The Storm Within [Release Request]

Note: This is not an XP request. These threads will be part of separate arcs that will be submitted at a future date.

Threads

Chapter 1: All That Glitters Is Not Gold Reika, new to the world of the Gotei and fresh graduate from the academy wasn’t chosen for any division. Here we establish that she’s a kind, directionally challenged person (and a little too self-critical)  that’s trying to find her place in the Gotei. Finding her first division, Reika finds herself a friend and mentor in a nobleman by the name of Zenji Hatayama. Now the duo can work together in improving their kido and zanjutsu skills.

Here Reika faces her fear of all the unknown aspects of the Gotei - finding a friend who also struggles and realizing that not all nobles are bad like the stories she heard out in the districts. But in the end, she’s left waiting until she finds a division of her own, leaving her frustrated as her own indecisiveness drags her down.

Chapter 2: Give Me A Sign Here we find out what happens when Reika decides to travel the maze-like Gotei her own way. Managing to knock herself out upon arriving at the fourth division, Reika awakens in a groggy state, in the care of Zabel Miyashita, a researcher, who despite helping her is more interested in her own work and could care less about the world beyond her own research.

Reika’s self-doubt begins to eat away at her. Why couldn’t she be like Zabel and find her place in the Gotei already? The shinigami seemed to be doing more harm than good to her own self with every step she took to fall in line with the structure of the Gotei.


Chapter 3: Drunken Solutions Reika finds herself wanting to blow off some steam from the last few days of checking out the divisions. Visiting an old restaurant she used to visit during her time in the Soul Academy, the young shinigami finds it under new management and is quickly invited in. Soon, the owner, Toji Tejaku and Reika have a new guest to join them in a drink among new friends. It seems that all ranks can get along if there is a common factor between them.

The young shinigami tries to bury her emotions and frustrations of the past few days in the Gotei. Unfortunately for her, the alcohol dredges up those feelings that she had been pushing down. It wasn’t fair that everyone she met seemed to have their own passions and positions in life while she was left lost and wanderer. Left afraid to fail the expectations of her family.

Chapter 4: I Know Your Name A normal day suddenly turned sour in a chance encounter. Reika was simply wanting to get a tour of the sixth division, but upon her own misstep, she ran into a man known as Bill or Connie, it all depended on his smart mouth. Unknown to her, she had run into the infamous Watari, who began to irritate her to no end. From denying a tour after offering it, butchering puns, and being a rude cretin, this shinigami had gotten under her skin.

Bill’s poking and prodding of words pushed the woman over the edge as every word he spoke dug deep. Then it came, a voice, harsh and cold. This spat that turned violent awakened Reika’s connection with her zanpakuto’s spirit. The harsh cold reality that she was far outmatched by the stronger Watari has made things look rather bleak. Her zanpakuto’s spirit kept urging her on in her raged filled fight, calling for her to release him.

Reika thought she was going everything right that day. She was going to do it by the book and find her place in society. It was going to be her day. But Watari pressed past Reika’s emotional defenses that she used to deflect her insecurities and kept pressing until all the frustrations of the past few days had come bubbling to the surface. It was time she moved past her own self placed restraints and do what she wanted for herself. Watari just happened to be in the way of that path.

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Zanpakuto & Power

Spirit: Asadi

Asadi is a cold, action-oriented man with the insensitivity to match. The spirit pushes his counterpart hard because he believes she’s capable of more than she knows. Asadi is usually seen in a muted blue long-sleeved button-up shirt that has a hood, and a simple pair of black jeans. Lively green eyes and shaggy black hair peeked from beneath the hood he usually has up.

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Inner World: Up the mountain, high above the clouds upon a plateau stands an ancient fortress with ivy-covered walls. Within the fortress, lies abandoned training grounds that appeared to once have been the hub of this world. It was as if this place was left to ruin at the height of its glory. Winds sweep the area, pushing back against old oak trees and weeping willows that adorn the plateau as gently water rolls down small streams coming together at the edge of the land, cascading down on the world below. The higher you climbed, the stronger the wind seemed to place, stinging the skin as you went. This place, a world of its own - an 'island' in the sky.  Beyond the land, in the skies above, the universe seemed to call out to the land below, showing all its splendor as stars and cosmic energy lit the skies above with the stars. A mirror image of the Earth seems to loom above as if it were the moon to this world.
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Sealed Zanpakuto: Reika's Zanpakutō takes the form of a standard katana at the length of 24 inches (60 cm), star-shaped guard, and a simple tsuka that shows signs of minor wear. There’s really nothing extraordinary about the blade itself besides its lacquered black sheath.

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Release Command: Howl

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Released Zanpakuto: Reika is the type to face a heated challenge head-on and her released Zanpakuto shows this. Valuing quick and heavy strikes when it comes to zanjutsu, the blade shortens, changing into a red Ninjatō with a single notch on the mune near the hilt.

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Release Ability: Reika’s shikai is able to control the air around her. The tumultuous feelings that the shinigami has during battle rages around her with whipping currents of wind that rend at the enemy with every stroke of the weapon.

A fish out of water who in finding their place in the Seireitei, finds their place as a Shinigami! Let's take a look.

PASS - Writing - I like Reika, I don't think I've gotten a good chance to see a range of her emotions. All That Glitters, Give me A Sign and Drunken Solutions are all very personal calm settings, and I Know Your Name escalates very quickly so hopefully, there will be some threads when you return to help explore who she is more.
PASS - Release - I can see how the control of the air around her is valuable to someone so adrift. I don't have a clear understanding of the spirit's nature and Reika's as yet so definitely want to explore that as you move towards Second Release.
PASS - Moment - It felt, initially, a bit whacky. They fly into each other, he doesn't get a pun so they fight to the death. But I can see the underpinning here, there is a sudden do or die nature to Watari threads like this. It's a gift, I'm not sure this would have worked otherwise. For the second release, desperately, you'll want to lead the conflict up a bit more, build it to have some more meaning that extends outside of the thread, build up the effort to obtain your power a bit more because of the tight nature of this arc occurring so early in her career it makes it timewise very narrow for her to go from utterly lost to bam Shikai, which is fine if you're mindful to address it.
PASS - Impact - You thread with a bunch of people and seem receptive to what they're doing and giving it back, All That Glitters is an example of the kind of thing I want to encourage, along with I Know Your Name because these have significant relationships develop. Give Me A Sign and Drunken Solutions are hard to judge because they are unfinished.

I am a bit worried because you have two unfinished threads. I don't want to hold it against you, one has very good reason, the other isn't really critical to the arc here and likely could have been left out, but three threads with one unfinished might have made you a bit rightfully nervous.

Given the circumstances, I am okay being okay with this, but I want to warn others, please finish your thread if the option exists. Release can often wait, but this is a particular situation where I don't feel like punishing someone for circumstances well out of their control. If this weren't the first release, if it were a mastery, or second release, I expect this would be a more personal conversation where we figure out some other way forward but it isn't, it's first release and there's a lot of stuff to like here.

Without further ado or gilding the lily!


Congratulations, Reika, from me and the rest of staff, you are approved for First Release!!!