Karya Melia

(Another competition port. Hang tight while the page gets reformatted.)

-Name: Karya Melia

-Allusion: The Hamadryads, which were tree spirits in Greek culture similar to the more commonly known dryads, only these nature spirits were specifically tied to a single tree, or, in some cases, were the tree that normal dryads could inhabit. This can also be seen with her olive skin (often seen as having greenish undertones) and red hair, both being colors often seen with nature spirits like dryads. Her last name also alludes to the Greek Okeanid nymph of the same name, thought to be an ocean spirit considering her father was Okeanos / Oceanus, Titan of the Seas.

-Race: Faunus (Red Squirrel)

-Age: 19

-Gender: Female

-Emblem: The silhouette of a squirrel holding a cracked hazelnut

-Handedness: Naturally right-handed, but with learned ambidexterity

-Nicknames: Nutcase, Cocoa Loco

-Occupation: 2nd year (going on 3rd year) Atlesian student on Team MILK

Appearance
-Aura Color: A butterscotch yellow like this

-Height and Weight: 5'2" (1.57 meters), 119 lbs (53.98 kg), which is a mostly average weight for women of that stature.

-Hair: Wavy (Type 2A) auburn hair reaching to the shoulders.

-Eye color: Central heterochromiac, with both eyes having a light brown center to the iris and the rest of the iris being an emerald green, similar in shading / gradient to hazel eyes.

-Skin Color: Olive

-Face: Rounded face with rosy cheeks and a somewhat thin, delicate nose

-Physical Traits: Though not immediately obvious, her fingernails hide extendable squirrel claws which are only used in select hand to hand combat situations.

-Physique: Slim and lithe

-Outfit(s):

Civilian - When she's not doing missions with the rest of Team MILK or Sangre, or when she's working as a paid intern, she wears a flowing maroon-colored split-sleeve top, which is coupled with an opened cinnamon-colored blazer. For leggings, there are similar colored khakis with a pair of tan socks inside a pair of dress sandals looking like this.

Combat/Typical - As she worked as the sniper and spy for her team, she wears a different color variant of Ilia Amitola's outfit, which is entirely black except for the zippers and buckles, which appear in a sterling silver color. She wears a normal face mask, and only her eyes and some of her nose are visible. Outside of combat, the mask is pulled own and her mouth is visible to others. Her boots and socks for this outfit are also black.

Background
Karya was born in a small village named Alabaster located on the eastern outskirts of Vale's territory, a village which was home to several Faunus inhabitants, including Chloe and Irving Melia, her parents. Chloe was a snake Faunus (specifically the Western green mamba) and her father was a rat Faunus, which made for a somewhat ironic and unexpected pairing, but as the seemingly cliché saying goes, "Opposites attract." The two had a long history with one another, had a child with one another, and had run away from the White Fang as soon as it began to turn violent. This however, led to the two being hunted, which is why they left Vale proper to Alabaster, which was an obscure town and not super well-known, where they had their child a few months after leaving Vale.

The family of 3 wasn't found for over 5 odd years after they fled, with several close calls that could've meant bad things happening much sooner. Unfortunately, their luck ran short when an assassin finally caught up to them and under the cover of night came to attack the village. By setting off an explosion in the town center, he caused a massive panic, and the two were shot dead by the assassin. Strangely enough, though, this assassin decided to spare the teen, though the reasons for which he did so are unclear [Karya speculates that maybe the guy had his own personal moral code, or at the very least found it unnecessary to shoot her]. The panic led to a massive Grimm attack on the village, which killed most of the frightened townspeople. A Huntsman happened to be passing through at the time and cleared out the Grimm that remained in the village, and rescued Karya from freezing to death on that particularly cold evening.

Karya explained to Sangre Roja--the Huntsman that saved her--that one of the town hunters / food-gatherers had led her to the edge of town and killed a Grimm before he succumbed to his injuries from the Grimm, and she had sat there for a few minutes in shock of seeing his  eventual, slow, and painful death before Sangre rescued her and cleared out the remaining Grimm.

Sangre led the teen back to Vale, and upon explaining what had happened to the court system in Vale proper, was given legal custody as no other villager from Alabaster that had survived the attack came to take custody of her. Being a very young Huntsman, freshly out of Beacon Academy a year prior, he was unsure of how best to parent her, and did the best he could despite the fact his job called for travelling a lot, and the money situation being a bit tight at times. But after some particularly well-paying missions worked out well on Sangre's part, Karya eagerly signed up for combat school in Vale [wanting to be able to defend herself after feeling helpless during the village attack], and spent a few happy years before finding her groove with combat.

Seeing some talent within the girl as she applied for the major academies, and the school having a slightly lower enrollment count than usual, Atlas Academy offered Karya the opportunity to enter their school for a reduced price to ensure enough students would enroll that year. As one of the leading academies in technological and combat prowess, Karya happily accepted and shipped herself off to Atlas, where she spent the next 2 years learning additional combat skills and fighting with the rest of her teammates of Team MILK. The team had several misadventures within Atlas / Solitas, including one incident during initiation where she and the rest of MILK were walking along an icy chasm, and Karya slipped and nearly went over the edge. Thanks to this, she lost her bayonet and, along with it, most of her CQC proficiency and defense. There was also another time a while later where some overly spiced hot cocoa made Karya cough uncontrollably, stamp her feet, and generally make a scene in an Atlesian café, which has earned her the undying nickname "Cocoa Loco", which she has yet to live down, and by this point has stopped really fussing about.

Team MILK qualified for the Vytal Festival Tournament, and Karya was able to see Sangre again before she fought in the festival. Her team made it past the team round, and she sat out the doubles and watched as the two members of MILK on the field got mullered in that round. They spent the next few days watching fights before all the stuff that went down during the Finals with a few of the main characters. During the Battle of Beacon and the Grimm attack on Vale, she and her team helped to clear out a few Grimm within the city and rescued a couple of people from falling debris near the city center before some more-experienced Huntsmen came to deal with the Grimm and Atlesian Knight problem. She and the rest of the Atlesian students were flown back to Atlas shortly afterwards, but right after that the Academy was shut down, and was said not to reopen until further notice. As of now, she has flown back to Vale to be with Sangre and has even been travelling with him to help him on his missions while she waits for Atlas Academy to reopen. When she's not doing this, she's interning at a Dust technology manufacturing office within Vale, and often tests out their technology in the field while going on missions with Sangre.

== Personality & Relationship (to be condensed) == Karya took on her parents' concept of oddity and opposites, and brought it to new levels. She loves doing unpredictable and contradictory things just to be original and exciting, but on the same token can be dead serious when she needs or wants to be. This is even reflected in her fighting style [though that will be explained more a bit later on in this post *Fourth Wall Break Finished*]. This unpredictable behavior and her almost scary levels of positivity and frizziness have led to the earning of her nicknames of Nutcase and Cocoa Loco, for obvious reasons. Well, that and she's a squirrel, so people tend to make sly remarks about that, which she doesn't give too much flak about, as most things don't tend to bother her.

Karya is an optimist, and attempts to see the best in most, if not all, situations or people. This quality has allowed her to connect with even the most stoic of people, which only further fits into her theme of opposites. She's unabashedly happy no matter what she does, but in the few situations where she is not happy at all, she becomes quiet and has no motivation whatsoever, which has led to some questioning of her mental health state at times. So far however, there are no proven results to any testing, and these bouts of extreme sadness usually only last a day or so after they begin, and as of this point have never stretched longer than that, though these down-in-the-dumps days have become more frequent ever since the Fall of Beacon and the closing of Atlas Academy.

Under the surface she retains some extreme hatred for the White Fang and what they did to her parents, which so far only the members of MILK and Sangre know about. She's been known to act a bit rashly around members or even former members she knows about, and will sometimes have to be kept in check by Sangre to make sure she doesn't fly off her handle, though thankfully so far this hasn't happened. Her hatred of the sniper that killed her parents led her to become a sniper, and she hopes that one day she might come into contact with them so that she can give them what they deserve.

-Misc. Traits (optional): Karya has the bad habit of attempting to chew her fingernails whenever she's nervous or stressed out, which she has been working hard to get over as the fingernails protect her claws.

-Likes: Milk chocolate, extroverts, easily snipeable targets, being weird

-Dislikes: Being negative, the White Fang, peanuts (she's allergic to them)

-Notable Relationships:

Family:

Chloe Melia - Karya's mother and an amazing one at that. She always made Karya feel safe despite constant threats from Grimm, and was responsible for gathering some of the village's food as a hunter. She had a weak Aura, but her skill with it was just strong enough to unlock Karya's when she was 10. She was the one who initiated the White Fang escape and initiated her marriage with Irving. Most would say she was a charismatic and fiery woman with a heart of gold who loved the life of adventure but cooled it off a bit so she could raise her family in peace. She might have survived the night of the village attack too, had she not gone out hunting like she usually did (as her village duty) and had her Aura weakened by a Grimm, which left her vulnerable to the sniper bullet that cost her her life.

Irving Melia - Karya's father, an intelligent and lanky man who loved giving out hugs to the village children and all he cared about. More of a follower than a doer, he helped to bring the passionate and sometimes incautious nature of Chloe down a notch so that they could remain in secret. As he usually stayed within the town borders and he was a little bit stubborn by nature like Chloe, he did not have his Aura unlocked as he felt it was unncessary for him. That mistaken ideology was one of the only illogical moves he ever made, but unfortunately he never lived to move past that mistake, thanks to the sniper.

Sangre Roja - As a surrogate father to, savior of, and legal guardian of Karya, he stands as the one person she can truly count on besides the rest of Team MILK. His method of parenting simply was to go with the flow, and he has never been super particular about what Karya can or can't do for herself. Sometimes he questions this level of freedom he has given her, but so far she's done a decent enough job in not screwing up that he hasn't had to really make any changes to that plan. He was the one who inspired her to become a Huntress, and was also the one who gave her CQC training before and after she lost her bayonet so that the sniper could defend herself when he or her rifle couldn't.

Team MILK:

Marisol Alba - The team leader and Karya's partner, the two share a similar demeanor and approach to life, with Marisol's sunny and welcoming attitude being one of the main reasons Team MILK was so close with one another. Out of all the relationships Karya has with the other members of MILK, Karya's relationship with Marisol was the strongest. Karya had been attempting to teach her the joys of art before Atlas Academy closed, as Marisol wanted to know how to do it despite being horrible at painting.

Iris Hodei - Despite her colorful name, Iris was a bit of a stoic when Team MILK was first formed, and has remained the most down to earth member of Team MILK, but has learned to loosen up enough to tolerate the antics of the rest of her team. To some degree, she even enjoys the company Karya offers with her all-inclusive frizz and frazzle, though less so than her other teammates.

Loreta Naia - A calm and friendly team member who is bit reserved but was still willing to indulge with the group's levels of fun as she didn't want to be stuck with 3 other people that didn't like her for 4 years straight. She understands Iris and her opinions the most out of the team, and is usually the one to try and clear both Marisol's and Karya's heads so that the group may focus and not blow up within itself due to conflicting opinions between Iris and the other 2. Loreta is also extremely skilled at baking sweets, especially cookies, and her entire team will often go to great lengths to stay out of trouble long enough that they can guarantee they'll get some of these tasty bad boys.

-Hypothetical Theme (Optional): "Illumination" from SimCity 3000 Soundtrack

Weapons and Abilities
-Name: Album Fulguris [White Lightning in Latin, according to the ever so accurate Google Translate], named for the color of the inside of the barrel and the color of ammunition it fires.

-Maker: Karya Melia

-Classification: HCSR (High Caliber Sniper Rifle)

-Derivation: May Zedong's Sniper Rifle, Remington MSR (U.S. made)

-Design: Essentially your standard bolt-action sniper rifle [Looking something like this ], designed similarly to the U.S. manufactured Remington MSR. The weapon is colored mostly in black, with straight cyan-colored highlights on the edges of the barrel, scope, and stock. The bullets and the inside of the barrel are white [hence the weapon's name] which only changes when Dust bullets are used, in which case the barrel and bullet have a faint glow of the color attributed to the Dust type added.

-Inactive Form: Not Applicable

-Active Form: Not Applicable

-Active Form 2: Not Applicable

-Features: There used to be a detachable bayonet with it, but Karya lost it during initiation when she nearly fell to her death into an icy chasm.

-Dust Capacity: Her sniper rifle can definitely accept bullets infused with Dust, which still function with the same force  and shape as a normal bullet but allowing for elemental effects on impact. So far, the Dust types Karya has used have been Fire, Steam, and Electric, with Electric being the most common as a non-kill method of doing real damage on opponents, especially in team environments. Karya has obtained Ice and Wind bullets as well, but has yet to use them.

-Ammunition: Uses .338 Lapua Magnum bullets, with 10 bullets per cartridge.

-Planned Upgrades: Karya is thinking about adding an inactive/storage form and possibly reattaining a bayonet so she can have additional CQC protection.

Fighting Style
-Preferred Range: Prefers a long range style of fighting as she's a sniper, but can defend herself just as well up close if she has to as she has CQC training thanks to Sangre.

-Landing Strategy: Karya will take the sniper rifle off her back and shoot it, using the recoil from the firing to slow her fall as she attempts to land in a high position.

-Fighting Style: Most of this constitutes a good hiding place and running away from the main battle to remain out of range of most opponents, utilizing her high levels of speed and agility to change positions if she is spotted or shot at. In the case of CQC, she will put away her rifle and use a high number of kicks and jumps, utilizing her claws only if necessary (which is pretty often when fighting up close since most of her attacks have a very minimal effect on her opponent unless they are similarly built).

Semblance
-Name: Fleetfoot

-Type: Physical (I think)

-Purpose: Utility

-General Description: The user has increased control over the amount of force they put into a jump or when running so they can make more or less noise and have greater force to kicking attacks when necessary.

-Visual Cue: The soles of the user's shoes glow the color of their Aura. When making contact with another human's Aura, a temporary glowing footprint the color of the user's Aura is left behind on the impact site for around 15 seconds.

-Sound Cue: No sound cue for this one, as that would make it's attempt at stealthiness somewhat pointless.

-Tier 1: User has a significant decrease in force so that jumps and movements are quieted, and long jumps have less of an Aura damage effect. Decrases user's force by up to 50% of the normal amount.

-Tier 2: User increases force so that jumps and attacks with the legs are more effective. Increases user's force by 50% of the normal amount.

-Range: Personal

-General Limitations: 1) Vigilant foes (particularly ones highly in tune with their Aura) will still be able to notice her movements quite easily. 2) Force can only increase or decrease by about 50% of the amount of the original force respectively. 3) Changes in force only affect her own movements and Aura, so any outside attacks from other people or Grimm cannot have their force be dampened. 4.) As Karya has weaker than normal control over her Aura, she only uses this abiity if she's absolutely sure she needs to, as it's a heavy drain for her, especially for increasing level of force. The typical reduction in force costs approximately 10% Aura and the increase is about 15% Aura respectively.

-Side-Effects: The user has naturally quieter movements.

-Dust Interaction: This Semblance has not been shown to interact with Dust.

-Reflection of Personality: Much like Karya's highly adaptable moods and intensity based on the situation, this Semblance has adaptable levels of intensity. This also reflects her wish for revenge on the sniper that killed her parents by becoming more effective at the thing that she should hate with all her hatred.

-Notes: This was the best presence masker I could have for a sniper role without straying too far from her personality like I had originally planned.

Misc. to Sort Later
Completely Optional: Civilian Extension: for extra pts

-Expanded Business/Ocuppation: Karya works part-time as a paid intern for a Dust technology manufacturing office when she's not going on a mission with Sangre. The company is all too happy to let her go on these missions as they don't have to pay her during this time, and it gives them a chance to have her test things in the field. Well, that and she's defending the Kingdom by doing so, so they're somewhat obligated to anyway.

-Certifications: Karya has won several artistic awards and medals for her amazing ability to paint, and displays them in Sangre's apartment. She was working towards her Huntress license, but as of the closing of Atlas Academy that has been put on hiatus.

Trivia

 * CNR-wise, Karya the hamadryad was specifically associated with either the walnut or hazelnut tree, and both nuts typically have a light brown coloration. Melia means "ash tree" in Greek, but is derived from meli, which refers to "honey," which is usually depicted with a golden color.
 * The first semblance of inspiration behind the character, ironically enough, was a conversation with one of my high school friends about how squirrels would make awesome snipers.
 * Like the rest of her team, her name derives from some form of Latin or Greek roots within their names, whether this be by first name or surname, often times both.