Axel Gilgamesh

Axel Gilgamesh is the escaped son of Ascalon President Kaiser Gilgamesh. Living a life of imprisonment, servitude, and training, Axel was primed to be the perfect living super weapon for Ascalon's government, planning to use his epithet to channel the nationalism of the country into raw energy. They had him on a tight leash, going as far as welding a tracking device to his forehead as a child. However, due to his interactions with a certain childhood friend Axel managed to gain a glimmer of his own desires, which he held onto through brutal years to come. Desiring nothing more than to escape the floating country and finally see the outside world beneath the cloud barrier, Axel attempted to escape multiple times. Finally at the age of 15 his most daring escape ended with him being shot out of the sky by his own father, dying before he even hit the ground. Luckily, he got better, and since Ascalon believes he's dead Axel is finally free for the first time in his life.
A kind-hearted and determined kid, Axel has incredible personal resilience. He can hold onto even the smallest of hopes during the darkest of times, and by extension will always be there to carry others when they can't go any farther. However, his naivety is fairly blatant. His lack of worldly understanding leads to Axel seeing almost anyone or anything as amazing and cool, and he's earnest to a fault. His lack of media access growing up has also led to him developing trash tastes for just about everything: movies, music, food, etc.
== Powers ==
Despite his original Ascalonian military training, Axel refuses to use techniques from his home country and instead fights using styles from the little information he knows about the outside world, going as far as to name his techniques after anywhere other than Ascalon. He calls this style the "Wheat Town Beatdown", involving frequent rapid attacks. This lets Axel connect any successful hit of his into another hit, at the cost of each followup dealing less and less damage. This forces Axel to understand how to optimize damage output and energy exertion, as Axel's early life has left him with low energy reserves.
Rejecting his epithet's original purpose, Axel instead channels his desire for freedom and adventure into his powers. This allows him to coat his attacks in a strange red-white-blue aura that splits into star patterns, which enhance his attacks. His signature London Knuckle lets Axel approach quickly and send enemies flying. His flexible Tokyo Flare allows Axel to attack from a distance bare-fisted by projecting energy out from his fists along the ground. His powerful Venice Spire lets Axel manifest a massive energy spike below enemies for massive damage and bleed chance at the cost of more energy. His Paris Parry allows Axel to capitalize on an enemy's bad footwork and strike unexpectedly. His mobile California Eagle deals higher damage at late prorations compared to Axel's other moves and is more effective on targets in the air.
However, all of this is expanded upon greatly by Axel's ability to create ✪s (pronounced "stars") upon landing a successful blow. Each ✪ represents energy generated from the attack, which Axel stores within himself for later use. These ✪s can be spent to augment the effects of each of his techniques greatly. London Knuckle can deal more damage, knockback, and even combo into itself. Tokyo Flare can inflict statuses, hold enemies in place/in the air, or explode in a large area. Venice Spire can become a potent line or massive AoE attack for devastating damage potential. Paris Parry becomes more effective at defense and/or offense, and can even allow Axel to combo off an enemy's own attack. ✪✪✪ and ✪✪✪✪✪ versions of moves can bypass Axel's damage proration from attacks partway into a combo, forcing the decision of risking a miss deep into a combo for optimum damage in return. They cannot be combo'd out of however, and Axel can only ever hold five ✪s at one time. He can also spend ✪ as a once per round anytime to allow someone to push past a whiffed move and cancel it into another attempt, granting a lesser form of advantage where the second reroll is done with a d12 but still judged on the d20 system.
Axel's epithet also provides some utility. He can telepathically perform two-way communicate with anyone he's familiar with, regardless of distance or current plane.
=== Wanderlust Form ===
By spending ✪✪✪✪✪, Axel is able to briefly enter a boosted form that allows for greater use of his base kit. His hair and energy turn purple as the previous blue and red mingle. In this state, Axel's base damage is slightly increased. His actions all gain the d12 advantage his ✪s can grant, allowing for more consistent combos. Most impressively, however, is that all of Axel's ✪✪✪ and ✪✪✪✪✪ supers now completely ignore combo proration, allowing for Axel to go in even deeper and do even more potential maximum damage, with the right strategy.
This form is a decent boost, however the high ✪ cost means that Axel needs to start from square one ✪ wise upon activation, and with its limited time active Axel needs to really crunch the numbers and get some lucky hits in order to capitalize on its usefulness.
=== Secretariat Form ===
If Axel is in a dire enough situation, he may break his vow and channel the power of Ascalon, which his father crafted him to inherit. Axel may activate a single component of this kit at a time. Due to Axel's hatred for this power and not wanting to be consumed buy it, this deals massive damage over time to himself that cannot be prevented as Axel works to repress this power. However, the strength granted to him is both violent and overpowering.
Supposedly Axel was trained to always be in Secretariat Form, having full access to all of its powers without any drawbacks caused through Axel's resistance. The full extent of his abilities in this form are unknown, but astronomical.
== Destruction Bench Agreement ==
=== Episode 91 ===
Axel woke up, along with the rest of the party, with seemingly no memories about who they were. However, they were quickly greeted by Velletri Seward, a reaper who manages those that pass into the afterlife. She informed the party that they were dead, although due to very strange circumstances. As such, she offered a potential way to regain their right to live. Only remembering their names, the party's first order of business was to rediscover their own history. Despite their predicament, Axel seemed strangely excited and overwhelmed by the stimulus around him, as if emotions were welling from under the surface that he couldn't understand the origins of.
By visiting the Library of Souls, run by Velletri's brothers Bishop and Cardinal Seward, the party planned to read the books of their souls that tell their life journeys. Axel read his last, as much of his childishness was washed away upon remembering his actual childhood. He stopped reading aloud shortly after learning of his father, but the party could put two and two together. Axel also had a brief talk with Chad, who gave him a gun to stay safe in this trying times. Chad was concerned to find that Axel already had ample firearm training, but Axel was more busy admiring his job as a "superhero". Axel also noted that Chad seemed moderately distressed by many seeming contradictory statements about Chad's personal love life, which he seemingly didn't feel personally despite getting his memories back. Upon going downstairs, Axel tried to comfort Dido who at this point refused to read her own book and was fairly set on finding a way to become a reaper instead. He didn't want to tell her that her goal was wrong, but that she shouldn't choose this path simply out of a lack of hope for a better life, and that she shouldn't care about whatever her soul book says or what her past is so long as she still has a future to shape. A lot of these feelings came from his own understanding of the pain of holding out hope where there is reasonably none to find, but that it's necessary to keep going.
After that, their guardian Ose brought the party to a large mirror which showed everyone what they think of themselves. Axel saw himself inside what appeared to be a large steel coffin-like capsule, with various chains leading up to the ceiling. A small crack in the cage was leaking out stardust energy, which was being funneled back upwards. While the others were much more dower about their own reflections, Axel confirmed with Ose that the mirror only showed what the viewers thought about themselves, not what they truly were, and as such the visions could be changed. This caused the cracks in his reflections' bindings to widen further. However, eventually a Memory Trickster appeared from the mirror, attempting to steal the memories gained from this encounter for itself. The party quickly chased it downstairs and beat the shit out of it.
After the fight, Axel and a few others remembered how they died. Specifically, Axel remembered running out to a plane hangar while some guards sympathetic to him held off his pursuers, although all of them were silenced in an instant. Upon takeoff, a strange besuited and beshaded epithet figure appeared on the wing of the ship much like with the others' death scenes. However, before it could explode his own father decided to shoot his own son out of the sky, saying that if he dies he wasn't worth recapturing. This left Axel much more quiet and lost in thought. Then, the party decided to comb through The River Styx to find anything else to motivate them to cling to life. Axel decided to travel with Chad and Davin, the latter of which noticed Axel's distant behavior. Despite being given a second chance to escape, Axel was incredibly shaken up by his death happening before he could ever see the outside world, having been knocked out before even passing the cloud barrier. It was another grueling punch in the gut after many years. However, the others reassured him that he was almost out, and upon opening a chest Axel found many travel brochures from all around the world, as well as a special star-shaped key on a feathered keychain. He was also happy to see that Davin had finally gained any motivation to live, even if it was just so he didn't die in such an inglorious way and to tell off his brother.
Upon exiting the River Styx, the party began their final climb to live. Axel immediately performed a critical blow against the now monstrously sized Ose to buy the party more time, and was later witness to the Inev and Davin's Father-Son Kamehameha. Climbing up to face off head-to-head against Velletri herself, Axel came into the fight with full health and all five ✪s. He managed to land two separate ✪✪✪✪✪ Venice Spires which dealt massive damage to both Velletri and Ose. He eventually fused with Chad thanks to Blackberry, forming Chaxel. As it turns out Axel's fighting style and Chad's up close and personal physical "asalts" combined into an absolutely brutal and efficient smackdown. After Velletri used her Outclass Chaxel managed to land the final blow as Axel used the last of his stamina in a ✪✪✪ London Knuckle. Afterwards, the party was allowed to return to life, with everyone being transported to DBA.
Upon returning to the world of the living (and scaring the shit out of Robert) Axel immediately became overcome with joy and proceeded to revel in the sensation of freedom. After hugging everyone from the party, he immediately left to see the horizon for the first time with Davin.
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=== Episode 97 ===
Between the events of 91 and this episode, Chad offered to let Axel stay in his house. He accepted, and while he leaves the house frequently to explore, he does return with semi-frequency. Since then, he's been very nervous about what's happening with Chad, disappearing and acting strangely. He's investigated and found out that none of the people of the house knew about Chad's girlfriend, and that they believe Chad's frequent flaking is because of her. With the strange sort of contradictions in Chad's own soul book about his relationship, Axel has become very suspicious that some kind of mind control or brainwashing is at work, which he's very familiar with.
Initially planning to go camping with the episode's party, Axel was called into Niles' office for an emergency mission. Apparently Chad has disappeared earlier in the week, and Bur is threatening to sue DBA if they don't bring him back safe and sound. As one of the greatest lawyers ever known, if anyone could sue DBA it'd be him. So the party is sent into the new Destruction Bar and Grill, or "D-Bag", to ask around for information on Chad's whereabouts (with the help of attorney Soren). Eventually Axel was able to piece together a comprehensive theory: Chad was likely being mind controlled by his girlfriend's epithet, which Vis not only noticed on him but also noticed feint traces of it on Soren. Soren herself seemingly ignored her usual protocol when talking to his girlfriend, and despite agreeing that she was suspicious found herself struggling to say it verbally. Mind control would also explain the discrepancies in Chad's soul book and how he felt about the situation when free from her control in Purgatory. In the end, he was right. The party decided to confront his girlfriend: Stacy Salone.
When walking up to Stacy's house, his fellow housemate Koel Baneo collapsed with terror due to an epithet-related vision of his previous tormentor, Zander. Koel had been kidnapped with many others as a child by Zander and trained to become super soldiers. His epithet seemingly infected them as he taught them, turning Koel's epithet more oriented towards manipulation of time and cursing his hair to turn white and his eyes grey, just like Zander. This really struck Axel personally, and he made sure to back up his boy and vowed to beat the shit out of Zander if he ever came after Koel.
Axel was determined to fight Stacy, being convinced of her theory. He was proven correct fairly quickly, and when they found Chad's beaten body still controlled Axel was unable to hold back his killing intent. Chad had become his role model, and effectively his father figure. Fusing with Koel who had similar feelings, Axel proceeded to break a vow he made long ago: he channeled the power of Ascalon. Specifically, he channeled the power "Room 101" that allows him to torture a target with every hit made, breaking parts of their body to weaken them. Of course, activating this dealt massive damage over time to both Axel and Koel, as their bodies burned and their blood felt like it was on fire. As the combat continued, Axel's personality and body language seemed to shift to a more cold, calculated, and dispassionate fighter. He immediately took the opportunity to abuse Weylan's lockers, dealing such massive damage that even when fourth'd, Stacy was immediately slaughtered. They managed to save Chad, but at the cost of a deep personal price. He gave the now freed a big, silent, and slightly sad hug.
Afterwards, the party returned to The Bur House. People noticed that Axel was still dour from the earlier events of the day, feeling like even if he saved Chad, he still lost in a deeper way. Davin not only assured him that he did it for the right reasons, but that Axel still has the future to work towards and improve with. Axel took that hope, thanking Davin and slowly returning to his normal self.
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=== Episode 99 ===
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=== Episode 105 ===
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=== Episode 107 ===
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=== Episode 151 ===
== DBA Data Bounties ==
=== Episode 2 ===
This bounty, "Unlimited Star Power!!!", is about fighting a boosted form of Axel who has extra action economy, stamina, is at 59 proficiency, can combo out of supers, and has unlimited ✪s! The party, comprised of Pandora Primrose, Bishop and Cardinal Siward, Koel Baneo, Eris, and Oritov, soon realized the crazy heights with which this boosted version of Axel could reach. Immediately gaining ludicrous movement speed, Axel activated his Wanderlust Form and proceeded to obliterate the party with massive amounts of damage. The party was quickly reduced to low amounts of stamina through massive high-damage combos, utilizing California Eagle, Giza Drop, and especially Venice Spire at ✪✪✪✪✪. However, this version of Axel also didn't have much stamina relative to the number of opponents he had, dropping to below 10 stamina within the first round. Of course, at the same time he had already wiped out Dido, Eris, and Koel, with Oritov and Bishardinal on their last legs and Pandora not far behind. If it weren't for Oritov's casting allowing for infinite range unstoppable damage then the party would've likely had one or none left standing.
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== Trivia ==
* Axel takes many inspirations from many different characters:
** In general, Axel's concept and design was inspired by Rock Howard from Garou: Mark of The Wolves.
** His design is also inspired by Kyo Kusanagi from King of Fighters.
** His star motif alongside the physical attack style was inspired by Little Mac from Punch-Out.
** The idea of building up stars to spend on boosted moves is lifted from the general fighting game concept of "meter" where as blows are traded a resource is generated that can be spent to perform EX or super moves.
** The anytime d12 advantage is inspired by Under Night In-Birth's Chain Shift mechanic, where one can expend vorpal to temporarily freeze the screen and cancel out of certain moves to make whiffs safe or continue combos past their usual limit.
** His basic attack Star Impact is inspired by the webcomic of the same name, which is about boxing with super powers.
** London Knuckle is inspired by Terry Bogard's Burn Knuckle move from Fatal Fury. The ✪✪✪ version is inspired by Yang's Astral Finish from BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle where she continually rushes forwards after the target flies back from each punch to continue the flurry. The ✪✪✪✪✪ version takes even more inspiration from Little Mac's Star Punch from Punch-Out.
** Tokyo Flare is inspired by Terry Bogard's Power Wave move from Fatal Fury. The ✪✪✪ version is inspired by Phonon's EX fireball which can be used on reaction off of most stray hits even from fullscreen and holds the target in the air for a while as to confirm into a full combo even at fullscreen, from Under Night In-Birth.
** Venice Spire is inspired by both Geese Howard's Raging Storm spikes from Fatal Fury, Gravelord Nito's ground spikes from Dark Souls, and the general trope of fighting game characters having a move that hits a particular area in midscreen by firing energy in the ground that spikes up.
** Paris Parry is inspired by Akatsuki's counter move from Akatsuki Blitzkampf and Under Night In-Birth.
** The name of his combo talent, "Wheat Town Beatdown", is taken from a rejected name for a fighting game tournament at zanza's college.
* The back of Axel's jacket shows off a world atlas design similar to the UN's logo.
* Due to having actually died, Ascalon is currently under the belief that Axel is dead from the readings of his tracking device after the crash, hence why they're not immediately tracking him down right now.
Category:Characters
Category:Destruction Bench Agreement Characters