Talia Ceres

Talia Ceres is a Huntress dropout and a member of The Lanterns. She's well known for her crude mouth and lack of a filter, but recognizes there's value in saying what others won't. Born a Swift faunus, Talia enjoys her freedom more than anything else. Her main weapons are a pair of simple bladed tonfa named Vent and Aile.

## Appearance

Talia possesses blazing red hair often cut short to avoid impairing her vision. Her wide eyes shine with a glowing brown. Though born with light skin, her time in the sun maintains a permanent tan. Somewhat short and small for her age, she relies on her clothes to make up for it.

She wears a small red cape wrapped around her neck with a silver wing-like brooch. The cloth hides her folded wings to avoid garnering attention from distrusting humans she might come across, but doesn't impede her ability to spread them out to the sides. As a Swift faunus, her auburn wings stretch wide.
Talia often wears a deep red long sleeved shirt that turns into a pleated skirt ending at her thighs. She prefers wearing black tights over pants as she feels it restricts her. For her own comfort, Talia wears white fur lined boots.

## Personality

Crude beyond reasonable belief, Talia chooses not to filter a single word she says. She often ignores the age-old adage of keeping unpleasant thoughts to one's self and expresses them outright. Though she creates a lot of friction with others, she believes that there's irreplaceable value in saying what others won't.

Talia enjoys her freedom above all else. She automatically comes to despise anyone to tries to tie her down and pushes for others to also follow their own desires. Despite her love for doing what she likes, Talia isn't above reason or emotional plights of others and will bend her will to do what she feels is best.

Generally, Talia wanders around on her own if given the time. She's hotheaded and brash leading to her making quick decisions that sometimes blow up in her face. As someone who doesn't always think things through, Talia has a habit of charging through problems. However, she isn't above recognizing her own mistakes from time to time.

## History

Talia was born on the mountained coast slightly inland of Menagerie. Though she later moved to Anima, her parents taught her to keep her wings folded and hidden due to the ire of many humans. This began her lifelong obession with personal independence. During the quiet nights, she'd sneak away into the wilderness to glide around as she pleased without the watchful eyes of people.

Always physically weak due to her lightweight biology, Talia grew accustomed to her natural speed. She would later choose to chart her own course as a huntress instead of following her parents footsteps into diplomacy. Her parents returned to Menagerie while Talia journeyed overseas to continue her education. At the academy, Talia still found some humans wary of her faunus nature, but learned that many of her other peers didn't care. During her initiation, she ended up pairing with an equally small and loudmouthed girl name Amber Terano and joined with Team WSTA under Wenge Yu and Suzuran Keiskei. She came to appreciate her teammates as they let her due what she pleased and didn't mind her heritage.

After the Battle of Beacon, Team WSTA dissolved during their third year. Wenge and Suzuran decided to return to their hometown of Yune while Amber returned to Vacuo. Not wanting to return to Menagerie while Remnant fell to unassuming chaos in the wake of Atlas' evident attack, Talia caught wind of Celina Cavell and Aurelia Riore making plans to depart. Deciding that she'd rather travel with them than sit idly by as events happened, Talia joined The Lanterns.

## Weapons

### Vent and Aile

Talia wields a very basic set of bladed tonfa named Vent and Aile. They comprise of a brown frame consisting of a handle perpendicular to a long red shaft holding an obtuse triangular blade. At the head rests a inward curving blade with a small ridge shielding a portion of the grip outwards. A set of small switches on the grip can command the shafted blades to either slide forwards or slide outwards depending on what Talia needs.

## Semblance

### Second Wind

Talia's semblance is a combined manifestation and status ability known as Second Wind. Once activated, it conjures an identical pair of wings slightly lower on her back that work in tandem with her natural set. The second wings, while only lasting for a few minutes, grant her the ability to temporarily sustain flight rather than glide. They also give her an increased sense of aerial control and speed. When summoned, Talia rejuvenates a bit of her energy. She describes it mentally as if someone opened a juice pouch in her aura. After the aura wings dissipate, she feels like the juice pouch needs to refill before using it again.

## Abilities

 **◇ Crudeness:** | A

Talia prides herself in her speed. Though some other winged faunus species dive faster than her, she moves much quicker horizontally compared to them. Her fighting style relies heavily on her low inertia to quickly accelerate and slash with her weapons. On the ground, she shows proficient usage of them, but truly shines when airborne as her increased gliding speeds allow her to tear at enemies as she passes by.

Her role in the group is often left to aerial scouting. By taking a running start or gaining momentum through other means, Talia can glide upwards and get a bird's eye view on the environment to provide information to the team. Though she can drop immediately or at a slow descent, her freedom in the air allows her to cover long distances incredibly quickly.

Because of her biology's lightweight nature, Talia can normally only carry herself and a bit more in weight while remaining airborne. While Second Wind is active, she's able to stay in the air with about herself and another fully grown person. However, it does hamper her speed and control a great deal so she very rarely does so.

Talia's sense of fear is tied strictly to the danger of being restricted. She possesses an iron will towards facing even those larger than herself. Whether it's a blessing or a curse, it only escalates her straightforward manner of speaking without any tact.

On a side note, she's a ridiculously heavy sleeper and is the exact opposite of what is known as an 'early bird'.

## Relationships

### The Lanterns

Celina Cavell

Despite being the oldest of the group, Talia has slowly learned to default to Celina for the Lantern's leadership. She sometimes gets annoyed by her lack of instant decision making but knows that her tendency to think things through has led to the group's successes.
Aurelia Riore

Talia often finds herself berated by Aurelia due to her crude manner of speaking and not pulling any punches. They lie on opposite ends often as a result. Even so, she recognizes Aurelia only does so for the best.
Zephryn Hollow

Talia admits that she's slightly creeped out by Zephryn's quiet nature. However, she develops a trust with her as her sharpshooting gives Talia support and cover in the skies.
Ylisse Aberforth

She finds herself in a constant battle against Ylisse due to their opposing views on how to carry themselves. Preferring to do and speak as she likes, Talia often enrages Ylisse and vice versa.
### WSTA

Wenge Yu

She often appreciated her team leader for his lax grip on handling the group.
Suzuran Keiskei

Amber Terano

## Etymology

**Talia** is the Hebrew name meaning 'heavenly dew' and 'to bloom'.
**Ceres** is the plural form of the word 'cere' describing the fleshy covering on upper beaks of some bird species.
**Vent and Aile** are the respective French words for 'wind' and 'wing'.