Slate Herman

"'I'm not sitting 'round waiting for someone to do my dirty work. It's smokey.' - One of Slate's worse puns."Slate Herman, known by his friends as Big Smoke and by his team Cigar, is the fourth and final member of Team TRQS. He wields a giant sniper rifle/battering ram hybrid appropriately named Warhead, and serves as TRQS's muscle.

General Appearance
Slate is a tanned, well-built young man. He's fairly average, with an emphasis on fairly, yet he stands out enough for someone to pick him out of a crowd, just follow the yellow gas. Slate often wears his hair messy, and without any form of fixing, much to the dismay of someone like Quinacridone, who prefers symmetry over fashion expression. While he is not old, his hair has shown signs of graying, and many people often joke about how old he is, which usually gets them a light gassing.

Huntsman Attire ("Toxic")
Slate's Huntsman Attire seems to have an orientation to his semblance usage, rather than actual defenses, despite the fact Semblances are fueled by someone's Aura, which would mean he is most vulnerable after an extremely large gas cloud

To begin, the Toxic outfit is outfitted with a Hungarian 76M mask with a one-way design, adapted to filter out his toxic semblance from the air preventing aura drain from his own semblance, though he will still sustain it if the filter is cracked or otherwise damaged. A more simpler explanation is that gas can flow out, but it cannot flow back in. Air can flow in and out as it pleases.

Strapped around Slate's chest are spare ammo magazines for his weapon, chambered in .50 caliber. He also wears fingerless gloves and military pants, but other than his mask there isn't anything really "Special" per se about his outfit. Emergency repair kits (Which usually comprise of duct tape, gears and springs) are present on his left hip.

Slate caries spare filters on his person in a pouch, each filter lasting around 15 minutes. He usually carries up to 5, which allows him to not choke on his own gas for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

School Attire
Slate wears the standard male Beacon Academy uniform, but instead of the pants being ankle length, they've been cut to end halfway through his shin.

At the back of his head is an SF10 Gas Mask, in case he has to fight. Sometimes he wears it on the side of his head, or he keeps it on his face the entire day.

Nightwear
Slate could care less about a changing clothes during normal sleeping hours, so his nightwear is pretty much the first thing he happens to grab. Sometimes, this ends in a humorous outfit, and other times it ends in him sleeping in his huntsman attire.

Voice
Rather loud, Slate's inside voice is equal to a regular person's outside voice. Jokes aside, Slate has a smooth gravelly voice with a slight British accent to it. The accent only becomes very noticeable when he is using British slang, though the chances of this happening are rare, due to the fact it "Sounds like I'm a beer-swilling, cockney accented, speech impended drongo with a chopstick up the nose.".

Personality
"'Quit being a jerk, Slate.' - Carmine, giving a not too far off summary of Slate's personality"Slate would be the kind of person to stab someone in the gut to teach them how to deal with wounds. A slightly misanthropic and brutally honest person with an extra seasoning of careless, one would find themselves offset, if not outright disgusted, by his complete lack of regard for civilians, sort of appropriate for someone whose semblance can choke others into submission (Not to mention explode if ignited). He's also rather stupid, mostly solving things with his weapon or with a punch.

If Temno is the strict dad, then Slate is the loser hobo uncle of the group. Sometimes, for the heck of it, he tries to do ridiculous things the end up drawing attention to himself, making him the very advocate of annoying. However, once he starts annoying you, it's hard not to love him. Being the only 2 out of TRQS to have bright and positive attitudes (Though with slight variations), Slate prides himself on wiping away the dark impression of Temno's military focus and Carmine's chronic "I will kill you" attitude. He's arguably the most amiable for most people, since Quinacridone can come off as a bit too cheery for one's taste.

As a hunter, he says that he "Became one because it's fun to use a weapon", a line that's scarily appropriate for him due to his origins in Vacuo, a practically lawless kingdom in Remnant. He's the only one to be a Hunter out of fun, rather than due to a lifelong dream (Carmine) or interests (Temnosiniy).

Slate tends to fail most of the spontaneous duels his leader throws at him, as instead of using proper attacks like he expects, he just gasses his opponents until they say uncle. What's the point in using hands if Aura is already a deadly tool?

However, just because Slate is carefree and snarky, it doesn't mean he gets his moments of the spotlight. Slate, despite being amiable in nature, lacks friends because of his unhesitant will to gas someone if they make a move, though this will to gas usually has some petty origins. Steal his food, you choke. Steal his ammunition, you get gassed into unconsciousness. Take his French Fries, and you'll be gassier than someone after Mexican food.

Slate seems to be a really, really, really bad partner in general. From his high collateral damage semblance, to his laziness, to his incessant need to yell and fire his .50 caliber rifle, it's a wonder Slate and Quinacridone are even FRIENDS, let alone allies.

Weapon
Slate's choice of weapon is a massive, 35 pound, arctic warfare inspired High Caliber Marksman Gun (HCMG) named, appropriately, Warhead. It is a rather large weapon, with a bipod attached to the barrel, and while it was originally designed to fire rounds of .50 caliber, it is capable of shooting lighter rounds if on the move, such as 7.62x57mm. It draws slight inspiration from the Arctic Warfare rifles and the bolt-action M200 rifles, explaining why it's barrel is as long as Slate's arm, and is immensely heavy when configured into sniper mode.

In Marksman Mode, the stock and barrel retract into the gun, and the weapon is loaded with a box magazine with a 25 round capacity. In this state, it fires rounds at a high enough velocity to punch right through Titanium with one shot, but it's low cyclic rate counteracts it's extreme stopping power. In Sniper mode, the 25 round box mag is changed for a 7 round .50 caliber magazine. The barrel extends and the bipod is available, allowing Slate to conquer opponents from long distances. The nature of the .50 caliber, combined with the fire dust in it's tip, mean it is capable of destroying someone's aura with 3 shots. As a consequence, the heavy recoil and thusly recovery time make it hard to fire 3 shots in succession without horribly missing the second and third ones.

The Battering Ram mode is simply pushing the pistol grip and trigger into the gun, pushing the stock forward, and dragging out two large handles on top of the gun. Blades fold out, indicating impending stabbing. The gun fires by a button mechanism, and fires at a rate of 120 RPM, with an ok cyclic rate. The ammo used is of slightly less power compared to Marksman Mode and Sniper Mode, but hits like a train. His favorite method of using Battering Ram mode is to stab someone in the chest, lift them up, and shoot them, punching into the aura before whacking them onto the ground, which can result in some broken bones if the Aura is penetrated, thusly removed, on the final shot.

Warhead's spare rounds are located on Slate's chest. The lesser rounds are on his hips.

Semblance
Slate Herman's Semblance is described to be an agent of death, and incorrectly dubbed "Knockout", "Cigarette", and "Fog". A more correct dubbing of Slate's semblance could be "Toxic", "Drain", or "World War One".

The semblance functions by a mix of metabolic gasses and Aura. Slate uses his Aura to stimulate digestive function and fermentation of food, rapidly causing metabolic gasses to form in his stomach. Encouraged to release this gas, the body expels it, but due to it's unnatural nature it does not dissipate quickly, forming a large patch of toxins that congregate in the air. The Semblance's signature sound tends to be a deep, guttural inhale and a loud, breathy exhale.

Because of the usage of aura, Slate looses his aura when he uses it... but twice as fast if he has his mask off. Due to him accidentally breathing in some of the gas when he fires it, he suffers higher aura loss than his targets, and has attempted to amp up his reserves so he can make more liberal use of it, which so far has worked. As it is a metabolic gas, Slate is capable of igniting and blowing up the fog with either fire dust, a lighter, muzzle flash, or sparks made from weapons clashing against anything. This allows him to be a reliable crowd controller, as it can prevent people from using their weapons temporarily, limiting them to shooting through it or blowing it away with a wind-based semblance. It causes significant Aura drain if targets stay inside it for too long, and prolonged exposure can cause rapid coughing, lung damage, asphyxiation, and death, though they'd have to be in the gas for a very long time, and Slate needs to resupply it, for the smoke dissipates after 5 seconds. It would take someone 2 minutes of gas exposure to die from it, but the symptoms start after 15 seconds.

It apparently smells like dried skunk dung mixed with a heaping helping of bog water.

Quotes

 * "Hold your breath."
 * "What's your poison?"
 * "Ta-tada, We're dead."

Trivia

 * Slate is Chaotic Neutral, due to how he tends to go overboard concerning his semblance.
 * Many of Slate's design draws a few references from popular video games and media. Some even make nods to the canon RWBY.
 * Slate's Mask's serial code, 999-674-545, is the famous Big Smoke order from GTA.
 * "I'll have two number 9's (99), a number 9 Large (9), a Number 6 with extra dip (6), a number 7 (7), two Number 45's (4545), one with cheese and a large soda."
 * Slate's favorite number is 42, which is the meaning of life according to the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
 * Warhead, Slate's weapon, has a theme if it is mounted and in use. It is revealed to be Kalinka, a Russian folk song, and is a reference to the Rainbow Six operator Tachanka's Unlock Video.
 * Slate's preferred drink is a Strawberry Sunrise, with ice and a lemon garnish. This is a reference to the Canon's Yang Xiao Long, who, during the "Yellow" Trailer orders a Strawberry Sunrise, no ice, and a little umbrella.
 * Slate's gasses have a somewhat inconsistent color with every appearance. Sometimes it's red, other times it's yellow, maybe gray.
 * Bizarrely, one of Slate's inspirations isn't Caustic from Apex Legends. Rather, Slate was inspired by the use of chemical warfare in WWI. Starting with the semblance, Slate was built around his ability.