Name:
Demetri Rode
Parents:
Sapphire Rode and Oswald Connolly
Age:
17
Gender:
Male
Race:
Human
Weapon:
As he never attended Signal and Sapphire refused to teach him the Hunter's trade his weapons are not fancy. He wears gauntlets and combat boots that are a modification of an old design his mother created. The boots are coated in steel and have the ability to expel dust while the gloves apart from acting as Iron Knuckles are capable of bonding and releasing to surfaces allowing Demetri to stick to walls.
Semblance:
Safe From HarmStemming from his desire to protect those closest to him Demetri's semblance manifested itself as an extendable almost impenetrable shield against harm. Demetri's semblance manifested early in his life during the war where as an infant he would use it instinctively to protect himself and usually his Grandfather when the flying Grimm came screeching overhead. Though not unlike the natural aura that protects all living things with a soul Demetri's semblance exceeded those abilities as unlike aura he is able to form it from any point he can see and focus on rather than having to extend it from his own body. As a child he could only make basic shapes but as Demetri grew he could manipulate the size and shape of the force field with greater ease. The one downside to this shield is that the power it has is finite. The same protective energy is present whether Demetri has it extended only over himself or stretched over a full football field. This means that the larger he makes the shield and the thinner he spreads it the weaker it gets. When it is big enough to only encompass one person it is nigh on impregnable but the larger it gets the more difficult it is to maintain and the less force it required to shatter it. If it ever does collapse due to extraneous force Demetri's aura collapses with it leaving him extremely vulnerable. The shield is not immune to the laws of physics either. If hit with a large amount of force while protecting a small area the shield and everything or everyone in it could be thrown back with just as much force. Demetri's favorite tactic is to wrap the shield around his opponent because at that size it's nearly unbreakable and Demetri enjoys watching them struggle. Since the shield is not aura itself it is immune to aura manipulation and draining abilities and blocks them.
Personality:
One of Demetri's defining characteristics is a curious nature and a rash impulsiveness to match. This gets him in trouble fairly often as he is continuously found in place he shouldn't be or doing things that are more than a little questionable. He has a good natured if somewhat mischievous air about him and though he will admit when he's made a mistake he's also just as ready to justify any action he's taken that may be considered crossing the line. He's sure of himself and keeps calm in the face of most challenges with one exception. Demetri feels incredibly guilty about what his mother had to do to protect him during the war and because of this will defend her by any means necessary. Because of this he often gets into fights with the neighborhood kids who make snide remarks about his mother deserting "the cause". Despite having little regard for his personal safety Demetri is fiercely protective of his remaining family and anyone he calls a friend. His aunt who he was named for died in the war, he often goes to her graveside to speak his mind to her and get his thoughts straight.
Appearance:
Demetri has a mild build but hiding up his light frame is a lot of muscle. He takes after his mother quite a bit in regards to how he moves, as well as learning a good deal of her acrobatic techniques. Though his hair is dark blue like his mother's it's prickly and short just like one of his father's old army photos. He had a scar on his lip just like his Dad. He was born with a cat lip that had to be corrected which left an almost inconceivable mark. Sapphire sometimes said it was a sign that Oswald was looking out for them. He is light skinned and burns easily in the sun. Demetri's eyes are a grey like a churning storm.
Biography:
Three or four years after Team Swansong's year graduated Beacon a calamity struck the Four Kingdoms. Hoards of Grimm began to attack the borders of all four kingdoms simultaneously. While Atlas, Vale and Mistral had the resources to keep them at bay Vacuo in it's isolated and desert location was not quite so lucky. The Grimm ran rampant. The governments of the kingdoms in order to placate there terrified people started a policy of conscription and harsh penalties towards deserters. Sapphire and Abel from Team Swansong as well as Diamond, Emerald and Oswald from Team Codex were part of a combat unit that defended the southern most reaches of Vale's border. The battles were grueling, the supply trucks didn't come nearly often enough. Through all of this Oswald was the voice of hope for Sapphire. The situation they found themselves in while on a larger scale was not quite so different as the one that Oswald himself grew up in in his hometown outside the borders of the kingdoms. Somehow, even in the darkest moments Oswald always found a way to raise her spirits. Give her the strength to keep going on.
One night after a terrible battle, one in which they'd lost many friends, when even Oswald's optimism had begun to sputter they slept together, found comfort in each others arms. Oswald and Sapphire had sort of been dating off and on over there years at Beacon but it had never amounted to anything serious, not until that night. Sapphire wasn't sure if it was the following day, or maybe the next week, perhaps even a month passed but Oswald died fighting. Those days on the battlefield blended together into one big stretch of conflict and suffering. The only points that Sapphire remembered clearly were the days she lost someone important to her, and the night she and Oswald created there child.
Sapphire was seven weeks along before she truly realized what had happened. When she realized that her battle antics didn't just risk her own life anymore but that of an unborn son or daughter Sapphire knew that she had to remove herself from combat. At this point the kingdoms were still externally stable against the Grimm but internally they were in disarray. The military was in shambles and so was the public. One of the only things that was still functioning without fail was the military police who's job it was among other things to round of deserters. Sapphire knew if she went through proper channels to get leave from her baby it might be weeks before her message was even heard let along processed. She needed to get out of the war zone and quickly.
The following day in the dead of night Sapphire activated the emergency communications equipment which had laid mostly untouched since the engagement had started. Everyday was an emergency there wasn't much a phone call could do to help. She got herself patched through to the right department. She smiled just a little as the orcish face appeared on her screen. "Hello Gren."
Gren Orchid looked surprised at seeing who was on the other side of his channel. "Sapphire Rode, long time no see."
"Almost five years." Sapphire agreed. "Listen Gren, I need a favor, I need to go home but out here... I don't have the resources to buy my way through all the checkpoints between the front lines and my father's house."
Gren's eyes widened. "You Rode? A deserter? I never figured you for the type. Back at school you fought tooth and claw for everything you wanted, for every inch."
"I still do Gren, I'm just fighting for something different now. I'm pregnant."
The boar faunus looked stunned and at a loss for words. After a minute of silence he said with something of an uncharacteristic unsure tone. "Congratulations?"
"Thanks." Sapphire said her eyes downcast.
"The father?" Gren asked.
"A friend, he's gone now."
"I'm sorry." A silent understanding passed between them. They had both known Oswald fairly well before and after the war started. "What can I do to help?"
"You're working at Vale's central command Gren. I need you to pull some strings. There's a supply truck coming in two days. I need you to make sure it clears all checkpoints back to northern Vale no questions asked. Say it's carrying an experimental prototype or something."
Gren had started looking uncomfortable. "Why not just put in an application for maternity leave?"
Sapphire sighed. "You know as well as I do that the red tape's gone to hell. I'd be lucky if it got read let alone considered. Come on Gren, the only reason that you didn't cut the connection after it became clear that the unit's not under attack is because we're old school friends." Gren still looked unsure of himself. Not something that Sapphire was accustomed to. Whether he was in the right or wrong at school he was always absolutely sure of whatever it was he was doing. Then again war changes people. "Please Gren, I don't want my baby born on the battlefield."
"You know the military police will hunt you down. It makes the public feel safe to see deserters captured."
"My father's connections can keep them at bay until my baby's born, after that it doesn't matter."
"I'll do what I can for you Sapphire, for old times sake but I make no promises."
"That's all I can ask."
Two days later Sapphire stowed away inside the supply truck hiding herself behind boxes and crates. She ate as much as she could from the supplies without drawing attention and in almost a week she'd been transported to Northern Vale where her father's house stood. Gren must have kept his promise because the supply truck was never stopped and if anyone saw or noticed her they never said anything to anyone.
When Sapphire appeared on her father's doorstep, her clothes were spattered with mud and blood from the battlefield, her hair was matted and uneven, she face was so coated with layers of dirt and grime that when he opened the door Janus identified her by the bracelets hanging on her now bony wrists.
Janus had been crippled in battle a year into the war with the Grimm and so was given a hero's welcome and allowed to return to his home. Sapphire's father welcomed her inside and over the next seven months took care of her until her son was born. Sapphire had never seen anything so beautiful but deep in her heart she knew that she couldn't stay to take care of him. The military police were already asking questions of Janus about his daughter and they'd had a number of close calls already. Sapphire gave herself a month to recover from the birth before she left Demetri in Janus' hands. There relationship had changed much in the past six years and though Sapphire might never forgive Janus for his actions when she was a child she didn't believe that he would treat his grandson the same. Before she left Sapphire named her son Demetri, after her youngest and most dearly loved sister.
Over the next three years Sapphire visited as often as was safe and stayed away as long as she could bear. At the end of that three years the war with the Grimm finally came to an end. It seemed a team of brave hunters and huntresses had discovered the source of the Grimm's organization. An ancient creature of night from eons ago with telepathic powers that it had used to direct hordes of lower Grimm into trying to decimate the human populations. Sapphire watched on holo-TV the victory parade for Diamond Frost, Emerald Felicia, and Benjamin Lloyd as well as some other hunters that Sapphire was only acquainted with in passing; Ruby Rose, and Blake Belladonna, there teammates apparently perishing in the war before there fight with ancient Grimm.
With the war concluded pardons were issued to deserters and Sapphire was finally able to return home and take care of her now three year old son.
Though Vale still showed signs of the war even to this day over the next fourteen years it was rebuilt perhaps even better than it once had been. Though Emerald and Ruby were the only ones to survive the fight with the ancient beast the names of those five hunters and huntresses became renowned throughout the four kingdoms. They had monuments constructed and various newly repaired and rebuilt were dedicated in there name.
Meanwhile Sapphire raised her child as best she could away from the hunter's life. She taught him her love of music and her own mother's ingenuity in mechanics. They might not have been poor by any means but the Rode's name has lost considerable standing and influence since the conclusion of the war. Though free from legal persecution anyone who knew Sapphire was aware of her retreat from the call to arms and she suffered for it. Mostly in the way people treated her. She was shunned in public and Sapphire always saw the way they whispered as she passed by. Once or twice it had even escalated to physical violence though this usually only occurred when another war veteran and a large quantity of alcohol was involved. She'd become a social pariah.
Sapphire didn't want her son involved in the hunter's life at all. She didn't want him to have to go through what she did. She encouraged his musical talents and hoped that he might get a job in engineering or architecture. Demetri on the other hand wished nothing more than to follow in his mother's footsteps. He convinced her to let him carry around her secondary weapons from her hunter days: Somnus and Melinoe, the nightmare blades. Demetri had heard Sapphire talk about an identical pair that Demetri's grandmother had created a very long time ago but he'd never seen them. With the nightmare blades in hand and knowing that he would never get the training he needed from his mother Demetri turned to some of her friends and acquaintances from her huntress days. Principally her old teammates Shiro and Gren (Abel had died in the war). Gren felt guilty about what his actions had cost Sapphire and so agreed to help teach her son while Shiro though not close with Sapphire by any means still regarded her as a friend and was so more than happy to assist her son in learning the family trade.
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