Matt Alder

"The King of  winter" - Snakes

"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have made it look like I care..."

- Matt Alder

Matthew Alder( アルダーマシュー, Arudā Mashū> is a Visored of Hungarian and Scandinavian descent who is currently working freelance for the Gotei 10. He is a part of the Visored 2.0 and was an unofficial second-in-command alongside Jo Morelli. Matt was the most heavily affected by his Hollowfication, and has decided to not re-join the Gotei until he has gained complete control over his Hollow powers. Before his exile, Matt was the lieutenant of the 10th Division under Clio Erganes. He has special concession from his former captain and the captain-commanders to live in the Seireitei with his boyfriend, Cory Barton, and he often works with Jo Morelli

Appearance
Matt is a rather short Shinigami with a pale complexion and a compact frame. He has well-defined muscles from years of intense workouts. His build is best described as a sprinter's build, with somewhat bulkier muscles. His skin is marked with numerous small laceration scars, many leftover from his human life, a large scar on the back of his head from his death, and a stylized tattoo of the number 13 on his left shoulder. Matt also has a sparse amount of body hair in the typical places, thinner on his chest and thicker on his legs.



Matt has a somewhat sharper than average square-shaped face. His eyes are a more narrow almond-shape, fra med by medium, well-shaped eyebrows. His slightly upturned nose and defined jaw giv e him a distinctive profile. His hair is an ashy light brown, and is styled into a 'flop-hawk', with everything but a wide section at the top shaved to stubble and the hair he has styled forward. He also has a trimmed chinstrap beard that connects to his hairline. He wears a gunmetal ring pierced in his left eyebrow, and three studs of the same color in his left ear. Matt does not show much expression, and emotes very subtly. His smile rarely shows his teeth, and his eyebrows are often drawn down in an expression of mild displeasure.

Though not officially part of the Gotei, Matt still wears a regular sleeveless kosode, accessorized with a large forest green scarf around his neck. He wears a sleeveless shirt of the same color under the kosode. Instead of hakama, however, he wears tighter black pants that cinch under his knees, held up with the traditional white obi sash. To make himself appear taller, he wears geta on his feet with no socks.

Before his exile, Matt wore an unmodified uniform, though he still had the scarf and sleeveless kosode. His hair was fuller and styled into a short fauxhawk, and a soul patch instead of a beard.

Personality
Matt is an extremely quiet and unapproachable individual; he just seems to be in a state of mild irritation at all times. He also tends to interact with others in a very harsh manner, and while he seems simply rude and mean for no reason, Matt actually strives to live his life in a completely honest manner. This honesty, however, is often brutal, and not what people want to hear. After years of having to live in secret has made Matt despise secrets and lies. On top of that, Matt can be incredibly sarcastic, to the point that almost everything he says has a bit of sarcasm attached to it. He does enjoy other people's discomfort, which is another reason for his honesty and sarcasm, and enjoys flaunting his sexuality in front of people to see if he can get a rise out of them. Matt is a pessimist, and is much more likely to dislike someone than like them. His apparently rude demeanor helps him run off the people he knows won't be worth his time, and is also a bit of a defense mechanism to keep people he feels he would never be able to trust at arm's length. It is very hard to gain Matt's trust, and very easy to lose it. As for respect, he will respect anyone right off the bat, but it only takes one misstep to lose it. All in all, despite his normal way of speaking (short and monosyllabic), it may seem like he hates everyone, but is really just ambivalent. He makes it very clear when he hates someone.

Throughout his life Matt has found people to be, in general, very disappointing and unable to meet even basic expectations of courtesy and common decency. Because of this, Matt can be rather cynical when it comes to other people, and doesn't make an effort to seek out and make friends. However, those that do earn his trust, it should be treated like an honor- he isn't one to throw the term 'friend' around easily. Matt is a loyal and, surprisingly good-natured person to those he cares about, though he does tend to unleash even more sarcasm on his friends (simply because he knows they won't cry about it). He is still brutally honest to them, but in the most caring way: Matt can recognize when a situation is bad for someone, and rarely will hold his opinion back on how and why they should get out of it. He also gains much happiness and contentment from being in a long-term relationship, as it gives him a sense of stability and trust, as well as the knowledge that he has someone he can really rely on.

Matt is also quite intelligent and quick-witted, and can verbally rip unprepared people to shreds if they try to argue with, or belittle him. Matt is generally quite calm and dispassionate, and can seem detached. He does have a deeply ingrained sense of responsibility and courtesy, and will always give others the respect he feels they deserve- this mostly shows towards people of equal or higher rank. Matt is fond of tradition, and deeply respects rank hierarchy, even if his superior is incompetent. Matt also has a deeply ingrained sense of duty, and strives to do good somehow each day, whether it be a small (and incredibly subtle) act of kindness, or helping the community in some way. It would be inaccurate to say that Matt is 'a jerk with a heart of gold', or that his pessimism and harshness is hiding some emotional and 'would give his life for another' attitude. Matt thinks those types of people are idiotic, and under all his sarcasm really is a soul that generally dislikes people- he simply does the right thing because it is right, and every decision he makes takes into consideration of how much it could help. He never makes a rash choice, and often berates his friend Jo Morelli for making snap decisions without thinking of the consequences to herself (or others).

In combat Matt is calm, decisive, and quick-thinking. He usually never says a word to anyone in battle, too busy mapping out the battlefield and analyzing his opponent. Matt is ambivalent to fighting; he doesn't enjoy it, nor does he despise it. To him, combat is simply a necessary part of his job, and what enjoyment he does get out of it is because of his skill. Matt values efficiency and effectiveness over personal comfort, and as a leader he often makes decisions that seem cold-hearted, because he wants to finish missions in the best manner possible regardless of how his subordinates feel about it.

As a give and take, Matt expects and takes heed of criticism towards his skills, and in turn will freely critique others. Though it seems negative to some, Matt understands the value of tearing someone down in order to build them up. However, one hot-button topic for him is his height: he absolutely despises short jokes. A short joke to Matt is a guaranteed way to see him actually angry, which is when he won't hesitate to get physical. Besides that, it takes a lot to get Matt to go from mildly displeased to actually angry, and he finds most attempts to get a rise out of him quite amusing, since he has mastered the art of getting a rise out of others. Other than making people uncomfortable, Matt's hobbies include botany, an interest encouraged by his boyfriend, and musicals and showtunes, which he will often sing out loud when working (his co-workers often comment on his terrible voice). Matt also enjoys theater, and has stated when he re-joins the Gotei he is determined to start a theater company in the Seireitei.

History
Human Life: Not much is known about Matt's past life, as he refuses to talk about it. What is known is that he was born in the 70s, grew up middle class in the United States, was the oldest of three brothers and travelled often due to his father's career in the Air Force. was disowned by his family during his second year of college when he came out to them, and had to finish his schooling on scholarship and on money from multiple jobs. He received a Botany degree and a minor in Theater Arts. At age 22 he moved to Anaheim, CA, landed a job in Disneyland, and worked until his promotion to the landscape architect and sustainability manager of Disneyland. He worked there for seven years before he was assaulted and beaten to death by a radical group of homophobes that followed him from a local gay bar.

Early Soul Life: Matt's soul burial landed him in district four in the Rukon, where his guiding Shinigami set him up in a community house and left him to fend for his own. However, due to the nature of his death, Matt had severe trust issues and moved out of the house to live on his own, and did so for several years. He lived a pretty lonely life until one of the members of the community house ran into him and convinced him to move back in, convincing Matt a life on his own was not the right path (it helped that Matt found the majority of the group rather attractive). As a lucky twist of fate, his newfound housemates all happened to be prepping for the Shino Academy, and goaded Matt into joining them. One of those men, Fung Lin, is the one who introduced Matt to martial arts. Matt's housemates left a year before Matt did, and left him to seek out new training partners. This leads him to meet Jo Morelli and Layla Vital, and the three hit it off and decide to take the entrance exam together. They all pass and make it into the Academy together.

Academy Years:

Natural Abilities
Hakuda Expert: Because of the circumstances of Matt's death, he focused on hardening his body for combat the minute he entered the Seireitei. This caused him to have a leg-up on his peers when he entered the academy, as he already had a strict regime to train his unarmed combat abilities. Matt prefers to fight using the hung ga style of fighting, introduced to him by his housemate in the Rukon. The style allows him to use his natural stocky build and low center of gravity for the low, strong stances of the martial art,as well as his high natural strength for the hard strikes associated with it. Though it is a very rigid style, it fits both Matt's personality and natural strengths, and training the art has granted him much higher strength and physical endurance than a more maneuverable style.

Hoho Master: Matt was always one to focus on speed over power, having his roots in years of track in the human world. Despite his new found focus on strength, Matt hasn't lost his penchant for speed, and was quick to pick up on his Hoho lessons in the academy. Recognizing the faults in his chosen hand-to-hand style, Matt focused on Shunpo as a means to overcome those weaknesses. He is on the higher end of his peers in terms of Hoho usage, and oftentimes employs it as a means to increase the effectiveness of his close-hand fighting, and as such has focused on short-range Hoho.

High Physical Strength and Endurance: Matt is a naturally athletic individual, and the intensive training that goes hand-in-hand with Hung Ga has increased his physicality immensely.

Zanjutsu Practitioner: Matt is quite apt at using his zanpakuto, although he generally avoids using it in its unreleased state. Because of its Shikai's size, Matt employs similar hand-to-hand hung-gar movements and rapid short jabs and slashes with the dagger element; using the chain attachment from his zanpakuto, Matt has some capability for long-distance attacks (although this has only recently become a focus for him).

High Spiritual Pressure: Matt has strong, captain-level spiritual pressure that manifests itself in an olive-green color. It is about the median in terms of power for others of his rank (or, what his rank should be).

Kido Expert: Matt was able to pick up on Kido relatively easily, and can use spells up into the 70s with no incantation easily. However, due to his focus in other areas, Matt lacks the intrinsic knowledge of Kido necessary to combine and create spells, and his knowledge of the art is rather linear.

Resistance to Cold: Due to his Zanpakuto's nature, Matt is highly resistant to frigid temperatures, and his physical ability doesn't diminish like normal in harsh weather conditions.

Weaknesses
Durability: Matt is able to take a few heavy blows, but much more than that can put him out of commission due to his relatively lower pain tolerance. He is used to ending matches quickly, and though he has high physical stamina, he isn't built for blow-to-blow slug matches.

Heat/Fire: Due to his zanpakuto's nature, Matt becomes exhausted and fatigued in high temperatures and against opponents who manipulate flames/fire, and his Zanpakuto's abilities are greatly diminished as well.

Multiple Opponents: Matt's strengths lie in his one-on-one capabilities, and his tendency to focus on defeating one opponent narrows his focus and makes him less efficient when it comes to taking on multiple opponents.

Zanpakuto
Szarvas (牡鹿, Oshika, Stag) is the name of Matt's Zanpakuto, an ice type. In its sealed form, Szarvas takes the form of a reverse-blade katana with light silver blade and forest green handle wrappings. The handguard is gold and shaped like the letters IXI. The sheath is gold with 3 vertically oriented, green, circles of increasing radius near the top. Matt wears Szarvas tucked into the left side of his obi.

Spirit: Szarvas, in his normal form, takes the appearance of a 6' Satyr with deer antlers (rather than goat horns). He wears his green hair in a messy and unkempt fashion and is clad in light Roman armor: forearm and shoulder guards made of gold and an undetermined green metal. Wach has 3 circles of increasing radius oriented vertically on them. Szarvas also wears an olive green gladiator-style loincloth.

Szarvas acts quite similar to Matt in most ways, and as he cares about growing stronger, he doesn't try to undermine Matt in training, and in fact pushes him far past his limits. He and Matt share immense respect for one another, and have a strong fraternal bond.


 * Possessed State: When Matt underwent Hollowfication, his inner Hollow was able to seize control of, and merge himself with Szarvas, making him change in both appearance and personality. He grows nearly three times in size (about 17'), and takes on a much more beastial appearance, losing all of his armor, sans the forearm guard, he grows thicker fur over his body (legs, chest and 'happy trail'). His personality is completely lost in this form, instead he is filled with rage and has lost his capacity to reason. This version of Ciervo existed as Matt struggled to gain control over his inner Hollow (though he is afraid it will return).


 * Shikai: Szarvas's release command is Pánik (殺到, Sattō, Stampede).