Azure Teardrop

[Azure Teardrop]

Name: Azure Teardrop
Age: 21
Birthday: 9/9
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Nationality: Vacuo
Height: 6'2''
Character Photo: None
Emblem Photo: Currently searching for one

Outfit Description:
Ordinarily, Azure battle and casual attires tend to be one and the same. A tradition from his days as a gang member, where one simply didn't have the luxury of picking up specialized clothes and stuff, so he settled with whatever would serve and didn't really bother him whenever he was fighting. A shirt, pants and a pair of shoes would often suffice, though there were times in which he would skip on the shirt, and even the shoes.

Now that he is beginning to leave that part of his life behind, however, Azure ultimately decided to settle for some clothing – he wasn't the one paying for them, anyway, so he figured he would go all out.

For his battle attire, Azure wears a dark blue leather jacket, and a fishnet shirt underneath; the former half buttoned with plenty of his chest visible, and both without sleeves. While most of his arms are left bare, the back of his hands and part of his forearms are protected by steel bracers. The lower side of his outfit consists of deep black leather pants, roughly trimmed at the shins to give way for a pair of leather boots reinforced with steel. At the back of his waist is a somewhat small bag, where Azure mainly keeps dust canisters, but can hold other stuff as well.

Casually, Azure can, and will, wear pretty much anything, but he usually follows a repetitive trend: A shirt a couple sizes too small, short-sleeved and worn wide open, and a tank top underneath; the lower portion begins with a pair of pants, generally trimmed at the shins – though they'd be naturally short like that sometimes – to make way for a pair of boots.

Physical Description:
Azure has a thick body with a noticeable lean build, his muscles being easily made out even through most clothing – especially if they are a tight fit, which is almost always. Additionally, Azure is also quite tall, standing at an above-average six feet, and in combination with his body build, it can make for an intimidating sight in many a battlefield. His hair is rather short, and unevenly colored two ways, with the right side being white and the left one being black – his eyes matching the color of the latter. A scar can be seen a bit above his forehead, but he doesn't really pay it any mind.

Personality:
Having spent most of his life living on the streets, Azure often speaks in a way that could be perceived as “rude” by what he and his peers would consider “normal people,” especially when it comes to his dark, and sometimes even insensitive jokes. However, his intention is never to actually hurt or offend anyone, and if he ever realizes that he did, he will make sure to give them proper apologies.

Despite his communicational issues, Azure won't lose the chance to talk to a stranger and get to know them better. Usually, he would do this through a quick and simple fistfight, but since Beacon, and society in general, frowns upon openly fighting with everyone you meet... Yeah. Nevertheless, his objectives in either case are still the same: To gauge what kind of person they are, how strong they are, what is their goal in life, and just how far they would go to accomplish it.

Azure is also honest to a fault, and though he is perfectly capable of reading the mood, he won't hold back whenever he has something to say – it doesn't matter who it is, or whether it might be hurtful to them or not. He won't sugarcoat things either – If someone does get offended by his words, then they got to square up and take it, because that is just how the street taught him life to be.

He can be quite the sucker for fighting, and will most likely not turn down any offer to battle in any capacity. This could also impact on missions where fighting might not be inherently necessary, like stealth-oriented assignments, and yet he will find any excuse he can find in order to turn it into something vital. Additionally, while people can get disheartened when facing a powerful foe, things such as these will only make Azure grow more and more excited, which could prove dangerous depending on the situation.

Last, but certainly not least, Azure is really protective of those he considers friends. This goes far back to the days where he would give his pals on the gang a hand every now and then, or go beat a rival group that dared to bang up a member of his “family.” If he considers someone a pal, then they can be sure that if someone were to even try to mess with them, they would suddenly find themselves answering a pissed off Azure; no exceptions.


Backstory:
Ever since his birth, Azure's life has been all kinds of rough and challenging; for instance, the moment he was finally born, his mother passed away from both an illness she had been dragging for years, as well from the exhaustion of the whole ordeal. Azure was left alone with a father that didn't quite like him, for he was the one to take his wife away from his side.

To quickly resume his childhood, Azure was physically and mentally abused by his father almost every single day, for he – when he wasn't working – spent his time drinking himself stupid. This, in return, made Azure increasingly more and more violent, and that resulted in him getting in trouble at school. However, that didn't mean he struggled to make friends, though their company was the kind any parent wouldn't want their children to spend any time with at all.

Eventually, and not long after he was expelled from school due to his increasingly bad behavior, Azure left his home behind to instead join a gang that some of his friends – that also got expelled around the same time – were part of.

This gang was relatively small, compared to the larger and more important ones, but its members were close and everyone got along together, as if they all were one large family of sorts. The leader of the gang, nicknamed “Tin” due to his scrap metal leg, was a retired Huntsman and he personally greeted every new member, which is how he and Azure got introduced to each other. It was then he managed to see not only how feisty and wild he was, but also how much potential he held as a warrior.

Because of what Tin saw of him, Azure was tested in many ways over the course of the first few years he spent in the gang: Missions far beyond the scope of his abilities, grueling training sessions, almost inhumane punishments... It felt unfair to Azure at first, but upon confronting Tin about it, the gang's leader immediately revealed that he was preparing him as a successor to his position, for he feared he might turn up dead in the near future.

During this intense testing phase, Azure would learn from Tin about the state of the world as a whole – not only about the Grimm, but also about humanity as well. While the beasts were a serious issue, the fact that humans continued to engage in shady operations really bothered the man, and little by little, Azure began to share his mindset. It was thanks to both his understanding, and the outstanding results yielded by his long training under the leader, that Azure was eventually ascended to second-in-command of the group.

Unfortunately for Tin, shortly after that happened, tragedy finally decided to strike: He was killed by a rival gang in an attack while taking care of an otherwise easy job. True to the words he told him once upon a time, a now grown-up Azure – about sixteen years-old – was ascended to leader of the gang – his first order being to take revenge from the gang that took the life of their previous leader.

... The entire rival gang ceased to exist by the next morning, with Azure's gang moving into their hideout and making it theirs.

That was only the first of many coups Azure would plot over the course of a whole year. Following the will of their late leader, and his dear friend, to rid Vacuo of its murk, most of their attacks were aimed against shady groups that engaged in illicit activities like the kidnapping of people, be it for trade or ransom, and the trade of illegal weaponry. This would not only cement his gang as one of the most powerful locally, but also attract the attention of large crime syndicates that began to find it an eyesore that had to be taken care of.

About a year and a half after Tin passed away, Azure met a young girl he found alone in the streets. She had no name, so he decided to name her Rouge, after her vivid red hair. It was, too, after this fateful meeting, that the aforementioned crime syndicates began to formulate a plot to finally get rid of Azure and his gang for good. They were aided, in secret, by several members from Azure's gang, spearheaded by one Yami, whose hatred for the current leader ran deep after not only he displaced him as second-in-command, but also took away the position of leader that, he believed, was going to be his.

Even though she apparently lacked most of her memories, Rouge was able to quickly emphasize with Azure, and vice versa. Unlike him, and despite her appearance, Rouge was kind, sincere and weak, but still held strong convictions and, more importantly, a dream of her own. He was really envious of her because of that, as even though he did have his own, most of his came from the deceased Tin – he didn’t quite possess goals he could call his own.

Then, a couple years after Rouge's arrival to the gang, one of the largest gangs in the area began to make small attacks on Azure’s, much to his surprise and anger, and it wouldn't be long before they made a move in return. However, this was all part of the crime syndicate, Vacío, to lure Azure into their area of influence, so they could drop their entire force upon them... And their plan succeeded, kind of.

While the most of the gang was wiped by the powerful mercenaries under the orders of the crime syndicate, Azure was of the few that managed to survive, though it was all due to the sacrifice of Rouge, who readily gave away her life to save him from a sudden sniping attempt and bought him enough time to flee the area, much to his frustration.

Left alone, in the unforgiving streets of Vacuo, Azure was eventually found by the police and, upon recognizing his face from a wanted report, promptly captured and jailed the ex-gang leader.

Afterwards, he spent some time in one of the cells at the station, silently mourning the family he had grown up with for so, so long. However, and surprisingly, he didn't feel any anger towards the men of Vacío or the people from within his own gang that, he later learned during the syndicate's surprise attack, betrayed his family. This being due to one of the few memories he retained of the late Rouge – more specifically, one of her many wise lines she once spoke to him:

“When you think about it, placing blame on others or even yourself, and holding feelings of anger towards other, or even yourself again, is kind of pointless. In the end, we're all at fault of something, and it makes no sense focusing all that guilt towards a single person.”

While Vacío could be put at fault for many of his friends' death that day, Azure himself was just as guilty for having led them all into the trap, and so were those that betrayed the gang. Thus, who exactly was to blame for all that happened? Could them all be held accountable? Could the mercenaries that aided Vacío be held accountable as well? When does it end?

Azure ultimately decided to not think about it any further. It was his mistake, and given his situation, even if he were to blame them, there was nothing he could do about it. They won, and he lost. It was still extremely frustrating, of course, but that's just how it was.

Eventually, Azure was visited by an old member of the gang who survived the attack that day. He revealed that he had been an undercover agent sent by the police in order to see what kind of activities was the gang engaging in, and given the respect he gained towards Tin, and later Azure, and his actions to purify the kingdom's streets, he ended up not reporting the gang – not that they ever did anything worth reporting, other than their acts of vigilantism.

This old member, now reinstated into the police force, had been vouching for Azure ever since his arrest. Thanks to his efforts, police ultimately accepted to lift all charges and free Azure, just short of a full month of confinement. Azure would then move to live with his old teammate out of the continent, as his friend was worried that Vacío might end up finding out about his whereabouts were he to stay in Vacuo any longer.

They ended up at Vale, where they would live without much incident for about half a year, before a twenty years-old Azure learned about Beacon, and how renowned it was when it came to Huntsmen academies. This made a particular memory about Rouge reach the forefront of his thoughts: Her dream to become a Huntress in the future, in order to help both him, his family and the whole world.

Remembering that, Azure made the decision to begin attending Beacon, and after consulting it with his old teammate, he agreed to his idea. It would take him about a year before he finally sorted out the necessary papers, during which time Azure prepared clothes, equipment and also trained a little bit to make sure he didn’t grow rusty after so much time of not seeing any conflict.

Then, having turned twenty-one not too long ago, Azure was once again about to begin a long journey to fulfill a dream that wasn't his, wielding borrowed convictions, with the hopes of perhaps being able to attain the only thing he has yearned for since he was a little kid:

To find a dream he could call his.


Weapon: Lucky Nine

Weapon Description:
Lucky Nine is a sword, with a blade almost the size of a whole arm, that Azure originally developed during his criminal life. The first version was crude, made almost completely of composite materials, while the second version – the one he carries nowadays – was made with the help of an old friend of his, using more standard materials.

A two-form weapon, Lucky Nine is usually kept in its “Sword Forme;” while in this state, it looks like an average sword, more or less. Detailing it some more, the handle is slightly curved forwards, while the blade is actually composed of two separate edges joined together by some sort of column with a zig-zag indent that goes about its entire length. The tip of the blade is pretty much non-existent, given that the two sides of the sword aren't joined to each other, leaving an empty space where the tip should be – making this weapon not very good for stab attacks.

The secondary form of the weapon is called “Ranger Forme;” to reach this state, the sword is sheathed, which reveals a hidden trigger within the handle that, if pressed, will begin the process of change. The sheath of the weapon, being pretty thick for your average sheath, is actually a complement to the weapon, and after some twists and a literal separation of the sword’s middle column in half, revealing a set of metallic spikes on either side. Lastly, the handle is pushed downwards, turning the whole thing into an impromptu railgun that can fire Dust-based bullets by loading a cartridge through back of the, now, barrel – every cartridge being able to shoot up to nine bullets before it runs out of Dust.

Fighting style:
Though one might expect a bunch of crazy stuff from someone who used to live on the streets, Azure's technique and form could be described as surprisingly competent. He will often stay in close quarters of his opponents, but instead of directly attacking, he instead reacts to their offensive, never bothering to make the first move as he feels that letting others do so instead gives him a bit of an advantage on the overall. Even physically-gifted opponents won't change his approach, as his own semblance can quickly level the playing field in that regard. This tactic is especially useful against speedsters specialized in close quarters, who, despite being exceedingly fast at times, eventually will have close in to attack him – after which he will counter them.

Ranged opponents and users of Dust-based weapons, however, do pose a problem, as they will do whatever they can in order to remain out of close range of Azure. In these cases, the usual strategy is to throw them off balance with the ranged capability of his Lucky Nine, and taking that chance to close the distance, using his semblance to increase his running speed – rinse and repeat if necessary, until he gets close enough to swing his weapon against them.

Alternatively, and if the skill between him and the opponent isn't too steep, he might engage in ranged combat with them, in which case he will simply take cover and fire whenever he finds a good chance – using his Semblance if needed to receive a boost in accuracy.

Aura Color: Indigo

Semblance: Tempo

Semblance Description:
Azure's Semblance, Tempo, is the ability to manipulate his own blood flow and heartbeat by coating both his heart and veins with particles of Aura, and then stimulating them in order to either increase or decrease their rate of effectiveness. The result of such an action is that will receive a buff that lasts for as long as he keeps the stimulation active, with the buff's potency being directly linked to the rate of alteration.

The rate of alteration is the percentage at which his heartbeat and blood flow is changed from what is considered normal, and that could range from ten percent at minimum. The maximum rate of alteration is, technically, infinite, but the natural cap is at one hundred and fifty – anything higher and his body might be in danger of permanent damage. The higher the rate, the harder it is for Azure to maintain the state, with percentages over one hundred only being able to be maintained for less than half a minute, due to how much of his Aura is consumed per second.

Changes to expect, when the rate is accelerated, is that Azure's skin will grow increasingly redder, his temperature will go up, veins will begin to pop on his skin, and at extremely high percentages, his skin will turn a dark shade of red, veins will really begin to show on his skin, his breathing will grow ragged, and his skyrocket to the point that he will start exhaling something akin to hot steam. This state, also called High Tempo, increases Azure's physical strength and movement speed to be about one and a half, three, or even five times that of an average, Aura-enhanced Huntsman. In return, however, the consumption of stamina will shoot up and both his sight and hearing will drop in effectivity, and the longer he stays in the state, his limbs will grow a bit numb – overuse at extremely high percentages, however, might make his limbs fail to work properly for a while.

On the other hand, when the rate is slowed down, Azure's skin will turn noticeably pale, his temperature will drop, his pupils will turn smaller, and at percentages above one hundred, his skin will turn a ghostly white, his eyes will become bloodshot, and his temperature will drop to the point that he will start exhaling something akin to clouds. The state, referred to as Low Tempo, increases Azure's overall focus, improving not only his split-second reaction times, but also his eyesight and his hearing to be half as good as that of a specialized faunus, or even just as good. In return, however, he will lose strength and movement speed, and the longer keeps the state active, a splitting headache will begin to affect him – abuse of this state, especially at percentages over one hundred, might affect his eyesight and hearing almost to the point of temporary blindness and deafness.

At the moment, Azure can only use High Tempo to an effective fifty percent, and cannot use Low Tempo at all. However, further training and experience will allow him to unlock access to Low Tempo, and also the ability to use them both to their full capacity.

Previous Education:
Azure never quite finished his studies as a child, and though he did learn some basic stuff, most of things he does know were taught to him by the veteran members of the gang after he joined them. Fortunately, most of these subjects are covered by the supplementary classes that students like him have to attend to before beginning proper courses in Beacon.

On the other side of the spectrum, Azure is what could be described as a prodigy when it comes to battles. He learns techniques quickly after repeating them a couple of times, or even after seeing someone do the example once, which helped a lot during his harsh training under Tin and the rest of the gang. However, while some of his skills do feel refined, one can certainly see the kind of freedom that's only on styles that were born on the street, and for the street.

When it comes to the art of fighting the Grimm, however, Azure has absolutely no first-hand experience. He recalls the many stories Tin told him about his times as a Huntsman, and the many battles he bid against these beasts, but that simply doesn't count as personal experience and only serves to give him an idea of how Grimm behave and what might be to fight against them.

In short, in academics he is borderline okay, in general fighting he is excellent, and in Grimm hunting he has the theory figured out, but lacks field experience.

Strengths:
Related to fighting: Above-average strength and stamina; close quarters combat specialist, with or without his weapon; highly resilient to both damage, and pain in general.

Related to social: Honest to a fault; unable to be phazed by any and all intimidation attempts; trustworthy; surprisingly amiable, and a bit charismatic.

Weaknesses:
Related to fighting: Limited knowledge of marksmanship, both to use and to fight against; can get carried away easily; not a fan of stealth tactics; losses a lot of stamina when his Semblance is active.

Related to social: Honest to a fault, so much he can be hurtful to people without intending to; can disregard orders with ease; easy to rile up, andcan potentially end up punching someone.

Likes:
Fighting, and all things that relate to that in some way; meeting people, especially if they have clear goals in life; parties and celebrations, mostly because they serve him as an excuse to drink; cooking; studying history; stargazing. This list can, and will, get updated as time goes on.

Dislikes:
Studying, because he thinks most subjects are boring or hard to grasp; cowards, hyprocrites, and bossy people; parties without booze; rainy days. This list can, and will, get updated as time goes on.