Team ASTR

"Kurome is already at graduated hunter levels in terms of combat. The other three, probably high-end second year students, at least. There's a fuckin' terrifying level of talent in that team."

- Fuchsia Teint-Cheveu

Team ASTR (Astre) is a first year team of Beacon students consisting of Viola Alexander, Kurome Sarutobi, Leonidas Amaranth Tertius and Rosetta Leizu. Their first fight as a team was against a Diabolus Simia, which had wandered into the forest after sensing weak prey. After defeating it with the help of Team FSHA, they retreived the Black Queen pieces.

Role(s)
Viola is the leader and strategist of the team. She always maintains a cool head and an optimistic attitude, both in and out of combat, maintaining peace and calm. She has the weakest combat skills in the team, but she is still quite strong. She can use dust with a high level of skill, whether offensively, defensively, or otherwise. She is most useful in fights with her team, buffing attacks and providing support and commands from a safe distance. Her noble heritage gives her access to a great deal of legally-obtained money, some of which she dedicates to 'team expenses', including dust, weapon/armour repairs and medical bills.

Kurome is the primary combatant and by far the strongest fighter in the team. He spends most of his time training or at Vale Hospital with his comatose girlfriend, waiting for the day she wakes up. He has years of real combat experience against high-level opponents and was personally trained by a master hunter from the age of 10. Though he prefers fighting alone, he is able to work effectively in a team, able to create strategies based on his partner(s) semblance and/or fighting style. In sparring and other forms of combat, he tends to limit himself to using one blade and doesn't use his semblance at all. This is partially to prevent anyone from connecting him to 'Number Ten', the alias he used as a member of the Ten Braves. His underworld connections also give him access to a great deal of information that is typically unaccessible to the masses, which he and his team can use to their advantage.

Leonidas is ASTR's 'tank', and the strongest member defensively. He is able to shrug off hits that would incapacitate other students, and with his semblance can disperse the force from huge attacks and immediately counter. Offensively, he can fire off powerful attacks consistently, if somewhat slowly and counter with great efficiency. His harsh training made him extremely tough, allowing him to easily brave the elements. He has the most survival knowledge of his team, and being the heir to the throne in Amaranth, he is an effective leader. This lead to him being chosen as second in command if Viola is incapacitated or not able to be with the team. His form of leadership is less reliant on calm strategic thinking than it is on rallying and boosting moral. This would make him effective in leading a large group of people.

Rosetta is a highly agile fighter, using APS (attacks per second) and a unique, confusing fighting style that combines surprising manouverability with constant fake-outs to bewilder the opponent. She deals very little damage with each strike, but the huge number of attacks she launches make up for it. She tends to guard Viola in team combat while she determines the route they should take, and tends to target large groups of weaker Grimm, easily slaughtering dozens of enemies in moments with a flurry of weak attacks. Years of travelling and performing have also made her good at dealing with all sorts of people, making her effective in situations that require... 'softer' methods than what ASTR typically employ. She is also adept at gathering information but prefers to use her 'assets' to coerce information from the source, as opposed to Kurome's use of intimidation.

Trivia

 * The theme for the members of Team ASTR is 'Leaders'.
 * Viola is based on Alexander the Great, relying on strategy and discipline to defeat opponents of greater strength and numbers. Her love of horses is also based on this. Her design and fighting style is inspired by the default female avatar in Fire Emblem: Awakening, who is also labelled as a tactician. The naming rule is fulfilled by her given name, Viola, which is French for Violet.
 * Kurome is based on Sarutobi Sasuke, the leader and most famous member of the Sanada Ten Braves. This can be seen from his use of Japanese weaponry and former occupation as an assassin in a group of the same name. He was initially a self-insert, but later developed into his own character with a more antagonistic role. The naming role is fulfilled by his given name, Kurome, which means Black Eyes in Japanese.
 * Leonidas is based on the Spartan king of the same name, and is heavily inspired by Spartan culture. This can be seen in his training, use of very light armour, mental fortitude and the importance placed on his cape and shield. His name uses colour twice, first Leonidas, Greek for 'son of the lion'. Second is Amaranth, which is a colour by itself. He also alludes to Gilgamesh, from the epic of Gilgamesh. This can be seen in his search for immortality, and his surname, which is Latin for one third. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is supposedly one third God.
 * Rosetta is based on Leizu, or Xi Lingshi, the Chinese Empress who is credited for discovering silk. This can be seen in her semblance, as well as her use of Chinese weaponry and martial arts. She fulfills the naming rule using her given name, which directly contains the word rose. The Rosetta stone is the stone tablet that allowed us to first read Egyptian Hieroglyphics, which is referenced by her highly social nature and her ability to obtain information from people.
 * The team's theme song is 'Catch Fire', by Jenix. In the same vein as Red Like Roses, the opening of the song is a reference to a team member. However, the lines are less a reference to the members themselves and more a reference of insecurities that they feel, with an overarching theme of time.
 * "Born in captivity, time's your worst enemy. Your face is getting older." The first part of the line refers to Kurome, and how he was raised in a Faunus village that discriminated against him, surrounded by Grimm that prevented his escape. The last two parts are about his partner Makoi, who remains unconscious even after a year, becoming progressively weaker as time passes and he ages.
 * "You try to keep your age, inside this golden cage. Your heart is getting colder." The first part of the line refers to Viola's fear of aging and becoming senile. The second part refers to the regret she feels for living such a pampered, privileged lifestyle, which left her physically weaker then the people around her. This is why she fears becoming senile, because she believes her intelligence is the only thing she can contribute to her team. The third part refers to her judgementality, and how she looks down on people despite her efforts not to, and the fear that she may hurt her friends because of this.
 * "Don't you feel, you're slowly dying. Day by day, they treat you like an animal." The first two parts are about Leonidas' fear of aging and dying, and the intense desire to discover immortality that stems from it. The way the line asks the question as opposed to making a statement refers to this fear stemming from others telling him that his time is limited, not from his own experience. The third and fourth parts are about his fear of Amaranth, where people are treated like animals in order to make them stronger.
 * "You've gotta fight, you've gotta start a riot. So let's wake up, you're a sleeping lion." This is the only line that doesn't directly refer to time, but it is delivered in a manner that implies Rosetta has to move with haste. The whole line refers to her former insecurities, as she is the only member to have overcome them before arriving at Beacon. Specifically, it references her timid nature and inability to stand up for herself despite the repeated abuse that nearly broke her, and the realization that she has potential as a fighter, giving her the confidence to overcome her abusers and take control of her life.
 * ASTR could have been Astrum or a number of similar words, but I have a bias towards French 'cause it's a sexy language with a sexy accent second only to British.

Author's Notes

 * Jeiku0719 owns Team ASTR. You would do well to remember that.
 * If or when I have real art, it will be owned by whoever drew it.