Duff Mackenzie

 

Duff Mackenzie, hailing from Vacuo, is a third-year student of Beacon Academy and is a member of Team CADM.

Appearance
Duff is a tall man with muscular build, with a fair, freckled complexion, green eyes, and orange-red short hair. He wears a sleeveless shirt with a bandolier for ammunition, as well as a belt on a symmetrical, dark blue "war kilt" mounting a sheath for his weapon. He wears grey shorts, and is armored at the legs and shoulders.

Personality
Duff comes off as quite brash, and often talks about his family history. He is very proud of his heritage, and will often make a point about showing it off. However, he is quite determined, trying new ways to improve and learn about his fighting methods and techniques, based on certain events in his past.

In combat, he will attempt to put all his learning to good use, but he comes off as arrogant in some aspects, wanting to show off his glory.

Background
Duff himself comes from a proud family lineage of Hunters in Vacuo. The Mackenzie "clan" for the most part, had settled in a village on its borders, one that would see rather frequent Grimm attacks. The rationale behind this decision is to both display their pride in defense against the Grimm, and to protect the defenseless, just like the typical Huntsman.

Of course, staying in an area with Grimm attacks often led to high casualties, especially on the Mackenzies' part. After Duff himself watched too many of his family die, they requested that he after he graduated from Vacuo's combat school, he would apply to Beacon Academy over Shade. While he initially protested due to the close proximity to his home, the pride he took in Vacuo and the surrounding area, and the amount of friends he would make ...

He then passed the initiation, and was assigned to Team CADM. His goal now is to make whatever left of his family proud by successfully graduating from Beacon, and to preserve it as much as possible.

Abilities
Duff himself is a tall and strong individual. This makes him quite powerful in CQC. He also has above average stamina, Aura, and endurance. He is also quite skilled as a marksman, excellent in medium range, but he needs plenty of work in the long range department, namely patience, a virtue he lacks.

However, he is very slow. Faster opponents can dodge his attacks, and respond with speed in return. Additionally, for the majority of his CQC attacks, he simply relies on brute force, rather than skills or techniques. This will make dedicated CQC opponents overwhelming to him, as they can unleash a flurry of attacks, a "death of a thousand cuts" where he cannot keep up with their movements.

He is willing to learn and improve his techniques, but in combat, he comes off as arrogant, willing to become more reckless, all for the sake of displaying his family's glory. He also has not yet discovered a Semblance.

Weapon: Fife

Fife takes the form of a claymore/rifle/grappling hook hybrid. As a claymore, the weapon is relatively heavy, but wieldable for Duff to use. The weapon fires 8 .30-06 rounds, and is equipped with an optical sight, making it at the very least, a semiautomatic battle rifle, if not a semiautomatic "sniper" rifle, in the sense that this gun can engage in medium to long range (yes, these exist). It has moderate recoil and a fire rate of 500-600 RPM.

However, it has another gimmick. On the "quatrefoil" guards are two sets of pulleys and grappling hooks that are attached to cables located in the pommel. They are retractable, and quite strong enough so that they can propel Duff up to 50 meters. This can help him close the distance, or impale enemies with the blades attached. It may also allow him to climb ledges and helps to grip on vertical surfaces.

Trivia

 * Duff comes from the Gaelic term dubh, meaning "dark".


 * His name can be flipped around and truncated to create "Macduff", which is the name of a Scottish thane in the Shakespeare play Macbeth, who Duff is based off of.