Ares Yu

 

Ares Yu is the CEO of military conglomerate Kronos Defense Systems, Ltd., formerly a soldier in the Atlas Armed Forces (the military) and currently a member of the Pantheon.

Appearance
Ares is a tall, handsome and well-built, slim but muscular man with a "golden brown" complexion, and greased-up hair. He wears a nice suit, with two belts holding his trousers together, along with a nice long duster coat. When he needs to attend social parties or public appearances, he slips a sheet of armor plating underneath his suit, and for more hands-on work, he wears his armor above his suit. He also has a pair of large, square shaped glasses (or aviators), that are made of bulletproof glass and can withstand significant damage. These pieces of eyewear have been engineered to record video, take photos, and even have multiple modes of seeing through objects, not to mention feed information about what was around him, and storing the gathered data.

Depending on his choice, he either stylizes his attire and hair in a crimson red or jade green color. He also wears contacts to match, and has large, square-shaped rings on his fingers.

Personality
At first glance, he appears to be a polarizing individual that's equal parts charismatic, and equal parts of an brash, offensive asshole. He loves bragging about his wealth and his greatness, and frequently insults and "roasts" other people, regardless of class or occupation - poor, middle, and the rich are all targets, whenever he gets the chance, once these individuals commit acts monumentally stupid/outrageous. He conveys his somewhat complex ideas and philosophies in a more simplified, colloquial way of speech - along with plenty of wit and sarcasm, unless he runs across smarter audiences, so in those situations he uses an overtly intellectual, excessively formal, pseudo-professional tone.

One of the main virtues he emphasizes is the act of determination. He exudes it in public and expects the same from others. Determination to him, is not restricted to sheer force of will, or by ideology and morals, but the determination to do what it takes to win and succeed in life.

His offensive arrogance and colloquial means of communication conceal a cunning mind.

He is also willing to learn in order to improve his position. His philosophy is a rather interesting form of Social Darwinism in which he believes that the "strong" may include everyone, man or woman, rich or poor, Human or Faunus, so long as they provide their meaningful talents to the world and are willing to improve themselves, no matter how life treats them unfairly, or how bad their position is. He states that one could still succeed even if they fail to achieve their ultimate goals because of the tremendous amount of effort that is put in, which would grant the individual many smaller successes.

The only people who he deems "weak" are those who do nothing but cry about how unfair the world has treated them and make no effort to improve themselves. And those who were born "coddled" into society thinking that they are special without working hard for it. He also hates self-righteousness to a Tee.

That being said, he is also well versed in economic theory, and has quite a realistic view on the world and people around him, having viewed many situations from an outsider's perspective.

Deep down, however, his persona hides the vulnerabilities of a shell-shocked veteran that saw firsthand the consequences of war and what it entails. The problem is also seeing the desperation and complacency of people that he feels can only be solved by war and its misery. Thus, he is perpetually trapped by the moral, practical, and emotional choices he is forced to make everyday, creating an emotionally dependent man whose sanity is constantly called into question.

Background
Ares was a survivor of a village in Anima that was attacked by Grimm, as a young boy. He was forced to flee to safety all the way to Solitas, where he then began his military career as a soldier. What set him apart from all the other cadets was a heightened sense of determination in his work, fueled by his rage, sorrow, and the intent to never let the tragedy of his village repeat itself ever again. This willpower allowed him to rise above everyone else, be they combat skills, or an understanding of tactics and global politics, even if he struggled the first time.

After having served a few tours of duty, the seasoned, shell-shocked veteran saw how Mantle became increasingly desperate, as the rest of the continent saw Atlas as the most important landmass on the continent. He pleaded and begged the leaders to try and do something, but they fell on deaf ears. This also applied to a handful of villages as well, which triggered his sorrow, rage, and frustration as he had relived his memories once more. This led him to lose hope in his beliefs and become entwined in the special operative program, being sent to monitor Mistral out of falling for the propagandist belief that only Atlas was allowed to save the world because of Ironwood's sense of condescension and the nation's militaristic might.

In one village, however, he witnessed a young, impoverished boy create an innovative device made out of metal scraps. Inspired by his talent and determination, and having enough of Remnant's complacency, he regained his resolve. The nihilistic soldier was now dead and gone, replaced by the brash young man filled with arrogance and bravado, maybe insanity.

He first decided to switch to smuggling, and then arms dealing in Mistral's black market for his new career, emerging with the nickname "Merchant of Death," among other things. This allowed him to develop an expertise in the arms industry, along with a steady flow of connections. He then created his own company, Kronos Defense Systems, Inc., which proceeded to gain influence and attention in the arms industry. Using said connections and expertise, Kronos then bought several smaller companies as subsidiaries, and worked together with several other companies not only to establish a united front in the "war economy," but to also form an alliance called the Pantheon Conglomerate, which not only sought to gain more of a standing in Remnant's economy, but as a way to combat the Schnee's reaches of influence in society.

Having succeeded time and time again, Ares now has to deal with the ghosts of his past, along with the choices in the present. Regardless, he plans on accomplishing one goal: improving Remnant's progress by eliminating complacency through perpetual warfare. By traumatizing enough people for long periods of time, he aims to show countless people how the real world operates, and to inspire leaders and decision-makers in every single individual to take action, so that they become hardened, cynical, wiser, and determined not to rest on their laurels forever.

The question is a matter of when and how...

Combat
Ares is a fast, strong, and tough soldier, thanks to immense training throughout his soldier years. He also has decent precision with firearms, and has studied a variety of martial arts. However, given that he hasn't resumed a lot of intense activity (barring the occasional fight) since leaving the military, he may be a little rusty, and might need some time to get back in the right mojo, and to warm up - assuming he gets the chance to. The stress of running a company (an arms company with multiple partners and subsidiaries going against the Schnee Juggernaut and its allies, no less), along with the PR with dealing with the occasional scandal on his part, play a factor in holding back his maximum combat potential, despite his tremendous power. That, and the PTSD flashback every now and then, which could cost him in the heat of the moment, especially if needed to secure a victory, or to make sure he wouldn't lose.

The reason as to why he hasn't dominated more fights is due to his tendency to prefer heavy weaponry - he likens it to lifting weights, and building muscle to make himself stronger. Thus, he is slower, while his body is adapting.

Modular Arms Rifle Scabbard

As Ares' set of weapons, these take the form of a versatile customizable kit built for specific situations upon a common chassis. This chassis takes the form of two sturdy pistol batons.

The kit includes two sets of transforming scabbards, with the melee handles locking around the butt of the pistols, with the pistol grips becoming improvised hand guards. Each scabbard comes with a built in electromagnetic field generator, and can convert the pistols' ranged form into longer-range, high-caliber weapons. In order to maximize the greatest use of the set, the scabbards must be connected to the pistol chassis.

The first turns the pistols into light sword-rifles firing 6.8 x 30 mm rounds. Ares uses them for close-medium range suppression, and as a means of closing the distance or keeping the enemy down while he's moving - he will not engage targets farther away trying to play the designated marksman. The light weight of the swords allow him speed, in exchange for an option for defense (they're not ideal for blocking due to low surface area), while the sword shape offers him versatility. An option to switch the sword blade for an ax head also exists too.

The second turns the pistols into heavy sword-rifles firing .30-06 rounds. Ares uses them for medium-long range engagements, and as a means to create some distance when necessary - he will not engage targets closer in trying to gun them down at extreme close ranges for the obvious reason of potential disarmament and being out-maneuvered by faster foes. Even when using the cleaver-like blades, he intends to keep faster opponents away with wide sweeps, or counter slower, but stronger foes in feats of strength. The large surface area of the scabbard also makes it ideal for blocking, and the large models comes with built-in Dust Discharge Systems that absorbs all kinds of Dust attacks (that have only Dust in their composition). And when he needs to land a finishing blow on weakened opponents (especially if they're faster), he will try to use this scabbard.

Trivia

 * Ares is the original Greek name, for Mars, the Roman god of war. Therefore, his name implies red colors as being the god of war involves the crimson liquid known as blood. Mars is also a red-colored planet.


 * His surname, Yu, means Jade in Chinese.


 * He is based off of the character Erlang Shen (Illustrious Sage) from Journey to the West (later called the Jade Warlord in the 2008 movie The Forbidden Kingdom). This character is a rival of the novel's Sun Wukong, and is the basis for his name (Ares is a warmonger, being the god of war, and his surname is Chinese for Jade). The fact that he is also a Chinese deity adds more meaning to this.
 * When I conceived the all-seeing high-tech shades, I never thought they would be coincidental with the third eye the god has. But once I found out, I decided to incorporate it into the mythos.
 * The M.A.R.S. weapon is based off of the Schwartz Ritter swords/jetpack, along with the plasma cannons and heat blades from Metal Gear Excelsus. The quinque cleaver Kura from Tokyo Ghoul also served as an inspiration, while the name is also an allusion to Mars, the Roman God of War.
 * His Semblance is based off of the Susano'o (pronounced Susanowo) ability from Naruto.


 * He also shares some similarities with American CEOs on Wall Street, and his vitriol is coincidentally similar to Kevin O' Leary from Shark Tank. Justin Hammer and Tony Stark from the MCU serve as inspirations for his personality and technical expertise, along with Senator Steven Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for his philosophy. His polarization within his world brings to mind a certain celebrity businessman-turned head of state.
 * Despite being developed independently of the Krogans of Mass Effect and Akande "Doomfist" Ogundimu from Overwatch, his philosophy bears similar coincidental resemblance to them.


 * His partial appearance partially references the protagonist (and the US President) of the Saints Row video game franchise.