CHARACTERName: William Nox
Age: 32
Species and Gender: Male Human
Symbol:Burning Cog with inlayed Wrench
Occupation:Professor at Beacon. Dust Specialist. Dust Engineer. Inventor Extraordinaire
Curriculum: Dust mechanics 1st - 4th year (Elective for other years?)
May include but not limited to
General Dust mechanics
Intermediate Dust mechanics
Advanced Dust mechanics
Specialized Dust mechanics
Semblance Dust Usage
Appearance:William is an eccentric looking character with alternating strands of white and black hair that is mostly burnt at times and almost always standing upright due to carelessness, loss of interest in maintaining appearance, and maybe just some bad hair products. He has a somewhat gaunt appearance, with dark spots under his wild looking eyes and part of his right eyebrow burnt off. Usually seen with a pair of heavy duty goggles, William also has several different type, some monocles, some large, and sometimes a welding mask, often times forgetting that he’s wearing them even when giving lectures in class.
Most of the times William would be sporting an ordinary shirt and khaki slacks, oftentimes crumpled with some burnt parts on them, topping that off would be a slightly overused labcoat with some streaks of black and whatever other colors you can imagine across them, presumably from dust explosions that happen all the time whenever he demonstrates or tinkers with his machines. When equipped, he usually wields his massive weapon along with a large and bulky power glove powered by dust, a mechanical backpack containing many of his necessary contraptions with an antenna sticking out, and some protective eyewear such as heavy duty goggles.
History:Sir William Nox of Vale, a profound personality in the fields of engineering and dust mechanics as well as education, his reputation mainly stemming not only from his successes and skill but also from his eccentricities and peculiar behaviour even when in the midst of particularly esteemed individuals(a little scuffle back then during a ball leading to stray fire that nearly burned all his garments off). Even as a child William was known to be a little odd preferring to sit back at home to fix the stove or tinker around with his father’s automobile instead of playing with the other kids outside. His childhood was mainly spent covered with grease, tightening screws and playing with fire, inventing being a hobby of his during his free time at home whenever he came back from school. Though not having many friends, he loved spending his time making ‘friends’ of his own. Friends with wheels, friends with cogs, friends that blew fire, and friends that helped him make other friends. In the long run the lack of social interaction left him awkward or in other terms, essentially an oddball to any real people he met. The odd look of being seen as a machine of uncertain complexity didn’t really fit in well with the lot of them but that never stopped him from looking high and low for any odd ‘parts’ they possessed and sometimes pressing a button or two that might have turned out to be a mole or a zit.
Possessing a rather...odd personality, William tended to treat other people the same way he did machines. Of course human interactions were awkward because people, lacking the simple turning gears and battery packs and control mechanisms that his machines had, were simply too complicated even for the young genius that was William. Being as he was his personality isolated him from others but that didn't sadden him at all. The more time he had away from real people the more time he had tinkering with machines.
William's parents were hard working and also rather intelligent individuals. His father being a dust engineer worked for a major company often brought home broken or faulty equipment to fix while William watched as a young boy and his mother was an old fashioned house wife but seemed to encourage William's enthusiasm with machines and dust, seeing as how the ever growing industry would need people like him. His parents weren't really social as well so they had no qualms seeing their son get top grades in most subjects save for the humanities which he failed miserably in most of the time. Getting the boy a plethora of books as well as having him assist his father during his usual routines he studied rigorously to support his hobby and soon to be passion. As he grew he started becoming more interested in the seemingly miracle substance known as 'dust' that powered machines and how different varieties provided even more possibilities. The common mishaps at home forced his father to make his own personal workshop, a few yards away from the house, and unlocked the boy's aura while monitoring the amount of dust he used on a daily basis, much to the dismay of his wallet but safety was of utmost priority.
Needing a way to test his machines, most of them being small semi-independent help bots, William often used them during his classes but normal education didn't exactly encourage machines doing the work of a normal person. Not wanting to spend time away from his passion William started skipping school to spend more time with his hobby but his mother opted for a better solution.
Primary combat school allowed him to use his growing expertise in robotics and dust usage at a much more alarming rate, his new found fascination with dust itself growing and presenting itself as both a hazard to other students and himself. Taking special remedial classes under an interested dust professor, William's knowledge grew even more while he started creating a rather infamous image of himself in school. Giant holes in school walls tended to do that to you.
After going through basic combat training and education, though much of the actual combat having been done by his little machines, he proceeded through to Beacon in hopes of being able to make better of his skills in both machinery, dust, and combat, a little part of him hoping to gain a few pounds by rigorous training due to his lanky frame. The years flew by as William and his team got through the relatively difficult process of becoming huntsmen and he slowly learned how to integrate himself more normally with 'normal' people. He never really became truly ‘normal’ but he learned in Beacon that being normal wasn’t exactly something necessary to survive and that being odd had its own advantages as well.
Straying away from social events William as always tinkered with his machines and even created his first prototype of the power glove he uses based on the developing hover tech used for airships. Having such a thing at is disposal it also allowed William to fight with his favorite tool in close quarters, a giant wrench. Be it a joke of his or a way to compensate for his lack of interest in actual combat, William never did change his fighting style all throughout accompanying small bots and an intimidating massive mauling weapon to boot.
Of course being in a team eventually meant that William had to interact with people on a semi-daily basis. Assisting his teammates with their weapons and dust studies he discovered he enjoyed sharing his love for machines and dust with others even if it meant him talking hours on end about theory and application while the rest of them humored him and fell asleep during his lectures.
Graduation was one of the many highlights of his life that had much more awaiting for him. His specialty in dust and machines got him many demands in technological corporations wanting to avail of his skills, some of them offering even research jobs that piqued his interest in trying out all sorts of techniques and methods he could only dream of doing with his limited equipment. After a few years jumping from company to company, he mastered many things regarding dust and machinery, many of them involving but not limited to weaponry, and wanting to share his knowledge, decided to try teaching at Beacon where he remains to this day albeit having some occasional requests and jobs in other prestigious institutes.
Personality:Extremely eccentric, oftentimes distracted by his own speech patterns, and has a large love for scientific things especially those pertaining to machines and dust powered contraptions William is an extremely informative and hyperactive individual when it comes to science. He could talk nonstop to someone about an interesting topic and be oblivious of all other things around him, unless of course danger is nearby. Known to be a loud thinker, he would also talk to himself when it comes to ideas instead of letting them sit around in his mind, sometimes even suddenly pulling out his scroll to quickly record a random idea that he’s picked up or to pretend talking to someone just so the idea would stick.
When teaching in class William would often go on blabbering as always, rushing to the point and treating complex material as if it were easy enough for a five year old. Unless asked he would continue his lecture with sometimes little regard to his students until of course he finished whatever he was talking about. This of course would sometimes make him hard to follow at times which may end up leading to a review of previous lessons complimented with demonstrations, more often than not being sufficient in itself. William doesn't like having consultation lessons after class because it's some of the few times he alots for his experiments, unless of course the student wishes to assist for a short while and risk some singed clothes. Not known to be overly picky with exams William would offer both written and practical examinations, nothing too difficult to handle depending on the subject, and perhaps allow some reference material depending on the complexity of the examinations and whether or not the student is taking an advanced subject for even more in depth dust usage such as semblance dust users and those that use dust mixtures and combinations in their weapons and equipment.
Aura and Semblance:Fortification
William can use his aura to fortify objects to give them much more rigidity and strength by using his aura to fuse in any weak links in the object’s shape and form and giving it a solid form capable of withstanding even more force than before. Though not usually used excessively, William could use his semblance to turn something as simple as a normal cloth shirt, and strengthening it into something as tough as steel mail but at a taxing cost of aura. Usually he would use his semblance to reinforce his machines on the spot to minimize damage to both it, and the environment should it explode or malfunction. Depending on the amount of aura used he could use it to fortify a machine, object, or even his own body to withstand extreme force. Fortifications could last as long as there is a steady aura supply but a set amount of aura could give an object far away from it’s source a defensive boost that can last an hour at most with degrading strength as it receives more damage, eventually weathering out the fortification until it’s back to normal strength.
Being more of a machine-loving person, William rarely uses his semblance unless for special circumstances, deciding to trust the integrity of his creations rather than using cheap tricks to make them better than they really are unless in dire circumstances (including testing new weaponry types or potentially dangerous machines).
Combat Behavior:Nox isn’t really a frontlines fighter and would opt to let his drones and other small robots do the fighting. However, if the situation calls for it he’ll personally go head to head using his massive wrench as a weapon or use all sorts of dust devices that’ll vary from various types of grenades to small turrets and trap or even just raw dust canisters. Not really being a team player he would gladly sip a cup of tea while letting his creations take care of the dirty work and maybe toss a grenade or two if they need help. If it comes to close combat he would wield his massive weapon with surprising ease and even go as far as using the beam function point blank while maintaining a grip on whatever it is he’s fighting.
WEAPONName: Professor Nox’s Heavy-Duty Combat Wrench - version 71.0914A
Primary Form: It’s a big wrench...like...very big, it could stand on end and be taller than the user himself.
The combat wrench has all sorts of stuff imbedded into it, some tools, some dust vials, a Dust cannon, spare goggles, the kind of stuff you’d expect your typical inventor to be carrying around. Due to it’s size and the stuff it carries it needed extreme fortification and tweaking leading to heavily armored plating and minute adjustments to ensure its strength and toughness against the many things you might expect in everyday life Be it something ranging from a simple engine fix, smacking a grimm with a homerun swing, or even using the Dust cannon to heat himself a nice cup of coffee or tea(Not completely advisable. and yes he sometimes carries a mug inside.)
Combat-wise, the wrench(adjustable variant) acts like a huge mauling weapon, capable of crushing opponents with it’s huge weight and also capable of holding onto and crushing them (It’s a tool used for holding onto stuff, duh.) The weapon could be enhanced with whatever dust canister (yes, not a puny vial or cartridge) is equipped at the moment. These include but are not limited to, Fire, Lightning, Ice and earth effects. Using the dust effects allow area attacks around the user or straightforward attacks travelling up to 5m from his position or power up the massive Dust cannon in the mouth of the wrench.
History: One of the nutty professor's most prized inventions, the wrench was a product of multiple trials and errors and lots of accidents. Many of Nox’s odd burns around his coats and hair were due to testing the weaponry functions of the wrench, mostly due to fire related explosions. Version number indicates that the wrench has gone through multiple models and improvements through the years.
Secondary Form:Having optional supports available the weapon’s head opens up revealing a large dust cannon capable of shooting all sorts of beams powered up by, wait for it, dust! The cannon’s power can be adjusted to several levels for either precision or power. There are 3 main levels of power in the cannon but the range can be finely tuned in between these levels with a little tinkering. Power ranges from small bursts of Dust to a powerful beam that decimates objects in its path but always ends up overheating the gun mechanism afterwards. Dust usage depends on what level is being used, of course, the highest being the most dust consuming. Beam properties depend on what type of dust or dust mixes are being used with some basic ones such as fire, lightning, earth, and ice being used conventionally.
Secondary Weaponry and Equipment]
Name: Dust Power Glove 3000
Primary Form: A single, extremely large power glove (Left hand) that looks a lot like a glorified steel oven mitt that has a glowing core in the center and veins of energy channeling through the core throughout the glove. The glove allows the user to lift extremely heavy objects by virtue of being powered by dust by a small repulsion mechanism almost akin to hovering. “I thought about airship technology but on a much smaller scale!” Due to the glove’s size, it is able to house multiple dust types but has one large supply of specialized dust for dealing with physical and mechanical stresses such as holding the huge wrench William carries around. Secondary uses include being able to quickly inject reserve dust canisters into the wrench for easy replacement and using some dust effects to cause elementally powered melee attacks, which are seldomly used due to the wrench’s weight, but otherwise useful if under the right circumstances.
History:Having been made before the power wrench, the glove was indeed a very handy tool, especially when it came to heavy lifting of many metallic parts and containers of dust for research. Applying the use of the glove for his wrench made the otherwise obsolete weapon(for his lanky frame), to an extremely potent and effective weapon for close combat as well as massive suppression. For some odd reason Nox prefers using only one glove, usually because it’s hard to fine tune stuff with fingers the size of salami.
Name: Drones and minibots
Every now and then William would make miscellaneous machines to help out with certain deeds depending on necessity. Many of them being simple mobile clockworks barely 3 feet tall at most that help carry around dust materials or machine parts. Sometimes these machines can be outfitted to be capable of short ranged flight to transverse difficult terrains but unfortunately many of them are often faulty due to ill preparation or adjusting when rushed or forgotten about. In terms of combat, William can outfit a plethora of weapons onto these machines giving him a miniature army of sorts but time and materials are usually key factors in determining how many he can deploy but on average being around 2-4 bots.
Some common bots are simple light machine gun wielding bots that fire 9mm - .50 cal ammo depending on outfitting but rarely being able to withstand too much damage due to size and technical complexity, giving them very little armor or limited mobility. The flying versions of these bots fire much lighter rounds to prevent disruption of flight due to recoil and are much lighter armored though being much more mobile. Dust ammunition is common for the bots and weapons can range from simple guns to flamethrowers and even self destructing bots. Others can consist of kinds of conventional weaponry such as other guns, flamethrowers or even spinning blades, depending on what’s needed but due to limited resources and funds he usually doesn’t go for things that are too complex for simple deeds.
All bots are controlled personally by Nox himself through his scroll. The drones and attack and support bots have preinstalled commands and algorithims that allow them to differentiate stuff such as grimm and people apart as well as environmental recognition as well as different sets of instructions as to how to react to certain situations. Of course they're not perfect and sometimes malfunction and have errors in performing tasks which is why Professor William Nox uses his scroll to monitor them by groups or even individually, issuing commands by voice or even through writing on his scroll and several other measures.