Ringo Alexander

Ringo Alexander, a.k.a. Rory MacTavish, is a student attending Siren Academy and a member Team CRSE. Attending wih him is his sister Tara Rhys, a.k.a. Terumi MacTavish.

Appearance
Ringo is a male taller than the average teenage boy. Standing at over six feet tall, he has a well-built body suited for tough combat. His skin is fairly light, unlike his sister Tara's, but highlights the contrast between his face and his dark red hair, almost the shade of blood. His hair is parted over the left side of his head and falls in smooth, somewhat feathered bangs, almost covering the eyepatch over his right eye. His only eye is a jaded green color, somewhat drained of life from his traumatic experiences as a child. The most noticeable thing about him overall is the fact that he has no right eye, gouged out earlier in his lifetime by his own father.

Ringo's attire lacks any real armor, but passes off as casual enough for everyday wear. He dones a wine red, sleeveless vest that zips up down the middle of his chest and tucks into his belt. He wears a military-influenced, dark gray jacket with long pentagonal designs down the front and silver lining. The jacket sleeves extend down through his dual-colored silver and black armlets into fingerless gloves. These are secured by two wine red belts across the middles of his forearms. His pants are the same shade of black as his armlets and are held up by the dark gray belt at his waist. Strapped to his left leg is a compartment pouch for ammunition and various other small objects that snaps closed with a small magnetic button. His shoes are a pair of dark gray, calf-high sneakers with crisscross ties. Underneath his red vest is a strap that keeps his weapon hoisted to his back when it's not being used. This is achieved by a slit in the back of his jacket and a magnetic clip that secures it to his person.

Personality
If there's any one word people would use to describe the boy, it's aloof. Ringo is assumed to be a very uninteresting individual, not one to interact with others much at school, let alone take part in academic instruction. He simply goes about his day as someone who would rather be a bystander than a noticed individual, though his actions have provoked others his age to think otherwise. When having a conversation with those he is close to or knows well, he can be described as willing to listen, but won't shy away from the opportunity to crack a joke no matter how distasteful. Most people would go about their day thinking Ringo is a guy who hates literally everyone around him, especially when one is inclined to bring up the topic of his family background should they find out, but truth be told he's just waiting for the right person to come along and say hello. He'll do what he can to prove himself a trustworthy friend to his teammates, or simply to stabilize the relationships he holds. Overall he's a quiet guy who just wants to live life walking down the easy road, but current events are making that lifestyle impossible.

Background
Before Ringo was Ringo, he was a boy named Rory MacTavish who came from a rich family in Vale. He and his younger sister Terumi appeared to be pampered by their parents Nara and Taichi who held jobs running a small but profitable company transporting copious amounts of dust to less than refutable individuals. The two of them were mobsters and didn't stand for anything that didn't meet their ridiculously high expectations. Because of this, Rory took the blunt of their strict standards and was regularly punished if he failed to measure up. Several times, he was thrown into the basement and left there for thirty-six hours at a time. On one particularly bad occasion when he dared to speak out against them, his father took things too far and promptly carved his right eye out, hoping to "open his eyes" to their way of doing things. This trauma destroyed the last of Rory's innocence and forced him to re-evaluate his view of the world.

Meanwhile, his slightly younger sister Terumi was undergoing a different means of conditioning. She was slowly but surely being molded to their parents' way of thinking, and trained to swing a polearm as if cutting through Grimm would be easier than slicing butter. Rory tried his hardest to shield her from what would inevitably turn her into another killing machine, but his efforts for the most part proved futile. It wasn't until she brought home a new friend one day, a boy named Sestran, that Rory started to worry about what kinds of friends Terumi was making. He was a good guy initially, but horrible timing led to the biggest turning point in their lives. As it turned out, Nara and Taichi were discriminatory towards Faunus as were a good handful of Vale's population at the time. They arrived home not long after to meet the boy, and were immediately outraged that their daughter was associating with a Faunus. Several hits later, Taichi was ready to end his son's life. Sestran intervened just in time and put an end to the MacTavish siblings' misery by planting bullets in their parents' heads. He soon revealed that Terumi made a good choice by befriending—much to their shock—a low ranking member of the White Fang. His last words to them were, "Do not let any one man hold you back again; true strength cannot be restrained." After that, they never saw Sestran again.

Rory and Terumi agreed they had to leave immediately, knowing the people Nara and Taichi did business with would look to them to finish their business or pay with their lives for it. The first thing they did was back two bags and purchase two tickets to Mistral. They hiked south for days to a smaller city, one where they new they would go undetected as it wasn't very popular nor widely regarded in Mistral. Once there, they made sure their parents' clients would never find them by changing their names to Ringo and Tara, going so far as to take completely different surnames to seal the deal. For the next three years of their lives they spent their time in an apartment, taking part-time jobs where they could find them and living a much better existence than what they were previously exposed to. It felt safe, but life eventually became boring. The idea of attending Beacon Academy one day was behind them. Tara, wanting to get out in the world and do something with herself, decided to apply the two of them for the local hunters' school. Ringo was skeptical at first, but gave in when she convinced him it would be a great outlet for his anger among other deep-seeded emotions. The two went to work making a little extra money in order to get the weapons they needed to enter. When Ringo went in for his physical examination he started off rough and had a hard time adapting to the environment; he was on the verge of failing. He refused to succumb again, and found his motivation to continue onwards. He passed by a hair, and was accepted alongside his sister into Siren Academy. Granted, the two of them didn't end up on the same team like they initially desired to, but they still spend some time together thanks to the blossoming friendships between their respective teams.

Weapon
Name: Naktinis Plesrunas {translation: Nocturnal Predator}

Primary Type: Short-Range

Modeled After: a scythe and a DP-64 Nepryadva grenade launcher

Capabilities: Naktinis Plesrunas has several notable abilities. The first, it can retract and extend from one form to another. It has two basic forms—sleep mode and battle mode—short, sweet, and to the point. Sleep mode is the form in which Naktinis is most compact and can easily be transported by means of, say, stuffing it in Ringo's backpack, should the weapon be small enough to do so. While it is primarily dormant, it still has ammunition-firing capabilities, as it takes on the form of a small grenade launcher.

In Battle Mode, Naktinis Plesrunas is fully extended to just a little taller than Ringo or over six feet in length. The long pole is extended from its retracted form in Sleep Mode, and the scythe unfolds from inside it. Due to the incredibly long barrel, Naktinis is incapable of firing Dust or Dust crystals of any sort. Bullets on the other hand are no problem, should they be less than 2cm in diameter.

Semblance
Unbeknownst to many, Ringo possesses a strange Semblance—thermal detection. It was a weak Semblance as a child, but after Ringo's right eye was ripped out, he became capable of focusing on thermal sources of energy in the dark to identify other people and creatures in the nearby vicinity. His eye glows bright green when this is in effect. The problem with this is his inability to use thermal detection for an extended period of time. It causes quite a strain on his eyes, therefore it can only be used for brief period of time, preferably ten seconds or so. Using it for minutes straight without a break will cause him pain and discomfort. Using it for an even longer time, such as a half hour or over an hour, may cause blindness or color blindness.

Relationships
Canaan Vogel:  Someone he finds he can trust and share a soda with. Ringo finds Canaan to be something of an interesting individual, with his oddly unique choice of weapon and diligent personality. The two find each other to be suitable partners in battle...or crime...and can count on one another when the going gets rough.

Shark Zabka: Someone that he finds oddly intriguing. Shark isn't exactly the first person Ringo would want as an ally, but thanks to his sneaky ways and treacherous past, much like his own, they find peace in each other's company and find it more than invigorating to do combat with one another.

Evelyn Scarborough: Oh, lord. He was hoping this girl wouldn't bother him anymore. Ringo gets a headache just from thinking about Emily, thinking her to be a man eater and a harem's ringleader. Though this isn't the case, he finds the woman pestering him on many occasions, and does his best to shove her aside. Though seductive, Emily is also a bit nurturing, and is willing to help heal Ringo after any kind of incident. She's almost like an older sister in this case, if not an admirer, or a love rival with Saige Cristallo.

Tara Rhys: Ringo's little sister and his most trusted companion. Despite their troubles growing up together, Ringo has found he can count on Tara in sensitive situations, should he need the assistance, and is most comfortable talking about his problems with her.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Saige Cristallo:  To be honest, Ringo doesn't know her that well; he views Saige as a bit stale, if not uptight and a bit of a control freak. Though despite these, he know she is like such to keep her teammates in line, and to improve their credability as a team, and respects that. He is somewhat attracted to her. In  Love Will Kill Tonight Pt. I, it was revealed that Saige and Ringo shared feelings for one another after a heated argument.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Raine Shiba:  The one boy Ringo hates more than anyone at Siren Academy. He sees Raine as a premature, unsuited huntsman-in-training, and an embarrassment to his team overall, due to his happy yet clueless nature. Ringo has the tendency to pick on him from time to time, but not to a point where he'd fire spitballs or throw a punch at Raine... That is, unless they're under the right circumstance(s).

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Macy Anumati:  Ringo finds Macy incomprehensible. He wonders how a girl that size can hold that much constant energy, let alone keep her spirits high almost all the time. He's not the type who would have a panic attack due to her overactive nature, but he  does  worry about her from time to time.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Nara and Taichi MacTavish:  Ringo's parents, and the most abusive people he has ever come to know. He finds Nara and Taichi overly demanding from him and Tara, and came to utterly resent them within a few years' time before their passing. He wished he could have killed them when he had the chance, though finds some solace in the fact that he didn't have to get his hands dirty thanks to Sestran. He feels no remorse to this day for their deaths, and goes on with life pretending that they were more so kidnappers than parents.

Trivia

 * Ringo's first name is Japanese for apple. The connection between color and his name comes from the typical red color of the fruit, but also from the development of a new variety of apple dubbed "the black apple," recently made in West Australia. It's known for its deep, rich color which is significantly darker than most other apples.
 * His last name Alexander stems from the words alexein, which means "to ward off, to avert, to defend" and aner, which means "man." This refers to Ringo's aloof nature, and his distant/defensive personality compared other characters in The Coming Storm.
 * Ringo's previous name Rory is of Gaelic origin and translates to "red king."
 * Ringo's mythological inspiration comes from the hellhound, which is depicted as a guardian assigned to protect the entrances to the world of the dead.  They are said to kill people who look into their eyes three times or more.  The most notable example of such a creature is Cerberus, the three-headed hellhound who belonged to Hades, god of the underworld, and was son of the multi snake-headed monster Typhon who was described as "fell, cruel, and neither like gods nor men." These connections to death serve as the inspirations for Ringo's weapon, backstory, and story developments.
 * His theme song is I'm Still Here by The Goo Goo Dolls.