neptune is absolutely the best guy, glad the mods support it.

Sounds good dude, I'm going to keep bullshit to a minimum, or at least the not fun kind. So nobody should be starting fights in the 7/11 or anything outrageous.

Honestly the primary motivation for the semblance was to allow him to survive a bit longer 'on the streets' etc, combat usefulness came second as I was thinking of it.

And how it's used would depend on the situation. If Stan and his team are walking through a forest, chilling, and then they get surprised, he probably wouldn't even use it. His heart would be racing, he'd be surprised and scared, it would make him tired so quickly that it would be better to just not use it.
In that situation, his semblance would have a max duration of maybe 15 minutes. That means that even if the fight only took 10, he'd still be extremely tired from 66% of his max duration being used.

However, say he's walking into a menacing cave, he might activate it as he walks in, before he's actually fighting. In that case, he would fight 100% against whatever is in the cave, trying to win as fast as possible. Once the combat is over, he'd deactivate his semblance where a few different things could happen.

1)He gets tired from the semblance use, his aura depletes all at once from all of the hits he took, and the cuts he may have received begin bleeding and hurting, depending on how long it was active, he may suddenly become very hungry or sleepy or w/e.
2)Same as above but during the fight he took so many hits without realizing that his aura completely depletes, and he dies.

In this situation, his semblance would have a max duration of maybe an hour. That means that if the fight took 10 minutes, he'd only be tired from ~17% of his max duration being used.

So in these two situations, despite combat lasting the exact same length of time, the first would make him much more tired because of how he was when the semblance was activated.

For the record part, that's an actual thing that can happen, but it's no biggie to change it. For the semblance, I'm going to say it can last at most eight hours, but that would never happen in a fight, he'd have to be basically meditating.

The second question is hard to answer because the duration isn't constant. For every 1/10 of the max duration, he'll become as tired as if he just ran mile. Hope that makes sense. It's hard to put hard numbers on things like this, but I promise not to be stupid with it.

I know you said to keep the suggestions out of comments but this is important enough that I think it warrants it.

Please, please take out all of the shitty jokes. None of them are funny, they're weird non sequitur that just distract from the point. It would make the post about 10000000x better, seriously.

Hyacacinth wandered into the stadium to scout things out. Her match was up soon and she'd never heard of these stupid tournaments, she'd look like a complete idiot if she didn't know the conduct and shit. She walked up to the weird fucker who was wearing a coat for some reason, even though the weather was perfectly nice. She tapped him on the shoulder and loudly asked, "Hey asshole, why the fuck are you wearing a coat?" She didn't hear his response, if there was one, as her attention switched to the fight happening. The two dudes in the arena were going at it, yelling stupid phrases while they fought.

Did she have to do that too? She could ask the coat guy...but...that would be gross. Better to just wait it out and see if they announced rules before the next match or something. She idly sat down next to asshole coat guy, eyes locked on the stadium.

CHARACTER

Name:
William Staniforth Donahue
Age:
20
Species and Gender:
Male Tibeten Sand Fox faunus http://boredomtherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/08-tibetan-sand-fox.jpg
Occupation:
First year student at beacon, Does odd jobs
Appearance:
Stan has many distinctive features, any of which could could be the key part of someone, but together they create an interesting image. His goldish green eyes are often intense, framed by bushy golden brown sideburns that line both sides of his face. These lead up to carefully styled hair that comes to a few large swooping points. His faunus heritage gives him an adorable tail which usually hangs free.
He generally wears a black tank top with dark jeans or a white shirt with the same dark jeans, his wardrobe is understated and simple. It accentuates his skinny features, as despite working with his hands often and otherwise significant physical activity, Don never really manages to gain weight, leaving him stuck around 130 at 5’8”
History:
Some people come into the world in a pleasant way, at least for childbirth. The mother gets drugged the hell up and pushes out a kid quickly and efficiently in a cozy and expensive hospital suite. The baby is hugged by the mother before being carted off by doctors and nurses to be cleaned and swaddled, allowing the new mother to rest.
This is not how Will was born. He was born on a mountain, in the middle of the woods, at night, alone. Well obviously his mother was there, but nobody else. Things didn’t get much better from there, his family wasn’t exactly wealthy, his father might as well have not been around with how much he worked. Still, he provided the funds for Bill and his mom to live comfortably, if not luxuriously.

Unfortunately, this environment didn’t lead to the best development for Stan. He didn’t have many friends as a kid, and it wasn’t until he got involved with some people he should have avoided that he began to have anything greater than acquaintanceships. At the disastrously young age of twelve, he began selling acid to some of the older kids at school. At the same time, he got involved with the same drugs he was selling and more. He had money now, money that was just for him and nobody else. He shared his wealth and suddenly, his social circle grew. He was givin ends to his friends and it felt stupendous, but selling acid was a bad idea. And selling it to a cop was a worse one.

Don was given a light sentence due to his age, he had to stay in school and keep his nose clean. Essentially he was put on probation and required to attend a special rehab facility for youths, though if he succeeded at this until he was eighteen he would have the charges wiped from his record through a diversion system. However, this was made very difficult by his parents, who kicked him out of the house. His parents had both been addicts and were now extremely straight edge after their recovery. Despite frequent warnings and talks with their son, he had disobeyed them, and they felt that he needed to feel the bite of the real world, since in their opinion his punishment through the court was too light.

Stan couch surfed for a few months with some of the friends he had made, but without the money he’d been making, that well of friends quickly dried up. So he started doing odd jobs, mowing lawns, watching dogs, traditional jobs for a kid his age. This wasn’t enough to support him though, and he made his way further and further west out of Vale, looking for greater earnings. This eventually led him to one of the places his father had taken him, when he had the time.

It was a preserve/ranch that aimed itself at letting regular citizens go out and do things like rock climbing, white water rafting, hiking, etc. without having to worry about Grimm. The massive area was kept clear of Grimm with things like scent barriers and electric fences keyed to hit anything without an aura. Each experience also had multiple guides who were trained to fight off Grimm should they appear.

It was here that Stan found his salvation, the owner of the property was a friend of his fathers and had allowed Stan and his father to come there for free, so they made themselves regulars. He recognized Stan as soon as he arrived, looking for work, and took him in. The employed him first for doing grunt labor, things that a kid could do like sweeping, dishes, etc. In return he got a bed in the employee housing and three meals a day.

However, there were bigger plans for him than just that. He began combat training with one of the guides, though the guide mostly gave him techniques to practice and tips every once in awhile, the actual training was left to Don. Eventually, around the time he turned fourteen, they had him begin helping to maintain the park, clearing trails, felling trees, even going on trips to help the guides. Eager to stay busy, he threw himself into his work. Of course, he made time for his studies as well, if only to satisfy his probation officer.

When he was fifteen, he ran into his father, who offered to let him come home, but Will declined. His father had never been so proud. A year later, he became an assistant guide full time, engaging himself in fights when necessary, though always with the knowledge that he was safe to step back and let the others handle it if he felt overwhelmed. His pride prevented this, he instead made himself the point man whenever possible, needing to prove his worth.

Despite his work, he was still miles behind the guides he truly looked up to in terms of combat ability, they were full fledged hunters after all. Will knew what he had to do.
When he turned sixteen he applied for Beacon, but was rejected due to his criminal record. He took that time to improve himself, and see more of the world. He used his connections from the first job to become a forest firefighter. He stayed there, but as he was only able to work half the year there, he picked up a job logging during the off season. After four years, he felt ready to try again and applied for Beacon, this time succeeding since due to the details of his court case, his record had been wiped clean.


Personality:
Firstly, he’s very responsible, if not proactive. He does things asked of him promptly, the kind of guy you can always count on to follow through. The caveat to that is that you have to actually ask him, he’s dependable for other people but when it comes to things another responsible person would do autonomously, like open a bank account, he wouldn’t. He is still independant though, being something akin to on his own for much of his life, he learned to take care of himself and doesn’t take kindly to being coddled or restricted. This is also because of his pride, more of hubris really. He’s ambitious, and he’s confident enough that he goes for it. What also helps that is his focus, to the point of him sometimes getting too locked in on one thing, one task. He gets obsessed and doesn’t relent until he succeeds or gets too worn down to continue.


Aura and Semblance:
Bill can ‘pause’ his body into its current state for an amount of time dependent on his current state. ‘Pausing’ stops him from growing hungry, losing aura, taking damage, etc. For as long as the semblance is active. However, everything catches up with him when it stops, so he pauses and then gets punched in the face, he’ll feel the impact but won't take aura damage or anything until his semblance deactivates.

Due to its nature, the semblance does make him tired, but only after it deactivates. It deactivates either when he decides or when the the exhaustion gets to the point where he would pass out. How quickly it exhausts him is dependent on his mental state and his bodily integrity. If he gets shot in the heart, he might be able to pause and hold off death for a second, at most. However if he's waiting in line and doesn't want to leave to go pee, he might be able to pause for several hours, since he's calm and hasn't taken any hits or damage.

This continues to be the case after he activates it as well, so if he pauses before a fight, at the time it'll be draining slowly but once he fighting, and therefore stops being calm and starts having an accelerated heart rate etc, it will drain more quickly.

The semblance also locks out positive effects, so if he is healed by a teammate, it won't take effect until the semblance deactivates. It also will somewhat lock his mind, so if he has a lot of dopamine flowing through his brain and is in a great mood, the pause will extend that great mood. (Note: this won't in any way prevent him from getting panicked in fights, and therefore slowly the rate of energy drain, it's there entirely for out of combat character flavor type stuff)

Combat Behavior:
In a fight, it’s possible to survive without winning, and it’s possible to win without surviving. Stan focuses on the latter. His standard plan is to use his semblance at the very beginning and go all out, doing whatever it takes to win as fast as possible. He does try to stay wary of how many hits he's taken, because he can't really keep track of whether he's close to dying or not while the semblance is active. This doesn't mean he particularly cares about his wellbeing, he still does whatever it takes.
He does fight fast and hard, but that doesn't preclude him from strategy or planning, it's not exactly rashness but rather a desire to end the fight quickly. So he does a fair amount of planning, just not in the most traditional sense.
While his plans will gladly risk his own wellbeing, he avoids anything that might endanger his teammates or bystanders, he wouldn't want to bring them down with him.

WEAPON
Primary Form:
A long Pulaski
Secondary Form:
The head is interchangeable with an Olympia style double bitted axehead.
Tertiary Form:
I mean technically he could have no axe head and just use the handle?
History:
His first pulaski was standard issue for firefighters, the olympia head is from his time working as a logger. Upon leaving for beacon he couldn’t choose one to take and so had new axe heads forged made to be interchangeable. The current handle is a shaft of ash that he carved himself. 


Primary Form:
A single bit hatchet about with an 18in. handle.
Secondary Form:
The head of the axe collapses vertically and turns into a pick.
History:
The classic tool of every woodsman, this was given to him upon starting his first job. The collapsable head allows it to be used more as a more potent piercing weapon against certain Grimm, though he has found plenty of other purposes for it as well.


Primary Form:
He carries three flares that he has modified to explode rather than burn slowly.
Secondary Form:
The changes he made can be quickly undone to return them to regular, slowburning flares.
Dust Functions:
They’d probably be made with fire dust, idk.
History:
He made one in a pinch to fight a Grimm, began carrying some premade with him ever since then.