Merlo Torres

This is a work in-progress page; the character is done, however it needs reformatted significantly.

Name: Merlo Torres

CNR Explanation: Merlo is derived from the Latin merula, meaning "blackbird." Torres comes from the Latin word turris, referring to someone who lives in or near a tower.

Species: Human

Age: 20

Gender: Male

Emblem: A pair of silver wings

Handedness: Right (has learned ambidexterity)

Nicknames: Blackbird (earned by his name origin and his general look from his teammates), Ravenhair (he earned this because it refers to his hair color and his bird association, and because it was the first physical trait his initiation partner saw to call him by before learning his real name)

Occupation: 3rd Year Huntsman-in-Training at Shade Academy, waiter (temporarily)

2) Appearance:

Aura Colour: Bright Red

Height: 6'-2"

Weight: 145 lbs. (very slightly underweight to barely normalweight)

Eyes: Honey yellow

Skin Colour: Fair, with a light tan

Face Shape: Inverted triangle, with a thin nose and hawk-like eyes

Hair: Black, spiked backward...looks a bit like bird feathers. To be fully honest, it looks pretty similar to both Qrow & Mercury's hairstyles.

Physical Traits: Nothing of particular note.

Physique: Ectomorph: Lithe, slim, athletic where it counts

Outfit: A black suit jacket (with tiny vertical stripes of gray that are barely visible and blend with the black, I'll try and find a similar image) with white cuffs, a black shirt, with a red tie and fancy black pants. His dark steel-toed boots which serve as his weaponry are also visible

Accessories: A silver-colored watch is slightly visible under his jacket, which is only easy to see when his jacket is off.

Gadgets: Scroll

3) Characteristics:

Background: Merlo was only a baby when his parents took him to an orphanage because they were unable to support him with their meager earnings. For his whole life, he lived in this orphanage, seemingly omnipresent. Most of the kids were weirded out by him and his antisocial tendencies, but thankfully, this meant he wasn't subjected to any real bullying or harassment, just kept at a distance, which was fine with him. He had fun with his own thoughts and to him, that was all that ever mattered. That, and learning who his parents were so they could reunite. He fully learned of their existence and the reason why he was in the orphanage at age 13, and was scheduled to reunite with them within a 2 month timespan. The plan was to meet them at the bare minimum, potentially discuss ways of reentering into their life at best. Cisnegro and Azuleja were a pair of Schnee Dust Company miners, and had finally started to make better wages for themselves through excessive hard work. They were finally ready to receive Merlo back into their lives when tragedy struck. The deteriorating conditions in the SDC owned mine were beginning to get to them, and if the mine's catastrophic collapse hadn't killed them first, ailing health from working in the mine would've taken the life from them anyways.

Deeply affected by his sadness, Merlo essentially shut down after hearing the news, and didn't recover for several weeks, barely eating or sleeping when as a teenager, he should've been doing the opposite, leading to his current physique. It took a visit to both the hospital to regain some weight and a grief counselor to allow him to move on and stay in good health. Because he needed something to focus on, and he wanted to be a Huntsman from a young age so he could support himself, he was allowed to attend primary combat school to rebuild his strength and fight off his grief, payed for by the orphanage in his best interest, which they had done for some other kids in years past. At age 15, he was given a job as a waiter at a nearby restaurant, where the orphan worked up enough cash to pay for Shade. His skill with his self-crafted weapons proved his choice was correct, and he made it into Shade, passing through the initiation with his partner Griselda Rosales, and eventually the two joined the Aritza twins Febe & Lluvia to form Team FLMG (Flamingo).

Their first year was pretty low-key, and they qualified for the 39th Vytal Festival tournament, where Merlo managed to make it into the finals before getting defeated by a 4th year from Atlas. Despite this, the team still received good praise, and was able to use the Festival to up their combat skills. By 2nd year, the group became close, and Febe started dating Merlo, much to Lluvia's jealousy. Lluvia's numerous antics in trying to sabotage her twin's relationship made the situation tense, but eventually she calmed down after seeing what she was becoming from 4 whole weeks of cringey torment. Griselda was crucial in helping to calm Lluvia down, and despite her nonchalance to much of her team's decisions and antics, she distracted Lluvia by helping her scope out potential scores. Febe & Merlo were quite happy about this, and their relationship grew stronger after this.

Still, Febe has had problems getting Merlo to open up, and her borderline obsession with learning this came to a head during their 3rd year, which ended up causing Febe to receive a severe injury during training, where a warhammer broke her Aura and crushed her leg against a wall, breaking several bones. Due to this, the team couldn't compete during the 40th Vytal Festival as a team, and was not present for the Battle or Fall of Beacon. As of now, their current objective is to grow stronger as a team, and to head to Vale once they graduate in roughly a year's time, where they can help finish off rebuilding efforts.

Personality: Merlo is a relatively quiet and introverted dude at first glance, being relatively reserved, stoic, and unwilling to say much past what is necessary, save for the occasional joke or complement. This is usually the persona one sees when he's doing his Huntsman-in-training duties or travelling as a civilian. If he's onstage or out and about doing some sort of dance or parkour routine, he becomes a little more outgoing and adventurous, letting himself be free so that he can perform to his fullest extent, even if it is a bit draining on him. Even amongst friends he's relatively quiet, but he will voice his opinion when it needs to be heard and listen most of the time, even though he's a little more open amongst friends and family.

Misc Traits: His legs tend to be very restless when he's bored or anxious, which is sometiems what he needs to do a better routine for combat or any other movement purposes. Additionally, whenever he's lying, he tends to stutter a bit or speak even quieter than he usually does, which could indicate a tell.

Likes: B-boying (otherwise known as breakdancing), parkour, sparring with his teammates, peace and quiet

Dislikes: Excess gossip about anyone or anything, people who can't appreciate dancing, being the only male on his team

Notable Relationships:

Team FLMG -

Febe Aritza ~ The two have been dating steadily since 2nd year, and even though Merlo hasn't opened up too much, it's the mystery that keeps Febe engaged. Febe's bright and cheerful personality work well to contrast with him, and it keeps him interested in her: because of her, he can try to break out of his shell every once in awhile, though this hasn't happened a lot. Overall, they have a strong relationship which could be further cemented by Merlo's opening up, which is only made awkward and tense by any of Lluvia's interference.

Lluvia Aritza ~ More than anything else, Merlo understands Lluvia. Both have been plagued by sadness and always feel like luck is never on their side, which is particularly the case with Lluvia, the darker of the two twins who always has something raining on her parade (pun intended). Lluvia also has a little bit of jealousy towards her sister for taking away her chances with Merlo, leading to a bit of a tense triangle between the 3, which makes Merlo very uncomfortable.

Griselda Rosales ~ Griselda could give two shits about any of the shenanigans of the rest of her team, and does her own thing unless necessary, such as in a battle. Merlo admires her for this reason, but also sees her recklessness and forthright honesty as detrimental to her social standing. The two don't interact much, despite being partnered in the initiation. She was the one that gave him both of his nicknames.

Cisnegro Torres ~ Merlo doesn't know much about him because they never met in person, but heard from the social workers who visited his parents that he was eager to see him again, and seemed very kind and loving, with a level of grace not often seen in miners (in-reference to the Black Swan).

Azuleja Torres ~ Like with his father, Merlo doesn't know much about her aside from what he heard from the social workers who visited them. Apparently, she was a no-nonsense and well-kept woman, who did her darndest to work hard in the mines and to keep the home orderly. Doing this apparently made her comfortable, and despite the intolerance for unnecessary quirkiness and oddities, she had a kind heart just like her husband.

Skills: Dancing, writing

Weapon
Name: Malevolent Kicks

Maker/Smith: Merlo Torres

Classification: Steel-Toed Dust Greaves

Weapon Derivation: Flamethrower + Steel-Toed boots/greaves

Design: The boots are made of a dark metallic material which shines under excessive light and reflects well. Inside the boots are a cushy material for comfort, which is seen to be in a crimson color. The vials of Dust on the sides are lit up when the boots are active, lighting up in their respective color associated Dust (Fire = Red, Ice = Neon Blue, Gravity = Purple/Violet, Wind = White) which would change with different Dust types, The boots each have a copy of his emblem in miniature on the outside face (away from his body). Otherwise, the boots have minimal design work, with a few patterns and swirls on the greave portion, only visible if his leggings are rolled up or not present.

Holstered/Inactive Form: The greave portions of the boots are retracted, and the rest of it remains relatively the same as it does activated.

Form 1: From the inactive form, the greave portion of the boots fully spring to life alongside the leg (under the clothes) and are used to hit the enemy with stronger attacks and provide some hidden armor to attacks on the lower legs.

Form 2 (technically not a transformation but is used in a separate style): Compartments open up by pressing into hidden buttons within the boots with the foot, launching out either a single projectile or a contained stream depending on how long each button is pressed. Each compartment carries a single type of Dust.

Features: The main compartments of Dust within it, along with an extra set of Dust vials for each type further up the inside of the greave.

Dust Capacity: Each boot contains a compartment of each of the following Dust types: Fire Dust, Wind Dust, Gravity Dust, and Ice Dust. Each boot has a single extra vial of each type that can be reloaded in its place if the first vial currently being used is drained, but after that one is finished, they must be replaced.

Fire - Mainly offensive, used for strong sustained flamethrowing or short explosive blasts at short to medium range.

Wind - Mainly a utility, which can be used for defensive shielding, movement, or for sustained wind blasts/tunnels.

Ice - Similar to fire, but can only be used for sustained ice paths as a transport utility or a defensive measure.

Gravity - Utility, used for movement and small blasts. These blasts will push both the opponent and Merlo back due to the nature of the Dust.

Ammunition: N/A due to raw Dust being used

Planned/Possible Upgrades: Increase Dust storage

Notes: I wanted to do something of a combo between Weiss' usage of Dust and Mercury's Capoeira / Taekwondo weaponry & fighting style, and figured this would be an interesting combo of the two.

B) Semblance

Name: In-Sync

Type: Physical

Purpose: Utility

Short description: When active, the user can perform complex movements with much more ease and grace than without it. The presence of music nearby strengthens the abiltiy, with louder/closer music have the strongest effect. Essentially, it decreases the amount of human error on the level of the user.

Activation Cue: Music notes trail off the user's Aura, which have the same color as the user's Aura and/or main colors (in this case, red and black).

Range: Personal / within discernable earshot (for Passive)

General limitations: 1) The Semblance is less effective without music, and even less effective if the person can't hear it. 2) The user can still mess up due to outside interference despite human error being near fully removed from the equation, though the level of this interference varies from user to user.

Passive ability(s) (if any): Nearby sources of music strengthen the Semblance to certain levels depending on distance and loudness, with the strongest effect coming when both are maximized. If the music is discernable and within earshot, it can strengthen it.

Active ability - Tier One: When active, the user can perform complex maneuveurs with greater accuracy and technique. Outside factors can heavily interfere with performance, depending on the person and type of interference.

Active ability - Tier Two: Interference from outside factors is reduced to roughly 25% less than original level depending on the person.

Dust interaction: N/A

Notes: Merlo often uses this to up his game both during combat, and during dance or parkour routines with exceptional complexity.

Reflection of Personality: Merlo's go-with-the-flow attitude towards dancing and combat allowed him to develop this Semblance, which is why music strengthens his performance when using this.

Preferred Range: Merlo prefers to get in closer to his enemies, because he's much less effective with a far distance. When going for straight melee attacks, he prefers to be up close and personal, with occasional Dust augmentation. When working with Dust extensively or acting more defensively, he will move to midrange, where he would be most effective.

Landing Strategy: Use the Dust within the boots to manipulate his speed and direction, with the extent of usage and what types he uses depending on his falling height. Gravity Dust is good for not hitting the ground, but he has problems with controlling his recoil speed when doing so, so he will usually resort to a combonation of Gravity and Wind or Fire Dust to move about, Gravity to prevent the initial fall, and the other types to slow down from Gravity's extreme recoil. Ice Dust functions as a last resort, and can be used to make ramps and such to go further and/or not hit as hard on the ground.

Fighting Style: Due to the nature of his weaponry and his Dust usage, he favors an acrobatic fighting style that favors speed and offense over defense. While his attacks are direct (save for the Dust usage), he can't take a hit very well, so he relies on his speed and a pressing offense to prevent any countermeasures.

Civilian Extension

Expanded Occupation/Business Details: Merlo worked as a waiter from the age of 15 up until 17 to help pay for his entry into Shade, which was hard work but paid off in the end, since the orphanage wanted him to learn self-sufficiency and to get over the grief of losing his parents.

Trivia

 * Merlo is derived from the Latin merula, meaning "blackbird." Torres comes from the Latin word turris, referring to someone who lives in or near a tower.
 * Merlo was originally created for an OC contest with the theme of music in mind, which can be seen in various aspects of the character.
 * Inspiration came from the song The Great Divide (Seven Lions Remix) by Velvetine. This song is supposed to refer to his reserved nature and his unwillingness to open up too much to his romantic partner Febe Aritza.
 * His Semblance's name and functionality are also inspired by music.
 * His team is based off different forms of dance, with his particular dance style being Capoeira, which can be used in combat.
 * His outfit is a generic version of what a male professional dancer might wear for a performance.