Plank Sinatra

Black Velvet Sky [Hard SF | Politics/Exploration | Character-Driven]

This looks interesting for sure. I'll weigh over whether I have time for it, so mark me down as tentative.

RWBY: Brilliant Horizon

the fighting irish will make his debut today

Σωτήρ: the Solar Age (Mecha) - Still Accepting

They Want to Go With Jesus, Father Joan!

"Saints of God, come to their aid. Come to meet them, Angels of the Lord. Receive their souls and present them to God the Most High."

There was little left of the three HFVs caught in Judah's beams of holy love; none of the wreckage that remained of the Rooks could be used to raise a hand against the Lord Jesus, Joan, or Rising Star. This was as it should be. None should exist that raised a hand against the Jannah's contingent. At the very least, a page needed to be torn from the storied playbook of the Holy Land - a page that dictated the very removal of any hand the infidels dared to raise.

But pirates were God's children, too. And since Father Joan Heidenreich had cruelly robbed them of their own breath, it appeared she would have to expend a few exhales of her own on their last rites. She had taken them out of commission within ten cruel seconds; equal prayer time was the least that men deserved, be they of God or otherwise.

"May Christ who called you take you to himself. May Angels lead you to Abraham's si-AIIII! Whoa!"

Missiles!

Judah, instinctively, banked to the right to avoid the twin projectiles. It would have been more difficult from within one of the enemy Rooks, or even a GT-011, but Judah was built for quick and heavy assaults - though not as fast as G-Valk, its evasiveness was within the same class, and Joan had little trouble with outwitting the clumsy forward attack of the two Rooks. The counterattack would prove to be more satisfying.

They had bungled, phalli first, into the prayer for their own deceased or dying associates. Oh well. Now their souls would just have to burn in hell for eternity and dance on the prongs of Satan's fork, all because of the careless machismo of their buddies. But no one could say Father Joan didn't try!

"Seriously!? Where's your fear of God!?"

As the Rooks swiveled to their left - Joan's right - to ready missiles again and hit either her or the Jannah behind her, the Great Lion bellowed to life again, cutting a diagonal path until she was floating alongside the two Rooks, forming an impromptu - and unwanted - right flank for the two pirate HFVs as they floated parallel to Jannah, still aimed at the pocket of space Joan's prototype had occupied two seconds prior.

This was the quick.

"No prayers for you, assholes~!"

And now the heavy.

The railguns spat God's love towards two men who now found themselves in dire, dire need of it.

RWBY: Brilliant Horizon

FIRST POST MOTHERFUCKERS!

@Lasrever@Kit N Kat@Zarkun@Plank Sinatra@Onarax@gohKamikaze@EnterTheHero@Spoopy Scary@Dragonbud@Aziraphale

The fist post is up! Feel free to slot yourself into either: Doing security work for a ball of the rich and famous, on whose elbows you may rub, work with the MPs to stop some terrorists and muck through the underbelly of Vale, or participate in a spectacle to signify the unity of the world, and show off just how rad a hunter you are!

If you, for some reason, don't think any of these three can be done by any of you, let me know in PMs. Until then, I have to skedaddle for a while!

@Zugzwang

Our group of four will handle the ball.

RWBY: Brilliant Horizon

Brennan Griese

Name: Braonán Ailill Griese ("Brennan")

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Nationality: Atlesian

Appearance:

Brennan

With none of his taller or broader former teammates around to dwarf him in comparison, Brennan’s proportions make him a somewhat intimidating public figure. A few inches above six feet and athletically broad, Brennan himself is very handsome, with a strong jaw, bright red-gold eyes, and a perpetual hysterical laugh never far from his lips. Ever professional, he tends to wear black pants or jeans with white dress shirt, sleeves rolled up. He will always either wear suspenders or a slim-fitting black vest. His coal-black hair is long, but not unruly – half the time it tends to be pomaded backwards lustrously, and half the time he lets it hang free over his eyes.

Surprisingly, given his brash demeanor and lavish wealth, he’s not one for much gaudy ornamentation. The only concession to jewelry he wears is a slender silver chain on his neck, from which hangs a single Claddagh ring barely visible through an unbuttoned collar.

Personality and Ethics: The Ubermensch, in his boundless and cruel wisdom, sees lesser man as naught but a plaything to be guided along by the hypnotic cadence of his voice and the crack of his hellish whip.

“Brennan, if you don’t tell them the truth, I will. And you don’t like my truth very much.”

Though a prodigious fighter in his own right, most of Brennan's talent comes from being a natural showman and psychological warrior. Loud-mouthed and utterly without fear, he has a forceful personality to command other forceful personalities. Brennan honed his commanding presence through years of asserting himself over other privileged Atlesian youth, delegating them tasks and expecting them to be performed with the utmost precision. Resistance to his orders is combated by irreverent disdain instead of loud tirades, but usually he will be the first to remind you that "he told you so" in the event that going against him didn't work out well.

On the other side of that coin is an always-running silver tongue, capable of joking and charming to the point where Brennan has even made hardened tsunderesnamis capable of rolling their eyes and smiling against their will. Through most of his school years, there is very little that he took seriously besides competition with his teammates and those he considered his rivals, which he often communicated through an endless stream of banter with anyone who would listen. Put simply, Brennan Griese is a hyper-competitive jock, a savvy tactician, and a keen business mogul rolled all into one, fiercely proud of his pedigree outside of battle and utterly dismissive of it inside it.

His period of captivity in Vacuo, however, has sharpened his edges somewhat, leaving him callous and even ruthless when on bounty or retrieval missions. Brennan cares little for the well-being of targets that prove themselves anything less than strictly honorable over the course of a mission, and his long-held sense of chivalry on the battlefield has grown shaky after his kidnapping challenged his rich kid's naivety. Though this sense of pragmatism is something to be sought after in a leader, it can be a marked change to those who only recognize the charismatic Atlesian hero from his psychotically-cheerful Vytal Festival days. His disdain towards charity can also be seen as a bit cruel by some people, though this grievance is only skin deep; in reality Brennan is an open-handed and generous person, though he takes care to cover his tracks with all charitable contributions and will often "blame" the donations on others.

Aspirations:
>Be the first man in space
>Cut award-winning documentary - “Four Years of Making BANK”
>Name a wing of Bastion Academy after himself
>Pave Vacuo in solar panels
>Kill 9,999 Grimm before Umeko
>Build Umeko a mobile suit

Fears:
>Kawaguchi’s recent stomach bump (!!!)
>Noel's awful puns
>Clowns
>World war
>World peace
>Losing Kawaguchi or Noel

History: Brennan’s father was only one generation removed from their fortune, but it was clear he had forgotten where it came from. Brennan’s grandfather had initially gone into business as a founding partner of the Schnee Dust Company, but foresaw a coming monopoly on the Dust market and the coming problems with the use of Faunus labor. Therefore, he sold every last share at top dollar and came out with enough money to float him through the rest of his life; a series of sensible investments in property and budding tech firms with interests in Aura and Dust only compounded the fortune, until it was clear no Griese would ever have to worry about money again.

As you can imagine, this had made Brennan’s father complacent, a trait not shared by his rowdy, implacable only son. A talented little scrapper (to his father’s chagrin) from an early age, Brennan seemed to have determined his path even before he quite knew what the Huntsman path was, and went away to Sanctum Academy in Mistral for combat training at the age of 12. When he returned to Atlas after four years, though, he took a couple drop years to begin taking a hands on role in some investments of his own. Finally, at the age of 19, he enrolled in Atlas Academy to seek out a career as a Huntsman and engage himself in higher study.

Pleasantly, he found himself on a team with three other members of the Atlesian business elite - Albert Morgan, the king of Atlesian banking, Noel du Acier, head of one of Atlas' top weapon forges, and Kek Tarik, whose railway empire was responsible for much of Remnant's transit. Though at first their squabbles over leadership and their natural competitive edges had led them to all eschew each other, once the question of leadership was truly decided and began to work as a unit, BANK (as they had been first colloquially, then officially known) became an inseparable juggernaut, often able to discern strategies and fight alongside or independent of each other with mere near-telekinetic glances. At the head of this specialized team was Brennan Griese himself - and Griese, through the course of his chaotic first year as an Atlesian student, led his team on a hellish blitzkrieg through the ranks of the Vytal Festival tournament that year in Vale. Along the way, he finally found himself a worthy rival in the form of “The Nip,” Umeko Kawaguchi, who Brennan ravenously cheered on in the hopes of crushing her himself before the eyes of the world. The two eventually met in the final match of the tournament, which finally ended in an unprecedented double knockout Brennan remembers little of. Apparently it was ratings gold, though. His mug was beaming at RSPN viewers all the way into his second year of Atlas after that.

But while TSUN had a comparatively tame education in Vacuo, Brennan’s life only became wilder and more fraught with danger as the next four years rolled on. Not only were the missions Atlas assigned more severe and dangerous for their trainees (many of whom had undergone training at the elite combat school Bastion Academy, which demanded seven years of excellence before graduation to Atlas as opposed to four), the four members of BANK each came from prestigious families that had made their own enemies throughout Remnant. It was a few weeks after the start of his junior year, while on a nighttime Fury Road reenactment through the wastes of Vacuo, that Brennan was ambushed and held ransom for months by a splinter group of ex-Faunus slaves and Dust miners.

Though kidnappings of board members and rich children were usually buoyed by begging and the promise of hefty ransoms, Brennan Griese proved a colossal disappointment to the desperate Faunus who had ambushed him. Though subjected to endless physical beatings and protracted ransom videos (usually cut short by improvised limericks and animal control puns) Brennan stuck to his Atlesian training and only gave up the most basic of information about himself - “Brennan Griese, 21, Team BANK, I was on TV” - when the camera was off him. Finally, the most charismatic student Atlas had churned out in three generations baited one of the Faunus into releasing his restraints in an attempt to resist his latest beating. Perhaps the terrorist assumed that months of starvation, dehydration, and lack of training had reduced the Atlesian mogul to a deflated windbag. Perhaps he assumed it would be an excuse to kill the hostage - who had not brought in, nor would he likely ever bring in, money from his aloof father - and free up space to try again with some Atlesian who was less of a black sheep amongst their family. Whatever the case, he released Brennan and challenged the young man to put his fists up.

Not smart of him.

A train managed by one of his teammates, Kek Tarik, found Brennan on a Vacuuan railroad track four days later. He was covered in blows, his famous Trustbuster gloves were tattered on his hands, and he was visibly malnourished, but the Atlesian hometown hero had only one complaint:

“Here I thought Tarik kept the fookin’ trains roonin’ on time. He and me are gonna hafta have some words.”

And then one more, upon his return at Atlas:

“Shut up, Noel.”

Though Brennan’s flippant demeanor showed no change, and though the kidnapping was largely covered up - to this day, Brennan has ensured with surprising ruthlessness that no word of the kidnapping ever reaches Vacuo or the student he holds dear there - those who were close to him before his kidnapping can easily recognize a change in the one-time plucky young playboy. To replace his destroyed gloves, he cajoled Umeko Kawaguchi into surrendering one of her precious five RX-78 prototypes and modified it, replacing weapons that were once meant for playful sparring with weapons specced for destructive power. Once returned to Atlas, he threw himself twice as hard into his training, and graduated with top honors alongside his team the following year. Brennan, unlike his teammates, had no pressing business interests to immediately return to, but eschewed the role of Atlesian Specialist anyway, mostly due to his family name and his inability to be objective after his kidnapping.

Though he strongly considered returning to Vacuo and ripping up every little cell of Faunus that couldn’t fit in a litter box working alongside Kawaguchi, he was nonetheless convinced by his old team that perhaps a change of scenery would be best. Thus, Brennan has returned to Vale, the place where he drew the eyes of the whole world five years previously, with his best friend and teammate Noel du Acier in tow.

Semblance: Brennan has been able to effectively manipulate and control friction since his early days as a Vytal Festival prizefighter, and years of training at Atlas has only heightened his prodigal skill with his Semblance. Brennan Griese is capable of propelling himself forward along any solid surface without pause, as well as freeze anything in its tracks. This can make him downright terrifying when wearing Trustbuster II, as he can speed directly in a room and leave an entire squad rooted to the floor, while he himself zips around and clears them out with sheer volleys of firepower.

Combat Style: Brennan is at his best when he's allowed to be punishingly quick and strike punishingly hard. Between the sheer amount of firepower produced by Trustbuster II and how effectively he can use Veblen Good to rip an enemy apart, he is most effectively used whenever he's put on point man duty - or, in the event that a threat is more long-range, he will be of much more use hanging back and coordinating his fellow Huntsmen's movements and actions.

Weapons: Veblen Good - Brennan’s trademark monofilament whip has remained in his care ever since the day he designed it at Sanctum Academy. The weapon that brought him all the way into the final round of the Vytal Festival as a first-year remains largely unmodified, aside from some retrofits to make it compatible with his Trustbuster upgrade. Its monofilament design allows it to open up stinging cuts on any surface or person that isn’t protected by Aura or some form of force field, but remains just as capable of grabbing onto an object as it is of ripping one apart. Veblen Good is also capable of being energized with several varieties of Dust or being converted into a targe-like shape, which, when imbued with Dust, creates a powerful shield capable of tanking most physical or projectile attacks on its energized surface.

Remnant Expansion (Prototype) #78 Unit 5 Grimm-Use Non-Demanding Armament Machine ver. Trustbuster II - Trustbuster II is a spiritual sequel to its predecessor - a pair of Dust-woven gloves worn by Brennan for close combat - in the loosest sense of the term, in that the weapon is Dust-powered and dual-wielded. Other than that, Trustbuster II is a far cry from any sort of fashion statement like the first Trustbusters.

Heavily modified from the fifth and final prototype of the Remnant Expansion series of weaponry, Trustbuster II consists of two fully automatic shotguns, each capable of emptying 666 rounds from twenty-five shell cylinders in sixty seconds. Both weapons are also capable of discharging all twenty-five rounds at once in beam form for several seconds when powered by Dust, generating a massive concussive shock of whatever Dust type is currently used to power Trustbuster II.

The prototype's original accompanying shield repurposed as a slim energy-powered ammunition backpack, fitting snugly on Brennan's back and using Veblen Good as a wired-beam connection to both shotguns. The weapon is still capable of performing its intended function and guarding Brennan's back from enemy fire, though his Semblance leaves him agile enough to be able to turn around at the slightest hint of enemies at his rear; thus, the shield's ammunition and energy storage features account for most of its usage.

The Trustbuster II's main drawback is its sheer bulk, which often weighs Brennan's arms down and leaves him incapable of hand-to-hand fighting, a specialty and favored means of combat for the young Atlesian. For this reason the Trustbuster II does have a second transformation: two large weapon lockers, similar to those used by Beacon Academy students, which can be summoned from Brennan's Scroll and dropped to his location inside of sixty seconds. The door of the locker will split off and convert into the ammo backpack/shield, while the thrusters and spare parts convert themselves into the weapon's firearm apparatus and connectors for Veblen Good.

Non-Combat skills: “Noel, what’re my skills again, lass?”

"Your charming personality and dashing good looks! Sir!"

Brennan has a surprisingly deep skill set for someone who only had to start taking care of himself at the age of nineteen. Though not as good a cook as Noel, he can order a pizza or whip the tsundere up a plate of breakfast as well as any lad worth his salt, and he's even got himself an eye for decorating and design. This knack for Feng Shui has even spread to fashion; Brennan has modeled for two of the past three Atlesian Accessories fall/winter collections, a part-time gig that was borne purely out of gatecrashing Kawaguchi's photoshoot during winter break in their second year.

Apparently the photographer recognized their chemistry. And they even cleaned up most of his bruises in Photoshop.

Brennan has also run the public speaking circuit once or twice, and wouldn't mind going into politics if only he got to actually maul his opponents on the debate stage. A return to the private sector is similarly unlikely, so an entire wealth of business knowledge and salesman's acumen goes untapped inside the mad Atlesian's brain.

Deficiencies: There is only one Brennan Griese to save mankind at the moment. Junior year kidnapping has added a somewhat aggressive edge to what was once simply a charming, if coarse, hypercompetitive streak. Occasional nightmares. Currently being supported by supporting a person sized anchor named Noel du Acier, a woman with no psychology degree and no willingness to acknowledge the fact. In combat, almost entirely useless at long ranges - Trustbuster II is a weapon designed to obliterate at mid-range and Veblen Good is capable of shearing apart most Grimm and hammering on Aura at close range, but neither is particularly effective against, say, a sniper.

Miscellaneous: Griese rules, Kawaguchi drools. Brennan is still an intense sports guru and, secretly, will mentor Atlesian kids during the summers who want to make it into a combat school - even setting up a fund to spay their expenses abroad in case they don’t want to devote a decade of their lives to Bastion and Atlas. Hates being publicly acknowledged as charitable - that’s Noel’s gig. Really loves milk. Based on the life of American robber baron John D. Rockefeller.

RWBY: Brilliant Horizon

@Plank Sinatra @Write

Both characters are accepted! I look forward to getting some Atlas-shrugged-tier objectivism from Noel, and for some reason Brennan is reminding me of Lamont Cranston. I also want to commend you for fitting more mecha references into one weapon than I would have thought possible. I'd tell him to shoot for the top with hard work and guts, but then I'd be ignoring all the other spice there. I might ask you to turn the weapon's capabilities down a little: my willingness to accept weird engineering realities only stretches so far, though I do like the concept. I leave fine tuning in your hands.

@Onarax
I really like the idea of changing the fundamental properties of dust with your semblance, and your character is really fun to boot! I look forward to working that into the plot, I've already got loads of ideas you're probably not going to like. Anyways, accepted! If you could tone down the strikethroughs, I think I'd appreciate it, but that's a personal thing and not really necessary.

I look forward to seeing @Krayzikk's sheet.

@Zugzwang

I appreciate it, but in the interest of full disclosure @Krayzikk was the one that came up with the original concept for the suits; I just created the partner unit. You'll see the original when he gets his profile up today, and if you have a mecha boner now, just wait a couple hours.

Persona - Academic Akrasia (Being rebooted, see new int check)

"Well..."

The girl looked uncertain for the first time all day, and cured the look by putting a cinnamon stick in her mouth and chewing on it thoughtfully. The only other person who had seen it was DRU, who the others did not consider a person at all, merely a tool brainwashed by Kimiko. They didn't know him like Kimiko did.

<<I T 'S S O E X C I T I N G T O B E H E R E>>

His words filled her with courage.

"It was a mask. Or...or a whole conk, but giving it the up-and-down it sure spied like a mask. It was just bumping gums right in the back of the truck, and all that golden fog was breezing from it. Thought I was pooped for sure. But one sock to the beezer and it knocked right off. Should still be back in the heap where I gave it the kiss off - it didn't take a powder or nothing."

RWBY: Brilliant Horizon

Brennan Griese

Name: Braonán Ailill Griese ("Brennan")

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Nationality: Atlesian

Appearance:

Brennan

With none of his taller or broader former teammates around to dwarf him in comparison, Brennan’s proportions make him a somewhat intimidating public figure. A few inches above six feet and athletically broad, Brennan himself is very handsome, with a strong jaw, bright red-gold eyes, and a perpetual hysterical laugh never far from his lips. Ever professional, he tends to wear black pants or jeans with white dress shirt, sleeves rolled up. He will always either wear suspenders or a slim-fitting black vest. His coal-black hair is long, but not unruly – half the time it tends to be pomaded backwards lustrously, and half the time he lets it hang free over his eyes.

Surprisingly, given his brash demeanor and lavish wealth, he’s not one for much gaudy ornamentation. The only concession to jewelry he wears is a slender silver chain on his neck, from which hangs a single Claddagh ring barely visible through an unbuttoned collar.

Personality and Ethics: The Ubermensch, in his boundless and cruel wisdom, sees lesser man as naught but a plaything to be guided along by the hypnotic cadence of his voice and the crack of his hellish whip.

“Brennan, if you don’t tell them the truth, I will. And you don’t like my truth very much.”

Though a prodigious fighter in his own right, most of Brennan's talent comes from being a natural showman and psychological warrior. Loud-mouthed and utterly without fear, he has a forceful personality to command other forceful personalities. Brennan honed his commanding presence through years of asserting himself over other privileged Atlesian youth, delegating them tasks and expecting them to be performed with the utmost precision. Resistance to his orders is combated by irreverent disdain instead of loud tirades, but usually he will be the first to remind you that "he told you so" in the event that going against him didn't work out well.

On the other side of that coin is an always-running silver tongue, capable of joking and charming to the point where Brennan has even made hardened tsunderesnamis capable of rolling their eyes and smiling against their will. Through most of his school years, there is very little that he took seriously besides competition with his teammates and those he considered his rivals, which he often communicated through an endless stream of banter with anyone who would listen. Put simply, Brennan Griese is a hyper-competitive jock, a savvy tactician, and a keen business mogul rolled all into one, fiercely proud of his pedigree outside of battle and utterly dismissive of it inside it.

His period of captivity in Vacuo, however, has sharpened his edges somewhat, leaving him callous and even ruthless when on bounty or retrieval missions. Brennan cares little for the well-being of targets that prove themselves anything less than strictly honorable over the course of a mission, and his long-held sense of chivalry on the battlefield has grown shaky after his kidnapping challenged his rich kid's naivety. Though this sense of pragmatism is something to be sought after in a leader, it can be a marked change to those who only recognize the charismatic Atlesian hero from his psychotically-cheerful Vytal Festival days. His disdain towards charity can also be seen as a bit cruel by some people, though this grievance is only skin deep; in reality Brennan is an open-handed and generous person, though he takes care to cover his tracks with all charitable contributions and will often "blame" the donations on others.

Aspirations:
>Be the first man in space
>Cut award-winning documentary - “Four Years of Making BANK”
>Name a wing of Bastion Academy after himself
>Pave Vacuo in solar panels
>Kill 9,999 Grimm before Umeko
>Build Umeko a mobile suit

Fears:
>Kawaguchi’s recent stomach bump (!!!)
>Noel's awful puns
>Clowns
>World war
>World peace
>Losing Kawaguchi or Noel

History: Brennan’s father was only one generation removed from their fortune, but it was clear he had forgotten where it came from. Brennan’s grandfather had initially gone into business as a founding partner of the Schnee Dust Company, but foresaw a coming monopoly on the Dust market and the coming problems with the use of Faunus labor. Therefore, he sold every last share at top dollar and came out with enough money to float him through the rest of his life; a series of sensible investments in property and budding tech firms with interests in Aura and Dust only compounded the fortune, until it was clear no Griese would ever have to worry about money again.

As you can imagine, this had made Brennan’s father complacent, a trait not shared by his rowdy, implacable only son. A talented little scrapper (to his father’s chagrin) from an early age, Brennan seemed to have determined his path even before he quite knew what the Huntsman path was, and went away to Sanctum Academy in Mistral for combat training at the age of 12. When he returned to Atlas after four years, though, he took a couple drop years to begin taking a hands on role in some investments of his own. Finally, at the age of 19, he enrolled in Atlas Academy to seek out a career as a Huntsman and engage himself in higher study.

Pleasantly, he found himself on a team with three other members of the Atlesian business elite - Albert Morgan, the king of Atlesian banking, Noel du Acier, head of one of Atlas' top weapon forges, and Kek Tarik, whose railway empire was responsible for much of Remnant's transit. Though at first their squabbles over leadership and their natural competitive edges had led them to all eschew each other, once the question of leadership was truly decided and began to work as a unit, BANK (as they had been first colloquially, then officially known) became an inseparable juggernaut, often able to discern strategies and fight alongside or independent of each other with mere near-telekinetic glances. At the head of this specialized team was Brennan Griese himself - and Griese, through the course of his chaotic first year as an Atlesian student, led his team on a hellish blitzkrieg through the ranks of the Vytal Festival tournament that year in Vale. Along the way, he finally found himself a worthy rival in the form of “The Nip,” Umeko Kawaguchi, who Brennan ravenously cheered on in the hopes of crushing her himself before the eyes of the world. The two eventually met in the final match of the tournament, which finally ended in an unprecedented double knockout Brennan remembers little of. Apparently it was ratings gold, though. His mug was beaming at RSPN viewers all the way into his second year of Atlas after that.

But while TSUN had a comparatively tame education in Vacuo, Brennan’s life only became wilder and more fraught with danger as the next four years rolled on. Not only were the missions Atlas assigned more severe and dangerous for their trainees (many of whom had undergone training at the elite combat school Bastion Academy, which demanded seven years of excellence before graduation to Atlas as opposed to four), the four members of BANK each came from prestigious families that had made their own enemies throughout Remnant. It was a few weeks after the start of his junior year, while on a nighttime Fury Road reenactment through the wastes of Vacuo, that Brennan was ambushed and held ransom for months by a splinter group of ex-Faunus slaves and Dust miners.

Though kidnappings of board members and rich children were usually buoyed by begging and the promise of hefty ransoms, Brennan Griese proved a colossal disappointment to the desperate Faunus who had ambushed him. Though subjected to endless physical beatings and protracted ransom videos (usually cut short by improvised limericks and animal control puns) Brennan stuck to his Atlesian training and only gave up the most basic of information about himself - “Brennan Griese, 21, Team BANK, I was on TV” - when the camera was off him. Finally, the most charismatic student Atlas had churned out in three generations baited one of the Faunus into releasing his restraints in an attempt to resist his latest beating. Perhaps the terrorist assumed that months of starvation, dehydration, and lack of training had reduced the Atlesian mogul to a deflated windbag. Perhaps he assumed it would be an excuse to kill the hostage - who had not brought in, nor would he likely ever bring in, money from his aloof father - and free up space to try again with some Atlesian who was less of a black sheep amongst their family. Whatever the case, he released Brennan and challenged the young man to put his fists up.

Not smart of him.

A train managed by one of his teammates, Kek Tarik, found Brennan on a Vacuuan railroad track four days later. He was covered in blows, his famous Trustbuster gloves were tattered on his hands, and he was visibly malnourished, but the Atlesian hometown hero had only one complaint:

“Here I thought Tarik kept the fookin’ trains roonin’ on time. He and me are gonna hafta have some words.”

And then one more, upon his return at Atlas:

“Shut up, Noel.”

Though Brennan’s flippant demeanor showed no change, and though the kidnapping was largely covered up - to this day, Brennan has ensured with surprising ruthlessness that no word of the kidnapping ever reaches Vacuo or the student he holds dear there - those who were close to him before his kidnapping can easily recognize a change in the one-time plucky young playboy. To replace his destroyed gloves, he cajoled Umeko Kawaguchi into surrendering one of her precious five RX-78 prototypes and modified it, replacing weapons that were once meant for playful sparring with weapons specced for destructive power. Once returned to Atlas, he threw himself twice as hard into his training, and graduated with top honors alongside his team the following year. Brennan, unlike his teammates, had no pressing business interests to immediately return to, but eschewed the role of Atlesian Specialist anyway, mostly due to his family name and his inability to be objective after his kidnapping.

Though he strongly considered returning to Vacuo and ripping up every little cell of Faunus that couldn’t fit in a litter box working alongside Kawaguchi, he was nonetheless convinced by his old team that perhaps a change of scenery would be best. Thus, Brennan has returned to Vale, the place where he drew the eyes of the whole world five years previously, with his best friend and teammate Noel du Acier in tow.

Semblance: Brennan has been able to effectively manipulate and control friction since his early days as a Vytal Festival prizefighter, and years of training at Atlas has only heightened his prodigal skill with his Semblance. Brennan Griese is capable of propelling himself forward along any solid surface without pause, as well as freeze anything in its tracks. This can make him downright terrifying when wearing Trustbuster II, as he can speed directly in a room and leave an entire squad rooted to the floor, while he himself zips around and clears them out with sheer volleys of firepower.

Combat Style: Brennan is at his best when he's allowed to be punishingly quick and strike punishingly hard. Between the sheer amount of firepower produced by Trustbuster II and how effectively he can use Veblen Good to rip an enemy apart, he is most effectively used whenever he's put on point man duty - or, in the event that a threat is more long-range, he will be of much more use hanging back and coordinating his fellow Huntsmen's movements and actions.

Weapons: Veblen Good - Brennan’s trademark monofilament whip has remained in his care ever since the day he designed it at Sanctum Academy. The weapon that brought him all the way into the final round of the Vytal Festival as a first-year remains largely unmodified, aside from some retrofits to make it compatible with his Trustbuster upgrade. Its monofilament design allows it to open up stinging cuts on any surface or person that isn’t protected by Aura or some form of force field, but remains just as capable of grabbing onto an object as it is of ripping one apart. Veblen Good is also capable of being energized with several varieties of Dust or being converted into a targe-like shape, which, when imbued with Dust, creates a powerful shield capable of tanking most physical or projectile attacks on its energized surface.

Remnant Expansion (Prototype) #78 Unit 5 Grimm-Use Non-Demanding Armament Machine ver. Trustbuster II - Trustbuster II is a spiritual sequel to its predecessor - a pair of Dust-woven gloves worn by Brennan for close combat - in the loosest sense of the term, in that the weapon is Dust-powered and dual-wielded. Other than that, Trustbuster II is a far cry from any sort of fashion statement like the first Trustbusters.

Heavily modified from the fifth and final prototype of the Remnant Expansion series of weaponry, Trustbuster II consists of two fully automatic shotguns, each capable of emptying 999 rounds from twenty-five shell cylinders in sixty seconds. Both weapons are also capable of discharging all twenty-five rounds at once in beam form for several seconds when powered by Dust, generating a massive concussive shock of whatever Dust type is currently used to power Trustbuster II.

The prototype's original accompanying shield repurposed as a slim energy-powered ammunition backpack, fitting snugly on Brennan's back and using Veblen Good as a wired-beam connection to both shotguns. The weapon is still capable of performing its intended function and guarding Brennan's back from enemy fire, though his Semblance leaves him agile enough to be able to turn around at the slightest hint of enemies at his rear; thus, the shield's ammunition and energy storage features account for most of its usage.

The Trustbuster II's main drawback is its sheer bulk, which often weighs Brennan's arms down and leaves him incapable of hand-to-hand fighting, a specialty and favored means of combat for the young Atlesian. For this reason the Trustbuster II does have a second transformation: two large weapon lockers, similar to those used by Beacon Academy students, which can be summoned from Brennan's Scroll and dropped to his location inside of sixty seconds. The door of the locker will split off and convert into the ammo backpack/shield, while the thrusters and spare parts convert themselves into the weapon's firearm apparatus and connectors for Veblen Good.

Non-Combat skills: “Noel, what’re my skills again, lass?”

"Your charming personality and dashing good looks! Sir!"

Brennan has a surprisingly deep skill set for someone who only had to start taking care of himself at the age of nineteen. Though not as good a cook as Noel, he can order a pizza or whip the tsundere up a plate of breakfast as well as any lad worth his salt, and he's even got himself an eye for decorating and design. This knack for Feng Shui has even spread to fashion; Brennan has modeled for two of the past three Atlesian Accessories fall/winter collections, a part-time gig that was borne purely out of gatecrashing Kawaguchi's photoshoot during winter break in their second year.

Apparently the photographer recognized their chemistry. And they even cleaned up most of his bruises in Photoshop.

Brennan has also run the public speaking circuit once or twice, and wouldn't mind going into politics if only he got to actually maul his opponents on the debate stage. A return to the private sector is similarly unlikely, so an entire wealth of business knowledge and salesman's acumen goes untapped inside the mad Atlesian's brain.

Deficiencies: There is only one Brennan Griese to save mankind at the moment. Junior year kidnapping has added a somewhat aggressive edge to what was once simply a charming, if coarse, hypercompetitive streak. Occasional nightmares. Currently being supported by supporting a person sized anchor named Noel du Acier, a woman with no psychology degree and no willingness to acknowledge the fact. In combat, almost entirely useless at long ranges - Trustbuster II is a weapon designed to obliterate at mid-range and Veblen Good is capable of shearing apart most Grimm and hammering on Aura at close range, but neither is particularly effective against, say, a sniper.

Miscellaneous: Griese rules, Kawaguchi drools. Brennan is still an intense sports guru and, secretly, will mentor Atlesian kids during the summers who want to make it into a combat school - even setting up a fund to spay their expenses abroad in case they don’t want to devote a decade of their lives to Bastion and Atlas. Hates being publicly acknowledged as charitable - that’s Noel’s gig. Really loves milk. Based on the life of American robber baron John D. Rockefeller.

And posting this profile for @Write since he's at physical therapy and can't post it himself:

Noël is best girl

“That’s correct, I’d like to give you the money so that you may buy your town's independence.”
-

Name:
Nöel du Acier

Age:
24

Gender:
Female

Race:
Human

Nationality:
Atlesian

Appearance:


Personality:
Noël was one of the kinder members of Bank. She is best described through her hard-working demeanor, her greed for money and her absolute devotion to her team. Her hard-working attitude comes from when she was just seven years old. Twelve years ago her parents lost nearly everything they had. She was put to work, trained by the best blacksmiths Atlas and two lives worth of favors could afford her. She is a woman who was raised by a forge. She knows the ins and outs of smithing like a second language. She has worked tooth and nail to help her parents regain both the finances and the status they once held so dearly, while they aren’t truly there – they’re one their way.

Noël’s greed for money while incessant isn’t born purely out of sin and fear of poverty. Instead it has a slightly more noble birth. When her father first lost all of his money Noël has fond memories of their long days in the forge. One of those days he picked her up with his mighty log-like arms and heaved her onto his shoulder. He didn’t meet her wondering gaze, instead the fire was reflected deep in his iris. “Only the fools die rich Noël.” He said to her. “Get as much capital as you can in your life, spend what you must, what you’d like to, and then give it all away.” She has held that mantra very close to her heart ever since.

Noël’s team meant quite a bit to her, though for her sake and their own she didn’t make it known all too often. Within a few short months of joining Atlas, they became a surprisingly cohesive unit. She, Brennan, Albert, and Kek all spent the first few months dictating ways in which they’d rather be spending for time. But as push came to shove and the team couldn’t find words that sounded better than Bank – Brennan became the team leader. As soon as that decision passed over an air of ease settled over the team. It only took them three months as well.

After Vytal the team had become inseparable and harmonious in their attitude and work ethic. However, as Kek and Albert decided to focus on the business while Brennan and herself decided to commit to hunting.

Aspiration:
Nöel wants. If there were a clearer path to becoming queen of Remnant that would be the path she was taking. However honoured as the hero of the lands will have to do for her. She also wishes to amass money like no one ever has.

Fears:
Dying rich. It’s for this reason that she is awful with money.

Ethics:
The poor are just lazy. She doesn’t have many boundaries she isn’t willing to push past. Whether they be moral or otherwise.

History:
Nöel will never forget the Vytal festival. She sat there in the stands, after working hard to thrust Brennan past the 2v2 stage. They fought valiantly and now, it was his turn. She knew that she felt more nervous than he did, she always did. And yet as she sat as one of a thousand people with her ‘We will indoctrinate your youth’ T-shirt. She felt a certain calmness wash over her as Brennan entered the arena. She knew he would win.

Not many people know about Nöel’s life before she became a huntress, but anyone who has asked knows not to ask. Brennan would most likely have told them that. His charming grin would lower, his teeth snarled and he would glance at Nöel before and after speaking. “You don’t need to fookin know tat kinda ting.” He would say.

He would assume he was silent, like a small song carried on a breeze. But Nöel always did.

So after he ABSOLUTELY AND TOTALLY WON THE VYTAL FESTIVAL NOT THAT YOU COULD FIND ANY RECORDS ANYWAY BECAUSE MY NEW TEAMMATE BURNED THEM UGH OH MY GOD. After he became a legend really, he and Nöel went back to Vale and decided to graduate. Graduate the program, and become hunters.

Semblance:

Ma Voix:
Nöel has limited control and manipulation over the air around her. She can manipulate air easiest when she has knowledge of it, like for example the direction it is already going and anything that may be inside it. She typically uses this to heighten her fighting, like helping her dodge or strike faster and harder or redirecting her arrows completely mid-flight. She can also defend from projectile attacks fairly easily at this point by just knocking them away from their desired landing point. If Nöel is focused she can make winds up to 55 knots but this typically requires her to be standing still and focused. Typically on the move she can only reach around 40 knots.

Combat Style:
Nöel is the fighter in the team that strikes from afar and makes it too difficult for the enemy to focus on the battle at hand. When you have arrows coming from all directions at disjointed flight patterns and times, it’s hard to focus on the Griese stain that’s about to separate you from kidney to cranium. That’s the general thesis of it. But when the going gets tough she can pull out her knives and semblance in order to incapacitate a foe. On one particularly grueling mission, Brennan and Nöel had to fend a family, or rather clan of Ursa from their injured teammates. That show had to be kept up for hours, with very little sleep and almost no time to refuel or rethink a strategy. Let alone reposition. Through the use of Nöel’s made you look dodging style she was able to fend off the clan with some help from her teammate.

Weapon:
Evangile de la Richesse (as pictured below) is both a violin and a bow and arrow. She holds it as if it were a violin commonly and the weapon has multiple utilities and uses. Firstly and perhaps most importantly, it is a fully functional violin. For close range options, Nöel would take the violin and place it on her back wielding the bow of the instrument. The bow can separate rather easily into two butterfly knives with a ice-dust based blade at the center. However, by placing the bow back there and turning the violin sideways she is able to separate it into a compact bow with more than a couple functionalities. Firstly, she has her four arrows. Water, wind, gravity and time. They don’t work quite like one may assume however.

The two simplest arrows are the water and wind. They both are made up almost entirely of the centric dust in their design and can expel massive amounts of either water or ice when they make a connection with a target. Easily immobilizing or even drowning a target. The gravity arrow is more of a gimmick. While Nöel does call it the gravity arrow it’s trick is that she can control it with a small lever where her hand rests on the bow itself. She can either amplify the amount of dust activated or deactivate the dust, thusly ducking and dodging with said arrow.

Finally there is the time arrow. This is her newest and most unique addition, it’s main trick is that it uses light to fool the senses. While it may not look like she has let the arrow fly yet, it is merely a trick of the light. This trick only works for about a half of a second to about a full second. However, that is typically more than enough time for her to have already nocked a new arrow and fired it as well. The bow and the bow for the violin themselves are both quite durable and typically can guard against another hunters weapon with no worry on Nöel’s part. After all, she made it.



Non-Combat skills:
Nöel is a world class chef and blacksmith, she has also picked up the violin around ten years ago.

Deficiencies:
Jokes, respecting people’s boundaries/limits, being a leader who doesn’t push people too hard.

Miscellaneous:
(Anything that doesn’t quite fit in the other categories goes here.)

RWBY: Brilliant Horizon

@Plank Sinatra

Christ. Well, if they're good they're welcome, but I might need to start redesigning my plot if I end up with 12 characters. Oh well, that's what train rides are for.

@Zugzwang

Sorry for the inconvenience, but we were kind of among the first people to express interest. There won't be any problems re: quality though, don't worry.

RWBY: Brilliant Horizon

The four of us (we couldn't stop roping people in) should have our sheets up tonight. We've been taking our time on them.

@Krayzikk @Onarax @Write