@GreenGoat I have to imagine that, if we have a rumored demon king actually eating other students every day, the administration would get involved before significant residual effects could be gained.
@Embalmer Satan, blood, bone seasoning. A perfect recipe for a Shadow King rumor.
@GreenGoat Up to three at a time, and only for 24 hours. If he did that for a few years, though, some residual effects would end up staying. That might make him pretty dangerous. Not that he wouldn't be already, after eating his peers for a few years.
I hadn't really considered what would happen if Kingsley ate a human, but theoretically, he would gain their qualities and/or abilities for a day. If he ate a smart guy, he would become smarter. If he ate a dude with fire powers, he'd probably get fire powers. Mind, he wouldn't gain as much smarts or as powerful flames as the original.
Theoretically, of course. I'm certain there are rumors about him and cannibalism, but it certainly hasn't happened before.
Kingsley was used to the doomsday prognostication that came with his presence, and thus largely ignored it as he rushed to the choking boy. Occasionally one of the more outlandish claims would get to him and he would retort, thus resulting in more rumors, but the boxing club seemed to be screaming some pretty standard stuff.
"Y-yes!" Kingsley replied to the boxing cheerleader's plea. He quickly took her place, and began his skillful and practiced Heimlich. It was something that every chef worth his seasoning was proficient in, and as Kingsley was worth a lot of seasoning as a chef, he was quite good at it. Invigorated by the Lucha, he decided to try naming his Heimlich.
"Ultimate... Heimlich... CRUSHER!" he cried, punctuating each word with a strong, swift movement. Sadly, it took a couple more movements to dislodge whatever was choking the boy up so Kingsley awkwardly continued after he had called his move. When finally the disruption was cleared up and spat out, Kingsley added another word to the end of the move to save face.
Kingsley, through Ruidoso, found himself pulled into the spectacle with the rest of the crowd. He cheered and hollered with the others, and got hyped as hell despite having almost no idea about what this man was talking about. Boxermania? Dates? Well, at the very least Kingsley understood FIERY PASSION. This was it! Kingsley understood now that this was also a part of Lucha Libre.
"Yes, just like cutting open a fish en papillote! No, more like a sizzling fajita! The show is a part of the meal. No more could one separate a Luchador from his showmanship than a chef from his knives! It's beautiful in its purity."
The ovation, however, was cut somewhat short when a boy in the crowd began choking. Being a gourmet, Kingsley was well-versed in the Heimlich maneuver, but the attentive cheerleader seemed to be on it.
"Wait, do boxing clubs have cheerleaders? Or Luchadors, for that matter?"
Kingsley then spotted a tall boy with a collection of gigantic swords in the ring.
"Or swordsmen? What kind of boxing club is this?"
Regardless, a boy was choking and it was Kingsley's duty to offer help.
"Miss," he called out over the crowd in his deep, booming, imposing roar of a voice, "May I help? I am very well-versed in the Heimlich!"
Some members of the crowd finally noticed the giant as Kingsley strode towards the choking boy in a white apron, emblazoned upon which were the words 'KISS THE COOK'. Some cried, some fainted, some wet themselves, and more shouted: 'Dear God, it's the Shadow King! He's come to murder us all!' 'He will use our varied corpses to construct his dark throne, from which he will bring the throngs of Hell to descend upon the Earth!' 'In this moment of panic, I have seen the face of God! It is terrifying and benevolent, and I no longer fear death!'
At last, the oven buzzed and Kingsley could retrieve his prize. He reached inside and grabbed the pie pan, not worrying about the heat due to his hand wraps. While it looked like these were for fighting, Kingsley really wrapped his hands thusly so that he could handle scalding hot implements at all times. Even great chefs could get burned in the kitchen every once in a while, after all.
Now, he just had to allow the pie to sit. His patience would be rewarded with perfectly done crusts, integrated flavorings, and thick, tasty gravy. His mouth already watered in anticipation as the delicious smell of meat and tender, flaky crust wafted about and inflicted the surrounding area. Good food took patience, but allowing a mostly done product to sit when he was so hungry never got easier.
As he waited, he heard a lot of shouting coming from the boxing club. Those guys were getting really excited about something, and Kingsley actually became a little curious. It would be a while longer on the pie, and Kingsley doubted anyone would steal it from him, so he decided to check it out. He exited the Home Economics room as surreptitiously as a burly, scarred, 7-foot-tall man in an apron could and slipped into the room the boxing club used. For once, all eyes were on someone other than him, so he leaned back against the wall and watched.
"It's a... masked wrestler? I think I've heard of them before! It's called 'Lucha', I believe. I don't know why someone like that is in the boxing club, but he seems really interesting. I wonder what all the excitement is about, though?"
Kingsley started on his pot pie. Today he was using a combination of beef and bear meat, which normally took much longer than chicken as he liked using tough cuts in his meat-based pies and stews. After all, if one was going to use a tender cut of beef anyways, there were better recipes to make. As for the bear, well, it was important to use lean cuts from wild game to cut the 'gamey' flavor as most of that resided in fat tissue.
His secret to getting it done quickly was the pressure cooker. By cooking his meat under intense pressure, those tight muscles would loosen up well in no time and congregate with all the other flavors within an hour. He got his beef, bear, and mirepoix ready along with some beef bouillon he had made beforehand. He placed all these in the pressure cooker along with some water, and started on his crust. The crust still wasn't done by the time the meat was ready, but this was planned. He opened the pressure cooker, and the delicious smell of meat wafted out of the Home Economics class. Surely the delicious smells would reach nearby rooms soon, such as the place in which the boxing club took residence, but this did not concern Kingsley. Kingsley only cared about three things: Taste, presentation, and technical execution.
The giant sauteed some mushrooms and peas as the mixture cooled and the dough for the crust sat in the refrigerator. He added the sauteed items to the contents of the pressure cooker, which had gone down quite a bit in temperature thanks to his surrounding the container with ice. By now, the dough was ready and he covered the pie pan with the evenly-rolled crust. After shaping it, he used the remainder to cut strips out which would go on top of the meat mixture. He added the warm mixture to the pie pan, placed dough strips on top, and put the thing in the oven. In 25 more minutes it would be done, and as the pie baked the surrounding area became infused with even more delicious smells.
Kingsley sat and waited for class to be over so that he could get to his cooking. Under his massive body, the desk and chair set that was provided him seemed like a doll's furnishings. His knees were more than half a foot above the seat, and his desk sat on his lap rather than the floor. Well, when one was as big and buff as Kingsley, some concessions had to be made. The giant crossed his arms and closed his eyes, hoping that he could concentrate better on the words being said if he wasn't looking around.
"It's no good," thought Kingsley, "I don't understand a single word that's been said the whole class period. What do letters have to do with math? This crap was tough enough when it was just numbers, but now they've thrown every other damn subject in there. Parenthesis, shapes, letters... none of this looks like math any more. Why are there triangles? Where the hell do TRIANGLES fit in to all this?"
Kingsley already gave off a fearsome aura. That's why any other desk was at least five feet away from him. But now the man was gritting his teeth and growling in anger under his breath. Almost as if they had lives of their own to fear for, the desks moved even farther away.
"When am I gonna need this? How is this relevant to me? It's almost as if this subject was specifically catered to piss me off. Dammit, it's only the first week and already I don't get anything! Dammit!"
Suddenly, Kingsley stomped his foot down on the floor and the whole classroom seemed to shake. His menacing presence magnified by 10,000, and the entire class went silent and began to cower.
"Oh, oh no! No, there's really no need to be afraid! I'm really not gonna hurt anyone! Why does this always happen? No, I'm just frustrated at myself! You're all fine! Please, go back to learning."
Kingsley slowly opened his eyes, and saw the teacher kneeling in front of him and holding his wallet out in offering.
"No! Is this really the example you want to set? Go back to teaching, and I'll try to catch up! Put the wallet away! I don't want your money! Damn, this really sucks! How do I tell them all these things? Whenever I try to say anything, it ends up going like this anyways! No, it's fine. I'll just push his arm down a little to show I'm declining the-"
Kingsley's elbow hit his oddly-tilted desk as he reached out, and accidentally smacked the wallet out of the teacher's hand. That's when the whole class began screaming and ran out the door as fast as they could saying: 'It's not enough for him! The Shadow King can no longer be appeased!' 'Good Lord he'll kill us all!' 'Women and children first! Dear God you're trampling each other!' 'Every man for himself! Leave the dregs for the Shadow King's dark feast!' 'There is no God!'
Soon, Kingsley was alone in his little doll chair. He massaged his temple.
"Not again," he muttered as he stood up and stretched, "Damn. Well, I guess class is over now. Maybe cooking will get my mind off things."
Kingsley left the classroom and walked out into a deserted hallway. Not too strange considering that every hallway was a deserted hallway when Kingsley was around, but he'd gotten somewhat used to it. Passing by one of the arenas, he overheard something about kids fighting over pudding of all things. This made him feel strangely good. It was the sort of thing one could look in on and say 'I may be a moron, but at least I'm not that stupid'.
Smiling slightly, Kingsley made his way to the Home Economics classroom where he ran the cooking club. He wasn't expecting anyone to drop by today either, but at least he could do some baking in peace.
"Heh. Dumb kids. If they had even a taste of my own pudding, THEN maybe they'd have something to fight about. School food, even the highest quality of it, simply can't stand up to my cooking!"
Kingsley tied on an apron, and got to work on a delicious pot pie. Today, he vowed, it would be perfect.
Appearance: Kingsley is a massive giant of a man with heavily tanned skin and scars all over his body. He almost never wears a shirt, but a sarashi covers his stomach and there are wraps around his hands. He wears a pair of white pants that have become frayed at the bottom and black shoes and socks. His head is bald, but he always seems to have 5-o-clock shadow and a scowl on his face. He is incredibly muscular, and stands at almost seven feet tall. His eyebrows are gigantic and awe-inspiring.
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Year Level: 2nd year
Faction/club: Cooking Club
Power: Kingsley’s delicious homemade dishes are not only tasty, but they also bequeath to the eater some qualities of the creatures used in the ingredients for a full day. For example, if someone ate his turtle soup, their body would become resilient like a turtle’s shell. If they ate his bear stew, they would become much stronger and their sense of smell would greatly increase. One can have the qualities of up to three creatures at a time in this way. If one already has an ability that increases one of these parameters, then the dish adds to it. Thus, a weak man will become a strong man and a strong man will become a stronger man.
After years of intense training and eating his own food, Kingsley’s body has permanently taken on a fraction of the power his dishes bequeath. Thus, he is always stronger, faster, and more resilient than a normal man of his size and strength would be. Which is already a lot.
Bio: Kingsley grew up in the wilderness, where it was always unbearably hot or cold and hostile. Without parents, he was taken in by crocodiles and raised alongside them. He grew up wrestling with his heavy crocodile brothers, and became incredibly strong quickly. One day, a traveling chef found him eating raw wildebeest with a bunch of crocodiles. The chef, who was also a burly giant, immediately began wrestling each and every crocodile in Kingsley’s family and defeated them all soundly. After he was done, the chef shook the father crocodile’s front foot and the two shared in a single moment of manly respect for a powerful opponent. The chef then somehow created fire using wood and began roasting the raw meat.
As they all partook in the feast, tears began running down Kingsley’s cheeks. He had never tasted anything as incredible as cooked wildebeest before, and this became an epiphany for him. He knew that he would follow this man to the ends of the earth, and learn more about this strange technique. The chef looked at the crying boy, and said “Cooking is love.”
Kingsley couldn’t understand the language, but somehow eating that food allowed him to understand the feelings behind the words. Without saying anything, Kingsley’s crocodile parents nodded at him. They had known from the moment that they had taken him in that he was different. He was meant to do something great, and for that he had to go with this man. This much they understood. The chef nodded back at the crocodiles, and stood up. Thus, he and Kingsley walked off into the sunset to begin a new chapter in his life.
Years later, Kingsley had learned not only language, but many incredible cooking techniques from the chef. His name was Richard Sovereign, and apart from Kingsley, he had one other apprentice named Drake Lancer. Drake was ambitious and had potential the likes of which Richard had never seen. However, the boy was impatient. He wanted to learn more and more recipes, even though he hadn’t mastered the ones before. When the time came to choose a student to bequeath the secret Sovereign family recipes to, Kingsley and Drake finally clashed in a cooking competition. Drake quickly made many excellent dishes, which were all great by a technical standard and looked fantastic. Kingsley made roasted wildebeest, much like his first meal with Richard. When the tasting was done, Richard declared Kingsley the winner. Drake was enraged that his dishes were beaten by something as disgusting and trivial as roasted wildebeest, but Richard explained.
“I gave you every chance to win. Time and time again, I’ve explained that ‘cooking is love’. Your dishes are good from a technical standpoint, and are presented better than even I could manage, but there is no love in them. Only tasteless ambition. That is why you lost.”
The next day, the Sovereign family recipes were to be presented to Kingsley, but that time never came. When Kingsley went to check on his mentor, he found Richard dead and the recipes stolen. There was a strange smile on Richard’s face, however. The same smile he’d always had when he said “cooking is love”.
Afterwards, no matter what Kingsley cooked, it felt like there was an ingredient missing. The recipe was always slightly off. Kingsley had decided, then, to attend Kagetora High School. It was the sort of place he could go not only to become stronger, but also to gather information. In a school of kids with weird powers, surely one had to have an ability that would help him find Drake and avenge his master’s death the only way he knew how; with his food.
And perhaps along the way, he might find that missing ingredient again somewhere.
School, however, did not go exactly as planned. Despite his skill at cooking, Kingsley was not very smart and incredibly ignorant of almost every subject except for parts of biology which he knew from cooking and living in the wild. In addition, he found out that he didn’t like fighting humans at all. They were complete strangers who were also inedible, and as such there was no joy in doing battle with them. Because he was huge and scary, however, some students would pick fights with him for cred. These battles Kingsley would fight, if for no other reason than to become stronger, and his legend quickly grew. Stronger and stronger people would pick fights with Kingsley, and Kingsley would win. As he had never lost a fight, he gained several titles and nicknames from the other students. There were rumors about him as well.
Titles (In order): -That Big Guy -The Unbeatable Kingsley -The Demon of Kagetora -The Invincible King -The Dark Lord of Kagetora -The Shadow King of Kagetora
Rumors: -He is invincible -He’s the one who really runs the school and the student council president is a figurehead -He’s really a god of battle in human form looking for a worthy opponent -When he kills a student, they don’t come back -He’s not actually real, but a group delusion brought on by unreasonable rumors that everyone believes
Recently, because of the titles and rumors, no one has wanted to fight him. Because he’s not very smart and there are no fights to improve his rank, he’s been stuck in grade 2 for two years.