Viorica Zaruciti

Viorica Zaruciti is an auditor for Zaruciti Foundries, and a licensed Huntress. She graduated from Atlas Academy with Team IVOR (pronounced Ivory). Her weapon of choice is a Protective Kusarigama Pistol Cane (PKPC) named Avarice.

Appearance
Viorica is a rather tall young woman, standing at 6'4" (193cm) without heels. She has a lithe and toned pear shaped body, pale skin and bright blue, upturned eyes. Her face is sharp and angular with a pointed chin and nose. She has black hair worn in a dutch flower braid, with a lapis lazuli hairpin set in the centre of the flower.

She wears a black blazer dress with a navy blue notched lapel and double breasted gold buttons down the front. The dress flares at her waist and reaches to just above her knees. She also wears semi-sheer black stockings and black suede wedge heels with closed toes and a navy blue strap around her ankle.

Her accessories include a pair of lapis lazuli stud earrings, a gold necklace with a lapis lazuli pendant shaped like a bluebell, and a thin, navy blue belt around her waist. She wears a golden pin in the shape of her family's emblem attached to her lapel, and a simply golden watch around her left wrist. A black utility pouch is attached to the back of the belt.

She also wears a small amount of makeup; dark blue eyeliner with black mascara, and a deep, wine red matte lipstick.

She carries a small bifold wallet in her pocket. The wallet is a bright,ocean blue that clashes somewhat with her navy colour scheme, and has a small gold bow on the magnetic clasp.

Personality
Viorica is a serious young woman, with a wry sense of amusement mostly derived from observing bad luck - either her own or others. She is polite and refined in her words, preferring not to dance around subjects. She doesn't use epithets and flowery adjectives, leaving the speeches in her brothers capable hands.

Despite having learnt to keep her mouth shut when it could impact her family business politics, Viorica is still opinionated and passionate. She's not afraid to speak her mind on a topic, even if it could cause her personal trouble, and has no compunction letting someone know if she disagrees with a topic.

She has a fierce independent streak and is very confident in her abilities, to the point of being overly sure of herself in situations that could easily turn ugly. She has a habit of making this worse with dry wit and pointed comments that are easily taken negatively. She's also somewhat entitled, having grown up with money and people to do things for her. She learnt to curb her expectations for others to handle matters for her while at Atlas Academy, but still likes to take advantage of employees and underlings when possible.

Her views on Faunus are borderline apathetic; while she won't step in to help them, neither does she participate in discrimination. The only time she could be construed as 'assisting' against Faunus discrimination is in enforcing the Zaruciti Foundries policy of denying service to none, no matter their features. This is due to pragmatism more than anything, as in her words "it's money either way."

She has the tiniest soft spot for cute things, though doesn't particularly care for small critters. Instead she prefers tiny bows and little heart decorations, as well as cutesy flowers. This manifests in her more personalised effects, and her signature is a cursive V that flourishes into a scribbled heart.

Backstory
Viorica was born and raised in Atlas alongside her older twin Brother, Brandeis. Their parents were often busy with work, leaving the pair to a live-in nanny while they worked. Their father, Meliton Colombo, worked with the Atlas military in Research and Development while their mother Kaimana ran her family business, Zaruciti Foundries. As much as the twins loved their nanny, they also ditched her as often as possible in order to spend time with their parents when the opportunity arose.

They were enrolled in an Atlesian private school alongside the children of many other wealthy children of Atlas. Lessons on business were drummed into their heads from a very early age to prepare them for the day Zaruciti Foundries would be theirs. Viorica dreamed of a more active job, however, and convinced her mother to allow her to hire a private tutor for combat classes.

Brandeis elected not to join beyond learning basic self defense, finding himself much more interested in the political side of things and using words to resolve issues rather than violence. Despite this, the pair had a very tight bond and would often bounce homework and lessons off one another, leading to an eclectic knowledge in fields outside their main areas of study.

Viorica went on to enroll in Atlas Academy, becoming a member of team IVOR (Ivory). Her Academy time was spent learning a few harsher lessons about privilege and entitlement, as her rich background and private schooling didn’t mean much in the military-style academy. While Zaruciti was a well known name in Atlas, it wasn’t nearly as big as the Schnee’s.

The team parted ways after graduation, with Ilexa falling in love and moving to Vale for marriage, Rimona stepping straight into the Specialists, and Ogren going freelancer. Viorica went back to her family business, having achieved her childhood dream of becoming a Huntress. Her brother was now working directly with their mother and giving input on company decisions, and Viorica offered her own services for the lack of any real direction to take after graduation.

While they weren’t sure the Foundry had any real use for a graduated Huntress, Brandeis and Kaimana eventually put Viorica to work on in the field as a surprise auditor for out of the way smiths. Her job was to make sure everything was up to company standards, and issue fines where necessary. Her skill at defending herself meant less manpower was needed for ventures into rural locations and rougher towns, saving the company money and time in the long run.

Weapon
Viorica's weapon is Avarice, a Protective Kusarigama Pistol Cane (PKPC). Its storage form is that of an elegant cane with a navy blue shaft and gold handle and trimmings. The handle is carved to resemble the bulb of a bluebell, and it is tipped with a faceted Hardlight crystal. The overall length of the cane is roughly 1m.

A 5 inch kama blade unfolds from the shaft 10cm above the Hardlight crystal and the shaft can separate into 5 smaller pieces, revealing a length of chain stored inside the main body of the cane. It can be used without separating the shaft, allowing Viorica to use it as either a kama or a kusarigama.

The handle also pulls away from the body, revealing a concealed pistol and allowing her to dual wield her ranged and melee forms. The pistol uses 9mm bullets in a 10 round magazine.

Semblance
Viorica's semblance, Silhouette, summons a short-lived copy of herself and any object she is holding. It appears as a navy blue spectre, the same colour as her aura.

The objects weight must be fully supported by her own strength and is non-transforming, despite any mechanisms that may exist in the real version. Guns do work but are subject to ammunition limitations and cannot be reloaded. Dust crystals are copied in shape but completely non-functional unless she actively imbues the Dust into her clone, which drain extra aura.

The clone lasts for only a few seconds, enough to make a single action or attack, and is destroyed immediately upon being struck. It is created in close proximity to Viorica herself, no more than a foot away from her location.

Fighting Style
Viorica fights dirty first and foremost, specialising in dealing with human opponents and hitting sensitive spots. She is an ace shot with her pistol at range, and uses her kama to maneuver enemies around herself in a close combat style. She favours knee and elbow strikes along with pistol whipping enemies or point blank shots. Her kusarigama is used primarily as a grapple to pull targets closer, but she is adequate using it as a medium range weapon. She uses her semblance sporadically, preferring to create her clone for a quick strike to an open defense or as a distraction rather than the main offense.

The Hardlight dust on the tip of the cane is for defensive purposes, allowing her to protect herself from ranged attacks while she closes a gap or retreats to a more strategic location. When pressed in close quarters, Viorica conserves energy with her dodges, and is not afraid to block an attack if it would create an opening for her clone to take advantage of.

Despite her skill against human-sized enemies, she is less effective against Grimm. Due to their typically increased mass she often finds herself having to maneuver her own body around the Grimm instead, and while her blade can kill a Grimm if placed in the correct position it's less effective against the armour plating they all wear. In such a case, she hangs back and provides covering fire with Dust-enhanced bullets, opting for Ice or Lightning for maximum offensive ability. Her kusarigama is used as a deterrent in this situation, lashing out at any Grimm that attempts to move closer.

Her weaknesses also include purely ranged attackers and area of effect fighters, as they tend to either avoid being close enough or have enough skill in crowd control to avoid being pulled into her natural fighting style.

Zaruciti Foundries
Zaruciti Foundries started off as a simple weapon smithy in Mantle itself, when Solitas was first settled. Over the years, the family has built itself something of a name as a good source for custom weapon crafting, parts, and repairs, and even harder to source materials at not too gouging prices.

It’s main function nowadays is as a franchise; poorer people around the Kingdoms can opt into the franchise and get a small loan to jump start their own smithies, or repair or parts shops in exchange for selling under the Zaruciti logo and following their rules. During this time, Zaruciti Foundries fronts the legal and insurance costings of the business.

In exchange for this startup, however, the franchisee must pay a portion of their earnings to Zaruciti Foundires on top of repaying their initial loan, which is subject to interest rates. While Zaruciti Foundries fronts a friendly, open, and welcoming business face to potential franchisees, the money aspect is harsh and it can take years for the small time businesses to pay off their loan.

Once the loan is paid, the business is free to end their contract with Zaruciti and strike out on their own; of course, this now makes them part of the opposition for Zaruciti and Zaruciti Foundries has no obligations to be nice with advertising and supplies, or make sure the small business stays afloat. While Zaruciti Foundries never do anything illegal, many people who attempted to strike out find it easier to reenter the franchise’s fold. Known business practises include exclusivity contracts from material suppliers and patents, allowing the company to sue smaller businesses if they break either of these.

Head office is located in Atlas itself, with smithies set up in Mantle to provide gear for the SDC mines among other contracts. They currently have footholds all around Mistral and a few in Vale, but haven’t been able to make headway into Vacuo due to the harsh and ever-swallowing nature of the desert.

Trivia

 * Viorica is a Romanian name meaning bluebell flower. Zaruciti is a Croation/Slavian word meaning betrothed, engaged.
 * Viorica loosely alludes to Freyja from Norse mythology
 * She is the female of a pair of twins who are leaders in their own right.
 * Freyja is a Goddess of War and Death, fitting Viorica's desire to become a Huntress
 * Freyja is also a chooser of the slain, with half of those who die in battle going to Valhalla while the other half belong to Freyja and join her in Folkvangr. Viorica is an auditor, which can feel like a death sentence to those being audited, and she decides if they are operating within the boundaries of their contract.


 * Viorica also has mild aesthetic allusions to Evie Frye from Assassins Creed: Syndicate.
 * Kaimana is a Hawaiian name meaning Diamond, Meliton is a Greek name meaning Honey. Brandeis is named after Brandeis Blue but also combines the German Words Brand and Eis, meaning Burn and Ice, giving his name the secondary meaning of Burning Ice.
 * Her teammates were Ilexia Aquifo (derived from Ilex Aquifolium, a genus of holly plants), Ognen Adler (Bulgarian word meaning Fiery and a Hebrew surname meaning Eagle), and Rimona Kore (Hebrew meaning Pomegranate, and a childhood name of Persephone form Greek Mythology).