Derocha, Ayden

[Guest]

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CASE FILE: Alchemist/Amestrian Militant

"I'm the dagger in your back, an extra turn upon the rack..."
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FULL NAME:
→ Ayden Xaver Nathaniel Derocha

AGE:
→ 26 27

SEX:
→ Male

BIRTH PLACE:
→ Central, Amestris

RACE:
→ Half-Cretan, Half-Amestrian

DATE OF BIRTH:
→ 14th May, 1985

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HEIGHT:
→ 6'3/191cm

WEIGHT:
→ 15 stone/96kg

PICTURE:
→

Spoiler:

DESCRIPTION:
→ The Blackskull Alchemist stands with a solid, slender, although somewhat muscled build. He values athletics more than tests of pure strength, and speed is a valuable asset in his line of work. He has long, shoulder-length, grey-silver hair (dyed for recognition), with two lustrous blue eyes, thin eyebrows, and sharp pupils. He dresses in a long, black trenchcoat, over that, a trailing, ever-so-slightly tattered cloak, and underneath it all, wears a fairly simple tight black sleeveless vest, and a pair of black, tight trousers, and shiny boots, spiked at the heel.

Underneath his clothing, he has two gunbelts, crossing over his waist, a pair of shoulder holsters, and one at each ankle, although they may not always be full. His main two armaments stay at his side. When not on a job, Ayden's mannerisms are very careful, and everything he does is very well-thought out. Every step, every touch, every movement, when he actually executes it, he's never thinking about it, he's always three steps ahead. Ayden swings towards discretion and usually wears black clothing if he's not donned his trademark garb.

A single scar trails over the left side of both lips, just emerging from the top and bottom of the pair. His voice is suave and quiet, and he only raises it when he thinks it necessary, having learnt to adjust and work in silence; although he enjoys grandiose, and noise, when necessary, can indeed be enjoyed.

Ayden moves slowly, and aims to present himself as very much a horrific, terrifying, impending figure; he will move slowly, surveying his enemy, until the very moment that he makes a move. When he does, the person on the receiving end will either have to be incredibly lucky or incredibly skilled if they want to get back up again.

When his clothing is shed, a pair of tribal, almost sword-like designs, handle, guard, blade, and all, cross over on his back, the points just barely visible at the base of his neck.

It has been revealed that Ayden holds a heavily scarred body. His lip is scarred from a brief encounter with a less-than-willing ‘participant’ in one of his ‘games’ (and he paid, big-time), his back is lined with faded grazes, and the majority of his upper torso and legs are lined with fading blotches and other scars. Whilst not self-conscious enough to care, Ayden justifies most of the scars and bruises are either from sparring with his mentor, Mr. G/Heart, or from former targets who proved a bigger challenge than most.

However, a set of these on his wrists are actually self-inflicted. There are dozens of tiny cuts, thanks to a regime his father implemented between the years of 1996 and early 1998; for every transmutation Ayden had performed – in secret or not – once uncovered, he would be forced to cut himself once, with one of the most horrifically sharp blades Ayden has ever experienced. He has since overcome his fear of knives, but self-harm is still a huge turn-off for him.

Ayden’s collection of weaponry, since his first profiling, has increased more than twofold. He possesses two bandoliers, a few weaponry slings, and at least two crossing gunbelts on him at all times. As such, his appearance may tend to hint towards the fact that he moves slow, but packs a punch; however, don’t be fooled. Ayden is trained and conditioned to working with extreme, strenuous weights; and seldom carries every single one of his weapons at any given time. No matter how deceptive his demeanour may seem, Ayden is incredibly fast in both movement and attack.

Ayden has transmutation circles tattooed onto both palms, and the pads of his index fingers. He plans on making his next dive into the world of biological alchemy to be his breakthrough discovery – being on the cusp of something both deadly and amazing – and is ready to make the majority of his entire body an inked shrine to the world of alchemy in order to have the array function.

Upon first glance, Ayden is an quiet, soft-spoken individual, most usually going about his own business in his own little way. However, his passion is easily triggered, and once this is done, there is absolutely no going back. He will fight to the death – quite literally – for something, be it trivial or of the highest importance, if he’s convinced that it is worth defending; unlike most, however, he waves away most moral issues, being a sociopath, and simply tends to concentrate on, half the time, much odder, smaller issues – what he considers to be ‘life’s finer luxuries’ – and the other half, the arts of violence and the macabre.

Ayden generally sheds his coat in battle, although up against a true 'worthy' enemy, he will strip down to naught but his plain black vest. The assassin's posture is usually absolutely and totally impeccable; you won't really ever see him slouching save for in impersonation and putting on a facade or a guise. Ayden's lying tends to not show through on his face, so his expression and location is usually an illusion created for the sole purpose of deception.

Ayden's visage is now tainted by his attempt to actually make the entirety of his body a monument to alchemy. He has a single full-body tattoo, mixed of arrays and circles which twines and spirals around every limb plus his neck. Together it provides a series of alchemically defensive barriers and bolsters Ayden's already impressive arsenal and slew of abilities... but it's also increasingly hard to hide, meaning that wherever he goes, Ayden can usually be seen and marked as an alchemist.

Whilst on his vendetta for revenge, Ayden will show his true fury. This side of him is rare and unorthodox; all that's known is that his brain fires synapses and processes information at a rate previously unheard of. Whilst, yes, he is calculating, whilst in action, he forgets himself and tactics, and goes all-out; everything runs on overdrive, and he will kill faster and harder. He won't mess around. He will carve a bloody crimson swath to the target and then tear them limb from limb as they wish for death.

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PERSONALITY:
→ Before any more ground is made, it must be realised that Ayden is a sociopath.

Because of several developmental issues in his early childhood – born a blind child to a sickly mother – Ayden found himself striving for acceptance in his first few years. He has since recovered, and shunned the common masses; he’s a very lonely individual. Beneath the layers of facades laid on thick, he hides an interior which really shows one thing above all else in his heart; loneliness.

At the top of his multi-layered exterior lies a brilliant grin, a level of near-unparalleled intelligence, and altogether a charming, if slightly off-putting, man. Ayden appears to be a natural linguistic, and constantly thrives to learn more, and will perhaps hint – in a convoluted manner – towards his lust for power, which stems from his childhood issues.

Ayden sees the world from a ‘knowledge is power’ point, and for this, constantly strives to learn more. His training with weaponry makes him multi-talented and a superior marksman, on a parallel with most militant snipers; as well as proficiency with blades and other weapons. Give him something, be it blunt, sharp, or loud, and he’ll make use of it. Especially if it’s explosive.

Alongside this, Ayden seems to bear traits of being a ‘chessmaster’ or ‘puppeteer’. He enjoys manipulating people, all the while preserving his magnificence until the last possible moment, where he chooses to flaunt it; he loves the sight of people bending over backwards thanks to his will and his alone.

Beneath that level, Ayden is very much a bitter maniac. Whilst not as prone to depressive fits as most people, Ayden realises that the world is harsh, and a man of his ability should go out of his way to... show off. Such is his reason for taking upon himself the mantle of the assassin.

He sees the world through kaleidoscopic glasses. Everything is so colourful, and so beautiful; yet twisted, in his eyes. It’s as if they’re shattered yet still functional; his sight and judgment has been corrupted, and he appears to be almost childish in his ideas of vengeance and payback, very hard to actually anger, although this is most likely another facade. Ayden is an expert at hiding his true emotions, not really being sure of them himself, and not having enough time alone to properly reflect on them.

Ayden loves power. It’s why he loves to shoot. He adores the idea of being in command of numerous expendable assets; and for this reason, seeks to join and quickly become a military officer of high-ranking position and control – all the while maintaining his ‘true’ persona – and for this reason, has indeed joined Amestris’ struggle; although he has bigger ideas. Grander ideas.

Explosives and guns are a penchant of Ayden’s. He loves the idea of taking a new shooter down to ‘the range’ – actually being the nickname for the site of his next mediocre contract – and looking for a challenge. He constantly improves and develops his arsenal, always ready for the next gun/blade to join his many-faced set.

Ayden is very much an advocate of psychological torment and warfare. He believes not that torture is a necessary evil, but not an evil at all. He views it as an activity of endearment; in some twisted, macabre way, he believes that he’s merely showing his concern for how a person treats ‘others’, often being the cause for scenes of self-reflection for some people, although very painful. Ayden likes to believe he’s just a violent therapist.

Giddy and bubbly when sated, Ayden experiences not joy, but highs from killing. It is his number one pastime, and Ayden has many a time compared himself to an artist, musician, writer... every kill is a canvas, every job an opportunity to paint a new array of masterpieces. As well as this, he exhibits elements of ‘mad scientist-ism’, often being the nutty professor wanting to further test his new – and usually violent – transmutation circle.

Ayden can also reach a state of ecstasy if tainted and baited enough with the right sort of treats from someone who understands his materialistic and sadistic desires, those few who have the common sense to weave the pairs together experiencing a rare spectacle - the man reaches a totally manic state which is comparable to a child's hyperactivity for a few moments, before slowly he and his thought processes both calm down somewhat.

Ayden can be very much said to enjoy 'the little things'. He has an insatiable desire to taste the finest food, encounter the finest crafts, listen to the finest rhapsodies, etc etc. This goes hand-in-hand with his desire to create of his art; whilst enjoying films, etchings, and literature, he believes himself to the pioneer of the newest art - death.

When angered, Ayden’s destructive side quickly begins to show. He will cut down everything in his path without a second thought, and toys will quickly become obstacles. And obstacles are to be mindlessly slaughtered.

With a seemingly insatiable bloodlust, Ayden is the very pinnacle of amorality. He understands little to do with the issues of ‘being human’, and deflects every psychological jab at his mannerisms and the ‘atrocities’ he commits. Ayden is simply, beneath the multiple surfaces, a confused, lonely individual, really seeking for someone to open up to – but he hates this fact, and repeatedly tells himself so.

It is presumed that his emotional development has been totally stunted, either due to his training as an assassin – courtesy of Geoffrey Heart – or perhaps his father. Early developmental issues show several viable causes for his development into a modern-day sociopath. He cares for no-one, and makes no attempt to hide it; he’s very much a snake in the grass, a deadly master of disguise waiting for the exact moment to strike.

Ayden continuously looks for the next challenge; perhaps it’s a male thing, but he constantly wants to test himself, and constantly strives to get better. Perhaps this is good for the psyche, but with a job such as Ayden’s, it gets destructive fairly quickly. He does look for contracts which require him to TRY; and not just have fleet upon fleet of guards thrown at him. Whilst quick and efficient is a fun warm-up, nothing compares to a grand fight, worthy of an epic retelling, where the viciously handsome assassin manages to turn the tables and win in the end. After all, he’s alive, isn’t he?

Ayden is mysteriously two-faced, and enjoys maintaining grand, false charades composed of a complex net forged of dozens, if hundreds, of little white lies. Lying gets the blood running; it allows you to experience something you never have before, and if you succeed with snaring something in the net, all the better. Seeing the field as a challenge, trying to present himself as every woman’s ideal ‘bad boy’, Ayden has a sense of promiscuity; although he doesn’t really talk of his sex life that often (but look at that hair, I mean, ooft).

Materialistic and envious to a T, Ayden shows signs of every one of the deadly sins, surprisingly enough a perfect candidate for any one of the homunculi. Ayden trades blood for money; despite his web of supposed loyalties, he holds no ties to a flag, or a leader. That’s what people will never grasp. One thing and one thing alone can change him; and this will be no amount of torture, discipline, or detention. That’ll simply craze him further. If the madman is to be cured, he must first have his shell eased open – not cracked – by a certain individual.

Ayden is, without a doubt, maniacally insane. He just does an incredibly good job of hiding it, most of the time. And all in all, it’s just up to the person in question to decide; does his brilliance outweigh his insanity?

As of his level 2 upgrade, the narrative has revealed that there's an even stronger set of horrific, sociopathic urges burning inside of him, whilst at the same time, he appears to be able to curb it around certain people and actually interact with others as if he were a human being, for example, Spade Aeries and Jeu-Hee Han. Showing examples of multiple extremes.

Alcohol seems to coax things out of him – well, like everyone – that he wouldn’t normally say. He becomes a lot more sociable, but still manages to keep the facades together; if a little raggedy around the edges.

Ayden has shown an ability to open up; whilst initially just another young fling that Ayden would cripple, he found himself with stinging eyes and a warm heart upon his leaving the place; making a promise to meet her in North City, Ayden quickly fled and realised that Jeu-Hee was his weakness; around her, he was unable to contain himself. His heart would spill forth things not meant to be told; and thus, Ayden is incredibly confused, to add the makings of love into the cluttered melting pot of emotions.

He also appears to hold some respect for those who hold military ranks, specifically those who have moved up quickly, as it shows power, and... well, Ayden likes power.

He really does. He’s obsessed.

In reality, it's also been revealed he will stop at nothing to get it. He believes knowledge is parallel to power, and that he can find the former - and along with it the latter - by uncovering the secret of how Xerxes was destroyed. However, he wants not for immortality, simply the ability to crush a city, a scientific marvel, with a click of his fingers. He, however, knows not of the Philosopher's Stone.

Ayden still hasn't learnt of the Philosopher's Stone and its existence, but this is somewhat irrelevant now. He appears to hold a superiority complex and a further belief that over the modern-day world lays a blanket of bullshit that even he, in all his majesty and brilliance, cannot break. Ayden is truly reaching the apex of his madness, and is a ticking time-bomb with a major possibility of snapping and becoming a huge threat to anyone nearby.

His hunger for further knowledge and power is quickly beginning to overwhelm him, and it's been revealed that killing and learning is an addiction for him that must be sated. The issues in his past combined with the sociopathic urges burning deeper within him, it appears, are now running parallel, shaky as is. If withdrawal and these other two factors come to crash together, the ensuing explosion will be devastating, and Ayden will become a massive threat, especially so with his escalating power levels.

On an interesting note, Ayden, when talking to Heart, sounds as if he possesses actual and total care for him, the only other individual alive to receive this being Jeu-Hee. He respects those such as Reila, Wu and various cultural, literary, and otherwise creative icons, but his love and care have been spent only on two simple individuals.

Also whilst talking to Heart, Ayden appears to shrink to the size of a six year old, becoming a child again under the man's influence, a student. Despite being sick and frail, the assassin still views him, even in retirement and close to death's door, as a capable man, one who still can come close to matching his ability. Ayden aspires to be like Heart was in his golden days.

The Blackskull Alchemist, as it has been seen from speaking with Lily Rosario and Animos, enjoys creating facades to escape from his actual, real personality. He enjoys defying it and denying it of its true position; he's also shown to have various withdrawals and flashbacks which can devastate him and upset a precarious physical and emotional equilibrium.

Ayden, under pressure or amidst the ruins of a country destroyed, tends not to involve himself in political power struggles, usually having left the targeted areas eons before the bombs are actually dropped; there's no fun at shooting something that's going to kill you regardless. This could be viewed by some people as cowardice, although it's simply a survival instinct for the silver-haired assassin. His loyalties lie only to money and intelligence.

Ayden's true political alignment is more 'apathetic' than 'neutral'. Blood, money, and power; those are the three things the man seems to care about. For this reason, he's now joined Briggs; he doesn't care what goes on around him, and seems to be, once more, apathetic in the 'grand scheme' of things, instead being an independent contractor rather than taking sides in any given war. After all, war is damn good for business, eh?

It's been proven during Ayden's more recent travels that another vice of his - amongst the many, hunger for appreciation, art, murder, the lot - is really curiosity. He aches and pains if he can't figure a person out, and loves to know details, true dirt. Hell, if he was a woman, he'd gossip like all hell - but the analyst that he is makes him constantly want to know more. The curiosity itself leads on to a very experimental and manipulative nature - in the pattern of 'what if I do this?' and 'what if I say this?'

Ayden appears to also have some form of a god complex. He enjoys believing in his own superiority, absolute and complete; as of yet it's unclear if this is simply a side-effect of his delusion or whether he genuinely believes that he is fit to be an immortal and everyone's superior. Either way, the promotions don't help.

However, something buried deep within him has finally surfaced. Vengeance has reared its ugly head. Ayden has truly and completely lost control. With Heart's execution at hand, Ayden is bitter, stewing, and absolutely furious. He will become irrational and act far more sporadically and unnaturally until his conquest for vengeance is complete; only time will tell if this is a wound that can be healed or not. He will become aggressive, and, eventually, as all do when the red curtain of fury descends upon his vision, he will absolutely and completely lose control.

He seeks to hate; to murder and kill no longer out of occupation, command, curiosity, depravity, or even necessity; but, no, as he claimed he never would - hypocrisy once more - he has fallen prey to his emotions. The very strongest of them. He is a slave to anger and sooner or later it will consume him; it will ensure there is nothing left but a cold shell of a man and whatever glimmer of redemption he held within him and his love will be erased absolutely and completely if he cannot reign it in. Vengeance begets vengeance; and unless Ayden stops, he will eventually become rabid.

Vengeance has taken hold. The seeds have been planted, the die cast. Now all that remains to be seen is whether Ayden can redeem himself or not.

LOVE:
→ Jeu-Hee Han
→ Murder of any and all varieties
→ Hunting/tracking a target
→ Alchemy
→ Overkill
→ Firearms
→ Simple, clean deals with no complications
→ Skilled and stylised execution
→ Not so much love as just respect for both Cretans and the Xingese
→ Classic music
→ Xingese cuisine
→ Fine art, and those who can appreciate, prose, poetry, and various visual art
→ Sports cars
→ Cats
→ Intellectual women, although, he's not one to argue with a strip club, either
→ Fine, undiluted spirits, and the odd glass of wine. Beer is piss.
→ Bladed weaponry
→ Comparing himself to grand musical/literary icons
→ Grandeur in any and all forms
→ Tattoos and body art
→ Killing and the euphoric feeling he gets from it
→ The feeling of bloodying himself
→ Excellent craftsmanship
→ The streets of London
→ Bookstores
→ Being a hypocrite and generally not caring about it
→ Pain. Administering it, mostly.
→ Torture.
→ Mythology
→ Well-prepared food; usually Gelemortian/Cerisian
→ Cerisian artwork and chapels
→ Classical literature, art, and music
→ Sharp things. Not bladed weaponry, just sharp things in general. Usually environmental factors. Pretty fun if someone trips and falls on a sharp thing, eh?
→ Alkahestry
→ The look in a man's eyes the moment before he dies
→ Geoffrey Heart
→ Vengeance
→ Administering vengeance
→ Linguistics
→ Learning
→ Latin

HATE:
→ Those who match his skill
→ Those who imitate his skill
→ Not so much hate, but envy of a strong parental bond, something he never had
→ Rival assassins
→ His father
→ Those who take more than they should for granted
→ Those who reject weaponry
→ Pacifists
→ Those who have no value for fine arts, cuisines, musics... the lot
→ Dogs
→ Forced dirtiness
→ Schools
→ Misogynists
→ Plagiarists and plagiarism
→ Institutionalised bullying
→ Being insulted or belittled by peers
→ Idiots in general, and idiocy itself
→ Pop music
→ Smoking and smokers
→ Abstract art (hypocritical, eh?)
→ Religion as a control mechanism
→ Badly cooked/undercooked food
→ New-wave authors; odd and contemporary styles of writing
→ Lieutenant Koth
→ Losing control
→ Giving in to vengeance
→ Depression and those who give in to it
→ Suicide

DEEPEST SECRET:
→ Ayden fears revealing his aspirations and wants for the future. It appears to be rather odd, but in reality he hates the idea of ever being affiliated with someone who could compromise him. Having become cold from the events in his past, he has shut down any possible friends or mates. In reality, this is the actual opposite from what the assassin truly feels. He infact has, thanks to early-life abandonment issues, a deep-seated loneliness which may be the only true emotion he harbours.

Ayden also fears showing his failure to comprehend or understand and having it being exposed; he fears being shut down as an intellectual and a scientist, but above all else, he fears the possibility of having more power accessible to him being shut away.

Ayden also fears losing control of his ability and psyche. Considering the precarious mental balance he sits upon at any time, he's only a short way away from breaking point; when he loses control and goes apeshit, it really isn't pretty. He fears not only the short-term lapsing between his limbo and true insanity, but absolute and complete loss of control altogether in the long run and becoming rabid.

He also fears the massive possibility of losing absolutely everything and hitting, as Tyler Durden of Fight Club fame would put it, 'the bottom'. He's very contradictory in this manner, often claiming that he's free to do anything because he's lost it all and truly recovered - but his depravity stretches far beyond that. Far, far, far beyond that.

IDOL:
→ Isaac MacDougal
→ Geoffrey Heart
→ Mr. Wu
→ William Shakespeare
→ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
→ Pablo Picasso
→ Christopher Columbus

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HISTORY:
→ Born in Central City to a severely ill Amestrian mother – Reina Holfgart – and a hard-ass ex-military alcoholic father – Lukas Derocha – Ayden had a rough upbringing. Not long after his birth, the "family", if you could call it that, moved to London; with his mother bedridden and his father struggling to hold up a job with mediocre pay, in between learning as much as he could of science in school, Ayden quickly found a single hobby in his first few years alive Reading, rather ironically. He went through a series of books – in Braille, obviously – a week, fiction or non-fiction, but the boy found himself significantly more drawn to the latter.

Around the age of four, it was discovered that Ayden was slowly going blind. Over the next twelve months, his eyesight deteriorated so badly that he begun school completely unable to see. Though he'd already seen enough. How his father beat his mother. How his mother couldn't resist. How he held the most curious of bottles in his hand and how he didn't understand when his father seemed to rely on them.

His parents (mainly father) unwilling to pay for a specialised blindness school, and just thinking that it was a "phase", in his drunken stupor, Ayden went to regular school and was given simply extra treatment there. The school luckily had a couple of other blind students, and so braille copies of books didn't go to waste, and the child was relatively taken care of.

An intellectual and a scholar by nature, even with his impediments, Ayden began to become fascinated by the simplest, most passive of things. Sea creatures, dinosaurs that inhabited what was now the ground he stood upon over 60 million years ago, diseases... his interests took hold when he came onto biology specifically, with Ayden swiftly advancing beyond his classmates in subjects with a scientific base.

Chemistry, physics, human and animal biology, geology... even subjects complex for children far beyond his age seemed to, once broken down appropriately, become almost elementary for him. His parents, too concerned with monetary issues and other affairs, didn’t recognise his achievements, and slowly, the child, blockaded further thanks to his disability, became an introvert with little else to do other than scratch pennies together in order to buy tattered second hand scientific compendiums from the nearest book store; run by a kindly man going by the name of Heart. Geoffrey Heart.

Thanks to his father’s absences during his early life, Geoffrey – referred to affectionately by the young blind scholar as simply ‘Mr. G’ – became an influential surrogate father figure for Ayden. Taking a shine towards the young, crippled, sickly boy, and quickly noticing his intellectual capacity, Ayden and Mr. G often spent many a day together in the summer whilst Ayden felt unwelcome at home – despite the outlandish accusations of the middle-aged man’s true intentions for the boy, Geoffrey Heart was simply a kind soul who wanted to help further the younger generation.

Supposedly.

It didn't take long for Ayden’s focuses to land upon the topic of alchemy in the vast fishing pond of science; and it was a huge catch indeed. He'd heard of it before, but he was so frightened that miracles could be performed oh-so-simply with a small amount of willpower, some research, the necessary materials and a sketched-out circle. It all seemed... so basic, to him. It wasn't long before the state noticed this astounding intelligence the blind child had, and so, at the age of eight or nine, he was transferred to London Middle School - the most prestigious of all private grammar institutions for this age - with a full scholarship.

Having trouble at school, simply being another child to join the silent masses – even at eleven or twelve – Ayden completely ignored – or completed – all the projects he was given, straight off the bat, and would simply sit there in the generously provided London Middle School library for every moment of his spare time; delving further into books that, by all rights, the boy shouldn’t have been reading. Bullied by his peers for spending so much time with his head in a book, Ayden’s sense of spite began to build and bubble within him.

However, for the moment, his intentions and thoughts remained, for the most part, focused on the scholarly functions of alchemy. Alas, however; it was time to test a practical. With a very simple material-manipulation circle sketched out in Mr. G’s basement, the older of the pair tried fruitlessly, time and time again, and to no avail.

But, when Ayden neared the ring; he knew exactly what to do. He slapped his hands together; slammed them to the ground. The ring crackled with blue alchemical electricity; and within moments, the shabby stonework of the cellar had reforged itself into a pure granite ring, with a collage-like amalgamation of stones sitting at the centrepiece. Offering it to Mr. G as tribute, the boy’s jaded view of alchemy quickly complicated further as he spent less and less time concentrating on worldly issues, and more so on just how to use this particular branch of science, since it appeared he had a natural gift to.

Spending time at school, as Ayden advanced into his final year of Middle School, the words and names became harsher. Labelled as the latest catch of a child molester and a predator, their sing-song rhymes and taunts continued until the boy’s rage bottled within him; and when, one day, he came home to Mr. Heart, and admitted his true desires, the latent fury lying inside his gut, how did the old man respond?

He told the boy... to lash out. But no; not with his fists. ‘A scholarly man,’ He said. ‘Such as you, Mr. Derocha, even at the young age of thirteen... should never bloody his fists. Never split the skin of his knuckles. No, a man retaliates with not what he feels, but with what he knows.’

And that was exactly what Ayden did. Using his alchemy, three of his fellow spry teens were quickly dispatched; most were simply given bruises, thanks to the tactical placement and aim – and what little bitter mercy and self-preservation instincts the boy contained – of the alchemically-crafted ‘booby traps’ he’d placed. However, one was given a broken leg by this series of events, and the debacle was taken further by the school staff.

The next day at school, the boy was tugged home by a white-faced headmaster, who informed his parents – who claimed that they hadn’t seen the boy properly in weeks, save to give him what little scraps of food he was allowed – that the boy was forcibly given a punishment of dishonourable expulsion from one of the most prestigious state-funded grammar middle schools in the city. Bewildered by his parents’ seeming lack of care on the matter, the headmaster quickly deduced that another man – who Ayden, snivelling, revealed the name and location of – was to blame. A different father figure, with darker morals than a seeming neutrality towards the boy’s actions. Mr. Geoffrey Heart.

Taking with him the boy – by the collar – and a policeman, the headmaster stepped straight into the elderly man’s bookshop. At first glance, it was empty; but the man, after a small delay, greeted the pair, stepping up from the cellar, with two freshly-brewed cups of coffee ready for the policeman and the headmaster. Grateful, and obviously believing everything the boy had said to be a lie – due to Heart’s charisma, mainly – the headmaster and policeman waved the issue away, and sent the boy back to his parents.

For a little piece of trivia; the headmaster and policeman were infact given a deadly, slow-working poison. Both were struck by a bout of what appeared to be deadly salmonella, when their respective immune systems were at a particular low; within two weeks of crossing paths with Heart, both met their fates at the hand of one of the most painful, slow-acting poisons registered in mankind’s botanical textbooks.

Most would be turned away by this. But, no, not Ayden. Never Ayden. He simply yearned, longed to know more; the morals of the matter had been waived, even at such a young age. Abandonment and ignorance issues in his early childhood meant... that he could deal with this. Telltale signs of becoming a sociopath under his wing, the Derocha boy researched further into alchemy; intrigued by one simple fact. Alchemy had endless different uses, and one could tweak their transmutation circles and personalise alchemy to be their own. Ayden now realised he could stand out, break from the mould. Individuality.

He began to practise, and knowing what he did of the three sciences, as a young teenager, he quickly became an alchemical prodigy. Taught botany by Heart, too, who tended a large, underground garden, Ayden would not return home for weeks, given free bed and board in the homely upstairs of the book shop, as opposed to the rowdy interior of his home. And it appeared that the sociopath-in-the-making had more in common with his mentor than he had previously expected; the rages, the urges, the hate for common humanity, the rabble outside... this man had shared them. An idol by any other name.

His mother died a couple of years later, although, this didn't stop him. Apathetic towards this, he used this simply as further drive to entrance himself in the world of alchemy. He began to take larger leaps, greater steps, until an argument with his father, a drunkard and a coward, came into full force. A man of strict, blue-collar ‘logic’ who worked in a factory couldn't believe what his son had become; and instead of welcoming it as a new business opportunity and something to help get the family back on their feet after all of those long, tiresome years, like that, Ayden's father thrust him out onto the street at sixteen, a blind boy having to survive on his own with naught but alchemy to fall back on.

Spending a few more months with Mr. G, Ayden was now a full-time student under the aging man’s wing. Botany, swordsmanship, weaponmastery... many things came under his tutelage beneath the man who held the facade of a bookshop owner. The revelation soon came; not unexpected. Heart was infact an old assassin; withered beyond measure, who had simply hoped to settle down, take an unlikely protégé, and pass down his methods; the oldest tricks in the book.

Despite his impediments, the assassin-to-be quickly grasped everything he thought there was to know of the killer’s ways. His martial arts, his athleticisms, his movement... everything was as perfect as it could be. Together, the pair of them had a fully functioning body; Ayden’s limbs and muscles were in full form, whilst Heart still had a true pair of working – if deteriorating – eyes.

Still unable to see, Ayden’s view of the world was jaded but alas monochromatic; he couldn’t fully interpret the ways of the assassin, finding barriers along every path at some points. Given a few hundred Cenz and sent with an old car and a young driver, Ayden was told to find an alkahestrist, Mr. Wu, an old-time ‘business associate’ of Heart’s. Entrusted with a letter of credit, the assassin, not knowing of his chore, set out towards the outskirts of Xing.

For days and nights he travelled. Unable to initially find his way, guided by the young man Heart had paid to take him to Xing, Ayden stopped at a small collection of tents in the warm sands, stepping out, bare-chested, wearing only a pair of shorts and a blindfold wrapped over his face. The letter of credit was presented, and silently, Wu drew out an array around a still young boy, not yet of sixteen.

With no complaints, stifling cries of pain, the flesh was repaired; Ayden felt as if his very nerves were set aflame as suddenly, his vision, blurry, at first, came back. He spent three days recovering with Wu, before the old man handed him the ‘letter of credit’; infact a piece of withered parchment with an ancient Xingese seal – what the man had interpreted, most likely – and the words:

’My gift to you, boy, is sight. You have it now. Our training is not yet finished; but know this. Whatever you may do with the boons I have granted you, and the skills I have taught you, I will be proud of you; as if you were my very own son.’

Looking to Wu, Ayden quickly realised that the man held a disability of his own type; the man was a deaf-mute. Puzzled why the elderly Xingese alkahestrist didn’t heal himself – a mystery which stays with him to the very present – Ayden retreated from the camp, returned to the car, and left for London once more; but not before snapping the neck of the driver as if it were today’s turkey dinner. The boy was young; but he was foolish, and knew far too much. This was Ayden Derocha’s first kill; as insignificant as the rest, but far from as grandiose and stylised.

Returning to the book-shop, Ayden completed the rest of his training before the turning of the fresh millennia; he completed a few contracts at the old Xingese man’s will over the next two years, but beyond that, no more was said between them. He bought his first pair of pistols, and suitable attire, before the rest of his money was spent upon something that the man considered a far more luxurious necessity; and yet a privilege, in his business. Alchemy. The boy knew now that it was time to develop his own specialty; one which he would be renowned for across the land.

Barely eighteen, bitter, a seething rage within him due to being cast out by the last blood relative he had left, Ayden released himself upon the world, developing quickly his ideas of how grand death was; quickly, he discovered it to be an art, a genre, a classic literary typing... it was the greatest entertainment. The most bountiful enrichment, causing each of the senses to climax in a nearly orgasmic state. It was now that he realised that whilst he was a student for Mr. G, he was also a business opportunity, with the aging (now) ex-assassin being a ready source of contract; on which he would always take a portion of the profits as a ‘finder’s fee’, Ayden being, for once, perfectly happy with this.

Death was his art; and in the land of the living, as the new Grim Reaper, alchemy was to be his calling card...

With fresh words upon trembling lips, Ayden Derocha quickly released himself unto Amestris, a wandering assassin shooting from country to country in further search of work. “The Blackskull Alchemist... has come.”

*****

Five years on, Ayden Derocha still desires to follow this same path. An assassin now improved and far developed from that young man of so many years ago, Ayden is a grizzled artist amongst those still whetting their muzzles. A prestigious amount of profit and indulgence beneath him, Ayden seemingly finds little time for mortal vices; not concerned with women, drinking, gambling, or drugs, he simply searches for one more thing, one thing which will last and continually sate his hungry urges for the rest of his years.

Alchemy.

*****

Ayden began his true ascent into the ranks of those known about Amestris with the Ballzini hit from his main contractor, Col. Nikolaus Stuka, during which he encountered a mysterious Xingese man, the 'White Fox', with the ability to seemingly reanimate the dead through use of electrical impulses delivered to spinal cords.

An anonymous contract was also given to him for the disposal of Murazar Dauthi, but it appears to be foul play on the contractor's side, and as such, shortly after Ayden realised just how powerful the Soul Stealer Alchemist was, the pair began to settle the dispute with diplomacy.

Along with this, a somewhat more calm and curbed side of him appeared when he journeyed to Xing and happened upon Miss Jeu-Hee Han, the country's foreign ambassador. It's become apparent that he's interested in her - for something other than killing - and appears to have taken a shine to the young lady; if you could say that.

Jeu-Hee has actually awakened a positive emotion within Ayden that most have thought him previously incapable of feeling. He takes not fondness towards the young, odd girl – a chimera, too – but seemingly adoration towards just how bubbly and enjoyable she is; it’s intriguing, how one can be so tainted yet so happy. Ayden hopes to spend more time with her in the future.

He also encountered a young boy, Chalybs, in South City on his many journeys, who saw a small glimpse of the worst side of Ayden possible when asking him to 'look into who he truly was'. After placing himself totally at Chalybs' mercy, with a loaded gun to his head, simply to play with the boy, Ayden spun the gun around, wondering out loud about the colour of the young man's grey matter before he drove off.

Since then, he has also encountered Brig. Gen. Spade Aeries, and the two appear to be forming a rather solid bond. Despite having been offered a job, Ayden still hopes to explore the world around him further before continuing on to find a solid position; Ayden has even supposedly swayed the man to become the new head of ‘Covert Operations’; meaning that he’ll still be able to kill like the cold-hearted bastard he is!

Finally, Nikolaus and Ayden have, behind the scenes, been conspiring to set up a long stream of assassinations, with the pair eventually planning for Ayden to join the forces of Central as a State Alchemist, both to further his own research through additional means of funding, and being given access to certain materials in the few remaining military libraries of Amestris.

The remainder of Ayden's history, entailing a mystery in Creta and a lot of things to do with his grandfather, alongside his father, still remains hidden to most at this point, although it's been revealed just how much his father despised alchemy, ordering Ayden, as a young boy, prior to his moving in with Mr. Heart, to administer a cut to his arm for 'every transmutation he'd ever performed', before he was finally expelled from the house.

*****

Ayden has since ascended into the upper echelons of the military, now a licensed State Alchemist, having passed the exam with flying colours. Alchemy is his tool and his calling card in the land of the living, yes, but his hunger for further knowledge is eating at him, and it is apparent that despite his cool, calm, collected (sometimes, anyway) exterior, eventually, the tension will rise and break, and the man will snap. The inner sociopathic urges will be released.

Ayden has spent time, on his vacation, in several places and locales across the map, including a visit to his love, Jeu-Hee, in Xing, some screwing about in La Ciliegia, Ishval, East, and South. All were colourful and contained various spatterings of crimson along the way; despite contracts mainly taking him from place to place, he's met a bunch of new characters who have instilled in him further inspiration for killing, new innovations and the like.

Ayden has since ventured to Creta, meeting Patience Vinrouge, and coming into contact - for the first time, face-to-face, in about a year - with Mr. Geoffrey Heart, his old mentor, teacher, and surrogate father figure (you should know this if you've read all my history D<). Heart is ill, and this appears to grate on Ayden's sanity somewhat - as if it isn't already bad enough - no matter how he tries to hide it. Ayden knows the inevitable will soon come to pass and searches for ways and methods, taboo as they are, to salvage what will remain of the old man after death comes to call for him.

Ayden now works under Reila Tsukino, a woman he met at the party in South who he holds respect for - namely her abilities and alchemy - considering the command and icy aura she seems to simply radiate. He's intrigued by her, and whilst new to Briggs, will hopefully integrate into the dynamics as well as he possibly can. She knows of his freelance dealings with assassination, and although they may not see eye-to-eye, it seems like she can accept it, somewhat, due to their intrigue being somewhat mutual.

Ayden has spent time in Xing over his vacation and learnt how to discern and manipulate the energy generated from the Dragon's Pulse. He's developed his latest branch of weaponised science upon it; a specific type of alkahestry tweaked to cause necrosis over an area of organic material.

Desperately, the man still fails to understand of Wu's troubles and why the man didn't heal himself. It niggles at him like a puzzle yet unsolved, to him, life's greatest mystery despite its insignificance in the grand scheme of things.

*****

Much has transpired since the last logging of Ayden's journey. In La Ciliegia, with one Lily Rosario, the nature of his spirituality was explored and yet left rather vague, mysterious, and ambiguous all at the same time. A lot of the man's history and inner mechanisms and workings remain to be shown. He further consorted with Nikolaus Stuka, and has since been promoted to Brigadier General. Alongside this, he picked up a rather lucrative and promising new contact, definitely one for the books; a Mr Hei Jin, who appears now to actually haunt him in his dreams. There is a link between the Aryan security chief and the Xingese-Drachman, however one he cannot yet fathom due to the mystery surrounding it.

Something far more important to note is Ayden's real path, however. His personal one. After Heart's brief appearance with Patience, Ayden returned to visit him once more, but unfortunately the bookshop was gunned down. Heart was riddled with bullets and his body torn to shreds, whereas the more athletically fit Ayden immediately threw himself to the ground and crawled into the basement, having taken a round whilst he was at it.

Using his newfound alkahestry to heal himself, Ayden mourned the loss of his mentor and escaped after spending a day and a half unable to walk. Vengeance began to surface, and all of Ayden's anger, everything inside him reared its ugly head, and, slowly but surely, it seems that this fury will seep into everything he does. The man now finds it harder to remain composed and calm, taking on a very bitter aura even around acquaintances; friends have less to fear, however. He's still sporadic and murderous as ever, but won't, it seems, calm down until these demons are finally buried.

He seeks desperately to find the six men that killed his father figure and left him for dead. As these men slowly fall of the map, his vengeance will escalate and Ayden's anger will engulf and begin to control him; however, what remains yet to be seen is whether Ayden will find redemption before he is enslaved by his emotions and overwhelmed, turned into a rabid animal. Will he be able to shake off this fury after everything is over? Or will he just become a savage, empty husk? Will he be able to return to Jeu-Hee at the end of the day, or will his anger finally be the puppetmaster he's longed to be for so long? Will he finally lose control? Above all these, one question fires subconsciously around the lunatic's head that he desperately searches for an answer to.

At the end of the road... will he be able to come back to the makings of a life he's founded for himself?

...........................................................................

TRIVIA:
→ Ayden was blind at birth; as such, he learned to adjust, and knows all of his equipment and clothing back to front. He has both an adept sense of smell and hearing and can hunt a target much better than even some military trackers can. However, during his time in Xing, Alkahestrists healed his disability and he can now see once more.
→ Seemingly wanders from country to country as he pleases; death his art, and it calls him wherever and whenever. There seems to be little concern for the law. This is somewhat untrue now as Ayden is a member of Fort Briggs, but he still does a little exploration.
→ Somewhat of a weaponry nut. Fuck that. 'No kill like overkill'.
→ Spends most of his time in Xing and Amestris, occasionally moving up to Creta.
→ Speaks Amestrian, Cretan, and Xingese. However, since his spending time in Gelemorte, Ayden has began to speak fractured Gelemortian Rouenian and Cerisian. No longer are they fractured as time has been Ayden's ally in the world of linguistics.
→ Ayden picks up on languages incredibly quickly due to his high IQ, developed comprehensive ability, and linguistic sense.
→ Ayden is beyond hypocritical, in case you haven’t noticed; he hates bullying, but will point out as quickly as possible someone’s idiocy (although, usually, they have to be pretty stupid for that to happen). Ayden also doesn’t care that you’ve noticed this, and if you wish to make it a problem, he’ll visit you in your sleep with a hockey mask and a chainsaw.
→ Ayden seems to lack the understanding of why people restrict THEMSELVES. He believes that ‘if you have the power, why not?’. A firm believer in the creeds of ‘don’t knock it ‘til you try it’ and ‘all good things in moderation’, Ayden is actually incredibly open; just... somewhat sadistic. This also follows for depression. He doesn't understand why someone would let themselves fall that far into a downward spiral.
→ Ayden is incredibly interested in Biblical, Greek, and Roman mythology above all else; whilst others do pique his interest, these three take the highest spot amongst the rest, with most of his weapons tending to draw some sort of influence from these deities, myths, heroes, or cultures; usually inscriptions. As an added bonus, Ayden’s ‘assassin’s creed’, the prayer he utters moments before delivering the final shot to an intended target, is also completely in Latin.
→ Over his vacation, Ayden spent a two-week tenure in Xing (before his rendez-vous with Jeu-Hee) and has since been tought (presumably by Wu) to discern, understand, and locate the Dragon's Pulse. Due to this, he can now perform alkahestry, something he admires for the simple fact that in can directly affect the cells of the body, whereas before the man only dabbled in biochemistry and bioelectricity. This opens up new avenues for his arsenal, and Ayden is considering the grandest lovechild of alchemical and alkahestric techniques... his final masterpiece. An array.
→ Ayden is predominantly right-handed, but has real weapon proficiency with both, and his muscles in each arm are kept on a steady level with a strict exercising regime (read: killing people).
→ Ayden has surgical - no, medicinal - precision with pretty much any one-handed weapon, being able to pick it up - the lighter, the better - and get to grips with it in a matter of moments. His training also allows him to be incredibly precise with jabs, stabs, and other close-combat moves, and he's been taught to think ahead and work swiftly and aggressively. Ayden has also concluded that anything he can wield one-handed, he will wield one-handed, typically with another weapon in the other hand. Guns akimbo makes you a gangster, right?
→ Ayden carries a LOT of weaponry. He's been conditioned to absorb phrases such as 'variety is the spice of life', and typically lives his combatant life by this. His physical conditioning puts him at just about peak muscular status - courtesy of assassin and military training - and means that he can carry all of his equipment and actively work with it. Not quite with ease, but it's still possible.
→ Ayden generally sheds his coat when going into the fray of battle, leaving it behind. He doesn't always carry all of his weaponry; Andromeda and Perseus are usually left behind unless they're specifically required, and usually traded off for other weaponry (especially Andromeda). The bag of ammunition and explosives is typically left in the trunk, as well.
→ Ayden has been revealed to have the auditory equivalent of photographic memory, more or less. His head works like an MP3 player, and he can remember sounds vividly and completely, usually storing them for years in the bank that is his mind. This helps for certain interrogation and psychoanalysis situations, as well as fucking with people and providing evidence.
→ Ayden is currently locked in clutch with a group of mercenaries and assassins hired to execute his mentor and a prominent father figure in his early life, Geoffrey Heart. He will not falter or rest until each and every one of them is torn limb from limb; and this is most definitely the reason that he's constructed his raison d'etre - the Toxic Laughter Alchemy array, perfecting the murderer image.
→ Ayden's depravity has known to show no real bounds, with the assassin even going as far to blow up guinea pigs in his experiments to perfect his alchemy. Or just because he got bored.
→ Yeah, boredom with Ayden never really ends well for any party involved. Generally makes heads roll and/or explode. It's also mainly the reason for his avid curiosity.
→ Ayden does not perspire under pressure or whilst being interviewed.
→ Level 1 theme song is Black Stone Cherry's Blind Man. Level 1 quote is 'Have you seen the blind man in disguise, looking for his eyes?'
→ Level 2 theme song is Marilyn Manson's Putting Holes in Happiness. Level 2 quote is 'Can't spell slaughter without laughter, after all~!'
→ Level 3 theme song is Flyleaf's Again. Level 3 quote is 'Little supernovas in my head, little soft pulses in my dead, little souvenirs and secrets shared, a little off-guard and unprepared.'
→ Level 4 theme song is Avenged Sevenfold's Gunslinger. Level 4 quote is 'Cemeteries and shadows on my mind, I just wanna be right by your side...'.

...........................................................................

ALIAS:
→ Ross/KoH

OTHER CHARACTERS:
→ Balthazar, Marcus Frostbrook, Zen Howler, Alastair Carson, King, Victor Dresden and Marco Falzone

CREATOR'S COMMENTS:
→ Derp!
→ LEVEL 2 CHANGES
→ LEVEL 3 CHANGES
→ LEVEL 4 CHANGES

FACE CLAIM:

Code:

[b]KUROSHITSUJI[/b]/[i]the undertaker[/i]

CUSTOM RANK:
→ CONTRACT KILLER
→ AMESTRIS' JESTER
→ SILVER-HAIRED ASSASSIN
→ IF I WAS YOUR VAMPIRE
→ ONE-MAN GENOCIDE
→ MEMENTO MORI
→ NIGHTMARE IN YOUR SKULL

OFFICIAL TITLE:
→ Blackskull - The Blackskull Alchemist

...........................................................................

[Reila Tsukino]

APPROVED

Awesome/Unique APP! Love this character.

[Dai]

A P P R O V E D

Changes approved.

[Reila Tsukino]

APPROVED

;D

[Spade Aeries]

Rolling rank...

[Dai]

The member 'Spade Aeries' has done the following action : Rank Roll

'Lieutenant Roll' : 4

[Guest]

I'll be able to have this app totally prepped for verdict tomorrow night, around 9PM GMT. Sorry for the delay.

[Guest]

Ready for judging - have also revised history, description, and personality (right from the get-go), so that needs to be looked over.

[Guest]

APPROVAL

Your Necrosis Alkahestry that borders upon destruction alchemy in biological functions will be reviewed more in depth in your transmutation application.

[Dai]

NIKO, RANK. D<

[Dai]

The member 'Dai' has done the following action : Rank Roll

'Colonel Roll' : 2

[Guest]

Appeal for promotion to General:

Ayden Derocha has ascended quickly to the higher echelons of the Amestrian military. Whilst his underworld dealings are, at best, shady, he's forged good alliances with other generals - namely Tsukino, Stuka, Furor, Aeries, and Brighton - and has proved himself to be a worthwhile combatant in the field, and an informative and helpful underling during his time under General Aeries in Central.

He's dealt many a time with General Stuka, to the point now where he's actually helped eliminate a vast majority of the organised crime around Central that sprung up after the city was previously destroyed - most notably is his elimination of the late Don Ballzini, who proved time and time again to be a massive nuisance for Central forces, and had too many insurance policies in place to allow a full-scale police assault. He's proven time and time again to be a capable, efficient State Alchemist, not only on the field of battle, but also whilst off-duty for non-combat purposes.

Whilst he's by no stretch of the imagination an ordinary man, personality defects aside, Ayden has shown enough dedication to the military itself to warrant a swift ascent through the ranks and has managed to grasp himself a transfer to Fort Briggs, one of the most prestigious outposts in all of Amestris, if not all of the known world, where he will undoubtedly be a great addition to the team there.

[Guest]

Let it rip, guys. All done here.

[Dai]

...alright. I give permission for Ayden Derocha to become a Brigadier General.

A P P R O V E D

[Guest]

I'd like to thank the academy...

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