@Noodles
Alright, edited. 50 million it is.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm not super into One Piece, and I got a lot of this information from the wiki, so I'm not so familiar with what a proper bounty is. And yes, they were vaguely inspired by the Hashashin. To be specific, I based them at least partly on the bastardized version of them from Assassin's Creed. The Nightblades weren't obsessed with hashish, for example. :P
Oh, and there's some stereotypical ninja-clan influence in there too. Why else do you think I'd give them the Rokushiki?
Alright, edited. 50 million it is.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm not super into One Piece, and I got a lot of this information from the wiki, so I'm not so familiar with what a proper bounty is. And yes, they were vaguely inspired by the Hashashin. To be specific, I based them at least partly on the bastardized version of them from Assassin's Creed. The Nightblades weren't obsessed with hashish, for example. :P
Oh, and there's some stereotypical ninja-clan influence in there too. Why else do you think I'd give them the Rokushiki?
Alright, sheet up. Now I'm going to sleep.
@Noodles
@Noodles
Name: Adrian "Shadow" Hex
Age: 23
Bounty: 50,000,000, WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE for 437 counts of first-degree murder, high treason against the World Government, 25 counts of impersonating a Marine, assassinating a Rear Admiral, 1203 counts of third-degree murder, 826 counts of murdering an on-duty Marine, 429 counts of assaulting a Marine, and knowingly associating with a traitorous organization.
Gender: Male
Appearance:
Personality: Adrian, though a man in the pursuit of justice, is an assassin by trade, and it shows. As a former Nightblade, he is not without compassion, but he has been taught from an early age that, for many evildoers across the seas, death is the only just sentence. He will almost always kill a person he has decided is his next target, as few that he seeks out are worthy of a second chance. He is not all doom-and-gloom, however. He can be a fun-loving person outside of the battlefield, but he's slow to truly trust others, knowing that in the world of outlaws, and especially pirates, almost anyone you meet is willing to slit your throat in your sleep for a few dozen berries. It should be noted that he's convinced himself that simple violence won't fix the world, but will only be stopgap solution. Even so, he is willing to kill Marines, and both work with and kill pirates, out of simple necessity.
Backstory: Adrian was born to parents he never knew, the product of a one-night stand between a drunk pirate and a prostitute. He never knew his mother, the woman abandoning him as an infant. He somehow survived to adolescence, eking out out a miserable existence as a street urchin in the moderately-sized island city he was born in. Over time, he witnessed many Marines, whose job it was to guard the city, abuse their power on the regular. Running rackets against the citizens and beating those who couldn't pay, threatening to arrest anyone who dared inconvenience them, turning a blind eye to pirate dealings in exchange for bribe money, and sometimes even committing murder and getting away with it.
There was a Marine commander, one William Draco, in charge of this island, and he was by far the worst of the lot. There were few pies he didn't have a hand in, and very few crimes he had not committed during his career, though perhaps a more appropriate term by this point would be "reign." Commander Draco was a massive man, said to be capable of effortlessly tearing an ordinary person in half. He was an expert in armed combat. His weapon of choice was a massive, two-handed battleaxe modeled off of a Marine boarding ax, that he once used to cut down the support beams of an entire tavern that hadn't paid his protection money, collapsing the whole thing on top of himself and walking out unscathed. He was also an expert swordsman, easily disposing of the few pirates who dared attack him when he didn't have said battleaxe with the cutlass he kept on him at all times.
On the morning of Adrian's 16th birthday, he woke up to find the Marines shaken, their protection rackets no longer in effect, and no more crimes being committed. He asked one of the local street boys he knew what had happened.
"Didn't you hear?" he said. "Draco was killed an hour ago. They one second he was fine, beatin' the shit out of some kid who mouthed off to him, and the next his head just fell off. There was a rush of wind too. They think someone just...moved fast enough to decapitate the guy without anyone seeing him. An' then, five seconds later, there was a note on his carcass: 'Your commander has been executed by the Nightblades. Abuse your power again and you will meet his fate.'"
Adrian ran off, without another word, leaving the boy calling after him. He figured that the assassin couldn't have gone far. And maybe, just maybe, if he could catch the guy, he might be impressed enough to let him join these "Nightblades." It wasn't like his life was going anyplace good anyway, even with Draco short a head.
The only way on or off the island was a ship, and he figured the assassin would be wearing some kind of disguise. This was a decently-sized island, and he doubted the assassin could keep that speed up forever.
Sure enough, he caught what looked like an young Marine boarding a civilian ship at the docks, by himself. The people wouldn't question a Marine, no matter if he was familiar. Just because Draco was dead didn't mean the fear he instilled would go away, at least not immediately.
He tailed him, using the skills he had learned hiding from the Marines to sneak onto the ship. When it left the dock and was sufficiently out to sea, he came out of hiding and announced his presence. He was brought before the captain, arms tied behind his back, and held at swordpoint by the captain, who asked him why he'd stown away. The captain seemed to be smirking. Had she known that he'd been onboard the entire time? She might've thought he was a Marine spy, and as he had noticed the unique armbands the crew were equipped with (likely designating a secret ranking system), he smiled widely. He knew that he had come to the right place, and he needed to make sure she knew he wanted to join and wasn't here to hinder their plans. He announced then and there that he had hidden on their ship so that they'd be impressed enough to allow him to join, having figured out that this was a Nightblade vessel.
In response, the captain sheathed her sword...and decked him across the face hard enough to knock him over, saying, "The Nightblades are an assassin group. WE. KILL. PEOPLE. You shouldn't be so eager to take lives, nor throw your life away, just because we did a good deed for you. You need to carefully consider your course of action. You'll be fighting the cruelest pirates and the most corrupt Marines imaginable, and you'll see the worst humanity has to offer." She then pulled Adrian to his feet and put her face an inch from his, saying, "And you're going to kill them, or you're going to die. This isn't a life you sign up for because you want to rise above your station. You enter because you want to clean up the world, and you're willing to put your life and freedom on the line for that ideal. You're willing to become an enemy of both the World Government and the pirate community in the name of that goal, and devote yourself to the cause. You will murder, you will often fight for your life, and you may very well die in action. Or worse, be made an example of by the World Government. I can tell by looking at you that you're some homeless ragamuffin, and you've probably done all of this because you think that being one of us will give you a better life. Well no, it isn't. It's much, much more dangerous, even if you get fed more often."
She then dropped him to the ground. She said to her underlings, "Put him to work for now, give him a taste of the day-to-day life. I'll ask him how he feels about it in a week."
True to the captain's word, Adrian was put to work as a low-level crew member almost immediately. It was tedious and sometimes back-breaking labor, but he had gotten a feel for it over the course of the week. Of course, he hadn't joined for an easy way out of the homeless life, though that was certainly a contributing factor. No. He just wanted more people like Commander Draco to drop dead already. The world would be better off without them. In a week, he was asked his answer, and it was a resounding yes.
The ship eventually arrived at its destination: Seemingly a large deserted island covered in dense jungle, he was led to a hidden entrance at the base of the island's natural cliffs. Inside, he saw the Nightblade HQ in all its glory. They had hollowed out the entire cliffside, creating a colossal stone fortress, complete with folding-out openings for cannon emplacements and such, hidden in plain sight. A passing Marine ship would have no idea that that the Nightblade headquarters was within swimming distance, as, using a similar technology to that found in the motors of cyborgs, their vessels were hidden behind a sliding rock face at the back of the island's natural bay, kept in a grotto.
And it was in this base that Adrian would learn the ways of the Nightblade. It turned out that the group had been founded by a former CP9 member, a master of the seven techniques of the Rokushiki. Having overcome his brainwashing and become disillusioned with the World Government's warped sense of "Absolute Justice," he deserted the organization and founded his own group of killers, a group that, while no less lethal, would employ the nuance that the World Government sorely lacked.
Adrian became proficient in the six major Rokushiki techniques, never quite managing to master the seventh secret technique, but he became an established Nightblade in his own right over the course of 437 successful assassinations across the following five years. And yet...the jobs never stopped coming. He had killed hundreds of people by this point, ranging from small-time pirate captains (and their crews) all the way up to a Rear Admiral--though he barely escaped that fight with his life. Was he really helping the world, just by eliminating pirates and corrupt Marines? He was putting fear into the hearts of the World Government, for sure, but realized that one group of violent killers cannot change human nature. Murder, on a large scale or a small scale, couldn't change the world. Even killing the World Nobles would just cause a power struggle that would leave even more people dead. The Nightblades were self-defeating: All they would do is kill, solving nothing, until they were killed themselves.
And so, he asked the Council of Nine, the group's leaders, if he could leave the organization. They agreed. They would give him everything he needed to leave the island: A small vessel, enough supplies to reach civilization--as he had no bounty on him at the time, so impeccable was his record--and enough money to start a new life as anything he chose.
So, he packed his things, and left for the nearest civilized island. There, he tried to settle down, start something new with his life. Two years later, he had managed to become a small-time trader, and was traveling along one of the prime East Blue trade routes when his navigator caught sight of a formerly-deserted island to Starboard. The island, known for its natural cliffs, was thought to be uninhabited, but for some reason those beautiful cliffs had been utterly obliterated.
The navigator immediately called for his captain's attention, asking what they should do with this information. Captain Hex told him to move towards the island. And so, despite some shocked cries from the men, they did so dutifully. Adrian had thought that it couldn't be possible, but he knew the coordinates of the island well enough by this point. This was the NIghtblade hideout. And it was in ruins.
The cliffs had been reduced to little more than rubble, and beneath the rubble were bodies. Thousands of bodies. Nearly all of them had decayed into skeletons by this point, but he recognized a precious few. He left the island sullen and miserable, and he told the crew to never tell a soul about what they had just witnessed. They solemnly agreed, but when they arrived at their next stop, one crewmember, on the guise of heading to a tavern, alerted the local Marines to his captain's suspicious reaction, and almost immediately the Marines put two and two together: The man who captained this merchant ship, one Adrian Hex, was in fact the assassin who had been given the moniker "Shadow," a Nightblade who had managed to stay completely under the Marines' radar for over half a decade now. The annihlation of the Nightblade's order had caused the authorities to assume he was killed in the bloodshed. After all, who could have survived a Buster Call which warranted the personal intervention of the Fleet Admiral, two of the three regular Admirals, and five Vice Admirals?
But, due to an early retirement, Adrian had survived, and now he was a wanted man. Thanks to Soru, he could run farther than anyone else outside of CP-9. But eventually, he'd be caught, tried, and executed...right?
Abilities: Adrian is proficient in the six main techniques of the Rokushiki: Geppo, Tekkai, Shigan, Rankyaku, Soru, and Kami-e. Geppo allows Adrian to jump off the air itself. Tekkai allows him to shrug off blows that would easily kill a normal man, and harden his body to deal extra damage. Shigan is a quick assassination technique where Adrian can force his finger into the opponent's body, usually with lethal results. Rankyaku allows Adrian to strike the air fast enough to create high-pressure waves of wind capable of slicing objects and mutilating a human target. Soru allows him to move faster than the eye can track. Kami-e allows him to bend his body like paper, avoiding damage and becoming even faster. But before he retired, he was working on learning the Rokuogan, a technique that would have allowed him to project a massive shockwave into the opponent at point-blank range, a technique which was capable of severely injuring even Luffy. Unfortunately, this technique is out of his reach for now, though it would have made Adrian's life significantly easier if he had managed to master it before the Nightblade HQ was blown to smithereens. Perhaps he can still master it?
As for his weapons, Adrian prefers to fight with two daggers and is a master of using them effectively. He is also fond of darts: By applying the speed of Soru to his arm, he can multiply the force of a throwing dart a hundred times over, enabling his darts to go through walls like they weren't there, and rip straight through most armor with the force of an anti-tank rifle. He has expert aim with these darts, and they're much quieter than guns, not to mention he can throw them dozens of times faster than it would take to reload a flintlock. There is a very good reason he carries a seemingly-endless supply of darts on him, as he tends to expend dozens to clear out large quantities of minor enemies quickly. Furthermore, he has excellent aim with virtually any throwing weapon, from knives to axes to even spears. He even prefers throwing weapons to his Rankyaku, as they are much more subtle. He can use virtually any melee or ranged weapon he picks up at least somewhat effectively due to his Nightblade training preparing him for all circumstances, but is out of practice with most other than his favorites, the twin daggers he carries on him constantly, albeit concealed underneath his coat. He also carries on him a few Nightblade tricks of the trade, such as caltrops to slow down chasing enemies, smoke bombs to create an opening to escape with Soru or disorient a foe, chloroform wipes to incapacitate an enemy quickly, and homemade firebombs to create chaos when things go hairy. He is also adept at mixing poisons and drugs useful for clandestine work, ranging from neurotoxins to hallucinogens to sedatives. Of course, he's also capable in a mundane fist-fight as well.
As a former captain of a small merchant vessel, he understands the principles of seamaking and of running a ship, and knows a thing or two about business as well. He's able to recognize when he's being ripped off, as well as appriase an object's value, the latter of which would make him invaluable on a pirate crew, should he choose to join one.
Perhaps the most important tool in his arsenal, however, is stealth. As a trained assassin, he is skilled in the art of not being seen, as well as using disguises to hide in plain sight. He is adept at evading the authorities and sneaking into places where he shouldn't be. If you need a man to break into a heavily-fortified installation without causing a ruckus, Adrian is your man. He's not one for honororable combat either, happily gouging out an enemy's eyes if necessary.
All of this together makes Adrian a fast-moving, heavily-armed whirlwind of death and destruction who can always vanish in a puff of smoke when he's at a disadvantage, only to re-engage from an angle you aren't expecting with a dart aimed for your vitals. He may not have a Devil Fruit, but that's no reason not to take a former Nightblade who was learning the Rokuogan very, very seriously.
Relationships:
The Scarlet Pirates: None. He hasn't joined their group. He may work with pirates in general as allies of convenience, but so far, nothing beyond that. Still, being on a pirate crew could provide him protection from the World Government.
The Nightblades: Like any somewhat-old clandestine organization, there will be others who have retired, or were sufficiently out-of-the-way to avoid the Marines' wrath even after an event like this. The Buster Call may have obliterated the HQ and dismantled the Nightblades as an organization, but there are likely still others alive. Who these others are, Adrian has no clue. He retired quite some time before the attack, he knew little of the goings-on at the Nightblades at the time of the Buster Call beyond which of the few friends he could recognize are dead and which are unaccounted for.
Family: What family? Adrian never knew his parents. He gave himself the name "Adrian Hex" because he thought it sounded cool when he was four years old, and it stuck. His whore mother is probably somewhere on his birth island, but his pirate father could be anywhere, and may have even been killed by this point. Pirating is a dangerous profession.
Dreams: To see "Absolute Justice" removed, and true justice instituted.
Age: 23
Bounty: 50,000,000, WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE for 437 counts of first-degree murder, high treason against the World Government, 25 counts of impersonating a Marine, assassinating a Rear Admiral, 1203 counts of third-degree murder, 826 counts of murdering an on-duty Marine, 429 counts of assaulting a Marine, and knowingly associating with a traitorous organization.
Gender: Male
Appearance:
Personality: Adrian, though a man in the pursuit of justice, is an assassin by trade, and it shows. As a former Nightblade, he is not without compassion, but he has been taught from an early age that, for many evildoers across the seas, death is the only just sentence. He will almost always kill a person he has decided is his next target, as few that he seeks out are worthy of a second chance. He is not all doom-and-gloom, however. He can be a fun-loving person outside of the battlefield, but he's slow to truly trust others, knowing that in the world of outlaws, and especially pirates, almost anyone you meet is willing to slit your throat in your sleep for a few dozen berries. It should be noted that he's convinced himself that simple violence won't fix the world, but will only be stopgap solution. Even so, he is willing to kill Marines, and both work with and kill pirates, out of simple necessity.
Backstory: Adrian was born to parents he never knew, the product of a one-night stand between a drunk pirate and a prostitute. He never knew his mother, the woman abandoning him as an infant. He somehow survived to adolescence, eking out out a miserable existence as a street urchin in the moderately-sized island city he was born in. Over time, he witnessed many Marines, whose job it was to guard the city, abuse their power on the regular. Running rackets against the citizens and beating those who couldn't pay, threatening to arrest anyone who dared inconvenience them, turning a blind eye to pirate dealings in exchange for bribe money, and sometimes even committing murder and getting away with it.
There was a Marine commander, one William Draco, in charge of this island, and he was by far the worst of the lot. There were few pies he didn't have a hand in, and very few crimes he had not committed during his career, though perhaps a more appropriate term by this point would be "reign." Commander Draco was a massive man, said to be capable of effortlessly tearing an ordinary person in half. He was an expert in armed combat. His weapon of choice was a massive, two-handed battleaxe modeled off of a Marine boarding ax, that he once used to cut down the support beams of an entire tavern that hadn't paid his protection money, collapsing the whole thing on top of himself and walking out unscathed. He was also an expert swordsman, easily disposing of the few pirates who dared attack him when he didn't have said battleaxe with the cutlass he kept on him at all times.
On the morning of Adrian's 16th birthday, he woke up to find the Marines shaken, their protection rackets no longer in effect, and no more crimes being committed. He asked one of the local street boys he knew what had happened.
"Didn't you hear?" he said. "Draco was killed an hour ago. They one second he was fine, beatin' the shit out of some kid who mouthed off to him, and the next his head just fell off. There was a rush of wind too. They think someone just...moved fast enough to decapitate the guy without anyone seeing him. An' then, five seconds later, there was a note on his carcass: 'Your commander has been executed by the Nightblades. Abuse your power again and you will meet his fate.'"
Adrian ran off, without another word, leaving the boy calling after him. He figured that the assassin couldn't have gone far. And maybe, just maybe, if he could catch the guy, he might be impressed enough to let him join these "Nightblades." It wasn't like his life was going anyplace good anyway, even with Draco short a head.
The only way on or off the island was a ship, and he figured the assassin would be wearing some kind of disguise. This was a decently-sized island, and he doubted the assassin could keep that speed up forever.
Sure enough, he caught what looked like an young Marine boarding a civilian ship at the docks, by himself. The people wouldn't question a Marine, no matter if he was familiar. Just because Draco was dead didn't mean the fear he instilled would go away, at least not immediately.
He tailed him, using the skills he had learned hiding from the Marines to sneak onto the ship. When it left the dock and was sufficiently out to sea, he came out of hiding and announced his presence. He was brought before the captain, arms tied behind his back, and held at swordpoint by the captain, who asked him why he'd stown away. The captain seemed to be smirking. Had she known that he'd been onboard the entire time? She might've thought he was a Marine spy, and as he had noticed the unique armbands the crew were equipped with (likely designating a secret ranking system), he smiled widely. He knew that he had come to the right place, and he needed to make sure she knew he wanted to join and wasn't here to hinder their plans. He announced then and there that he had hidden on their ship so that they'd be impressed enough to allow him to join, having figured out that this was a Nightblade vessel.
In response, the captain sheathed her sword...and decked him across the face hard enough to knock him over, saying, "The Nightblades are an assassin group. WE. KILL. PEOPLE. You shouldn't be so eager to take lives, nor throw your life away, just because we did a good deed for you. You need to carefully consider your course of action. You'll be fighting the cruelest pirates and the most corrupt Marines imaginable, and you'll see the worst humanity has to offer." She then pulled Adrian to his feet and put her face an inch from his, saying, "And you're going to kill them, or you're going to die. This isn't a life you sign up for because you want to rise above your station. You enter because you want to clean up the world, and you're willing to put your life and freedom on the line for that ideal. You're willing to become an enemy of both the World Government and the pirate community in the name of that goal, and devote yourself to the cause. You will murder, you will often fight for your life, and you may very well die in action. Or worse, be made an example of by the World Government. I can tell by looking at you that you're some homeless ragamuffin, and you've probably done all of this because you think that being one of us will give you a better life. Well no, it isn't. It's much, much more dangerous, even if you get fed more often."
She then dropped him to the ground. She said to her underlings, "Put him to work for now, give him a taste of the day-to-day life. I'll ask him how he feels about it in a week."
True to the captain's word, Adrian was put to work as a low-level crew member almost immediately. It was tedious and sometimes back-breaking labor, but he had gotten a feel for it over the course of the week. Of course, he hadn't joined for an easy way out of the homeless life, though that was certainly a contributing factor. No. He just wanted more people like Commander Draco to drop dead already. The world would be better off without them. In a week, he was asked his answer, and it was a resounding yes.
The ship eventually arrived at its destination: Seemingly a large deserted island covered in dense jungle, he was led to a hidden entrance at the base of the island's natural cliffs. Inside, he saw the Nightblade HQ in all its glory. They had hollowed out the entire cliffside, creating a colossal stone fortress, complete with folding-out openings for cannon emplacements and such, hidden in plain sight. A passing Marine ship would have no idea that that the Nightblade headquarters was within swimming distance, as, using a similar technology to that found in the motors of cyborgs, their vessels were hidden behind a sliding rock face at the back of the island's natural bay, kept in a grotto.
And it was in this base that Adrian would learn the ways of the Nightblade. It turned out that the group had been founded by a former CP9 member, a master of the seven techniques of the Rokushiki. Having overcome his brainwashing and become disillusioned with the World Government's warped sense of "Absolute Justice," he deserted the organization and founded his own group of killers, a group that, while no less lethal, would employ the nuance that the World Government sorely lacked.
Adrian became proficient in the six major Rokushiki techniques, never quite managing to master the seventh secret technique, but he became an established Nightblade in his own right over the course of 437 successful assassinations across the following five years. And yet...the jobs never stopped coming. He had killed hundreds of people by this point, ranging from small-time pirate captains (and their crews) all the way up to a Rear Admiral--though he barely escaped that fight with his life. Was he really helping the world, just by eliminating pirates and corrupt Marines? He was putting fear into the hearts of the World Government, for sure, but realized that one group of violent killers cannot change human nature. Murder, on a large scale or a small scale, couldn't change the world. Even killing the World Nobles would just cause a power struggle that would leave even more people dead. The Nightblades were self-defeating: All they would do is kill, solving nothing, until they were killed themselves.
And so, he asked the Council of Nine, the group's leaders, if he could leave the organization. They agreed. They would give him everything he needed to leave the island: A small vessel, enough supplies to reach civilization--as he had no bounty on him at the time, so impeccable was his record--and enough money to start a new life as anything he chose.
So, he packed his things, and left for the nearest civilized island. There, he tried to settle down, start something new with his life. Two years later, he had managed to become a small-time trader, and was traveling along one of the prime East Blue trade routes when his navigator caught sight of a formerly-deserted island to Starboard. The island, known for its natural cliffs, was thought to be uninhabited, but for some reason those beautiful cliffs had been utterly obliterated.
The navigator immediately called for his captain's attention, asking what they should do with this information. Captain Hex told him to move towards the island. And so, despite some shocked cries from the men, they did so dutifully. Adrian had thought that it couldn't be possible, but he knew the coordinates of the island well enough by this point. This was the NIghtblade hideout. And it was in ruins.
The cliffs had been reduced to little more than rubble, and beneath the rubble were bodies. Thousands of bodies. Nearly all of them had decayed into skeletons by this point, but he recognized a precious few. He left the island sullen and miserable, and he told the crew to never tell a soul about what they had just witnessed. They solemnly agreed, but when they arrived at their next stop, one crewmember, on the guise of heading to a tavern, alerted the local Marines to his captain's suspicious reaction, and almost immediately the Marines put two and two together: The man who captained this merchant ship, one Adrian Hex, was in fact the assassin who had been given the moniker "Shadow," a Nightblade who had managed to stay completely under the Marines' radar for over half a decade now. The annihlation of the Nightblade's order had caused the authorities to assume he was killed in the bloodshed. After all, who could have survived a Buster Call which warranted the personal intervention of the Fleet Admiral, two of the three regular Admirals, and five Vice Admirals?
But, due to an early retirement, Adrian had survived, and now he was a wanted man. Thanks to Soru, he could run farther than anyone else outside of CP-9. But eventually, he'd be caught, tried, and executed...right?
Abilities: Adrian is proficient in the six main techniques of the Rokushiki: Geppo, Tekkai, Shigan, Rankyaku, Soru, and Kami-e. Geppo allows Adrian to jump off the air itself. Tekkai allows him to shrug off blows that would easily kill a normal man, and harden his body to deal extra damage. Shigan is a quick assassination technique where Adrian can force his finger into the opponent's body, usually with lethal results. Rankyaku allows Adrian to strike the air fast enough to create high-pressure waves of wind capable of slicing objects and mutilating a human target. Soru allows him to move faster than the eye can track. Kami-e allows him to bend his body like paper, avoiding damage and becoming even faster. But before he retired, he was working on learning the Rokuogan, a technique that would have allowed him to project a massive shockwave into the opponent at point-blank range, a technique which was capable of severely injuring even Luffy. Unfortunately, this technique is out of his reach for now, though it would have made Adrian's life significantly easier if he had managed to master it before the Nightblade HQ was blown to smithereens. Perhaps he can still master it?
As for his weapons, Adrian prefers to fight with two daggers and is a master of using them effectively. He is also fond of darts: By applying the speed of Soru to his arm, he can multiply the force of a throwing dart a hundred times over, enabling his darts to go through walls like they weren't there, and rip straight through most armor with the force of an anti-tank rifle. He has expert aim with these darts, and they're much quieter than guns, not to mention he can throw them dozens of times faster than it would take to reload a flintlock. There is a very good reason he carries a seemingly-endless supply of darts on him, as he tends to expend dozens to clear out large quantities of minor enemies quickly. Furthermore, he has excellent aim with virtually any throwing weapon, from knives to axes to even spears. He even prefers throwing weapons to his Rankyaku, as they are much more subtle. He can use virtually any melee or ranged weapon he picks up at least somewhat effectively due to his Nightblade training preparing him for all circumstances, but is out of practice with most other than his favorites, the twin daggers he carries on him constantly, albeit concealed underneath his coat. He also carries on him a few Nightblade tricks of the trade, such as caltrops to slow down chasing enemies, smoke bombs to create an opening to escape with Soru or disorient a foe, chloroform wipes to incapacitate an enemy quickly, and homemade firebombs to create chaos when things go hairy. He is also adept at mixing poisons and drugs useful for clandestine work, ranging from neurotoxins to hallucinogens to sedatives. Of course, he's also capable in a mundane fist-fight as well.
As a former captain of a small merchant vessel, he understands the principles of seamaking and of running a ship, and knows a thing or two about business as well. He's able to recognize when he's being ripped off, as well as appriase an object's value, the latter of which would make him invaluable on a pirate crew, should he choose to join one.
Perhaps the most important tool in his arsenal, however, is stealth. As a trained assassin, he is skilled in the art of not being seen, as well as using disguises to hide in plain sight. He is adept at evading the authorities and sneaking into places where he shouldn't be. If you need a man to break into a heavily-fortified installation without causing a ruckus, Adrian is your man. He's not one for honororable combat either, happily gouging out an enemy's eyes if necessary.
All of this together makes Adrian a fast-moving, heavily-armed whirlwind of death and destruction who can always vanish in a puff of smoke when he's at a disadvantage, only to re-engage from an angle you aren't expecting with a dart aimed for your vitals. He may not have a Devil Fruit, but that's no reason not to take a former Nightblade who was learning the Rokuogan very, very seriously.
Relationships:
The Scarlet Pirates: None. He hasn't joined their group. He may work with pirates in general as allies of convenience, but so far, nothing beyond that. Still, being on a pirate crew could provide him protection from the World Government.
The Nightblades: Like any somewhat-old clandestine organization, there will be others who have retired, or were sufficiently out-of-the-way to avoid the Marines' wrath even after an event like this. The Buster Call may have obliterated the HQ and dismantled the Nightblades as an organization, but there are likely still others alive. Who these others are, Adrian has no clue. He retired quite some time before the attack, he knew little of the goings-on at the Nightblades at the time of the Buster Call beyond which of the few friends he could recognize are dead and which are unaccounted for.
Family: What family? Adrian never knew his parents. He gave himself the name "Adrian Hex" because he thought it sounded cool when he was four years old, and it stuck. His whore mother is probably somewhere on his birth island, but his pirate father could be anywhere, and may have even been killed by this point. Pirating is a dangerous profession.
Dreams: To see "Absolute Justice" removed, and true justice instituted.
GM
@Genon ~ Looks neat, but on the part of the Rokuougan, I'd prefer if using it carelessly would strain or even cripple his own arm.
And also on the Nightblades group, he will be the sole survivor by the start of the story ~
And also on the Nightblades group, he will be the sole survivor by the start of the story ~
@Noodles
Actually, I think I fucked up that part of his sheet. I mostly worked on it in the wee hours of the morning (like I'm typing up this post now), which explains why I caught this afternoon that his new bounty description was left incomplete. I had to fix it on my phone.
I actually intended for him not to be able to use the Rokuogan at all. He was still learning the basics of the technique. Of course, I'm happy to be able to use it. After all, this is One Piece, and escalation is quite rampant with this franchise.
If he's the sole survivor, that can work. Less loose ends to tie up.
I'm wondering about more of the nitty-gritty of the game though. If I'm joining, where do I put myself? Where's the crew right now, and how am I going to join? Are you going to write up an intro post for me, setting the scene? And can I have a recap of what's happened so far?
Actually, I think I fucked up that part of his sheet. I mostly worked on it in the wee hours of the morning (like I'm typing up this post now), which explains why I caught this afternoon that his new bounty description was left incomplete. I had to fix it on my phone.
I actually intended for him not to be able to use the Rokuogan at all. He was still learning the basics of the technique. Of course, I'm happy to be able to use it. After all, this is One Piece, and escalation is quite rampant with this franchise.
If he's the sole survivor, that can work. Less loose ends to tie up.
I'm wondering about more of the nitty-gritty of the game though. If I'm joining, where do I put myself? Where's the crew right now, and how am I going to join? Are you going to write up an intro post for me, setting the scene? And can I have a recap of what's happened so far?
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