Albion Vartanian

Appearance:
Albion is a pretty tall man, standing at an impressive 220 cm; his build is slender yet muscular. He has light skin with a pink/neutral undertone, and considerable amounths of body hair. He also has somewhat big hands and feet. Albion's Faunus trait consists in having feathers covering some parts of his body. The most notable of these is his large, somewhat low-set white feather collar ; while the collar is quite large and thick the feathers actually grow from a small area under his neck, close to his collarbones. Other than the collar, Albion also has some (far smaller) black feathers on his chest and forearms along with body hair, the feather to hair ratio is higher closer to the collar,with the forearm feathers being very small and downy.

Albion has a rugged but well kept appearance. His face has a slightly elongated shape, with a strong jaw and a slightly pointed chin. He has sharp, somewhat narrow amber eyes and a kinda big nose. Albion's hair is raisin black with some slightly lighter colored highlights (this is because he's slowly but surely graying), he keeps it at about chin lenght in a slightly messy hairstyle. He also has thick (but not bushy) eyebrows and a thick well-kept stubble.

Albion's usual outfit consists of the following: He usually has to get his clothes tailored to fit his big feathery collar, this greatly annoyed him at first but he's long since gotten used to it.
 * a pair of black dress pants.
 * a black hussar jacket with various gainsboro and bronze colored accents, and silver buttons. It's slightly shorter than his torso and he usually wears it open.
 * a stylish gray v-neck t-shirt.
 * a dark brown embossed leather belt with a bronze buckle that has various straps attached to it; one big strap on his right hip to carry Bohemian Raptor, and 12 small ones around his waist (both behind him and to his left) to carry Steel Cloudburst.
 * Steel Cloudburst's control glove. This is a simple black leather fingerless glove, with Albion's emblem printed in light gray (gainsboro) on the back of the hand, and fastened by a small bronze buckle, the detonation button is on the index finger and is also gainsboro colored. It is worn oh his left hand
 * a pair of black leather boots with bronze buckles resembling a mix between monk shoes and combat boots.

Albion always wears a bronze necklace with 3 kite cut dust crystals, and never wears socks.

Personality:
Albion has a generaly laid back yet somewhat rough personality, and tends to be quite courteous to others; somewhat like a particularly jolly viking or medieval knight. Despite this he can be extremely aggressive at times, especially when angered or in combat; he's very protective of those he cares about and will become agressive if he thinks they're being threatened.He's also very enthusiastic about anything he likes, even if he just found out he likes it. This is particularly apparent in his enormous enthusiasm for combat, and in his burning passion for photography. The later of which he takes as a form of hunting, with the perfect pictures being his "prey".

He tends to be quite patient in most situations; the only notable exception being combat, where he is extremely aggressive. Albion is very confident and tends to be friendly towards strangers and aquittances alike. He's also very loyal, and is always willing to help those he cares about. Albion can be extremely stubborn, refusing to give up on any objective he's set his mind upon no matter the circumstances, despite this he's capable of seeing when he's actions are futile (though it'll take him some time), and will desist at that point.

Having grown up in the mafia Albion has gotten used to killing and other various forms of extreme violence (both from seeing it regularly from an early age and due to having a considerable kill count himself), and is mostly desensitized to it. He still values life and people though; it's just the acts of killing, maiming and torture by themselves don't really bother him.

Also worth noting is his huge appetite, and his unusual tendency to literally eat his way through situations (which he can do thanks to his semblance)

Backstory:
Albion was born in Snehvrchol, being the first son of Carmine Avagyan, the boss of the Avagyan crime family. He grew up in a wealthy household and most of his needs where easily satisfied; but he couldn't socialise as much as most kids due to his family's line of work. He'd usualy play with other kids around town, but he wasn't allowed to invite them over or visit them in their homes, though this changed as he grew up. His aura was unlocked at age 5 by his uncle (for the sake of protection), this is a custom in the Avagyan family. Albion was home schooled, with his education leaning towards the family business, he was thought the ways of the mafia from an early age, and started combat training at 8 years old; all this wasn't done in a way that would rob him of his childhood though, and other than his unorthodox education he was a mostly normal kid. Albion started working with the family at age 12, starting as a scout and thief, where he quickly showed great aptitude for improvised planning and cover up jobs. Albion's younger brother, Czernobos Avagyan, was born about a year after he started working with the mafia, when he was 13. By age 15 Albion was already a vital part of the family's clean up crew, and he was given the rank of Caporegime by his father as well as a small crew (about 10 to 15 people). The Soldatos didn't like this at first but they soon recognised he was a capable leader despite his age.

During his time in the mafia Albion often saw how the people of Snehvrchol fought off grimm with the help of the family and other warriors. He was particularly fascinated by huntsmen, be they hired or just passing by the town they were always the first to go into battle to protect the people. This is what inspired him to become a huntsman, he often manifested his wishes to his father, insisting in his desire to go to Haven academy even after getting his own crew in the mafia. He also formed a close friendship with the Family's weaponsmith, Sterling Eisenblut, who would later make him Bohemian Raptor as his 16th birthday present.

Some time before his 17th birthday Albion came to an agreement with his father, he would attend Haven academy once he was old enough, but he'd have to help the family enter Mistral's criminal underground undetected in order to set up various black market deals and other illicit business, for which he'd have to change his last name to his mother's. He agreed to do it so long as he'd be free to choose his own path after finishing his studies at Mistral.

Albion prepared tirelessly for when the time came to go to Haven, both for his studies and training as a huntsman, and for the arduous work he'd have to do to enter Mistral's deepest crime circles. He passed Haven's entrance exam with flying colors thanks to his lifelong training. He quickly became friends with his assigned team, and enjoyed spending time with them; but most of his free time during his first year was spent investigating Mistral's criminal underground. By the start of his second year in Haven he had already started entering Mistral's outer criminal circles, slowly working his way deeper into the local crime underground.

During his second year at Haven Albion met Daveena Nyushen (a freshman at the time), they quickly grew fond of each other, fell in love, and started a relationship. Daveena would soon find out about Albion's illicit activities, which caused a lot of conflict between them, but after much explaining and insistance from Albion she'd come to accept it; which ended up strenghtening their relationship. Albion and Daveena would stay together throughout their time at Haven.

After finishing his last year at Haven Albion started working as a Huntsman, but he still had work to do in Mistral regarding the Avagyan family's business, and he also wanted to stay close to Daveena. As such, he decided to stay at Mistral for the following year, finishing his work for the Avagyan mafia in the process. After Daveena graduated from Haven they started living together, and ended up staying at MIstral. They would work together in various huntsmen missions, until Daveena got pregnant with Ljubica. Both Albion and Daveena focused on taking care of their daughter until she was old to be left with a babysitter or relative for long periods of time, He stopped taking assingments from the family during this time, but he'd still take some short huntsman missions. Albion still worked with the Avagyan mafia when Daveena graduated, but he had resigned to his rank as caporegime and would continue to gradualy have less and less involvement with the family business. nowadays he has officialy retired from the mafia, though he'll still take the occasional job for the family if they really need him.

At some point when Ljubica was 13 years old, Albion and his family (that is Daveena and Ljubica) moved to Vale. This was because Daveena had gotten a modelling job there. He continued his work as a huntsman In Vale, and managed to get a side job as a professional photographer.

Albion's mother, Snezana Vartanian, died of lung cancer about 3 years before the Battle of Beacon. she was oddly lively and lovingly harsh until the end.

Albion wasn't in Vale during the Fall of Beacon, he was back in Snehvrchol helping the town deal with a sudden increase is grimm acitivity. Worried about his wife and daughter, he wanted to return as soon as the news hit Snehvrchol, but the grimm were still a serious problem in the town, and after getting a letter from Daveena telling him they were both safe, and that they were staying at the house of one of Ljubica's teammates, he calmed down, and decided to stay in Snehvrchol to defend the town from grimm until the problem subsided.

Weapons: Bohemian Raptor & Steel Cloudburst

 * Bohemian Raptor (primary) : Bohemian Raptor has 3 forms, a broadsword, a tripple-barrelled semi-automatic shotgun, and a large cross-spear; one of the barrels of the shotgun form can be shot in both sword and spear form. Generaly speaking Albion uses the sword form for both melee and ranged combat (using the shotgun barrel), the shotgun form is used primarily for mid range combat, and the spear form exclusively for melee.
 * Steel Cloudburst (secondary) : a collection of remotely-detonated explosive javelins, they can collapse on themselves for portability, Albion can carry up to 12 with him at a time.

Other Equipment:

 * Albion's bronze necklace holds 3 kite cut dust crystals (fire, ice and electric dust) to use with his semblance. The dust crystals are isolated in clear bulletproof glass containers so they can only be activated with aura.
 * He also carries a huge silver hip flask full of very VERY strong vodka (80% ethanol, also for use with his semblance... and for drinking). The flask is wrapped in black leather and has various bronze accents.
 * Albion carries spare ammo clips for Bohemian Raptor in his jacket, the holsters are in the inner side of the jacket.

Semblance: Ravenous
Albion's semblance can be simply described as having a "super digestive tract", and is divided in various aspects.
 * Passive: Ravenous lets Albion eat any substance or object safely so long as it fits through his esophagus (be it by chewing or swallowing it whole), his digestive system can digest anything except dust (which passes through his digestive tract intact); this lets him use virtually anything as food, which makes survival in harsh environments easier. Things are digested in a way that doesn't trigger any chemical or physical reactions, but doesn't prevent already happening reactions (for example if he eats a live grenade it'll detonate anyways). the inner walls of Albion's digestive tract are extremely durable, so he won't be harmed by the shape or weight of an object he eats no matter how sharp, pointy or heavy it is; but things like explosives, heat and other greater forces will still harm him, though the damage is considerably reduced (he learned this the hard way when he ate a lit firecracker at age 8 and ended up in the hospital). Poisons and toxins are also digested so the physiological damage they do is enormously reduced (they can't cause permanent damage if digested); neurochemical effects, while also significantly reduced, will still affect Albion (for example he can still get drunk or be sedated, he just needs an abnormally large dosage). However this increased resistance only works from the inside, so he can be harmed normally from the outside, and poisons take full effect if they don't pass through his stomach. The passive aspect of Ravenous has been active from the moment Albion's aura was unlocked.
 * Voracious furor (active): when using "Voracious furor" Albion compleatly absorbs all chemical energy from whatever is in his stomach at the time (except dust) giving him a temporary energy boost, the intensity and duration of the effect depends on what he consumes, but at it's strongest it can be compared to a massive adrenaline rush, for reference consuming 1 kilogram of raw beef should give him about 1 minute of max output energy boost. the drawback is that all energy gained this way is lost in the energy boost, so things lose their value as food; Also overuse of Voracious furor causes serious muscular fatigue. Albion discovered Voracious furor some time after his 8th birthday, and achieved full control of it by age 25.
 * Vulture assault (active): in 2 words "weaponised barf", Albion can forcefully hurl the contents of his stomach to use as a weapon, which due to his "super eating" can be pretty much anything. It doesn't have a very long range (10 meters is the maximum wounding range). When it comes to liquids and groups of small objects (like small rocks or sand) Albion can control the cone of effect, ranging from 15 to 45 degrees. He can also use dust to infuse his barf with elemental properties, . The dust crystals in his necklace are big enough to last for as much as 12 hours of up time each, but he can only carry enough material in his stomach for 10 seconds of up time at a time. Albion learned to use Vulture assault at age 14, but only truly mastered it after finishing his studies at Haven.
 * Aditionaly, Albion can willingly stop his own digestive system for an indefinite amounth of time, but he can only stop it completely or let it work normally. Doing this has the side effects one would expect of having a non-functioning digestive system. He won't digest anything while his digestive system is stopped and he can't use any of his semblance's "active" functions until he restarts it. The only real use for this is using his stomach as storage space without digesting whatever he keeps in there. Albion learned this was possible at around age 10, but didn't get the hang of controlling it until his second year at Haven.

Combat abilities:
Albion is quite skilled in most forms of combat, having trained rigorously from an early age. He's very skilled in hand to hand combat; using an agressive, counter-attack heavy fighting style resembling a mix of Krav Maga and russian Systema. He's also reasonably skilled in the use of most conventional weaponry, being able to use various kinds of swords, spears, polearms, firearms and others with acceptable efficacy (so long as they aren't too unconventional). However he only excels at using specific weapons; namely spears, glaives, straight swords, and close-to-mid range firearms. When it comes to firearms he's specially skilled with handguns and shotguns, and is extremely skilled at point shooting (hipfire); Albion is strong and heavy enough to take the recoil from a 10 gauge single barrel shotgun like it's nothing regardless of position. He also makes use of his hand-to-hand combat skills when using weapons, complementing armed combat with unnarmed combat techniques. Also important is his superb skill at javelin throw, he has perfect technique and can achieve very long distances with amazing accuracy.

Bohemian Raptor:
since Albion's main weapon has 3 forms, how he uses each mode will be explained separately.
 * Broadsword form: The form most often used by Albion, which he wields exclusively one-handed. He uses this mode as a "general purpose" weapon, using the sword for melee and the weapon's central barrel for short-to-mid range point shooting. His swordsmanship is very aggressive and forceful, focusing on fast, powerfull chopping and thrusting attacks. He very rarely dodges, preferring to parry most attacks, and only blocks when necessary. He often uses Steel Cloudburst in combination with this mode.
 * Shotgun form: Albion uses this form for ranged combat, and wields it one-handed. While the mode does have a simple iron sights, he still resorts to point shooting the most. When point shooting Albion can consistently headshot a still man-sized target at about 20 meters, and can hit the torso of a running (45km/h) target at the same range. When using the sights this range is extended to 40 meters. Also worth noting is that, since the weapon is still bladed in this mode, he can also use it as an effective melee weapon if something gets too close; in these cases his fighting style focuses on powerfull swings using the (now divided/expanded) tip of the blade as a makeshift hook-blade, combined with heavy use of the shotgun to push away enemies as fast and far as possible.


 * Cross-Spear form: Albion's favorite mode, though only used when he really needs it. Despite it's great size he's perfectly capable of wielding it both one-handed and two-handed, and uses a complex mix of both grips in combat (most of his moves are one-handed). Albion uses every part of this form as a weapon, using the blade for thursting and slashing, the cross as a double headed war hammer, the pommel as a mace and the shaft as a giant quarterstaff. He uses Bohemian Raptor's spear form as much as a glaive as a spear, which is justified by the weapon's large blade. Albion's fighting style when using this mode is as agressive as in any other case, but it is also better at defence, as the weapon's size lets him keep his foes at a distance with ease. Despite the central barrel being functional in this mode (only while the blade's tip is open of course) he only uses this form for melee; instead of using the shotgun barrel for ranged attacks he uses it for point blank shots, and also has a habit of shooting it from inside his impaled foes, blowing them apart.

Steel Cloudburst:
Albion uses Steel Cloudburst in two ways, as a throwing weapon and as a melee weapon.
 * As a throwing weapon Steel Cloudburst are used as a javelins. Albion can consistently throw them as far as 300 meters (his personal record being 315 meters, but this was under very favorable conditions); The average flight speed of a javelin thrown by Albion is 280km/h (174mph). Despite this Albion's effective range is considerably shorter, he can headshot a running (45km/h) man-sized target as far as 120 meters away when aiming properly, but his accuracy falls of quickly after that point; if not using proper aiming technique his accuracy is reduced to hitting a running man-sized target's torso at 75 meters tops. It's worth noting he is capable of "point shooting" javelins with equal accuracy using either arm, but his accuracy when aiming properly is reduced from the above to a 100 meter range if throwing with his left arm. Albion's accuracy on still targets is only slightly better, and the difference can generally be ignored. Since he can only carry a limited number of javelins he'll only use Steel Cloudburst's explosive properties if he thinks it's necessary.
 * As a melee weapon Steel cloudburst are used as a sort of short swordstaves. Albion either wields one by itself, one in his left hand with bohemian raptor in his right, or dual wields javelins. He always uses the javelins one-handed. Regardless of configuration the weapon in his left hand is used more for parrying, while the one in his right is used more for attacking. He generaly holds the javelins from the middle, using the blades for slashing and stabbing, and the shafts for parrying and blunt attacks.

Criminal abilities:
Having grown up in the mafia, Albion picked up various crime related skills along his life. Despite his criminal past, Albion rarely uses these skills nowadays. He's an honest man, even talking about his past in the mafia with the people he trusts, and he rarely lies; though he'll blatantly withdraw information if the situation calls for it. Also worth noting is that he never has, and never will, kill people for food. He has only ever eaten the already deceased and only when necessary (or exceedingly convenient), in fact he finds the mere idea of hunting your own kind for food revolting. He, however, takes this personal rule very literally; and isn't above eating his own kills (as he would have killed them anyways).
 * He's an excellent liar, even being capable of tricking the average lie detector.
 * He has thouroughly mastered sleight of hand.
 * He's also very good at escape tactics and is a master of misdirection.
 * Albion's a good short term strategist, and can easely improvise if necessary; this comes from having to lead small groups in heists and other criminal operations.
 * He's also pretty good at interogation, and can get very creative with torture.
 * Albion's most notable criminal skill though, is his ability as a cleaner. He can clean a crime scene perfectly, leaving absolutely no evidence that can be found with conventional means. Not only that, his disposal of the evidence leaves no recogniseable trace. Thanks to his semblance he can eliminate most evidence by eating it, including any corpses he may have to dispose of. Needless to say, tracking his work is nearly impossible.

Other abilities:

 * Albion is very strong both physically and mentally. He also has very fast reflexes, and is in general much faster and more agile than he seems at first.
 * His durability is also notably above average; both because to having large amounths of aura, and due to being very physically resilient even without it.
 * He's a great photographer, even having a side-job as a professional one.
 * Albion is a decent cook, especially for improvising food, he used to be terrible but has improved with time.
 * He has impressive barman skills, and knows an enormous amounth of cocktails by heart, though most of them are pretty obscure.
 * Albion has an extremely strong jaw, being able to chew through steel beams in a matter of minutes; and an abnormally large stomach capacity (up to 6 liters). It is unknown whether these have anything to with his semblance or not.
 * He's also pretty good at playing the Harmonica

Trivia

 * Albion's name comes from the latin "albus" meaning "white".
 * Due to it's positioning, Albion's feathery collar usually looks like it's part of his clothes at first glance, and most people don't notice it's not connected to his jacket (or t-shirt) without closer inspection.
 * Albion's aura is gainsboro colored.
 * "Ravenous" is based on vultures, which have extremely powerful digestive systems and actually use regurgitation as a defence mechanism (they barf on threats, burning them with their gastric acid).
 * Albion has been eating strange things for as long as he'd had teeth (though the things he ate got progressively weirder since his aura was unlocked), because of this noone was sure if his eating capabilities were related to his semblance or not untill "Voracious furor" manifested.
 * The names for "Voracious furor" and "Vulture assault" were coined by Albion and his crew during his time as Caporegime, "Ravenous" on the other hand got it's name from how his voracious nature used to be the first thing people noticed about him when he was a little kid. The passive aspect of Albion's semblance doesn't have a name of it's own.
 * Albion's work as a cleaner is what earned him the moniker of "The Avagyan's vulture"; this is how criminals outside of the Avagyan family would call him, albeit unkowingly. The term arose from rumors about an extremely efficient cleaner working for the Avagyans, with some believing he would eat the evidence to eliminate it. While a considerable number or criminals have heard of the so called "vulture" plenty believe he's not real, and very few know his true identity, those who do have all met Albion at some point.
 * While his primary job in the mafia was that of a cleaner, he also did a plethora of other jobs. most notably Heists, smuggling, and Raids.
 * He has a very expensive professional grade camera he uses any time he plans on doing some photography, which was made even more expensive by the fact he got it reinforced so it could withstand being crushed by a goliath. He also had his scroll's camera upgraded so he could take high quality photos at any time.
 * Albion's feathers are moult gradually and very slowly, it takes a bit over 3 years for him to complealy replace all his feathers.
 * He seems incapable of choosing between white and dark chocolate, but doesn't like milk chocolate.
 * Albion has a thick "Snehvrchol accent" (more info on the town's page)
 * He's extremely allergic to civet musk, his allergic reaction being rhinitis. His allergy is so sensitive even trace amounths in the environment make him sneeze, in fact he could be used as a civet detector of sorts, with his allergies getting worse the closer the civets are.
 * In case you're wondering exactly what color "gainsboro" is, it's the same as the character box's background.