Teal Rivers

Teal Rivers is a first year student of the university of beacon. While at first glance, she may look rather harmless, if challenged it takes little time for her to show there is a reason she was accepted in a renowned academy for  fighters...

Generalities
Name : Teal Rivers

Age : 17

Height : 1.60m (roughly 5.25 ft)

Sex : F

Eyes : Teal

Hair : Auburn

Build : thin

Appearance
Teal is far from tall, and rather frail-looking. This, combined with her short, often messy auburn hair, makes her look rather chilsh, an impression reinforced by what she chooses to wear : the girl prefers a simple and comfortable style. Sneakers and jeans do not make you look mature, and her trademark black hoodie isn't exactly speaking in her favor either. But then, where does that scar on the base of her neck come from? What is the use of that massive belt she wears? And why is it that when she stares into people's eyes they have the impression of being deciphered and read through?

Personality
While as mentioned she does tend to be overlooked as silly and childish, anyone that manages to have an extensive conversation with her can see from the way she speaks that she is smart : her choice of words is accurate and expressive, and while she does not try to show off, it's in snide side remarks and little mentions that some realize how observant she is. She is also known to able to think fast on her feet, and make up efficient plans on the spot.

On first contact, Teal is the very definition of wary : while she does give people a chance to bond, she'll start by looking, not speaking. That however may be explained by a simple fact : she is beyond awkward socially, especially with people she does not know well, and fears shaming herself. If pushed to talk, she's likely to stutter and hesitate. She also direly lacks in self-confidence, even in battle : while she'll truly shine in a group, in solo she stays as competent but will tend to doubt, overthink and second guess herself...that is, until you anger her.

This is because she is the kind of person who stays cool, even under pressure. Meaning if you manage to get on the wrong side of her, you won't get her mad and incoherent. You'll give her a drive, that she most likely will use to curbstomp you. Hard.

Overall, she tends to try and avoid showing her personal turmoils in order not to worry her friends. And she's good at keeping the façade, to the point only Aurum, who've been her friend for many years, manages to see it before it gets really bad. 'I'm gonna collapse right now if you'll excuse me' bad.

That set aside, she tends to have a hard time making friends, but will keep them through sheer loyalty. Those that know her can testify that she cares, both through subtle things and sometimes truely impressive actions. In short, having her as a friend causes you to have 'mysterious apparitions ' of things you like, just-as-mysterious non-apparition of things you hate, and one hell of an ally in times of dire needs.

Injustice is a big way of triggering her. Most notably, she used to be a bully hunter when she was younger. She does it less since the time she threw the first punch against someone much taller than her. Who happened to have a massive posse. However, if she has to interfere physically,she'll strike hard, though not preemptively. For the records, she got pitted against a certain jock twice. The first time, she interefered in a case of faunus bullying, and simply shoved him off. The second time, he actually tried to get 'revenge' on her, thinking someone so small would be an easy target...She hosted a brawl, Cardin's Back vs The Wall. The wall won, by the way. Afterwards, strangely enough, he left her alone.

While far from a party animal, she does love having friends and hanging out with them. Overall, she is kind, curious, patient, awkward, willing to learn, tolerant,overprotective and tends to quote too much. She loves animal, deeply respect the faunus and hates the White fang for discrediting their former cause so badly.

Teal has a few talents she's proud of : in terms of music, she can play the bass well and sing, she draws well...However, if she proposes to cook you something, run! Or rather, do not, for she's conscient of her own limits and only jokingly talks about cooking anything.Since the boiler incident 3 years ago, she is forbidden from getting close to any kind of pasta, and Aurum enforces this policy strictly. On the other hand, if she offers you a beverage, accept. Some joke that if she had failed to enter Beacon, she could easily have become a bartender!

She also enjoys reading, playing chess and checkers, roleplaying, and a few video games, mostly RPGs.

Her voice is not as one would expect : she sings like a slightly higher-pitched than average mezzo-soprano, and when speaking she tends to have a calm and serene voice, when she isn't forced to talk in front of an audience. With this, her patience and poetic yet analytical tendancies, she makes a rather great storyteller though for obvious reasons she avoids doing it for people other than her close friends.

About fighting
Teal River's weapon is named Immortal reach. Just like any student from Signal academy, she had to design it herself, though she did ask her father for a few advices. Immortal reach is a bastard sword with a hollow and massive hilt containing a thin but sturdy chain and a small dust-powered motor. The motor can be used to propel the blade in a straight line, using the whole thing as a hookshot. The blade itself can curve itself and take the shape of a boomerang, allowing to stick itself in an angle if one desires to get a grip on a target that is too tough for the blade to penetrate. Once the chain is deployed, Teal is rather adept at using it like a morgenstern, to hit enemies at a medium range. It is also possible to simply bind the target with the chain, either to immobilize it or get it to melee range.

As a matter of fact, Teal only has limited skill when it comes to using Immortal reach in its blade form, although one of her teammates is currently mentoring her. It will take at least a year before she can use it well. For the records, he reason why she made it a blade at the time was that she planned to learn actual swordplay. The circumstances changed dramatically, and in the end that sword is actually linked to a really bad memory, which is why she did not search for another teacher for a rather long time.

That does not, however, mean that she is defenseless when it comes to melee combat, for the girl is quite competent in unarmed fighting. She fights using a blend of different styles, from basic punches and kicks to projections and elaborate holds. While her style may be rather defensive, favoring the incapacitation of her enemy, she does not hesitate to use aura to reinforce her fists, allowing her to pack a surprising amount of punch.

Finally, while she is no Glynda Goodwitch, Teal is also skilled in Aura and Dust manipulation. Her belt, aside from holding Immortal Reach's scabbard, also serves her to stock Dust, a few crystals sealed in a hard case. However, she tends to avoid using it too much, as Dust is far from cheap, and her family, while not poor, isn't really rich either.

Teal's Semblance is Grand Phantasm. Grand phantasm summons a huge, humanlike, semi-autonomous shadow that absorbs attacks aiming for Teal and her teammates in a range of 3 to 3 meters as long as it is summoned. However, the Semblance has the disadvantage of costing a lot of energy, to the point that keeping it active for more than a few dozens of seconds is exhausting.

Overall, be it with a weapon or not, Teal has a style that favors speed over attack. She moves fast, strikes fast, thinks fast, and is hard to hit. Her variety of moves makes her unpredictable, she knows it and gleefully uses and abuses of it. However, she does not take hits well at all. Blocking her in a corner is the safest way to victory. Fighter's verdict :

Speed 8/10

Accuracy 7/10

Creativity 8/10

Dodge 7/10

Range 5/10

Weapon attack 5/10*

Unarmed attack 7/10*

Agressivity 4/10 // 8/10**

Dust manipulation 6/10

Aura manipulation 7/10

Defense 3/10

Endurance : 6/10

Semblance power 7/10

Semblance cost 3/10


 * Please do note that these two are not on the same scale. As such, having 8/10 in unarmed attack and 2/10 in weapon attack does NOT mean that you deal more damage with your fists


 * Depending if she has been provoked badly or not. This is the only ranking that isn't actually a note, simply a gradation : 1 means extremely passive, 10 means 'I'm gonna rip your guts and feeding them to your children'. Then again, being too pissed is not always a good thing.

Backstory
"Let's go straight to the point...My early childhood was not a happy one. And this may be related to the fact that I lost everyone I knew when I was six. Can you imagine how hard it is, to go out for a day, and come back to find your home torched? I couldn't. To me, it just didn't make sense. So I ran, and for each step I took my mind closed itself to the world more and more as i went through the streets, in complete denial.

Oh, it didn't take too long for me to get caught, for sure. I was handed to the social services, and sent into a foster family. But what could a family do with someone like me? They looked into my eyes, tried to talk to me. But I wouldn't answer, ever. Some thought I was mute, others that I was simply too stupid to speak. And let's just say that even attempting  physical contact gave even worse results. The same thing happened, again and again : people received a kid to take care of. A kid that wouldn't communicate, that didn't let them get close, and even refused to eat. For days, she'd stay in the same spot, unmoving. Then she fled.

And so, time passed. The cycle repeated itself. Families gave up one after the other, realizing there was nothing they could do. Sometimes, when I was found I was litterally starving...Slowly, I became more and more antisocial, became more and more feral. As the problems in me became more and more obvious, I was given to harsher and colder families, probably to 'straighten me out'.In my final 'home', the people were actually abusive. Some of them hoped it'd make me react. The others, I just don't know. And so, I ran away for the last time and ended up in a dark alley near where my family used to live, years ago.

The place was supposed to be my den. I only got caught once i got desesperate enough to get out...Until that one time, when a man entered in my domain. Well not a man in the strict meaning of the word, actually. He was a faunus.How did I know back then? Well, human don't usually grow antlers...Anyhow, I saw him come, so I hid in a dark corner and hoped for the best. And then he looked straight into my eyes, and walked towards me.

At that point, as he grew closer and closer to me, I did the only think I could think of, as worn out and desesperately hungry as i was. I hissed at him. Like a cat! Must've been a rather pathetic sight.He smiled kindly at me, and without a word he picked me up. It was easy, I was so light back then...And I ended up tuckered in his arms. For some reason, I didn't feel the fear I usually lived through whenever physical contact would happen.On the contrary, the man's presence seemed oddly reassuring. Then I noticed he was slowly walking away. I mewled pathetically, and tried to reach out for that place...

"They're gone, little one. They've been for years. It's time to let them go."

At that moment, something broke in me, as if I had waited years for this to be said. And for the first time in years, I cried. I'm not usually open about...my emotions, but the pain had been stored for ages.So just once,I cried myself to sleep. And I woke up as the one carrying me was about to enter the social service's headquarters.

"Please...Not there..."

Those were the first words I said in 3 years.

"Then what? You can't just go back to roaming the city, especially not in your state. What else can we-"

And then he stopped talking, because the grip I had on his arm spoke by itself.He sighed.

"This is gonna cause so many arguments..."

The rest of that day is pretty blurry in my mind...I remember he took me to his home, and there was a short debate with his wife about what to do next. At the end of the day, after much paperwork, everything was set. It so happened that my files in the database had been 'mysteriously lost'. And even I forgot my name. So I became Teal, named after the color of my eyes. Teal Rivers, adoptive daughter of the faunus Janus and Sia Rivers.

It's ironic. People tend to describe them as monsters, or freaks, or worse...While many of my wondrous species just gave up, two of these 'freaks' picked up a lost and mentally scarred girl and took care of her, slowly mending her mind.

It took several months before I was able to stand in public without panicking. Barely less before I could speak up normally, without stuttering and with a decent vocabulary. Yet, they just kept going on. Smiling, caring and pushing me forward so that I could grow. I started homeschooled, with my mother as my main teacher and others taking her place when she was off working. Once I got into school, as a loner I tended to be bullied, so my father took on himself to teach me to fight back...He said he'd gladly crack a few ribs right now, but that he wouldn't always be able to protect me. So I learned. And through his formation I undestood a bit what being a huntsman was about, and that it was what I wanted to do. To put it simply : I was given a lot, so I intend on giving back."

Teal Rivers,talking about her past

Relations
Janus and Sia Rivers: both are her parents, and she loves them deeply, as well as tends to idolize them a little. She truely hopes to be able to reach their level of strength, both physical and mental.

Aurum Virens: Aurum is Teal's oldest and truest friend since years ago when she returned to the normal school system. She started acting as a protective and caring but aloof big sister, which caused them to bicker a lot in the past, but have since long realized each other's worth. They went through Signal together and fought side by side so often they lost count a long time ago.Aurum is currently the only one able to see when her chum is down. She also somehow manages to know exactly the right words to cheer her up. A bond of deep trust unites them, and the expression 'fire-forged friends' seems to have been tailor-made for them.

Liberty Johnes: In the first trial, Teal's first thought was to look for her friend, get her as a teammate. Instead, not long after landing, she met him. While a bit saddened at first, she decided to play by the rules and that it would be only fair to give him his chance. And she felt she did the right choice in their first skirmish, when the duo took down a rather imposing Grimm fast and with little trouble. After realizing she couldn't use the sword form of her weapon decently, he took on himself to teach her swordplay. Lately, their bond seems to become a bit awkward, oddly enough...

Emerald Voldersson : Aurum's partner, Emerald, is an emigrant from Mistral. Due to his rather different culture, he is the one about whom Teal was the most curious at first. While the two others are quite smart in their own right, she found in him a fascinating interlocutor. These two constantly try to outsnark and outwit each other, and yet love nothing more than a calm debate while sitting in comfy chair late in the evening. She admires his confidence, though sometimes worries about his boldness.

Team RWBY : Teal admires them, but never dared to go talk to them, judging them to be 'too cool for her', from her own words.