CHARACTER


Name: Kirkka Scarlet

Age: 37. Born Niege 6th, 42 AC

Gender and Species: Female Human

Symbol: Flameward. Her symbol was designed and named based on her favoritism toward fire in her early days of combat school.

Occupation: Groundskeeper and Advisor at Beacon Academy.

Appearance: Kirkka stands at an even six feet(183 cm) and weighs in around 161(73kgs)pounds. She looks like she keeps herself fit, but is hardly a bodybuilder. A very faint tan is sometimes present on her face and arms due to being outside often for her job, but otherwise, there are no visible markings on her. She has well-kempt auburn and black streaked hair, nearly always tied into a ponytail that reaches just past her shoulder blades. Her oval shaped face sports grey eyes sitting above her average sized nose, glancing about as she observes her surroundings closely but discreetly with an innocent smile. She looks to be about her age, perhaps a few years older.

A cloth piece is wrapped around her chest to allow maximum flexibility while also supporting her. Its edges have small lacy flair. Over that, dual layer shoulder pads attached to a hood cover her shoulders, extending beyond them just slightly. She often keeps the hood down, especially when not on missions. Unless it’s raining.

Fingerless gloves extend all the way up her arms, reaching her biceps before ending with more decorative flair. Wind-like metalwork covers the back of her hand and her forearms. She can sometimes be seen wearing small caps on her fingers, similar to thimbles. These protect fingers from dust-related accidents while working with it.

Her lower half is covered by a mid-thigh length skirt, and over that, a waist cape that reaches just to her ankles. The cape is made of cloth, but a layer of leather cover the two sides. The uncovered backside is decorated with a few straps and buckles, but they seem to be decorative only. On the sides of the skirt where it meets with the cape, six large square rivets hold the two pieces together as one. Sturdy boots are covered by cloth leggings that end just before the skirt starts. The entire outfit is primarily dark red with a light matte grey. Album.

Kirkka’s primary weapon, Ira, rests securely strapped horizontally to her lower back in its three segments. The power of MAGNETS allows her to draw them individually or at once. Each segment connects to the next as they are drawn. Just below this holster, attached to her belt, is a small series of pouches, which contain extra Dust canisters for her weapon, and other minor trinkets. Her symbol is seen on a pouch on her left side. Everything about her attire is designed with mobility in mind, and Kirkka is able to move very freely.


History: Kirkka Scarlet is the daughter of Claire and Reginald Scarlet, born on the 6th of Niege, 42 AC. The family lived in a small village on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Vale, but that only lasted until Kirkka was two, when they were forced to evacuate due to repeated Grimm attacks. The village suffered heavy casualties in an attack only a day before when a passing Huntsmen warned the village of another impending attack that was even larger than the last. The village evacuated together and managed to return to Vale, suffering only minor casualties on the trip back. Kirkka’s family all made it back to Vale where they moved in with Claire’s friends until they could get their own home.

Kirkka’s father was a huntsman who retired once she was born. As such, Kirkka had plenty of time to learn about his world and became very interested in Dust specifically. She spent much of her time learning all she could about the material and followed in her father’s footsteps by enrolling at Signal Academy when the time came.

While her time at Signal was spent learning both general knowledge, and how to fight, her time at home was spent further studying Dust, and its uses throughout the world. Ira, her staff, has been with her since she built the first iteration of it at Signal. As expected by everyone, it was designed in order to maximize the use and utility of Dust. Her abilities and focus led to her often playing a support role in battles, using Dust to enhance her allies, debilitate her enemies and control the battlefield. In her final year at Signal, her parents got divorced. Her father moved away when he learned of Claire’s affair with a neighbor of theirs. Kirkka did not speak with her mother for a long time after hearing the news.

Upon graduating from Signal, Kirkka made plans to study Dust at a specialized school. Her father, who was living in Atlas at the time, convinced her to attend Beacon instead, citing that she can learn so much more there. She agreed and was later accepted to the prestigious Academy.

It wasn’t until Kirkka’s third year at Beacon that her mother had married another man. She learned this man was their neighbor for years, and they had been having an affair. This only drove Kirkka and her mother further apart. A few short months later, Kirkka's mother Claire gave birth to Kaali Charen, Kirkka’s half-sister. Unfortunately, there were complications during birth, and Claire did not survive the ordeal. Kirkka despised herself for not reconciling with her mother.

Having graduated at the top of her class in Dust mechanics and top five in Aura Mechanics, Kirkka decided to spend another year at a specialist school becoming a master of Dust manipulation and control. She refined her knowledge of dust, dust based weaponry, and specialist tools such as Semblance Catalysts. After graduating from that trade school, she worked for yet another year in the field, traveling and fighting with a variety of groups or huntsmen or the military as a consult. Her mastery of Dust led to several well-paying jobs.

At the age of 24, Kirkka became the legal guardian of her half-sister Kaali Charen. Kaali was four years old by now, and Kirkka struggled to raise her despite her aversion to children.

One year afterward, the Huntress was summoned to Beacon Academy by the new headmaster of Beacon Academy. They insisted that she take up a job at Beacon Academy, but would not divulge a strong reason as to why, though it became clear to her quickly. Her semblance was peculiar and quite unique. While its combat capabilities were extremely narrow, it held a wide range of uses for someone as secretive as the headmaster of Beacon. She eventually accepted the job of Advisor, and further became the Groundskeeper due to her desire to keep things tidy around the campus, and further as she developed the small garden the school had.

It has been twelve years since then, and Kirkka continues to maintain the garden while advising both students and instructors, especially the headmaster, in various concepts. She’s helped many students with their weapons and regularly assists the small Dust shop on the campus with Semblance Catalyst Foci.


Personality: As someone who interacts with others often, Kirkka is typically quite friendly when approached, but tends not to start conversations with others as she prefers to remain with her own thoughts and observe quietly. When engaged, she prefers to discuss her hobbies or expertise: Dust, weapons, Aura, and semblances.

Kirkka has had quite some time to get over it, but she still recalls the pain of her mother's death. They were on very bad terms when it happened, and Kirkka struggles to forgive herself for allowing the situation to evolve into what it was. She becomes awkwardly quiet when the topic of family comes into the conversation, with the exception of discussing her half-sister, Kaali.

At Beacon, she mostly stays out of people’s way unless asked, in which she is happy to assist however she can with any tasks. She also has an irrational hatred of those who damage benches. Some say it's because of a past relationship she had with a mysterious person named Bench. She denies everything about it.


Aura and Semblance: Kirkka is a master in the use of both Aura and Dust. Manipulating her own power comes second nature to her, and as such she is able to perform a wide variety of functions, from detecting nearby Aura sources or approaching Grimm, strengthening her melee strikes, and sending out short-range blasts of pure force, capable of knocking back and damaging targets.

Kirkka’s semblance is Psychometry, which allows her to read the history of any non-living object she is touching. Typically, she concentrates when she does this, allowing her to quickly read a great deal of the object’s history over a short period. However, if she knows the time and date a specific memory happened, a graze of her hand is all that’s needed to extract that particular memory.

Kirkka has received very advanced training in the use and mechanics of Dust. She is an expert at manipulating dust to create desired effects. She is also skilled both at mixing and creating nearly any type of dust, a skill she uses for her own weapon in addition to assisting students and the local Dust shop. She is also capable of constructing and recharging Semblance Catalyst Foci.

In addition to the Dust she carries, Kirkka usually carries supplies with her to produce a limited amount of Semblance Catalysts and can recharge other’s Foci in the field.


Combat Behavior: From creating elemental barriers to utilizing elementally enhanced melee strikes, Kirkka’s fighting style is as the elements she can create. She focuses heavily on controlling the battlefield and her opponents through the use of dust from her staff.

When challenged in melee, Kirkka specializes in keeping on the defensive and creating distance between her and her opponents, a feat that comes much more easily to her thanks to her weapon’s long reach. A staff is very well suited to keeping opponents out of range of using their own melee weapons. However, she is no stranger to attacking and makes quick, elemental counter attacks with either or both ends of her staff. The combination of dust and melee defense makes her a formidable opponent, and it can be very difficult to beat her as she seems to have an answer to everything.

Her greatest weakness, however, is a lack of space. Staves are not small weapons, and swinging it around can become difficult when in a small area or fighting close to allies. Additionally, many of her dust empowered attacks consume a large space, so using them in tight quarters is rarely an option. While she does have the ability to deflect attacks with her dust empowered staff, it is not an endless defense by any means, and she is generally susceptible to sustained ranged attacks.


WEAPON

Name: Ira

Primary Form: Ira is a six-foot-long staff made up of three equal length segments. The end of each section is enlarged, using a magnetic locking system to keep the segments together easily. Around these systems is a complicated storage system, capable of storing six different cartridges of Dust on each end of the staff, totaling thirty-six. When the segments are joined together, the ports to release Dust are blocked. As such, only the two ends of her staff can be fired at once, but due to the design of the weapon combined with Kirkka’s practice and use of Aura, the order of the segments can be very rapidly changed. Kirkka has been known to use the segments separately as well, one in each hand.


Storage Form: Kirkka wears a holster most of the time that straps securely to her back. Each segment compresses by half a foot when being stored at an angle in the holster. When drawing the weapon, pulling on a segment from the left will pull only one segment, but when removing them from the right they will chain together and form the whole staff, fully extending to max length at the same time. This allows her to draw one long staff or two short staves as the situation requires.

Utility Form: Kirkka has a wide array of attachments for her staff, mostly to fulfil her duties at Beacon Academy. The attachments work on any end of her staff, so if she doesn’t need the full reach, she can use two at once. They’re like dental tools! Turn em around and they’re something else that’s pointy. An inclusive but not exhaustive list of the attachments she has access to are, Broom, Rake, Shovel, Mattock, Hedge Trimmer, Grabby Arm, Chomper, Sprayer, Squeegee, Hook, Chainsaw, Weed Whacker, Bug Net, Pitch Fork, and Umbrella.

Dust Functions: Ira is capable of holding up to thirty-six capsules of dust, each containing a unique mixture of dust, and therefore a different effect when released. Releasing dust is triggered by the many small controls on the weapon. Due to the weapon’s complicated functionality, it can be hard for someone to pick up the staff and utilize its functions without instruction from Kirkka.

As an expert in Dust and dust empowered weapons, Kirkka can create her own capsules for her weapon by mixing dust in just the right way to customize its exact effects. Some of the more common effects are listed below, organized into categories. She activates each capsule in a category in a similar manner.


Melee Strikes: When Kirkka strikes a target with the end of her staff, she can trigger one of these effects.

• Fire Blast: Heat and flames erupt from the staff, engulfing the target in flames and burning them for high damage.
• Air Blast: A large burst of wind expands outward, knocking the target back a considerable distance.
• Ice Blast: Freezing dust covers the target, freezing them in a block of ice.
• Shatter: Striking a target that is already frozen sends kinetic shockwaves through the target, shattering the ice and dealing very high damage to the target. If they survive, they gain the benefit of being freed from the icy prison.

Ground Effects: Kirkka can press the end of her staff to the ground and activate these effects. Some of them can be changed by altering the angle of the staff.

• Burning Ground: A wave of fire dust emanates outward from the impact point, creating a large fire ring around her. The dust is carried a short distance away from her, creating a safe area within the ring. Useful to stop extra opponents from arriving while she fights her current one.
• Ice Wall: When the staff is vertical, a wall of ice rapidly grows outward to her left and to her right, leaving her in the center of the wall. When angled, the ice expands in the direction her staff is facing. These two options allow her flexibility in positioning the wall relative to her own location.
• Earthen Barrier: This functions the same as the ice wall, but is made of earth and stone instead of ice. The earthen wall is thicker but not as tall at the ice wall.

Area Effects: Kirkka raises Ira into the air and releases a capsule of dust that is spread over the area around her.

• Explode: Immense flames radiate from Kirkka’s staff when she raises it up and activates the capsule.The flames deal critical damage to those immediately next to her, and Kirkka’s aura struggles to resist the full damage of this effect which makes it dangerous on herself as well.
• Earthen Spikes: Spikes erupt from the ground in an area all around Kirkka, impaling those that are near her.
• Cyclone: Winds swirl rapidly around Kirkka’s immediate area, forcing those near her to be pushed back from her.
• Fog Cloud: Raising Ira into the air, a dense fog rapidly forms and rolls over the area. The fog is incredibly hard to see through.

Directed Energy: Ira is thrust forward, pointed at its desired target to unleash a ranged energy attack.

• Tetra Elements: When thrust forward, Ira unleashes an energy missile that flies at a high speed towards its target. The capsule is loaded with fire, ice, earth and wind dust combined together to create a very highly damaging spell. When struck with the effect, the target will randomly be lit on fire, covered in ice, knocked back and off their feet, or have their legs trapped by earth, rendering them unable to move. (It can be up to the target to choose their flavor, or a 4 sided dice can decide.)
• Laser Ray: A continuous beam of lightning infused flame that can melt through most things it comes into contact with. This ability lasts several seconds and, due to the immense firepower this ability possesses, consumes two capsules at once to generate its effect. Kirkka can direct the attack by aiming her staff.

Miscellaneous: These capsules simply don’t fit into other categories.

• Launch: With Ira pointing toward, Kirkka can launch herself into the air by releasing a concentrated burst of air below her. The strength of this effect can be controlled and can lift her very high into the air at maximum power.
• Magic Broom: Most often, Kirkka will follow her Launch capsule with this one. Ira releases a constant stream of wind to propel Kirkka in a target direction. This allows her to glide or hover in the air for a little while. Gravity dust is part of the mixture, allowing her easier control and higher speeds. While using Magic Broom, Kirkka slowly loses altitude so she cannot truly fly with it.
• Disperse: When Kirkka activates this capsule, Ira is charged with wind dust. It becomes very light and can be spun at a very rapid pace. This is used to deflect ranged attacks against her. The power of the dust makes the deflection possible and extremely effective, even against elemental attacks such as fire.

History: Kirkka constructed Ira while she was still at Signal Academy. Originally, it could only support six types of dust but as her interest in weaponry and Dust grew she upgraded it to hold twelve types. It wasn't until a few years after she left Beacon that she rebuilt it from scratch into its current design, capable of holding thirty-six types of dust. She built the broom and other extensions for it shortly after accepting a position at Beacon Academy. While it has been fully rebuilt a few times, Kirkka still considers it her one and only weapon.