Friday, January 1, 2016

Xigbar

Image by doubleleaf on DeviantArt
Original Name: Braig                                   
Elemental Power: Space                                       
Weapon: Arrowguns                
Number: Two                           
Position: Security/Surveillance

    Xigbar is Number Two of Organization XIII, one of the founding members who has been with the Fangirl extermination squad since its beginnings.  He and Xaldin share the security duties of the Organization, with the two of them trading off guard shifts at the main entrance from time to time as well as going over security camera footage and attempting to sniff out any foul play within the Organization's base itself.  While Xaldin focuses primarily on his guard duty, Xigbar also has a great deal of knowledge about the workings of the base's security systems, which he helped design alongside Vexen and Zexion.

     As you could probably guess from his weathered face and the gray streaks running through his hair, Xigbar is among the older members of the Organization.  His visibly aged appearance is unusual considering that he is an elf (of the Elveshmean race to be specific) and would normally be expected to age more slowly than humans, though it's possible that his run-ins with the Fangirl menace have caused a degree of stress that has led to premature aging; most Elveshmeans have blue hair like that of Saix or D'aal well into their fifties, not darkening into black (let alone fading into gray) until they are approaching the typical human's retirement age.  Befitting his Elveshmean ancestry, he is rather average in height (standing about five feet, seven inches tall) and with a wiry build, being more suited toward quick actions and flexibility than brute force but perfectly capable of either if necessary.  He is the only member of the Organization to wear an eyepatch, covering up a badly damaged eye which no longer functions due to a past injury.  The scar across his cheek may have been caused by the same incident, though it's possible that he suffered two separate injuries to his face at some point -- it's been said by those who've seen him shirtless that the scar on his face is but one of many, and not even the worst.

     Xigbar is generally fairly laid-back in his ways of doing things, at least until things get serious (such as when he or someone else is in real danger) -- at that point his "soldier" side quickly comes to the surface and he will no longer mess around, focusing on ending the situation as quickly as possible whether that means finishing off an opponent right away or escaping to fight another day.  He's very prone to cracking jokes in many different situations, being particularly snarky toward those who annoy him; he also curses quite a bit (especially when something really pisses him off), having probably the most R-rated vocabulary out of the entire Organization.  He enjoys sneaking around the base (often walking on the ceiling using his gravity-altering powers) and spying on the other members when he isn't busy with his work, or sometimes even during work considering that part of his job is to check up on the security systems spread throughout the base; as a result, he usually knows about random details of other members' lives before almost anyone else.  He also enjoys testing his skills whenever possible, leading him to hold regular target-practice sessions in the base's training room and help out with the training sessions of a variety of non-numbered members even though he wasn't actually assigned to train them; on several occasions he has even picked fights with other members (such as Axel and his brother Saix) simply to see what they're capable of and how he measures up.  Among the other Organization members he is closest to Xaldin and Luxord, and the three of them can often be found drinking and joking around together when all three are off duty.  He tends to clash a bit with his younger brother at times, due in part to Saix's much more straight-laced serious personality and the way that his devotion to Xemnas has made him second-in-command of the entire Organization, displacing even the other founding members.

History

    Xigbar originally went by the name Braig, which (as he was an elf) was not just his first name but his only name.  The exact details of his first encounter with the Fangirls are unknown, but it's possible that his eye injury, the scar on his cheek, or both may have been caused by a Fangirl attack.  However things went, Braig survived his encounter and shortly thereafter began an intense training regimen in order to strengthen his body and sharpen his aim to make it more likely that he would escape unscathed if he would ever come across the giggling monsters again.  He soon got together with a Rurcelan elf named Dilan, who had also had run-ins with Fangirls, and the two worked together to determine what sort of fighting style was best suited for combating the creatures -- Braig specializing in ranged weaponry (and preferring the traditional elven weapons known as arrowguns) and Dilan in close-range combat, both unarmed and with a variety of polearms.

    After traveling across Europe and teaching some of their techniques to various others among the elven races, Braig and Dilan met up with the Fangirl research team led by Ansem and soon joined up with the group, uniting the humans and elves (and one half-elf, Xehanort) toward a common goal of figuring out how the Fangirls worked and how to best deal with them.  Braig and Dilan became the group's bodyguards, fighting to protect them (particularly Ansem, who had no combat experience) whenever Fangirls appeared.  When Ansem split from the group a couple years later, Braig and Dilan stuck with Xehanort and became founding members of what was later known as Organization XIII.

    Upon the Organization's founding, Braig took on the new name Xigbar and became the group's Number Two.  Initially, he was one of the highest-ranking members in the Organization, being in charge of the base's security; alongside Vexen, he developed the Fangirl alarm system and was responsible for setting up and testing the base's other security measures.  A couple years after the Organization was founded, it was Xigbar (along with Xemnas) who recruited its first new member -- his younger brother Isa, who took on the new name Saix upon joining and quickly began training under Xemnas.  About a year later, as Axel (also found and recruited by Xigbar) began his training and Saix completed his, a shift in the power structure of the Organization took place, with Saix rapidly rising in the ranks and after a while displacing Xigbar and Vexen both to become second-in-command to Xemnas.  This caused a bit of a rift between Xigbar and Saix, and they have never gotten along quite as well since as they did in their days before the Organization.  As time went on, Xigbar and Xaldin unofficially became the members in charge of seeking out and recruiting those who had encountered Fangirls and thus had the potential to develop powers like those the Organization wielded; between the two of them, they were responsible for inducting over a dozen new members, with Xigbar bringing on board an especially promising new recruit -- a young man named Liamaru, who would later take on the name Marluxia and rise to the rank of Number Eleven.

Powers and abilities

Strength: 6.5/10       
Speed: 9.5/10  
Endurance: 7.5/10          
Mastery of Powers: 9.5/10                        
Combat Skill: 8.5/10              
Defense: 6/10       

     Xigbar's elemental power is Space, which means that he is capable of meddling with the laws of physics at will, at least to an extent.  He most commonly uses his powers to alter gravity, allowing him to stand and even walk in midair, sometimes even upside-down, just as easily as he could stand or walk in a normal upright position on solid ground.  As he sometimes puts it himself, he doesn't have to obey the laws of gravity if he doesn't feel like it.  He is capable of increasing or decreasing the effects of gravity on others as well, though opponents stronger than himself are capable of shrugging off these effects to an extent.  In addition to manipulating gravity, Xigbar is capable of distorting the fabric of space itself, making it possible for him to near-instantaneously move from one point to another and even alter the layout of rooms on a whim by rearranging the position of objects such as boxes or furniture.  As with other Organization XIII members, Xigbar's attunement to the forces of the universe makes it impossible for others to use those forces against him; an opponent trying to gain an advantage over Xigbar through the use of heightened gravity, for example, would find that Xigbar would be capable of ignoring it just as effortlessly as he can ignore the planet's regular gravity.
Xigbar's arrowgun "Sharpshooter,"as seen from several different angles.

    His summoned weapons are a pair of the traditional elven weapons known as arrowguns, which launch large arrowhead-like piercing projectiles rather than ordinary bullets.  They are mostly useless in close-range combat (though he could knock out an ordinary human with a pistol-whip from one of them, and perhaps briefly stun a low-level Fangirl as well), but highly effective from even very long ranges, a fact which leads Xigbar to keep as much distance between himself and his opponents as possible.  Each arrowgun can fire six shots before needing to reload, though due to the fact that they are summoned weapons he "reloads" simply by materializing more projectiles rather than having to do so manually.  While his ordinary shots are fired under his weapon's power alone, he is also capable of charging them with gravitational energy, generating a blue glow and making the projectile appear to be larger than normal.  His ability to tamper with the laws of physics at will also makes it possible for his shots to ricochet off walls without losing any significant amount of speed or even change direction in midair.

     As an elf, Xigbar has keen senses of sight and hearing, contributing to his rather precise aim despite lacking one eye.  These traits make him an ideal member for the duty of guarding the base's entrance, as he can usually see or hear potential infiltrators (or, more commonly, mountain climbers who have no idea what they're about to stumble upon) coming long before they become aware of his presence.

Special techniques

  • Gravity: A basic gravity-manipulating technique.  Xigbar makes some sort of motion toward his target (waving his hand, snapping his fingers, etc.) and instantly the pull of gravity upon them is heightened, usually causing them to at least slow down if not stopping them in their tracks and slamming them into the ground.
  • Zero Gravity: As above, but in reverse -- rather than heightening the force of gravity, Xigbar lessens or even inverts it, causing his target's fall to slow (generally used to prevent injuries to allies) or pulling them up into the air against their will.
  • Graviga: A variation of his gravity-amplifying technique mentioned above, this version increases the gravity of a wide area rather than focusing on a single opponent.  Because this tends to cause quite a bit of collateral damage and may even harm his allies, he usually prefers to reserve this for one-on-one battles where an enemy may be too fast for him to catch with the more focused version.
  • Warp Snipe: Xigbar fires his arrowguns and immediately transports the shots to another point somewhere around his target, causing them to launch at opponents from unusual directions and angles rather than simply flying straight ahead from the ends of the guns as expected.
  • Critical Snipe: Xigbar merges his two arrowguns into a much larger and more powerful weapon which resembles an elven version of a high-end sniper rifle.  His ordinary shots with this combined weapon are far more powerful -- and capable of reaching targets from a much longer range -- than normal, and if he wants to finish a fight quickly he will charge his shots with gravitational energy, causing them to become surrounded by a swirling pinkish-purple sphere.  He can't rapid-fire these charged shots like he can his usual ones, but they have such power that he generally has no need to.

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