Piers Garetson

CHARACTER

Name: Piers Garetson

Age: 18 (Twelfth day of the ninth month)

Gender: Male

Symbol:

Symbol:

Occupation: Student

Appearance: Piers has always valued simplicity in how he's lived his life, a philosophy that shows as in what he wears as much as how he acts. He's normally seen wearing a brown leather vest over top of a short sleeve cotton shirt, with slacks to match his vest. A length of green cloth functions as a belt, the only thing Piers added to his attire as a stylistic choice. Physically, Piers stands at 5' 8" and has a slim, if tone body build. Scruffy blonde hair adorns his head, but it's trimmed back to not cover his face or blue eyes. With a confident stance and a slight smile on his lips, Piers generally comes across as a friendly and easily approachable person.

History: For the vast part of his life, Piers had a fairly standard home environment and childhood. He had two parents who were affectionate and attentive, a younger sister that he got along with usually, and a house in the rural area of the agricultural district of Vale. Their family was never very well off, but they lived comfortably enough off of their parents' wages and the side projects they performed such as tool repair, hunting and trapping, and the small farm they maintained for themselves.

Although he's always had trouble connecting with others, Piers believed in the idea that working together and doing good brought a much needed harmony to the world. This belief is what eventually gave birth to his desire to become a hunter, a job he felt was the best way he could aid others. Through frugal living and hard work on everyone's part, the Garetson household eventually scraped enough money together to send both he and his sister Selena to Signal Academy. The creative thinking required to live comfortably in the countryside that Piers learned added him well in school, allowing him to excel at his studies and bookwork.

Where he struggled, however, was in the area of combat. When working with others Piers developed a defensive fighting style, which worked well when others were around but lead him to struggle with finishing fights on his own in a timely manner. While others found themselves devoting their study time to academic subjects, Piers found it necessary to practice combat from sun up to sun down in order to get passing grades. At the very least, all the practice helped to make him tone and agile on the battlefield.

During their final year at Signal Academy, Piers and Selena began to grow apart due to their fundamental views of the world. While Piers valued the greater good, Selena became more and more disconnected with others. A combination of arrogance and pride eventually lead her to drop out before graduation and pursue a life of her own. While the loss of his sister in his life saddened Piers greatly, he continued to push forward and graduated with above average, although not exceptional, marks and applied for Beacon Academy. At first Piers didn't make the original wave of acceptances, but due to a few people dropping out before the start of school, he found himself in the last spot of acceptances and packed his bags for Beacon Academy.

Personality: On the surface Piers is a friendly and outgoing individual who speaks and acts with confidence. He always pushes himself to get to know others by more then just their name and is more than willing to go out of his way to help those around him. At times it can reach a point where Piers comes across as too helpful. This reaches into his combat tendencies as well, where Piers will focus on supporting his team with his semblance and taking hits for others instead of engaging the enemy directly.

Deep down however, Piers struggles to form emotional bonds with others. His mind tends to break down situations into base concepts, numbers, and ideas, which works great during a fight but as he learned from a young age, there is no math formula for friendship. This is why he forces himself to be so friendly, simply because it is easier to appear friendly than it is to appear connected with someone. Piers also worries that he's not cut out for Beacon Academy because of his fighting style. The idea that a Hunter should be a defender looks great on paper, but in actuality he wonders if the concept of 'a good defense is a great offense' is the superior ideology. On some level he's already resigned to the idea that he might fail and he'll have to take what he learned and pursue a new life goal with it, but Piers isn't about to throw in the towel any time soon. He is nothing if not determined.

Strength: Outside of combat, Piers's calculating mind and determination gives him an edge in academic studies. While those with natural talent and exceptional passion in particular subjects generally surpass him, Piers is capable of doing well consistently in any subject in the classroom. Having started school a year later and his general inability to relate to others also lends Piers a great deal of maturity that helps him weather the emotional outbursts of others.

In combat Piers's extensive use of his aura and semblance have strengthened them far beyond average. Piers can take blows that most people would only think about accepting if they had heavy armor on. Practice and dust techniques also give him a surprising amount of agility. While he's certainly not the fastest person on the battlefield, Piers has a knack for getting to the right place at the right time to be the best use to his allies.

Weakness: Outside of combat, Piers struggles with connecting with others. While many people would consider him personable and likable, he himself does not consider himself to have many, if any, friends. Piers acts on the behalf of others mostly because he doesn't want to become as distanced from others as his sister has, and not because he has a particular interest in seeing any individual succeed. He acknowledges that while a noble action is good any way you look at it, performing them because of your own reasons and not for others does not make you altruistic. Piers also has difficulty with confrontation, he would much rather find a solution that works for everyone or back down himself instead of getting into a argument over who is right and who is wrong, regardless if there are clear rights and wrongs.

Inside of combat, Piers lacks substantial offensive abilities. When working together Piers can allow others to fight for him, but when working alone he is at a clear disadvantage. Even his weapon is inferior to other weapons when dealing finishing blows, being designed more for defense. Piers also relies on his aura and semblance to function in combat more than others, which causes him to run through it faster than others. While Piers is able to block above average damage with his aura from a single hit, he can't sustain such a defense for as long as others could against lighter hits.

Semblance: Piers's semblance allows him to strengthen the auras of other people in specific ways. He can use it to enhance the natural abilities of someone, making them faster, stronger, or harder to hit, as well as to invigorate them with burst of energy. His semblance can also be used to augment the healing that someone's aura provides, allowing them to permanently recover from the scraps and bruises of combat. While minor injuries are simple to repair, much more serious injuries like substantial bleeding or broken bones require time and more energy, two things that typically can't be spared during a fight. Piers's semblance is most efficient with physical contact, it can be used over a very small distance but ends up lasting far shorter and being far less effective. None of the enhancing, invigorating, or healing abilities of his semblance can be used to great effect on himself.

WEAPON

Name: Serenes

Primary Form: A six foot dark green quarterstaff made out of wood but treated and hardened with dust to make it as strong as steel.

Secondary Form: With a twist in the middle of the weapon, Serenes comes apart into two sections held together by a chain. The two sections collapse into themselves in order to make a normal sized pair of nunchucks.

Dust techniques: Piers uses dust in his weapon to produce wind based effects. Most commonly Piers produces a short burst of wind to push friends and foes alike as needed, as well as producing a small and thin bladed wave which functions as his only distanced attack. Piers can also use dust to put a little spring in his step so he can run around the battlefield faster. This technique is only good for running around, it does not give Piers the dexterity and precision necessary to dodge incoming attacks and remain close enough to counter attack. Unless, that is, his plan for dodging was to run away anyways.

History: Piers, like most other students of Signal Academy, crafted his own weapon. While it's an effective weapon, he didn't get any extra points for originality or functionality.

Sounds good to me. Approved.

Approved.