Rufus Scheff

* M90 Shotgun
 **Era(s):** Post-war (Human-Covenant War)

## **Backstory**:

Rufus was born on April 17, 2534, on Eridanus II.  He only knew his father, Lukas Taylor.  He grew up in Elysium City, and was raised under a strict Patriarchal upbringing.  He attended Elysium City Primary Education Facility Number 119.  He had an average academic lifestyle, not being the smartest, but not the dumbest either, however he always found an appropriate way to get good grades.  Rufus loved the playground equipment when he was young at the school, using the Gravball courts, and playing on a grassy hill that he remembers fondly; however, Rufus developed an interest in sports and other physical activities.  Under his father’s encouragement, Rufus dedicated a large part of his time to exercising and playing sports.  He developed a strong build for himself, while taking away a greater tactical skill from playing sports as well.  He worked hard under the pressure from his father to be the strongest.  He went through the first years of school hanging out with the sport players, respected as one of them.

Entering high school he moved once again to the sports group, but managed to become acquainted with some of the members of the intelligent group of students.  He worked hard at his classes to please his father, but didn’t care enough to get straight A’s.  He progressed through school, listening to the war news, along with the rest of the classmates.  During the weekends, the sports group would go drinking, but Rufus could never let himself get drunk because his father swore to beat him if he ever came home drunk.   So, Rufus was the regular guy in charge of making sure his friends didn’t get into trouble while drunk, and making sure they got home safely.  He developed the fashion of holding responsibility for grown men, making sure they didn’t get into a fight or help end a fight they do start.  Before graduation, the war news got worse, but also propaganda for the marine program spread through the school.  So, he and his classmates began talking about joining the marines.  Rufus’ father approved, but wanted Rufus to be more than just a regular marine.  Rufus looked over the other positions, disliking most of them.  He didn’t want be an airmen or naval personnel, and felt he’d never make a good corpsman, nor did he like the thought of being a labor boy called an engineer.  He did find the prospect of being a MP appealing.  Rufus felt that being a MP would be similar to being the only sober guy.  It’s his job to take responsibility, and make sure everything stays settled, secure, and protected.

Upon graduation, Rufus entered the military applying for the space MP program, he made sure he was with the space MP so that he wouldn’t be left guarding some planet.  Rufus took years of training in an UNSC academy to train for being part of the Provost.  He learned the UCMJ articles, close quarters training, and more responsibility training on how to handle controlling grown men taught to kill.  Once his training came to completion, he attended a ceremony where he was made an official Provost member.  A week later, Rufus received his transfer orders to the Sephton, where he met the other Provost.  He took first notice to the provost Sosuke Aizen who was in charge, now a MP Major, but back then the Provost were under a different ranking system.  He learned the ship’s three sectors; civil, industrial, and operations.  Explored the ship acquiring the layout.  However, he didn’t see much action as the MP were never deployed on missions and only fought during a rare boarding action.  However, during one battle, the Sephton took severe damage was decommissioned shortly afterwards, and the 5th MEU moved to the UNSC Icarus.  Some marines recalled fondly of the ship, but Rufus was new to it, and how to become accustomed to it.  He spend a few months on the Icarus managing guard duty. His favorite part was the shielded cells.

However, for a whole month, Rufus had very little to do, because practically all the marines had gone down on an operation, but were sucked through some type of portal.  They didn’t return for a month being transported by another ship.  After a few weeks, the Icarus was damaged and permanently decommissioned due to its outdated technology.  Rufus moved with the 5th MEU to the UNSC Avalon.  Starting then, Rufus began seeing action more.  There were more boarding attacks than ever, and the MP starting being sent down with the marines to help handle civilians in the area.  It was a new challenge handling terrified civilians, but he made do, following standard procedure for most of it.  Rufus also noticed a change in the Provost structure, special provost members arrived, but instead of being normal provost, they handled specifically on the court marshals and laws.  Rufus had to work twice as hard on developing his UCMJ.  After several months, Rufus was transferred to on-world duty.  He worked hard managing the protocols there, but it was a new experience, on a ship there is only so much room to go, while on a base the forces could be outside the base somewhere.  Rufus disliked being stuck on the same planet constantly, and after three years was able to apply for a transfer back to the 5th MEU, which had been MIA for three years.

## Characteristics

Practical - He tries to keep everything within the real.  He doesn't think about things being super good or super bad, he stays in the present, and considers the most likely outcomes.  If he arrests a marine, he doesn't consider giving him a warning, or going as far to discharge him,  he stays strictly within what a reasonable and acceptable charge would be, almost to the point of ignoring unique situations.

Arrogant - Rufus knows that's a very practical person, but he takes it to the point where he assumes everyone else isn't truly practical like him.  As a result, he feels that his mindset is the only rational response.  So, he is always confident in his thoughts and actions.  If he thinks of an idea, he'll believe that it's better than what anyone else can come up with.  This sometimes hurts relations, if someone tries to defend their viewpoint, then Rufus will think of them as very unreasonable people blinded by emotions, and will have more incentive to not become friends with them.  In the end, he usually takes on the general acceptance that everyone around him is less rational than him, and can't see the professionalism in anyone around him.

Sensitive - Rufus always had a strange, well strange to him, connection to other people's emotions.  If he's talking to someone whose happy, he'll feel happy inside, If they're sad, he'll feel sad. Most people probably feel that, but for Rufus it sticks.  If he talks to a super happy person, he can feel happy forever, until he talks to someone else.  It feels weird to him, changing emotions so quickly solely based on what other people are feeling.  Though, the most extreme the emotion the harder it is to let go.  If he talks with a hopeless person... or suicidal, he'll feel the same hopelessness for the next few days, even if he doesn't the see the person and only sees happiness around him.  Except for those situations, he enjoys the ability to connect to people, cause he can always see someone's point of view on a subject, and feel what they're feeling.

Emotion masking - Although Rufus may feel a range of emotions, he always felt strange showing emotions.  He keeps to himself mostly, and will practically never reveal how he's feeling to anyone.  He may be happy, sad, angry, depressed, but no one would ever know, which is why a lot of people wouldn't see him as sensitive, because they don't see him reflect the emotions.