[hider=Demetri Rode]
[color=gray][center][img][/img][/center]

[color=MidnightBlue]Name:[/color]
[indent]Demetri Rode[/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Parents:[/color]
[indent]Sapphire Rode and Oswald Connolly[/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Age:[/color]
[indent]17[/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Gender:[/color]
[indent]Male[/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Race:[/color]
[indent]Human[/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Weapon:[/color]
[indent]As he never attended Signal and Sapphire refused to teach him the Hunter's trade his weapons are not fancy. He wears gauntlets and combat boots that are a modification of an old design his mother created. The boots are coated in steel and have the ability to expel dust while the gloves apart from acting as Iron Knuckles are capable of bonding and releasing to surfaces allowing Demetri to stick to walls.[/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Semblance:[/color]
[indent][color=Black][i]Safe From Harm[/i][/color]
[indent]Stemming from his desire to protect those closest to him Demetri's semblance manifested itself as an extendable almost impenetrable shield against harm. Demetri's semblance manifested early in his life during the war where as an infant he would use it instinctively to protect himself and usually his Grandfather when the flying Grimm came screeching overhead. Though not unlike the natural aura that protects all living things with a soul Demetri's semblance exceeded those abilities as unlike aura he is able to form it from any point he can see and focus on rather than having to extend it from his own body. As a child he could only make basic shapes but as Demetri grew he could manipulate the size and shape of the force field with greater ease. The one downside to this shield is that the power it has is finite. The same protective energy is present whether Demetri has it extended only over himself or stretched over a full football field. This means that the larger he makes the shield and the thinner he spreads it the weaker it gets. When it is big enough to only encompass one person it is nigh on impregnable but the larger it gets the more difficult it is to maintain and the less force it required to shatter it. If it ever does collapse due to extraneous force Demetri's aura collapses with it leaving him extremely vulnerable. The shield is not immune to the laws of physics either. If hit with a large amount of force while protecting a small area the shield and everything or everyone in it could be thrown back with just as much force. Demetri's favorite tactic is to wrap the shield around his opponent because at that size it's nearly unbreakable and Demetri enjoys watching them struggle. Since the shield is not aura itself it is immune to aura manipulation and draining abilities and blocks them.

[hider=Force Field][img]http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/charmed/images/2/23/WyattProtectChris.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20091213210253[/img][/hider][/indent][/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Personality:[/color]
[indent]One of Demetri's defining characteristics is a curious nature and a rash impulsiveness to match. This gets him in trouble fairly often as he is continuously found in place he shouldn't be or doing things that are more than a little questionable. He has a good natured if somewhat mischievous air about him and though he will admit when he's made a mistake he's also just as ready to justify any action he's taken that may be considered crossing the line. He's sure of himself and keeps calm in the face of most challenges with one exception. Demetri feels incredibly guilty about what his mother had to do to protect him during the war and because of this will defend her by any means necessary. Because of this he often gets into fights with the neighborhood kids who make snide remarks about his mother deserting "the cause". Despite having little regard for his personal safety Demetri is fiercely protective of his remaining family and anyone he calls a friend. His aunt who he was named for died in the war, he often goes to her graveside to speak his mind to her and get his thoughts straight.[/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Appearance:[/color]
[indent]Demetri has a mild build but hiding up his light frame is a lot of muscle. He takes after his mother quite a bit in regards to how he moves, as well as learning a good deal of her acrobatic techniques. Though his hair is dark blue like his mother's it's prickly and short just like one of his father's old army photos. He had a scar on his lip just like his Dad. He was born with a cat lip that had to be corrected which left an almost inconceivable mark. Sapphire sometimes said it was a sign that Oswald was looking out for them. He is light skinned and burns easily in the sun. Demetri's eyes are a grey like a churning storm.[/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Biography:[/color]
[indent]Three or four years after Team Swansong's year graduated Beacon a calamity struck the Four Kingdoms. Hoards of Grimm began to attack the borders of all four kingdoms simultaneously. While Atlas, Vale and Mistral had the resources to keep them at bay Vacuo in it's isolated and desert location was not quite so lucky. The Grimm ran rampant. The governments of the kingdoms in order to placate there terrified people started a policy of conscription and harsh penalties towards deserters. Sapphire and Abel from Team Swansong as well as Diamond, Emerald and Oswald from Team Codex were part of a combat unit that defended the southern most reaches of Vale's border. The battles were grueling, the supply trucks didn't come nearly often enough. Through all of this Oswald was the voice of hope for Sapphire. The situation they found themselves in while on a larger scale was not quite so different as the one that Oswald himself grew up in in his hometown outside the borders of the kingdoms. Somehow, even in the darkest moments Oswald always found a way to raise her spirits. Give her the strength to keep going on.

One night after a terrible battle, one in which they'd lost many friends, when even Oswald's optimism had begun to sputter they slept together, found comfort in each others arms. Oswald and Sapphire had sort of been dating off and on over there years at Beacon but it had never amounted to anything serious, not until that night. Sapphire wasn't sure if it was the following day, or maybe the next week, perhaps even a month passed but Oswald died fighting. Those days on the battlefield blended together into one big stretch of conflict and suffering. The only points that Sapphire remembered clearly were the days she lost someone important to her, and the night she and Oswald created there child.

Sapphire was seven weeks along before she truly realized what had happened. When she realized that her battle antics didn't just risk her own life anymore but that of an unborn son or daughter Sapphire knew that she had to remove herself from combat. At this point the kingdoms were still externally stable against the Grimm but internally they were in disarray. The military was in shambles and so was the public. One of the only things that was still functioning without fail was the military police who's job it was among other things to round of deserters. Sapphire knew if she went through proper channels to get leave from her baby it might be weeks before her message was even heard let along processed. She needed to get out of the war zone and quickly.

The following day in the dead of night Sapphire activated the emergency communications equipment which had laid mostly untouched since the engagement had started. Everyday was an emergency there wasn't much a phone call could do to help. She got herself patched through to the right department. She smiled just a little as the orcish face appeared on her screen. "Hello Gren."

Gren Orchid looked surprised at seeing who was on the other side of his channel. "Sapphire Rode, long time no see."

"Almost five years." Sapphire agreed. "Listen Gren, I need a favor, I need to go home but out here... I don't have the resources to buy my way through all the checkpoints between the front lines and my father's house."

Gren's eyes widened. "You Rode? A deserter? I never figured you for the type. Back at school you fought tooth and claw for everything you wanted, for every inch."

"I still do Gren, I'm just fighting for something different now. I'm pregnant."

The boar faunus looked stunned and at a loss for words. After a minute of silence he said with something of an uncharacteristic unsure tone. "Congratulations?"

"Thanks." Sapphire said her eyes downcast.

"The father?" Gren asked.

"A friend, he's gone now."

"I'm sorry." A silent understanding passed between them. They had both known Oswald fairly well before and after the war started. "What can I do to help?"

"You're working at Vale's central command Gren. I need you to pull some strings. There's a supply truck coming in two days. I need you to make sure it clears all checkpoints back to northern Vale no questions asked. Say it's carrying an experimental prototype or something."

Gren had started looking uncomfortable. "Why not just put in an application for maternity leave?"

Sapphire sighed. "You know as well as I do that the red tape's gone to hell. I'd be lucky if it got read let alone considered. Come on Gren, the only reason that you didn't cut the connection after it became clear that the unit's not under attack is because we're old school friends." Gren still looked unsure of himself. Not something that Sapphire was accustomed to. Whether he was in the right or wrong at school he was always absolutely sure of whatever it was he was doing. Then again war changes people. "Please Gren, I don't want my baby born on the battlefield."

"You know the military police will hunt you down. It makes the public feel safe to see deserters captured."

"My father's connections can keep them at bay until my baby's born, after that it doesn't matter."

"I'll do what I can for you Sapphire, for old times sake but I make no promises."

"That's all I can ask."

Two days later Sapphire stowed away inside the supply truck hiding herself behind boxes and crates. She ate as much as she could from the supplies without drawing attention and in almost a week she'd been transported to Northern Vale where her father's house stood. Gren must have kept his promise because the supply truck was never stopped and if anyone saw or noticed her they never said anything to anyone.

When Sapphire appeared on her father's doorstep, her clothes were spattered with mud and blood from the battlefield, her hair was matted and uneven, she face was so coated with layers of dirt and grime that when he opened the door Janus identified her by the bracelets hanging on her now bony wrists.

Janus had been crippled in battle a year into the war with the Grimm and so was given a hero's welcome and allowed to return to his home. Sapphire's father welcomed her inside and over the next seven months took care of her until her son was born. Sapphire had never seen anything so beautiful but deep in her heart she knew that she couldn't stay to take care of him. The military police were already asking questions of Janus about his daughter and they'd had a number of close calls already. Sapphire gave herself a month to recover from the birth before she left Demetri in Janus' hands. There relationship had changed much in the past six years and though Sapphire might never forgive Janus for his actions when she was a child she didn't believe that he would treat his grandson the same. Before she left Sapphire named her son Demetri, after her youngest and most dearly loved sister.

Over the next three years Sapphire visited as often as was safe and stayed away as long as she could bear. At the end of that three years the war with the Grimm finally came to an end. It seemed a team of brave hunters and huntresses had discovered the source of the Grimm's organization. An ancient creature of night from eons ago with telepathic powers that it had used to direct hordes of lower Grimm into trying to decimate the human populations. Sapphire watched on holo-TV the victory parade for Diamond Frost, Emerald Felicia, and Benjamin Lloyd as well as some other hunters that Sapphire was only acquainted with in passing; Ruby Rose, and Blake Belladonna, there teammates apparently perishing in the war before there fight with ancient Grimm.

With the war concluded pardons were issued to deserters and Sapphire was finally able to return home and take care of her now three year old son.

Though Vale still showed signs of the war even to this day over the next fourteen years it was rebuilt perhaps even better than it once had been. Though Emerald and Ruby were the only ones to survive the fight with the ancient beast the names of those five hunters and huntresses became renowned throughout the four kingdoms. They had monuments constructed and various newly repaired and rebuilt were dedicated in there name. 

Meanwhile Sapphire raised her child as best she could away from the hunter's life. She taught him her love of music and her own mother's ingenuity in mechanics. They might not have been poor by any means but the Rode's name has lost considerable standing and influence since the conclusion of the war. Though free from legal persecution anyone who knew Sapphire was aware of her retreat from the call to arms and she suffered for it. Mostly in the way people treated her. She was shunned in public and Sapphire always saw the way they whispered as she passed by. Once or twice it had even escalated to physical violence though this usually only occurred when another war veteran and a large quantity of alcohol was involved. She'd become a social pariah.

Sapphire didn't want her son involved in the hunter's life at all. She didn't want him to have to go through what she did. She encouraged his musical talents and hoped that he might get a job in engineering or architecture. Demetri on the other hand wished nothing more than to follow in his mother's footsteps. He convinced her to let him carry around her secondary weapons from her hunter days: Somnus and Melinoe, the nightmare blades. Demetri had heard Sapphire talk about an identical pair that Demetri's grandmother had created a very long time ago but he'd never seen them. With the nightmare blades in hand and knowing that he would never get the training he needed from his mother Demetri turned to some of her friends and acquaintances from her huntress days. Principally her old teammates Shiro and Gren (Abel had died in the war). Gren felt guilty about what his actions had cost Sapphire and so agreed to help teach her son while Shiro though not close with Sapphire by any means still regarded her as a friend and was so more than happy to assist her son in learning the family trade.
[/indent]

[color=MidnightBlue]Theme:[/color]
[hider=][YouTube][/YouTube][/hider][/color][/hider]

[hider=Short Story]
Demetri got up out of bed a little past two in the morning. He figured his mother had to be asleep by now. She wasn't exactly the most predictably in that area but Demetri couldn't afford to wait any longer. He opened the door to his room very quietly and looked down the hall. His mothers door was closed and all the lights were out. Moonlight streamed in through one of the windows. Demetri pulled his door closed just enough that it looked shut from a distance but the latch didn't engage. It was only a small click and the sound of the door scrapping against the frame but Demetri was hyper cautious about getting caught. Especially on a night like tonight.

He tiptoed down the corridor. He had through a process of trial and error learned where all the creaky floorboards were and so avoided them with ease. He was moving into the living room which for his stealth skills was mercifully carpeted when a light came on in the kitchen adjacent to the living room. Demetri spun around. It wasn't as though he didn't know who was going to be there but his instinct was to face opposition dead on.

"Demetri where do you think you're going?" His mother Sapphire Rode said from the kitchen where it appeared as though she had been making herself something to eat in total darkness.

"Mom. I um, I was getting a late night snack." He said rather lamely.

Sapphire raised an eyebrow at her son. "With your combat boots, traction gauntlets and a bag full of who knows what? That must be one terrifying sandwich you plan on making." She paused for a moment looking rather weary and tired. "I suppose you were going out with Jackson again?" Demetri didn't need to answer his face told it all. While he might have been a fairly adept liar, hiding the truth from his mother had never been one of his strong suits. "You two always get into trouble Demetri, why do you still hang out with him?"

"Because he's a friend," Demetri said a righteous fire growing in his eyes. "Besides, we're working on something for Lucy, it's not anything dangerous I promise." Lucy was a disabled girl in Demetri's high school class that he had a bit of a crush on. He was trying to scrounge up the parts to make a set of mechanical bracers that with any luck would assist her in walking again.

"Demetri that's really sweet but if whatever it is you're planning to do was above board you wouldn't be sneaking off at two in the morning to do it. Go back to bed."

"But Mom...?"

"Do I need to say it again?" Sapphire asked a the hints of a dangerous fire lighting in her own eyes.

"Fine." Demetri muttered before walking back to his room in seeming defeat and closing the door with a loud snap. He waited another half hour or so, just to be sure that Sapphire had really gone to bed before he walked across his room to the window, climbed out onto the room and then scaled down the side of the house. He didn't like to do this because after Sapphire found out about it the first time she'd installed a type of ivy that gave Demetri a very itchy but harmless rash on contact with his skin. Sometimes however you just had to go for it.

						*	*	*	*	*

Sapphire walked through the open doors of the police station. There were certain areas of the city that she was more or less welcome, the Drunken Huntress where Trad had taken over after Diamond's death (he understood the sacrifices that had to be made for family) then there were areas that she tried to avoid like the plague. Chief among them was the police station. Most of the senior officers had served in the war and the juniors had heard stories about her from the older officers. It was not a place that welcomed her warmly but when you get a call from the Captain of the precinct saying your son was arrested in the early hours of morning you didn't have much of a choice.

Demetri had sat in a holding cell for the better part of the last three hours, across from him was Jackson. "Your Mom's gonna kill you." Jackson said over the bars.

Demetri shrugged. "Maybe she'll go easy on me."

Jackson chuckled. "Come on ever since we were kids she's always been pretty strict and a little dark. She never comes to our neighborhood barbecues."

Demetri shook his held in mild disbelief. "Your mom's called her a coward to my face. Would you go to a gathering where that's the greeting you're going to receive?"

"I guess not. Still she could stand to lighten up a little."

"You ever seen those old films of the Grimm Wars?"

"Yeah."

"She was right on the front lines for the first three years, could you 'lighten up' after that?"

Before Demetri got to hear Jackson's response an officer from the department entered the holding cells. "Rode, Your mother's here to get you."

Demetri winced. "She hates coming down here."

The officer opened up his cell and escorted Demetri to where his mother was waiting with a grim expression on her face. The first twenty minutes of the ride home were spent in complete silence. This was finally broken when Sapphire spoke without looking at her son. "You got caught stealing parts for that machine your building?"

Demetri glanced at his mother, she was refusing to look at him, that wasn't a good sign. "No, we got away with the parts scott free. Afterwards we went out partying at that bar your academy friend runs."

"The Drunken Huntress." Sapphire punctuated.

"Yeah, there was this guy there, had a bunch of drones with him though you could tell he was drunk by the way they were lurching around. When he saw us he..."

"What did he do Demetri?" Sapphire asked, her voice was calm but Demetri could sense the brewing storm underneath the words.

"He said some things, some things about you. The usual stuff people always say but there was a lot more."

"You should have just ignored him."

"I did... at first, but he kept going saying some awful things that I don't really care to repeat. After awhile I couldn't take it anymore. I slugged him."

"I can fight my own battles Demetri, and I don't need you to defend me. I chose my path. Whatever people think of it doesn't matter to me."

"But it matters to me Mom, everything they say about you, it's cause you made a choice to keep me safe. You should be the one with statue in town square. You were in charge of Diamond and Emerald's unit. You should be cheered in the streets, not spite on by everyone."

"Demetri I chose to protect my family and I would do it again even knowing how things turns out. I am really proud of the man you're becoming but you're never going to realize your full potential unless you stop getting into trouble. A university doesn't look kindly on felony convictions and that's exactly where you're headed if you don't straighten yourself out."

"Maybe I don't want to go to university!" Demetri shouted. "I want to go to Beacon and they don't care about a criminal record as long as I have skill and good intention!"

Demetri could see it in his mother's eyes. She was fighting not to start shouting at him. He didn't see that very often. Usually she was calm, collected and as much as he hated it kind of cold. "You. are. not. going. to. Beacon." she said punctuating each word to make her point.

"Why not? I can fight as good as any kid in Signal even though you wouldn't let me go to a combat school. I want to help people."

"There are other ways to help people than flinging yourself in the path of danger!" She was shouting now. "Your father was the same, tossing himself into harm's way because he thought it was for the greater good without giving a damn about who he left behind or who would mourn for him!"

This silenced Demetri. Sapphire very rarely brought up Oswald. There was a half dozen photos of him hanging around the house (all from his days at Beacon) and his old weapon The Trepidation Blade which had been returned to Sapphire after her pardon hung over the mantle but she didn't like to talk about him. Sometimes Demetri thought it was because it was too painful for her. Sometimes he thought it was because she could still see her life if he'd been in it. Sometimes he thought it was just easier for her to forget he existed.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence and when they arrived home Demetri went straight to his room. He collapsed onto his bed having been awake most of the night. When he awoke it was early evening, around four. Not wanting to disturb his mother Demetri climbed out the window again knowing he would have a nasty rash to show for it in a couple of hours. 

There was a place that Demetri liked to go when he was upset or trying to work through how to deal with something. His aunt's grave site. Demetra Rode had perished as part of a militia during the Grimm Wars. Demetri had never met her but his mother talked about her from time to time. He'd always imagined that she was warm and compassionate and given that in life she had been an empath, good at helping other people with there problems. These were all attributes that Demetri needed in a confidant. Sometimes he wished that he had a chance to really talk to Demetra but talking to her grave would have to do.

When he approached the cemetery he had a couple of roses that he'd clipped from a neighbors garden. "Hi Auntie Dem." He said as he lay the roses over her plot. Demetri stood there over Demetra's grave for what seemed like hours before he finally spoke, putting into words what was troubling him. "I need help with Mom. I really want to become a huntsman, to follow in her footsteps, to do some good in the world like she did before I was born. But she's thoroughly against the idea. She can't stand the thought of me going to Beacon. I can't understand it." Demetri sighed and sat down next to his aunt's grave. "No I suppose that's not true, she's worried about me. She's worried that I might not survive. That I might die like Dad did. I can see how much it hurts her whenever I mention going to Beacon."

Demetri glanced up at the sky. Dusk was just starting to settle but streaks of sunlight still crested through the sky. It was a time that Demetri really like: Twilight. He stood up. "But why should it be all about her! I have dreams and a life too! I can't spent the rest of my life tip toeing around what it is that she wants what makes [i]her[/i] comfortable. I need to live my own life! WHY CAN'T SHE JUST LET WELL ENOUGH ALONE!" It was as though that outburst had at least partially drained some reservoir of pent of anger inside Demetri, he let out a heavy breath and collapsed on the ground feeling defeated. "I can't do that to her though can I. She's already been through so much for me, I can't put her through that too. Maybe she'll warm up to the idea after I get accepted?" Even as he said it Demetri knew it was a bad idea. "She'd feel betrayed that I went behind her back. Then again maybe that's the push she needs to see how important this is to me."

Demetri sat in silence for awhile staring into the distance at a coupe of birds as they fluttered around a tree. He hadn't really come to a conclusion on exactly what he should do but then he never really did with this particular issue. Usually when he came to Demetra about this sort of thing he ended up spinning the same arguments and plans of action over and over again in circles. "I know," Demetri muttered looking back at his aunt's headstone. "The best thing I can do is just talk to her honestly. No deception, no trickery just tell her why I want to follow in her and Dad's footsteps and pray that she accepts it.

Demetri got up and walked back home from the cemetery. They were staples in every community, a large cemetery where the dead from the war were buried. Demetri scaled the side of the house again and crept back into his bedroom through the window. He could already feel the rash forming on his forearms. With his midday rest and all that he had on his mind Demetri tossed and turned for a number of hours before he finally fell asleep.

Though tired Demetri couldn't help but be woken by the sound of glass shattered in the next room. He jumped out of bed and pulled his door open and did the same to his mother's door. He knew what was happening. It wasn't the first time this had happened. When he opened the door Sapphire was sitting up in bed a dust pistol which she kept under her pillow was in her hand pointed at the newly shattered vase. When he opened the door Demetri immediately threw up his force field seconds before another dust shell collided with it. In another second Sapphire dropped the gun, a look of shame crossing her face.

"Demetri..."

Demetri cut her off before she could go any further. "It's okay Mom. Go sit down in the living room while I clean this up."

Sapphire nodded without saying anything and once she had turned the corner Demetri formed his shield into a scoop so that he wouldn't risk cutting himself. Once the glass was dealt with Demetri went to the kitchen and made up two cups of hot chocolate. He set one down in front of his mother and she smile grateful. They sat in silence for awhile before Demetri spoke. "Mom... could you tell me about Dad?"

Sapphire didn't answer for a long while. So long that Demetri had given up hope that she might answer. Just when he was about to withdraw the question she spoke. "He was brave, with a good heart and a hell of a fighter."

Demetri smiled slightly. "No not that stuff, not the kind of thing that you think you need to tell me because he's dead. Tell me what he was like, your first impressions of him."

Sapphire smiled a little too. "I thought he was dork. He was really large muscle wise for a kid his age but he lacked a certain finesse in battle. We met during our first combat class, we were pair together as opponents."

"You kicked his ass."

"We were both injured from the initiation ceremony, I had a fractured rib and he had a broken wrist. It wasn't all together a fair fight but yeah, I kicked his ass. Afterwards I asked if he wanted to set up regular sparring practices. For him to learn how to fight with skill and not just brute strength and for me to test out combat maneuvers." As she spoke Sapphire looked up at Oswald's old sword hanging on the wall. She'd restored it herself after it had been returned to her. There was a look in her eye, something between joy and terrible terrible sadness.

"Go on Mom." Demetri urged. They talked until the early hours of the morning.
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