[hider=Hustle]
[COLOR=dimgray][CENTER][sup][h1][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/6TWL4j3.png[/img][/center][b][center][color=black] H U S T L E[/color]
[color=aba000]H U S T L E[/color][/center]
[/b][/h1][/sup]
[color=silver][sup][b]"Your mind was more fragile than your body. Where’s your determination to sink or swim?"[/b][/sup][/color][/CENTER][table][row][/row][row][cell][center][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] C H A R A C T E R   P O R T R A I T[/color]
[color=aba000]C H A R A C T E R   P O R T R A I T[/color] [/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/bkCHmGn.png[/img]
[/center][indent][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] C H A R A C T E R  D A T A[/color]
[color=aba000]C H A R A C T E R  D A T A[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]_________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=silver][INDENT][sub][color=aba000][b]True Self[/b][/color] 
Kei Takahashi

[color=aba000][b]Persona[/b][/color] 
Hustle

[color=aba000][b]Pathos[/b][/color]
Thyrien

[color=aba000][b]Role[/b][/color]
DPS

[color=aba000][b]Weapons of Choice[/b][/color]
Katana and Magitech Sidearm

[color=aba000][b]Domains[/b][/color]
Wind
Enhancement
Manifestation
Illusion

[color=aba000][b]Playstyle & Attitude[/b][/color]
Hyper Mobile Burst Damage; Hit & Run; Showoff[/sub]
[/INDENT][/color][/cell][cell][INDENT][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] K E I   T A K A H A S H I:  S T A Y - H O M E   N E R D[/color]
[color=aba000]K E I   T A K A H A S H I:  S T A Y - H O M E   N E R D[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=silver][indent]Kei’s life could be summarized as easily as his living conditions, a solitary bubble where his only interaction with the world outside was through food deliveries to his apartment, strangers on the internet and the occasional work calls by his employers. The clacking of fingers on a keyboard and the hum of electrical appliances were the only sounds he was familiar with, his own voice foreign to him during the few and far between times he was required to use it. If pressed, he couldn’t even tell someone what he looked like, doing the bare minimum for personal upkeep and entirely focused on his hobbies.

There was no decisive incident that caused him to shut himself inside, no traumatic or inciting event where he’d withdrawn from the world. It’s simply what happened after he’d graduated college, with no lasting friendships to keep him engaged nor family that cared enough to coax him out, Kei simply found no reason to leave the comfort of his home. Social interaction was a draining process, and while there were times he felt despondent over his lack of meaningful relationships, scrolling internet forums and conversing with fellow users was able to stave off the feeling. It wasn’t necessarily a fulfilling life, but with time it became his normal, and he wasn’t too hurried to change it.

If there was one thing to remember of him, it was that Kei was a cinephile for western cowboy movies and antique media. Early into his self-imposed solitary confinement, he had been emailed a zipped folder of files accidentally by a client during their correspondence, which instead of holding required documents was filled with video files dated at least a century old. Though at first it was only curiosity that made him watch the first, interest pushed him to watch another, and soon he'd completed the whole collection and ask the client for more. Stories of a wandering hero, a lone gunman freeing a town and riding off into the sunset, the tense duels where a single quick draw decided the matter of life or death. For the bored shut-in, who had already forgotten what the sun's rays felt like, they were like an injection of morphine into his flatlining life, and he'd quickly become obsessed with the ideals and virtues of the western gunslinger.

But in the recent years, another hobby had grabbed hold of his attention, and had taken over his life just as quickly. A VR Deep Dive game that promised a unique experience that no other platform could emulate, allowing the user to live a fantasy life as their ideal self. Spending his spare cash that did nothing but rot in his bank account, Kei quickly began to grind the game as soon as he realized it’s potential. Why watch a movie when he could live one? Going on larger-than-life adventures, not as a spectator, but as the protagonist. His already tenuous grip on the real world slipping away with each dive, it was a wonder that he still remembered to log off and feed himself when his body needed it.
[/indent][/COLOR]
[INDENT][sub][sup][sub][h3][b][color=black] H U S T L E:   L O N E   W A N D E R E R[/color]
[color=aba000]H U S T L E:   L O N E   W A N D E R E R[/color][/b][/h3][/sub][/sup][/sub][/INDENT][sup]________________________________________________________________________________________[/sup]
[COLOR=silver][indent]Even in a world where you could live as the ideal self, Kei found many difficulties with overcoming his personal issues at first. Though his virtual body had none of the physical deficiencies he allowed to ruin his real one, the mental disconnect held him back, many of his first conversations in Pariah ending as the other party couldn't take his constant stuttering and inability to continue basic back-and-forth.

His appearance couldn't make up for the deficiencies of the person behind it, and eventually he realized he had to change his approach. While he wasn't well-versed in the subject, his time surfing the web made him knowledgeable of the roleplaying hobby, and he thought of no better way to embody the ideal his mind had crafted. Using a caricature of a personality to distance himself by a degree from other people, it became easier to interact with them, and with practice it became second-nature to slip into the role of Hustle.

Hustle was nothing like Kei. Kei was a nervous wreck who had difficulty looking delivery workers in the eye, someone who looked over everything meticulously at least five times before doing so five more, scared of even the slightest bit of conflict between people and unwilling to take risks. Hustle threw himself into problems without a second thought, bravely staring down both monsters and rival players with self-assured confidence, helping both NPCs and players no matter the risk before walking off toward the sunset. Emulating the western gunmen he idolized.

Though of course, he couldn't completely shed who he was at first, breaking down into incoherent stammering each time he messed up a line or froze up at the sight of something even remotely resembling an altercation between people. It took him several days before he could meet someone's gaze without flinching, and even more to finish a conversation without making a mistake. But thankfully, the NPCs were almost more lifelike than regular people so he had ample opportunity to practice during side quests, and the more he divorced himself from the character the easier it became. Something quite easy when his appearance wasn't even the same race. By the time he'd fully developed the Hustle persona, it became simple to chalk up anything he did in the game as simply something he was observing. Like watching a first-person movie.

But even after all his effort, Hustle settled with solo play more often than not. The personality he crafted was abrasive at times to other players, and no matter how good he got at faking his expressions, it was hard keeping up an act while being berated by someone who was annoyed by the archetypal quicks that came with his persona. Clearing dungeons took longer, and it took many weeks and nearly months before he figured out a playstyle that suited it, but eventually he began being known for completing content near entirely solo. With a flashy playstyle that looked good in replays, a unique themed attire adapted to the game's fantasy setting, and his strange internet persona he never let break while online, clips of his gameplay became viral on certain internet forums. Whether that be praising his highly technical gameplay, or as a warning to other players as to what an efficient but impractical build looked like.

Yet, completely unaware of his own infamy, Hustle continued to play the game as he liked, living up to the fantasy of a person he couldn't dream of being in the real world.

[/INDENT][/COLOR][/cell][/row][/table][hr][/COLOR]
[hider=Spells & Spell-like Abilities]
[center]
[b][color=aba000]Lonely Are The Brave[/color][/b] 
[sub][i][color=silver]The centerpiece of Hustle's kit, a utility spell that allows the user to 'blink' across a targeted distance after a short delay, manifesting his own body at the new location by shimmering 
out of and back into existence. With a half-second interval between disappearance and arrival within forty feet, increasing up to three seconds at three hundred feet, the ability acts as both an engage, evasion, and traversal tool for a variety of situations. While able to be used consecutively, and appear and activate even in mid air, he can only activate the spell five times in a row before requiring a few moments to recover from nausea or risk violent vomiting. [/color][/i][/sub]

[b][color=aba000]The Long Riders[/color][/b]
[sub][i][color=silver]
Hustle’s ability to create illusionary copies may seem meager at first glance, materializing shimmering facsimiles of his figure after a moment of concentration within a hundred feet of his line of sight. Their shapes clearly fabricated through magic, the clones’ true purpose is to act as an anchor or a marker, accelerating the process of Hustle’s teleportation to near instantaneous and orienting him in a similar manner to the clone. Effective they may be at the task, they are limited, fragile and transient, only three maintainable at the same time, dispelled by any reasonably strong force and only lasting for half a minute after casting before naturally fading.[/color][/i][/sub]

[b][color=aba000]No Name on the Bullet[/color][/b]
[sub][i][color=silver]Using a fired magitech bullet as a focus, Hustle can channel magical energy to form copies from wind, turning one projectile into dozens to rain down upon a targeted area. Perfect for suppressing groups of small fry, pinning down a mobile opponent behind cover, or slowing down sizeable foes, but not recommended for use when friendlies are within the line of fire. Limited by the use of high speed projectiles fired from the user's position, as replicating the velocity and uniformity of other projectiles is difficult without a loss in effectiveness.[/color][/i][/sub]

[b][color=aba000]They Died With Their Boots On[/color][/b] 
[sub][i][color=silver]Utilizing a combination of magical and physical force, Hustle can lock down area by executing a sheathed sword swipe at maximum speed enhanced by the aid of wind magic. Powerful wind blades appear within the target red location, assaulting anything within it with several cutting blows with sharpness no different than his own blade. If centered upon himself, the blades of wind instead spread out in a small dome around his figure, repelling close-range opponents and defending from small arms ranged fire. To a lesser extent, the ability can instead affect his crossbow bolts, increasing their speed and subsequentially penetration power by parting the along the projectile's path. Difficult to use in quick succession.[/color][/i][/sub]

[b][color=aba000]Lone Star[/color][/b]
[sub][i][color=silver]Hustle's dramatic finishing tool. Requiring a long channel time and complete focus, when given ample opportunity the activation of this ability wreathes his body and weapon in a magical coat of wind. In this enhanced state, his body is unfettered by air friction and his usual bodily limits, moving with magnified speed. The swings of his blade strikes multiple times, blades of wind following its course only a moment later, allowing the several seconds the ability is active to become a frightening whirlwind of offense. When the coat fades, however, so does the enhanced abilities, leaving him exhausted and staggered for an extended period of time.
[/color][/i][/sub]
[/center][/hider]
[hider=Character Feats]
[center]
[b]Keenly Perceptive[/b]
[sub][i][color=silver]While never able to check if he was suitable for it in the real world, Hustle's situational awareness during gameplay has proven to be one of his strongest assets, never befuddled by what happens around him during the chaos of combat. Cognizant of everything that happens within his sphere of influence and within his line of sight, perhaps in part caused by his need to constantly keep up his persona, its difficult to catch him off-guard without ample preparation. Similarly, even when his abilities move his body in ways that would disorient most, Hustle is able to tell exactly where and how he's oriented at all times, keeping up his momentum without losing a beat.[/color][/i][/sub]

[b]King of Frauds[/b]
[sub][i][color=silver]Everything about Hustle's persona is a lie, one carefully crafted by the person behind it and refined to the point of being near unrecognizable as an act. Finding fault in what he says, no matter how ridiculous, is frustratingly troublesome, and figuring out his true feeling on matters even more so. Unless, somehow, the person doing so makes a crack in his guise, coaxing out the human behind the idealized cowboy.[/color][/i][/sub]

[b]Obsessively Precise[/b]
[sub][i][color=silver]Playing as he does is not easy, nor is it practical, requiring inhuman reflexes far beyond what most people are naturally capable of. Something Hustle doesn't have. He instead relies on observation and numbers to do the job for him, using rapid calculations to determine the speed of approaching variables and acting accordingly. Memorizing frame data or timing, analyzing habits, taking mental notes of everything he perceives until his reactions become terrifyingly similar to precognition without actually being so.[/color][/i][/sub]

[b]Library of Random Facts[/b]
[sub][i][color=silver]Incredibly cagey about facts about himself, Hustle instead fills the lack of a reasonable answer with incredibly specific, mostly useless trivia he learned while surfing the web. With nothing better to do aside from watching movies during his free time before Pariah, he'd collected so many ridiculously fringe facts in his brain that you could probably ask him about anything and he'd have something to say about it. From insect biology to nautical nomenclature and cultural traditions to space discoveries, he'll say anything if it means staving off any sort of personal authenticity.[/color][/i][/sub]
[/center]
[/hider]
[/hider]