Name: Rook Sheer (last name personally unknown)
Nickname: Rook, Red.
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Position: Neutral
Powers: Guard Light- A burst of Light channeled from Rook's own Heart to his hand, and fired from his open palm. When it hits an enemy born from Darkness or Nothingness, it's elemental status will give it a piercing effect, capable of tearing through enemies like a spear. Against those without an abundance of Darkness in them, it is like being hit with concussive force: non-lethal, but very effective. The light can also be broadcasted in arcs around him to no effect against himself, although whenever it makes contact with Dark-oriented humans, Heartless and Nobodies, the light from the attack is seemingly drawn from him, and he loses it. It is believed that, while the light is a never-ending source for those who fight for it, if Rook was to expel too much of it too fast, he could be lost.
Other Abilities, Special Moves or Combos:5 Card Stud- Wrapping the energy of the Guard Light around his own hand, Rook uses it like a gauntlet, capable of heavy melee damage.
Three of a Kind- Elbows his opponent in the chest, swings his fist downwards into their stomach, and back upwards into their face for a swift three-hit combo.
Light up the Dark- Begins as a Guard Light, only instead of aiming an open palm at the target, Rook clasps his hands together, creating a harmless, but blinding light. Used strictly as a diversionary tactic.
Constitution- Resilient in the face of adversity, Rook will withdraw from attacking for a moment, and channel his inner Light inward to help him carry on through battle a while longer. When fighting for his friends, this ability is even stronger, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say Rook would fight until his last breath.
Dark Portals- Through his past experiences dabbling in darkness, Rook is able to use dark doorways, but with extremely limited use. He can use them as an escape velocity, but cannot travel between worlds. The action nauseates him, like it did Riku when he first gained the power and had not submitted to the Darkness, and can only use them once in a long while. He only partially comprehends what they are, though he knows they are harmful to his wellbeing.
Weapon: Fist fighter.
Picture: 
Appearance: A redhead with a shaggy 'do, and blue eyes, Rook is skinny, and slightly toned. In normal and everyday situations, he wears a blue vest, with a tight dark red shirt underneath. Rook wears blue, loose-legged pants, and the pockets have been sewn over with black fabric. He wears black tennis-shoes, always double-knotted, and beginning to show signs of wear and tear from his wanderings over the years. On his left arm is a choker necklace, looped around his wrist, hanging loosely just below a long black armband that reaches from just above his wrist to about mid-forearm. He wears nothing distinguishing on his right arm. Under his clothing (visible on his arms), he has numerous scars sporadically placed across his body. Most gained from the possible hundreds of fights he has been through over his decade of conflict with the Heartless, including three claw-made scars across his right thigh, a deep one across the length of his back, and a short diagonal one across his right pectoral and terminating at his shoulder.
Personality: A fighter through and through, Rook may say he's a 'rough and tumble' wanderer, but it's mostly show. To be frank, there's nothing he would love more than to find a few friends he can count on and conversations over dinner. To that end, while quiet in front of those he doesn't know the intentions of, he will readily fight to the end for anyone he calls a friend. Once he's with you, he's with you for life. He can't explain the actions of the Heartless, but watching them for so long has given him a sort of tactical knowhow when fighting them. Nobodies are a different matter. He knows his knowledge may make him more capable when the time comes for a long battle, but he is much too reserved to lead groups and lacks the confidence needed to issue orders to anyone. In team scenarios, he prefers fighting on the frontline to giving the commands, and is likely to make risky moves in the hopes of protecting those close to him.
Original World: Radiant Garden
Current World: Radiant Garden
History: Rook was young enough to be jaded, but old enough to comprehend, when his home of Radiant Garden fell to the darkness, and crumbled into the hands of Maleficent. Who started it, when, and why were all just inconsequential facts when it boiled down to the reality of how many people were now gone, missing, or otherwise. For a while after that, he found himself alone, like so many others, asking questions to the skies because no one else was there to answer them. For a long time, anger set in, and then acceptance. Acceptance that he didn't have the power to set things right again, but acknowledging that he could still do what he could to scatter the small black beasts that scavenged his home world. In that acceptance, he found strength of the Heart, and a light inside that would help guide him to helping make this Hollow Bastion home again. Along the way, the one thing that wore on him was that there was no one else he could find to help keep him company. It was near this time he decided that should he ever find a friend again, he would ensure they were never far from a helping hand. And although it was others who fought in other worlds that eventually helped return his home to how it once was, he took his own offer to heart, and continued looking for the ones who would help give him a place in their lives as a companion. What he boils down to is just another man looking for a place to be loyal.
During the Thousands-Heartless War, he took part in the defensive, fending off swarms of Heartless from the canyons of the Maw. Though never an official part of the war-effort the Restoration Committee and their allies staged, he sweat and bled for his world, and the newly-born city on the horizon, fighting for those who did manage to find their way, while his fears of losing any life he may have once again forged in it’s limits kept him on the outside looking in.
---
Rook's story truly began when he stumbled upon the Restoration Committee attacking a peaceful Nobody, Jason Arilani. Defending him, the two forged an unlikely alliance, traveling to Traverse Town, where Jason helped Rook conquer his fear of the Darkside heartless, before the two parted ways. Along his travels, Rook would come to meet Ren the Sky Pirate, whom he jokingly adopted as his sister, Namine, whom the Organization conspirator Marluxia kidnapped to blackmail Rook into aiding him, and Era, whom he would fight for, and almost die for on more than one occasion. But as Marluxia's snare tightened around Rook's neck, he fell further into the black, culminating at the Hades Cup tournament, where he became quickly outmatched by stronger opponents and was only able to survive at all by delving headlong into the darkness in his heart, spawned by his lonesome years in the outlands of Hollow Bastion.
Since his last adventures, he has become something of a recluse, wandering about the wastes outside Radiant Garden with little recollection of all that brought him there. The actuality is that Marluxia’s dark influences over him took his toll at the end of the Hades Cup tournament, nearly consuming him utterly and completely. After vanishing from the tourney without a word, he reappeared a short time later right back where his journey began: The lean-to he had made from scrap mortar and siding in the vast Great Maw a few miles outside the Garden’s city limits. Now rendered unable, or unwilling, to speak, he rarely wanders more than a short distance from his home.
Role Playing Sample: Weeks? Months? Rook was never good at keeping the time. He always just assumed. A decade out in the wastes, the only way of knowing how long he had been there was the hearsay he’s picked up when the town began to crop up again, it’s citizens speaking of the Heartless, the wars, the reconstruction efforts. Still, it seemed more had changed with himself in recent months than with the “Garden” in recent years. From a forgotten vagabond, he had saved a peaceful Nobody from the overly-aggressive clutches of the Restoration Committee. From that as a savior, he had conquered his fear over the goliath Darkside heartless. From his stance as a fearless warrior, he had become a protector, a brother, a friend.
A young man, struggling with forces he couldn’t comprehend in the name of protecting a girl he’d only met, but could not stop thinking about, even though now her name was far from recollection. A face he couldn’t shake, a name he couldn’t remember. A black choker necklace tied around his wrist as a reminder that he would always come to save her.
Her. Her? A shadow. Her shadow. A fight. A burning desire to keep this girl safe. And finally, a key. A weapon held in hand, themed to mimic the deck of cards he carried in his pocket. It had saved both of them. But now? He held out his hand. He imagined the key shaping, calling to it mentally and willing it to his grasp. But nothing came. No shimmering light of red, gold and black. No weight to fall into his digits as they grasped at thin air. He had fallen into the darkness of his own heart, into the selfish desire to become stronger for the selfless reason of protecting those he cared for, and as he fell, the key was lost from his hold, and it fell from him. Perhaps never to return. Another personal loss he’d found himself suffering through. He’d only had, what he had referred to it as, Blackjack for a short time. But he felt it was an extension of himself. A third arm, an eleventh finger, helping him to point out a direction in his life he had never known before, something the rest of his fingers could not direct him towards. His Light was dim, his key was gone.
The tournament seemed like it was a lifetime ago, even further behind him than that fateful day when the Heartless first laid seige to his home, family, and life. Laughter of a flower-haired man in black echoed in his mind’s eye, dark hands reaching from the black and snatching at him. It kept him awake some nights, startling him in to mad screams that echoed off the canyon walls.
Still, something kept him alive. Not physically, but emotionally. He still awoke every morning, looking to the rising sun as if it were some signal fire that one day, he could cease his dread that came when the daystar went down and the darkness surrounded him again. Words that resounded in his heart, a flickering candle in a pitch-black room.
”Jason…Ren…
Era.”Hollow words that meant something he couldn’t quite reach around and grasp. Memories that fell out of his head, whose meaning sat at the end of his tongue. But with every rising sun, Rook would open his eyes, step outside into the cold morning air, and greet the dawn. And one dawn would soon come, when those words would take on meaning again.
Questions/Comments/Suggestions? Continuance of the original Rook Sheer. I've tried to fill in the gap between his disappearance and reemergence on account of my departure and return to the site.
Additional:Battle Quotes:In battle:"Let's see how this hand gets dealt..." (start of battle)
"Guard Light!" (using attack of the same name)
"Back!" (in movement)
"I'll go out fighting!" (when dealt a critical blow)
"Oh, I'm not through
yet!" (charging the enemy)
"C'mon! Fight back!" (when in a combo)
"Fall!
Fall!" (finishing the combo)
Win/Loss:"You aren't so tough!" (defeating an enemy)
"Hah! I could do this all day!" (fighting weaker enemies)
"Guess it wasn't in the cards..." (being defeated)
"This...is my goodbye..." (defeated, using a last-ditch or desperate final attack)
