Cain Noctis

*Sorry in advanced for the length. When I saw that this RWBY-based RPG existed my mind immediately exploded with ideas.

** For those interested, I have created a condensed summary of Cain's weapon at the end of the function section in the form of a spoiler. I realize the elongated form is dense, so I apologize for those who do not want to have to sit through and read the whole thing. All the important information is in the summary.



CHARACTER

Name: Cain Noctis

Age: 17

Gender: Male

Symbol:

Appearance: Cain stands 5’ 11” and weighs around 85kg. He has light grey hair which he generally keeps cut short, and piercing brown eyes. He is well muscled thanks to high amounts of physical activity, but due to his introverted ways often slouches to appear smaller than he is. While he has no preferred style of clothing there are two pieces of attire which he keeps at all times. The first is a white lab coat which belonged to his father, while the second is a pair of rimless glasses (belonging to his mother) which he has fitted with fake lenses.

Personality: Generally introverted and incredibly intelligent, Cain recognizes that his personality can often times come off as awkward or even intimidating to others. Rather than simply accept this fact, Cain has decided that being clumsy is a perfectly valid way to diffuse any tension he might otherwise cause. He uses his apparent awkwardness as a method of breaking the ice in conversations and to put those whom he meets at ease. Whenever in a social setting, Cain always has a smile on his face, and is not beyond telling a joke or two even as he trips over his own feet. To those who don’t know him, this young man can appear to be silly and often clumsy at times. Yet those who call him a friend know that this apparent inelegance is just for show. When he is fighting, or else working on one of his many “projects”, Cain’s smile is quickly replaced by a cold and calculating stare. During these times the whole world becomes an equation to him, while both people and monsters become merely abstract variables and numbers. It is this part of his personality that often gives others a reason to pause. Yet those who know him best can look past his chilly demeanor, and in doing so see the fierce loyalty he holds for those whom he considers friends.

History: Born the son of a huntress and a scientist, Cain began showing signs of his intelligence at a very early age. Though he was a boy of few words, as a child he could never keep his mind quiet. He was always trying to learn, experiment, and investigate the world around him. Be it how a machine functions, why a bird can fly, or even why people act the way they do; Cain could not help but question every aspect of his life.  More than once this curiosity of his would get him into trouble, and his knack for breaking his father’s complex and often expensive tools in order to discover how they operated caused no end of grief for his parents. However, rather than get angry, his father and mother merely saw these occurrences as signs of great things to come. Instead of yelling, when his father found the remains of a broken experimental dust-weapon in his workshop he would instruct Cain on the intricacies of every part, and reveal step by step how it could be reconstructed. Meanwhile his mother, not content with letting her husband have all of their child’s attention, would train Cain every night in the hopes of instilling in him the wish to become a hunter. It was a wonderful time for Cain growing up. For while his father taught him the concepts of how dust could function, and how a weapon could interact with a hunter’s aura, it was his mother who turned the abstract theories he learned into an observable reality. Cain was captivated by her strength, her passion, and her devotion to protecting others. Just as importantly, he was fascinated by the mystery of aura. A power generated by the soul itself… By it its very nature such a concept was rife with questions waiting to be answered. So as his father taught Cain how to sharpen his mind, his mother instructed him in the cultivation of his body and soul; and with the guidance of both the young boy found a great joy in life. While he did not have many friends growing up, Cain never saw this as a serious problem. To him, a life filled with constant discovery was all that was ever really needed. In fact, as far as he was concerned, friends would only get in the way of his research.

Perhaps it was because of this view; when his familiar world finally collapsed around him, Cain had no one else to turn to.

Cain’s mother, Diana Noctis, was a formidable and well known huntress. And when she heard tell that a small pack of beowolves had been terrorizing a nearby village, she saw it as the perfect opportunity to bring her son on his first hunt. Cain had barely turned fourteen at the time, but she felt he was ready for such an easy assignment. Together they tracked the beowlves down to a forest neighboring the besieged village, and for half a day Diana led her son through the dense underbrush as she taught him to look for signs of the beasts’ passing. When they finally discovered the creatures of Grimm, Diana and her son worked together to slay the beasts. However, this was no normal hunt. Cain’s training to that point had been intense, and his mother ensured that this was to be no exception. Rather than use a weapon, in this fight the boy was instructed to use his aura alone. With this training Dina wished to ensure that Cain recognized while a hunter’s weapon was his life, if the first was ever lost the second did not need to follow.

Weapons or no, the pair quickly dealt with the beowolf pack as the mere handful of monsters proved to be of very little challenge for the young man. However, as Cain glanced around at the monsters he had just slain, the pride of his feat blinded his normally perceptive mind. And because of this momentary lapse in concentration, it was not until far too late that he spotted the giant shadow being cast upon the ground where he stood. Had it not been for Diana’s quick action, the boy would have surely died that day. Instead he was knocked through the air by a blast of his mother’s aura, regaining his footing just in time to watch helplessly as the huntress disappeared beneath a storm of spear-like feathers.

That was the day when everything changed for Cain. A group of hunters whom had been tracking the Nevermore arrived just in time to prevent the massive creature taking the boy’s life as well. However, there was nothing that could be done for his mother. Even after the monstrous avian creature lay unmoving upon the ground, the group of men and women who had slain it could only offer empty words of pity. For his part, Cain knelt by his mother’s side until the end. Several times he tried to save her. Calling upon every lesson he had been taught, every secret shared by the woman who now lay bleeding before him, again and again the boy tried to accomplish the impossible. It was only when one of the hunters forced him to stop, lest he kill himself, that Cain accepted what was inevitable. Even as he cursed his own uselessness, the boy held his mother’s hand and watched through tear filled eyes as she took her final breath.

After his mother's death, Cain knew that being a hunter was the only path he could take in life. While his mother had been a huntress in the hope of helping others, her son had no illusion that his reasons held any similar compassion. Cain wanted to understand how creatures of such evil could exist in this world. How any type of natural order could allow such a darkness to persist? Once they had taught him the answer to this question, then he would  take vengeance on those beasts who had stolen his mother away.

Cain was well aware that vengeance and morbid curiosity were hardly the most noble of reasons for becoming a hunter. Therefore he did not bother attending Signal or any other hunter school when he was younger. Concepts such as nobility, or even morality, were human constructs to give a sense of order to an otherwise chaotic world. His mother’s death had allowed Cain to see this truth, but he was aware hunter academies had their own sense of honor which would only get in his way. Instead Cain taught and trained himself. At first he was content with facing the world alone, yet all that changed when he met a huntress-in-training named Lissandra Sol.

The two first met when the huntress and her team from Beacon Academy came upon Cain soon after he had slain a particularly troublesome Grimm pack. While the other members of her team berated the boy for foolishly putting his life in danger (after all, he was no hunter), Lissandra instead commended him on his ability to fight without any aid. However, she pressed on him to consider how much more powerful he could be if he learned to work alongside others as a team instead of merely by himself. From that point on, Lissandra kept in contact with Cain. It was through her that he first considered attending a hunter school. And so now, just before his 18th birthday, Cain has applied for acceptance into Beacon Academy in the hopes of making his dream of becoming a hunter a reality.

Strength: Cain’s strength lies in his mind, his tenacity, and the training he received from both his father and mother. Off the battlefield he spends a great deal of time studying the latest advances in medical and dust technology, and utilizes the knowledge he accrues from both this research and his own experimentation to refine the weapon he employs. When in a fight, he is an expert at analyzing any given situation and is capable of quickly deciding upon the best course of action necessary to accomplish his goals. His astute perception, combined with an aura control obtained from years of intense study and hard training, have culminated in him creating a unique fighting style. Specializing in close-quarters combat, Cain works to identify a target’s weak points, and then utilizes surgical strikes to bring them down as quickly as possible. In addition to his fighting prowess, Cain’s medical skills are incredibly beneficial for any team as his aura and knowledge of the human body allow him to heal, or at the very least tend to, all but the most grievous of injuries.

Weakness: Due to the very nature of the weapon system he employs, Cain has very little to offer in terms of ranged combat. While he has one or two options if forced to engage an opponent from a distance, these are variable in their effectiveness and often times generate large vulnerabilities in his own defenses. Because of this glaring weakness, Cain has worked hard over the years to find ways to compensate for this lack of range. He has become skilled at dodging, and will always attempt to close the distance with an opponent as quickly as possible. However, the former is only a stopgap at best, and the latter is not always possible. Therefore Cain fights best when teamed with allies who can offset his sever lack of range.

On the topic of teamwork, Cain’s other weakness is his inexperience of working with others. From the time he was young to barely a year ago, most of Cain’s training has focused solely on his own abilities. Therefore, while he appreciates the benefits offered by working with others, Cain still has much to learn when it comes to working as a team.

WEAPON

Name: ABEL (Aura and Body Enhancement Link) System

Primary Form: The ABEL system consists of three pieces of equipment which must be worn concurrently in order to function. The first two components, composed of a woven carbon-nanofiber skin encompassing titanium-based skeletons, to an untrained eye might resemble a pair of leather biking gloves. On the back of each glove is a raised chamber with a slot two inches in diameter and a centimeter in height, designed to incorporate specially designed disc-like cartridges. However, while seemingly inconspicuous, beneath the surface of each glove lies a complex network of dust-based nanocircitutry. In addition to an Aura Amplifying Array (AAA), each glove contains various sensors designed to constantly monitor the wearer’s vital signs including heart rate, body temperature, and aura output. The backbone of each glove also contains an array of micro-needles which, upon activation, insert themselves into the wearer’s hands to target the muscular and nervous tissue beneath.

The other and perhaps most important component of Cain’s weapon is the Keystone, a black collar connected to a small metal box. The appropriately named Keystone is that heart of the ABEL system, and while unassuming enough, contains a network of circuitry which makes even the gloves of the system look simple in comparison. On its surface the Keystone has a single switch next to which lies a small indicator light. Once activated, the indicator light on the Keystone turns green and the ABEL system is considered armed.  When the system is armed, microneedles are inserted from the Keystone into the top of Cain’s spinal column, and from that point on all further modifications to or by the system are carried out at the level of the boy’s nervous system.

Secondary Form/Function:
While the ABEL system does not necessarily change its form, it employs two safety measures which once disengaged can alter the very nature of how it functions. As the ABEL system moves from one mode to the next it greatly enhances its effectiveness as a weapon, though this can be at a cost to the one who employs it.
At its default level of function, the system focuses solely on aura field manipulation. The system takes Cain's aura and amplifies the field to create a shield around his body. While not impenetrable by any stretch of the imagination, this cloak of energy is easily capable of deflecting shrapnel, most glancing blows, and even lighter direct attacks. However, the most important function of ABEL at this level (asides from amplifying Cain’s aura) is to give him easy control of its form.  By using the system, Cain is capable of manipulating his aura as easily as moving one of his limbs. Therefore, while the default shield generated by the system may by fairly impressive already, by condensing his aura to a singular point Cain is able to generate a space capable of dissipating an incredible amount of force. However, far from being just used for defense, the aura-field generated by ABEL is capable of acting as both his shield and his halberd. By isolating his aura to his palms Cain can choose to either generate a powerful concussive force, or by condensing the field further still, an invisible blade possessing an edge far sharper than metal is capable of holding. Meanwhile, by inserting cartridges into the gloves of the ABEL system, Cain is able to utilize the Dust contained within them to alter the nature of the field generated. Depending on how much power is drawn from the cartridge, each is capable of delivering enough energy to modify either three low-level attacks, or a single high-energy output strike.

When the first safety is disengaged by Cain, the indicator light of the Keystone switches from green to yellow as the focus of his aura manipulation turns inward. At this point the needles within his gloves are inserted into his muscular and nervous system, and from there act as conduits for his aura to directly influence his body. By engaging this system Cain gains the ability to actively influence and even enhance his body’s physiological systems including those of this muscular, endocrine, and nervous system. At this point the boy is able to actively control the levels of norepinephrine and various other hormones within his body while also utilizing his aura to enhance the conduction speed of action potentials within his nervous system to increase both his speed and reflexes. By controlling the rate and direction of cell replication Cain can accelerate the repair of damaged tissue (thereby allowing him to rapidly heal minor injuries) or inducing the rapid production of additional fibers within his skeletal muscles to increase his physical power. Meanwhile, modifying the activity of his somatosensory or other sensory systems allows the boy to minimize physical pain and discomfort, or if he so chooses, increase the susceptibility of his sensory receptors to outside stimuli as a way of better of better perceiving his environment.

While this activity of the ABEL system grants Cain incredible power and resilience in battle, it comes at a cost. The human body is not capable of maintaining such accelerated cellular activity, and while Cain has developed several ways to maximize the time he can utilize the ABEL system in this way (including a high energy diet), he cannot allow the system to function at this level for longer than ten minutes.  Doing so can result in severe damage to his internal organs, and extending use beyond this ten minute time limit is likely to quickly take Cain out of a fight.

While the first level of the ABEL system enhances and controls Cain’s aura, and the second level utilizes this aura to modulate his physiology, for the most part these two systems operate independently of one another. His aura output is contingent solely on the amplification granted by the system, and is therefore unaffected by changes to his physical being (short of exhaustion). Meanwhile, while his aura is capable of influencing and accelerating many cellular processes, it is only utilizing his own natural (if somewhat refined) energy to do so. When Cain disengages the second and final safety of the ABEL system, the Keystone indicator switches from yellow to red and the two networks immediately collapse into one another to become a true linked system. Once this link has been activated, the amplification arrays of the ABEL system are allowed to resonate with one another even as they inject raw dust energy into the aura fields being transmitted into Cain’s body. This creates a runaway amplification which results in a rapid and dangerous incorporation of this modified aura field into his body. The two become as one, allowing for near instantaneous transmission of neuronal signals and muscular output and bone reinforcement far beyond what should by physically possible. However the cost of engaging the system at this level is a heavy one. From the moment the fusion occurs, Cain’s cells begin breaking down from the strain cause by the addition of such a powerful foreign energy. Even minimal use of this linked system (no more than two minutes) can result in sever tissue damage and will leave Cain barely capable of moving. Meanwhile, prolonged use can result in severe and possibly irreparable damage to his nervous system, leading to paralysis or even death. Without question, this is the ace up Cain’s sleeve, and it is a card he would only play in the darkest of circumstances.

Summary of ABEL System Abilities:

History:
Created with the help of his father, the ABEL system was designed by Cain to be a unique weapon that could play to his greatest strengths; mainly his aura, his mind, and his knowledge of the human body. From the time of his mother's death to now, this weapon has been almost three years in development. While most weapons are designed to direct a hunter's aura (usually as a projectile), the ABEL system instead turns its focus inward and attempts to build off of abilities which hunters already naturally possess. Depending on their aura and training, most hunters already demonstrate physical aptitude far beyond that of normal humans including increased strength, reflexes, or even accelerated healing. Rather than accept these as they are, Cain created the ABEL system as a way to isolate and maximize these abilities, and in doing so reach an entirely new level of physical power.

Very nice, I can see you put a lot of work into it. I have to ask, could you put a TL;DR for your weapon? A lot of people might want to see how your weapon works before a battle, and might not have time to read that whole passage. Other than that, I think it's good to go.

Sure thing, I'll distill the ABEL systems abilities into bullet-points at the end

EDIT: I have created a summary of Cain's weapon at the end of the function section. If there is anything else that needs clarification don't hesitate to ask.

Also, how will I know if/when my character is approved?

You'll know your approved by seeing this post! Approved!