Argus Grau

**Argus Grau** is a member of team GGRN and son of Stein Grau.

## Background

Back home in the village, Argus was often told he takes after his father; however this was not always a point of pride. When Argus was 4, his father Stein unwittingly wounded his mother Bianca. That was the day his father left home and never returned, entering self imposed exile as punishment for what he had done.

After Stein left, Argus and Bianca were both strongly affected; Argus had no father to guide him and Bianca left to care for their son alone. Fortunately, Bianca’s sister Sylvia and her husband Grey stepped in to help; with Sylvia helping Bianca as Grey acted in a fatherly role to Arrus, in addition to his own son Garen.

As children, Garen and Argus were more than just cousins; they were brothers and best friends. While the boys were close to their other cousins, the siblings Brock and Nyx, they had a stronger connection as a result of Grey helping to raise Argus. As the cousins grew older, the two grew apart; Argus coming into an independent streak as they began combat training, while Garen had to devote much of his free time to helping with his own younger siblings.

As is customary, at the age of 10 all children in the village begin training; be it as a healer, a warrior, a blacksmith, or a farmer. Naturally, being the son of one of the strongest warriors to come from the village, Argus began to train to fight. Early on he showed an aptitude for simple swords, however his rather careless technique meant he was often easily disarmed; so a compromise was found. Rather than using a traditional longsword, the village smith forged a pair of gauntlet swords; blades which could not be removed from his hands. With these tools in hand, he began to excel allowing his natural fury to become an integral part of his technique.

After a few years of training, Argus and his three similarly-aged cousins travelled to Vale from their isolated village, accompanied by his Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Grey, and two younger cousins;  the twins Rost and Lila. In Vale Argus applied to Beacon Academy alongside Garen, Brock and Nyx; they made it through initiation with some degree of difficulty after facing down a Chimera

After their initiation, the four were made into team Gagarin under the leadership of Garen, with Argus acting as his partner. They spent part of the school year studying as normal, until Garen was targeted by an agent of an organization calling themselves World Tree (a result of his inadvertently killing one of their members shortly after arriving in Vale).

With one of their own a target, GGRN did what came natural to the; they hunted and fought, defeating several lesser agents of the group and discovering its nature- a more violent splinter faction of the White Fang, seeking total extinction of humans rather than equality.

Around a month before completing their first year at Beacon Academy, the four students came face to face with the leaders of World Tree including -by some twist of fate- Stein Grau, who had lost his way and been tricked into joining. A moment of realization lead to Stein killing the organization’s leader and turning himself over to the authorities rather than fighting his son.

Since the events of that first year, Argus has matured somewhat, gaining patience as he dedicated less time to fighting and more time to enjoying his life, occasionally spending time exploring the city with his younger cousins.

In the months leading up to the Vytal Festival during his second year at Beacon, Argus considered signing up for the tournament, but his team as a unit decided instead to relax and enjoy the tournament as spectators. i\It was during that span of time, as students from the other three academies began to arrive at Beacon, that Argus met a first year student from Vacuo; a girl named Kanika Rutto, member of team LZRT.

Kanika was an odd one, half his size but just as strong and with a ferocity in combat that matched his own. They sparred almost daily as her team waited for the tournament to arrive, allowing their acquaintance to grow from curiosity, to rivalry, and eventually friendship.

Life followed that pattern up until the beginning tournament, where Argus sat and watched through Kanika’s first match. Unfortunately they were defeated in the first round, having been made to face the third year Haven team known as VLCN. After that first match, Kanika and Argus resumed their routine- daily sparring followed by watching the tournament- until the final round. With one student having been crippled, another arrested, and a third dead. As Vale began to fall, GGRN, LZRT, and VLCN joined forces, making their way from the arena down to the city along with other students where they helped to secure the market district under siege from grimm and rogue Atlesian forces.

Kanika and Argus, due to their constant sparring, discovered how well they fought together, and kept this in mind as the dust began to settle. Team GGRN parted ways temporarily in the aftermath of the Battle of Beacon, electing to go out on their own and train before meeting up in Vacuo the next year, which would allow them to grow on their own as they had not done in many years.

Naturally, Argus traveled with Kanika to Vacuo, where he is currently living with her family’s trade caravan, training alongside her and her mother. His weapons, badly damaged during the Battle for Vale, were destroyed early in the training process, leading to his creation of the much more powerful Gefrierbrand.

## Personality

Argus is many things; strong, passionate, angry, these are just a few of his more obvious traits. Although he has matured considerably in the past two years, his nature is very aggressive, his first thought on how to resolve a situation is almost always to fight, and he carries his weapons at all times in case he needs to hand someone their teeth. A rather unexpected trait is that he does carry a great deal of respect for authority; however he is quick to question when that authority is being abused, and will not hesitate to fight back if his suspicions are correct.

## Appearance

Argus is a tall young man with a broad, athletic frame; he keeps his blood red hair in dreadlocks, tied back into a ponytail in order to keep the length from being a distraction in combat. His eyes are a flat, grey color and his skin, although naturally pale, has become an extremely deep tan from spending long days training in the Vacuo desert. As a faunus, his teeth resemble those of a komodo dragon more closely than those of a normal human.

His outfit consists of a Black leather jacket worn open with a patch carrying his symbol on the left shoulder, a sanguine brown fitted muscle shirt, dark grey cargo pants with a silver wallet chain and black belt fixed using A King Taijitu mask buckle. Black combat boots with sanguine brown laces and dark grey treads complete the outfit and provide traction while fighting.

## Skills and Equipment

### Weapon

* Name: Gefrierbrand
* Wielder: Argus Grau
* Maker/Smith: Argus Grau
* Classification: Dual Dust Gauntlet Swords (DDGS)
* Weapon Derivation: Pata
* Design: A pair of identical Pata, the forearm portions of the bracers are composed of copper and silver colored 'scales' while the hand guards are shaped like serpent's heads. the blades are 3' long with forked tips and extend from the serpent's mouths

* Holstered/Inactive Form: blades telescope under the forearms and the hand guards open at the mouth to slide back away from the hand

* Form 1: A pair of 3' long gauntlet swords capable of channeling dust through their blades
* Form 2: the blades retract so only the end segments with the fork are visible; while in this mode Gefrierbrand can fire high-pressure jets of fire, ice, or any other element of dust currently loaded.

* Features: each sword can channel dust through its blade
* Dust Capacity: typically fire and ice, however Argus carries a small reserve of other varieties for special circumstances
* Usage: Argus has a very wild, unpredictable style of combat; instinctively flowing with battle using muscle memory rather than making conscious decisions of what to do next. As such, he uses simple but potentially devastating weapons that require little active planning to utilize.

* Planned/Possible Upgrades: none (upgraded version of Frieren and Brennan)
* Notes: Gefrierbrand means Freezerburn in German, a sort of combination of the names of his old weapons; whose names meant Freeze and Burn.

### Semblance

* Name: Slow Burn
* Type: Physical
* Purpose: Utility
* Short description: User has a meter which can be activated to grant him a moderate boost to all of his physical abilities for a limited time

* Activation Cue: hissing steam, the komodo dragon tattoo on his bicep glows from head to tail
* Range: Personal
* General limitations: The maximum meter duration is 5 minutes
* Passive ability(s) (if any): When the user takes damage, his meter fills up. If the meter is completely full and he takes damage, it will automatically activate.
* Active ability: Tier One: When the meter is triggered, his physical capabilities (speed, strength, resilience, and agility) double; this amplification lasts until the glow in his tattoo fades away completely (moving from the tail up to the head)
* Dust interaction (any): coats his body in raw energy from the dust, allowing him to channel elemental damage through his strikes.
* Notes: Replacement for his old, generic berserk ability to tie in with a mass rewrite of some of my characters. the tattoo is not the meter itself, it merely manifests through the tattoo because it is an important part of his personal identity

## Trivia

Argus is a Greek names meaning shining, while his last name Grau is the German for Grey. Thus, shining grey.