Auburn Lutra is an otter Faunus from the continent of Menagerie, and the leader of team ABRN (pronounced Auburn). His weapons are an Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle called Raijin, and a .45 mm handgun called Fujin.
Appearance[]
Auburn is a youthful-looking male with a thin, muscular build. He stands at 5'11" but usually says he is six feet. He has auburn hair that he keeps chin-length, with a white streak that drapes over his left eye. His eyes are violet, but appear blue in low lighting. His skin is quite pale despite long hours in the sun. His Faunus heritage is a two-foot-long, powerful, rudder tail that he uses for swimming and for balance. The tail often causes him problems, as it won't fit into any regular pants.
He has a several vertical scars on his back from a surprise Ursa attack, and one very large scar on his right pectoral muscle where his teammate Blau Ritter had once stabbed him by accident. He has a tattoo of his symbol, a purple scallop shell with a stylized eye on it, on his right shoulder blade.
Clothing[]
Auburn wears a pair of camouflage jeans, an ever-changing novelty t-shirt, a reddish-brown hoodie with black pockets and a black diagonal zipper running from his left shoulder to his right hip, a pair of black tabi boots, a tactical tool belt containing pouches and holsters, and a black leather "shooting glove" on his right hand. He has no need for glasses, but he wears a futuristic-looking visor as a pair of glasses anyway. The visor is part of a three-piece helmet that he wears into battle, but it functions on its own as a heads-up display monitor for his pocket-sized computer and as a wireless headset for his phone and mp3 player. When he carries Raijin, he attaches it to a special combat harness so Raijin stays rigid on his back instead of swinging around by a strap.
On the tactical belt, there are two pouches containing a med kit and survival kit, respectively. There is also a holster for his his handgun Fujin, which he always carries, and a tactical folding knife with his symbol emblazoned on the handle and blade. The blade, measuring four inches, is made of Dusteel and has a black finish, a tanto point that is said to be as sharp as a dragon's fang, and a wickedly sharp edge. He uses it in emergency close-quarters combat situations, since his other weapons are strictly ranged. He also keeps two extra magazines each for Fujin and Raijin.
Personality[]
Auburn is usually described as either "smart" or a "smartass", depending on whom you ask. He is incredibly brilliant, especially when it comes to words. His vocabulary is colossal, and he wields it skillfully for both humor and diplomacy. He has a very sophisticated sense of humor, although he can be quite juvenile at times. His true talent as a leader is in his ability to use his words in any situation, diffusing the most tense arguments, persuading the most stubborn of people to change their opinions, even convincing teachers to reduce homework loads (a skill that has earned him many admirers).
He generally has a fairly jovial mood, even in battle. One of the few things that can force him out of this mood is bullying of any sort. He cannot tolerate bullies, and will stand up for the little guy even at the cost of his own safety or dignity. In these situations he has a very difficult time not throwing punches; the only thing stopping him is the knowledge that he might make it worse for the person he protected.
Weapons & Tools[]
Raijin[]
Raijin is an Anti-Materiel Sniper Rifle (AMSR) with a light gray stock and body, a darker gray barrel, a revolving Dust recepticle, and a pair of stabilizer legs that fold up into the bottom of the body. The barrel and stock collapse into the body when not in use.
Raijin in its combat-ready form.
The ammunition for Raijin is an armor-piercing 50 cal round, but what makes it anti-materiel (materiel is anything not classified as personnel, such as tanks, buildings, electronic systems, and of course, giant robots) is the Dust receptacle that the round passes through as it is fired. Different colors of Dust give the round different boosts: red creates incendiary rounds, yellow creates an electromagnetic pulse for taking out computers, white gives an enormous boost in speed and piercing power for tanks and even steel walls, and cyan actually slows the bullet by cooling it and the gases released when it is fired, effectively silencing it by bringing it to sub-sonic speeds; cyan is the color Auburn will most commonly use to hunt creatures of Grimm.
Even though Auburn can defend himself in a pinch, his main strength lies in his intelligence and sniper abilities, so he leads his team in battle from the shadows, communicating with them via communication links. For this reason, Raijin is strictly a ranged weapon and doesn't transform.
Fujin[]
Fujin is a 45 mm Semi-Automatic Dust Handgun (SADH) that Auburn uses in the event that enemies discover his position and he can't use Raijin. Fujin has decent stopping power, but is pretty much useless against machines and armor. It uses green Dust rounds, enhancing the speed and power of the bullets with wind; bursts of green light can be seen as each round is fired.
Ryujin[]
Ryujin is the name of Auburn's folding combat knife. Since his weapon and sidearm are strictly ranged, he uses Ryujin in the event that his position is discovered and he has to defend himself. He is a fairly skilled fighter and knife wielder, but these can only do so much against an armored foe or machine, so he tries very hard to avoid detection during battle.
Cybuto[]
The Cybuto, or Cyber-Kabuto, is a battle helmet made up of three pieces: a mask for the lower half of the face, a visor for the eyes, and a helmet that slides over the head and forehead. Auburn wears the visor part as glasses and heads-up display, but when attached to the rest of the helmet it provides infrared vision and automatic light-balancing properties. The lower face mask, which looks like a big, grinning mouth with sharp teeth, acts as a rebreather, allowing him to breathe in hostile conditions such as toxic clouds or underwater. The helmet part, which has a camouflage domed top and a part that hangs behind covering part of the neck, provides decent head protection. Each member of team ABRN has a Cybuto, but only Auburn and his partner Neon Ailur actually wear them.
Chariot[]
Chariot is Auburn's vehicle. It is a giant wheel bike: instead of a wheel in the front and back, it has a giant wheel that goes all the way around the bike, and the driver sits in the middle. The body is matte gray and looks like a sport bike (akin to our world's Kawasaki Ninja) and the wheel is white with a black tire. He built Chariot himself, and has difficulty finding replacement tires. Chariot has a top speed of 160 mph, but Auburn will jokingly complain that the only foreseeable way to attain this speed is to drive it off a cliff.
Shooting Glove[]
Auburn wears a specially made black leather glove on his right hand; it is a a regular glove, but has no index finger. This allows for full flexibility and maneuverability in his "trigger finger".
Powers & Abilities[]
Fighting Style[]
Auburn is a decent hand-to-hand combatant, but only in the sense that he is able to defend himself against relatively unskilled assailants; he has no special talents when it comes to close-quarters fighting, which is why he selected a sniper rifle as his weapon. In the event that his perch is discovered, he can use his combat knife and handgun to defend himself until backup arrives.
Auburn's main combat abilities are in his skills as a sniper and in his vast intellectual capacity. He is a brilliant strategist, and views the battlefield from well-chosen vantage points. His Semblance aids him in this, allowing him to rapidly switch between vantage points instantaneously.
Aura[]
Auburn has a white Aura, which gives him the usual enhancements during battle. He laments the brightness of it, however, as it is a "dead giveaway" when he is trying to find a satisfactory sniper perch.
Semblance[]
Due to his lack of physical strength and speed, Auburn is very vulnerable to attacks when his position is discovered. Thanks to his Semblance, this vulnerability is greatly lessened. His Semblance is called "Blink", and it allows him to teleport short distances, permitting him to escape. He can also use it to move between vantage points, which lets him fire from several different places in rapid succession, confusing the enemy. However, it can be very taxing on his Aura to use Blink too many times: the distance traveled, as well as the amount of weight teleporting with him, all add to the energy drain. If he overestimates his remaining Aura, he can wind up completely exhausted after a Blink, or even dead due to overexertion.
Origin[]
Auburn was born on the continent of Menagerie; his parents are both otter Faunus: his father is a Huntsman named Albite, and his mother is a former naval officer named Moonstone. He has one younger brother, Granite, with whom he has very little contact; he refuses to share the reason for this, and not even his parents know.
When he was born, his mother was still in the navy, so he moved around a lot. Despite the hectic lifestyle, his family, whom he lovingly refers to as his "holt", managed to stay together, until the incident that cost him his relationship with his brother forced him to leave home. The "incident" happened during a forbidden hunting trip he and his brother decided to take when they were eleven and eight, respectively. His brother, also a sniper, accidentally killed a man named Dogrose Orion, a Huntsman who had been on a mission tracking a pack of Beowolves. They hid the body and swore never to speak of it, but it weighed too greatly on their minds for four years, and instead of creating a bond of trust between them they grew distant, eventually breaking into a fight that shattered their friendship. Auburn still loves his brother dearly, but cannot look him in the eye when he returns home to visit from Beacon.
He attended Sanctum for the usual amount of time, passed his exams with little trouble, and joined Beacon at fifteen, finally giving him some stability in his otherwise chaotic life; even at Sanctum, he had always been "that military brat", so he'd never really had any friends beside his brother. At Beacon, he finally found a team he could develop a relationship with. He quickly fell in love with Blau Ritter, his second-in-command, but is too scared to say anything for several reasons, not least of which being that she is the strongest member physically, and could give him the beat-down of a lifetime. He has no idea that the crush is mutual, but both are too scared to say anything. His other teammates, Neon Ailur and Royt Rafael, know exactly what is going on, but want to watch the drama unfold.
Trivia[]
- Auburn is a reddish-brown hair color, and would normally be considered a somewhat effeminate name; this is a bit of a sore subject for Auburn, and he resents his parents for their choice of name. Lutra is the Latin word for otter, and is also the genus name for several species of river otter, including the American river otter (Lutra canadensis).
- His Semblance is based on the popular videogame mechanic of the same name, but while the videogame version requires line-of-sight, Auburn's only requires the knowledge that a location is unoccupied by another object.
- His guns and knife are each named for Japanese gods: Raijin is the god of lightning, often paired with Fujin, the god of wind, in classical Japanese mythology. Ryujin is the dragon god who lives in the ocean and controls the tides. I didn't really try to associate the names of the weapons with their abilities, although perhaps Raijin's electromagnetic rounds, Fujin's wind-enhanced bullets, and Ryujin's sharpness can allude to these characteristics.
- His favorite foods are, predictably, fish and shellfish, but he'll eat anything except for mushrooms, cabbage, or eggs.
- His favorite music genre are progressive rock, progressive metal, heavy metal, classic rock, and hard rock. He dislikes pop, electronic, and electronic dance music, but he can tolerate some dubstep.
- I didn't really have an inspiration for Auburn in particular; he is pretty much a homegrown OC.
- His intro song is BU2B by Rush; his battle theme is Save Me by Avenged Sevenfold.