Roscher Darius

"*Don't mind me, I'm just floating here ominously.*"
—Roscher Darius
**Roscher Darius** (/ʁɔ.ʃe/, ro-sche) is a traveling relic hunter in search of someone dear to him.

## Appearance

Roscher is a gray-furred mouse dressed in a red-and-white vest and a utility belt, over which he wears a long plain red cloak. He usually wears slippers everywhere he goes, exceptions being important jobs, in which case he wears grey leather shoes. He wears a very large red hat that his (also very large) ears stick out of.

## Personality

In public spaces and in conversation with strangers, Roscher speaks in a dark and mostly silent tone, usually hiding his face from view by holding the tip of his hat down. Once a person is acquainted with him, however, he will quickly drop the act, though not his guard. He will talk in his regular tone and be open to discussion about whatever, however he isn't easy to make friends with on most occasions. In part due to the fact he constantly moves from place to place quite frequently, however it's usually due to Roscher's lack of trust in others.

He is tolerant and laid back in most cases, and rarely prone to any kind of emotional stress, though when he is faced with such, he isn't hesitant in delivering his full uncensored thought process or opinion. He likes to make passive jabs and comments at people in jest, but is fiercely determined to always stay neutral in all but the most dire of situations. Forethought is not his forte, thus he can often land in trouble he never bothered to see coming. This, along with his distrustful nature and nurture is why he hesitates to find or allow a partner to join him.

## Abilities

### Innate Abilities

Ever since childhood, Roscher has accepted that he has no powers of his own. That, however may be false, but Roscher himself does not care for it. His power (or more accurately, the lack thereof) is the least of his worries, though it does seem he's **quite talented with relics**…

### Other Abilities

As a replacement for his lack of power, Roscher has accumulated quite a collection of Relics and Gadgets. See *Relics, Items & Gadgets* for the full list.

## Skills

**Big Little Mouse:** While not technically a skill, Roscher is very light for his size. This in turn makes him very brittle and weak, limiting how much he can carry at a time severely (~25kg at most), but also makes him much faster and more agile, as well as enabling certain effects from his Relics and gadgets to be more potent.

## Relics, Items & Gadgets

### Ice Cane

*[Lightweight Relic, Cannot be used if Metal Claw is equipped.]*

A powerful relic intended for use of entities much more powerful. It is capable of forming ice near telekinetically. Investing enough stamina into it can cause a powerful discharge of cryonic energy in the form of a beam capable of freezing on contact. The relic drains massive amounts of Stamina, as its energy consumption doesn't naturally scale with it's user's pool, resulting in lackluster experimentation results up until Rosch acquired it. It's full capabilities are not yet fully ascertained though, and it will take time for testing to reach any good conclusion, but Rosch's adaptability to its energy consumption rates was the biggest push for the team to let him use it (with contractual obligation to report results back).

*[On borrow from the Greater Relic Research Foundation of Shang-Tu on a "prolonged experimental period". He reports to them every two weeks about his experiments and its discovered capabilities. His field-experimentation has been granted as a result of the scientists noticing that he was able to use the cane with significantly smaller depletion rate of his inherent stamina, possibly due to the mouse's element being compatible with that of the relic. Rosch is however still adjusting himself to using it and won't be able to utilize it to its fullest potential for a very long time.]*

### Portable Fog Generator

*[Medium weight Item]*

A relatively small but surprisingly effective artificial smoke and fog generator. Generated mist can even have noxious, dangerous effects or color applied to it, though that is not its intended use (aside from the coloring) and it must be cleaned afterwards. It is fueled by dry ice and a modded crystal energy extractor. If a Metal keystone is added to the fog generator, an interesting side-effect is noted: Entities moving quickly seem to entirely disappear from sight, appearing to teleport out of view, despite the mist actually being mostly transparent if the element is applied correctly. Further experimentation is warranted.

*[Result of a personal investment by Rosch into Performance Technology Inc. He likes to do magic tricks and minor acting in his spare time.]*

### Lightness Feather

*[Negative weight Relic]*

The feather allows its user to reduce their weight exponentially (including items worn, but not relics, crystals or keystones), so long as stamina is invested. In extreme cases, users were capable of floating for extended amounts of time as a result. This does not reduce the user's mass, however. The effects of this relic can linger if they are applied to a subject that is not the relic's user, this including even fluids or swarms/nexuses of matter (i.e. steam). It is a mystery how floating users propel themselves through the air, despite lacking tools to do so.

*[Formerly a part of a minor Shuigang relic gallery, until the people responsible gave Roscher the relic, trusting him to deliver it to a research facility, to which Rosch replied with "Sure, it'll be in safe hands… some time soon." and promptly left with a dramatic flick of the cape. Since he really loves floating, Rosch doesn't plan to deliver it anywhere any time soon. The contract he put together and signed never specified a time limit, which Rosch distracted the lawyers from with much bigger problems on the surface. Once they got rid of them, he agreed to the contract, sneaking the advantageous fine print issues under their noses.]*

### Metal Claw

*[Wearable/Lightweight Item]*

A light, basic slashing and cutting tool made of stainless steel. It slips on and off the wearer's hand relatively easily, making equipping it a breeze.

*[A parting gift from his brother, which is why Rosch rarely uses it for its intended purpose. It's usually in his bag, and on rare occasions (usually if he wants some intimidation points or is feeling homesick) is worn on either of his hands, as he is ambidextrous/attached to his belt.]*

### *E*xperimental *L*aser *G*enerating *A*rmament

*[Medium weight Item]*

Fueled by copious amounts of crystals and/or keystones. The device overheats fairly quickly as a result of its unfinished state, so unless some sort of external cooling technique is applied or something similar, this device will more than likely overheat and be unusable for a while if abused. Rosch pointed it at a mirror once. He set off the room's fire alarm and needed a new cape afterwards.

*[Shang-Mu Military Tech R&D Sector experimental run. Rosch reports info to them every 25 days and relays some basic statistics about it and minor additional info.]*

### Silver Box

*[???weight Relic(?), mass sometimes shifts from Light to Medium.]*

Rosch… isn't actually sure what's inside it, and is actually kind of afraid of finding out. His pals made fun of him for his paranoia and decided to steal it from him on one occasion. By the time Rosch found he was missing one possibly-pandora's box, his pals rushed over to him to hand it back to him. They seemed a bit tired at the time, and Rosch assumed that they ran a longer distance than to a nearby restroom. They quickly gave it to him and told him that he **may** be right about that paranoia of his.

*[This is one of the only relics that Rosch discovered personally. He followed a group of bandits from the shadows as they decided to raid a recently discovered cave. The bandits entered the cave and Rosch decided to wait them out and nick their stuff when they come out, but he waited a good quarter of an hour before he decided to take a peek himself. He found himself face-to-face with a strange sight: The bandits were all on the floor, with slices of cake on their chests and a silver box on a pedestal next to them.*

Beyond confused and also tired because he had been carrying too many things at once, Rosch elected to nick the box, whatever coinage or crystals the bandits had on them and call it a day. Picking up the box he felt a ping of fear, but that just motivated him to rush off. *"You're lucky I'm feeling merciful today. Enjoy your strawberry shortcakes."* —Roscher at the unconscious bandits, as he bolts from the cave, forcing a brave face.]

### Very Big Wheeled Suitcase

*[Heavyweight Item]*

Gotta carry all those relics to the next major destination **somehow**. He has his logo (an unskillfully self-made vector-visage of his face\*) printed on the sides. It has too many pockets, which is convenient because he carries mountains of documentation for his relics and similar, potentially suspicious possessions. The suitcase has one pocket made for easy access to items inside the suitcase, though it's rarely used by Rosch.

*[He bought the suitcase at an airport. The store-owner was understandably befuddled when he was presented the image he was supposed to print on the side of the suitcase.]*

### Long-Range Radio Communicator

*[Lightweight Item]*

It's a radio transceiver. It can play music and make long-range calls, as well as trigger certain radio signal-dependant systems.

*[This was issued to Rosch by the Shang Mu R&D team to make it easy for them to contact him for information. Upon his request, they added a bigger battery and a small fan to it.]*

## History

### Backstory

Roscher Darius comes from a family that has lived in luxury off of elemental sourcing and training for years and which has been donating to various museums and archives, loads of research and similar endeavors in the name of preservation and advancement of knowledge. When the newest heir to the family name turned out unable to produce a heir himself due to lack of romantic interest, there was quite an uproar. One day, however, luck struck harder than Brevon's Dreadnought struck Avalice upon crash-landing and the new heir crash-landed in love with a girl and they had two kids… Both of which turned out seemingly powerless. After a fall-out between the two (details of which remain a tightly-guarded secret), the mother left, leaving a heartbroken father with two kids and an incredibly massive quantity of money. The father took it upon himself to properly raise the two kids and make sure they grow up with better judgement than he did.

His intentions apparently worked well as the two children grew up abnormally large (for their species) and fairly smart. The father told his children stories about their mother which were supposed to demonize her to them, but the effects those stories had on both of backfired, as he told them their mother was a *"Phantom Thief",* a legendary criminal of the night who stole very valuable relics and information. And both his kids immediately adored their mother, as children often do with fabled criminals (nice one, dad). One of the two kids aspired to take on his family's fortunes and expand them, seemingly having gotten over his curiosity for his lost mother's fate, and keep investing in the future, while the younger one coasted along, seemingly doing nothing but skimming over documents and archives of their family. The younger brother finished his education and got a lesser degree in Business & Law. He then told his family that he will take a leave to pursue further knowledge and "Expand the Family's Legacy to Foreign Lands".

That was all a lie, and he actually left to look for his mother, something he only confined to his brother, who enthusiastically agreed, revealing that he only didn't do what his brother decided to do for the sake of their father and told his brother that he'd provide any sort of aid should it ever be needed.

With family matters taken care of, the younger mouse took off to parts (un)known in search of knowledge, experience and his mother (and also his power, if there's time left in the day).

### The Trail…?

Roscher had spent a lot of his time examining documentation and asking around both his family and the family's friends and family about his mother. After some time, he found a few witnesses who were friends of his mother. They told him that she wasn't from Shang Mu, and that's when Rosch already knew that he's going to need a bit more than just his degree and local gossip to find someone who is basically missing. So, he got all the information he could and headed forth, picking up a few relics on the way…

### …following the clues!

Roscher is actively following a trail, though he seems to be falling back in his research. Guess all that traveling is taking a toll on him. He's made some stops in the past, but now he's decided to take a short break. Maybe he can find himself a partner while he's at it…?

## Trivia Time!

* Rosch sends mail to his brother every two to three weeks. He has them coded to make sure his father can't find out what he's actually doing.
* His favorite drink is Milk (followed closely by hot chocolate), his favorite food calamari, while his favorite dessert is ice cream.
* Despite constantly plotting to steal and sell antiquities from museums, he is actually fairly interested in a lot of it, old machinery and geological exhibits in particular.
* He is also fairly interested in the cutting edge, much like his brother (as he's found out from their letters). He's being kept in the loop ever since he heard rumors of devices with contact-sensitive screens (he's pretty sure such tech is impossible, but is very interested in being proven wrong).
* If he's bored, he'll try to use his relics and gadgets to alleviate that. Recently he's been using the ice cane to make sculptures. So far, he's only been able to make small figurines and on one occasion when he was REALLY bored, a bust of a bored-looking dragon. It quickly melted. He's considering joining an ice-sculpting contest later this year (assuming he doesn't pull a heist by then).
* While he wants to follow in his mother's footsteps, he'd been taught not to draw the attention of the authorities, and he struggles to get himself to even begin planning his first dirty job.
* He's afraid of small animals/plants/whatever with 5+ (and/or) very long extremities (even though he enjoys calamari).
* He likes to fly with the lightness feather, even though the energy usage of it gradually grows over time. He also likes to make water float in big reverse-bubbles, which also expends a lot of energy.
* He dubbed his laser "Elga". He makes hot chocolate and food with it.
* He has trouble with getting his ears through the ear-holes in his hat, so he doesn't take it off unless he really really has to.
* If he gives you a sideways glance, you know that It's Time To Stop®.
* Much like half of his electronics, Rosch overheats sometimes, so you'll see him with his communicator (fan attached) and Ice Cane in hand more often during the summer.

## Notes

1. ↑ It is worth noting that this is a list of relics and gadgets at his disposal, not those that are always on-hand. He cannot conceivably carry them all at the same time.