Aysel Demirci

"The wanderer, finding her home in her freedom." - Snakes

"You soul beings take ever'thing so seriously. Why not relax, stop bein' so uptight? Yeh might be surprised with what fortune comes your way."

- Aysel to Tier Harribel

Aysel Demirci (Moon(stream), Blacksmith) is a human fullbringer and former pirate of Turkish descent. She has been alive since the Golden Age of Piracy over four hundred years ago. She has since attained hollow powers, and since becoming a vizard she has taken up residence in Hueco Mundo. She has never been affiliated with any organizations, and her refusal to take a side and her tendancy to stay off the radar has earned her the nickname Horo-Sha (放浪者, The Wanderer). Currently, her motives are unclear, though she is known to protect living humans on occasion.

Appearance


Aysel Demirci is, at first glance, not much to look at, and is easily overlooked. She has a slim build, with narrow hips and shoulders and an A-cup bust. Though thin, she does have wiry and apparent muscles, especially along her arms as a testament to her many years of hard labor and battle. She also seems to have somewhat disproportionately long arms and legs for her 5’5” height. Her hair is dirty blonde and poorly cut to reach the tops of her shoulders and short, jagged bangs. She is most often seen wearing it in a careless bun, though the rough look does seem to suit her. She has deeply tanned skin that is marred by what are obviously whip scars all across her back and shoulders, as well as several other laceration scars along her arms. Her hands are heavily calloused, but that seems to be the only effect on her skin that betrays her age, and she seems to defy the years—her appearance does little to hint at how old she actually is. She has a thin, diamond shaped face with a small, straight nose and full lips. She has few wrinkles, save for the lines under her eyes, which may be her most striking feature. Aysel’s eyes are hooded and ofte narrowed with a glint of amusement, and are somewhat wider-set than average. The color and feeling are what sets them apart, however: they are a pale, amber-tinted green that seem to convey that she is a step ahead of everyone else; that she is in on a secret other people can’t quite grasp. Her face and posture both exude the sort of confidence one can only have after experiencing much of what life has to offer, and despite the fact that Aysel tends to hold herself in a manner as to blend in to the background and not draw attention, on closer inspection her self-assurance and dominant personality is obvious.

Aysel has a rather unique fashion sense with much carried over from her pirating days. Her most noticeable accessory is the pale maroon headscarf she wears draped around her shoulders, and rarely uses to actually cover her head. Generally, Aysel is always seen wearing a long, pale tan, tailed coat that hangs down past her knees. The coat has gold inner lining and accents on the shoulders and on the sides that cover the hips. Over the coat Aysel wears a worn, brown leather belt in which she holds her fullbring and other weapons. She wears dark maroon breeches on her lower half that tuck into brown leather, knee-high boots. Though she rarely removes her coat, she does wear a sand-colored, sleeveless tunic underneath it. As far as accessories go, Aysel wears two black hoops and a red ear-cuff in her left ear and a single black hoop in her right. She also wears a simple gold chain around her neck. Though very few have seen it, Aysel also has an old-fashioned tattoo of a hammerhead shark running the length of her left thigh. The tattoo is a simple black outline and is old and faded, but she refuses to add to it or even get it touched up.

Personality
Aysel’s personality is difficult to pinpoint; in essence, she is a chameleon, adjusting herself to fit the situation at hand. She is an incredible actor, and an even better liar, so her true personality is often hidden under layers of an act. Generally, she operates as to not draw attention to herself, and when not disguising herself she comes off as detached, amused, and impossible to rile up. She is experienced and intelligent, and has an intimate knowledge of how people are motivated and how to manipulate them. She considers words to be far more of an effective weapon than any gun or blade, and is a master of using them. Her motivations lie solely in what she holds the most dear: freedom. She refuses to tie herself to any organization, and though she could be good at it, refuses to head her own. Even in a serious relationship, Aysel always gives herself an out. Past all her barriers and lies, Aysel is an extremely intense person to be around. She is aggressive, possesive and dominant, and has taken a traditionally ‘masculine’ way of presenting herself, a habit born from many years as living as a man. She is highly ambitious, but strangely enough does not like to be a leader; she much prefers being the second in command, or an advisor. She has an aversion to responsibility and people being dependent on her, and she values nothing more than freedom. She knows exactly who she is and what she wants, and as such she can be harsh and abrasive to other people. She can’t stand weak-willed or overly angsty people, and there’s nothing she hates more than a martyr. To many that see her without her acts and lies, Aysel can seem like a cold-hearted individual incapable of empathy, and she does show little respect to those she feels don’t deserve it. At her core, however, Aysel is a realist, and after hundreds of years watching people rise and fall she knows if you can’t play the game, or spend too much time whining about it, you aren’t worth the effort. She will act interested and lie to disarm people, but when she is finished she will ruthlessly cut ties with them. Due to her abrasive nature, Aysel doesn’t have many people she could consider ‘friends’. Even when she does care about something, she cares in a startlingly aggressive manner, and can drive people away simply by being too intense. She prefers it this way- if someone can’t handle being around her, she isn’t going to change for them. Her ambitious nature plays into her relationships, and she understands the value of surrounding herself with powerful people. She will push people to do things she thinks they’re capable of, which is where she often loses friends- she pushes them to seek power while refraining from doing so herself. Her possessiveness also comes into play often in her relationships, and she plays strange little trust games with them to ensure they are worth it. This is a trait born from her previous occupation. She never knew who she could trust, and even a close friend could turn out to be a backstabbing power-grabber. Aysel has a very strange moral code, simultaneously contradicting and exemplifying her pirate roots. She isn’t above stealing and stepping on people to further her own agenda, but refuses to take advantage of people she finds defenseless. This extends to her habit of defending other living humans, especially from hollows, and though she claims it’s to keep her skills sharp, it is really out of empathy for her own kind. She too was once helpless, and a victim to circumstance, and that subconsciously renders her unable to ignore what she deems are ‘victims’. Shinigami, quincies, and hollows do not fall under this feeling, and she has only recently allowed herself to identify as anything other than a living human. History

Early Life
Aysel was born in Constantinople during the early 18th century Ottoman Empire. Her parents were reasonably wealthy, and owned a rather popular coffeehouse. Her father chose only to marry one woman, and the two tended to spoil Aysel. Her upbringing was rather typical for an Islamic, middle-class girl in that time, and her parent's status afforded her certain freedoms that those with higher status didn't enjoy. Her parents were both literate, and chose to educate Aysel as well so she could help out in the family business. Despite her rather pleasant upbringing, Aysel grew bored as she got older. She didn't want to inherit the coffeehouse, and she certainly didn't want to marry a man of her parent's choosing. During her time working for her parents, she often eavesdropped on her customers, and certain tales of truly free men and adventures on the high seas captured her imagination. (She of course, chose to ignore the darker stories of pirates and murders). Aysel began longing for that adventure, for that freedom to travel, and a desire to see the world manifested so strongly she eventually could barely stand the sight of the coffeehouse every morning. Her parents mistook her restlessness for a desire to grow up and start her own life, and began searching for suitors for her. When Aysel found out and tried to explain her actual desires, her parents brushed it off as Aysel not really knowing what she was talking about.

At seventeen, Aysel was itching to escape, and her parents were still in the search for a proper suitor. They eventually found the perfect man, and when they excitedly relayed the news to Aysel, she panicked and began seriously thinking about running away. She began planning her escape and weighing her extremely limited options. A few weeks later, she met the suitor, and his forwardness and insistence to hurry the wedding along spurred Aysel to leave as soon as possible. Though the man was actually a rather nice person, she could not stand the thought of being forced into, and tied down, by a marriage. Two nights later, Aysel cut off her hair, filled her pack and collected the small amount of money she had made for herself at the coffeehouse. After writing a short letter to her parents, thaning them for all the had done but explaining why she had to leave, Aysel left her home behind, praying her plans would work out.

Equipment
Hand-Forged Daggers: During her time as a gunner’s mate, Aysel learned numerous ways to not only maintain a ship’s weapons, but even to forge them under her master gunner, who was a former blacksmith. When she began dealing with spiritual beings Aysel believed this skill would go unused. However, she soon found it necessary to make herself some sort of weapon able to injure hollows without needing to rely on her fullbring. Because of this, she decided to forge herself several daggers made out of materials removed from hollows she had slain. After several trials, Aysel perfected her technique and made herself several daggers that fit her fighting style and were simultaneously durable and easy to fix or forge. She now carries three such daggers, two small and one larger. They are all single black tanged blades, with simple olive green cloth wrapped around the tang to act as a handle.

Natural abilities
Master Marksman: Throughout her life, Aysel has shown herself to be naturally adept at marksmanship. From her first introduction to guns she has shown herself to be a crack shot, and had to train little before she had a handle on her pistol. She has also shown a natural aptitude for long shots, even as far as instinctually knowing how to compensate for outside factors such as wind. It didn’t take long for her to become notorious with her crew as being deadly with any powder weapon, even notoriously inaccurate weapons like the blunderbuss. She has also shown great aptitude for throwing knives as well, though this ability was always more of a novelty than actually useful. This natural aptitude earned her a spot as the gunner’s mate aboard her first ship, and subsequently the master gunner upon the original’s death. Once she activated her fullbring, she became even deadlier as her shots were no longer constrained to physical limitations. She has been seen making almost impossible shots, and the rumor was she could shoot off a man’s earring from her ship in hurricane conditions with little problem, and Aysel does nothing to dispel these rumors. Keen Intellect: Possibly more deadly than her marksmanship is her highly analytical and sharp mind. Though she rarely lets on how much she knows, she is perceptive and observant, and is often several steps ahead of those around her. It helps that she has several centuries of experience, and has not just studied history, but lived it. For over 300 years she lived among her fellow humans and has learned how to deduce most anything, from motivations to weaknesses, just from speaking with someone for a short period of time. She easily sees through bluffs and lies, and finds tricking other people to be as easy as breathing. Her manipulative abilities have allowed her to push the people around her into unwittingly doing her bidding, and she is outstanding at sidestepping suspicion and blame. She is a shadow, and even the smartest have issues reading her or seeing past her lies.

Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Despite never undergoing extensive classical training, Aysel is a deadly fighter. Her unorthodox style has been honed over her centuries of life, and incorporates numerous styles into one highly unpredictable one. Aysel has studied, sparred, and even killed practitioners of anything from boxing to kung-fu, and this experience gives her the ability to adapt to most any opponent. She has also taken to copying techniques and strikes from her opponents, which lends to her own fighting style to be quite versatile. Though she is not the most physically strong, she is able to use techniques that allow her opponent to tire themselves out before she even needs to strike. She has also found a way to enhance the power of her strikes using her reiyoku.
 * Expert Tactician: Aysel is an outstanding tactician, a skill born from simple experience. She has witnessed enough battles, and enough terrible decisions, to know when and how things will work in battle. Thanks to her ease at understanding people, she can often predict how a battle will go, and can also make the best out of whatever resources she has available.

Enhanced Agility and Reflexes: Aysel has always been highly athletic, above that of a normal human, and at her current state she is incredibly agile and flexible, able to move her body with precision and little wasted energy. She has also been shown to have the same sort of athleticism of a modern professional gymnast or parkour athlete, and her keen reflexes allow her to move both silently and with controlled grace. In battle this allows her to dodge, counter and attack in rapid succession, and is what saves her battling better trained opponents. Enhanced Speed: Since gaining mastery over her fullbring, Aysel has discovered her ability to use “Bringer Light”, allowing her to move with superhuman speed and jump height; in fact just being able to ‘walk’ in air was a huge advantage for her. This ability allows Aysel to fight on-par with both arrancar and shinigami without needing to rely on her long-ranged abilities, and this enhancement gives her the capability to not only close large distances in mere seconds, but augments her natural agility to the point where she can dodge sword strikes or projectiles with ease.
 * Armed Combat: Though she was never as proficient with close-hand weapons as she is with ranged weapons, Aysel has taught herself to wield knives with great ability, playing off her unarmed skill. She can defend against Zanpakuto-wielding opponents with her specially-made daggers, though she always tries to avoid this if possible. She can fend off or kill weaker beings with just her daggers, but requires the aid of her fullbring if she must face anyone of lieutenant level or higher.

Enhanced Vitality: Thanks to Aysel’s fullbring, she has a superhuman constitution, and no longer gets sick or ages, despite still being in a living vessel. The last time she showed signs of aging was at age thirty-four, and has since shown slight reversions in her age. Her musculature and respiratory capabilities have been highly increased since unlocking her fullbring’s full potential, and she heals much faster than a normal human. Despite being human, Aysel is as difficult to injure as a low-ranking shinigami.

High Spiritual Energy: Though Aysel’s natural spiritual energy is quite average, it has been augmented throughout the years with her fullbring’s ability, and has since taken on a taint of the different species she has encountered. Because of this, even Aysel’s reiyoku is chameleon-like and difficult to pinpoint. Though Aysel’s spiritual presence is unique, it is still only around a higher-ranked enlisted shinigami, and its lack of strength is one of Aysel’s major handicaps in fighting stronger spiritual beings.

Spiritual awareness: Aysel’s naturally high spiritual power allows her to see soul beings, from hollows to shinigami. She can also sense other spiritually aware humans, and is aware enough to sense even weaker spiritual beings from several miles away.

Fullbring
Korkak en Çıkış Yolu (Turkish for "Coward's Way Out"​). Aysel’s fullbring object manifests out of a plain, old-fashioned flintlock pistol she stole from a blacked-out sailor at a bar during her first port-call in Britain. The pistol is still functional, and can fire with regular gunpowder. Aysel activates her fullbring by half-cocking the flint and letting it snap back into place, causing green sparks to emit from the lock mechanism and transform the weapon into its true form. Coward's Way Out is a paraphernalia-type fullbring, and after discovering her weapon's special abilities, it didn't take long for Aysel to take full advantage of it. She did not realize its true form until her first true encounter with a hollow, and the exposure to the beast allowed Aysel to recognize the nature of her weapon and its potential. Despite this, Aysel did not actually understand what a hollow was, thinking instead they were creatures and demons of legend, and it wasn't until she met her first shinigami many years later that she found out about all soul beings and their functions. Aysel believes her power first awoke because of her own personal ambitions and drive, and her pistol became the focus because it symbolized her first step towards gaining power.
 * First form (formerly): Originally, upon activation Aysel's flintlock would simply gain a second barrel and several glowing green markings along the wood of the handle. She would also gain a single dark red glove on her right hand, the palm of which was covered in a tan skeletal design.
 * Spiritual energy bullets: When fired from her left hand, Aysel's fullbring would fire normal bullets. When fired her right, gloved hand, however, Coward would fire bright green energy bullets, the strength of which fluxuated depending on Aysel's health and energy. At their weakest, they resembled the power of a weak bala, but at full strength and after training with the weapon, Aysel could manipulate the strength of the shots, and could muster up the energy to fire a fraccion-strength cero-like blast. She was only ever able to fire two shots of this calliber before collapsing.
 * True form (current): Currently, upon activation Coward changes into a double barreled flintlock rifle. It retains the original’s basic coloration but gains more silver adornments, making it appear of nicer quality, along with the same green markings as bfore, The rifle also possesses a small, seemingly ornamental blade along the top, which also acts as a sight for the rifle. Aysel herself gains dark red, shoulder-length gloves that seem to glow slightly. The palms of the gloves are covered in tan, almost skeletal designs. She also gains a brown leather bandolier containing nothing but six greenish-silver bullets that glow faintly.
 * Spiritual Energy Bullets: Similar to it’s first form, Aysel’s fullbring can fire bright green energy blasts that vary in strength as controlled by Aysel. When the rifle fires, green sparks emit from the lock mechanism. Currently, Aysel’s strongest ‘bullet’ can reach the power of an espada-strength cero, however she can only fire two shots of this strength before running out of energy to uphold her fullbring. Aysel’s normal strength bullets are akin in power to an average cero, however upon impact they explode like a shotgun shell. Another variation of her bullets is to rapid-fire weaker but faster bullets that do not explode on impact.
 * Enhanced Strength: Aysel’s gloves augment the strength in her arms and shoulders allowing her to not only fire the weapon with no recoil, but to enhance the strength and precision of her punches and strikes. The gloves also act as a defense mechanism, and can withstand not only sword strikes, but numerous high-powered energy attacks, much like an Arrancar's hierro
 * Enhanced Speed and Agility: Aysel gains a noticeable boost in her natural athleticism upon releasing her fullbring, to the point where she can easily sense and dodge projectile attacks.
 * Nakletmek (Transplant): Coward’s actual ability centers around life-force, and specifically the draining of life-force. The six silver bullets in Aysel’s bandolier contain this ability. If she loads her rifle with one, the weapon will begin to glow a bright green. Loading these bullets takes a bit of time, and she does not often use this ability because of it. When an opponent is struck with one of these bullets, it will create an entry wound but will not actually hurt the victim. Once inside their body, the bullet will begin to sap their reiyoku, bestowing the stolen energy back to Aysel as long as she is holding her fullbring. The drain on energy is so gradual victims often don’t even notice, thinking it’s just due to battle fatigue. The bullets can be removed surgically (which forces the victim to injure themselves), or will disappear once Aysel seals her fullbring. These bullets can kill someone if left alone for too long, and she has observed them to kill normal humans within five hours. Aysel herself gains health and energy, and has since ‘frozen’ in time (her current age) due to using these abilities. She also has since never gotten sick, and tends to heal much faster than a normal human, almost as quickly as a shinigami.
 * Side effects: This bestowal of spiritual energy did not go without consequences once Aysel began using the ability on creatures other than humans. Due to the numerous hollows she has slain with the technique, she has accumulated an unnatural amount of hollow reiyoku, causing her soul to be partially corrupted by the hollow presence so much that her chain of fate began eroding despite her soul still being contained inside her body. At the same time, her absorption of human reiyoku resisted the encroachment, keeping the chain whole but weakened. This fluctuation caused a part of her soul to splinter and mutate into something resembling an inner hollow that grew more powerful the more hollow reiyoku Aysel absorbed, until it was strong enough to begin encroaching on the rest of her soul.

Hollowfication
Once Aysel’s inner hollow was strong enough, it was able to overcome her psyche and control her. Because Aysel was not actually dead, and her fullbring ability prevented the full corrosion of her chain of fate, the hollow was weakened and unable to fully consume her. During her time being controlled, Aysel was dragged into Hueco Mundo by the hollow as an attempt to corrupt her soul enough for it to take her over completely. This plan failed- instead of the hollow gaining strength, Aysel’s fullbring was enhanced to its maximum potential, and Aysel was able to defeat her inner hollow and force it to submit to her will. 

<p class="MsoNormal">Aysel summons her mask by gripping her face with her hand, which covers her face with silver reiatsu that condenses into the mask. Like normal vizards, her sclera turn black and her irises turn yellow under her mask. Interestingly, if Aysel happens to go for an extended period of time absorbing nothing but hollow reiyoku, her hollow can gain enough strength to influence her mind, and its influence can be seen by her eyes tingeing yellow.
 * Hollow Mask: As soon as Aysel was taken over, her mask formed on her face and stayed there until she regained control. Originally, the mask appeared as a more streamlined human skull with narrowed eye sockets and sharpened canines. Upon Aysel’s defeat of her hollow, she gained the ability to call out her mask at will. It has since changed appearance: The mask no longer has a mandible, exposing her mouth and chin, and several of its teeth have fallen out and other appear to have been capped in silver. Finally, several silver ‘cracks’ have appeared in the mask, the number of which increase when she absorbs more human or shinigami reiyoku, and decrease when she absorbs more Ayselmaskcurrent.pngw reiyoku.<p class="MsoNormal">At first, Aysel could only hold her mask up for five seconds. Currently, training in Hueco Mundo and continuous use of the mask has extended that time to about thirty seconds, though this time can be increased if she is currently absorbing a hollow or arrancar’s powers.

Cero: Though she sees it as rather redundant on top of her fullbring, Aysel gains the ability to fire cero, which appears as a thin silver beam fired from her fist. Again, the power fluctuates wildly along with the rest of her hollow abilities.
 * Power augmentation:  Upon donning her mask, Aysel experiences a great increase in her natural abilities, especially in her spiritual pressure and endurance. However, this augmentation fluctuates in magnitude depending on what kind of reiyoku she has absorbed in abundance. The strength of her hollow-enhanced abilities can be seen by the number of silver cracks in her mask- the more there are, the weaker her hollow  augmentation will be.

Quotes
<p class="MsoNormal">(To the first Shinigami she encountered, when discussing Soul Society) “I’m the master of me own fate.”

<p class="MsoNormal">(To the first Shinigami she encountered) ''“No one’s supposed to live forever, aye? Seems the lot of yeh missed that rule, you're a difficult bunch to kill.” ''(During her

<p class="MsoNormal">(To Tier Harribel)'' “Yeh let men run the place and where has it gotten you? Most of your numbers are gone, the place is destroyed...there’s nothin left. But you! You have that odd trait where yeh actually care about your subordinates. You could take it all, you know, and they’d follow you like sharks on blood. They'd do anything for you.” ''

<p class="MsoNormal">(When asked why she never seeks to lead) "There's not much I need love, just the wind at me back and open seas to sail. Figuratively o' course. Power's only a means to an end -- the catch is bein' able to let it go once you've gotten what you need."

Trivia

 * Her theme song according to snakes-on-a-plane is "Everybody Knows" by Leonard Cohen
 * Aysel is a misandrist, and makes it no secret that she believes men are generally less capable than women. She developed this trait while aboard her first two ships, one of which sank due to the crew and captain's incompetence.
 * Thanks to her Fullbring-enhanced constitution, it is nearly impossible for Aysel to get drunk, which is her biggest regret about her powers.
 * Her eyes almost never focus on one thing for too long, giving her 'shifty eyes'. However, when speaking to someone she will make direct, uncomfortable eye contact for the entirity of the conversation.
 * She also rarely sits down, even when eating, and is constantly fidgiting with her hands- she often keeps a coin or other small object in her pocket to play with.

Credit

 * All art belongs to http://snakes-on-a-plane.deviantart.com/
 * The battle data chart was constructed by http://blackwolfgrimm.deviantart.com/