Astrus Topazius

Astrus Topazius, is a first year student at Beacon Academy and is the leader of Team AGTE.

Appearance
Astrus is a very fit young man, as shown by his fairly rugged, muscular appearance. He has fair skin and rather sharp features, with light stubble around his chin and cheeks. Some of Astrus' peers have told him that he looks much older than 17, though he disagrees. He often sports a white bandanna with a yellow print of his emblem.

Astrus wears a sleeveless yellow zipper vest with a golden finish over a black shirt, which has a long left sleeve but no right sleeve. This is because when storing his weapon, Fousipée, the whip's lash is wrapped around his right arm. Despite the unusual storage method, Astrus claims that it make the weapon much easier to access and put away as opposed to having to roll the lash up. He wears a pair of black jeans with an extra pocket on each of his thighs, used for storing ammunition. Astrus wears golden shin and knee guards on top of his trousers, as well as a pair of black combat boots.

Semblance
Astrus’ semblance is called Deaf Zone. It allows him to create a field of silence around him, roughly 4 metres in diameter. When the semblance is in effect, anyone caught within the field is rendered unable to hear or produce any sound whatsoever, including himself. As a result, anything within the field cannot be heard by the outside. Deaf Zone effectively acts like a drain, producing an area of total silence around Astrus. When the semblance is activated, a glyph covering the area of effect appears on the ground beneath Astrus’ feet. It is worth noting that the Deaf Zone moves with Astrus, and so is as mobile as he is.

Although activating Deaf Zone is not particularly draining on Astrus, the more sound that is cancelled out from within the Deaf Zone will take its toll. For example, a silenced explosion could leave Astrus fatigued for several minutes. However, this also means that, with minimal sound output, Deaf Zone could be activated for extended periods of time with little effect on Astrus’ well-being.

Weapons
Astrus' weapon is the Fousipée, a Bullwhip-Estoc Dust Rifle (BEDR). Its main form is the bullwhip form, which consists of a tightly braided, black paracord lash, roughly 4.5m in length that thins towards the tip. The handle itself is black as well, but with a golden finish. This form of the weapon is normally used for keeping Astrus' opponents at a distance, primarily used to inflict plain rather than damage opponents. It can also be used to ensnare opponents and pull them towards Astrus, or throw them away. The end of the whip can be coated with dust for extra effect upon impact.

The weapon's second form is that of a sword, designed in a similar fashion to the French estoc. When activated, a latch underneath the 12 inch handle opens from which the blade extends telescopically. From the handle protrudes a crossguard, which comes out from the top of the handle underneath the blade. Approximately 92cm in length and having no edges, the blade is somewhat rounded. The blade has an extremely sharp point, and is often used in close quarters combat and to parry attacks due to the bullwhip form's lack of defensive capabilities. In this form, the lash of the whip is often wrapped around Astrus' right arm.

Fousipée's third form is that of a pistol capable of firing dust infused bullets. The estoc's handles come together, with one of them folding to become the trigger and the other opening up to become the magazine. The barrel of the rifle is a half-extended blade. Only semi-automatic, the rifle form has a relatively slow rate of fire, with an even slower reload time. Despite these disadvantages, the bullets have a high stopping power, capable of breaking through solid stone. As well as this, the bullets themselves can be infused with dust, each type of dust having varying effects. Astrus favours the use of ice dust as it can slow his enemies down. It is worth noting that the dust infused bullets have a significantly lower stopping power than the normal bullets.

Trivia

 * The name 'Astrus' is derived from the Latin 'astrum', meaning 'star'
 * Stars typically shine with a yellow-ish or white glow in the night sky
 * Alternatively, the name 'Astrus' can be seen as a masculinised version of the rare name 'Astra', from the Greek 'αστηρ' or 'aster'
 * Astrus' surname, 'Topazius' is a direct translation of the Latin word for 'topaz', which is a commonly yellow gemstone
 * The name 'Fousipée' is a portmanteau of the French words 'fusil', 'fouet', and 'épée', meaning 'rifle', 'whip', and 'blade', respectively