Ebony Silk Template

Notes: It's been such a long time but I finally done another Template, this time for 3rd Place for 's RWBY OC competition. Such a lot of fun now that I'm spending more time on my own poses! Getting better!

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Origin/Influences:
In Ancient China, a very important trade route was known as the "Silk Road". The OC's last name is derived from this because of her Chinese inspirations which will become clear later. As for her first name, Ebony is a term used for any sort of durable wood of a certain type, most of these such types growing in South Asian countries. Although China is not included in the countries they grow in, the fact that they are most prized when they are black does have significance with her representing colors. Also, she uses a different sort of durable wood in her weaponry.

Color:
Although there are actually two pairs of colors that are significant to Ebony Silk's design and abilities, the pair much more prominently featured as well as represented in her symbol are white and black. This choice may seem simple, but like I said, that isn't all there is to her color scheme.

Species:
She is a faunus. A Giant Panda to be exact. Hence the white and black as well as the Chinese references. Much like Blake, she exhibits a few tendencies and abilities reminiscent of the animal. Some of these include eating a lot of food daily(though only at meal times and as snacks), being incredibly lazy when bored and alone, and of course night-vision. That is a very common ability among many types of faunus after all.

Appearance: coronakasai.deviantart.com/art…
(The link sends you to a picture that was very accurately drawn and colored by the person who helped with various parts of the OC's personality, inspirations, and finer details. Although the OC is mainly used in my fanfic. I have been given permission to use this picture and they agreed that I should enter this OC in this contest.)
As you can see from the picture, she wears a white-and-yellow Chinese-style fighting outfit with small buns covered by gold-colored silk-like fabric tied by white ribbon. This silk-like fabric is actually used to cover her panda ears though. Her hair and eyes are silver naturally, although her eyes do change color when she uses her semblance. She also wears form-fitting black shorts and long black finger-less gloves. Her shoes are gold-colored flats (at least I THINK that is the proper term anyway).

Personality:
Ebony Silk is usually a gentle woman who cares for her students as she is an assistant teacher. She also acts as a sort of guidance counselor for the main team of my fanfic. She'll gladly protect those she cares about and will occasionally go out of her way to provide a helpful solution any way she can. To achieve this though, she often requires help from others. She is not many years older than most of the students. Because of this, she sees them as equals and treats them as such. She hates doing paperwork and this activity causes her to be quite lazy in finishing it due to boredom. Although having company in the process will prevent such laziness. She enjoys friendly conversation and tries to humor Professor Port when he tells his stories. He is the teacher she assists. Thanks to this, she has a fair bit of knowledge on how Grimm of various types tend to behave and attack.

Backstory:
Born in Menagerie, she lived a refugee-like childhood as faunus were gaining more rights at a slow pace at the time. It was a while before she was able to leave and move to Vale. She decided to get a job as an assistant teacher at Beacon for whoever taught the students about fighting Grimm in particular. She has never discussed why she wanted this exact position. Thanks to her patience, she was able to put up with Port's many stories while most others could not. She finds their grandeur amusing. She still returns to Menagerie occasionally to provide a bit of aid to those who still live there.

Aura and Semblance:
Ebony has an average amount of aura, thus making her less-than ideal as a Huntress. However, her semblance can make up for this when necessary. She affectionately calls her semblance "Panda-monium". It strengthens her aura tenfold and increases her general strength in bare-handed combat. She doesn't know a lot about martial arts, but it comes naturally when she uses this semblance.This however makes her a bit more violent in battle and she will refuse to use her weapons in favor of her bare hands. One notable difference is that her eyes will change to white pupils, gold irises, and black scleras(the white parts of the eyes). She can still think rationally to a certain degree however, knowing when to return to her normal state. Using her semblance wears her out and she cannot keep it up for too long. After all, she has no formal huntress training and has mostly only fought Grimm by necessity by the time she arrived at Beacon. Her level of strength actually makes her a wonderful sparring partner though since she isn't too weak nor too strong and wouldn't need to hold herself back against an average student.

Fighting Style:
She is moderately skilled at hand-to hand martial arts but has no particular style. You could say she uses MMA, but she only uses her hands and only mixes about 3 or 4 different styles that she couldn't even name if you asked her. She only fights bare-handed by instinct thanks to her semblance. Her weaker aura (compared to huntresses of her age) has caused her to prefer using a bow and if the distance is closed, she switches to her staff instead. She is quite skilled with the staff though her range with a bow is not impressive. While within a fair range for her skill level, her accuracy is good enough to get the job done. She is a very traditional fighter with very traditional weaponry.

Weapon(s):
Ebony Silk uses a bow and a staff, both of which are made of bamboo due to it's high durability. You'd expect her arrows to be made of bamboo as well thanks to the existence of a type literally called Arrow Bamboo, but they are actually just standard ones like most other arrows. She keeps them in a hand-basket rather than a quiver. Her mother wove this basket and she uses it for many other things as well.

Character Quirks/Details:
She doesn't get angry easily, but when she does, she might use her semblance to slap someone with the force of an angry mama-bear. And that's exactly how she describes it. She carries a small pepper-shaker full of tiny pieces of bamboo which she sprinkles on almost everything she eats. Especially any form of meat. She tries to exercise often because she sometimes worries that her large amounts of food during meals and relatively larger snacks might be affecting her weight. But next to Professor Port, no one ever seems to notice anything. People occasionally ask her if her gloves are made of silk because of her last name. They are actually made of the same material as her shorts, showing the slender shapes of her arms. She believes it is still important to have some level of elegance even in your fighting outfits. This is actually because of a subconscious desire to look more wealthy and refined than her upbringing would have people believe. Port's stories actually help her finish paperwork because "it provides a source of calming background noise". She gets lazy when she is alone. Knowing he is there makes her more diligent.

This is a picture I drew of her symbol.: snowjoe72.deviantart.com/art/E… The camera on the 3DS is not very good.