Tora Mata

"I guess... there are 2 reasons I want to be a Huntsman. To protect those who can't survive on their own... and to track down the people that murdered my parents."

- Tigre Mata

Appearance
Tigre is often told he looks like an irritated animal. When he looks in a mirror after waking up, he would agree. He usually carries an annoyed look on his face, and his blazing orange eyes add to it. He has a crew cut of black and orange hair, revealing a scar that runs diagonally over his right eye. His build is slightly athletic, with muscle showing but not obvious. As a Faunus, Tigre has a striped tail which is orange near his torso, but fades to white.

Tigre's normal outfit consists of a black shirt, displaying his emblem in orange on the front. Over it he wears an open brown leather jacket with an orange hood. The sleeves are rolled back a few inches, and a single black stripe runs horizontally around the jacket at about the same level as his ribs. Tigre also wears dull orange jeans, rolled up to just below his knees and held up by a black belt. Dangling from the belt is a tiger's eye gemstone, given to him by his father. Tigre doesn't wear much armor, instead relying on his aura or enhanced movement to protect him.

After the Fall of Beacon, Tigre decided he needed extra protection but still didn't want to sacrifice mobility. He added orange fingerless gloves with black padding, and orange shin guards.

Personality
Those that can get past his glaring eyes and scowl find that Tigre is not as anti-social as he seems. He is simply reticent, and has trouble putting his thoughts into words. He is actually devoted to the few friends he has, and spends his time with them trying to make them happy. This can range from quietly making a joke to letting them win a sparring match. He can't stand to see his teammates upset, and will try to help them with their problems.

That being said, Tigre is quick to think of a fiery comeback if someone else insults him first. In fact he is aggravated quite easily. Something as simple as a remark about his clothes earns most people a whack on the head. Nevertheless, Tigre puts up with talk from his teammates, especially from Arzén and Zoisite.

One of the only scenarios in which Tigre will get involved with a stranger is if they are getting attacked or harassed. He tends to look out for fellow Faunus who are getting persecuted for their heritage. He doesn't do so as much for humans, as he thinks their lives are far less troublesome.

In the face of a challenge, Tigre may be the first to get frustrated, but the last to give up. He will use whatever he can to overcome an obstacle, until he runs out of ideas. As the leader of Team TPAZ, Tigre feels responsible for his teammates and will think it's his fault if they fail or someone gets hurt. He is very persistent, and doesn't forget things easily.

When provided with the opportunity to kill someone (other than Grimm), Tigre will have a different reaction depending who it is. If it's just a regular grunt or mercenary, he will probably spare them. However, Tigre will try to end a life if he has a good or personal reason for it. The most prominent example would be members of the Bleeding Lotus cult that killed his parents. (Tigre says he'll kill the next cultist he runs into, though he has only gotten close to defeating one, let alone killing them.)

Childhood
Tigre was born in Vacuo along with his twin sister Zoisite. With a renowned Huntress mother and a father that owned a Dust mining operation, his life should have been easy and peaceful. Surprisingly, it was far from it.

Tigre spent the first few years of his life on the outskirts of Vacuo, specifically in a town called Hellas. His father ran an average Dust mine, and his mom taught at the local combat school. The two careers complimented each other, and from a young age Tigre was taught to fight and tinker with weapons. He spent a lot of time with his dad at the mines, being told that one day the Mata Dust Company would be his.

When Tigre was 11, his mother traveled to Vale to teach at Signal Academy, and his sister went with her. Tigre and his father stayed in Vacuo to look after the business, thinking it would only be a small change in their daily lives. Instead, disaster struck. Without a professional Huntress to keep them safe, the residents of Hellas grew more worried. Grimm sightings increased, and crime rates began rising. One day Tigre was hanging out near the mine when suddenly there was a massive explosion from the direction of the mine's main entrance. As smoke trailed off, he realized that his dad had been in the mines. Tigre rushed to the tunnel only to have his worst fears confirmed. He found what remained of his father lying in one of the tunnels. As his uncle led him away from the scene, Tigre saw a symbol that would be branded in his memory for the rest of his life: on one of the walls the symbol of a lotus flower was painted in dark red.

In the following weeks, most people accepted the theory that the blast was an accident, caused by an explosion of Burn Dust. However, Tigre wasn't as easily convinced. After some pestering, his uncle simply told him that his mother in Vale would be able to tell him more. He also said that Tigre would have to make a decision. If he moved to Vale he would have to give up his claim to the family's dust company which operated solely in Vacuo. Tigre easily agreed, as his uncle was in better shape to run the business anyway. He boarded a ship to Patch, seeking the truth.

Vale
But when he reached his destination, his mom wasn't very cooperative either. All she said was that the people represented by the lotus flower were from her past, nothing more. Tigre seemed to give up the search - after all, he wasn't getting any results. Still, deep in his mind, there was a desire to find out who was behind the killing. He kept it a secret, and trained at Signal to become a Huntsman so he could get answers. With a Huntress mother, Tigre easily graduated and applied to Beacon.

Just days before Tigre's first year at Beacon started, there was another tragedy. In the night, a masked man barged into their house and pulled out a sword. Tigre's mother tried to put him down, but to no avail. He watched in terror as she was slain. Tigre had had enough. He somehow discovered his semblance, Bloodrush, and immediately used his entire aura to power it. Tigre put up a good fight, but the man still defeated him. Enraged, he "overloaded" it past his aura's capabilities in a final attempt to put down the assassin. Tigre was stopped again but now he had nothing to protect him. The mysterious man slashed at his eye, scarring him as a reminder of his weakness.

As Tigre and Zoisite were forced to sell the house, he took one last look in what had been his mother's room. On her desk, he found a note. It read: ''Children - if you have found this, they came for me. The Bleeding Lotus cult. They were the ones behind your father's killing.''

Weapon
Tigre used inspiration from his father's blade to craft his weapon, called Retribution. It has 3 forms: a guandao mode, sword mode, and semi-automatic rifle. The sword hilt extends to make the guandao handle, which is also the barrel of the rifle. Along the handle is the trigger used to fire the gun. It can fire in the blade modes, albeit with less accuracy than the actual gun mode. However, transforming Retribution from the melee version to a proper rifle is relatively slower than switching between the bladed variants. The blade is single-edged.

Fighting Style
Solo: When fighting on his own, Tigre is very aggressive. He studies his opponent's reaction to his many attacks, and decides on the most efficient way of taking them down. This works well against Grimm, as they tend to have the same mindset. On the other hand, smarter adversaries can take advantage of his short temper and cause him to recklessly amplify his semblance.

With Team: When with the rest of Team TPAZ, Tigre is the group's main damage dealer. He still observes his enemies, but will also call out weaknesses or team attacks. If he has the option to, Tigre will prefer to start a battle from range then move in and switch to his blade. He doesn't get aggravated as easily with his team nearby to curb his recklessness.

Semblance
Tigre discovered his semblance after the death of his mother, and named it Bloodrush. It allows him to augment his agility, at the cost of aura. Tigre can control how much of his aura goes into powering his semblance. For example he can use a small portion of his aura but only gain a minor boost, or convert his entire aura, providing a large increase in speed but leaving him defenseless. Tigre found out the hard way that trying to increase Bloodrush past his aura's capacity ("Overloading" it) will result in extreme fatigue and deplete his aura, making him vulnerable to attacks. A side effect of Tigre's semblance is that the stronger it is the more mindless he becomes, clouding his decisions. At full semblance strength, Tigre's main weakness is a lack of defense making him hard to pin down but vulnerable if he is caught. While Bloodrush is active, Tigre's eyes are filled with an orange glow. When at maximum power his eyes burn bright and are fully orange.

Trivia

 * Tigre is French for tiger, and most tigers are known for having orange and black fur.
 * Mata is Tagalog (Filipino) for eye, so Tigre Mata means Tiger Eye. That is the basis for Tigre's emblem and the tiger's eye gemstone hanging from his belt.
 * It actually took me a while to realize Eye of the Tiger was a great theme song for Tigre.
 * Although Tigre is the French spelling of tiger, it is pronounced like the English version.
 * Tigre's birth date is March 23, the day his character page was started.