Cole Westbrook

Cole Westbrook is a third-year student at Beacon Academy, and the leader of Team CGRY. His weapons of choice are Bladesung and Selge, a pair of gloves and combat boots, respectively, that are specially tailored for hand-to-hand combat. His emblem is a stylized lightning bolt set against a smaller circle in the background.

Appearance
Cole is a short, stocky young man who stands around 5'6" and weighs in at 175lbs. He’s very well-built, with very clear muscle definition–the result of hours upon hours of training and working out. His bronze-coloured skin is peppered with pale scars; some thing and short, others long and jagged, though none are particularly significant and are just “occupational hazards” as Cole likes to call them. His jet black hair is cut shorter on the sides than it is on the top–though there’s no danger of any locks of hair falling into his eyes–and has a constant windswept look to it. Sideburns extend down both sides of his square jawline, turning into a kind of stubbly-looking brett beard.

Though it doesn’t look like he takes care of his facial hair, Cole is actually quite particular about how it’s styled; he does daily checks to make sure that his upper lip is completely clean-shaven, and that his “beard” is just scraggly enough to be attractive (in his opinion, anyway). The same goes for his eyebrows; though he’d never admit to it, Cole does indeed prune them, ensuring that they have a nice, defined shape to them, and that they’re on the thicker side. This helps to accentuate his eyes, which are a very bright, almost electric-blue colour that contrast sharply with his dark skin and even darker hair.

Cole is just as picky about his clothes as he is about his hair. He refuses to look anything but presentable–anything with stains or unintentional tears is immediately thrown out the minute it’s “ruined” to be replaced with a more pristine piece of clothing. His standard ensemble consists of a form-fitting black hoodie with an electric-blue coloured version of his emblem in the middle of the front, and one stripe of the same colour running down the side of the sleeves (which he often has rolled up to his elbows). His dark grey cargo pants, on the other hand, are quite baggy, and are held up by a bright blue belt. He can always be found wearing Bladesung and Selge–the former being a pair of black, fingerless gloves, and the latter a pair of black combat boots.

Personality
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History
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Westbrook Family
Cole is extremely close with his family, and is determined to get his parents and brother out of the hellhole that is the quarry town they live in. He shares this goal with his sister–who now has a desk job in Vale–and it’s the primary reason that he enrolled in Beacon; Huntsmen are paid handsomely, and with a paycheque like that, he could ensure that the Westbrooks live a comfortable and healthy life away from the mines. Of course, graduation is still a long way away, and he’s taken to doing odd jobs during school breaks in order to send money home to the family to try and help tide them over until he can bail them out of there. Cole also writes letters to them frequently, and always makes the time to send each of them a personalized letter about every two weeks or so.

Guinevere Crawley
Of all the members of Team CGRY, Guin is the only person Cole actually likes. They aren’t particularly close, but they can be found hanging out and spending some of their free time together on occasion. They would be a lot closer if it weren’t for Cole’s attitude toward the rest of their teammates–Guin genuinely likes Rohan, and works hard to include Yarrow as well, and doesn’t take too kindly to Cole badmouthing the two of them. She’s been seen ditching him in a huff more than once.

Rohan Norbury
Cole will openly acknowledge that Rohan has come a long way since their first year, but that doesn’t mean he likes the guy. He actually isn’t sure what to think of Rohan–all his life, Cole’s been trying to reach for the kind of lifestyle that Rohan has, and can’t fathom why Rohan would throw that all away for the lifestyle of a huntsmen of all things. It actually pisses him off a little, the way that Rohan treats the family fortune as though it’s nothing significant. He also doesn’t like Rohan because a) he’s the team’s weakest link, and b) coordinating battles should be Cole’s job (leader duties and all), so he holds a bit of a grudge for that as well.

Yarrow Gainsford
There’s no love here–just hate. Yarrow is an ass who purposefully pushes Cole’s buttons, and he hates it. Hates her. After their first year, he has tried to get along with her a bit better, but he only has so much patience.

Bladesung & Selge
Cole’s weapons, Bladesung and Selge, were made specifically with his style of fighting in mind. His gloves, Bladesung, have lightning dust crystals sewn into them in four particular spots: on the first knuckles of the fingers, between the first and second knuckles, on the second knuckles, and then one rather large crystal set in the palm.

Selge is designed in a similar manner, containing the same type of dust crystals as Bladesung. The crystals are located in compartments in the inner soles of the boots that lie on the heels, the arch, and the balls, and can be revealed through a specific kicking motion. When said motion is made, the “doors” of the compartments will slide back, with the one on the heel jutting out of the back of the boot to form a small, triangular blade. The outer parts of Selge’s soles have been reinforced with steel, which adds some extra weight but also increases the amount of damage Cole deals when kicking. It does, however, reduce traction a fair bit; when the compartment doors are open, the only rubber parts of the shoe are tiny strips sandwiched between the steel and the crystals, which makes stopping abruptly a bit more difficult.

Depending on how much fighting he has done, Cole will have to replace the crystals in Bladesung and Selge anywhere from weekly to monthly.

Earpiece
Tucked behind Cole's left ear is a little earpiece. This is the device with which Rohan communicates with him on the battlefield.

Semblance: Thunder Reign
Cole’s semblance is sound-based. Using his aura, he can manipulate a pre-existing sound’s duration and volume to extremely painful and incapacitating levels. The decibel levels of his attacks generally range from anywhere between 95dB to 170dB, which can cause anything from mild nausea to disorientation, severe pain, and even hearing loss that can be temporary or permanent. It should be noted that Cole’s semblance a) can only be used to affect pre-existing sounds, and b) is indiscriminate in nature. He is forced to produce the sounds himself, and said sounds will affect everyone within a certain radius–himself and his teammates included.

Fighting Style
Between his weapon, semblance, and overall personality, Cole is very much suited to the role of a brawler–something he takes great pride in. He’s always out on the front lines, punching and kicking whatever gets within his reach. He’s typically right in the centre of things too, so that when he needs to use his semblance, he can affect as many enemies as possible. He’s not really one for stealth, though if need be, Cole can use a quieter approach (just not once he breaks out his weapons, since all that Dust makes them rather flashy).

In spite of how reckless he might seem, Cole is actually quite controlled in a fight. Rohan makes it easier for him to let loose since it takes out a lot of the necessity to think during a battle, but even still, most of the moves Cole makes are calculated several steps in advance and there’s very rarely any wasted movements. While he does enjoy a good, brutal brawl, he also likes to have complete control of what’s going on, and as such, he’s not as much of a loose cannon as he might appear to be.

Trivia

 * Cole’s colours, weapons, and semblance are all based around thunderstorms. His weapons names–Bladesung and Selge–are Old English for lightning and thunder, respectively.


 * His name, in accordance to Monty’s colour-naming rules, references a colour as it literally means “black” (it can also mean “coal”, which is amusing considering the fact that he comes from a mining town).


 * Originally, Cole’s role was filled by a girl named Elysia, who had the same thunderstorm theme but her colour was yellow. She was later swapped out in favour of him when the team’s name was changed to CGRY.


 * Cole’s hearing started to go downhill after he began working in the mines, where he wasn’t equipped with proper ear protection. It only worsened over time, especially once he discovered his semblance.


 * In terms of academic excellence, Cole actually lags behind his peers quite a bit. He was never enrolled in any kind of school until he moved to Vale, and his only education prior to this was his grandmother teaching him basic communication and math skills. He spends a lot of time with Guin trying to catch up to the others.