CARMEN ALVARO

NAME: Carmen Alvaro

ALIAS: Silver Wind

RACE: Shinigami

AGE: 103

AFFILIATION: Gotei 13, 12th Division

DIFFICULTY SETTING: Hard

APPEARANCE: 

Young and lean, Carmen has perpetuated her physique for numerous years. Her muscles lay tight to her bones, providing strength without the weight penalty. She is taller than most women, sitting at about 5'8 and weighing in at about 120. Her height comes from the long legs she possesses and her lanky torso. The muscles in her legs are noticeably thicker than the ones found elsewhere on her body, as she uses her legs for most of her extensive activities. She is more focused on the speed dynamic than anything else. Physical strength is taken from the equation, being replaced with fast calculated movements and power that does not require bulky muscle.

Carmen holds traits very often seen of people from Mexico. Her hair is dark and thick, cut haphazardly by an unexperienced hand. Her eyes are a dark brown in color and set beneath a very prominent brow. Everything about her is dark, save for her skin. She has always been a bit more pallid than the common mestizo. Her skin comes from her father (a presumed white client of her mother's) with a trace of the olive skin her family possesses. Carmen's facial features are more European, though her eyes are shared by her mother and grandmother.

As for attire, Carmen is seen wearing the uniform most Shinigami wear. Hers is tighter to her body than most, outlining her frame almost perfectly. She dislikes bulk, and opts to wear thinner cloth for said uniform. Underneath her robes she wears a tight black jacket that nearly acts as a second skin and a pair of leggings that barely reach her shins. Her shoes differ daily.

PERSONALITY: 

Carmen is unlike the girl she was when she was human. The submissive and defeated nature she had taken up has been shed in her new life. She strives to be different than the girl she once was, which usually causes her to overwork herself. Carmen is confident and strong-willed for the most part. In certain situations, she doubts her full capabilities and the old nature she once knew resurfaces a tad. These episodic meltdowns come fewer now that she is a weathered lieutenant but are still prone to happen every once in a blue moon. Carmen hides these dents in her armor rather well, her stoicism doing enough to keep her confidence up and visible for her peers to see. It is rare for anyone to know what goes on in that head of hers unless they are incredibly familiar with her.

As a fighter, she rarely dares to hold back against her opponents. With the stigma of her past life still haunting her, she refuses to submit to anyone and will fight until she physically cannot any longer. Her competitive edge works both in her favor and against her. Without clear knowledge of her limits, it is difficult for her to gauge whether or not she is overestimating her ability. However, the strength in her headstrong nature comes in her not very conventional methods of problem solving. Her will to win will drive her to playing the game in a totally different way. If she needs to utilize a seemingly random miscellany, she will do so to ensure a victory. Her quick mind and excellent ability to focus make her way of fighting incredibly successful.

Her past experience as a prostitute has given her charm and the ability to get along with just about anyone. She is pretty outspoken and is not afraid to speak her mind. Carmen is also quite gifted in leaving suggestions people seem to snap at eagerly. Perhaps its that charm she possesses, who knows.

HISTORY:

She took in her first breath in the arms of her grandmother. Cars could be heard just outside the makeshift shack she had been born in. Her cries couldn't be heard over the revving of engines and blaring of horns. A young girl, barely fifteen, exhaled in relief as soon as the burden of birthing the child had been lifted from her shoulders. She sat back into the lap of a similarly aged boy who commenced to massage her temples. This was chapter one.

In the twenty years she would know as a child of Mexican poverty, never would she get a taste of luxury. Meals were nearly always rice-based when there was food to be had, and even then, she rarely ever felt full. Age three was when she learned to beg for food. Their place of residence was never set in stone, but the group of seven always managed to stay near the most congested parts of the highway. With her older cousins to guide her, Carmen became a master of the trade. Hard candies and sticks of gum were the top prizes when they went out to beg for their lives. Being the youngest, Carmen rarely got her share of the spoils, something that would never really change even as she grew to match her cousins in size and maturity. She was raised to be submissive. A pure replica of her mother in both appearance and personality, Carmen was the fragile doormat that everyone took advantage of. It didn't take long for her to get used to it, though. 

By her tenth year, she had already sold her body to lonely men stuck in traffic for less than what it should have been worth. Both her and her one female cousin worked this trade together through their childhood years. The money they brought in from the work was substantial enough to get the family a better selection of food and blankets, but still insufficient in terms of permanent housing. There was only a single night in Carmen's young life where she had been able to use a bed for simply resting. It came in the form of a gift on her quinceanera when her mother bought her a room in a nearby motel. The pillows were yellowed from over-washing, but she slept so soundly in the warmth of the musty comforter it didn't matter. This was perhaps the one time in her life that the submissiveness she had been forced to exhibit amongst everyone she knew was no longer there. The feeling was one she would never forget.

The next five years were much like her first fifteen. She slept in the company of her family, ate what she could, and went off to sell her body for the meals forthcoming. Her existence meant nothing to anyone but those who counted on her services, which was what gave her an incredible amount of diligence in the face of adversity. Adversity was her entire life, right up until the final breath she took.

She had been considerably lucky as a prostitute. Most women at her age had at least three children as payment for their sorry careers. Carmen had only one child at seventeen. An infant son she had named Manuel who passed on after arriving prematurely. This pregnancy had been incredibly trying on her body, a foreshadowing of the pregnancy that would come her twentieth year. Carmen's second unwanted attempt at a child was trouble at the very beginning. During her eighth month of pregnancy, she miscarried once again, and the result was quite tragic. The blood loss paired with the immense strain of trying to rid her body of the lifeless infant ultimately took Carmen from this life she knew. She sank from the world in about the same way she arose in it: crying and vulnerable.

Some think her story ended on the day she died, they would be mistaken. Her soul had been so pure and so alive in her trying existence that instead of fading into the blackness of death, she awoke once again. Her human life faded from prominence, this new era beginning as soon as she regained consciousness. District 15, a place unlike the one she knew back when she was alive. She didn't fit in with the mild-mannered folk that lived there, but managed to find her niche soon enough. A family of sorts brought her in and taught her how to live in this new world. The stories they told her was news to her ears. She had never been religious, believing only that flesh and bone was life and that was the end. Having to adjust took time, but she was quick to do so. Carmen saw this as another chance, and acted upon it as such.

She enrolled in the academy early on. Her motives for doing so rested in her troubling past and her overwhelming need to better herself. Carmen was quick to advance in the academy, ranking in the top of her class for the final three years of the program. Her considerable spiritual potency alongside her advanced abilities to control her reiatsu proved to set her above even those from the noble families. She garnered attention everywhere she went, and caught the eye of a certain captain that saw the potential she held. Her upbringing and past history was one the captain could relate to, and after the six years of training and a great many years of proving her worth as a Shinigami, Carmen was asked to take the side of the newly appointed 12th division captain, an offer she did not refuse.
FACECLAIM: naoto from dogs: bullets and carnage