Worlds & Muses

Owl the Mask Maker, a faceless Näota, a living void approached, his mask smiling.

“How are you, old friend? It’s been a time since I saw you last.”

@worldsandmuses

Oriental Bay Owl (Phodilus badius), family Tytonidae, order Strigiformes, Malaysia

Uniforms, Derek Klivian was certain, especially dress uniforms, were designed by people who never had to wear them. He decided this day's only saving grace was that he was wearing a grey duty uniform, though he'd much prefer his black flight suit. The flight suit was loose, it had plenty of pockets. It never did it's best to throttle him. The young man looked at the swarms of people all dressed either identical to himself. A few outliers wore something with a bit of flare, like a cape, or showed off more rank pips.

His parents had done their best to maneuver him onto the fleet command political career fast track and he had decided to laugh in their faces and volunteered for the flight academy instead. Shove their politicking where the sun didn't shine and embarrass them in one fell swoop. And where did he wind up? Back on a command track because he just couldn't help himself, getting caught up being competitive, striving to get a little bit of praise from the instructors.

An Imperial thinker would've said it was a waste of an officer, sending him to do menial tasks. But what Sebastipole saw was an opportunity, a young mind searching for validation and thus open to... alternative perspectives if he could offer one.

A thin smile crossed his lips as he clasped his hands behind him and strode over to the lieutenant. His strides were long, his dark, knee-high boots giving a polished shine while the rest of his uniform, a long tunic not unlike the TIE dress uniform, seemed to eat up the light around him. This combined with the dark visor over his eyes and beneath his cap might have made him far more intimidating if he didn't still have that smile playing on his lips.

"Lieutenant Klivian," he said in low, soft tones, "still at work even after leave. Your diligence is impressive. Have you made any headway on the missing supplies?"

OTWILIGHTKING !!

Outside of his usual duties as an arrancar, Vander likes to keep one or two pet projects on the side to keep things interesting. His most successful project has been a peculiar Wax Jambu tree he manage to cultivate in the Hollow Forest using a common cutting of the Wax Jambu, a cutting of the albino variety, the remains of his prey, and a sturdy sample of crystallized spirit particles containing reiatsu from the arrancar, Rudbornn Chelute.

By using the crystallized reiatsu as fertilizer, Vander imbued the albino sapling with hollow energy, thus giving it the ability to feed on both the common Wax Jambu and the bodies and the energies of his defeated prey. Thanks to this, the albino specimen fed not only on the nutrients of its kin, but also on reishi in the air and the reiatsu of surrounding hollows. This led to the birth  of what he calls a “leech tree” breed which feeds on the energies of surrounding hollows while producing fruit filled with an almost triple-concentrated form of the energy originally absorbed.

Naturally, this abundance in spiritual energy is bound to draw in other hollows intent on making themselves stronger. But like a great carnivorous plant, it lures them in only to sap them of their energy and use them as further fodder for its ever thirsting roots. Because of this, Vander created special cloaks for himself that protect him from the tree’s leech-like abilities. As a safety precaution, he also uses his portals to keep the tree (and its roots) neatly pruned and contained while collecting its valuable fruit. After all, the last thing he wants is for it to grow more than necessary and become a threat in need of being destroyed.

Vander also takes great pains to keep his fruit a secret from other arrancar so as to use the fruit extracts for various items and experiments. These extracts actually vary in effect thanks to the nature of the fruit’s reiatsu and where the tree absorbed it. As Vander has found out, if the tree only absorbs the air born reishi of Hueco Mundo, the fruit remains white and functions as a mere food source with minimal advantages. If the reiatsu from hollows of Adjuchas level or below is absorbed, the fruit (and subsequently, the extracts) changes color slightly and gives the user a temporary boost in strength, speed and energy. But when the tree consumes the reiatsu of an Arrancar or a being of similar level (human, shinigami, ect.), the fruit will gain a vivid flush of color resembling the hues of the reiatsu it absorbed. The fruit then bestows certain special abilities related to or possessed by the producer of the reiatsu it absorbed. Unfortunately, these abilities are temporary and only last so long as the fruit is eaten.

Unlike its roots, its trunk and branches are completely immobile but it’s branches continually bear fruit containing the condensed reishi and reiatsu of those it has consumed. It’s most common fruit are Hollow based and thus give its eaters various boosts according to the type of hollow the tree consumed. But it has been known to consume other kinds of spirits and thus provide that kind of nourishment. The fruit, however, has some serious side effects depending on who the eater is and how much they’ve eaten.

If the eater eats fruit with the reishi and reiatsu of their own kind, then, then their powers are increased exponentially, their overall power grows, and the temporarily obtain the abilities of those the tree has devoured. The only spiritual type that has little to no effect on the Hollow Jambu’s fruit are normal human souls. Because humans don’t normally have any special abilities, their reishi and reiatsu doesn’t alter the nature or add any special effects to the Jambu fruit unless they are related to either shinigami, Quincy, or Fullbringers. Otherwise, the fruit retains no special abilities.

If any spirit (hollow, shinigami, human, etc.) should eat any fruit with the reiatsu of reishi of a different kind of spirit, they will become infused with that kind reishi and reiatsu. After a certain amount of fruit, their bodies will begin to change accordingly.

Hollows that partake in large amounts of shinigami based fruit will gain Arrancar abilities, but due to the nature of Quincy energy, Quincy-based fruit withers in their grasp. Shinigami who eat Hollow based fruit risk hollowfication (like with the Vizored) while Quincy-based fruit will give them the ability to absorb the reishi around them and focus it into their attacks. Quincies will be poisoned by hollow-based fruit but gain shinigami-like abilities and a temporary immunity to hollow poisons from shinigami-based fruit. Meanwhile, non-Quincy human souls who eat Hollow-based fruit will either gain a Fulbring or become hollowfied. Should they eat Shinigami or Quincy based fruit, they will obtain abilities and boosted spiritual abilities based on which type they eat. However, despite providing Quincy powers, quincy-based fruit will also make humans or shingami (if they eat said fruit) weak to anything with hollow essence (be it reishi or reiatsu).