Nickname/s | Ryder
• DOB | December 12th, 1980
• Age | 30
• Sexuality | Straight
• Ethnicity | 1/2 Japanese, 1/4 Irish, 1/4th miscellaneous nationalities. Seeking dual citizenship for Japan and US.
• Occupation | United States Forces Japan (Marine)
• Loyalty | Herself, the Corps, Mankind in general (the good ones anyway.)

ABILITIES //
Proof of who I am //

•Mekkyaku (Quincy Cross) | The Mekkyaku borne and wielded by Ryder is no cross at all, but a six inch long, Sakaki Hamaya Arrow Charm, with quite a rich history behind it dating back to Ryder's ancestors in the Edo period.

HAMAYA MEKKYAKU BACKGROUND:

This six inch charm, which hangs from her neck by a simple length of steel cord, takes the form of an arrow, it's smooth Sakaki wood surface engraved deeply with Shinto blessings. Despite the centuries, Ryder's Hamaya Arrow Charm is immaculately preserved, although signs of aging do show here and there in the deeply inked engravings.

Although it's used as a Mekkyaku, this Hamaya, or Demon Slayer Arrow, can not create a bow, merely serving as a conduit to aid Ryder in channeling Reiryoku from her environment. Thanks to the Shinto blessings it holds, Reiryokyu channeled through this Hamaya purifies hollows it kills rather than truly destroy them, restoring the balance to nature.

(The above is similar to the Ryder's Hamaya, but instead of paper blessings, all of the blessings are carved into the wood itself, and deeply inked into those carvings, and instead of being in a wooden mounting, it's hung from a cord around her neck.)

• General Fighting Style | As a US marine, Ryder has a very focused, driven approach to combat, and will stop at nothing short of victory. As a master of a very focused, personal mix of various striking and grappling martial arts, this woman was formidable in melee combat before she ever started learning to harness the Reiryoku in the environment, although since that time she has become far stronger, and is capable of dispatching basic minor hollows unarmed.

In addition to her unarmed skills, Ryder always carries a combat knife and a firearm of some kind, both of which she has very high proficiency in. As a marine who's served two tours of duty as a designated marksman she is a deadly force to be reckoned with, especially with the addition of her Quincy powers added to the mix.

Ruthless and tactical, Ryder doesn't fight to win, nor does she fight it's own sake. By some definitions she doesn't fight at all, rather simply killing her targets as quickly as possible without hesitation.

• Overall Ability | Ryder is rather handicapped as a Quincy, compared to others of her kind. Where they can freely manifest a bow through their Mekkyaku, she has never been able to achieve the level of stability needed for such a task. However, that is not to say she is helpless. The woman is quite talented at channeling the energy itself, and can use that in multiple ways to her advantage.

Reiryoku Aura: By absorbing and channeling atmospheric Reiryoku, Ryder is able to focus that energy into a small part of her body, as as one single hand. The primary purpose for this, is to fire 'arrows' (Closer to darts, really) from her fingertip, as a poor substitution for a proper Quincy bow. These darts aren't extremely weak, but they are notably weaker delivering 80% of the usual power compared to a standard Quincy arrow from one with the same Reitsu stat, and the effective range is cut in half. This technique can transfer energy to other parts quickly enough to 'rotate' hands for shooting, but generally the only benefit to that is to more quickly target enemies on opposite sides.

As a secondary purpose, this energy surrounds, protects, and reinforces the body part in question, better enabling a human to strike powerful spiritual beings such as hollows with unarmed attacks. This ability can instead be applied to a weapon she holds, although to do so requires that it is a weapon with which she has developed a sufficient level of familiarity (so far that includes knife, gun, cudgel, or staff.) A random item like a chair would be worthless for this ability, as would some weapon she's unfamiliar with. Axes, for example, are unavailable for this power unless she dedicated a full training post without the ten GP (or more than one, if the staff feels more than one is necessary) to mastering the weapon type.

Special note: Special note: As a soldier, Ryder has learned to make the most of the tools and skills she has available to her. At the cost of one technique slot, she can master the use of a weapon with her Reiryoku Aura power, enabling her to develop specific techniques relevant to the weapon in question. She gains one technique isolated to each specific weapon she trains, and gains one more after each two trained weapons. (So, for example, If she had trained, say... Rifle and Pistol, at a total cost of 2 technique slots she would have two techniques specific to Pistol, and two to Rifle. If she had trained... say... a Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun, and Unarmed, she would have three techniques specific to each.) Bear in mind that each of these weapons (unarmed/simple melee weapons aside, which are melee weapons with their own limitations) will have specific limitations in terms of rate of fire, magazine limit (because she is channeling the energy into the bullet itself, rather than simply shooting through the gun which is no better than her finger darts), and some other factors.

APPEARANCE //
Further than just the skin //

• Height | 5'9 / 175 cm
• Weight | 177 pounds/80 Kilograms
• Hair color & Style | Blonde hair of the shade in the picture at the top of the profile, in this style:
• Eye color | Grey-Green
• Overall Appearance |

As a tall, athletic, confident woman, Ryder isn't the sort one would expect to hold the door open for. She carries herself with pride, and a fierce sense of power and discipline can be seen through in her greenish eyes, behind the glasses that frame her generally 'pretty' face.

With pale blonde hair of shoulder length, ivory skin, and ample curves, one has to wonder why such an appealing woman would stand alone. It's only when they meet the cold and determined gaze that lurks within those pretty grey-green eyes that the fierce spirit within her is revealed .

Denying the Quincy uniform for which she wasn't raised, Ryder engages hollows in anything that suits her at the time. These outfits can range from full military regalia, to jeans and a tank top, to evening wear, to a stylish 'battle uniform' she's come up with on her own.

Composed mostly of mixed greys, this uniform of Ryder's serves as a trademark of sorts, something that even further distinguishes her from the rest of the quincy she occasionally encounters. Based on a nineteenth century admiral's uniform, this knee-length leather 'cloak' serves a two-fold purpose. First, it provides a modicum of protection against cuts, nothing very reliable, but sometimes a little extra resistance to a cut can mean the difference between a lost limb and a deep cut, or a deep cut and a scratch. Secondly, the interior of the cloak is well suited to hiding firearms and storing spare ammunition.
Ryder's not the most feminine of women, but isn't the sort to pass up an advantage presented by her full figure for the sake of a concept as antiquated as modesty. As such, her cloak both hugs her curves and is open at the top, exposing the upper region of her breasts, which may or may not be covered depending on the shirt worn beneath. In addition to the distraction factor, this configuration also minimizes the affect the cloak has on the range of motion for Ryder's shoulders.

Though not a religious person by nature (only casually christian, with the beginnings of doubt growing as she learns more about the afterlife), two religious pendants hang from neck, decorating her often exposed cleavage. The first is a silver christian cross suspended on the eight-spoked wheel of ΙΧΘΥΣ, representing Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior, which is the 'Mekkyaku' Ryder's grandfather had made for her that she could never make it work. Beside it lay a Hamaya Arrow Charm, a six inch long Shinto Blessing crafted of sacred Sakaki wood by Ryder's ancestors on her mother's side and handed down through the generations.

PERSONALITY //
Understand the invisible //

• Favorite Color | For Ryder, there aren't any colors that are truly special, visual stimuli are only as important as the whole, rather than any given part. If she had to choose a color, however, it would be cold, steel grey, a color that to her represents durability, strength, and simplicity.

• Likes |
As the child of Japanese and Irish bloodlines, is it any wonder that Ryder would have a thing for Booze? Whether it's her heritage at work, or a more specific trait, this woman has a pretty strong tolerance for alcohol. Despite that, however, she does carefully control her consumption, lest she find herself unable to defend herself should the need arise.
With a gun-collecting soldier for a father, it's only natural that Firearms would make their way into the list of things that Ryder enjoys. The kick of the recoil, the booming report that fills her ears, and the sweet, sweet sight of the bullet's effect on her target all make shooting something Ryder enjoys almost too much.
Growing up a tomboy during the eighties, it should be no surprise that Ryder developed an affinity towards Video Games. From a young age with the Nintendo Entertainment System all the way into the present that girl has found solace in the fantastical adventures on screen. Even now she owns an Xbox 360 in her apartment, with several first person shooter games and a few fighters. When it's time to relax, there's little better for Ryder than to sit down with a pint and blow some shit up on screen.
Born to a military and outdoors-man father? Check. Raised surrounded by guns and in love with them herself? Check. Slightly aroused by the thrill of pursuit and being pursued? Check. Frankly, it's difficult to think of a reason why Ryder WOULDN'T have a thing for hunting. She's just promoted herself from hunting animals, to hunting insurgents, to hunting hollows.

• Dislikes |
Growing up among soldiers in the eighties, and with her father's job common knowledge, it's no surprise that Ryder was a frequent victim of Assholes that thought they knew what a woman should be. As she grew into a woman things only grew worse, with her body and blonde hair frequently proving an obstacle to gaining respect and only further motivation for males to harass her.
Even worse than assholes though, are Traditionalists, people (many of whom are women) that honestly (and courteously) think it's a woman's place to stay in the home and take care of her master husband, and should stay off the battlefield. Whenever someone starts pushing this philosophy, Ryder tends to grow irritated, usually leaving the room rather than lash out, though there are exceptions that tend to end badly.
One of the quickest way to piss this marine off is to spout off that Hippies philosophy shit. Especially all that make love not war crap. To her, the world is full of war, and the best and only reliable way to end it is to win it. (Of course it doesn't help that their free love doctrine flies in the face of her dream to find an equal partner to settle down with. Exclusively.)
Last but not least, Ryder simply can not stand the very girly girls. You know the type, valley girls who paints her nails while gossiping about anything available, and obsess about a new boyfriend every week. To Ryder, it's this sort of behavior that's given women a bad reputation in some circles, and will not hesitate to put a violent (but non-lethal) end to it if she feels necessary.

• Flaws |
A life of ignoring pricks, jerks, and assholes of various sizes and varieties can certainly turn one inwards, such as has happened to Ryder. Every year of crap she endured only hardened her more and more, taking a once cheerful and bright girl into a cold and withdrawn woman who seldom opens herself up to anyone, including herself.
As a firm, strong woman, Ryder has developed a sense of value and determination that drowns out just about anything else. The lady is stubborn and determined to the point she has trouble accepting any authority outside her own chain of command. While she has managed to accept the quincy council as leadership, due to her grandfather's request before his death, she frequently disagrees with their methodology and isn't afraid to do what it takes to accomplish the mission.

• Habits |
They say the military teaches one to keep things neat and tidy. That, is the biggest understatement one could make. At least, in the case of Ryder, the military took a carefree, sloppy, toss-the-clothes-on-the-floor tomboy, and turned her into a neat freak, to the point that she's minorly OCD about maintaining a state of inspection readiness with her quarters, clothes, and possessions.
A good soldier takes good care of her weapons, and Ryder is no exception. With delicate care, Ryder frequently cleans and polishes her guns, always making sure they are in peak condition no matter the wear she puts on them, replacing parts at the first minor signs of deterioration.

• Fears |
Deceptive is one of the last traits Ryder would consider giving herself, but the fact remains that this soldier has buried a secret deep within herself, to the point that even she doesn't realize it all the time. This tough, confident, independent woman is still a little girl looking for love. With a doubt, the greatest fear that plagues Ryder is the threat of dying alone. Ever since her first child, she's tread relationships with great caution, rejecting many suitors, and pushing away the few she let get close. Ryder's no traditional housewife, nor is she a spring chicken, at an age five years in excess of 'preferred marrying age' in japan. With her recent move, this fear has only grown stronger, as the realization sets in that she may never find a husband. For all of her tough exterior and fierce disposition, Ryder is still a woman at heart, looking for a love to call her own.

• Goals |
Beyond her goal of finding a husband who can respect her and match her as an equal partner, Ryder's greatest goal would have to be proving her worth. All her life she's grown up in the shadow of her father, and expected to under-perform due to her gender. Ryder's greatest goal in life, the thing for which she has committed herself, is to prove herself, both as a Soldier, and as a Quincy, despite the handicaps afforded her by her gender and inability to fire a bow.

There is no obstacle Ryder won't face, no mountain she won't climb, and no challenge she won't accept in order to prove to the world, and more importantly, to herself, that she is the best.

• Overall Personality | Contradiction. If there is one word that best describes Ryder, it's contradiction. All through her life she's fought against stereotypes and expectations, while at the same time, deep inside, hoping and wishing she could just accept and embrace those very same things against which she struggled.

Independence, military discipline, and a deeply hidden desire to be needed all serve to keep Ryder's personal feelings in a state of chaos, only controlled by her fierce determination to succeed and not allow such 'flaws' to interfere in her goals.

Growing up with a very traditionalistic mother and military father, Ryder always struggled to prove herself worthy to Colonel Hughes, forsaking being his 'little girl' and instead seeking to be the son he never had, much to her mother's ire. The Liutenant-Colonel had taken to her well enough, but Shizuko could never accept the path her daughter had chosen.

Rebellion is an inseparable aspect of Ryder's personality, instinctively recoiling against commands and orders given by others. It's only after analyzing the order itself for flaws, and the authority of the command that she will do as instructed. Such a pattern was slow and tedius at first, back in her highschool days, but by the end of basic training Ryder had managed to cultivate it into an instantaneous response, enabling her to swiftly follow orders in the heat of battle without sacrificing her independent nature.

Tempering her rebellion is a strong sense of military discipline that was instilled in Ryder at an early age by her father, before she'd taken on the moniker and still went by 'Barrie.' She knows full well the responsibilities that those in authority bear, and the need to submit to those above in order to accomplish the mission. Even so, that doesn't necessarily make her a dog that barks when ordered. Ryder's an independent thinker and tactical unit, and has occasionally gotten into trouble in the military for 'bending' orders (only to be thanked for it behind closed doors.)

Hidden deep underneath her rebellion and discipline, however, lays the third 'core' of who she is. Ryder is both a disciplined Soldier, and an independent Warrior, but beyond all that, she is a woman looking for love. Thirty years is a long time to be alone, and it's worn on her heart. Ryder's grown cynical and hardened, believing that her time has past, and she'll never find a man with which to share what remains of her life. Besides she tells herself, what kind of man would accept a crazy woman that shoots at things he can't see and runs off at random times for no apparent reason.

HISTORY //
Tell me a tale... //

• Birthplace | The Pink Palace of Pain (Otherwise known as the Trippler Army Medical Center in Hololulu, Hawaii)
• Mother | Shizuko Nagataki Hughes
• Father | Lieutenant-Colonel Reilly Hughes
• Siblings | None
• Other Relations | (deceased) Grandfather and Quincy mentor Nagataki Masahiko, 14 year old daughter who's name is unknown, given up for adoption, Fellow Corpsmen.
• Companion | None
• Overall history |

Power is a word that means a host of different things to many people. But to the Quincy Marine Barrie Hughs, code named Ryder, power is life and death. Both a gift, and a curse wrought upon her by her heritage and her choices. Without power, a man or woman is simply driftwood caught in the currents of life, but power is a heavy burden to bare, and exacts a price for it's use. Such is the tale of the little girl that grew into a marine, only to enter a brand new war against the spirits called hollows.

Children play, and laugh, and live freely without consequence. As a rough natured tomboy with a career soldier father, however, little Barrie didn't have things so easy. Surrounded by children of hippies taught that war was evil, and children who thought girls played with dolls and boys played sports, she grew up isolated, with precious few friends. Growing up was less a time of play for this little one, than an introduction to the world's cruelties, with only her videogames and guns to comfort her, and this was only the beginning.

Refusing to surrender her identity as a girl who hunted, played sports, and kicked anyone's ass who tried to tell her otherwise, Barrie grew into a strong willed, independent young woman. Long locks of blonde hair and a beautiful figure caught the eye of many a hot-blooded teenage boy, much to her ire. Dreams of love, of finding a strong spirited equal partner were crushed by date after date, each of the ones she found after one thing without thought or concern for anything greater. During her fifteenth year, Barrie, who by now had constructed the nickname 'Ryder' for herself, received the worst news any teenager could get.

"PREGNANT!?" She had exclaimed in shock, staring at the test in horror, the fears which had festered since missing her period a week earlier now having come to fruition. Despite the hurdles that lay ahead, Ryder persevered, carrying her little girl to term. During the weeks that followed before the adoption process was completed, the young woman grew close to her child, and quickly came to regret the decision that she had known she had to make. Though it broke her heart, Ryder gave her daughter to a family that was ready to care for her, and grew into a strong woman on the other side of the experience. It was only after she had lost that part of herself, that she realized the path she wished to follow.

Like her father before her, Ryder determined that it was her purpose to enter the military. To serve, fight for, and perhaps die for the people of the United States. To that end, the sixteen year old woman entered the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, and found a camaraderie that until that point had been lacking in her life. Sure she took some shit for it from a few students outside JROTC, not to mention her very traditional, yamato-nadeshiko Japanese mother, but it was more than worth it for finding a group of like-minded companions with similar values and goals.

Cutting away the chaff in her life that stood in her path, dating for the most part among a few lesser items, Ryder drove herself onward through what remained of her high-school career, and launched herself into officer school with a single-minded determination to rise to the top of her class. So focused was she on her goals, that her grandmother Kimiko passed away without ever seeing the woman Ryder had become.

War loomed on the horizon in the middle-east. With the united states going to war against Islamic extremists in Afghanistan, Ryder knew all too well that she would be overseas for years once she completed training, and very well may lose her grandfather as well in that time. Rather than take that chance and never get an opportunity to see her grandpa Nagataki again before his time was up, Ryder compacted all her remaining classes into the first semester of her final year, clearing several months in her schedule before training and deployment.

Masahiko was no ordinary man. In her childhood when she saw him she would occasionally seen him shooting a strange bow at freakish creatures. As a little girl, she had played along all too eagerly, imagining herself a gunwoman fighting alongside him. Growing up, like any logical human being, Ryder explained it away to herself as her imagination filling in the blanks to a cooky old man, denying the signs of the spirit world that were all around her. What she found when she arrived at his remote backwoodsjungle home would shake her to the core.

ROLEPLAY SAMPLE:

Shinigami, Hollows, Ghosts, Quincy, secrets of all sorts were revealed to the young woman during her time with her grandpa, as he'd explained the history of his people, and how they served as a guardian force to protect mankind from the threat that hollows posed. He taught of the foundations of the Quincy Order, of how they had come into conflict with the Shinigami and been nearly whiped out. Of how the ancestors of many of the Quincy that were alive now, including his own among the, had survived by hiding their powers and forgoing their lives as Quincy for years, negotiating terms once the conflict had died down and those who had resisted were eliminated. Lastly, he taught her of the powers the quincy possessed, and of how he had refused to teach her mother, based on proper Japanese tradition.

This was a great deal to take in, but in typical Hughes fashion, Ryder skimmed past the details and latched onto the part that pissed her off, something mundane in all the mystical crap that she could relate to. "Wait, so the quincy mostly died off, and you were going to let ANOTHER family fade away just because you didn't have a male heir to pass on your legacy to!?" She had shouted, rising to her feet in fury. If there was one thing Ryder could NOT tolerate, it was being treated like an incompetent 'girl.'

Explaining himself carefully, her grandfather managed to calm her, apologizing for his foolishness and presenting her with the chance to train with him. Though her stubbornness held out for a few days, Ryder was a soldier at heart, and a soldier doesn't reject a chance to better their ability to fight that won't cause them personal harm. Training began with a traditional christian cross styled Mekkyaku which Masahiko had fashioned for her when told the year before of her pending visit, but proved unfruitful. Whether a weakening of the bloodline due to her mother's lack of quincy training, or a personal fault of Ryder's was uncertain, but what WAS certain, is she was unable to produce and maintain a bow. The Reiryoku would gather in her hand and try to emerge, but immediately waver and fizzle out.

Just as she'd been about to leave when her time there had run out, Masahiko caught Ryder unawares with one final surprise, a gift. Suspended from a string in Masahiko's hand was a small wooden charm, in the general shape of an arrow. "This was Kimiko's father's charm. He gave it to me shortly before his death on Okinawa in World War II, defending his country like you plan to. I feel he would want you to have it." Their farewells complete, Ryder returned to her home in Honolulu, to prepare for the war that loomed ahead.

Afghanistan was hell on earth. Car-bombings, roadside bombs, ambushes, and a host of other arbitrary and all-together unfair deaths plagued the soldiers all around. All around Ryder could see strange spirits appearing, 'wholes' as her grandfather had called them, with chains that seemed to lose a link every hour or so. Knowing full well what that meant, Ryder desperately sought for a solution. Despite her efforts, she still couldn't manage to form a bow with the silver Mekkyaku her grandfather had given her.

In desperation, she tried drawing Reiryoku in through her great grandfather's Hamaya charm instead, forcing it into her fist, and out through her finger in the form of darts. Much to her surprise, it actually worked, enabling her to kill the hollows that manifested near her unit and keep them safe from creatures they could not see.

Intrigued by her peculiar technique, Ryder made a point to visit Grandpa Nagataki once she returned from her first tour of duty, hoping to discuss what it could mean. There was little Masahiko could do with her peculiar ability, but he trained her to the best of his ability in the time before her second deployment, during which she uncovered her ability to use Reiryoku in conjunction with unarmed attacks and weapons. When he'd done all he could, the old man encouraged her to seek out the Quincy Council in Japan after her next deployment came to a conclusion.

During her second deployment in Afghanistan, the old quincy passed on to the next life at last, having finally passed on what he knew to the future generations. With her grandfather dead, and without a mentor, Ryder had no choice but to move to japan. After completing arrangements to serve with the marines there, Ryder packed up her belongings and set out, into a brand new world. If only she had practiced her japanese a little more...