[hider=Spades]
[color=aaaaaa][b]Name:[/b][/color] [color=ed1c24]Ryan Spades[/color]
[color=aaaaaa][b]Age:[/b][/color] [color=ed1c24]29[/color]
[color=aaaaaa][b]Race:[/b][/color] [color=ed1c24]Full blown average human mage![/color]
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[img]http://static.zerochan.net/Hazama.full.1730755.jpg[/img]
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[color=ed1c24]This guy is a pretty average joe. He's a little on the slim side and doesn't look very buff at all, but easily makes up for that with his overly classy fashion sense. The kind of man who owns multiples of the same suit. Relatively noticeable would be the uncommon, green hair color. If one was to inquire about that, he would simply hint that vexing someone proficient in irreversible hair color curses turned out to be a rather poor life choice for him, long ago. The other odd thing about his appearance are the short, brown gloves he seems to be wearing constantly, as they barely cover his palms and serve no obvious purpose. However, they're actually hiding scars - if not outright fresh cuts.[/color] 


[color=aaaaaa][b]Combat Knowledge:[/b][/color] [color=ed1c24]Ryan is carrying a pair of butterfly knives and he certainly knows how to stab people with them, but this is more based on the moment of surprise, not open combat. He has operated handguns before, but wouldn't be proficient enough to use one with consistent accuracy beyond point blank range.[/color]

[color=aaaaaa][b]Magical knowledge:[/b][/color] [color=ed1c24][u]Hemomancy[/u].
Spades is able to telepathically control his own blood and can solidify it into crystal-like shapes. While his control over blood is quite amazing in the direct vicinity of his hands, its density weakens exponentially the further that red juice gets away from those two focal points, making it impossible for him to use crystallised blood as a projectile. Well, not technically impossible, but only effective within a very limited range. While he can liquify blood again after crystallising it and using it to cut, impale or smack things, a certain amount of blood is "used up" every time he changes its state. The amount of blood lost increases exponentially the longer it was crystallised, so he prefers to briefly shoot out a blade of crystallised crimson and immediately dissolve it again to minimize blood loss - because logically, blood loss gradually weakens his body. While this constant state of anemia has "trained" his metabolism to reproduce lost blood faster than a normal human body would on average, he still has to rest in between using his ability. Excessive overuse can cause him to faint or even die. It is theoretically possible to use blood transfusions to stock up on blood faster, but since donor blood has to be satturated with his own blood cells first before it can be manipulated, this is more like an emergency solution. He can re-insert blood that wasn't used up during combat into his blood stream, while "used up" blood simply turns into ash-like powder after de-crystallisation.
As a combatant, his magic allows him to unleash devastating, precise attacks and a solid defense at decent range for hand-to-hand combat (comparable or slightly further than the max reach of a halberd/spear) without the necessity to rely on technology, elements around him or other specific conditions. On the downside, this essentially forces him into CQC-range and slowly kills himself. The longer a combat situation lasts, the weaker he becomes. For all intents and purposes, Ryan can be summed up as a close-ranged bursty glass cannon who wants to end fights as fast as possible.[/color]

[color=aaaaaa][b]Personality:[/b][/color]
[color=ed1c24]Ryan is a class-A asshole behind a smiling mask. A disgusting, annoying shit-stirrer with an oversized ego and a really loud bark who just loves the hell out of rubbing people the most wrong way possible, all the while maintaining a friendly smile and acting like a goofy sidekick. This is the kind of guy who backstabbs you, then backstabbs the enemy before turning on you again. And he doesn't even ask for a bribe, he just loves to cause a major headache to as many people as usual (as long as he can get away with it). Although he can be quite choleric at times, he usually makes sure to agitate others so they attack him first, pinning the blame on them. He'd also never pass on a chance to rile up friends against each other, or emotionally abuse someone when they're vulnerable. Takes no detective to profile him as a sadistic sociopath.
This somewhat changes when he's doing mean things with his blood. Using hemomancy appears to drive him into a reckless adrenaline rush of raised aggressiveness, but actually it just lowers his practiced self-restraint. By a lot.[/color]

[hider=Background]
[color=999999]Ryan was not aware of any such thing as magic existing until his late teenage years. Before he became aware of his ability, he was actually a very shy and quiet kid, who was frequently on the receiving end of bullying. With a physically weak body he never had the chance to fight back, so he just endured abuse for years. 
At some point of his mid-teens, after being beaten up quite badly like many times before, he met a man who would change his life, for better or worse. A wandering mage who called himself Shepherd, with a keen eye for hidden magical potential and the personal agenda to offer a better alternative at life to luckless kids before they'd slip into a world of criminality. He took the timid boy in and made him part of his little coven.

In a matter of days, Ryan made exceptional progress in his training as a hemomancer. One could chalk the entire thing up to "talent", but in truth, nobody really knows. It might even be a magical mutation of sorts. And as his powers grew, so did his confidence and ego, however. He became more violent and aggressive than Shepherd intended for his group to be, and so Ryan ended up clashing with his mentor and the other young mages more and more often. But it was around that time, when the Pests became a global situation, and when Shepherts coven was given a clear purpose, it temporarily welded them together despite their differnces. It was also around that time when the mages made first contact with the Maniacles Corporation, and they profiled Spades for the first time.

About another year of hunting down Pests later, Ryan left the group after a mission that was meant to be just another bug hunt but ended in the death of a rookie mage under his protection. Somehow, Shepherd managed to keep tabs on the boy and kept contacting him, offering Ryan to come back or to get him a job with Maniacles. He never answered any of those messages or calls, however.

For the following twelve months, Spades lived the life of a glorified, magical highway bandit. With nobody to hold back his violent tendencies, he soon didn't shy away from theft or even murder. First, he did it to make the world pay him back for all the years of physical and mental abuse. When his anger slowly subsided, he just kept doing it out of desperation and restlessness. Running from authorities and other mages, he learned to be more subtle about it, to pick his targets more deliberately. Eventually, he caught himself doing it for the pure, sadistic entertainment value.

After refining his methods, satiating his sick appetite for misery and getting his temper under control, young man Spades got a "normal" job at a PI-office. His particular branch of magic was easily conceilable and the minor side-features of being able to track and recognise blood made him a natural fit. Plus, this line of work quite easily allowed him to frame others for his occasional excesses. He essentially promoted himself following the untimely passing of his boss, few months later. 

The occasional sociopathic mishap aside, Ryan lived a fairly normal life for a while and satisfied himself with making random peoples lives miserable instead of outright killing them. He felt on top of the world both with being a respected private investigator and no other mages around to rival or criticise him. Until he caught wind of a cult taking roots in his area. 

At first, he simply observed, investigated and sabotaged this development from the sidelines. This cancerous growth quickly displeased him, and something had to be done about it. Spades didn't quite feel confident enough to face the growing cult on his own, since he didn't have an opponent who was able to fight back in years. So, he was forced to come up with a more practical plan. He dropped an anonymous tip to his last known contact with Shepherd's old coven and lo and behold, they showed up within a week. The old man was no longer with them, but Ryan recognised a few old faces regardless. Again he watched quietly from the proverbial safe distance while the group of mages ham-fistedly tried to shatter the cult, waiting for his time to strike. The cult barely outlived the mages, but when the fork-tongued crimson pin-cushion descended upon them, there was barely any resistance left.

The hemomancer quickly swooped up what was left of the cult and patiently waited for Maniacles to show up on the scene, assuming they'd keep tabs on Shepherd's old coven and notice their disappearance. Everything went exactly his way, and as they showed up he pretty much sold them the destruction of the cult as his very own magnum opus, taking full credit. Naturally, he was offered a regulated income as one of their in-house mercs and while this seemed more stressful than his relaxed little PI-job, the aftertaste of battle left him hungry for more blood.

Following the cult incident and up to the present year, Spades had a fairly unspectacular life as an investigator and combat mage for Maniacles. Although the statistics for civilian casualties show mysterious, inexplicable spikes on missions involving the hemomancer, he is well worth his pay and gets the job done efficiently.[/color]
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[color=aaaaaa]
[b]Special equipment:[/b][/color] [color=ed1c24]Spades always carries two butterfly knives. Those serve two purposes - surprise backstabbing and slashing himself so he can produce blood to fight with.[/color]
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