Post by Nana Zinovia on Aug 29, 2017 16:07:24 GMT -5
ZINOVIA, NANA
[ AT A GLANCE ]
Age / Apparent Age: 200/20
Gender: Female
Height & Weight: 5'4" & 103 lbs
Hair & Eye Color: Blonde and Pale Purple
Positive Traits:
- Calm
- Considerate
- Curious
- Hardworking
- Observant
Negative Traits:
- Idealistic
- Blunt
- Self-Critical
- Impatient
- Self-Indulgent
Loyalties: Her Captain, The Gotei
Snapshots:
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As a Human:
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- Nana is born as Alyona Zinovia (1817)
- The Decembrist revolt takes place, costing Nana her uncle and father (1825)
- Nana's mother remarries (1827)
- Nana's family emigrates to Poland (1830)
- Nana's mother is killed by a hollow (1839)
- Nana's stepfather slowly reveals to her the spiritual world, including teaching her about the art of fullbring (1839-1840)
- Nana gets married,becoming Alyona Jacek (1842)
- Nana and her husband are both murdered (1843)
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As a Spirit:
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- Nana's despair at her own death quickly brings on encroachment, turning her into a hollow in mere days, while her husband remains bound to their home as a demi-hollow. (1843)
- Nana begins feeding on humans during the first Greater Poland Uprising, quickly becoming as intelligent as she had been in life (1848)
- Nana fills herself on the souls of spiritualists within Poland, quickly losing her taste for human souls afterwards. (1848-1852)
- Nana is purified by a shinigami, her soul sent to the soul society (1852)
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As a Soul within the Seireitei/As a shinigami:
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As a Soul within the Seireitei/As a shinigami:
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- Nana is reborn in the second district of North Rukongai, with only the knowledge of what her last name was, and the ability to speak the languages she spoke in life (1852)
- Nana is adopted into the family of a less wealthy merchant and is taught Japanese in order to better be able to function in the Rukongai, gives herself the name of Nana to have a full name (1853)
- Nana brings her new family up further into wealth, and as such is exposed to several types of mind altering substances (1953)
- At the turn of the Millenium, Nana is saved from a hollow attack by a member of the shinigami (2000)
- After a year of debating, Nana decides to join the spiritual arts academy (2001)
- After four separate attempts, Nana is able to be accepted into the spiritual arts academy (2005)
- Nana graduates from the academy, joins the second division (2010)
- Nana barely survives the Great Seireitei Massacre, planting the seed for her own self-criticsm and idealism (2013)
- Shortly after the Great Seireitei Massacre, Nana learns the name of her Zanpakuto, ostensibly under the guise of the spirit 'not wanting her to get herself killed out there' (2013)
- Nana does battle with base hollows during the King's Key Eclipse, as she was not powerful enough to effectively fight stronger foes (2013)
[ ON THE SURFACE ]
Physical Description: Standing at five feet and four inches tall, Nana doesn't exactly cut an imposing figure, especially given her lithe figure and fairly pale skin. She has fairly long hair normally, which goes down to just below her neck when she doesn't have it styled in a fairly old fashioned style of topknot, leaving her with flared bangs that curve around her face, making the scar that goes horizontally across half of her forehead and vertically down from the top of her eye to the middle of her cheek much more apparent. For attire, she tends to wear the typical attire of her division when on assignment. However, when she is not, she tends to wear the typical attire of the shinigami, with one additon: She adds an old Japanese style kimono on top of her outfit, typically adorned with a pattern of flowers across the right shoulder and sleeve, which extends all the way down to the waist of that side on both the front and back. She typically leaves this Kimono open. Most would expect this to be her way of 'standing out' from other members of her division. In that case, they would only be half right. It is in fact to stick out, but for a way to be more recognizable when she needs to be found. Regardless of what style of uniform she's wearing, she always has her Zanpakuto's smaller blade tied to her back horizontally--something she can only do due to its compact size--while the bigger blade actually hangs from her hip like a normal sword would be. As for her vocal patterns, Nana seems to hold a minor amount of her Russian accent when she speaks, while her voice is very level and normally very quiet. Of course, she is very much capable of yelling, and when she does, her voice echoes out in a very booming manner, taking on a much thicker version of her accent while also carrying a seemingly commanding tone.
Spiritual Description: When Nana releases her Reiatsu, it surrounds her in a shroud of pure silver, which at first inspection, seems to be rather controlled even to the point of invoking a feeling of calmness. But a deeper look into the signature of her reiatsu itself brings forth a rather strange feeling. Well, two particular feelings that tie in under a single word: Stress. A view into her reiatsu provokes a feeling of tension in any that are capable of diving below the calm surface of Nana's Reiatsu, both physically and mentally. As one dives deeper and deeper into her signature, it starts to become a mixed bag of feelings, some of which counterbalance the initial feeling of her Reiatsu signature.
[ BEHIND THE EYES ]
Personality: As a person, Nana has grown in and out of several groups of traits over the two hundred years that she has been alive. Of course, two hundred years of growth does a lot for a person. For Nana, this has resulted in her taking a seemingly more relaxed approach to life. At a glance, she appears to act as a calm and considerate, but hardworking member of the Gotei. And for the most part, this can be considered true, as she is a very calm person, and pours her heart and soul into her work, but not at the cost of the state that others are in. This veneer of calmness does have its limits however, as she is nowhere near being a completely patient woman. Still, she balances out her lack of patience with her skill at observation to help her determine what is necessary and what isn't.
Unfortunately, this can often be undermined by her own curiosity, driving her to follow something that would catch her interest on occasion. But, no matter how calmly and considerately she acts, her vocabulary seems to directly contradict this, as she is very forward with what she has to say, leaving no floweriness to what needs to be said. With all of this, one would think that Nana is perfectly fine with herself. And yet, they would be wrong. While she hides it well, she is highly idealistic, always striving to be this impossibly perfect version of herself. With this comes the fact that she is indeed her own worst critic. But yet, at the same time, she is not above indulging herself in some kind of pleasurable activity, usually involving some manner of smoking, as she is always seen carrying an antique looking opium pipe through which she inhales various substances when she feels the need to indulge herself in something. Of course, this moderate amount of hedonism does extend to other things, but yet..there is a strange lack of the nearly mandatory sexual proclivity that most all people that display hedonism lean towards. One can only wonder why that is, as she refuses to speak openly about her indulgences.
Goals & Achievements:
- "Become as perfect a person as I can be, both mentally and as a shinigami."
- "Gain as much standing as possible within the Second Division"
- Brought her 'family' to a higher social standing than they had been before
- Has attained her Shikai
[ GUARDIAN ANGEL ]
Zanpakutō Spirit: Appearance wise, Nana's Zanpakuto spirit is an..interesting one, to be sure. Standing at only four feet and five inches tall, Tochi to Sukai takes on the form of a very short old woman, one who is constantly seen with some kind of pipe, her hair done up in a topknot. For her attire, she is always seen wearing a grey overshirt and a soot stained apron, while a pair of small glasses cover her eyes. As for her attitude, she is far more relaxed than her wielder is, being unafraid to sit back and take things easy, and unashamed of treating herself to one thing or another. There are shared traits between this spirit and her weilder, one of which is her inherent calmness. She is essentially a representation of all the things that Nana does not allow in her life without some sort of self-punishment. As such, she is very much meant to be the opposite of Nana, to show her that the things she doesn't allow herself can be helpful.
Inner World: Nana's inner world is actually a very simple one. Taking the most basic appearance of an endless plain with a similarly endless, cloudless sky, this inner world is an inherently calming one that always carries the sweet scent of wildflowers. Of course, this makes it a perfect place for a being such as Tochi to Sukai to live, as she very much revels in the relaxing act of taking care of the many flowers that are spread throughout the area. She is also capable of generating anything that she should desire out of her own sheer force of will, enabling the whole inner world to become as simplistic or as complex as desired.
Power: As a paired Zanpakuto that releases into a single weapon, Tochi to Sukai has a rather unique ability. Upon releasing into its Shikai state, Touchi to Sukai becomes capable of manipulating both air and earth, as its released state is separated into three distinct parts. The blade of the Shikai is capable of manipulating Air, while the blunt weight at the end of the Shikai is responsible for all manipulations of earth, while the chain acts as a extension of range for both parts, enabling Nana to strike at nearly any range safely.
Zanpakutō: Due to the nature of Tochi to Sukai's power, the weapon--upon actually bonding to Nana--became a paired weapon, with Nana's own power actually generating a Tanto to pair with the Wakizashi Asauchi that she took. The Tanto itself is of average size, and is of the variety of Tanto that uses a fully wooden handle and sheathe. Both of these pieces of the blade are of a dull red color. The handle of the Tanto itself has several imperceptible grooves around it that allow it to be held firmly in Nana's hand, reducing the risk of Nana dropping her sword. As for the paired sword, the Wakizashi that she carries is much more uniformly normal than her Tanto is, due to being the actual Asauchi. However, even this more 'normal' weapon has taken on a few changes upon becoming an actual zanpakuto. Where once the blade was a normal color, it has since taken on a blackness that very few other swords have, while the wrappings on the handle and sheathe turned from white to purple. Aside from these two changes, the weapon is very much shaped like a common Wakizashi, having a rounded guard and a very uniform appearance. When released however, the weapon takes on the form of a Kusarigama: A sickle with a chain that connects to a weight. Unlike typical Kusarigama, Tochi to Sukai has a very wicked curve on the sickle, and has an unusually smooth weight that is spiked in several places, making it appear more to be the head of a flail than anything. The Sickle is blue and white in coloration along the ornately decorated handle, which seems to be engraved with metals of those colors, while the blade itself is a very deep black, like that of a storm cloud. The chain is also a very dull color, as is the weight, as the steel ball is black in color, with the spikes coming out of it being a dull brown.
[ LEGACY CREATED ]
Origin: Born in 1817 in Russia, Nana was originally named Alyona Zinovia, and was born to a middle classed family, with her father being an officer in the army, while her mother was a seamstress. Of course, Nana very rarely saw her father as a child, as he was often out on assignment. Though he did visit home on occasions that he was able to, the two of them still were fairly distant in terms of their relationship. At first glance, one would very obviously assume that it would be due to simply not being around him for such a long time. And while that is partially true, the reasoning for why her father was gone so often was not so simple as simply being assigned to other places. In truth, he and his brother had both become involved with the members of the Decembrist Movement, having done as much as they could to assist with the organization of the event itself. For a time, things were peaceful for the Zinovia family. Nana's mother made enough money to keep them stable along with the small amounts of money that her father would occasionally send. Unfortunately, that was all destined to change with the coronation of the new monarch. On the twenty-sixth of December, Nana and her mother were given an obligatory notice that their father had died, making Nana fatherless, and making her mother a widow.
For two years after that, Nana and her mother struggled to make a living, doing their best to deal with the various problems and issues that occurred in their life. Thankfully, their struggles wouldn't last much longer, as her mother remarried to a man who held a very steady job. Of course, Nana refused to take on her stepfather's last name, as she was only eight at the time, and didn't fully understand the situation. For a time, the newly remade family remained in Russia, but for reasons that were never really documented or even told to Nina as a child, they were forced to emigrate to Poland. As one would imagine, the transition was difficult for a girl who was merely ten years old at the time, her mind still reeling as she struggled to understand all of the things that were happening. The next nine years were admittedly rough for Nana, as she was forced to learn an entirely new language in order to merely be able to socialize and make friends, something that she did not do well with.
Unfortunately for her, this would not let up, as her mother was next to die, her corpse left without a head, and her stepfather having suffered from several wounds, seemingly from trying to fend off the murderer. While her mother's death was attributed to a simple murderer trying to make his name known, Nana's father knew far better than that. Over the course of several years, Nana's stepfather introduced her to the world of the spiritual, helping her to manifest her own spiritual abilities--which were admittedly very minor in comparison to his own--to attempt to keep her from falling victim to the same type of creature that killed her mother. This whole process took a single year, as she had reached the peak of her abilities by July of the following year. While Nana did now possess some level of power, she never really was given an opportunity to use it, as she quickly caught the interest of a man named Bazyli Jacek. After two years of courting her, Nana agreed to marry him. Sadly, their marriage would only last a single year, as they were both murdered in their sleep by a petty thief who was driven to murder out of sheer paranoia.
However, the two dealt with their deaths in very different ways. Due to her experience with the spiritual, Nana knew exactly what had happened, and was filled with despair. However, her husband had reacted wildly differently, seeming to outright deny the fact that they were dead, even though he had a chain hanging from his chest that physically bound him to their home. She tried to convince him for a few days, in between the massively painful pulses of time in which her chain of fate was devouring itself. Unfortunately, her despair merely sped up the process of encroachment, and by the beginning of the next week, Nana had become a hollow, one with the capability of flight. Unfortunately, she was presented with very little in terms of actual food, as her husband had become a hollow mere days after she had, and between the two of them, the neighborhood that they had lived in became devoid of souls, as one of them would always devour fresh souls when they popped up.
Fortunately for them, the city that they had lived in would soon be filled to the brim with souls just ready to be devoured due to the first Greater Poland Uprising, allowing her to indulge heavily on the mass amount of souls that were caught up in the fighting, giving her a greater thrill than just picking off the souls of those who had already died. By the end of the Uprising, Nana had become as intelligent as she had been during life, making her that much more dangerous of a combatant. By this point though, her feeding habits had become much more selective, forcing her to feed on the minor amount of spiritualists in Poland over the course of several years. During this time, she was actually purified by a fairly skilled Shinigami, and was brought to the Soul Society.
Unfortunately, things weren't very easy for her. When she was reborn, she was born into the Second District of North Rukongai. While that might sound like it would lead to a very pleasant life, she struggled heavily, as she could only fluently speak Russian and Polish, forcing her to only be able to interact with souls that had a similar skill. On top of this, she had very little memory of her previous life, going as far as to have actually forgotten her married name, and even her first name. For about a year, she only went by her last name: Zinovia. Thankfully, she was not stuck in this situation for very long, as a member of a minor merchant family within the second district adopted her into his family, teaching her Japanese so that she could actually function more easily in the Rukongai. Once she became fluent in this language, she actually picked out a new first name for herself, choosing the name of Nana because she enjoyed the way it sounded.
Over the next century, Nana helped to ascend her newfound family's status with her own intelligence and her observant nature, allowing them to make more sound investments, and find people who were more and more willing to spend money with them rather than with competition. Once that was achieved, they all were able to indulge in much more of the 'finer' things in the afterlife. For Nana, this involved the consumption of several mind altering substances, the most prominent of which was Opium. However, over the course of forty seven years, she tried very many substances. However, at the turn of the Millennium, the second division had several hollows appear within it, one of which ended up attacking Nana, who had been on a walk to clear her mind. The creature barely got off a scratch on Nana before it was slain by a patrolling Shinigami, but in its death throes it managed to get off another slice, giving Nana her first truly defining marks. These cuts were very superficial at first, but due to the strength of the hollow compared to her, the wounds actually became scars, one of which ran horizontally across half of her forehead, while the other ran vertically over her eye. Luckily for Nana, she did not lose her eyesight, as the creature's slice actually narrowly missed her eye.
Of course, that encounter actually brought forth a question to Nana's mind. She knew of the hollows, and the danger they possessed. She also knew of the emptiness she felt in what she was doing. Was she really happy just being a simple merchant, or did she want to actually contribute to the protection of others? It was a question that took her a full year to ponder. Of course, her conclusion had been the latter. She had no idea of what all the application entailed, but she went to the Spiritual Arts academy regardless. Of course, due to her inability to actually manipulate her own spiritual energy, she was denied. She tried three more times, each time displaying a higher level of experience and control than she had previously. Most of this progression had been from bargains that she had made with lazier shinigami who would spar with her to attempt to awaken her powers. Over time, they just started to come to her naturally, and on the fifth attempt, Nana was accepted into the Spiritual Arts Academy. After five solid years of training, Nana graduated from the academy with relatively high marks in almost every aspect of combat, and also was noted down for a very peculiar occurrence with the development of her Zanpakuto: the formation of a paired weapon. With all of these notes in mind, she actually applied for the second division, and was accepted as an unseated member.
Rise to Power/Call to Action: For three years, she was sent out on various scouting missions, a few reconnaissance missions, and a single elimination mission, which was mostly driven to success by the people she had been partnered with. However, she soon would bear witness to a terrifying sight: The Great Seireitei Massacre. A single, impossibly powerful being, marching its way towards the fourth division after blasting a wall in the sekkiseki stone wall surrounding the Seireitei. She was unable to bring herself to do anything other than stand and watch in fear. In that moment she heard a whisper in the back of her mind, but was unable to actually make out what it was saying. The following day, after the massacre ended, Nana resolved to reach as high of a peak as that single being had. This was the spark for her idealism. Unfortunately, every time she fell short, she started to overly criticize herself. Over time, the whisper that she heard in the back of her head began to become more and more clear. Eventually, she made contact with the spirit of her Zanpakuto. It's first words were simple: "Jeez. If you're gonna be this hard on yourself, I might as well give you my name so that you don't go out there and get yourself killed." From there, things actually started to pick up. She began to get better at the use of Hado, and was learning the best way to use her newly discovered Shikai, which took on the form of a Kusarigama, and allowed manipulation of the heavens and the earth.
Fortunately for Nana, she wouldn't need to wait long to get an actually practical test of her abilities. Soon after she became competent with the use of her Shikai, an event known as the King's Key Eclipse began, allowing hollows and humans alike to wander into the Soul Society. As part of the duties of her Division, she took it upon herself to patrol and dispatch hollows at very important points throughout the Seireitei, giving her even more practice and skill with the use of her Zanpakuto's released state. This is in fact the very event that began to spur her on further, allowing her to believe that maybe it would indeed be possible for her to achieve her goals. As such, she has been faithfully serving as a member of the Second Division, and is doing her best to better herself, hoping to one day reach the same level of power that they were all so helpless against during the Massacre.
