Reverie Hoopoe

Reverie Hoopoe is a youthful shut in, afraid of everything and forced into going to Beacon by family tradition.

Appearance
Reverie is a petite girl, sickly pale from a lack of sunlight and always shrouded in muted grays. Her eyes are a shimmering pearly white and her face and neck are slender. Her fingernails are ragged from biting and her eyes have deep bags from sleepless nights. Her dyed black hair is untended to and scraggly, but a single orange feather with a black and white tip sticks up out of her hair in the back, a hereditary mark of the Hoopoe family. Before dying it, her hair was bright orange with a similar pattern to her feather. She wears a long, black, barely see through veil over her head with two grey loops attached to the front for her to yank on fretfully. She prefers to don a plain sleeveless dress in various shades of dark gray with slits ripped into the sides for combat mobility and full length black gloves. She walks exclusively in simple slippers and black stockings. When in Beacon uniform she wears the top of the female version but the bottom of the male version, stating that the skirt is too colorful for her tastes.

Personality
Reverie is characterized by her fear of more or less everything exciting. She cannot stand loud noises nor bright lights nor high speeds nor tall heights nor large objects nor vibrant colors nor sudden movements nor strong smells and not even food which is too flavorful. This is not due to a depressed, unmerry attitude or severe distaste for fun but actual, diagnosed phobias. Unfortunately, she is a very self sacrificing and spineless person who will do anything if pressed hard enough. To keep from getting herself into these sorts of situations, she halfheartedly avoids human contact and distances herself from large groups.

As precautions against her fears, Reverie shrouds herself in blacks and grays and uses her veil to filter light and mute sound. She detests her pale skin, as her bone white complexion gives her a jump every time she sees it in the corner of her eye, and hides from mirrors to forget about the obtrusive feather she inherited from her mother. She consumes little more than large quantities of bland rice, bread, water and other unflavored foods, using vitamin supplements to get her daily dosage of nutrients.

Reverie avoids confrontation in all forms, both as a kind person and a coward. Only when she is forced will she participate, often prepared to surrender immediately. She tugs at the handles on her veil and bites her nails when stressed as a coping mechanism. She loves the monotony of reading (strictly avoiding suspense and thriller stories), breathing, swimming and white noise. She adores snails for their dull predictability. She enjoys written assignments and standardized testing for the peace and quiet.

Of all the things Reveries fears, the top five are (in order from worst to less horrible) enemies, fireworks, cars, hyperactive teenagers and love. She is not afraid of but allergic to soy in all forms. She considers her past self and photos of her youth paramount embarrassment.

History
Reverie is the daughter of an eccentric artist and retired hunter, whose works play with shocking colors and splatter effects. As a young girl she adored her father, attending art shows and festivals with him and always laughing. She could be described as noisy and cheerful, the perfect daughter to carry on her mother's family's traditions of singers. It was assumed for a long time that she would also pursue a career in the fine arts like her parents.

That future was shattered after an incident in which her father, drunk and joyful as usual, brought home several bundles of fireworks to celebrate the new year. He handed the little girl, age eight at the time, a sparkler. Reverie was entranced by the beauty of the dancing lights, and reached out as if to touch them. Suddenly, a spark flew and set the whole pile of firecrackers ablaze. She was mere inches from severe burns as the world around her exploded into blinding color and deafening crackling for three straight minutes as her father clumsily attempted to put out the flames. The shock caused her to pass out, and when she came to she recoiled from all vibrant sights and loud noises, retreating into her closet for days on end. Her condition worsened, the trauma spreading to affect all of her senses. It was only after months of counseling and compromise that she left the darkness of her room and struggled into the new, terrifying world.

Her father's art, her mother's singing, she could not stand experiencing any of it. When she had matured more, she realized how it hurt her family deeply to see her so withdrawn from the world and her passions, but the damage was done. Her father finally decided that there was a place where she could learn to deal with the worst of the world and return to at least semi-normal tolerance levels, a place that he knew well: the world of hunters and huntresses. Weak willed as Reverie was, she could not say no to her desperate father when he told her to begin training as a slayer of Grimm. Her subtle techniques and sharp wit got her accepted to Beacon by age sixteen, and on her seventeenth birthday she said a reluctant goodbye to the safety of her home and entered the Academy for four years of sensory overload.

Skills and Abilities
Reverie fighting style can be described best as hesitant. She keeps her distance with her opponent, fueled by fear, and attacks only when she can be sure of hitting. She is lean and agile, capable of ducking around and over most enemies with ease. When cornered, she becomes frantic and loses control. Her favorite kind of battle is one that ends before it begins. She excels in abduction or detainment missions.

She is also a rather skilled swimmer, enjoying the protective pressure and filtered light and sound. Her speed and agility in the water, with the guiding hand of her weapon, is similar to that of a dolphin.

Her aura is a firey orange, to her dismay.

Weapon
Her weapon is Grip of Sin, her veil. It is made of strong and flexible woven black wire with three gray handles for handholds. The veil can be thickened for extra rigidity or spread out and thinned for more area. The dimensions of the veil are controlled by the handholds. The veil can be used as a trampoline with some extra tweaking or compacted down into a tiny shank the length of her hand.

Her main attack with Grip of Sin is to jump over and past an enemy, wrapping them with light cords in the process, before tightening the veil and restricting movement. The veil does not have the weight to be used as a painful whip, but does have the potential to become a lasso, ensnaring from a distance. Needless to say, Reverie does not use her weapon to kill as blood is too colorful. The battle is generally over once her opponent is hanging from the ceiling like an insect in a spider's web. The suspect is then wrapped up in a cocoon of veil and brought back to the authorities or her team for judgement.

Semblance
Reverie's semblance is Shroud, a light manipulating technique which absorbs all light entering an area, essentially covering it in shadows. Reverie retains her sight in the area, allowing light to reflect into her eyes with careful precision. The absorption of light tends to heat the area considerably with prolonged use and drains her aura rather quickly.

Trivia

 * Reverie deals with many phobias, a few of which are listed here: Tachophobia, Agrophobia, Megalophobia, Phonophobia, Photoaugiaphobia, Chromophobia, Osmophobia and Agoraphobia.
 * Her name is a corruption of Reverend Hooper, the main character from Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story The Reverend's Black Veil. Her last name, Hoopoe, is also the name of a colorful bird from Afro-Eurasia who shares her orange and black-white tipped plumage. Reverie is another word for daydream.
 * Her weapon and weapon name are also derived from The Reverend's Black Veil.
 * Her first name is supposed to evoke visions of cloudy gray, her last name visions of sharp orange and black.