Grant Rostov

<spA sheep in wolf's clothes" - Snakes

"Well, I am a healer. It's not my job to kill, to maim... No matter what, I took an oath to heal and protect, and that's what I'm going to do. But sometimes... healing can be performed in pretty unconventional ways. Even if it requires taking up the sword to protect those who can't help themselves."

- Grant Rostov

Grant Rossi Rostov (ロストフ付与, Rosutofu Grant) is a Shinigami of Russian descent that is the newly appointed Co-Captain of 4th Division chosen by Victoria Faulkner after the initial Shadow invasion. Grant has been a member of the 4th Division for his entire career, and was a surgeon in his human life. His entire life revolves around healing, and he essentially lives at the hospital. His ancestor, Sosh Rostov, is one of the oldest living Shinigami. As a captain, his partner is his co-captain, Victoria Faulkner.

Appearance
Grant is a gigantic, almost bear-like Shinigami. He stands at seven feet tall, and has a thick, powrful frame filled out with well-trained, bulky muscles. Grant has a professional weight-lifter's build thanks to his love for the sport and his adherence to training with weights in his spare time. His bulk makes him appear shorter than he actually is, and his gentle posture offsets his imposing frame. Grant often slouches because he is usually falling asleep on his feet. His skin is tanned with patches of body hair on his chest and arms. He has a large, stylized cross tattoo running the length of his forearm, and has numerous smal scars on his hands and forearms.

Grant's face is wide and square, with a prominent jawline, thick eyebrows, and a wide nose. His eyes are a vibrant violet color and round in shape, often with deep bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. Grant's face is completely open and almost innocent seeming, and he expresses most of his emotion through his eyes. His hair is shaggy and cut short everywhere except the top, where it naturally spikes forward. He has clipped sideburns that almost reach his jaw and a goatee that covers the point of his chin. All his hair is black except for the top of his hair and bangs, which are bleached blonde.

Grant's shihakusho is slightly modified: everything is normal except the kosode's sleeves, which are altered to resemble T-shirt sleeves. He wears a sleeveless captain's haori with puce piping and inner lining for 4th Division. Grant wears a 0 gauge  in each earlobe, and generally wears violet plugs. He wears his zanpakuto slung across his back with a simple teal strap.

In the past, Grant wore an unmodified uniform, and often gelled his hair so it stuck up instead of forward.

Personality
Grant is at heart, a genuinely nice and good-natured individual. He is almost creepily friendly and cheerful. Grant is often described as a mother hen- he tends to worry and fuss over anyone placed in his care, and even those who aren’t (and don’t want it). He tends to be rather nosy and inquisitive about people’s personal habits and whether or not they are taking care of themselves, and often offers unsolicited advice about health and safety. He is very cautious about offending anyone, and though he can joke and tease, he tends to try to keep things from getting too personal or offensive. His many years as a human doctor, especially his time as a pediatric surgeon, has made him an endlessly patient and caring individual, and played a significant role in shaping his gentle nature.

Despite his high intelligence and ‘book-smarts’, Grant is a rather naively optimistic person. He is, at heart, a wishful pacifist, and despises conflict. Though he understands the necessity of combat, he always tries to find a peaceful resolution before raising his blade in any situation. His deeply ingrained belief that he is meant to heal, not harm, causes a deep internal conflict, and each battle that he must participate in weighs heavily on his conscious, which often makes him quiet and introspective for days at a time. Other than that, Grant’s naivety manifests in the simple way he views the world: he genuinely believes that everyone has good in them, no matter how they act normally, and that everyone deserves the chance to redeem themselves. His main outlook on life is that he is first and foremost meant to heal, and like his predecessor he will heal any injured person incapable of fighting, regardless of their affiliation.

Grant is also a very open person. He rarely hides his emotions, and is rather flamboyant in personality. He gets genuinely excited about things, especially his pursuits like science and medicine. He definitely doesn’t buy into the ‘men must be stoic’ generality, and is very comfortable showing his emotions and openly enjoying ‘girly’ things like chick flicks and the color pink. He is not easily embarrassed or insulted, and most jabs and insults thrown his way are easily ignored or shrugged off. He is also rather stubborn, especially when it comes to fussing over people, and he is impossible to deter once he has set his mind to something. His stubborn streak comes from working with children: He had to learn how to be firm and gentle when dealing with both sick kids and their parents. When it comes to health, he will not budge until he is listened to (though he will still be polite about his pushy-ness).

In combat Grant retains his normal open personality, and his gentle and positivity is a calming influence to those in conflict with him. He rarely actually engages in combat, as he prefers to avoid conflict and his position requires him to stay off the front line. If he actually has to engage, he is reluctant, and always tries to either end it quickly using his overwhelming strength or talk the opponent down. In fact, the reason he keeps up his massive muscle mass is to retain strength that allows him to subdue opponents without fatally injuring them. Against normal hollows, however, he will move to end them as quickly as possible, believing that splitting their mask is the proper way to heal their souls.

Adding on to his somewhat naïve nature, Grant is completely oblivious to any attempts at flirting or ‘dirty’ talk. His ex-wife used to make fun of him by saying a girl had to club him in the head and drag him by the hair to their house to get his attention. He views everyone as friends, and rarely even thinks about anything more than that. He is completely unaware of his own potential attractiveness, and as such doesn’t notice such things from other people. He is also completely devoted to his job, and is normally thinking about nothing but his patients and paperwork.

On the downside, Grant is so absorbed in his work and fussing over his friends that he causes himself a lot of unnecessary stress. He gets highly worked up over each patient, and spends many hours after each work day mulling over potential cures and techniques that could further help him, His focus and drive also leads to him neglecting friendships and relationships outside of work. He genuinely doesn’t notice himself doing it, and only when he has a few spare moments does he realize he is lonely. This tendency is what cost him his marriage in his life, and makes maintaining a relationship now extremely hard. He hates that he does this, but he can’t help becoming absorbed by work. Another major downside is his pacifism and naiveté, which makes him hesitant in conflict and always makes him seek a peaceful resolution, even when it is obvious there is none. These traits often keep him away from the battlefield, though once he has tried every other outlet he will fight.

History
Under Construction

Powers & Abilities
Natural Abilities Master healer: Grant is, first and foremost, a healer. In his human life he was a celebrated general, then pediatric surgeon, which gave him a head start in having detailed knowledge of human medical techniques and physiology. Healing kido was something that came naturally to him, and he has not only perfected the basic techniques, but has gone further in creating his own techniques, combining his human medical techniques and kido to create rather unorthodox but highly effective healing style. He also studied and followed Victoria's teachings and breakthroughs religiously, making him a well-rounded medical expert.

Kido master: Grant’s high intelligence and gravitation toward the healing arts had made him an natural for picking up kido. Though he doesn’t often find himself in combat, he is outstanding at using the spells for subduing opponents. He naturally gravitated towards bakudo over hado, and has made a point to learn the theory behind the higher level spells, though he still needs to speak the incantation before using them. He is not terribly creative in combining and creating spells, but his large amount of spiritual pressure is enough to make his spells quite powerful.

Hakuda expert: Grant has a great preference for unarmed combat, especially that involving grappling and subduing an opponent. He was a wrestler growing up in his human life, and during his unarmed classes at the academy he gravitated towards styles like jiujutsu. He has since joined up with a Seireitei group that gets together to practice and spar, and makes sure to train when he has the chance- something he had a lot more time to do as an unseated shinigami. His immense size and strength makes this style of combat easy for him, and he is quite good at simply overpowering his opponents with those traits.

Immense strength and durability: Grant, through his love of weightlifting and his natural size and strength, is monstrously powerful physically. He can easily lift things three or four times his own size, and the power he can put behind his movements is incredible. He can easily subdue normal hollows with his bare hands. His training has also lent itself to making him incredibly resilient to damage and pain.

Immense spiritual pressure: Grant has an immense amount of reiatsu, honed in his studies of kido and healing. He also has great control, a requirement for kido healing, and is able to seal his spiritual pressure down to that of an unseated shinigami. This makes it much easier to deal with weak or weakened patients. His spiritual pressure manifests as a mass of violet ‘gas’.

High intelligence: Grant is quite booksmart, and his long history of working in medicine gives him a near complete knowledge of physiology and injury. He can easily identify weaknesses in an opponent by the way they move or hold themselves, and is also observant enough to watch the way an opponent’s muscles betray their next movements.

Weaknesses
Speed and agility: Grant is a huge, bulky individual, which severely limits his speed and range of motion. He is simply too bulky to move very fast, and he has to put in a lot of effort to move quickly. He is also lacking in flexibility and agility, and relies on getting in one or two powerful strikes and his own endurance to get through battles.

Zanjutsu: Though he has studied and is aware of the importance of zanjutsu, Grant does not quite meet the captain’s requirements for the art, instead being around the level of a low lieutenant or high third seat. He achieved his position simply through his healing ability and the extraneous circumstances of the war, and has been ordered by the Captain-Commander to work on this ability after the conflict, or his position may be in jeopardy.

Pacifism/hesitance: With non-hollow opponents, Grant always seeks the peaceful resolution first, which leads to him being hesitant in battle. He will also focus on healing first, which often makes him ignore enemies even when his power is needed in a fight.

Zanpakuto
Zver (野獣, Yajū, Beast) is Grant's Zanpakuto, an earth type. Zver, in rebellion to her user's passive personality, is constantly in Shikai.

Spirit: Zver appears as a twelve-foot long, nine-foot tall red lizard/dragon like creature, whose body seems to be a cross of an alligator's and an iguana's, with a square, crossed iguana/t-rex shaped face. She has deep red scales with black markings and black spines. In her human form, Zver is a muscular, tanned, 6'5" woman with wild red hair, red eyes, and black tattoos resembling her normal form's markings. She wears red and black armor that resembles the armor Grant receives in Bankai.

Zver is a highly combative and excited individual, and tends on the more tempermental side. She shares Grant’s fussiness, but that is the only trait they share. She is aggressive and often tries to convince Grant out of his pacifism, and they often butt heads over how to solve problems. Their arguments are generally the only time they seem to dislike each other, and otherwise have a strong sibling-like bond. However, they always seem to have conflicting opinions.


 * Shikai: Zver's command (no longer used), is Razbitʹsya i Reformirovaniyu (シャターと改革, Shatā to kaikaku, Shatter and Reform). Since Zver is a constant-release, she always appears as follows: The blade is six feet long and three feet wide with no curve, and almost looks like a non-serrated kitchen knife. The base of the blade has a protrusion that curves in front of the handle, and the blade itself tapers to about seven inches at the contact point with the plain black handle, which is slightly curved and has a red jewel embedded in the end. Only one hand fits on the handle. Though Grant carries and wields the blade easily, its weight is apparent when he lets it fall to the ground, where it usually causes a miniature earthquake.


 * Shikai Special Ability: Zver's special ability lies in the manipulation of the earth and over some reishi surfaces, allowing him to use his abilities in the air by first hardening the air's reishi, and then performing his techniques.


 * Rasshcheplyat (裂ける, Sakeru, Split): Grant swings the blade into the ground, which opens up a fissure in the direction the blade is pointing. The harder he hits the ground, the longer the crack is


 * Sdvig (移す, Utsusu, Shift): Grant plants the blade tip-down at his feet, and gains control of the reishi of the surface he is standing on within a half-mile radius. He can manipulate the surface, causing potholes or hills, can cause earthquakes, and can, to an extent, manipulate the solidity of the surface.

Bankai: Zemlya Rasshchepleniya Zverya (地球分割獣, Chikyū bunkatsu-jū, Earth-Splitting Beast). To release his Bankai, Grant holds the blade skyward and states ‘bankai’. Immediately, a strong earthquake starts and a swirl of dust and spiritual pressure covers Grant’s form. After a minute, it all stops in a flash to reveal him in Bankai. Grant’s bankai appears as vibrant red armor with black accents that appear like Zver’s spiritual form. The armor completely encases him, and appears to resemble medieval plate and chain armor. His arms are incased in gauntlets that extend past his hands in large, curved claws that he can detach and drop to reveal his real hands if needed. He also gains a helmet that appears as a stylized version of Zver’s head, with a T-shaped opening revealing his eyes and the bridge of his nose.


 * Bankai Special Abilities: Under construction

Trivia

 * Zver's regular appearance is based on the Pokemon Groudon, which ties into Grant's orginal conception as a Pokemon trainer
 * Grant's appearance was originally based on the character Coop from Megas XLR
 * Grant is one of my oldest OCs, next to Layla, Jo and Sam. He was made about ten years ago.