Abel Novem

Abel Novem is a student at Beacon.

Appearance
Abel barely looks nor acts like a teenager, due to spending the majority of his life working on the farm with his family. He spent the majority of life under the pressure of responsibility and feigning maturity, and at this age he definitely shows it too. As a crop farmer, he spent most of his life under the sun of Vale's Agricultural District, and displays a rather prominent farmer's tan on his arms, from about his elbows down and his chest, aside from small triangle of exposed skin near his neck. He's athletic as a result, and visibly muscular.

Were one to get close enough to him, they would notice a wide expanse of lightning-like cracks along his skin. They're only slightly lighter than his skin, though they're more visible against his tan, and appear to be small scars. They actually came about as a result of using his semblance often growing up.

The only evidence that indicates his Faunus ancestry is in his eyes. His pupils seem to be constantly dilated, making them appear slightly larger than the average human, and the fact that his sight is extremely poor - though that could easily have happened to any human. He corrects his vision problem with contacts regardless.

Abel's combat uniform has a sort of western feel to it, mostly comprised of hand-me-downs and his actual work clothes from home. He wears dark brown pants over his DPLB's and a white collared shirt. In the center of his chest is a silver plate with six holes, connected by wide brown straps that wrap up to his shoulders and around his waist, reconnecting behind his back with another silver plate.

Abel's claw glove takes the form of a large bronze bracelet when inactive.

Personality
Abel's an independent young man.It makes sense, given his previous occupation and upbringing. He was taught to be perceptive and adaptable based on the feelings of the people around him, which was meant to come in handy while working to sell their crops at the farmer's market every few months in the city. He doesn't like talking about himself too much, considering himself a bit boring, and is much more interested in what others have to say.

He draws the line of interest when it involves other people, however. He's never been able to get familiar with people, living in mostly isolation, and even then being picked on by others due to his heritage. He tends to act pretty impersonal even to his closer friends, though he maintains an air of pride about himself.

Weapons
Abel has two pairs of Dust-Powered Launch Boots, one that he used on the farm and one that received upon entry into Beacon. His Beacon-era boots are obviously more powerful and fine-tuned, though they both served mostly the same purpose - combat.

His boots are present with any of his outfits. They're brown leather make, a bit wider around his ankle to allow movement when in the air, with a thick silver lining on the sole eventually meeting in a sharp point that curves up, covering the toe. On the bottom of both shoes are five insets containing a sort of Plexiglas. He fills each of these with white dust powder, and when activated, the impact can throw him up to eight feet in whatever direction he's moving toward. Each foot only gets five uses before he needs to refill the containers, so he tries to use them sparingly.

His fighting style involves a lot of aerial attacking and using his legs - kicking, tripping, coordinated landings, the like. He likes to stay lower to ground unless he's using the jump feature of his boots, but in the case he has to leave his comfort zone he has a basic backup weapon. There's nothing particularly special about it - a bronze glove with the grips hidden under bronze claws. The glove is worn on his dominant side, the left, and he keeps the right open so he can still grab things.

Semblance
Abel's aura is a lighter shade of grey, sometimes appearing white.

Abel's semblance is referred to as The Lamina Plate, a defensive-type semblance. When activated, Abel's skin briefly flashes white, allowing his skin to be copied and transferred into a translucent grey shield. This copy than hovers a few inches above his actual skin, much like a hologram. Being a close-combat fighter, this naturally comes in handy.

The problem comes with over usage. The more he uses it, the more scar-like crackles appear along his skin. These crackles can't be copied correctly by the semblance, and as a result the shield has several points where a weapon could possibly pierce through - though it is still mostly effective when it comes to bludgeon-type objects.

He can't hold the plates up too long either, or it will start rapidly injuring his skin, making later uses more difficult and less powerful. The shield can also only take so much damage before disappearing completely.

Background
As previously stated, Abel and his parents lived on a farm in Vale's Agricultural District. This wasn't really their choice, but it seemed to be the best option for his family prior to his birth for several reasons. The plot of land was close to the Industrial District and Residential District, meaning they had two viable options for selling their crops aside from going through a middleman grocery. The most prominent reason, though, was the fact that Aidan and Evelyn were an interracial couple, with Aidan being Dasypian, or an armadillo-type faunus.

Given that his appearance was NOT typical of a faunus - including his thick back plating, affinity for hunching closer to the ground, and tendency to jump nearly six feet high and curl into a ball when frightened - he was already under a lot of scrutiny, and having a human wife would only make things worse for both. So they retreated into the sparse farmlands, though their issues seemed to get even worse there.

Along with the occasional animal, Aidan was getting constantly threatened by the White Fang. They referred to him as traitor for marrying and having a child with a human, and a few years after Abel's birth they began stealing crops and even burning parts of the field. Abel's mother had been taught basic fighting/trapping skills by her aunt, and as a result began imagining ways she could use this knowledge to stop the attacks, culminating in teaching her husband and later her son some attacks they could perform with simple farm equipment.

This became normal for Abel. Being that his father was nocturnal and had excellent night vision, and that Abel was given decent night vision, the two kept watch on the fields at night and tried to scare off any intruders. By day they were tired, but somebody had to do the work, so it was usually Abel and his mother doing the actual farming.

His original boots were confiscated from a member of White Fang when Abel was 14. The guy wandered into a bear trap and freaked, causing his partner to flee. Abel found him and traded the extremist's life for his weapons, a pair of dust-powered boots. The man agreed, Abel stole the boots and then released him, still bleeding, into the night.

Eight months before Abel applied for the entry exam into Beacon, they were given notice by an associate of the Schnee Dust Company that their land and the surrounding areas were rumored to have an untapped dust resource just beneath the surface. In exchange for their home, Abel's father managed to secure a few pounds of dust for Abel's boots and enough money to get them an apartment in the Industrial District.

Trivia

 * Abel Novem is roughly based on the tale of Cain and Abel.
 * Abel's parents, Aidan and Evelyn, are named after Cain and Abel's parents, Adam and Eve.
 * Abel's name:
 * ' Abel ' is from the previously stated story of  'Cain and Abel  ', the tale of the first human murder.
 * ' Novem ' comes from ' Dasypus novemcinctus' , the scientific name of the nine-banded armadillo.