Basillus McKaldwin

Basillus McKaldwin is a freelance gun-for-hire and wanna-be hunter. He is currently an enforcer under the employment of Cerulius Sands and the nightclub Delirium.

Appearance
Basil has a thin and moderately toned build, cultivated by years of work. Maintaining a Film Noir style attire, Basil's wardrobe consists of vests, ties, slacks, and longcoats. He wears a grey dress shirt, a purple and black vest, brown dress shoes and a black tie and arm garters. He is also know to wear a charcoal grey longcoat with dark purple trims, leaving the bottom splayed open for mobility. He also has a silver loop earing in each ear and carries a medalion of stained glass under his vest.

Personality
Basil is a hedonist, always searching for new people for company and for adrenaline-filled situations with all the zeal of a hungry beowolf. He believes that life was meant to be enjoyed and that people have a duty to pursue happiness and self.

Socially, Basil always makes many friends wherever he goes. Always inviting people for drinks and other escapades, he is usually either entertaining others or being entertained. However, he is as fast at making enemies as he is making friends, and can be occasionally found in bar fights or skirmishes in alleys. Basil's very forthright nature casuses him to appear uncouth at times as well.

As far as work goes, he enjoys his job as a gun for hire. He belives that work is just another way to create entertainment, either by spending his paycheck on frivolities or by throwing himself into adrenaline-packed situations on the job.

Basil detests people who disrespect or challenge him, as any challenge to his nature will very well likely be answered. He also cannot stand those that put themselves down or insult themselves, as he believes that such lack of self-esteem is contagious. His biggest fear, however, is complete silence. He is unable to cope with the absence of noise. He has never been able to satisfactorily explain why, but it probably stems from the disappearance of his family after a Grimm attack.

Basil always thinks out a full plan before doing something, pointing out his goal and the process. When his plans fail, he quickly forgets the plan and improvises until he can return to the plan or come up with a new one.

He is a bit of a comic fanatic. He loves hearing stories about daring swashbucklers and brilliant detectives. It reminds him of the stories his mother and sister would tell him.

Despite his cocky and gregarious nature, he becomes a wreck when it comes to matters of love. He always worries about his partner's well being and the right thing to say, getting extremely embarassed when he makes a mistake in front of them and continually fumbling over his own words.

Weapon
Basil's weapon is a Compound Blast Dust Rifle called "Glass Mikado." It takes the form of a lever-action shotgun with an axe head fixed to the stock and a small, bottom-loading clip between the barrel grip and the trigger. The Glass Mikado uses a combinations of Fire and Impact Dust as ammunition. Firing the gun once uses one round's worth of Wind Dust and one round's worth of Fire Dust to create a searing, smoking, shotgun blast. Basil can also change the amount of dust he uses with each shot by pressing the buttons on the barrel grip and by pumping the lever multiple times. By changing the amount and ratio of Fire and Impact Dust, he can:

The axe head on the stock is primarily used for parrying melee attacks and used when Basil doesn't have the opportunity to reload. The gun has to reload both the Fire and Impact Dust at the same time, so any unused dust must be saved in the ammunition clip. If Basil anticipatss a prolonged combat, he will throw multiple full clips around the battlefield, offering oppertunities to reload while running rather than having to search through his posessions. Due to the fact that the gun uses stores of dust rather than pre-cased rounds, and due to the fact that the gun uses two round's worths of dust per shot, the cost of ammunition is much more expensive and must be manually prepared into clips before battle. However, this is greatly made up for by the versatility and over-all increased power of the gun.
 * Create a single, piercing bullet rather than a shotgun blast. (Fire+Impact+Impact)
 * Create a fiery blast with large knockback. (Fire+Fire+Impact)
 * Create a smokescreen blast. (Fire+Fire+Fire+Impact+Impact)
 * Create a disorienting stun blast. (Fire+Impact+Impact+Impact)

Abilities
Semblance

Basil's semblance is called "Shattered Mantle". Shattered Mantle gives Basil improved agility and movement as long as he is not in bright light. The effectiveness of his semblance varies from improved running speed and visual displacement when he is obscured by light shadows or fog, to teleportation-like speed or sustained invisibility in dark moonlight. While using his semblance, Basil will appear distorted, possibly creating multiple images of himself slightly overlapping each other, with each image having cracks and breaks covering the body. If he is quickly exposed to bright lights (ex. a strong searchlight or a flash grenade) while using his semblance, it can damage his aura by quickly overpowering his semblance. If he runs into bright light while using his semblance, all of Shattered Mantle's effects cease. By using Glass Mikado's smokescreen blast function, he is able to ensure cover and prevent direct light. This also allows him to cover the distance and give him the evasion to fight close up and utilize the strength of his shotgun blasts.

Non-Combat Abilities
Basil is used to subtlety in his line of work, teaching him how to be stealthy, find openings and weaknesses, how to decieve, to trust instints, and has given him a moderate knowledge of underworld dealings. His life with his family has taught him how to garden, farm, cook, and build and repair wooden structures. His experiences with friends has taught him how to easily spot people in a crowd. Aside from the afore mentioned, he has little knowledge of anything else. Rather than actually presenting knowledge of a subject he doesn't know about, he either uses his intuition to answer or bluff his way out of a situation.

History
Basillus was born to Lily and Tyrius McKaldwin in a tiny farm house close to a small village in the south-east of Vytal, south of Vale. The village consisted of about 200 people and included a Mayor, a Doctor, several merchats, and a Town Guardian who was a trained Hunter. Raised along with his older sister Amy, the family made a living as farmers, growing greens and vegtables for the village. Tyrius was also a carpenter and builder, helping out the village as a repair man. Basil's childhood was simplistic and care free, even though the family couldn't afford the large pleasentries of life. The family could not afford formal education for Basil, so the family taught him on their own. Lily taught Basil History and Arithmatic while Amy taught him English and Writing. Tyrius would occasionally take him into the village to teach him how to build, repair, and other useful skills. In between his lessons, Basil always tried to help out at the farm or in the village.

When Basil was 17, the village was attacked by a very large pack of Grimm. The Grimm slaughtered one fifth of the village, and destroyed most of the building and surrounding farmlands. With the remaining villagers prepairing for retaliation, the McKaldwins were making tough decisions of their own. Lily and Tyrius decided it was best to send one of the children to Vale, not only to go get money and help for the village, but for their own protection. As Amy was adamant that she stayed and helped the family, it was up to Basil to venture to the kingdom of Vale. Before he left, he recieved parting gifts from the village, including 12 days worth of food and water and a stained glass necklance made by his sister. The town guardian even gave Basil his own blessing, unlocking his aura for safe passage to Vale. With only the gifts of his village, an old shotgun, a rickedy horse cart and only 30 Lien to his name, he set out to find his fortune up north.

On his fifth night of travel, about half way to Vale traveling through a dense forest, Basil was attacked by a Death Stalker. Basil ran and took cover in a dense patch of trees, hiding in the dappled moonlight and shadows of the leaves. He saw the reckage of his cart and the hulking Deathstalker crawling towards him as he peeked around a tree trunk. He climbed a large tree in hopes he could escape, forgetting about the Grimm's Large tail. Closing his eyes and praying for his life, he awaited his untimely demise. As he opened his eyes, he saw the Deathstalker's tail inches away from his face, close enough that he could touch it. He looked down and saw the Grimm circling the tree, as if it had not seen Basil. Looking around, he held his hand in front of his face and discovered that he was invisible. Confused on why this was and not sure how long it would last, he climbed higher to the top of the tree and used the top-most branches as a bed for the night.

As day broke, he awakened to see the Grimm was no longer at the base of the tree. He hoped it had traveled far enough away so that he could make a run for the wreckage of his car and then to the main trail. He managed to find his shotgun undamaged and scavenged his personal belongings and a little bit of water left in a canteen before continuing on the path. After a few minutes, a caravan carrying various boxes and barrels showed up not too far behind him on the path. Not long after he spotted the train of wagons did the ground begin to shake. Taking cover behind a tree, he saw the Death Stalker emerge from the forest. No sooner had the Grimm shown up, five men in blue vests dashed from the caravan towards the monstrosity weilding guns and swords. As he watched the fray, Basil was in awe at the skill those men had. After the Grimm was defeated, Basil ran up to the vested men and asked to follow them. He recieved a stern "No" almost immediately. Not giving it up, He followed the caravan closely along the trail for 3 hours. One of the men finally caved in and asked why he was so insistant on following them. After Basil explained the story of his village and his journey to Vale, the vested man asked Basil if he wanted a job with them in vale. Basil immediately said yes and hopped on the cart.

After arriving in Vale, He was brought to a nightclub called Delirium on the top floor of the Hotel Luminus. After getting settled into a small room under Delirium, Basil met Cerulius Sands, the owner of the club. He explained to Basil that, even though that the work he would be doing wasn't technically legal or socially favorable, he would be payed a great sum of money in return. He was told that his first job was to raid a storage warehouse supposedly owned by the White Fang for Dust and Weapons. After meeting with his teammates for the job, he nervously set out with only his trusty shotgun to defend him. The mission began smoothly, with Basil and the other club workers easily sneaking inside. They quickly grabbed all they could carry in dust and began to make for the door. However, on their way out, they tripped the security alarm and were quickly beset apon by White Fang Members with military grade weapons. Basil was the only one able to escape, carrying only a couple dozen jars of Impact and Fire Dust under his coat while accidently turning invisible.

After the failed first mission Basil began to train, learning how to fight, building his own weapon "Glass Mikado," learning more about his semblance, and taking more and more jobs from Cerulius to raise money. After a year later, he managed to raise enough money and made his way back home. However, when he returned to his village, he was mortified to find it had been destroyed. The village was just a smoldering wreck of charred and splintered wood and a few Grimm tracks. There were no traces of whether his family died or not. From that point on, he dedicated his life to living in their memory, training to become stronger and to perhaps one day become a hunter to fight Grimm.

Trivia
 * His name is a variant of the name "Basil," which is Greek for "Royal".
 * Violet is often associated with royalty and extravagance, which can be seen as an influence in Basil's hedonistic nature.
 * The rest of the McKaldwin Family's names are shades of purple.
 * Lily is named after the shade Lilac
 * Tyrius is named after the shade Tyrian Dye
 * Amy is named after the flower Amaranth, which takes on a red purple color.