[hider=A boy.][center][h1][color=blanchedalmond][i]Draft is $1 on Wednesdays.[/i][/color][/h1]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/LpDKF0H.jpg[/img]

[color=blanchedalmond][b]Name:[/b][/color]
[i]Rui Takaiwa[/i]

[color=blanchedalmond][b]Age:[/b] [/color]
[i]30[/i]

[color=blanchedalmond][b]Birthdate:[/b][/color]
[i] November/24th[/i]

[color=blanchedalmond][b]Gender:[/b] Male[/color]

[color=blanchedalmond][b]Nationality:[/b] Japanese[/color]

[hr]

[color=blanchedalmond][h1]Appearance:[/h1][/color]

[b][color=blanchedalmond]Height:[/color][/b]
[i]5'9"[/i]
[b][color=blanchedalmond]Weight:[/color][/b]
[i]160 lbs[/i]
[b][color=blanchedalmond]Fashion Sense:[/color][/b]
[i]In a fight, Rui usually just wears whatever he happens to be wearing during the day. If it's a work day, he will be in a white collared shirt with his tie tucked into his pocket to keep it from getting dirty. He likes wearing pinstripes, though mostly as part of his last inklings of wanting to set himself apart. Rui keeps his hair relatively short and out of the way, if only because it's easier to manage. During the weekend, he usually is not dressed until he expects to leave his flat, which in most cases he does not if he can help it.[/i]
[b][color=blanchedalmond]Distinguishing Features:[/color][/b]
[i]Rui wears a pair of glasses, but he doesn't really need to, his vision isn't that bad.[/i]

[hr]

[color=blanchedalmond][h1]Biography:[/h1][/color]

[b][color=blanchedalmond]Personality Questions:[/color][/b]

[hider=questions]-You're fighting a worthy opponent who you're about to defeat, then they forsake their humanity and give up their self just to beat you, how do you react?

[i]"Cool. Let me try that."[/i]

-A good friend of yours abandons you and everyone they know in the pursuit of strength, how do you feel?

[i]"You know. It happens.[/i]

-Someone you have romantic interest enters a relationship with someone else, what do you do?

[i]"Well, they say that if you love something you should let it go.[/i]

-How do you feel about explosions?

[i]"I like the sight but not the smell."[/i]

-You lost a fight, what are you going to do about it?

[i]"My teachers always told me to lose with grace, so I do.[/i]

-Where do you go when you die?

[i]"I dunno. I guess it doesn't matter."[/i]

-What's your worst nightmare?

[i]"I have dreadful stage fright."[/i]

-Do you believe in karma?

[i]"Not really."[/i]

-Can evil people be rehabilitated?

[i]"I believe they can."[/i]

-Are you a bad person?

[i]"I don't know."[/i]
[/hider]

[b][color=blanchedalmond]Backstory:[/color][/b]
[i]Rui was an average child, born and raised in Tokyo in a small city apartment by his two parents. He lived an average life. He worked hard, studying like all the other kids during the day, cram school during the afternoon, and homework in the evening. Despite his efforts, nothing could change that he was dreadfully, painfully average. At the age of 8, Rui had gotten glasses. He never enjoyed them, and though he was excited at first, the next day that he had school he realized just how many other children also wore glasses and that unlike some of them, they didn't even make him look very cool or mature. However, throughout his childhood, he had strange dreams where he was visited by a small child, usually around Rui's age who introduced himself as the "God of Chaos." He usually dismissed it as a simple recurring dream and after he turned twelve, the dreams seemed to disappear.

Rui skated through his middle school and even purposefully tried to get into an easier high school so that he could look better compared to the rest of his classmates. The delinquents at his school ignored him. In fact, everyone ignored him. He had a circle of a few friends who spoke to one another online more often than they spoke in person. His hobby was video games, and he didn't have a preference. He liked whatever his friends enjoyed. He didn't collect anything. He wasn't good at sports, though he did try baseball.

In college, Rui studied computer science just like most of his friends. As expected, he was about at the middle of the road as far as grades went, which at that level were actually a little above average. He tried experimenting a little bit and even tried going on a few dates which he had met through phone dating apps until he had eventually married one of them.

After college, Rui had gotten a job at an office writing code for a mid-sized company. He was a salaryman, just like everyone else. For the most part, his life was unexciting. Then, the stress got to him and it seemed that the dreams from his childhood were returning. It must have just been the increased workload, or maybe it was the sign of things being moved around in his house and that it wasn't clean as it usually was when he had gotten home with rumors spreading about his wife cheating on him behind his back. The dreams got really strong then.

It wasn't until one day when Rui decided to finally try and catch his wife in the act. He planned on getting his work done early so that he could get home, at least a few minutes earlier, rushing through traffic. It was then when he saw the man, just as he left his house. Rui stopped him and called his wife down. The three argued for an hour, eventually escalating into a fight between him and the other man on the street late in the evening. Rui noticed a bright light, but could only see the face of the "god of chaos" who had shown himself during Rui's childhood, laughing. Both of them were hit by a truck.

Rui was hospitalized, and the other man had died. He was in serious condition and Japanese medical professionals could not operate on him. When his parents had heard this, they decided they needed to do something about it. Thus, they sent his body to the United States so that American doctors could work on him. Several risky procedures ensued. Meanwhile, as he was comatose, Rui was greeted again by the god of chaos, who explained that Rui would be reborn in a land of opportunity and that Rui would be rewarded with one of the god's favorite children. After several weeks more in comatose, Rui found himself awake at a New York hospital with the doctor calling his parents to let them know that he was okay. Rui was ready to return home. That is until he listened to a voice mail from his boss who said that Rui had been fired from his job after his long absence and read a text from his wife saying that she was leaving him.

With nothing to lose, Rui decided it was time for a fresh start in America, except there was another problem. He couldn't find a job- Not in the 2020 New York job market. One morning after a job interview, as he kicked a can down the street, he had accidentally kicked the tin can into the sight of a speeding taxi. After the driver jumped out to save himself, the taxi swerved onto the street and toward a pair of super-powered people fighting one another. Rui rushed in in an attempt to tell them to get out of the way, but his still thick Japanese accent had only distracted them until the taxi hit one. The impact did not kill him, but the subsequent launching of the airbag, the struggle, and the eventual explosion along with the brick, metal, and asphalt did.  Rui called the police about the accident as he carefully approached the scene. When he did, he heard a voice calling to him, thinking that it was the man the car had hit. "Go on then. Pick me up." It said in a smooth tenor voice and a British accent, however, the man did not move. He was very clearly dead. That was when the knife in the man's possession rattled in its sheathe and Rui picked it up. The knife introduced itself as David Bowie.

Rui was reluctant to hold it, but as he did, it seemed to drag his hand outward and blood ran down his sleeve. When he traced his arm up, Rui saw the other fighter, bleeding to death from a wound to the chest. As he saw the fighter die before his eyes, he could also feel a surge of power along with the bloodthirst of his new weapon. When the police arrived, he pleaded self-defense in his thick accent, with there luckily being a translator there for him and he was let go.

Despite the occasional thirst for blood and souls of his weapon which refused to leave Rui's side, Rui had somehow managed to make a living, even if that also meant he had to live in one of the deepest dredges of society: New Jersey. He worked as a web designer and technical support, working with computers by day, and slaking his weapon's thirst by night. Each kill he got made him stronger, but it seemed that his enemies were as well. This was his life now.[/i]

[b][color=blanchedalmond]Abilities:[/color][/b]
[list]
[*] Rui has no powers of his own. In fact, he's actually pretty frail, especially due to his habit of smoking. He is usually reluctant to kill, unless he knows that someone is in danger, with the real danger about him being his weapon, described below.
[/list]

[hr]

[b][color=blanchedalmond]Equipment:[/color][/b]
[list]
[*] [b]The David Bowie Knife[/b] Technically not his, the David Bowie Knife was initially in possession of another fighter until Rui killed him and looted the knife, not taking on a personality or at the very least not speaking until in Rui's possession. The David Bowie Knife, as its name might suggest, is a bowie knife with the personality and mannerisms of David Bowie, and like David Bowie, it hungered for souls. Having a mind of its own, the knife can guide Rui to attack and parry an enemy, making up for its owner's lack of training and experience. Upon killing an enemy, it drinks its soul. The knife's blade is a shiny black. Though it is no more effective than normal steel on mundane items and can even break given enough duress, its edge can cut through objects created by magic, including magical fire, barriers or beam attacks, as if it were butter, effectively canceling it. Its most prominent feature, however, is its ability to combine with other objects through its handle, transform, and augment those objects.
[list]
[*] [b]Goblin King[/b] Rui carries a circular shield made mostly of plywood with a chain on the edge so that he can use it as a flail. If he attaches the knife to the chain, the shield and chain transform into the Goblin King. The shield turns green and takes on a metallic sheen. It becomes more durable, able to block bullets, but also gaining the knife's ability to block magic. The chain becomes more durable as well and can extend up to roughly fifty meters out and contract at Rui's will. In addition to its base abilities, it can also change trajectory in midair to hit its target. In this form, the knife's personality changes to be much more flamboyant and active, sometimes even flirty.
[*] [b]Ziggy Stardust[/b] Though he doesn't always have it with him (for legal reasons), Rui has an AR-15 rifle. It is fairly basic and completely unmodified, using iron sights and a plastic forward grip and the lower heat shield removed to make room for the David Bowie Knife. When attached, the black metal and plastic turn into a Crayola blue color and becomes covered in yellow stars. As long as it has a magazine attached to it, it seems to have virtually unlimited ammo and the barrel never seems to overheat (though it does get hot to the touch), nor does the weapon ever jam. Rui can also draw a five-pointed star on any solid surface, and any living thing that touches or disturbs the surface (except the surface itself if it is a living thing) will cause the star to explode with a radius of ten meters, destroying everything within its blast radius but leaving the surface it was drawn in unscathed as if it had never been carved into. The stars lose effectiveness naturally, returning to their original shape after thirty minutes, or if the David Bowie Knife travels more than 3 kilometers away from the star. In this form, the knife's personality becomes much more eccentric and emotional behaving in sometimes homoerotic ways.
[*] [b]Major Tom[/b] This is the weapon's most drastic change because it is achieved by sticking the handle into a metal can, transforming it into a rocket launcher. It fires an explosive up to 500 meters and explodes at a radius of 20 meters but with the destructive force of a comet, and seemingly unaffected by gravity or wind. It only fires once, however, after which the can is completely crushed with the knife lying next to it. In this form, the weapon's personality becomes much more solemn.
[*] [b]Thin White Duke[/b] It is a power that exists, but Rui has only heard of it from the knife itself. He can access this form allegedly by jamming the handle into a person's mouth, including his own, but is advised never to do so, with the blade itself avoiding a person's spine if it gets too close to the handle.
[/list]
[/list]

[b][color=blanchedalmond]Other:[/color][/b]
[i]Does this RP have some kind of password in the rules that I might've skimmed over?[/i][/center][/hider]