— Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper
Royce offers a bland style that he customs to his own; bland is what he knows how to work with. It's never dull in taste, but can be considered crude and rudimentary and is often flared with the most senseless of knickknacks that he finds. Even armored up, it's loud and out there, as if he needs to constantly put a bulls-eye on his back for people to shoot at. He calls it a 'challenge' while most agree that it's actually 'stupidity'. But, the danger lives and courses through his veins. And due to the military life, he's been accustomed to strict work out regimens and boasts a prominent figure, though considered lithe when compared to some of the other hulking men in service. He likes to be nimble, flexible, and precise, over extremely strong, durable, and brawny. Royce is quick and has astonishing reflexes too, able to react and act with an above average speed. His energy is boundless, so the speed and precision befits his style of combat, as it's often fast and unpredictable. Not to mention he's also a dirty fighter; no one fair smirks like that.
Driven purely on the excitement of the present, Royce is a very, 'do it because it's fun' kind of guy and may find himself skirting the lines of morality, simply because he enjoys something too much. He's often careless in how he acts, undeniably indifferent to most people except those closest to him, and often finds it hard to motivate himself beyond, 'it's fun.' There's not much there in terms of his real goals, as he often finds himself lost in what he's doing too much to worry about where he's going. He likes excitement and is filled with a boundless energy that's hard to calm. What's more, he likes using that energy to the fullest and will sometimes take certain actions to the extreme, which has numerous affects on those around him. Either he accidentally harms someone in the process, or he relentlessly annoys anyone close enough to be drawn into his antics.
Roy is a charismatic and manipulative individual when he's not off doing God know's what. Someone who people usually go to for a few cheap laughs, usually at the expense of another person, Roy is surprisingly horrible at sarcasm. He's got about as much snark as a toilet bowl, but he makes up for that in cunning and probably foolishness. There's always a layer of near idiocy over his cunning, giving most people a terrible first impression. He seems like he's doing the stupidest of things just to do them and, in a sense, they're right. Roy is subconsciously manipulative and often works to push people to do the work for him, whilst he keeps up the harmless guise. He can be seen as ruthless and often uncaring when he exposes his underlying nature; all of his actions, everything he does, is usually to further his goal and his goal alone. It makes him a person who's very hard to work with, in both utter annoyance and the fact that he can often push people further down in his duplicity. He may look and act stupid, but he's clever and most of his manipulation is subtle and varies from person to person. If a weakness can further his goals, then he'll exploit it until the individual is thoroughly broken. Often times he never stays to see the aftermath and can be blind to the maliciousness of what he sometimes does.
But the thing is, most of Roy's goals are very short term. They have no apparent drive further, aren't just broken down things to do to get to the real thing. They're usually things that Roy likes, things that Roy thinks are necessary for his survival and it can often lead him lost and inhibited by his own myopia. To Roy the future is scary and too random for him to grasp and often has a misconception that it really doesn't matter in the long run. That's actually what drives him away from staying on course for too long because he honestly believes the future is so flimsy that it won't matter what he does. It's kind of a skewed look at destiny and it drives him to wander around lost and not knowing what to do for long periods of time. Royce, if anything, wants stability the most in his life and is often driven subconsciously to gain it. Most of those plans fail due to his own self-sabotage and fear of what it might mean for him.
Roy hated Sam to the point where he often pulled mean pranks on him and his friends. That really only lasted a few days, in which they knew each other—Roy was energetic and kept people on their toes as a child, so he often did things in a perpetual fast forward. However, Sam, unlike most people who would have wailed on him to no tomorrow, approached him in their energetic youth. He blatantly asked Roy why he was being so mean and Roy told him flat out: "I don't like you. You're too... too better and that's not fair."
Now, Roy hadn't the normal family life. His father and mother were divorced at a young age and he was left with just one other sibling to look after as they lived with their mother. Their mother was the sweetest and kindest and gentlest thing ever, soft to the core and loved with all her being. She had a few problems, yeah, but they were never apparent to her children. She was addicted to drugs and sex and often got fired for both from wherever she tried to work at, leaving her children impoverished and without all the things these other kids had. They made do, though, and Roy would often have fun at the expense of others. He liked pranks and could sometimes get out of hand, even if none of it was for anything personal and it got a laugh out of his little sister. But, along with his mother's issues, his father had custody on the weekends, where they'd spend those days on the other side of the town. The father had more blatant issues than the mother, with alcohol and drugs being prominent and out there, even within reach. He'd even offered them some, just to show how much of a terrible parent he made. This didn't come across as the type of fun that either of the kids liked, but it was the soul reason his sister died a lot later in his life. She OD'd at 14 and his father was too high to help her.
On one of these weekends, Roy had met Sam and immediately grew jealous of him. He'd not known the boys home life, didn't know what he had or didn't have, but the kid's attitude was so righteous and 'do it my way' from his perspective. He was a shepherd among a herd of sheep and Roy didn't like the idea of being a sheep, no matter how drawn he was to him. It was subtle at first, but the moment Samuel approached him, gave him the sternest look a kid could muster, and asked that question, Roy's mind clicked and it clicked in the right way this time. Sam was better than him in every way, but if there was someone who could make him like that and happily so, it was probably Sam.
It was rough at the start; the group didn't quite like him the way Sam did. They didn't all get along too well, especially since Roy was one of the more active ones. He didn't take a leadership role, but he did dish out the most ideas, however zany and crazy they were. Sam struck most of them down in a very subtle way, but Roy didn't ever mind because he essentially satiated his desire to do something, anything. Sam fulfilled a stability in Roy's life that no one else ever could and when they lost him, all of that stability crumbled and he'd often wander away from the current group in a mindless haze, wondering what he was doing and why. But, Sam had brought them so close and even without him, they still added a stability that he craved and needed, but didn't necessarily see. Roy became a lot less ordered, more energetic, and liked to be out of control more often than not and it put a strain on those close in his life, but they all loved each other too much to separate. Sure, they told him what for and he told them back, but one can only be upset at their only friends for so long.
Without Sam to guide him, he was kind of lost. He was so worried that he'd become a sheep that at the lost of that one person who gave him most direction he ultimately turned into one. He was guided by his instincts and motivated by pleasure more than anything else, though he cared about his friends a lot more than anything else. The problem was that the rest of the world simply wasn't there and he often tacked on his friends motivations in place of his own. He was so lost, that he'd not realize what he was doing, following the group into a military academy that trained and gave them the strength to fight.
Roy found solace in the spirits that found him, those that were also lost and who also found themselves too focused on what was happening to realize their consequences. They were the radical whims of creatures who found delight in the chaos they sowed, but their chaos didn't disrupt life. It rather gave meaning to it and brought about more positives in their mischief than negatives in their maliciousness. But, they were lost as to what to do and their goals and found the security they needed in Roy, even if he himself was lost to it.
When things go to out of focus, you realize there's a clarity there that you've never experienced before. When the noise of battle and the sounds of death pierce the mind and twist perception until everything becomes a fuzzy haze of chaos, something clicks and the world turns inside out until there's nothing left to see. As everything explodes into a paradox of clarity and confusion and Roy can no longer tell what is up or down, it all simply stops. Unable to handle the pressure around him and the instability wracking his mind, Roy simply reels back into his shell and literally closes himself off to the world.
In the unconscious state, the bond between Roy and his spirits breaks into a blinding flash of light. Enemies that are within a large area around Roy are then locked into a paralyzed state, in which their conscious being is being tapped into. Roy's spirits work in tandem, surrounding the opposing enemies and taking control of their thoughts to find what they truly fear. In this, they are locked in a mental battle against their own subconscious, triggered by the spirits that embody Roy's fears and heartache—the shadows that crawl along the walls and the very noises that only the individual can perceive. These beings are the malicious side of the Court, the array of spirits inside Roy, and are usually only brought out during this exact time.This, depending on how successful the attack was, can trigger a number of responses from the victims, from utter shock that renders them further paralyzed, to completely shutting down the body in a fear induced stroke or heart attack that instantly kills its victims. They are often locked in place with a look of utter terror stricken across their features. Anyone of a weak mind can literal convulse and die in an instant, while others may be prolonged in a deep inner battle with their mind.
When all is said and done, the beings emit from the bodies of the victims in a black haze before dissipating and returning consciousness back to Roy. He is often left in a vulnerable state during this, and is usually only driven to it in times of desperation and utter confusion, when he can't take the stress of battle and simply fades out as a response. This could be caused by utter desperation, but mostly out of a sense of helplessness that can take a hold of him, as if he no longer knows what to do.
But these spirits were, too, affected by the Calamity and the havoc it wreaked. They sought refuge in those that had deemed them demons and monsters, instead of the beings they truly were. The fae that lived in the flowers, the elusive fox that burrowed through the forest, or the whispering breeze that fluttered in the wind, considered beasts not unlike what the Calamity produced. Most were consumed, as they could not find enough suitable men and women who hadn't feared or loathed them, an unfortunate tragedy to creatures that were forced to hide and who were lost in the wake of both tragedies. Roy was one such refuge.
He harbors a range of creatures, but all have similar qualities to them, in that they were all beings of chaos, though that is not to be mistaken for destruction. They were whimsical and spontaneous, unable to hold down for the smallest second, very akin to Roy's personality. What more, they knew his pain as well, or even better than he did and saw the same reasons for his actions as they did theirs. The bond Roy holds with his spirits is close and understanding, as if they were all one in the same. And there are a number of them attached to Roy, as he deems himself (which is agreed by many of his spirits) the bastion for mischief. Most of the beings are a very bright, reflective color when manifested and even contain elaborate patterns in imbued within them; they all very in size and length, but have a tendency to swarm erratically and often touch whatever they can. He dubs them his Court or The Court.
Nature — Transmutation
One item at a time, of Roy's choice, can be transmuted into an item nearly similar in both form and function, especially depending on the material. The items must not vary too much in size and shape, otherwise it remains either nearly unaffected or rendered unusable. A machete can be changed into a long sword with ease (as they are both made of steel), though it requires more concentration the farther away from the item's shape and function Roy gets. It has a lot to do with the object chemical make up and if the product goes too far away from that, then things can end up a little disastrous. As such, Roy is often limited to certain sized objects and even then is limited to the material they're made out of.
It's very much like changing the chemical properties to suit ones needs, like making lead into gold, but on a more molecular level. Such things happen in nature on a day to day basis, such as carbon dioxide into oxygen through surrounding plants. These beings were usually such manifestations, and often had special chemical modifiers, such as venus flytraps and more.
Dark — Through the Looking Glass
If one wants to get from point A to D, they usually go through points B and C to do so. However, Puck can traverse from point A to D and back without going through the trouble of points B and C. These are often holes between realms that specific spirits traverse in their desperation, opened to Roy in large rifts and portals. However, Roy can't traverse too far without terrible side effects. Meaning, he can't travel from one end of the world to the other without severely damaging his mind, as he goes through an alternate dimension (often what one could consider Heaven or Hell; a kind of spirit world, in essence), to traverse these distances almost instantaneously and staying in the dimension for too long (since it isn't usually governed by the same principals of time that his world is) can drive a man insane. These dimensional gates are open for only one person at a time and close after that one person has gone through. While only spirits can be affected in these realms, humans remain unharmed physically, but can have their minds scarred from the images and the unimaginable that they are exposed to, as a human usually isn't allowed access to this particular realm until they've moved on from the living. This is limited to those Roy deems allies or himself, but the mind altering affects are double for anyone else who enters. The effects stack and too many times traveling through different dimensions can literally rot a brain, though Puck has grown more accustomed to the effects through repeated safe use over the time. The effects do wear off with enough time, which for Roy doesn't take too long, but for anyone else it may vary depending on the individual's mental state.
Roy is currently limited to traveling about a kilometer before the effects begin to show. He's also limited to about 10 regular jumps at a max of 500 meters, which can increase up to 20 depending on the size of his jumps—the shorter, the less exhausting. On average, it's usually about 15 consecutive jumps.
Nature — Jinxed
A very spirit intensive power, Roy can affect a large area, but not the people in it, to essentially 'curse' it. At least, that's what it looks like. In reality, a group of spirits affect a general area to cause mischief and general mayhem, provided they have the means to do so within the surrounding area (barren lands or lands riddled with steal and metal often hinder their effectiveness as they can't find much to latch onto or use to great effect aside from the earth). These imps, as he calls them, are like any other spirit, invisible, and act as both sentient beings and as an extension of Roy's will. They can't travel too far, but are effective in turning the tides of battle by sabotage and potentially harmful tricks. They take advantage of the surrounding nature, roots, the wind, the earth beneath their feat, but have no real care for who gets caught in the crossfire. They don't usually act in good will and can get out of control if they aren't reigned in beforehand, causing general chaos and mayhem until they're fully exhausted.
They are the embodiment of the whim and spontaneity of nature around them, often using the wind or directly affecting the earth to cause these happenings and further the chaos they wish to ensue. They have free reign of the nature around them, using whatever they can to cause certain things to happen or occur. They either look to create a natural disaster for people to get engulfed in, friend or foe, as a way to disorient primarily enemies and wreak havoc to further disarray in one area, only one that occurs and lasts for as long as they are there, which should be a small duration of a battle once they start working to do something; look to possess an object of nature from trees to small areas of ground or wind, to physically attack and confuse opposing enemies; or, when all options are exhausted or things are more dire, they coagulate into a corporeal form for a minimal amount of time, usually in the form of an animal or some sentient flora, to directly harm or attack hostiles. The latter of each situation is the most powerful, but also the less frequent and quickest burn out of either of them all. It lasts for about a few minutes, in which the 'imps' do what they can before becoming reabsorbed by Roy. Each imp looks to do the first one first and it is the most often used of the three, then the second should even thoughts of the first be fruitless in Roy's eyes, and then the third should the situation be dire enough to call for it, but not so dire as to activate Roy's limit break.
