[hider="The House always wins!"][color=00aeef]Name:[/color] House [color=00aeef]Age:[/color] 32 [color=00aeef]Gender:[/color] Male [color=00aeef]Race: [/color] Human [color=00aeef]Rank:[/color] Rookie (Mercenary Corps) [hider=Appearance][color=00aeef]Appearance:[/color] [img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PdK4w8kFXUc/TKKnS3fPoVI/AAAAAAAABK0/c-slSCVE__8/s1600/gambit.jpg[/img] Standing tall at 1,85m and weighing in at 90kg, the picture shows House with his technique [color=ed1c24]Diamond Eyes[/color] active. House never leaves his room without his signature brown trench coat and keeps his beard somewhere between unkempt and “short but sexy”. Underneath the trench coat he wears normal everyday clothing and his mercenary rank bandanna is loosely bound around his neck. Around his waist he wears a belt with two holsters containing his two decks of special throwing cards. [/hider] [color=00aeef]Personality: [/color] Due to his unique upbringing House is a very social and helpful guy, since his brothers and sisters in the gambler-family depended on each other to survive. He learned a great deal about the importance of camaraderie, friendship and teamwork through them, even though his carefree and laid back demeanor might not always convey it too well. He jokes around a lot and laughs about his own jokes sometimes, which can make him seem like a bit of a douche. He believes, that he has grown out of his boastful loudmouth phase, keeping his showing off to a minimum as well as suppressing his desire to be a joker or smart-ass whenever he can. However when a certain amount of booze or gambling is involved he will slip right back into his old self. Additionally House is very competitive, trying to one up anyone he feels superior to, which, when it comes to gambling, is just about anyone. In his free time he either practices his card-tricks, prepares his throwing cards or tries to find people to play with and pass the time. His favorite food are chicken wings, although he'll settle for almost any poultry based meat and he can hold his liquor fairly well given his casino-bar filled youth. Finally, House had quite the womanizer reputation back at home, since he could be very charming and was nice to look at. He never actually understood where that reputation came from however, since usually the women talked to him first and he was pretty oblivious to the flirting until it became very apparent. Underneath everything House has a very soft spot for children, especially orphans, and wants to potentially open an orphanage when he retires one day. [color=00aeef]Background:[/color] Born with an alcoholic gambler for a father and a dead mother the young Roger Kempton was basically by himself from the get go. Before he was even 8 years old he escaped his father on one of their casino-trips, leaving the old man at the slot machine and never coming back. While on the run Roger met a group of gamblers, misfits and former orphans just like him, that took him in and raised him as one of their own. They started teaching him about the world, taught him reading and writing and about the most important thing in the world: the art of gambling. Roger soon proved to be an exceptionally fast learner, he was smart and, unfortunately, he knew that. During these early years Roger would frequently boast about his winnings, while wearing his hubris on his sleeve. This lead to more than a few troublesome situations, through which he made it unscathed more often then not. When Roger hit his early 20s he picked it up another notch, training his sleight of hand and dice tossing as well as his card counting and throwing on the side. He had soon made a reputation for himself as “House”, the man that never loses. At first he didn't know what to think of this nickname, but he soon grew to like it a lot more than his actual name, discarding it along with his childhood memories. By now he had become somewhat of a small celebrity among the casino belt, a group of islands in the West Blue, that is mostly treated as a permanent neutral-zone for the surrounding crime syndicates. The casino's were all owned by different criminals, that were always trying to out-profit each other, House however was a problem for every casino he visited, since whenever he showed up he would cost the casino and it's clients a lot of money. One fateful day he won the absolute jackpot, without even knowing it. It was his 28th birthday and he went into a high-end casino to celebrate. After a long and successful day he packed up his winnings in his usual manner, stuffing it into a huge Santa-like sack, excused himself with his usual catchphrase, “It was a pleasure to play with you gentlemen, but never forget, that in the end: The House always wins!” and left the casino with a big grin on his face. Taking stock of his birthday winnings in the hide out later he noticed, that one of the assumed golden ornaments wasn't golden at all. It looked more like a very heart-shaped peach with a swirl pattern. Deciding, that he was hungry anyway and unaware of the existence of devil fruits, he gulped the fruit down in 2 bites. At first he was confused by the lack of a stone on the inside, but then he realized how gross the fruit tasted, making a mental note to never eat a fruit like that again. Another 3 years passed and House was growing weary of the hustling and cheating lifestyle he flaunted. He had been growing less and less bashful for the past years and had finally gotten to a point where he realized, that his life wasn't going anywhere. After contemplating what to do with his life and hearing about the marine-fort's new hiring guidelines, he decided to make himself and his recently acquired powers matter, setting off towards the East Blue immediately. Signing up for the mercenary corps as soon as he reached the fort. [color=00aeef]Skills:[/color] [color=ed1c24]Sutsu-Sutsu no Mi:[/color] The Suite-Suite fruit, a Paramecia type fruit that gives the user the ability to empower himself by invoking the four suits. Heart for defense, club for offense, spade for speed and diamond for vision. [color=fff200]True Gambling:[/color] Every gambler knows, that at a certain point in any game luck doesn't matter anymore. At that point speed, skill and perception are the only thing separating the big winners from the empty handed losers. If you didn't get caught, you didn't cheat, that's the rule of the casino world. House is able to roll a dice onto the number he wants and manipulate card-decks without most people ever noticing. [color=00aeef]Techniques:[/color] [color=fff200]Cardslinger:[/color] Years of experience have lead to House being able to toss cards at enormous speeds and with amazing precision, giving him the ability to throw his cards like other people throw knives. [color=ed1c24]Suit-Style: Diamond Eyes:[/color] House activates one of his four sutsu-powers to enhance his vision ability and range, and turning his pupils into diamonds. [color=ed1c24]Suit-Style: Spade Surge:[/color] House activates another sutsu-power to increase his speed and reaction times, enabling him to use the [color=ed1c24]Spade Spears.[/color] [Indent][color=ed1c24]Suit-Style: Spade Spears:[/color] House's hands transform into a black spade shape, making them extremely sharp and durable, effectively turning his arms into thrusting weapons. The stem of the spade protects about half of his lower arm from damage as well.[/indent] [color=00aeef]Stats:[/color] [INDENT][b]STR:[/b] 11 [b]AGI:[/b] 12 [b]PER:[/b] 17 [b]DUR:[/b] 12 [b]WIL:[/b] 13[/INDENT] [color=00aeef]Perks:[/color] [LIST][*][B]Sleight of Hand:[/B] His fine control over the movement of his hands makes House a formidable opponent in close quarters. He moves aren't exactly blinding, but are definitely subtle and to the untrained eye, are difficult to predict. [*][B]Pickpocket:[/B] House's expertise in subtle hands movements has made him quite the capable thief when needed. When accidentally bumping into him, you better check the contents of your pocket. A firm handshake? Your watch might not be there anymore.[/LIST] [color=00aeef]Inventory:[/color] 2 decks of cards with sharpened edges and a pair of red dice. [/hider]