Grainné Xios Tier-up Thread

Grainné Xios sighed to herself. The day couldn't be better for painting. The sun was high in a very blue sky, and there was not a cloud to be seen. Yet no matter how hard she tried, there was something on her mind. A very big something. But she knew there was nothing she could do, at least not until the Captain Commander and the others come up with a plan to reclaim the Soul Society. So while others were training and recovering from the horrors of battle, Grainné simply did as she always has done, she went on a painting trip. There was no immediate need for her services back at the temporary HQ of the Gotei, Karakura, so the timing seemed ideal.

Grainné picked a nice location on mainland China, on the outskirts of a forest. She was trying to paint the forest, from the outside. However, every time she made a little bit of headway, images of the Seireitei in ruins penetrated her mind. Instead of trees, Grainné saw broken remains of buildings, and fallen friends instead of logs and rocks. While not usually one for fighting, Grainné felt genuine anger welling up inside her, which in turn was permeating into her paintings.

Grainné brush a strand of hair out of her eyes. She set her paint palette down and rubbed down her spine. How long have I been sitting here? she thought. Grainné needed something to take her mind off from Soul Society. But she couldn't think of anything.

Diath found herself once again watching the sky. The city was a noisy mess of beeping and shouting, it was starting to get to her again. She stood up, and fixed her hair, brushing some wayward grass off her shoulder. Temida wouldn't miss her, so she decided she'd go a little farther away from the city. It was hard to find a quite place in japan, but she knew a few spots. As she went to leave though, she smelt her sisters mix of perfume and bird smell on the wind.

Curious, Diath desided to follow. They hadn't talked much lately and it would be nice to catch up. And Grainné always managed to find the most beautiful places to paint. Jumping into the air she dashed after her sister. Grainné was long gone within twenty minutes, but her scent remained long enough for Diath to follow her across the sea to china.

It was a good thing she was a fast runner, becuase scent's didn't stick around long, and birds were particulary hard to follow. But she managed it. She stepped up with careful steps, quiet as a snake, as Grainné stopped painting. Having learned to better understand her sister's strange way of showing emotion, she examined the painting. It seemed angry, half unfinished as it was. Still beautiful, always beautiful.

Still, paintings weren't words. She wanted to hear what was bothering Grainné from her own mouth. Making Grainné speak her mind... Pulling teeth from a raging ape seemed and easier feat. "You ok sissy? You seem a little off." Diath stepped up beside Grainné to take a better look at the painting. "Things have been hard lately, I know. But we'll manage, we always have." Diath looked at the forest ahead. As she guessed, the scenery was amazing. And there wasn't a sound, no big vibrations banging around in her skull.

The timing could not have been better. Grainné was just about to start packing up when she heard the familiar voice of her older sister. Anybody else would have panicked at the sudden company but Grainné had become accustomed to Diath's peerless stealth and tracking abilities. She turned to look at her elder sibling. As always, there were infinite quantities of words moving around her mind but very few making it to her mouth. Grainné wondered what Diath was doing here, but there was really only one reason.

Normally, Grainné would struggle to find words to say, but suddenly, with her thoughts flashing back the ruins of Soul Society, she found a focus of mind and body and spoke with purpose. "I'm tired of waiting. I want to fight." The words were coming thick and fast, before Grainné could even consider them. She was shaking with anger, anger that was threatening to boil over in an instant. "I WANT OUR HOME BACK!" As she said this, Grainné raised her her zanpakuto blade and cut straight through her painting, with such force that several trees behind it were blasted away.

Panting heavily, Grainné slowly regained her composure. "I'm... sorry..." she gasped as she sank to her knees, gazing mournfully at the ruins of her paint set.

What her sister said was something Diath never expected. On the other hand it was something she'd wanted to hear, and Grainné needed to do. She could see the anger boiling in her sister, and it needed to be released, as the trees behind the paining attested to. Diath manifested her sword and drew it, something she only ever did when she was serious about a fight. "If you want our home back you will have to fight. But not like that. That anger will consume you. Its ok to be mad, to give out and let loose, but never let your rage take control, or it will cost you your life."

"Show your fangs, Alysodemέnos!" Diath said. "I've waited a long time to see you visibly show emotion. Now your going to turn that anger on me. Fight me little sister, and learn to protect what you love!" Diath lunged forward. It was strange, she'd expected to talk, maybe even console her sister.. But those things came later. It wasn't the Xios way to console, not before a huge fight atleast.

Diath used her shorter yellow spear to jab at Grainné's leg, at the same time sweeping the longer red spear towards her sister's chest to slash with the blade. She didn't use a poison in fear of knocking the fight out of her sister. She wanted Grainné to fight, not scare her off it.

Grainné knew what was coming, long before she heard the familiar cry of Diath entering Shikai. It was well known fact that whenever a Xios had something on their mind, something that they were struggling with, they would address it with the most direct means possible. They beat the ever-loving crap out of each other. Grainné did not particularly want to fight her sister, however her anger had skewed her vision, and the fight was perhaps necessary in order to vent excess anger.

Grainné had witnessed Diath in combat enough to know very well the skill with which she wielded her spears in Shikai. She lifted her leg to dodge the attempted leg hit and continued the motion into a back-flip. However, her back-flip was not quick enough to completely dodge the slash with the red spear, which grazed the side of her rib-cage, but not too deep.

Landing several yards away, Grainné stood up fully, grasping her sword in two hands. "Time to fly, Neroamee!" she said, commencing her transformation into Shikai. Great black wings sprouted from her back, and her sword turned into the familiar calming blue color with the heart-shaped guard. She then proceeded to use her wind manipulation technique to form a shield on her left arm, wielding her sword in one hand.

Grainné thought for a split second about adopting her usual defensive stance, but this fight warranted a more aggressive approach. Grainné launched into a swift, lunging thrust attack, using her wind-shield to attempt to deflect a counter-attack.

Diath's spear thrust missed but she caught Grainné on the side of the ribs. She watched her sister release shikai, and charge. That was a surprise. In response, Diath met her head on. Grainné thrust her sword and Diath bent to the side, the sword grezing her ribs as it went past under her arm. Diath twisted the red spear over her sister's arm and used the handle to knock the blade away from her body before Grainné could do any more damage, and then slashed the weapon upward to force her back.

Diath pointed a finger towards the ground an shouted, "Bakudo 21, Sekienton." trowing up a cloud of red smoke up around them. Daith used the momentary confusion to get some Distance from her sister. She stuck both weapons into the ground and pointed both hands towards grainné and shouted, "Hado 33, Sōkatsui!" A blue ball of energy formed and shot towards her sister.

Grainné scored a glancing hit but was then instantly engulfed in red smoke from Diath's well-timed bakudo. Even with her enhanced sight she could not see through smoke. This forced Grainné into a strategic withdrawal. Leaping backwards out of the smoke, she looked up in time just to see the blue energy ball forming through the smoke. Thinking quickly, Grainné drew a circle in the air with her sword forming her Reflect Bounder energy shield around herself. The blue energy ball impacted on the shield and reflected back towards it's point of origin.

Seizing the opportunity, Grainné took to the sky and, spotting Diath above the smoke, stowed her sword in it's sheath and pointed both hands at her target and shouted "Hado 58 Tenran!" The tornado-like blast burst from Grainné's hands and hurtled towards Diath.

Diath wasn't aware her sister could bounce back attacks like that. A handy ability. Diath smiled and snatched up her yellow spear, then threw it towards Grainné. It picked up poer and if it hit, it would hit with the force of a cero. It popped Diath's hado like a balloon on the way. Then she snatched up her red spear and circled to the right as grainné took the the sky.

Grainné fired a hado 58 tenran, so Diath countered. "Hado 58, Tenran!" She said, firing back another swirling vortex. The two attacks colided and exploded outwards in a mass of swirling winds. As they calmed, Diath launched herself from the ground towards her sister, spear in hand. A poison seeped onto the blade.

If she landed a hit her poison, stiffness would kick in. This would cause Grainné's joints and muscles to become stiff, dropping her speed by 25% for two posts. As she reached Grainné she attacked with a trio of thrusts from her weapon, then brought the butt of the spear around to whack at her sisters knee before bringing it up and driving it toward her stomach.

Grainné heard the shout of same hado that she had used and sure enough, her attack dissipated swiftly. However, out of the dust came a yellow spear hurtling towards her. Knowing full well the power that Diath could generate out of a simple spear throw, Grainné opted dodge the attack by using shunpo to evade left. Momentarily distracted by dealing with the spear, she almost didn't see the next attack. Re-acquiring her target, she turned to see Diath charging straight at her, red spear in hand. Grainné dodged the first thrust, got nicked on the arm by the second and parried the third with her wind shield.

Grainné knew as soon as she took the hit that she had been poisoned. After dodging the third thrust, she began to feel sluggish almost immediately, as her circulatory system worked in overdrive during combat. Grainné barely had enough time to dodge the spear butt the first time, but caught the second strike square in the stomach. Winded, Grainné used shunpo to back away a couple of yards.

In that instant, Grainné lost her temper completely. "Bankai, Amee-Zaibatsu! she shouted, releasing her full power into her bankai transformation. Her wings turned white, and her hands and feet were replaced with large bird's talons. Grainné's hair grew longer, and turned a pale green. She then charged at her sister, using all of the speed she could muster, though she was still hampered by the poison. She led with a trio of strikes, aiming first for face, then for body with the other two.

Diath landed a hit with her spear's tip, then the butt of it. The combo did something she was sure was impossible. It pissed her sister off. She went into bankai, and Diath followed. Bankai, alysodemέnos dwreάn!" Not much changed, just her shoulderpad and arm guard appeared on her second arm. The only time she really changed when releasing was with Toukai, but she wouldn't need that here.

Diath met her sisters charge and parried the face strike and the first body shot. She missed the third one and took a slash, dodging aside as blood went flying away. Diath raised her hand and recalled her yellow spear which became animated, twisting and jabbing three times at Grainné of its own will. Diath switched the poison on her red spear with sickness, and thrust that towards her sister.

She broke away from Grainné after that, and threw the yellow spear. this time it attempted to wrap around her sister's arms. Meanwhile Grainné raised her hand into the air, and let out a loud hiss. A louder hiss answered, as a 20 ft snake materialised in the air. It headed for Grainné slowly, and struck with incredible speed, snapping at Grainné it was not poisonous, and 3 tiers lower than Grainné.

Grainné saw her sister's bankai transformation as she closed in. However, Grainné was completely oblivious to this as she launched her assault. She had her first attack blocked and her second one dodged. The third one scored though, blood spraying from the wound. Grainné could see nothing but red however. But she retained enough of her senses to remember that Diath had the ability to animate her spears as snakes. She glanced over her shoulder for a split second to see a yellow snake hurtling towards her snapping vicously. Grainné dodged the snake-spear, but in doing so took her attention from Diath. Never a wise move.

Sure enough, she turned back to Diath to recieve a red spear through the shoulder. The pain blinded her for a split second. Grainné started to feel nauseous, either from the blood loss or possibly another toxin on the blade. The blade withdrew, and she saw a massive snake materialize near the fight, gunning for her. She used shunpo to sidestep the snake's strike at such an angle that it ended up between the two sisters.

Then with all of the strength and speed she could muster, she swung with her good arm at the spot just behind the snake's skull, zanpakuto talons gleaming as the approached the creature. If this attack hit, or even if it didn't, Grainné would then charge again at Diath. Yelling "Hado 63, Sōren Sōkatsui!", she sped towards her aiming to connect with Diath with the two blue energy orbs at point-blank range.

Diath hissed and the snake snapped around at grainné at the same time her sister slashed at the snake's head. It hit, becuase the snake lunged into it, but its scales kept it alive and the strike kpet coming. After that Grainné fired hado 63, charging in close with it. Diath fired hado 33, the weaker version of 63, and took out one of the two balls of energy, hopefully catching Grainné in the explosion. The other one slammed into Diath's gut and exploded, sending her flying. She crashed into the earth below, making a crater from the force.

she cringed. her clothing where she was hit had been ripped away and her stomach was burned from the blue fire. her impact with the ground had jumbled her. It also through up a cloud of dust. "Bakudo 27, kyakko." Diath said. When the dust cleared, she was gone, or so grainné would believe, being unable to sense or see her because of the spell. She let her snake continue to attack on its own, while Diath circled and planned her strike.

Diath moved into the air, stiff with pain. She watched Grainné fight with her snake. Diath picked her moment and moved in. As she got close enough and attack, thrusting her spear towards Grainné's leg in an attempt to slow her sisters future movements, the spell broke, giving Grainné enough time to react if she'd been fully prepared.

Charging in with a ball of highly charged energy in each hand, Grainné knew it was going to hurt both of them. Sure enough, she was just about to reach Diath when she fired a hado back at Grainné. The hado connect with one of Grainné's hado and detonanted it, but not before Grainné got within the desired range and released the other one. The was an almighty double-explosion that sent both sisters hurtling to the ground.

Grainné groggily got to her feet, body racked with pain from head to toe. She got up just in time to see her sister rise and then disappear with her bakudo. Trying to think of a plan, Grainné then realized that her early strike on the summoned snake had actually inflicted no discernible damage at all. It was perhaps a little angrier however. It slithered towards Grainné with menace in it's eyes and pounced. Grainné was forced to shunpo again to avoid getting crippled. Losing her temper again, she yelled "Hado 33, Sokatsui!", and shoved the blue orb into the beast's mouth.

The snake clamped down on Grainné's arm, but it had just swallowed a Hado 33. After the resulting explosion (whatever the outcome), Grainné returned her by now very foggy eyes back to the task of locating her sister. She didn't have to look long. She felt the reiatsu presence behind her and sure enough, Diath materialized with a strike aimed at Grainné's leg. Grainné barely made the dodge before Grainné then took to the sky again, shouting "Bakudo 26, Kyakko!". She became undetectable, while also suppressing her reiatsu. She wondered briefly why Diath had made the mistake of not suppressing her reiatsu when going invisible. Was her sister getting sloppy, or was it deliberate?

Grainné actually shoved her hand down the throat of Diath's snake, which bit down on her sisters arm.. That would hurt. Constrictors weren't venomous but the still had fangs... plus the bite itself would hurt. Eitherway, a kido exploded out the back of her snakes head, killing it. And arm for an arm.

Her sister dodged the sneak attack, sensing Diath at the last second. Then she too vanished. Hmm.. Diath closed her eyes. And the world shifted to heat vision. Everything was blue.. Her sister was to far off, but Diath new she would become visible as she got closer, or attacked. It was just a matter of attacking at the right moment to catch her.

Diath wispered an incantation, preparing a bakudo to bind her sister. "Walls of ironsand, a priestly pagoda, glowing ironclad fireflies. Standing upright, silent to the end." As soon as grainné revealed herself, Diath would finish the spell, shouting, "Bakudo 75, Gochūtekkan!" As she finished, 5 tall thick pillars attacked by chains fell from above grainné to pin her down. Depening on where her sister was, Diath may have to dodge, which she would.

Grainné was now severely damaged. Her left arm was now useless after the snake left its mark before being destroyed. If Grainné wasn't in bankai, she would have simply cast a healing kidou on herself. However, because she was in bankai, she was no healer, thinking only of the destruction of her enemies. Even camouflaged by her spell, Grainné knew she could not approach close due to Diath's heat-vision abilities.

Grainné had shaken off any poison that had been inflicted, but she knew she couldn't take much more punishment. She maneuvered around carefully until she was behind Diath but still a good distance away. Taking a deep breath, she yelled "Hado 58, Tenran!" Because of the spell Grainné became revealed, and whether it was her reiatsu, her voice, or both, Diath instantly located her.

Preoccupied with her spell, Grainné did not see Diath's response. Five giant pillars landed on her, pinning her to the ground. Grainné hit panic mode almost instantly. She released from her bankai and began screaming and writhing and wailing and anything else that a person would do when confronted with her darkest fear. "Nooo! Let me out!!!!"

Diath was hit by the Tenran which sent her flying, but she'd pinned her sister. Unfortunately she forgot Grainné was seriously afraid of being trapped. To make matters worse Diath had used one of the stronger binding spells, making it very hard for her sister to escape. It was a real shame she'd been hit by the Tenran because she was having trouble moving now.

She managed to find her feet despite the pain. Diath Used shunpo to close the distance and almost collapsed, dropping out of Bankai. She gestured and the spell disolved. She crawled to Grainné "Shush.. Shush.. I'm sorry.. I forget sometimes you dont like being trapped... A fear you'll need.. to get over..." She hugged grainné fainting a couple of seconds later.

It took a while for Grainné to calm down after the binding spell was released. Then she felt the reassuring touch of her sister, and slowly regained her senses. She was beaten, bruised and punctured. But it didn't matter, she now knew what she had to do. The anger was not the problem, it was her lack of focus. Now she had something to focus her rage on. The evil that had invaded her home. No matter what happened when the time came, nothing could defeat the bond between the sisters.

Grainné didn't have a lot left, but she channeled her remaining reserves into one final spell. "Keikatsu." The healing technique. Grainné continued the spell until whenever Diath had enough healing to wake up.

A short time passed before Diath became conscious again, and some of her pain had faded. They managed to fuck each other up big time, as was the Xios way. Grainné wasn't looking to good either, her arm particularly. Diath sighed. "That'll teach you to shove your arm down a snake's throat." Diath said mockingly but with warmth. "You've improved little sis. You might even be stronger than me now." She said. That or the repeated bangs to the head from hitting the ground twice had concussed her, causing her to pass out..

Diath started to move. "I'm much better now.. Let me stop your arm falling off and we can head back..." Diath said. If grainné agreed, Diath put both hands on her injured arm and started the healing. They were both in need of some serious bed rest but they needed to get back first.

Grainné continued the heal until Diath was strong enough to get up and return the favor. Diath laughed about Grainné's attack on the snake, to which she replied, "Totally worth it." When Grainné's arm finally resembled an arm again, the two sisters took off into the sky to head back to Karakura Town.

(character wise, you've managed to play her very well, especially the part when you were trapped. You actually stuck to your characters personality and had her freak out because she'd been caught by the bakudo.

You've shown excellent combat skill and there were no godmodding infringements. You did miss some things or missinterpret them, but compared to the skill you displayed in the fight they were nothing, and you fixed them without issue.

Your posts got a little short near the end but you did keep over the 5 sentence recommendation. Generally for a captain class character you'll want to post atleast 2 paragraphs, unless you've been given very little to work with. Good use of your abilities too, and you didn't break any kido rules either.

You pass. You need a little work but that'll develope as you post more. )