xxxxx the - b a s i c s .
name // duro sleale
nickname // the stag, du-chan (he hates this), buck (derogatory)
gender // male
age // appears twenty-five; actual age unknown
hair color // dusty blonde
eye color // hazel
xxxxx the - d e t a i l s .
height // 6"
weight // 150lbs
blood type // a-positive
reiatsu color // goldenrod ( ████ )
mask fragment // stag-esque, thin antlers on either side of his head
appearance // duro stands at exactly six feet tall, and is a very lean young man, vaguely toned with muscle but otherwise clearly showing his lack of an active lifestyle. his hair is always styled to cover the left side of his forehead, where his ‘five’ sits just above his eyebrow, and is worn long in the front but trimmed well in the back, all eternally combed into perfect placement courtesy of a keen eye for keeping himself presentable. his fingers are long and spidery, rough to the touch from toil he doesn’t recall. his eyes are hazel, and there is nothing remarkable about them beyond their dullness--they do not express his emotions as much as his mouth does, which often contorts and twitches to match how he honestly feels even when he can’t control it. the only time his eyes light up is when he is inspired--and usually, “inspiration” means “an opening to pull a coup d’etat and vive la republique this s**t”. they can also light up in anger, but that’s besides the point. clearly, hiding his emotions isn’t exactly a strong suit of his. his teeth are straight and white like a military cemetary, often hidden behind thin lips that seem to be in an eternally disapproving, dull frown. his skin is tanned by sunshine but very clearly caucasian, and his flesh is riddled with scars from many a peace-seeking altercation. as for his attire, it’s… unconvential, to say the least. he wears a white, button-up shirt with a high collar, beneath a tailored white waistcoat with a rounded collar and wide black lapels. his pants are the traditional white hakama, but beneath that he wears white boots with black laces and soles. his hands are usually clad in one white glove and one black glove.
affiliation // arrancar
number // five
rank // quinta espada (applying)
xxxxx the - i n f l u e n c e s
aspect of death // martyrdom
family // zuffa sleale (sister; numeros)
personality // duro is a very quiet man. he rarely speaks unless spoken to, and even then, he only says as much as he needs to--which usually isn’t much at all. it’s rare to hear him speak more than a few sentences without prompting. if he weren't so quiet, it'd be evident that he has a bit of multiple personality disorder--due to the jumble of emotions, lives, and personalities in his head, he often bounces between people's psyche and emotions, going from his usual self (described below) quite suddenly to a manner akin to a frightened young woman or a deeply depressed general accepting defeat. that is to say, he takes on the moods each of these souls had just before they died. however, since he's quiet and thus is never distracted enough to keep his thoughts from scattering, he's usually just.. well, normal.
however, do not mistake his quiet for docility. he is not a submissive or manageable man; his pride and stubbornness is all-encompassing, the first and foremost of his distinguishing personality traits. he is the kind of person who doesn’t take orders very well. the very idea of being bossed around makes his skin crawl, to the point where he walks the fine line between blatant disobedience and just enough compliance to keep from being punished. duro rarely, if ever, does as he’s told if it’s a command by a superior. suggestions from comrades are taken in stride, but if someone who claims themselves to be his better orders him to do something, chances are he won’t even try to accomplish the task until the very last minute, and only then in a shoddy, half-assed fashion that suggests he didn’t even desire to please his commander anyways. he does the bare minimum, and that’s all. courtesy of his immense pride, he believes that he should have to bow to no one. rather, he believes in equality for all--rather like communism, actually. he barely even likes the idea of espada and fraccion and ranking based on something as silly as strength. perhaps it’s because of his strong sense of fraternity, but he believes he and all his brethren are equals in heart, and thus should not necessarily be treated as superiors or inferiors. however, that has not stopped him from taking on fraccion--he bears no qualms with it when he practices it. after all, why not use the system while it’s still there? and it’s not like he can change it. he’s not so stupid as to challenge a system put in place by the lord (as much as he hates to admit it, he doesn’t stand a chance against the man they call their ruler, and so he keeps his traitorous, imaginary coup d’etat to his dreams).
despite what his name suggests, duro is not a very “hard” man--that is to say, he’s actually rather kind. although not shown outwardly (rather replaced with a dull expression or a scowl), he is a big-hearted man with a soft spot for hollow brethren. he tries to treat those who have not wronged him with kindness and brotherhood, and loves them all as family (to the point where he has been seen to shed tears over the death of regular, run-of-the-mill hollows). his strong sense of brotherhood also leads to him being immensely contemptuous of people who harm those of their same kind (at least, those who are smart enough to know when they are harming each other--hollows on a regular level, he does not seem to care too much about when it comes to hollow-on-hollow violence). be it two espadas fighting or two lesser arrancars, he is quick to break up battles and give incredibly boring, stern talking-tos about the importance of staying together. after all, a broken unit will be of no use if they all need to stand together. essentially, duro tries to be the putty that holds everyone together and keep them all from going at each other’s throats (although it usually isn’t needed).
honestly, his strong sense of brotherhood is all that keeps him tied to the espada. his hatred of violence goes so far as to stop hollows from eating otherwise helpless spirits and arrancar from attacking unprepared shinigami. he usually keeps this to himself, however, as he knows it would not go over well to be known as someone who helped soul reapers or lowly spirits. on a lesser note, duro is also lazy, nonviolent, and sullen, and only loses his temper when he’s confronted by someone who has tormented their brethren or murdered one of their own, or when he is forced to obey. when he loses his temper, he actually genuinely gets violent, slamming people against walls or throwing punches or outright screaming when he barely ever raises his voice. also, forced subordination will make him lose his temper, but more in a grit-your-teeth-and-plot-their-death kind of way.
likes // freedom, his hollow brethren, gore, men, quiet, old clothing, peace
dislikes // caelum, his sister, taking orders, women, pain, watching people suffer, being overpowered
biography // duro’s memory is a bizarre, scatter-brained thing. a collective of souls forced from many an eaten hollow, he is a smattering of memories painting a human life he doesn’t quite recall, going as far back as the french revolution--from whence he gets his immense love of the idea of liberty, independence, and brotherhood. the personality that dominates his existence is likely from this french source, perhaps the original soul from which he formed; either way, the puzzle pieces of a past that he has before becoming a hollow certainly are what spawned his personality, as outside influences have little to do with spawning his feelings towards certain subjects. as far as he remembers, what pissed him off always has, what saddened him always has, and so on and so forth. his memories are a blur as a hollow--he knows fully well of having to eat hollows, then eat more hollows, then keep eating hollows to become what he is today, but he doesn’t remember it. perhaps that’s why it doesn’t haunt him. but there are fleeting moments when he remembers--flashes of pasts he doesn’t remember living, the feeling of tearing brotherly flesh with his teeth, how painful it was to bend over a guillotine’s block and the crack of a spine on pavement from a steep fall. it scares him to death, but he tries to ignore it. god, he tries. but the flashes are always there, and they keep him quiet, reserved in his own thoughts lest he speak and get caught in a flash that betrays his fragile sanity.
his sister, zuffa, has the same problem; they believe themselves to have been related in a past life, perhaps, and thus call each other brother and sister, to the point where they mixed each others last names to become one (his being ‘slevongrade’ and hers being ‘alesandro’). he doesn’t really remember meeting zuffa, either. they sort’ve ran into each other one day and stuck together like glue, accepting it even though zuffa drove him absolutely insane with her quirks and her hobby of bothering him to death. he is incredibly protective of her, however, and although she is a numeros, he treats her like an equal--but then again, he treats everyone like an equal if they haven’t proven themselves to be of such a character that they should be lesser. duro’s unpredictable, scattered past has led to him having a rather poor memory, but he cares little for it. you could not ask him what he had done the previous day, for it would be likely he’d forgotten--he tries not to hold on to anything lest it jumble up in his head again. he remembers the important things, though. at least, he thinks he does.
but that’s besides the point. he rose to the rank of espada purely due to pride, when he was a younger and more brash young man who let his temper get the better of him and let the jumble of memories and emotions guide him. he rapidly ascended to power, fighting and training and fighting and training some more, until finally he’d reached the esteemed position he desired--espada. but once he was there, he realized it wasn’t all that important. it was just servitude. and being in close proximity to a man who thought himself king stirred his revolutionary bones, the french revolution and a whole slew of memories of lost brethren and dreams of united peoples surging up his throat and into his head. the hotheaded espada became no more, replaced with a quiet and stubborn man who struggled hard to keep the peace rather than kiss the boots of his lord. he skates by just enough to keep from being demoted or punished, and likes it that way. being considered unreliable but good enough to keep around is better than being the dog of a mongrel who claims to be god.
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zanpakuto name // sentimiento
sealed description // his blade appears as a typical katana, which is twenty-eight inches long and two inches across, which a thickness of precisely three-tenths of an inch. the blade is usually worn so it hangs across his chest, and the sheathe rests hilt-out under his left arm just above the elbow. when the blade is out, he moves the sheath so it lays against his back rather than under his arm.
resurreccion status // achieved
release command // take the fall, sentimiento.
resurreccion released appearance // duro's blade becomes a long, red spear that looks essentially like this. it is roughly six and a half feet long, and is used to manipulate the shadows around him from a greater distance. in relation to duro's appearance, he becomes a centaur of sorts. his mask forms to the top half of a deer skull that covers his face, with huge antlers that splay outward. his lower body shifts to that of a stag, the fur as blonde as his hair but covered along the hooves and spine with plates of bone, and a stump of a segmented bone tail. his upper body is covered by an ornate, military-esque coat that's white with silver brocading, tassels and buttons; black cuffs; and a high, black collar; and is covered with miscellaneous pins from wars and battles he does not recall fighting. examples of the coat's appearance can be found here for the brocading/pattern/pins and here for the button placement and an idea of how the sleeves sit/where the jacket stops (precisely at the waist). and notably, he gains the ability to control shadows by touching them with either his body or his spear. the only time he can control the opponent's shadow is by touching it with his left palm specifically, however, and there are rare points when he is trying his absolute hardest where he can control other shadows without touching them (although he rarely tries to do so).
resurreccion abilities //
xxxx• Bloqueo Sombra [ Shadow Blockade ] : { Defensive Ability } Shadows create a solid wall around Duro which is covered in whirling spines to make it difficult to attack. He uses this sparingly, mostly during a barrage of attacks by an opponent when he needs a moment to think and contemplate his next move.
xxxx• Grito del Demonio [ Demon's Cry ] : { Offensive Ability } Duro manipulates the shadows into covering the entire room (which can be incredibly difficult, if there is little shadow or it is a vast expanse of space) and envelopes the area in darkness, which he can effectively use to his advantage. He strikes out at his opponent in the dark and, more often then not, gets lucky and actually lands a blow. He only uses it if he needs an advantage in a fight he knows he can't get out of without actually injuring somebody.
xxxx• Purgatorio Oscuro [ Dark Purgatory ] : { Defensive/Offensive Ability } Shadows curve around Duro's free hand like a glove and shoot out to bind the opponent by the hand. If the two are bound, he can easily do one of three things; he could rip the bound limb off, simply fling the opponent around like a yo-yo, or, the most difficult of all, send spines of shadows shooting into the opponent's arm, and immobilize the limb, for the time being. The last one requires far too much energy, and the first one is too grisly, so he usually opts for flinging people around to exhaust them and tossing them into a wall or something. This ability is often used when he, himself, is exhausted and needs some time to gather himself without worrying about his opponent.
xxxx• Purga de la Humanidad [ Purge of Humanity ] : { Offensive Ability, "Final Blow" } Finally taking control of the opponent's shadow, he morphs it into an exact clone of the opponent (only, of course, all black), and uses the puppet to mimic the other's movements. It effectively distracts and fights his opponent, so that he can sneak behind and deliver a final, piercing blow, usually by driving his spear through the other's stomach, and leaving it there until the opponent effectively dies and/or collapses off of it. But he often avoids this attack like the plague unless he knows it's a death match.
segunda etapa status // not achieved
xxxxx the - s k i l l s
bala // brass ( ████ )
cero // barley ( ████ )
gran rey cero // bowtie ( ████ )
hierro // duro's hierro is.. lacking. he is durable, yes, but not so much so that he can really rely on his hierro at all. he tends not to depend on it, rather wanting to avoid being hit at all.
sonido // due to a need to be quick when it comes to acquiring shadows for his usage, his sonido is excellent--he's capable of travelling very quickly and lightly, and has been known to go laps around an opponent purely to keep them busy without hurting anything.
abilities and special training // he is unfamiliar with japanese styles of fighting--or any organized fighting styles, for that matter. most of the time, he just wings it with stabbing and whirling and hacking at things until he gets the job done. It's rather sloppy, but destructive nonetheless--hence why he avoids fighting in general, and hasn't tried to train himself in being more effective in his spear-wielding. he is also a decent hand-to-hand combatant, though usually he is on the defense rather than the offense. if he ever does have to fight someone, he prefers it to be hand-to-hand and a match of who falls first rather than of who dies. duro is particularly agile, what with his zanpakuto being used to manipulate shadows and whatnot. though he has little tolerance for pain, his durability in battle is outstanding, due merely to his stubborn arrogance and his refusal to be beaten or forced into submission.
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motto // "liberté, égalité, fraternité," (liberty, equality, fraternity)
quote(s) //
xxxx• "i am not your dog."
xxxx• "killing your own is like killing yourself."
xxxx• "all who seek to rule are pigs, and all who are humble enough to abstain from power are gods."
xxxx• "we're still just hollows."
theme song(s) //
xxxx• personality-based;
xxxxxxxx• views (red and black - les miserables)
xxxxxxxx• inner anarchist (do you hear the people sing? - les miserables)
xxxxxxxx• jumble of personalities (one day more - les miserables)
xxxx• battle themes;
xxxxxxxx• scuffle (remember the name *instrumental* - fort minor)
xxxxxxxx• a little crazy (dont mess with me - temposhark)
xxxxxxxx• death match (in the city - kevin rudolf)
trivia //
xxxx• although not the kind to pursue carnal pleasures actively, if he were ever to be attracted to someone, they'd be male. that is to say, he's homosexual.
xxxx• his favorite color is green.
xxxx• duro's greatest weakness is to be kept talking. if you keep talking to him, distracting him, bothering him, and so on and so forth, it's more likely for him to catch him in a personality-lapse, and take advantage of the shift to manipulate him.
other // when he's mad or upset, his shoulders tremble.
(( i'd like it to be noted that a lack of capitalization is purely for stylistic choices in making all the text in this profile look uniform. i am fully aware of how to operate capital letters and this lack of capitalization will not appear in my rp posts ))
