Takoizu Hargrove

"I don't live for myself. I live cause my team and family need me."

- Trace Hargrove

Appearance
Trace is a young male with slightly below average height and an average build. The top half of his outfit consists of a light green hoodie that he leaves unzipped and a green T-shirt. As for the lower half, he wears teal jeans with a yellow belt, along with ammo pouches on the sides of his waist.

Trace wears a violet cut-off on his right hand and his left hand is wrapped in boxing tape. However the cut-off on his right hand is more than just any glove. (See Weapons and Abillities section) On his face, Trace bears a pair of turquoise, transition glasses. His hair is turquoise, of medium length, and has a loose strand at the top. For footwear, Trace wears a pair of turquoise skater shoes. He has a fair complexion and brown eyes. However, when using his semblance, it has been noted that his right eye color changes to white.

Personality
Trace is sociable and very caring. He enjoys the company of others and is willing to help if he is needed. In fact, if needed, he is willing to sacrifice his own well-being to help others. If he indirectly causes something bad, Trace would take the blame for most of the conseqences. Although Trace is very willing to offer help, he is very reluctant to offers of help from others.

Trace's caring nature comes from the guilt of leaving his family for the sole reason of become a huntsman. After causing his sister to cry, he figured that his selfishness would only hurt others. He decided to change from that point on.

When it comes to the battlefield, Trace be comes extremely focused and bears a grin. He will try to take out his opponents as efficently as possible and will not rush in hasty actions. However, Trace struggles when he is facing 5 or more opponents.

Trace is very adept at making weapons and armor. Apart from his crafting skills, he does not do too well when it comes to academics. After recieving some help from Blythe Vigile, he has been doing better academically.

History
Trace comes from a loving family of four in Northern Cordillera. His family includes his father, mother, and little sister Emily. Trace has lived happily with his family for quite some time. However, a few days after his 13th birthday, Trace told his father about his dream of becoming a Huntsman. Trace's father disagreed with his decision, stating that it was "too dangerous" and because he wanted Trace to inherit the family weapon forge. Saying that he understood his father's decision, Trace snuck out of the house the following night. He planned to go to a dojo located on the far southern side of Cordillera to receive training.

After nearly a year of training at the dojo, Trace became very adept at the katana and longsword form. Though he had learned all his master had to teach, he had not learned enough to become a Huntsman. Trace's master sent him on a ship to Vale so that he could apply to Signal and learn more. Trace still had two weeks before Signal's school year would begin, so his master gave him some Lien to buy food. On his 2nd week in Vale, Trace ran into girl of his age who was being mugged in an allyway. After saving her life, she introduced herself to Trace. Her name was Blythe Vigile, she's 14 and an applicant of Signal. Since he was nearly out of Lien, Trace didn't really have a place to stay at that point. So he boldly asked Blythe if he could stay at her place. Blythe said yes, under the condition that he treats her to ice cream.

In the single week they spent together, Blythe and Trace became great friends. Trace learned that he was a unique person to Blythe by her mother. Her mother told him about Blythe's social tendencies: Blythe is only happy and carefree around people she's opened up to. On top of that, it usually takes her a few months to open up to someone, but it only took Blythe a day to open up to Trace. Knowing this, Trace promised to stay Blythe's friend no matter what. Though, Blythe's mother secretly hoped for more.

A little over two years later, Trace and Blythe were inseperable classmates. Mostly beacuse of the fact that they've sat next to each other in every class since the start of Signal. They were both in their 3rd semester. One day during that semester, something was confessed. The very thing confessed, was Blythe's love for Trace. It was the day Blythe's mother had secretly hoped for, but Trace did not fufill that role. He turned down Blythe, but they still kept their friendship status. But things wern't exactly the same afterwards.

Full story: Liberally Astray

Weapons and Abilities
Trace has a whole set of various equipment. From his primary weapon, to his custom-made armlet.

Weapon:
Sluice Fusilade - Longsword Assault Rifle: A short to long range killer. In gun form, the blade folds back and the stock at the bottom of the hilt unfolds. In addition, the weapon also has an adjustable short-long range optic as a part of the weapon's longsword handguard. The assault rifle form of the weapon shoots up to thirty 5.56 rounds in either semi-auto or full-auto firing speeds, (The weapon's magazine is located in its hilt) The melee form of the weapon is a typical one-two handed longsword. Sluce Fusilade's blade is turqoise and the handle is dark blue with an accent of yellow.

Sanative Ward - Armlet: An armet that Trace wears on his left forearm to protect him. It has a light green, stainless steel inner and outer layer with metal bar and foam ribbing inbetween. It is strong enough to protect from the sharpest blades and indirect strikes from some blunt weapons.

Along with Sanative Ward, Trace wears boxing tape on his left hand to protect his knuckles. On his right hand, Trace bears a inconspicuous hidden blade made out of a former wrist guard and a violet cut-off. He only uses this if he ever loses his weapon.

Ability:
Trace has above average endurance and fighting prowess. He also has an extensive knowledge of martial arts which makes up half of his combat style. However, Trace's Aura is below average. Though Trace's fighting style and Semblance helps prevent him from taking hits.

Trace has three distinctive fighting stances. Defensive, Offensive, and All-around.

The Defensive stance starts out with Trace turning towards his left side, positioning his left arm to defend with Sanative Ward. This stance allows Trace to find openings and counter-attack if his opponent is too fast. The Defensive stance is only used if Trace is sure that the enemy will score the first hit and/or if the enemy is fast.

The Offensive stance starts out with Trace turning to his right side, readying his right arm to attack with Sluice Fusilade. This stance allows Trace to gain the upperhand if he cannot defend against attacks but dodge them. This stance is used if Trace is sure that he can score the first strike and/or if the enemy is slow but powerful.

The All-around stance starts off with Trace gripping both of his hands on Sluice Fusilade and him facing forward. This stance is used if Trace can't determine whether or not his opponent will attack first or if he will. If the enemy attacks first, Trace will dodge or move his left arm slightly to block with Sanative Ward. If Trace sees an opening, he will strike first with Sluice Fusilade.

Trace's Semblance is Dilatory Insight. When Trace closes his left eye, a small glyph appears under him. This glyph slows down his perception of time so that everything (including himself) appears to be moving in slow-motion. His Semblance can only be used for 5 seconds at time. During those 5 seconds, Trace can choose to deactivate his Semblance by opening his left eye. He must wait 4 seconds for every second he spends in Dilatory Insight. Trace uses his Semblance mainly when shooting to improve his accuracy or to see oncoming attacks during fast-paced melee combat.

Overall (ACES):
My characters' effectiveness in battle are judged by a system called "The ACES of Hunting". A stands for Aura, C stands for Combat, E stands for Endurance, and S stands for Speed. All of which are measured by 10 points, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. For more information, check this page: http://rwby.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Devenn.eng/RWBY_Game_idea

Aura:  4/10

Trace's Aura is below-average. He can take a few less hits than most people, so he has to be more careful in combat to make up for his below-average Aura.

 Combat:  9/10

Trace is very exeptional in combat. He excells in both ranged and melee combat. He very accurate with most firearms and excells in Kenjutsu. In fact, Trace has created 3 seperate stances to better suit his fighting style. In addition to that, Trace also mixes Karate into his fighting style. Defensively, Trace can easily dodge, parry, and block most attacks, which makes up for his below-average Aura.

 Endurance:  7/10

Trace has an above-average amount of stamina. He can last up to 42 minutes in non-stop combat before starting to tire.

 Speed:  7/10

Trace can run faster than a majority of the crowd, as well as outmaneuver them. Even still, he is not the fastest. He can still be ovewhelmed by opponents of his speed or greater.

 Total:  6.75/10

Relationships

 * Blythe Vigile is Trace's best friend. Although she does have romantic feelings for him, Trace respects these feelings and continues to be her friend. Trace feels as if Blythe is another part of him because she is the cause of most of his happiness. They have a past that wasn't really noteworthy: she was the shy girl that sat behind him in their 5th grade class, she never talked to him and he didn't either. Though, that was when Blythe developed her feelings for Trace.
 * Trace goes out of his way to comfort Erhardte Rache whenever he feels sad. Erhardte's past also serves as a constant reminder to Trace that some people's past are far worse than yours.
 * Trace serves a corrector if Waleria Dawber steps out of line with making fun of someone. He also holds suspicion about Waleria's origins, though he keeps away if he finds himself drawing too close.

Misc

 * Trace adores combat, this is shown by the grin he makes during battle.
 * Trace may or may not be in love Blythe.

Trivia

 * Trace's personality is based off of a tweaked version of my care for others.
 * The Sanative part of Sanative Ward came from the idea that plant (green) plus water (blue) equals growth. (Turqoise)
 * Sluice Fusilade was based off a Nerf longsword.
 * Dilatory Insight came from Bloodrayne 2's Dilated Perception.
 * Trace's color Turqoise comes from his name starting with T, which Turqoise also starts with.