Echo Quinlan

Echo Quinlan – 107 Privaron Espada
Aspect: Misery
Riatsu/Cero: White, but speech color is Pale Grey
Age: 1382 years, appears to be in her early twenties
Height: 5’5”
Weight: 100lbs

Theme Song

Appearance -
She appears to be a young woman in her early twenties, of average height. Her figure is nothing to speak of, and could be described as pear-shaped, with an unremarkable bust and rather wide hips, and she is rather on the thin side, though not to a greatly so. This is the extent of her normality, however. Her skin is quite literally white, being completely colorless, and it seems to shimmer slightly in the light, though this is actually the gleam of thousands of minute scars that cover nearly every exposed centimeter of her skin. Elegantly layered hair in a pale shade of silvery grey falls past her shoulders, with the layers becoming shorter around her face, framing her features. Her face has a delicate, vulnerable appearance, with high cheekbones and an overly small nose, and her colorless cheeks are almost always tearstained, or glistening with fresh tears. Her eyes are a dark grey, and framed with long, thick lashes of the same color as her hair, and her lips are a pale shade of grey, very well-formed and elegant, often curved into a wistful smile. When she so chooses, she can have a very expressive face, but for the majority of the time, her expressions are nothing to speak of. The scent of lavender hangs in the air around her, tinged with undertones of dried blood and brandy. Though not altogether unpleasant, it can be rather unsettling, and has a rather depressing effect.

She wears a long white gown of fragile, silken material that trails on the floor as she walks, and is cut to flatter her figure. The neckline is low enough to expose her collarbone but not show any cleavage, and runs between two intricately tied Celtic knots, one on each shoulder, that serve as the straps of the gown. The garment is sleeveless, and exposes the majority of her back, mainly for the sake of convenience in her Resurreccion, as well as being form-fitting around her torso, with the skirt being looser and more free-flowing. Her hollow hole is hidden by her gown, being set low in her back, at the base of her spine. A shawl of the same material is wrapped loosely around her shoulders, and trails to roughly the same length as her gown. She wears nothing on her feet, not that this is evident, as her feet are hidden by the long gown. In her hair, she wears what appears to be a perfect white feather, tucked behind her right ear, but this is in fact her mask fragment, actually being made of very finely shaped bone. Around her neck she wears a single white, unblemished sphere of bone, the size of her thumbnail and highly polished, strung on a fine silver chain. This is the only jewelery that she ever wears, and this unassuming pendant is actually her Zanpakto. She never removes it under any circumstances, and the chain is incredibly difficult to break, especially as it is closely fitted around her neck, being more of a choker than an actual necklace.

Personality -
She is always in a state of perpetual depression, so deep that nothing can lift it. Though it varies from day to day, her moods ranging from apathetic to suicidal rage to incoherent, depressed sobbing, she is never anything other than miserable. She is rather reclusive by nature, preferring to be alone rather than in the company of others, hence why she lives in the Tower. She is actually rather shy, though she does not allow this fact to be widely known, and is most comfortable when surrounded by depression and angst, though she never deliberately attempts to make others feel this way. Her very presence, however, acts as a depressant to most sane people. She speaks in a rather unkind and insincere manner, and though she is philosophical and eloquent, talking at great length about subjects that interest her, she does not waste words on pleasantries such as formal titles and politeness. When asked for her opinion always gives a worst-case scenario or is as excessively negative as possible, though this is not actually intentional. Being mildly claustrophobic, she prefers to be outdoors, especially in the vast open space of the desert that is Hueco Mundo. She derives some small measure of enjoyment from music, though it does not make her happy in any sense of the word. She is an incredible singer, with a hauntingly beautiful voice, though most of what she sings lacks discernible lyrics, or is extremely sorrowful.

Some might describe her as being a masochist, thanks to the fact that she is unable to properly feel physical pain or much of anything at all. All the sensations she feels are numbed, to the point that even a severe wound causes her to feel practically nothing at all, and she also cannot feel pleasurable sensations. Essentially, her body is numb. Strangely enough, she longs to feel pain, and thus she checks whenever possible, cutting herself on anything that may have a remotely sharp edge, occasionally even asking other Arrancar to cut her with their swords, hence her scars. Through this she has become an inadvertent masochist. This strange ability also has combat implications, as it means that she is only stopped by fatal wounds, or by being forcibly prevented from moving, possibly by having her both of her legs broken, something which has happened to her in the past.

Abilities -
Besides her unique inability to feel pain, she possesses the standard Arrancar abilities. Her cero is pure white, being considerably faster than normal, and of above-average strength, and seems to be fired from the area of her collarbone on which the pearl of her necklace rests, making it seem as though the beam is fired from the pearl itself. She is not capable of using a Gran Ray cero. Her Hierro is far below average, and she suppresses it even further, not wanting any attacks that could somehow cause her to feel pain being blocked by her Hierro. Her Sonido is generally weak, and as she almost never uses it, she is out of practice, not being able to use it more than a few times in succession. Her Pesquia, however, is far more sensitive than normal, to the point where is she must actually focus to tune it out, especially when there is a great deal of strong spiritual pressure around her, actually causing her to develop migraine headaches at inconvenient times. Unskilled at Garganta, she rarely utilizes it as a form of transportation or movement unless absolutely necessary, preferring to use the wings granted to her by her Resurreccion.

Zanpakto - Mourning Dove

Mourning Dove takes the unassuming shape of the pearl of polished white bone which she wears on a short silver chain around her neck. As it is in such a non-traditional form, those who have never seen it released are led to believe that she does not possess a Zanpakto at all, as she carries no conventional weapons. This seemingly innocent bead is just that when sealed, possessing no abilities and giving no hints as to what powers she may possess.

Resurreccion: “Weep, Mourning Dove.”
When she enters Resurreccion, her Zanpakto glows brightly for a moment, then fades, in a rather anticlimactic manner. As the light fades, a whirlwind builds around her, enclosing her completely during the moments when she transforms. She controls how the whirlwind is dispelled, and can choose not to dispel it at all, but her preference seems to be simply to step from the cocoon of air, letting it dissolve to nothing.

The most obvious change in her Resurreccion form is a pair of huge avian wings that sprout from her shoulder blades. Having a fourteen-foot wingspan, these wings are very similar to those of a dove, but on a far larger scale, and are not pure white, but rather have a greyish tinge. When closed, they nestle between her shoulder blades, the ends trailing on the floor behind her, and seem unremarkable unless fully open, particularly when she is in flight. Clusters of small, white, downy feathers appear on her shoulders, cheeks and forearms, and completely cover her back, growing more thickly around her wings. In her hair, a band of white feathers appears, holding back her hair in the manner of a headband, twined through with strands of pearls. Her necklace of pearls becomes far more elaborate, more pearls forming until they form a complete choker around her neck, and two more strands appear, slightly longer and looser than the original, comprised of a greater number of pearls, of varying sizes, so that she now wears three necklaces.

Aside from these obvious changes, her bones become very similar to those of the birds that she resembles, becoming hollow and extremely fragile, to the point that one of her arms could be broken very easily with an unarmed strike. Her fingers and toes change very subtly to become clawed, though these claws are not long enough to inflict severe damage, only to pierce the flesh of her opponent. She rarely uses them in combat at all, however. She can remain in Resurreccion for a very short time, only a few minutes, despite all her training and practice, and she has a tendency to change back unexpectedly, often when she is in flight.

Air Control -
Her pearl necklaces grant her an incredibly precise control over air currents. She controls the air through thought alone, not requiring verbal commands or gestures, and her control area is very large, at roughly half a cubic mile. She can influence air temperature and wind direction on a vast scale, which is very useful in conjunction with her flight ability, and, with some additional focus, can direct wind gusts of any magnitude at any point within her control area, shaping the currents as she pleases. She can also create focused blasts of air, of any size, with greater cutting power than that of the sharpest sword blade, but they are difficult for her to control with a great deal of precision, though that does not mean that they are not a useful combat tool. Her control over air requires a great deal of energy to utilize, and she often uses refrains from using it even in situations when it could be useful. She is capable of creating a tornado large enough to destroy an entire city with a mere thought, but this takes enough energy to drain her completely, forcing her out of Resurreccion. The greater the amount of air being controlled, the more focus she requires to shape it to her will, but there is little that she cannot do given sufficient time. Her degree of focus seems to increase when she touches the beads of her necklace. All her air manipulations have no visual effects, or any unnecessarily flashy displays, and the air currents remain invisible unless they contract airborne debris that make their movements evident. The air currents never become tangible, remaining insubstantial save for the split second during which her focused cutting blasts contact with their target before dissipating.

Flight -
Her wings grant her the ability of flight, but it is comparable more so to an eagle or other predatory bird than a dove. The size of her wings limits her agility in flight, though she can control the air currents to allow her to perform seemingly impossible maneuvers in mid-air, and, much of the time, her flight depends on her manipulation of air to a much greater extent than the actual movements of her wings. She is still capable of flight using only her wings, but with a greater degree of clumsiness and far less maneuverability. Without manipulating the air, she can fly for up to an hour without tiring or needing to land, relying solely on the modified muscular structure of her back that allows her to flap her wings and control them in a manner very similar to that of a real bird, not that she is ever in Resurreccion for long enough to have pushed her limits. When not in combat, her flight is relatively slow, consisting more of using her wings to soar on thermal currents than anything, but in combat or dangerous situations, her flight is swift, wings flapping so quickly that she can travel at speeds of nearly 100km/hr. She can take off and land without any need for a ‘runway’, needing only enough room to fully spread her wings, and can do so without manipulating the air, though this does ease the process. It is a highly useful ability, but some may say that she squanders it, generally using it for menial transportation and personal convenience.

Cry of the Dove -
When she screams in this form, the sound is strangely musical, and reminiscent of the soft cry of the dove. Each scream causes all who hear it to become miserable and depressed, with all but the most strong-willed individuals reduced to incoherent sobbing. They become vulnerable, allowing her to easily destroy them while they are thus incapacitated. Each successive scream is louder and brings more people under its influence. The sound of the cry can carry for miles, borne by the air she manipulates, and the more people are under its influence, the more powerful it becomes. It serves no other purpose than to spread misery and make opponents vulnerable to her attacks. She can control how far the sound carries. Unfortunately, she herself is not immune to the effects of the cry, and using it greatly impairs her combat ability, as well as her ability to make rational decisions. Its effects can only be avoided by completely muffling one’s hearing, as it is unaffected by loud noise and conditions that would normally render such a sound inaudible.

The Pearls -
The pearls on the three strands of her Zanpakto necklace are of varying types, and some, though not all, have particular abilities that she can activate by touching that pearl and focusing for a moment. There are four special types of abilities available to her in this form. She knows instinctively what each pearl does, and can sense where each pearl containing a particular ability is located, as their distribution is random, and varies greatly. She can use the abilities of each pearl once per release, and they are destroyed when their powers have been exhausted. There are a limited number of pearls of each type available to her at one time, but they all regenerate and are replenished the next time she releases, so their abilities are not lost. She can use them in rapid succession, or even use multiple pearls at the same time, and their abilities enhance and coincide with her offensive and defensive strategies. The more powerful the ability of a pearl, the fewer of them are present at any one time, and these numbers do seem to vary slightly depending on her level of fatigue when entering release. The more tired or injured she is, the fewer powerful pearls are available for her to use.

Shrapnel – There are normally around eight shrapnel pearls among those on her necklace. These are the smallest pearls, and when activated, the pearl shatters into dozens of minute, razor-sharp shards of bone. Very difficult to see, these shards are caught up the air currents that whip around her, and she uses them to lacerate the opponent. They can cut through clothing and flesh, and, being so incredibly minute, are next to impossible to dodge. She will often use several shrapnel pearls at once, for maximum effect, and will surround the opponent in a vortex of air that will shred their flesh. These shards also tend to lodge deep into the skin of the opponent, causing no small amount of discomfort, and can be used as a sort of barrier when she creates a wall of air laced with lacerating particles around her, deterring attacks from those who do not wish to be scratched to death. They are not physically capable of creating a shield or stopping a blow, having little mass, but they can certainly cause an attacker to regret their actions.

Shield – There are usually at least five shield pearls on her necklace, and are some of the largest pearls. They activate much more rapidly than the other pearls, and, when activated, expand rapidly to form a cocoon of semi-opaque white light around her entire body, which lasts for several seconds. This shield can deflect weaker bala and cero, though a portion of the her energy proportionate to the strength of the attack is drained. Each shield can absorb two low-Numeros-level attacks on average, depending on their strength, before shattering into fragments of light that dissolve within seconds. She can activate one fast enough to block a cero of average speed even as it is being fired, and can activate them in succession when necessary. Stronger attacks shatter the cocoon on contact, though it deflects as much of the attack as possible before it is destroyed, meaning that she is only hit with the weaker backlash. These shields have no effect whatsoever on physical attacks, which penetrate it as though it does not exist, but do not destroy the shield or drain its energy. Unfortunately, these shields have a tendency to fail when she is drained of energy or tired, which can be extremely inconvenient and have painful consequences.

Healing – There are approximately three healing pearls among those on her necklace at any given time. These pearls are of average size, and when activated, the pearl will glow silvery-white for a second and then vanish from her necklace, and the wound/damaged area will glow with an answering light before beginning to heal. Each pearl can heal one moderate wound or a few minor scratches. She can either choose to direct their healing ability to a specific injury, but if she does not, they target the most obvious of her wounds. The healing is painless only because she cannot feel the pain, and is also rather slow, with it taking between two and three minutes for flesh to regenerate and small wounds to seal. This depends on the size of the wound. She can use all of her healing pearls at once to heal a larger or more serious wound, but they are ineffectual on very serious or life-threatening injuries. The healing cannot be prevented or halted once the pearl has been activated, and they can only heal her, their effects being non-transferable. Each cut that is healed seals with a thin, gleaming white scar that does not fade, and is permanently etched into her skin. If necessary, these pearls can also repair internal organs and bones, though she rarely utilises them in this manner.

Hollow Summoning – There is normally one of these pearls among those on the strands of her necklace, and it is carved with a delicate feather pattern. When activated, the pearl splits in two, each half becoming a feather of bone that drifts to the ground, unable to be deviated from its course. When each feather lands, it vanishes, leaving a small hemisphere of white light that rapidly grows to several feet in diameter, before bursting open to reveal a massive, grotesque, vaguely avian hollow. Though they appear slightly different with each summoning, they are always at least nine feet in height, and are a mix of avian and humanoid features, with white or grey feathers, and always have feathered wings, beaks and talons of some sort. They are Gillian-class hollows, and seem to be more intelligent than average. In actuality, this is because she directly controls the actions of her summoned Hollows, meaning that they fight less effectively when her concentration is broken, and that she cannot use her other abilities with the same degree of focus while controlling them. She is capable of controlling both simultaneously. They are as typical hollows in every other way, and when killed, vanish in a burst of white light. If she does not control them, they attack her current opponent, and will not turn on her. She can also dispel them at will, in which case they vanish immediately in a burst of white light. The hollows summoned retain non-fatal wounds from past battles.

The rest of the pearls on her necklaces do not have particular or notable abilities, but these pearls, and there are nearly too many of them to count, serve as the focus for her enhanced Bala. Her Bala functions as normal, and she can use them freely, but they are considerably more powerful than average. Each one fires from the pearl that was used as the focus for that particular blast, and that pearl then disintegrates immediately after the Bala has been fired. These require no more energy to use than a regular Bala, and indeed, in the event that all of these pearls have been used, she is still capable of utilizing Bala of regular strength, that fire from her mouth. In regular combat, her enhanced Bala has the advantage over a regular one only in terms of power, charging and firing at the same speed as a regular one. She favors the use of her enhanced version, for the sole reason that it gives her a very slight edge in combat situations.

History -
Before she underwent the process of shinigamification to become an Arrancar, Echo was a hollow that was being used as a test subject by the 12th division, in a time when the experiments were far less ethical. As a hollow, she had been fitted with a device that restrained her spiritual energy, and was subjected to various torturous procedures, until she finally tore off her mask in a desperate effort to be free, becoming a naturally created Arrancar. She managed, somehow, to escape to the deserts of Hueco Mundo, and joined the ranks of the Numeros. She ascended to the rank of Septima Espada at a young age, but was later defeated by Isara Wessmer. She became a Privaron, but was not content to remain in Las Noches having been thus disgraced, fleeing into the desert only months after her defeat, unable to bear the shame of her failure. She has lived in the ruins of an ancient tower ever since, alone and cut off from the world. Having not had contact with other Arrancar for decades, she has spent her time training and lamenting her fate. She wishes to rejoin the Espada, as some small part of her still holds memories from her time as a hollow, and longs to take revenge on the Soul Society. She is unaware of her inner desires, however, knowing only that there is something that compels her to regain her place among the most powerful forces in Hueco Mundo. There is a reason, however, that she knows this to be an impossible aspiration.

Though strong, Echo was created from a flawed, damaged hollow, and the spiritual restraints that bound her prevented her transformation into an Arrancar from being completely successful. Her strange, white, colorless flesh, and unique inability to feel pain are as the result of her imperfect transformation, as is the fact that her Zanpakto manifests in such a nontraditional form, rather than as a weapon. Essentially, her mind and spiritual energies were damaged in the process, meaning that she is trapped in her current state, somewhere between hollow and true Arrancar, still having one-eighth of her hollow not sealed into her Zanpakto, but rather melded into her humanoid form. As a result, she is unable to increase the strength of her abilities no matter how hard, or for how long, she trains. This also means that she can never achieve the second stage of her Resurreccion, the main reason that she has given up hope of ever rejoining the Espada. Her chosen name, Echo Quinlan, reflects the hopelessness and desperation she feels, meaning literally 'Nothing Woman'.

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