Combat

Initiative: +20.
Defense: +6.
Resistance: +16.
Base Attack: +5 (DC 20 Damage, DC 15 Maneuver).
Powers: +11 (DC 26 Damage, DC 21 Effect).

 

Skills

Deception: +0. Expertise: +21. Insight: +10. Intimidation: +0. Investigation: +0.
Mobility: +20. Perception: +10. Persuasion: +0. Stealth: +0. Technology: +0. Treatment: +21.

Fields of Expertise (+2pp): Animal Handling, Architecture, Art, Business, Carpentry, Cooking, Crafts, Criminal, Current Events, Dance, Dust, Etiquette, Fashion & Styling, Grimm, History, Mistral Local, Music, Myths, Navigation, Pizza, Politics, Pop Culture, Scholastic, Science, Semblance Lore, Survival, Tactics, Tailoring, Vehicles (Air), Vehicles (Land), Vehicles (Water)

 

Advantages

Artificer, Benefit 2 (Bedside Manner [use Treatment for provoking positive emotion], Dustweave [use Tailoring Expertise for Artificer to weave Dust into cloth]), Improved Smash, Improvised Tools, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Treatment), Teamwork

 

Powers

Semblance - Threading the Needle: Semblance Scaling (Scaled Measure [Quickness]) {0}

Novice Seamster: 55-point Dynamic Array {55+11}

Needle: Multiple Effects.

You May Feel A Light Prick: Damage 11 [11]

Proverbial Haystack: Enhanced Range 9 (180ft), Damage gains Precise and Subtle[11]

Dust Needle: Damage gains Secondary Effect [11]

Pincushion: Damage gains Multiattack [11]

Hay In Needlestack: Damage gains Shapeable Area (120ft bendable line) [11]

Thread: Multiple Effects.

Spin A Yarn: Affliction 11 (Impaired+Vulnerable > Disabled+Defenseless; Extra Condition, Limited Degree) [11]

Bundled Up: Affliction gains Extra Condition (Immobilized > Stunned) [11]

Joining Skeins: Affliction gains Shapeable Area (120ft bendable line) [11]

Finishing Touches: Affliction gains Cumulative [11]

Battening: Strength gains Shapeable Area (120ft bendable line) [11]

String Theory: Multiple Effects.

Pull Tight: Strength 11 [11]

Mechanical Advantage: +10 Strength (lifting only), Strength gains Precise, Feature 2 (Easy Hold, Free Lift) [8]

Thread Sling: Winged Flight 10 [10]

High Priority Commissions: Create 12 (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle, Tether, Reduced Range, 2 ranks of Limited [volume only]) [26]

Stitch: Multiple Effects.

A Stitch In Time: Healing 11 (Limited [Others only]) [11]

Saves Nine: Healing gains Shapeable Area (120ft bendable line) [11]

Patchwork: Remove Limit from Healing [11]

Mending: Healing gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Labor of Love: Healing gains Persistent [11]

Acupuncture: Multiple Effects.

Satisfying Trigger Points: Weaken 11 (Resistance) [11]

Overwhelming Relaxation: Weaken gains Additional Effect (Effect Bonus) [11]

Group Therapy: Weaken gains Shapeable Area (120ft bendable line) [11]

Structural Weakness: Weaken gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Chakra Stimulation???: Healing gains Restorative [11]

Expertise: Multiple Effects.

Time Management: Quickness 21 [21]

Team Management: Quickness gains Affects Others (Quirk [Must actively work together with affected targets]) [20]

Quality Control: Senses 3 (Analytical Vision, Acute & Analytical Touch; Analytical limited to fabrics) [2]

Clear Workflow: Feature 2 (always able to retrace steps) [1]

Proper Attire: Morph 3 (humans and faunus; Affects Self and Others, Continuous, Increased Action 2 [standard], Limit [can't change someone's height or build or add body parts, just creates very real suits and masks], Quirk [other people can't change their Morph other than taking it off, Lapis has to change or re-apply it]) [11]

Calculations

Defenses 54 + Skills 43 + Advantages 11 + Powers 66 = 174/174 PP, PL 11.

Keep Things Together [Motivation - Doing Good] - Given current and past events, things are kind of coming apart at the seams. At least some people need to keep things from fraying too much so the actually important ones can fix things.

Get Real [Motivation - Acceptance] - If he has to become well-known, he would like to become well-known for what he actually is, not the endless array of rumors and yarns spun about him, thank you very much.

In The Footsteps of the Determinator [Motivation - Responsibility] - Being the guy who has to take the place of the quite literally globally (in)famous Lin Bane, on the globally (in)famous team RACL… is a rather tall order. People keep telling Lapis how RACL are a team of mad berserkers led by a crazy dog faunus and his hat, who literally eat Grimm for sustenance, and are always one step away from destroying whole cities. Surely, most of that is overblown… right? Still, he’s just a little guy with needles and some yarn, y’all.

Promoted Background Character [Quirk] - Never wanted to really stand in the limelight or be a Huntsman, but that just kind of happened. Hero’s Journey kicked down the door and dragged him out screaming. So outwardly he has an “it is what it is” attitude dealing with the many problems he now has to face, while there is much internal screaming.

Orchid Centaurea, Demanding Socialite Mom [Relationship/Responsibility] - Being a fixture of Mistralian high society, Lapis’ mother Orchid was quite adamant about having her only child excel. She also would have preferred a daughter, but she worked with what she was given, so her side of raising Lapis precisely did not care all that much about common wisdom on how boys should be raised. There was a lot of pressure on Lapis to fit his mother’s lofty expectations (not helped by her extolling his supposed talents and virtues). This is also how he ended up getting into tailoring, among other things, and came to like it. By now, Orchid still very much wishes Lapis to excel, but there is an understanding that she is proud of her son. But she also still ropes him into her high society dealings, especially since he is so skilled in creating fashion and art, among other things. As a side note, Orchid may or may not have been or still is an assassin of sorts. But such things surely are just hearsay. Or at least blown out of proportion/misinterpreted.

Cyan Cayenne, Gung-ho Supportive Dad [Relationship] - Cyan is a traditional, sword-toting outdoorsman of a Huntsman who never really got on that well with all the technological thingamajigs. After years of Orchid mostly dictating how Lapis should be raised, Cyan eventually put his foot down, told his wife that if she continued like this “the boy will implode”, and took him on an extended (we are talking two years) trip through the wilderness when Lapis was about 12 years old. They traveled extensively through almost the entirety of the continent of Anima, accompanied by the members of his team-mates Setzer, Celes, and Sabin (Team SCCS “Success”; I leave it to you which S is the leader).

So Lapis experienced a whole lot of Grimm and bandits, discovered his Semblance on the road, and just kind of filled whatever role was needed, either among the team or in whatever village they came across. Partially because Cyan has seemingly endless faith in what his son can accomplish (and also isn’t afraid to loudly claim such things) and being a big believer in learning through hardship. Nowadays, Cyan is a little disappointed Lapis never took up the sword, but he started training as a Huntsman and is protecting people where he can, so he’s a proud dad overall.

Tabby Boots, Wish-Granting Manipulator [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - A cheerful cat faunus, Lapis' self-proclaimed best friend, with a seemingly wish-granting Semblance, which she used to achieve riches and prestige in Mistral’s social circles. All because Lapis once found her out in the wilderness of Anima after she was left to die by bandits, helped her back on her feet and get a fresh start in Mistral (also outfitting her with clothes aiding her in making first impressions). That act of kindness caused Tabby’s Semblance to emerge, and she quickly went to work to make the most of the opportunity. Sadly, the now young woman has an amoral streak and felt few compunctions in terms of manipulating and exploiting her way towards the top in the murky Mistralian circles, now quite well-situated in the gray area where nobility and crime intersect, with connections to Spider.

She has offered Lapis to live with her in luxury several times, but the latter always refused, given what he’d have to stomach morally, and wishing Tabby would use her talents for more charitable purposes. They do like each other a lot despite their different views, though Tabby has caused Lapis no shortage of mostly accidental trouble by involving him in her schemes “for his own benefit”, or running into him during a particular predicament, or impromptu inviting him to a hangout, or Tabby’s enemies trying to go after the boy. It also doesn’t help that Tabby does her own sort of myth-building for Lapis, much to the latter’s chagrin. Lapis still tailors clothes for Tabby, partially in hopes of maybe effecting a slow change for the better. Tabby frequently favors a swashbucklery style with matching rapier, and of course her magnificent collection of boots, though also dresses for any given occasion, whether it is a social function or a heist.

Mila Fury, Tabby's Bodyguard [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - An icy young human woman with a Semblance allowing her to weaponize her blonde hair in an outlandish variety of ways. Lapis does not know much about her at present. Tabby seemed to have acquired her loyal services on her way up through Mistral's high society and crime circles, though she doesn't seem to solely be a servant, but rather a devoted partner in crime, so to speak. Mila seems quite fond of the way Tabby carves out her own fortune regardless of everything and disregarding societal rules, though Tabby's fondness for Lapis seems to irk Mila, seeing him as something holding her back, so she is rather cold (more than with most people) towards Lapis. When Lapis literally lost his arm and leg (though only temporarily) to defend Mila during the attack, while she doesn't agree with his way of trying to fit into society (and really doesn't like that he got Tabby marked as an enemy of the radical White Fang), she could appreciate his dedication to doing what he believes in, even at personal cost. Baby steps.

Also ever since Lapis stitched his own limbs back on with strands of her Aura-infused, Semblance-enhanced hair, she more or less can track down Lapis when she wants to. Jury's out on what she decides to do with this information, and whether as well as who she might decide to share this with (or not). Lapis gets the feeling Mila derives a degree wicked joy from this, and that she likes having information Tabby would like to have for her shenanigans that she can feel like not sharing if Tabby is causing her too many headaches. In retaliation, Tabby has started shipping Mila and Lapis, much to their chagrin, and Tabby's cackling glee.

The Grimm-Faunus-Shadow Creature [Enemy] - Better naming pending. The creature encountered during the attack on Vale, which seemingly accompanied the White Fang. Frankly, Lapis has no idea what this thing is. His best guess it is some weird creature of Grimm grafted onto a male faunus (type unknown, too hard to see in the heat of the moment) in some way, but that is speculation. Could also be some freaky Semblance that went out of control, or someone else using their Semblance (given the messed-up things Mac has done, well...). The result is a highly dangerous and vicious creature able to weaponize the shadowy substance it seems to be mostly made of and can spread out into puddles, able to form weapons and creature parts like huge maws from it. At the same time, it seems intelligent, if unwilling to talk as of yet. Mila appears to be familiar with this creature, or more specifically the faunus inside it, but she has kept silent about this. The creature fled when Lapis, Tabby, and Mila tried to separate "Grimm" and faunus, so it is still out there. Whatever it is planning or doing.

Reputational Superposition [Reputation] - Due to years of people claiming things about Lapis and the boy seemingly attracting this sort of thing, people who do know about him tend to have a bunch of different opinions, often based on what they heard, rather than the person himself. Depending on who said reputation stemmed from, people might think he is some sort of high society distinguished smooth operator (Orchid), a giant man uprooting trees and slaying Grimm by the dozens with his bare hands (Cyan), or something like a mysterious ninja living in the shadows (Tabby). Add additional reputations to taste.

Nexus of 1001 Dubious Tales [Reputation/Quirk] - Additionally, there are a ton of rumors floating about of what Lapis allegedly did or can do, and these have been passed around for so long that they have taken on a life of their own entirely. Able to see and weave one’s innermost desire, burst boulders with but a needle prick, puppet unknowing people, break through the shell of even the most hardened politician, stop an Alpha Nevermore dead in its tracks, slice through a dozen bandits with atomically-thin wire without them even noticing. Needless to say, Lapis does his best to debunk, at times having to deal with the fallout, or people thinking he is being modest. However, there are also the counter rumors of him just being a random seamster innocent of any wrongdoing or even having a Semblance or aura who couldn’t hurt a fly, which is overall nicer, but really doesn’t help with being taken seriously during Huntsman work.

The Incredible Spider-Fauxnus [Prejudice] - The most baffling rumor that also seems to be the most adamant to be universally accepted as true is that people think Lapis is a spider faunus, projecting webbing from his hands. He can create thread on the fly, and he has become rather good at navigating and balancing on strings and such, and he does immobilize bad guys by binding them, but he is really, really not a faunus, you guys! Even the White Fang and the Farm seem to believe it. Lapis is just so thankful whenever someone actually believes he is human.

Semblance - Threading the Needle

The true nature of Lapis' Semblance remains a bit of a mystery, even to himself. At first, no one actually realized he had a Semblance. Then he thought he was just good with needlework. Then he discovered being able to make needles deadly weapons. Then control string. Then seemingly memetic tailor abilities amped to 11. Lapis' best guess by now is that his Semblance is basically "what if someone took the archetype of a tailor, and made a mythical creature out of it". However, his Semblance only unlocks capabilities, but the actual applications required intense work to figure out and make usable, especially in combat.

For some reason, his mom Orchid is really quite fond and proud of her son's Semblance. In hindsight, she indirectly contributed to a lot of its combat and healing-adjacent capabilities, hmm...

 

Novice Seamster
In a mixture of trying to be real, humbleness, and a degree of induced impostor syndrome, Lapis thinks he is just very much a beginner in what he does, with his primary job being a seamster (due to Orchid employing his talents, fixing his dad's clothes and gear that got put through the wringer by his wild adventures, and making dresses for Tabby). Naturally, most seamsters don't fight Grimm and bandits with needle and thread, but, well, baby steps. Lapis is getting to thinking of himself as a Huntsman eventually.

Needle
The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The first application of his Semblance that emerged. As long as he has Aura, Lapis seems to never run out of needles. Though there is no telling whether he might still have needles on him without. While Cyan thinks Lapis would be even better with a sword, he has come to think of Lapis' needlework as being like wielding a (very small) dagger with which his son smites evildoers and Grimm, making Cyan a very proud dad.

You May Feel A Light Prick
Lapis can do surprising damage by stabbing someone or something with a needle, through a combination of aiming for vital areas and his Semblance vastly increasing the force of the used needles. Thus his attacks are more comparable to gunshots with high-caliber, low-mass, high-velocity bullets.

Proverbial Haystack
Lapis is able to manipulate needle and thread at a range, and also propel them at very high velocities. The low mass and not being made to stabilize in the air hurt the range of his needles somewhat, but his aim has become pinpoint, and it is rather hard to see and hear a flying needle coming, especially when they can be flicked covertly.

Dust Needle
So, just creating temporary needles is also a thing Lapis can do, and if he includes Dust in it (usually in powdered form or threading it with Dust string he made), secondary harm befalls a hit target shortly after the initial impact as the Dust activates.

Pincushion
Lapis simply attacks with more needles, having become proficient at wielding several at the same time, and throwing them in large quantity and frequency as well. A leading cause for ninja-related stories about Lapis.

Hay In Needlestack
Yeah so, how about even more needles? What was that? More needles? Okay, more needles it is!

Thread
The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The other basic application of his Semblance that first emerged, and much like with needles, Lapis seems to just not run out of thread. This absolutely contributed a lot to people thinking he is a spider-faunus.

Spin A Yarn
Trapping a target in thread patterns, making it more difficult for them to move offensively and defensively. Lapis outright controls the thread, but also uses momentum, leverage, and both his own and the target's motions to hinder them as much as possible. As a by product, does produce interesting patterns.

Bundled Up
Apply even more thread, and in much more intricate and stronger patterns, seeking to outright prevent movement by restricting limbs or tying the target to an object (or other person). Frequently results in beautiful web-like patterns, heavily fueling the spider rumors in addition to the function.

Joining Skeins
So much thread. Endless thread. Such webs Lapis weaves. At times creates a greater work of art consisting out of the individual tied-up targets.

Finishing Touches
At times, the weave could not be finished, thus it needs to be completed. Be it continuing his own work or adding to the efforts of one of his teammates matters little to Lapis, one just has to adapt to any given situation. Has been likened to wrapping up a victim stuck to a spider's net by Tabby, and a more physical version of people who got a taste for Lapis' fashion inevitably coming back for more (and thus driving themselves deeper into Orchid's network).

Battening
As Lapis had to learn, at times, a certain degree of crowd control becomes necessary, whether it is stopping rampaging Grimm, panicking civilians, or vampire spawn trying to escape as fart clouds. When in doubt, gather them all up and bundle them together to put them elsewhere.

String Theory
Experimentation in the applications of string. Lapis learned that string he wields can have incredible tensile strength, and Cyan did subject him to hellish physical training by way of dragging him through the Grimm-infested wilderness for years. Here are the results!

Pull Tight
Lapis does not look it in his usual choice of clothes and with his wiry five-and-a-half-ish foot frame, but the lad is strong, heavy on the functional strength while keeping excess muscle mass as low as possible, thanks to Cyan's training regiment (the man knows what he is doing and talking, after all) and Orchid's requirements that Lapis should aim for a pleasing physique for his own benefit. Lapis can also deliver said strength through string, often involving it in the applications, such as grabbing and throwing someone with ropes.

Mechanical Advantage
Lapis knows how to use his strength optimally, especially in combination with string to multiply its effects. Distributing weight, creating mechanical advantage, proper leverage, you name it. Since he can apply his strength through his string, this also allows for incredibly precise control of it, able to manipulate objects in a fine manner (Orchid made him learn to produce calligraphy via brushes operated with his string). Because of this, it is rather trivial to quickly pick up and carry objects (and people) with him.

Thread Sling
Cast out thread and pull himself towards where it tied itself to. Compensate the landing issues with Landing Strategy. Alternatively, he can launch himself through the air by pushing himself away via string bundles. So it is not technically outright flight, but close enough, given how quickly he can change his trajectory. Because of the necessary motion involved to not just splat against something (or to even get moving), it is rather difficult to do this tied up, perhaps somewhat ironically.

High Priority Commissions
Creating a lot of thread, and weaving it on the spot, with all the strength mentioned above, allowing him to create large projects in the blink of an eye, and also unravel them as quickly if necessary. Intense to use, but versatile, especially with different kinds of thread. From impromptu clothes to tents to ramps to surprising utility items, Lapis is able to accomplish a lot. Basically all of his abilities combined into one and taken as far as he can make them go at this time. Lapis himself prefers a less intense approach if he can help it and has the time (though "slower" is quite relative in this case).

Stitch
So when Lapis learned to be a medic while dragged along by traveling with Team SCCS and thus learned how to stitch wounds, he started figuring out that his Semblance helped with that. Followed by wanting to create surgical thread, something going wrong, and instead creating his first instance of thread consisting of sheer aura with no real normal physical qualities. From that, well, Lapis not only became a very proficient medic, but also a very fast and nigh miraculous one.

A Stitch In Time
With pure Aura needle and thread, fueled by actual medical training, Lapis sews wounds shut, creates Aura bandages promoting healing of larger-scale injuries, mends Auras, you name it. It is a mixture of accelerating natural healing, Aura infusion and amplfication, or perhaps it is simply Semblance not!magic. This sort of thing is best done on other people though, as treating himself this way takes a lot of doing.

Saves Nine
Doing the same as above, but on a wider scale. With this, Lapis tends to focus mostly on Aura and "easier" injuries, but it is not like he is incapable of providing full aid to multiple people at once. It is just not very easy.

Patchwork
Treating one's own injuries tends to be harder for a variety of reasons, including it being rather difficult to often see and reach injuries with enough precision to do the work. This allows Lapis to intuit the procedures enough to take care of himself when push comes to shove. Treating his own Aura is another matter, basically needing to amplify his own reserves, which again takes a lot of doing, though helped by the fact that he can see damage to his Aura as flaws he can mend.

Mending
It turns out he can also apply his healing techniques to objects, making them whole again, whether through actual stitchwork or by basically Aura-fusing them together like a supernatural weld bond. A bit of a nightmare with shattered objects, but, well, it is what it is. Would be nice to have a machine do the puzzling for him.

Labor of Love
As harrowing as the process of learning his medical skills was (and still is), and how unpleasant the situations where he needs them often are, Lapis does feel good about doing the work. That and he learned that if he doesn't do it, he can't necessarily expect someone else to step up. So even if he is facing cases where he can only wonder how to best go about it, gotta find a solution somehow.

Acupuncture
So acupuncture has some uses, but they are relatively minor all in all. However, things are very different when you have Aura needles, Dust-infused needles, and can channel Aura via them. This actually developed out of stress-relieving massage/acupressure, but adding his brand of needles and abilities led to such potent relaxation that... that he could actually use it in combat. As weird as that sounds.

Satisfying Trigger Points
Hitting just the right spots, and there goes body tension and keeping Aura stable from sheer good vibes.

Overwhelming Relaxation
Pile on even more relaxation and suddenly, doing harm becomes rather difficult when you swing like a pool noodle.

Group Therapy
Once again, doing all this to several people at once, usually in a similar manner as normally attacking with a mass of needles. Has at times led to weird situations where Lapis crowd-controlled multiple people this way, followed by Team SCCS taking out happily-noodly, babbling bandits.

Structural Weakness
So you have the ability to drive needles through Grimm plating, create Dust needles, have really good aim, and were forced to learn about how architecture works to put buildings back together while out with Team SCCS? Congratulations, you have all the ingredients to ram Dust needles into structural weak points and crack a building open. This came in handy during the invasion of Vale, given there were rogue military robots.

Chakra Stimulation???
One of the applications that is frankly weird to Lapis himself. As far as he could manage to find out, there are points where if Aura with perhaps a bit of specific Dust is channeled into, it helps get rid of various conditions. There is also basically pulling through semi-immaterial Aura needles and thread through someone to apply these forces on the inside of the body or directly attack the cause of an ailment. However, most of this is moot, as this has been hijacked by other people to mean that chakras are indeed real after all and Lapis is merely masterfully manipulating these with good ol' traditional medicine. Which Lapis has been trying to work against, because he doesn't want people to randomly jam needles or Dust crystals into their bodies.

Expertise
At this point, you probably know Lapis has been far busier having to learn more things than the average teenager probably should need to learn. To cope, one has to develop a certain skill set. And also, practice simply makes perfect. Tabby happily points out the stories of diligent tailors and seamstresses for this to explain Lapis just managing to cram all this into the average day alongside everything else (and sometimes even sleep). Lapis' face usually has deep dark rings under his eyes and a too tired to argue expression in those situations.

Time Management
Between the dozens of hats Lapis has been wearing, there is only so much time in a day. So he channels the example of tailors of legend (as Tabby happily puts it) and simply has to make do. Lapis has been doing what he has been doing so much he got good at it, and with getting good came getting fast. Now, he actually became... very quite fast at what he does. A bit inexplicably so. So his Semblance is to blame for this as well. Lapis is just grateful he can do this, though he does remark that he works efficiently, not just faster, not being fond of his weird emergent gameplay Semblance getting all the credit.

Team Management
And often, Lapis can't do everything himself. So he had to learn about team management as well, especially in situations where nightfall might mean bandit attacks, Grimm, or even worse, nobles without the clothes that were ordered with ludicrous time tables. But there is also that he cares about his colleagues not getting into trouble. So he basically wears the Producer hat, coordinating, motivating, helping, and as long as he can directly work with the team, they get stuff done quick. There is a flow state for everyone involved, with the perception of time getting weird as they hardly think about that anymore and it really not feeling that long despite how much they are actually doing, and afterwards going "wow, we really got a lot done, huh?".

Quality Control
You work with this much thread and a very demanding mother, and you start noticing what is good material quality and what isn't. And for the craftmanship. And who made it. And who made the material for the person who made it. And which of the hundreds of raw materials to pick for any given project. And how well someone takes care of their clothes. There may have been eye twitches.

Clear Workflow
By now, Lapis unfailingly remembers the order of everything he does in a project and can reverse-engineer it, as well as whatever path he took wherever he went, even when the surroundings mainly look like TREES AND MORE TREES.

Proper Attire
An off-shoot of his instant production capabilities. Lapis wondered if he could make entire bodysuits and spy masks and what-not, so he tried, and the answer was yes. So there is that. He absolutely does not have the infiltration capabilities for this, but Tabby sure is damn interested in this, and he is fairly sure Orchid has been keeping her eye on this as well. Why are those two frequently in alignment about stuff like this?

About 1.7m tall, long blue hair frequently styled differently (because of course he is also a hairdresser), blue eyes, fair skin. Wiry in build, he wears a wide variety of fashion in public, often with aspects of Mistralian culture, depending on circumstance and partially mood (and how likely it is to draw his mother's disapproval by underdressing in official settings).

In more casual settings, he likes baggier, comfy clothes, which often also mostly hides his physique. During more official events, he wears fitting garb ranging from sleek with intricate detail on closer inspection to quite elaborate. For combat, he wants full range of motion and access to his tools, which incidentally makes him look very ninja-adjacent, covered in elaborate patterns doubling as Dust thread reservoirs, and contributing to the persistent spider-faunus allegiations. His combination of high flexibility, quick precision strikes, thread weaving, and balance only further emphasize this.

Lapis trends somewhat androgynous on average, and he doesn't particularly mind wearing more feminine styles, courtesy of his fashion work done for his mother Orchid. So people often end up assuming he relies solely on agility and speed. These people are often surprised to see a sculpted physique trained to purpose to achieve the most effect with only as much muscle mass as necessary, and that he is more likely to withstand attacks with thread barriers and string traps than nimbly dodging out of the way. His dad Cyan is very big on being able to take hits in fights, so that was a big focus in Lapis' training.

Combat

Initiative: +20.
Defense: +6.
Resistance: +16.
Base Attack: +5 (DC 20 Damage, DC 15 Maneuver).
Powers: +11 (DC 26 Damage, DC 21 Effect).

 

Skills

Deception: +0. Expertise: +21. Insight: +10. Intimidation: +0. Investigation: +0.
Mobility: +20. Perception: +10. Persuasion: +0. Stealth: +0. Technology: +0. Treatment: +21.

Fields of Expertise (+2pp): Animal Handling, Architecture, Art, Business, Carpentry, Cooking, Crafts, Criminal, Current Events, Dance, Dust, Etiquette, Fashion & Styling, Grimm, History, Mistral Local, Music, Myths, Navigation, Pizza, Politics, Pop Culture, Scholastic, Science, Semblance Lore, Survival, Tactics, Tailoring, Vehicles (Air), Vehicles (Land), Vehicles (Water)

 

Advantages

Artificer, Benefit 2 (Bedside Manner [use Treatment for provoking positive emotion], Dustweave [use Tailoring Expertise for Artificer to weave Dust into cloth]), Improved Smash, Improvised Tools, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Treatment), Teamwork

 

Powers

Semblance - Threading the Needle: Semblance Scaling (Scaled Measure [Quickness]) {0}

Novice Seamster: 55-point Dynamic Array {55+11}

Needle: Multiple Effects.

You May Feel A Light Prick: Damage 11 [11]

Proverbial Haystack: Enhanced Range 9, Damage gains Precise and Subtle[11]

Dust Needle: Damage gains Secondary Effect [11]

Pincushion: Damage gains Multiattack [11]

Hay In Needlestack: Damage gains Shapeable Area [11]

Thread: Multiple Effects.

Spin A Yarn: Affliction 11 (Impaired+Vulnerable > Disabled+Defenseless; Extra Condition, Limited Degree) [11]

Bundled Up: Affliction gains Extra Condition (Immobilized > Stunned) [11]

Joining Skeins: Affliction gains Shapeable Area [11]

Finishing Touches: Affliction gains Cumulative [11]

Battening: Strength gains Shapeable Area [11]

String Theory: Multiple Effects.

Pull Tight: Strength 11 [11]

Mechanical Advantage: +10 Strength (lifting only), Strength gains Precise, Feature 2 (Easy Hold, Free Lift) [8]

Thread Sling: Winged Flight 10 [10]

High Priority Commissions: Create 12 (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle, Tether, Reduced Range, 2 ranks of Limited [volume only]) [26]

Stitch: Multiple Effects.

A Stitch In Time: Healing 11 (Limited [Others only]) [11]

Saves Nine: Healing gains Shapeable Area [11]

Patchwork: Remove Limit from Healing [11]

Mending: Healing gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Labor of Love: Healing gains Persistent [11]

Acupuncture: Multiple Effects.

Satisfying Trigger Points: Weaken 11 (Resistance) [11]

Overwhelming Relaxation: Weaken gains Additional Effect (Effect Bonus) [11]

Group Therapy: Weaken gains Shapeable Area [11]

Structural Weakness: Weaken gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Chakra Stimulation???: Healing gains Restorative [11]

Expertise: Multiple Effects.

Time Management: Quickness 21 [21]

Team Management: Quickness gains Affects Others (Quirk [Must actively work together with affected targets]) [20]

Quality Control: Senses 3 (Analytical Vision, Acute & Analytical Touch; Analytical limited to fabrics) [2]

Clear Workflow: Feature 2 (always able to retrace steps) [1]

Proper Attire: Morph 3 (humans and faunus; Affects Self and Others, Continuous, Increased Action 2 [standard], Limit [can't change someone's height or build or add body parts, just creates very real suits and masks], Quirk [other people can't change their Morph other than taking it off, Lapis has to change or re-apply it]) [11]

Calculations

Defenses 54 + Skills 43 + Advantages 11 + Powers 66 = 174/174 PP, PL 11.

Keep Things Together [Motivation - Doing Good] - Given current and past events, things are kind of coming apart at the seams. At least some people need to keep things from fraying too much so the actually important ones can fix things.

Get Real [Motivation - Acceptance] - If he has to become well-known, he would like to become well-known for what he actually is, not the endless array of rumors and yarns spun about him, thank you very much.

In The Footsteps of the Determinator [Motivation - Responsibility] - Being the guy who has to take the place of the quite literally globally (in)famous Lin Bane, on the globally (in)famous team RACL… is a rather tall order. People keep telling Lapis how RACL are a team of mad berserkers led by a crazy dog faunus and his hat, who literally eat Grimm for sustenance, and are always one step away from destroying whole cities. Surely, most of that is overblown… right? Still, he’s just a little guy with needles and some yarn, y’all.

Promoted Background Character [Quirk] - Never wanted to really stand in the limelight or be a Huntsman, but that just kind of happened. Hero’s Journey kicked down the door and dragged him out screaming. So outwardly he has an “it is what it is” attitude dealing with the many problems he now has to face, while there is much internal screaming.

Orchid Centaurea, Demanding Socialite Mom [Relationship/Responsibility] - Being a fixture of Mistralian high society, Lapis’ mother Orchid was quite adamant about having her only child excel. She also would have preferred a daughter, but she worked with what she was given, so her side of raising Lapis precisely did not care all that much about common wisdom on how boys should be raised. There was a lot of pressure on Lapis to fit his mother’s lofty expectations (not helped by her extolling his supposed talents and virtues). This is also how he ended up getting into tailoring, among other things, and came to like it. By now, Orchid still very much wishes Lapis to excel, but there is an understanding that she is proud of her son. But she also still ropes him into her high society dealings, especially since he is so skilled in creating fashion and art, among other things. As a side note, Orchid may or may not have been or still is an assassin of sorts. But such things surely are just hearsay. Or at least blown out of proportion/misinterpreted.

Cyan Cayenne, Gung-ho Supportive Dad [Relationship] - Cyan is a traditional, sword-toting outdoorsman of a Huntsman who never really got on that well with all the technological thingamajigs. After years of Orchid mostly dictating how Lapis should be raised, Cyan eventually put his foot down, told his wife that if she continued like this “the boy will implode”, and took him on an extended (we are talking two years) trip through the wilderness when Lapis was about 12 years old. They traveled extensively through almost the entirety of the continent of Anima, accompanied by the members of his team-mates Setzer, Celes, and Sabin (Team SCCS “Success”; I leave it to you which S is the leader).

So Lapis experienced a whole lot of Grimm and bandits, discovered his Semblance on the road, and just kind of filled whatever role was needed, either among the team or in whatever village they came across. Partially because Cyan has seemingly endless faith in what his son can accomplish (and also isn’t afraid to loudly claim such things) and being a big believer in learning through hardship. Nowadays, Cyan is a little disappointed Lapis never took up the sword, but he started training as a Huntsman and is protecting people where he can, so he’s a proud dad overall.

Tabby Boots, Wish-Granting Manipulator [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - A cheerful cat faunus, Lapis' self-proclaimed best friend, with a seemingly wish-granting Semblance, which she used to achieve riches and prestige in Mistral’s social circles. All because Lapis once found her out in the wilderness of Anima after she was left to die by bandits, helped her back on her feet and get a fresh start in Mistral (also outfitting her with clothes aiding her in making first impressions). That act of kindness caused Tabby’s Semblance to emerge, and she quickly went to work to make the most of the opportunity. Sadly, the now young woman has an amoral streak and felt few compunctions in terms of manipulating and exploiting her way towards the top in the murky Mistralian circles, now quite well-situated in the gray area where nobility and crime intersect, with connections to Spider.

She has offered Lapis to live with her in luxury several times, but the latter always refused, given what he’d have to stomach morally, and wishing Tabby would use her talents for more charitable purposes. They do like each other a lot despite their different views, though Tabby has caused Lapis no shortage of mostly accidental trouble by involving him in her schemes “for his own benefit”, or running into him during a particular predicament, or impromptu inviting him to a hangout, or Tabby’s enemies trying to go after the boy. It also doesn’t help that Tabby does her own sort of myth-building for Lapis, much to the latter’s chagrin. Lapis still tailors clothes for Tabby, partially in hopes of maybe effecting a slow change for the better. Tabby frequently favors a swashbucklery style with matching rapier, and of course her magnificent collection of boots, though also dresses for any given occasion, whether it is a social function or a heist.

Mila Fury, Tabby's Bodyguard [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - An icy young human woman with a Semblance allowing her to weaponize her blonde hair in an outlandish variety of ways. Lapis does not know much about her at present. Tabby seemed to have acquired her loyal services on her way up through Mistral's high society and crime circles, though she doesn't seem to solely be a servant, but rather a devoted partner in crime, so to speak. Mila seems quite fond of the way Tabby carves out her own fortune regardless of everything and disregarding societal rules, though Tabby's fondness for Lapis seems to irk Mila, seeing him as something holding her back, so she is rather cold (more than with most people) towards Lapis. When Lapis literally lost his arm and leg (though only temporarily) to defend Mila during the attack, while she doesn't agree with his way of trying to fit into society (and really doesn't like that he got Tabby marked as an enemy of the radical White Fang), she could appreciate his dedication to doing what he believes in, even at personal cost. Baby steps.

Also ever since Lapis stitched his own limbs back on with strands of her Aura-infused, Semblance-enhanced hair, she more or less can track down Lapis when she wants to. Jury's out on what she decides to do with this information, and whether as well as who she might decide to share this with (or not). Lapis gets the feeling Mila derives a degree wicked joy from this, and that she likes having information Tabby would like to have for her shenanigans that she can feel like not sharing if Tabby is causing her too many headaches. In retaliation, Tabby has started shipping Mila and Lapis, much to their chagrin, and Tabby's cackling glee.

The Grimm-Faunus-Shadow Creature [Enemy] - Better naming pending. The creature encountered during the attack on Vale, which seemingly accompanied the White Fang. Frankly, Lapis has no idea what this thing is. His best guess it is some weird creature of Grimm grafted onto a male faunus (type unknown, too hard to see in the heat of the moment) in some way, but that is speculation. Could also be some freaky Semblance that went out of control, or someone else using their Semblance (given the messed-up things Mac has done, well...). The result is a highly dangerous and vicious creature able to weaponize the shadowy substance it seems to be mostly made of and can spread out into puddles, able to form weapons and creature parts like huge maws from it. At the same time, it seems intelligent, if unwilling to talk as of yet. Mila appears to be familiar with this creature, or more specifically the faunus inside it, but she has kept silent about this. The creature fled when Lapis, Tabby, and Mila tried to separate "Grimm" and faunus, so it is still out there. Whatever it is planning or doing.

Reputational Superposition [Reputation] - Due to years of people claiming things about Lapis and the boy seemingly attracting this sort of thing, people who do know about him tend to have a bunch of different opinions, often based on what they heard, rather than the person himself. Depending on who said reputation stemmed from, people might think he is some sort of high society distinguished smooth operator (Orchid), a giant man uprooting trees and slaying Grimm by the dozens with his bare hands (Cyan), or something like a mysterious ninja living in the shadows (Tabby). Add additional reputations to taste.

Nexus of 1001 Dubious Tales [Reputation/Quirk] - Additionally, there are a ton of rumors floating about of what Lapis allegedly did or can do, and these have been passed around for so long that they have taken on a life of their own entirely. Able to see and weave one’s innermost desire, burst boulders with but a needle prick, puppet unknowing people, break through the shell of even the most hardened politician, stop an Alpha Nevermore dead in its tracks, slice through a dozen bandits with atomically-thin wire without them even noticing. Needless to say, Lapis does his best to debunk, at times having to deal with the fallout, or people thinking he is being modest. However, there are also the counter rumors of him just being a random seamster innocent of any wrongdoing or even having a Semblance or aura who couldn’t hurt a fly, which is overall nicer, but really doesn’t help with being taken seriously during Huntsman work.

The Incredible Spider-Fauxnus [Prejudice] - The most baffling rumor that also seems to be the most adamant to be universally accepted as true is that people think Lapis is a spider faunus, projecting webbing from his hands. He can create thread on the fly, and he has become rather good at navigating and balancing on strings and such, and he does immobilize bad guys by binding them, but he is really, really not a faunus, you guys! Even the White Fang and the Farm seem to believe it. Lapis is just so thankful whenever someone actually believes he is human.

Semblance - Threading the Needle

The true nature of Lapis' Semblance remains a bit of a mystery, even to himself. At first, no one actually realized he had a Semblance. Then he thought he was just good with needlework. Then he discovered being able to make needles deadly weapons. Then control string. Then seemingly memetic tailor abilities amped to 11. Lapis' best guess by now is that his Semblance is basically "what if someone took the archetype of a tailor, and made a mythical creature out of it". However, his Semblance only unlocks capabilities, but the actual applications required intense work to figure out and make usable, especially in combat.

For some reason, his mom Orchid is really quite fond and proud of her son's Semblance. In hindsight, she indirectly contributed to a lot of its combat and healing-adjacent capabilities, hmm...

 

Novice Seamster
In a mixture of trying to be real, humbleness, and a degree of induced impostor syndrome, Lapis thinks he is just very much a beginner in what he does, with his primary job being a seamster (due to Orchid employing his talents, fixing his dad's clothes and gear that got put through the wringer by his wild adventures, and making dresses for Tabby). Naturally, most seamsters don't fight Grimm and bandits with needle and thread, but, well, baby steps. Lapis is getting to thinking of himself as a Huntsman eventually.

Needle
The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The first application of his Semblance that emerged. As long as he has Aura, Lapis seems to never run out of needles. Though there is no telling whether he might still have needles on him without. While Cyan thinks Lapis would be even better with a sword, he has come to think of Lapis' needlework as being like wielding a (very small) dagger with which his son smites evildoers and Grimm, making Cyan a very proud dad.

You May Feel A Light Prick
Lapis can do surprising damage by stabbing someone or something with a needle, through a combination of aiming for vital areas and his Semblance vastly increasing the force of the used needles. Thus his attacks are more comparable to gunshots with high-caliber, low-mass, high-velocity bullets.

Proverbial Haystack
Lapis is able to manipulate needle and thread at a range, and also propel them at very high velocities. The low mass and not being made to stabilize in the air hurt the range of his needles somewhat, but his aim has become pinpoint, and it is rather hard to see and hear a flying needle coming, especially when they can be flicked covertly.

Dust Needle
So, just creating temporary needles is also a thing Lapis can do, and if he includes Dust in it (usually in powdered form or threading it with Dust string he made), secondary harm befalls a hit target shortly after the initial impact as the Dust activates.

Pincushion
Lapis simply attacks with more needles, having become proficient at wielding several at the same time, and throwing them in large quantity and frequency as well. A leading cause for ninja-related stories about Lapis.

Hay In Needlestack
Yeah so, how about even more needles? What was that? More needles? Okay, more needles it is!

Thread
The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The other basic application of his Semblance that first emerged, and much like with needles, Lapis seems to just not run out of thread. This absolutely contributed a lot to people thinking he is a spider-faunus.

Spin A Yarn
Trapping a target in thread patterns, making it more difficult for them to move offensively and defensively. Lapis outright controls the thread, but also uses momentum, leverage, and both his own and the target's motions to hinder them as much as possible. As a by product, does produce interesting patterns.

Bundled Up
Apply even more thread, and in much more intricate and stronger patterns, seeking to outright prevent movement by restricting limbs or tying the target to an object (or other person). Frequently results in beautiful web-like patterns, heavily fueling the spider rumors in addition to the function.

Joining Skeins
So much thread. Endless thread. Such webs Lapis weaves. At times creates a greater work of art consisting out of the individual tied-up targets.

Finishing Touches
At times, the weave could not be finished, thus it needs to be completed. Be it continuing his own work or adding to the efforts of one of his teammates matters little to Lapis, one just has to adapt to any given situation. Has been likened to wrapping up a victim stuck to a spider's net by Tabby, and a more physical version of people who got a taste for Lapis' fashion inevitably coming back for more (and thus driving themselves deeper into Orchid's network).

Battening
As Lapis had to learn, at times, a certain degree of crowd control becomes necessary, whether it is stopping rampaging Grimm, panicking civilians, or vampire spawn trying to escape as fart clouds. When in doubt, gather them all up and bundle them together to put them elsewhere.

String Theory
Experimentation in the applications of string. Lapis learned that string he wields can have incredible tensile strength, and Cyan did subject him to hellish physical training by way of dragging him through the Grimm-infested wilderness for years. Here are the results!

Pull Tight
Lapis does not look it in his usual choice of clothes and with his wiry five-and-a-half-ish foot frame, but the lad is strong, heavy on the functional strength while keeping excess muscle mass as low as possible, thanks to Cyan's training regiment (the man knows what he is doing and talking, after all) and Orchid's requirements that Lapis should aim for a pleasing physique for his own benefit. Lapis can also deliver said strength through string, often involving it in the applications, such as grabbing and throwing someone with ropes.

Mechanical Advantage
Lapis knows how to use his strength optimally, especially in combination with string to multiply its effects. Distributing weight, creating mechanical advantage, proper leverage, you name it. Since he can apply his strength through his string, this also allows for incredibly precise control of it, able to manipulate objects in a fine manner (Orchid made him learn to produce calligraphy via brushes operated with his string). Because of this, it is rather trivial to quickly pick up and carry objects (and people) with him.

Thread Sling
Cast out thread and pull himself towards where it tied itself to. Compensate the landing issues with Landing Strategy. Alternatively, he can launch himself through the air by pushing himself away via string bundles. So it is not technically outright flight, but close enough, given how quickly he can change his trajectory. Because of the necessary motion involved to not just splat against something (or to even get moving), it is rather difficult to do this tied up, perhaps somewhat ironically.

High Priority Commissions
Creating a lot of thread, and weaving it on the spot, with all the strength mentioned above, allowing him to create large projects in the blink of an eye, and also unravel them as quickly if necessary. Intense to use, but versatile, especially with different kinds of thread. From impromptu clothes to tents to ramps to surprising utility items, Lapis is able to accomplish a lot. Basically all of his abilities combined into one and taken as far as he can make them go at this time. Lapis himself prefers a less intense approach if he can help it and has the time (though "slower" is quite relative in this case).

Stitch
So when Lapis learned to be a medic while dragged along by traveling with Team SCCS and thus learned how to stitch wounds, he started figuring out that his Semblance helped with that. Followed by wanting to create surgical thread, something going wrong, and instead creating his first instance of thread consisting of sheer aura with no real normal physical qualities. From that, well, Lapis not only became a very proficient medic, but also a very fast and nigh miraculous one.

A Stitch In Time
With pure Aura needle and thread, fueled by actual medical training, Lapis sews wounds shut, creates Aura bandages promoting healing of larger-scale injuries, mends Auras, you name it. It is a mixture of accelerating natural healing, Aura infusion and amplfication, or perhaps it is simply Semblance not!magic. This sort of thing is best done on other people though, as treating himself this way takes a lot of doing.

Saves Nine
Doing the same as above, but on a wider scale. With this, Lapis tends to focus mostly on Aura and "easier" injuries, but it is not like he is incapable of providing full aid to multiple people at once. It is just not very easy.

Patchwork
Treating one's own injuries tends to be harder for a variety of reasons, including it being rather difficult to often see and reach injuries with enough precision to do the work. This allows Lapis to intuit the procedures enough to take care of himself when push comes to shove. Treating his own Aura is another matter, basically needing to amplify his own reserves, which again takes a lot of doing, though helped by the fact that he can see damage to his Aura as flaws he can mend.

Mending
It turns out he can also apply his healing techniques to objects, making them whole again, whether through actual stitchwork or by basically Aura-fusing them together like a supernatural weld bond. A bit of a nightmare with shattered objects, but, well, it is what it is. Would be nice to have a machine do the puzzling for him.

Labor of Love
As harrowing as the process of learning his medical skills was (and still is), and how unpleasant the situations where he needs them often are, Lapis does feel good about doing the work. That and he learned that if he doesn't do it, he can't necessarily expect someone else to step up. So even if he is facing cases where he can only wonder how to best go about it, gotta find a solution somehow.

Acupuncture
So acupuncture has some uses, but they are relatively minor all in all. However, things are very different when you have Aura needles, Dust-infused needles, and can channel Aura via them. This actually developed out of stress-relieving massage/acupressure, but adding his brand of needles and abilities led to such potent relaxation that... that he could actually use it in combat. As weird as that sounds.

Satisfying Trigger Points
Hitting just the right spots, and there goes body tension and keeping Aura stable from sheer good vibes.

Overwhelming Relaxation
Pile on even more relaxation and suddenly, doing harm becomes rather difficult when you swing like a pool noodle.

Group Therapy
Once again, doing all this to several people at once, usually in a similar manner as normally attacking with a mass of needles. Has at times led to weird situations where Lapis crowd-controlled multiple people this way, followed by Team SCCS taking out happily-noodly, babbling bandits.

Structural Weakness
So you have the ability to drive needles through Grimm plating, create Dust needles, have really good aim, and were forced to learn about how architecture works to put buildings back together while out with Team SCCS? Congratulations, you have all the ingredients to ram Dust needles into structural weak points and crack a building open. This came in handy during the invasion of Vale, given there were rogue military robots.

Chakra Stimulation???
One of the applications that is frankly weird to Lapis himself. As far as he could manage to find out, there are points where if Aura with perhaps a bit of specific Dust is channeled into, it helps get rid of various conditions. There is also basically pulling through semi-immaterial Aura needles and thread through someone to apply these forces on the inside of the body or directly attack the cause of an ailment. However, most of this is moot, as this has been hijacked by other people to mean that chakras are indeed real after all and Lapis is merely masterfully manipulating these with good ol' traditional medicine. Which Lapis has been trying to work against, because he doesn't want people to randomly jam needles or Dust crystals into their bodies.

Expertise
At this point, you probably know Lapis has been far busier having to learn more things than the average teenager probably should need to learn. To cope, one has to develop a certain skill set. And also, practice simply makes perfect. Tabby happily points out the stories of diligent tailors and seamstresses for this to explain Lapis just managing to cram all this into the average day alongside everything else (and sometimes even sleep). Lapis' face usually has deep dark rings under his eyes and a too tired to argue expression in those situations.

Time Management
Between the dozens of hats Lapis has been wearing, there is only so much time in a day. So he channels the example of tailors of legend (as Tabby happily puts it) and simply has to make do. Lapis has been doing what he has been doing so much he got good at it, and with getting good came getting fast. Now, he actually became... very quite fast at what he does. A bit inexplicably so. So his Semblance is to blame for this as well. Lapis is just grateful he can do this, though he does remark that he works efficiently, not just faster, not being fond of his weird emergent gameplay Semblance getting all the credit.

Team Management
And often, Lapis can't do everything himself. So he had to learn about team management as well, especially in situations where nightfall might mean bandit attacks, Grimm, or even worse, nobles without the clothes that were ordered with ludicrous time tables. But there is also that he cares about his colleagues not getting into trouble. So he basically wears the Producer hat, coordinating, motivating, helping, and as long as he can directly work with the team, they get stuff done quick. There is a flow state for everyone involved, with the perception of time getting weird as they hardly think about that anymore and it really not feeling that long despite how much they are actually doing, and afterwards going "wow, we really got a lot done, huh?".

Quality Control
You work with this much thread and a very demanding mother, and you start noticing what is good material quality and what isn't. And for the craftmanship. And who made it. And who made the material for the person who made it. And which of the hundreds of raw materials to pick for any given project. And how well someone takes care of their clothes. There may have been eye twitches.

Clear Workflow
By now, Lapis unfailingly remembers the order of everything he does in a project and can reverse-engineer it, as well as whatever path he took wherever he went, even when the surroundings mainly look like TREES AND MORE TREES.

Proper Attire
An off-shoot of his instant production capabilities. Lapis wondered if he could make entire bodysuits and spy masks and what-not, so he tried, and the answer was yes. So there is that. He absolutely does not have the infiltration capabilities for this, but Tabby sure is damn interested in this, and he is fairly sure Orchid has been keeping her eye on this as well. Why are those two frequently in alignment about stuff like this?

About 1.7m tall, long blue hair frequently styled differently (because of course he is also a hairdresser), blue eyes, fair skin. Wiry in build, he wears a wide variety of fashion in public, often with aspects of Mistralian culture, depending on circumstance and partially mood (and how likely it is to draw his mother's disapproval by underdressing in official settings).

In more casual settings, he likes baggier, comfy clothes, which often also mostly hides his physique. During more official events, he wears fitting garb ranging from sleek with intricate detail on closer inspection to quite elaborate. For combat, he wants full range of motion and access to his tools, which incidentally makes him look very ninja-adjacent, covered in elaborate patterns doubling as Dust thread reservoirs, and contributing to the persistent spider-faunus allegiations. His combination of high flexibility, quick precision strikes, thread weaving, and balance only further emphasize this.

Lapis trends somewhat androgynous on average, and he doesn't particularly mind wearing more feminine styles, courtesy of his fashion work done for his mother Orchid. So people often end up assuming he relies solely on agility and speed. These people are often surprised to see a sculpted physique trained to purpose to achieve the most effect with only as much muscle mass as necessary, and that he is more likely to withstand attacks with thread barriers and string traps than nimbly dodging out of the way. His dad Cyan is very big on being able to take hits in fights, so that was a big focus in Lapis' training.

Combat

Initiative: +20.

Defense: +6.

Resistance: +16.

Base Attack: +5 (DC 20 Damage, DC 15 Maneuver).

Powers: +11 (DC 26 Damage, DC 21 Effect).

 

Skills

Deception: +0. Expertise: +21. Insight: +10. Intimidation: +0. Investigation: +0.Mobility: +20. Perception: +10. Persuasion: +0. Stealth: +0. Technology: +0. Treatment: +21.

Fields of Expertise (+2pp): Animal Handling, Architecture, Art, Business, Carpentry, Cooking, Crafts, Criminal, Current Events, Dance, Dust, Etiquette, Fashion & Styling, Grimm, History, Mistral Local, Music, Myths, Navigation, Pizza, Politics, Pop Culture, Scholastic, Science, Semblance Lore, Survival, Tactics, Tailoring, Vehicles (Air), Vehicles (Land), Vehicles (Water)

 

Advantages

Artificer, Benefit 2 (Bedside Manner [use Treatment for provoking positive emotion], Dustweave [use Tailoring Expertise for Artificer to weave Dust into cloth]), Improved Smash, Improvised Tools, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Treatment), Teamwork

 

Powers

Semblance - Threading the Needle: Semblance Scaling (Scaled Measure [Quickness]) {0}

Novice Seamster: 55-point Dynamic Array {55+11}

Needle: Multiple Effects.

You May Feel A Light Prick: Damage 11 [11]

Proverbial Haystack: Enhanced Range 9, Damage gains Precise and Subtle[11]

Dust Needle: Damage gains Secondary Effect [11]

Pincushion: Damage gains Multiattack [11]

Hay In Needlestack: Damage gains Shapeable Area [11]

Thread: Multiple Effects.

Spin A Yarn: Affliction 11 (Impaired+Vulnerable > Disabled+Defenseless; Extra Condition, Limited Degree) [11]

Bundled Up: Affliction gains Extra Condition (Immobilized > Stunned) [11]

Joining Skeins: Affliction gains Shapeable Area [11]

Finishing Touches: Affliction gains Cumulative [11]

Battening: Strength gains Shapeable Area [11]

String Theory: Multiple Effects.

Pull Tight: Strength 11 [11]

Mechanical Advantage: +10 Strength (lifting only), Strength gains Precise, Feature 2 (Easy Hold, Free Lift) [8]

Thread Sling: Winged Flight 10 [10]

High Priority Commissions: Create 12 (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle, Tether, Reduced Range, 2 ranks of Limited [volume only]) [26]

Stitch: Multiple Effects.

A Stitch In Time: Healing 11 (Limited [Others only]) [11]

Saves Nine: Healing gains Shapeable Area [11]

Patchwork: Remove Limit from Healing [11]

Mending: Healing gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Labor of Love: Healing gains Persistent [11]

Acupuncture: Multiple Effects.

Satisfying Trigger Points: Weaken 11 (Resistance) [11]

Overwhelming Relaxation: Weaken gains Additional Effect (Effect Bonus) [11]

Group Therapy: Weaken gains Shapeable Area [11]

Structural Weakness: Weaken gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Chakra Stimulation???: Healing gains Restorative [11]

Expertise: Multiple Effects.

Time Management: Quickness 21 [21]

Team Management: Quickness gains Affects Others (Quirk [Must actively work together with affected targets]) [20]

Quality Control: Senses 3 (Analytical Vision, Acute & Analytical Touch; Analytical limited to fabrics) [2]

Clear Workflow: Feature 2 (always able to retrace steps) [1]

Proper Attire: Morph 3 (humans and faunus; Affects Self and Others, Continuous, Increased Action 2 [standard], Limit [can't change someone's height or build or add body parts, just creates very real suits and masks], Quirk [other people can't change their Morph other than taking it off, Lapis has to change or re-apply it]) [11]

Calculations

Defenses 54 + Skills 43 + Advantages 11 + Powers 66 = 174/174 PP, PL 11.

Keep Things Together [Motivation - Doing Good] - Given current and past events, things are kind of coming apart at the seams. At least some people need to keep things from fraying too much so the actually important ones can fix things.

Get Real [Motivation - Acceptance] - If he has to become well-known, he would like to become well-known for what he actually is, not the endless array of rumors and yarns spun about him, thank you very much.

In The Footsteps of the Determinator [Motivation - Responsibility] - Being the guy who has to take the place of the quite literally globally (in)famous Lin Bane, on the globally (in)famous team RACL… is a rather tall order. People keep telling Lapis how RACL are a team of mad berserkers led by a crazy dog faunus and his hat, who literally eat Grimm for sustenance, and are always one step away from destroying whole cities. Surely, most of that is overblown… right? Still, he’s just a little guy with needles and some yarn, y’all.

Promoted Background Character [Quirk] - Never wanted to really stand in the limelight or be a Huntsman, but that just kind of happened. Hero’s Journey kicked down the door and dragged him out screaming. So outwardly he has an “it is what it is” attitude dealing with the many problems he now has to face, while there is much internal screaming.

Orchid Centaurea, Demanding Socialite Mom [Relationship/Responsibility] - Being a fixture of Mistralian high society, Lapis’ mother Orchid was quite adamant about having her only child excel. She also would have preferred a daughter, but she worked with what she was given, so her side of raising Lapis precisely did not care all that much about common wisdom on how boys should be raised. There was a lot of pressure on Lapis to fit his mother’s lofty expectations (not helped by her extolling his supposed talents and virtues). This is also how he ended up getting into tailoring, among other things, and came to like it. By now, Orchid still very much wishes Lapis to excel, but there is an understanding that she is proud of her son. But she also still ropes him into her high society dealings, especially since he is so skilled in creating fashion and art, among other things. As a side note, Orchid may or may not have been or still is an assassin of sorts. But such things surely are just hearsay. Or at least blown out of proportion/misinterpreted.

Cyan Cayenne, Gung-ho Supportive Dad [Relationship] - Cyan is a traditional, sword-toting outdoorsman of a Huntsman who never really got on that well with all the technological thingamajigs. After years of Orchid mostly dictating how Lapis should be raised, Cyan eventually put his foot down, told his wife that if she continued like this “the boy will implode”, and took him on an extended (we are talking two years) trip through the wilderness when Lapis was about 12 years old. They traveled extensively through almost the entirety of the continent of Anima, accompanied by the members of his team-mates Setzer, Celes, and Sabin (Team SCCS “Success”; I leave it to you which S is the leader).

So Lapis experienced a whole lot of Grimm and bandits, discovered his Semblance on the road, and just kind of filled whatever role was needed, either among the team or in whatever village they came across. Partially because Cyan has seemingly endless faith in what his son can accomplish (and also isn’t afraid to loudly claim such things) and being a big believer in learning through hardship. Nowadays, Cyan is a little disappointed Lapis never took up the sword, but he started training as a Huntsman and is protecting people where he can, so he’s a proud dad overall.

Tabby Boots, Wish-Granting Manipulator [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - A cheerful cat faunus, Lapis' self-proclaimed best friend, with a seemingly wish-granting Semblance, which she used to achieve riches and prestige in Mistral’s social circles. All because Lapis once found her out in the wilderness of Anima after she was left to die by bandits, helped her back on her feet and get a fresh start in Mistral (also outfitting her with clothes aiding her in making first impressions). That act of kindness caused Tabby’s Semblance to emerge, and she quickly went to work to make the most of the opportunity. Sadly, the now young woman has an amoral streak and felt few compunctions in terms of manipulating and exploiting her way towards the top in the murky Mistralian circles, now quite well-situated in the gray area where nobility and crime intersect, with connections to Spider.

She has offered Lapis to live with her in luxury several times, but the latter always refused, given what he’d have to stomach morally, and wishing Tabby would use her talents for more charitable purposes. They do like each other a lot despite their different views, though Tabby has caused Lapis no shortage of mostly accidental trouble by involving him in her schemes “for his own benefit”, or running into him during a particular predicament, or impromptu inviting him to a hangout, or Tabby’s enemies trying to go after the boy. It also doesn’t help that Tabby does her own sort of myth-building for Lapis, much to the latter’s chagrin. Lapis still tailors clothes for Tabby, partially in hopes of maybe effecting a slow change for the better. Tabby frequently favors a swashbucklery style with matching rapier, and of course her magnificent collection of boots, though also dresses for any given occasion, whether it is a social function or a heist.

Mila Fury, Tabby's Bodyguard [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - An icy young human woman with a Semblance allowing her to weaponize her blonde hair in an outlandish variety of ways. Lapis does not know much about her at present. Tabby seemed to have acquired her loyal services on her way up through Mistral's high society and crime circles, though she doesn't seem to solely be a servant, but rather a devoted partner in crime, so to speak. Mila seems quite fond of the way Tabby carves out her own fortune regardless of everything and disregarding societal rules, though Tabby's fondness for Lapis seems to irk Mila, seeing him as something holding her back, so she is rather cold (more than with most people) towards Lapis. When Lapis literally lost his arm and leg (though only temporarily) to defend Mila during the attack, while she doesn't agree with his way of trying to fit into society (and really doesn't like that he got Tabby marked as an enemy of the radical White Fang), she could appreciate his dedication to doing what he believes in, even at personal cost. Baby steps.

Also ever since Lapis stitched his own limbs back on with strands of her Aura-infused, Semblance-enhanced hair, she more or less can track down Lapis when she wants to. Jury's out on what she decides to do with this information, and whether as well as who she might decide to share this with (or not). Lapis gets the feeling Mila derives a degree wicked joy from this, and that she likes having information Tabby would like to have for her shenanigans that she can feel like not sharing if Tabby is causing her too many headaches. In retaliation, Tabby has started shipping Mila and Lapis, much to their chagrin, and Tabby's cackling glee.

The Grimm-Faunus-Shadow Creature [Enemy] - Better naming pending. The creature encountered during the attack on Vale, which seemingly accompanied the White Fang. Frankly, Lapis has no idea what this thing is. His best guess it is some weird creature of Grimm grafted onto a male faunus (type unknown, too hard to see in the heat of the moment) in some way, but that is speculation. Could also be some freaky Semblance that went out of control, or someone else using their Semblance (given the messed-up things Mac has done, well...). The result is a highly dangerous and vicious creature able to weaponize the shadowy substance it seems to be mostly made of and can spread out into puddles, able to form weapons and creature parts like huge maws from it. At the same time, it seems intelligent, if unwilling to talk as of yet. Mila appears to be familiar with this creature, or more specifically the faunus inside it, but she has kept silent about this. The creature fled when Lapis, Tabby, and Mila tried to separate "Grimm" and faunus, so it is still out there. Whatever it is planning or doing.

Reputational Superposition [Reputation] - Due to years of people claiming things about Lapis and the boy seemingly attracting this sort of thing, people who do know about him tend to have a bunch of different opinions, often based on what they heard, rather than the person himself. Depending on who said reputation stemmed from, people might think he is some sort of high society distinguished smooth operator (Orchid), a giant man uprooting trees and slaying Grimm by the dozens with his bare hands (Cyan), or something like a mysterious ninja living in the shadows (Tabby). Add additional reputations to taste.

Nexus of 1001 Dubious Tales [Reputation/Quirk] - Additionally, there are a ton of rumors floating about of what Lapis allegedly did or can do, and these have been passed around for so long that they have taken on a life of their own entirely. Able to see and weave one’s innermost desire, burst boulders with but a needle prick, puppet unknowing people, break through the shell of even the most hardened politician, stop an Alpha Nevermore dead in its tracks, slice through a dozen bandits with atomically-thin wire without them even noticing. Needless to say, Lapis does his best to debunk, at times having to deal with the fallout, or people thinking he is being modest. However, there are also the counter rumors of him just being a random seamster innocent of any wrongdoing or even having a Semblance or aura who couldn’t hurt a fly, which is overall nicer, but really doesn’t help with being taken seriously during Huntsman work.

The Incredible Spider-Fauxnus [Prejudice] - The most baffling rumor that also seems to be the most adamant to be universally accepted as true is that people think Lapis is a spider faunus, projecting webbing from his hands. He can create thread on the fly, and he has become rather good at navigating and balancing on strings and such, and he does immobilize bad guys by binding them, but he is really, really not a faunus, you guys! Even the White Fang and the Farm seem to believe it. Lapis is just so thankful whenever someone actually believes he is human.

Semblance - Threading the Needle

The true nature of Lapis' Semblance remains a bit of a mystery, even to himself. At first, no one actually realized he had a Semblance. Then he thought he was just good with needlework. Then he discovered being able to make needles deadly weapons. Then control string. Then seemingly memetic tailor abilities amped to 11. Lapis' best guess by now is that his Semblance is basically "what if someone took the archetype of a tailor, and made a mythical creature out of it". However, his Semblance only unlocks capabilities, but the actual applications required intense work to figure out and make usable, especially in combat.

For some reason, his mom Orchid is really quite fond and proud of her son's Semblance. In hindsight, she indirectly contributed to a lot of its combat and healing-adjacent capabilities, hmm...

 

Novice Seamster

In a mixture of trying to be real, humbleness, and a degree of induced impostor syndrome, Lapis thinks he is just very much a beginner in what he does, with his primary job being a seamster (due to Orchid employing his talents, fixing his dad's clothes and gear that got put through the wringer by his wild adventures, and making dresses for Tabby). Naturally, most seamsters don't fight Grimm and bandits with needle and thread, but, well, baby steps. Lapis is getting to thinking of himself as a Huntsman eventually.

Needle

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The first application of his Semblance that emerged. As long as he has Aura, Lapis seems to never run out of needles. Though there is no telling whether he might still have needles on him without. While Cyan thinks Lapis would be even better with a sword, he has come to think of Lapis' needlework as being like wielding a (very small) dagger with which his son smites evildoers and Grimm, making Cyan a very proud dad.

You May Feel A Light Prick

Lapis can do surprising damage by stabbing someone or something with a needle, through a combination of aiming for vital areas and his Semblance vastly increasing the force of the used needles. Thus his attacks are more comparable to gunshots with high-caliber, low-mass, high-velocity bullets.

Proverbial Haystack

Lapis is able to manipulate needle and thread at a range, and also propel them at very high velocities. The low mass and not being made to stabilize in the air hurt the range of his needles somewhat, but his aim has become pinpoint, and it is rather hard to see and hear a flying needle coming, especially when they can be flicked covertly.

Dust Needle

So, just creating temporary needles is also a thing Lapis can do, and if he includes Dust in it (usually in powdered form or threading it with Dust string he made), secondary harm befalls a hit target shortly after the initial impact as the Dust activates.

Pincushion

Lapis simply attacks with more needles, having become proficient at wielding several at the same time, and throwing them in large quantity and frequency as well. A leading cause for ninja-related stories about Lapis.

Hay In Needlestack

Yeah so, how about even more needles? What was that? More needles? Okay, more needles it is!

Thread

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The other basic application of his Semblance that first emerged, and much like with needles, Lapis seems to just not run out of thread. This absolutely contributed a lot to people thinking he is a spider-faunus.

Spin A Yarn

Trapping a target in thread patterns, making it more difficult for them to move offensively and defensively. Lapis outright controls the thread, but also uses momentum, leverage, and both his own and the target's motions to hinder them as much as possible. As a by product, does produce interesting patterns.

Bundled Up

Apply even more thread, and in much more intricate and stronger patterns, seeking to outright prevent movement by restricting limbs or tying the target to an object (or other person). Frequently results in beautiful web-like patterns, heavily fueling the spider rumors in addition to the function.

Joining Skeins

So much thread. Endless thread. Such webs Lapis weaves. At times creates a greater work of art consisting out of the individual tied-up targets.

Finishing Touches

At times, the weave could not be finished, thus it needs to be completed. Be it continuing his own work or adding to the efforts of one of his teammates matters little to Lapis, one just has to adapt to any given situation. Has been likened to wrapping up a victim stuck to a spider's net by Tabby, and a more physical version of people who got a taste for Lapis' fashion inevitably coming back for more (and thus driving themselves deeper into Orchid's network).

Battening
As Lapis had to learn, at times, a certain degree of crowd control becomes necessary, whether it is stopping rampaging Grimm, panicking civilians, or vampire spawn trying to escape as fart clouds. When in doubt, gather them all up and bundle them together to put them elsewhere.

String Theory

Experimentation in the applications of string. Lapis learned that string he wields can have incredible tensile strength, and Cyan did subject him to hellish physical training by way of dragging him through the Grimm-infested wilderness for years. Here are the results!

Pull Tight

Lapis does not look it in his usual choice of clothes and with his wiry five-and-a-half-ish foot frame, but the lad is strong, heavy on the functional strength while keeping excess muscle mass as low as possible, thanks to Cyan's training regiment (the man knows what he is doing and talking, after all) and Orchid's requirements that Lapis should aim for a pleasing physique for his own benefit. Lapis can also deliver said strength through string, often involving it in the applications, such as grabbing and throwing someone with ropes.

Mechanical Advantage

Lapis knows how to use his strength optimally, especially in combination with string to multiply its effects. Distributing weight, creating mechanical advantage, proper leverage, you name it. Since he can apply his strength through his string, this also allows for incredibly precise control of it, able to manipulate objects in a fine manner (Orchid made him learn to produce calligraphy via brushes operated with his string). Because of this, it is rather trivial to quickly pick up and carry objects (and people) with him.

Thread Sling

Cast out thread and pull himself towards where it tied itself to. Compensate the landing issues with Landing Strategy. Alternatively, he can launch himself through the air by pushing himself away via string bundles. So it is not technically outright flight, but close enough, given how quickly he can change his trajectory. Because of the necessary motion involved to not just splat against something (or to even get moving), it is rather difficult to do this tied up, perhaps somewhat ironically.

High Priority Commissions

Creating a lot of thread, and weaving it on the spot, with all the strength mentioned above, allowing him to create large projects in the blink of an eye, and also unravel them as quickly if necessary. Intense to use, but versatile, especially with different kinds of thread. From impromptu clothes to tents to ramps to surprising utility items, Lapis is able to accomplish a lot. Basically all of his abilities combined into one and taken as far as he can make them go at this time. Lapis himself prefers a less intense approach if he can help it and has the time (though "slower" is quite relative in this case).

Stitch

So when Lapis learned to be a medic while dragged along by traveling with Team SCCS and thus learned how to stitch wounds, he started figuring out that his Semblance helped with that. Followed by wanting to create surgical thread, something going wrong, and instead creating his first instance of thread consisting of sheer aura with no real normal physical qualities. From that, well, Lapis not only became a very proficient medic, but also a very fast and nigh miraculous one.

A Stitch In Time

With pure Aura needle and thread, fueled by actual medical training, Lapis sews wounds shut, creates Aura bandages promoting healing of larger-scale injuries, mends Auras, you name it. It is a mixture of accelerating natural healing, Aura infusion and amplfication, or perhaps it is simply Semblance not!magic. This sort of thing is best done on other people though, as treating himself this way takes a lot of doing.

Saves Nine

Doing the same as above, but on a wider scale. With this, Lapis tends to focus mostly on Aura and "easier" injuries, but it is not like he is incapable of providing full aid to multiple people at once. It is just not very easy.

Patchwork

Treating one's own injuries tends to be harder for a variety of reasons, including it being rather difficult to often see and reach injuries with enough precision to do the work. This allows Lapis to intuit the procedures enough to take care of himself when push comes to shove. Treating his own Aura is another matter, basically needing to amplify his own reserves, which again takes a lot of doing, though helped by the fact that he can see damage to his Aura as flaws he can mend.

Mending

It turns out he can also apply his healing techniques to objects, making them whole again, whether through actual stitchwork or by basically Aura-fusing them together like a supernatural weld bond. A bit of a nightmare with shattered objects, but, well, it is what it is. Would be nice to have a machine do the puzzling for him.

Labor of Love

As harrowing as the process of learning his medical skills was (and still is), and how unpleasant the situations where he needs them often are, Lapis does feel good about doing the work. That and he learned that if he doesn't do it, he can't necessarily expect someone else to step up. So even if he is facing cases where he can only wonder how to best go about it, gotta find a solution somehow.

Acupuncture

So acupuncture has some uses, but they are relatively minor all in all. However, things are very different when you have Aura needles, Dust-infused needles, and can channel Aura via them. This actually developed out of stress-relieving massage/acupressure, but adding his brand of needles and abilities led to such potent relaxation that... that he could actually use it in combat. As weird as that sounds.

Satisfying Trigger Points

Hitting just the right spots, and there goes body tension and keeping Aura stable from sheer good vibes.

Overwhelming Relaxation

Pile on even more relaxation and suddenly, doing harm becomes rather difficult when you swing like a pool noodle.

Group Therapy

Once again, doing all this to several people at once, usually in a similar manner as normally attacking with a mass of needles. Has at times led to weird situations where Lapis crowd-controlled multiple people this way, followed by Team SCCS taking out happily-noodly, babbling bandits.

Structural Weakness

So you have the ability to drive needles through Grimm plating, create Dust needles, have really good aim, and were forced to learn about how architecture works to put buildings back together while out with Team SCCS? Congratulations, you have all the ingredients to ram Dust needles into structural weak points and crack a building open. This came in handy during the invasion of Vale, given there were rogue military robots.

Chakra Stimulation???

One of the applications that is frankly weird to Lapis himself. As far as he could manage to find out, there are points where if Aura with perhaps a bit of specific Dust is channeled into, it helps get rid of various conditions. There is also basically pulling through semi-immaterial Aura needles and thread through someone to apply these forces on the inside of the body or directly attack the cause of an ailment. However, most of this is moot, as this has been hijacked by other people to mean that chakras are indeed real after all and Lapis is merely masterfully manipulating these with good ol' traditional medicine. Which Lapis has been trying to work against, because he doesn't want people to randomly jam needles or Dust crystals into their bodies.

Expertise

At this point, you probably know Lapis has been far busier having to learn more things than the average teenager probably should need to learn. To cope, one has to develop a certain skill set. And also, practice simply makes perfect. Tabby happily points out the stories of diligent tailors and seamstresses for this to explain Lapis just managing to cram all this into the average day alongside everything else (and sometimes even sleep). Lapis' face usually has deep dark rings under his eyes and a too tired to argue expression in those situations.

Time Management

Between the dozens of hats Lapis has been wearing, there is only so much time in a day. So he channels the example of tailors of legend (as Tabby happily puts it) and simply has to make do. Lapis has been doing what he has been doing so much he got good at it, and with getting good came getting fast. Now, he actually became... very quite fast at what he does. A bit inexplicably so. So his Semblance is to blame for this as well. Lapis is just grateful he can do this, though he does remark that he works efficiently, not just faster, not being fond of his weird emergent gameplay Semblance getting all the credit.

Team Management

And often, Lapis can't do everything himself. So he had to learn about team management as well, especially in situations where nightfall might mean bandit attacks, Grimm, or even worse, nobles without the clothes that were ordered with ludicrous time tables. But there is also that he cares about his colleagues not getting into trouble. So he basically wears the Producer hat, coordinating, motivating, helping, and as long as he can directly work with the team, they get stuff done quick. There is a flow state for everyone involved, with the perception of time getting weird as they hardly think about that anymore and it really not feeling that long despite how much they are actually doing, and afterwards going "wow, we really got a lot done, huh?".

Quality Control

You work with this much thread and a very demanding mother, and you start noticing what is good material quality and what isn't. And for the craftmanship. And who made it. And who made the material for the person who made it. And which of the hundreds of raw materials to pick for any given project. And how well someone takes care of their clothes. There may have been eye twitches.

Clear Workflow

By now, Lapis unfailingly remembers the order of everything he does in a project and can reverse-engineer it, as well as whatever path he took wherever he went, even when the surroundings mainly look like TREES AND MORE TREES.

Proper Attire

An off-shoot of his instant production capabilities. Lapis wondered if he could make entire bodysuits and spy masks and what-not, so he tried, and the answer was yes. So there is that. He absolutely does not have the infiltration capabilities for this, but Tabby sure is damn interested in this, and he is fairly sure Orchid has been keeping her eye on this as well. Why are those two frequently in alignment about stuff like this?

About 1.7m tall, long blue hair frequently styled differently (because of course he is also a hairdresser), blue eyes, fair skin. Wiry in build, he wears a wide variety of fashion in public, often with aspects of Mistralian culture, depending on circumstance and partially mood (and how likely it is to draw his mother's disapproval by underdressing in official settings).

In more casual settings, he likes baggier, comfy clothes, which often also mostly hides his physique. During more official events, he wears fitting garb ranging from sleek with intricate detail on closer inspection to quite elaborate. For combat, he wants full range of motion and access to his tools, which incidentally makes him look very ninja-adjacent, covered in elaborate patterns doubling as Dust thread reservoirs, and contributing to the persistent spider-faunus allegiations. His combination of high flexibility, quick precision strikes, thread weaving, and balance only further emphasize this.

Lapis trends somewhat androgynous on average, and he doesn't particularly mind wearing more feminine styles, courtesy of his fashion work done for his mother Orchid. So people often end up assuming he relies solely on agility and speed. These people are often surprised to see a sculpted physique trained to purpose to achieve the most effect with only as much muscle mass as necessary, and that he is more likely to withstand attacks with thread barriers and string traps than nimbly dodging out of the way. His dad Cyan is very big on being able to take hits in fights, so that was a big focus in Lapis' training.

Combat

Initiative: +20.

Defense: +6.

Resistance: +16.

Base Attack: +5 (DC 20 Damage, DC 15 Maneuver).

Powers: +11 (DC 26 Damage, DC 21 Effect).

 

Skills

Deception: +0. Expertise: +21. Insight: +10. Intimidation: +0. Investigation: +0.

Mobility: +20. Perception: +10. Persuasion: +0. Stealth: +0. Technology: +0. Treatment: +21.

Fields of Expertise (+2pp): Animal Handling, Architecture, Art, Business, Carpentry, Cooking, Crafts, Criminal, Current Events, Dance, Dust, Etiquette, Fashion & Styling, Grimm, History, Mistral Local, Music, Myths, Navigation, Pizza, Politics, Pop Culture, Scholastic, Science, Semblance Lore, Survival, Tactics, Tailoring, Vehicles (Air), Vehicles (Land), Vehicles (Water)

 

Advantages

Artificer, Benefit 2 (Bedside Manner [use Treatment for provoking positive emotion], Dustweave [use Tailoring Expertise for Artificer to weave Dust into cloth]), Improved Smash, Improvised Tools, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Treatment), Teamwork

 

Powers

Semblance - Threading the Needle: Semblance Scaling (Scaled Measure [Quickness]) {0}

Novice Seamster: 55-point Dynamic Array {55+11}

Needle: Multiple Effects.

You May Feel A Light Prick: Damage 11 [11]

Proverbial Haystack: Enhanced Range 9, Damage gains Precise and Subtle[11]

Dust Needle: Damage gains Secondary Effect [11]

Pincushion: Damage gains Multiattack [11]

Hay In Needlestack: Damage gains Shapeable Area [11]

Thread: Multiple Effects.

Spin A Yarn: Affliction 11 (Impaired+Vulnerable > Disabled+Defenseless; Extra Condition, Limited Degree) [11]

Bundled Up: Affliction gains Extra Condition (Immobilized > Stunned) [11]

Joining Skeins: Affliction gains Shapeable Area [11]

Finishing Touches: Affliction gains Cumulative [11]

Battening: Strength gains Shapeable Area [11]

String Theory: Multiple Effects.

Pull Tight: Strength 11 [11]

Mechanical Advantage: +10 Strength (lifting only), Strength gains Precise, Feature 2 (Easy Hold, Free Lift) [8]

Thread Sling: Winged Flight 10 [10]

High Priority Commissions: Create 12 (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle, Tether, Reduced Range, 2 ranks of Limited [volume only]) [26]

Stitch: Multiple Effects.

A Stitch In Time: Healing 11 (Limited [Others only]) [11]

Saves Nine: Healing gains Shapeable Area [11]

Patchwork: Remove Limit from Healing [11]

Mending: Healing gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Labor of Love: Healing gains Persistent [11]

Acupuncture: Multiple Effects.

Satisfying Trigger Points: Weaken 11 (Resistance) [11]

Overwhelming Relaxation: Weaken gains Additional Effect (Effect Bonus) [11]

Group Therapy: Weaken gains Shapeable Area [11]

Structural Weakness: Weaken gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Chakra Stimulation???: Healing gains Restorative [11]

Expertise: Multiple Effects.

Time Management: Quickness 21 [21]

Team Management: Quickness gains Affects Others (Quirk [Must actively work together with affected targets]) [20]

Quality Control: Senses 3 (Analytical Vision, Acute & Analytical Touch; Analytical limited to fabrics) [2]

Clear Workflow: Feature 2 (always able to retrace steps) [1]

Proper Attire: Morph 3 (humans and faunus; Affects Self and Others, Continuous, Increased Action 2 [standard], Limit [can't change someone's height or build or add body parts, just creates very real suits and masks], Quirk [other people can't change their Morph other than taking it off, Lapis has to change or re-apply it]) [11]

Calculations

Defenses 54 + Skills 43 + Advantages 11 + Powers 66 = 174/174 PP, PL 11.

Keep Things Together [Motivation - Doing Good] - Given current and past events, things are kind of coming apart at the seams. At least some people need to keep things from fraying too much so the actually important ones can fix things.

Get Real [Motivation - Acceptance] - If he has to become well-known, he would like to become well-known for what he actually is, not the endless array of rumors and yarns spun about him, thank you very much.

In The Footsteps of the Determinator [Motivation - Responsibility] - Being the guy who has to take the place of the quite literally globally (in)famous Lin Bane, on the globally (in)famous team RACL… is a rather tall order. People keep telling Lapis how RACL are a team of mad berserkers led by a crazy dog faunus and his hat, who literally eat Grimm for sustenance, and are always one step away from destroying whole cities. Surely, most of that is overblown… right? Still, he’s just a little guy with needles and some yarn, y’all.

Promoted Background Character [Quirk] - Never wanted to really stand in the limelight or be a Huntsman, but that just kind of happened. Hero’s Journey kicked down the door and dragged him out screaming. So outwardly he has an “it is what it is” attitude dealing with the many problems he now has to face, while there is much internal screaming.

Orchid Centaurea, Demanding Socialite Mom [Relationship/Responsibility] - Being a fixture of Mistralian high society, Lapis’ mother Orchid was quite adamant about having her only child excel. She also would have preferred a daughter, but she worked with what she was given, so her side of raising Lapis precisely did not care all that much about common wisdom on how boys should be raised. There was a lot of pressure on Lapis to fit his mother’s lofty expectations (not helped by her extolling his supposed talents and virtues). This is also how he ended up getting into tailoring, among other things, and came to like it. By now, Orchid still very much wishes Lapis to excel, but there is an understanding that she is proud of her son. But she also still ropes him into her high society dealings, especially since he is so skilled in creating fashion and art, among other things. As a side note, Orchid may or may not have been or still is an assassin of sorts. But such things surely are just hearsay. Or at least blown out of proportion/misinterpreted.

Cyan Cayenne, Gung-ho Supportive Dad [Relationship] - Cyan is a traditional, sword-toting outdoorsman of a Huntsman who never really got on that well with all the technological thingamajigs. After years of Orchid mostly dictating how Lapis should be raised, Cyan eventually put his foot down, told his wife that if she continued like this “the boy will implode”, and took him on an extended (we are talking two years) trip through the wilderness when Lapis was about 12 years old. They traveled extensively through almost the entirety of the continent of Anima, accompanied by the members of his team-mates Setzer, Celes, and Sabin (Team SCCS “Success”; I leave it to you which S is the leader).

So Lapis experienced a whole lot of Grimm and bandits, discovered his Semblance on the road, and just kind of filled whatever role was needed, either among the team or in whatever village they came across. Partially because Cyan has seemingly endless faith in what his son can accomplish (and also isn’t afraid to loudly claim such things) and being a big believer in learning through hardship. Nowadays, Cyan is a little disappointed Lapis never took up the sword, but he started training as a Huntsman and is protecting people where he can, so he’s a proud dad overall.

Tabby Boots, Wish-Granting Manipulator [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - A cheerful cat faunus, Lapis' self-proclaimed best friend, with a seemingly wish-granting Semblance, which she used to achieve riches and prestige in Mistral’s social circles. All because Lapis once found her out in the wilderness of Anima after she was left to die by bandits, helped her back on her feet and get a fresh start in Mistral (also outfitting her with clothes aiding her in making first impressions). That act of kindness caused Tabby’s Semblance to emerge, and she quickly went to work to make the most of the opportunity. Sadly, the now young woman has an amoral streak and felt few compunctions in terms of manipulating and exploiting her way towards the top in the murky Mistralian circles, now quite well-situated in the gray area where nobility and crime intersect, with connections to Spider.

She has offered Lapis to live with her in luxury several times, but the latter always refused, given what he’d have to stomach morally, and wishing Tabby would use her talents for more charitable purposes. They do like each other a lot despite their different views, though Tabby has caused Lapis no shortage of mostly accidental trouble by involving him in her schemes “for his own benefit”, or running into him during a particular predicament, or impromptu inviting him to a hangout, or Tabby’s enemies trying to go after the boy. It also doesn’t help that Tabby does her own sort of myth-building for Lapis, much to the latter’s chagrin. Lapis still tailors clothes for Tabby, partially in hopes of maybe effecting a slow change for the better. Tabby frequently favors a swashbucklery style with matching rapier, and of course her magnificent collection of boots, though also dresses for any given occasion, whether it is a social function or a heist.

Mila Fury, Tabby's Bodyguard [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - An icy young human woman with a Semblance allowing her to weaponize her blonde hair in an outlandish variety of ways. Lapis does not know much about her at present. Tabby seemed to have acquired her loyal services on her way up through Mistral's high society and crime circles, though she doesn't seem to solely be a servant, but rather a devoted partner in crime, so to speak. Mila seems quite fond of the way Tabby carves out her own fortune regardless of everything and disregarding societal rules, though Tabby's fondness for Lapis seems to irk Mila, seeing him as something holding her back, so she is rather cold (more than with most people) towards Lapis. When Lapis literally lost his arm and leg (though only temporarily) to defend Mila during the attack, while she doesn't agree with his way of trying to fit into society (and really doesn't like that he got Tabby marked as an enemy of the radical White Fang), she could appreciate his dedication to doing what he believes in, even at personal cost. Baby steps.

Also ever since Lapis stitched his own limbs back on with strands of her Aura-infused, Semblance-enhanced hair, she more or less can track down Lapis when she wants to. Jury's out on what she decides to do with this information, and whether as well as who she might decide to share this with (or not). Lapis gets the feeling Mila derives a degree wicked joy from this, and that she likes having information Tabby would like to have for her shenanigans that she can feel like not sharing if Tabby is causing her too many headaches. In retaliation, Tabby has started shipping Mila and Lapis, much to their chagrin, and Tabby's cackling glee.

The Grimm-Faunus-Shadow Creature [Enemy] - Better naming pending. The creature encountered during the attack on Vale, which seemingly accompanied the White Fang. Frankly, Lapis has no idea what this thing is. His best guess it is some weird creature of Grimm grafted onto a male faunus (type unknown, too hard to see in the heat of the moment) in some way, but that is speculation. Could also be some freaky Semblance that went out of control, or someone else using their Semblance (given the messed-up things Mac has done, well...). The result is a highly dangerous and vicious creature able to weaponize the shadowy substance it seems to be mostly made of and can spread out into puddles, able to form weapons and creature parts like huge maws from it. At the same time, it seems intelligent, if unwilling to talk as of yet. Mila appears to be familiar with this creature, or more specifically the faunus inside it, but she has kept silent about this. The creature fled when Lapis, Tabby, and Mila tried to separate "Grimm" and faunus, so it is still out there. Whatever it is planning or doing.

Reputational Superposition [Reputation] - Due to years of people claiming things about Lapis and the boy seemingly attracting this sort of thing, people who do know about him tend to have a bunch of different opinions, often based on what they heard, rather than the person himself. Depending on who said reputation stemmed from, people might think he is some sort of high society distinguished smooth operator (Orchid), a giant man uprooting trees and slaying Grimm by the dozens with his bare hands (Cyan), or something like a mysterious ninja living in the shadows (Tabby). Add additional reputations to taste.

Nexus of 1001 Dubious Tales [Reputation/Quirk] - Additionally, there are a ton of rumors floating about of what Lapis allegedly did or can do, and these have been passed around for so long that they have taken on a life of their own entirely. Able to see and weave one’s innermost desire, burst boulders with but a needle prick, puppet unknowing people, break through the shell of even the most hardened politician, stop an Alpha Nevermore dead in its tracks, slice through a dozen bandits with atomically-thin wire without them even noticing. Needless to say, Lapis does his best to debunk, at times having to deal with the fallout, or people thinking he is being modest. However, there are also the counter rumors of him just being a random seamster innocent of any wrongdoing or even having a Semblance or aura who couldn’t hurt a fly, which is overall nicer, but really doesn’t help with being taken seriously during Huntsman work.

The Incredible Spider-Fauxnus [Prejudice] - The most baffling rumor that also seems to be the most adamant to be universally accepted as true is that people think Lapis is a spider faunus, projecting webbing from his hands. He can create thread on the fly, and he has become rather good at navigating and balancing on strings and such, and he does immobilize bad guys by binding them, but he is really, really not a faunus, you guys! Even the White Fang and the Farm seem to believe it. Lapis is just so thankful whenever someone actually believes he is human.

Semblance - Threading the Needle

The true nature of Lapis' Semblance remains a bit of a mystery, even to himself. At first, no one actually realized he had a Semblance. Then he thought he was just good with needlework. Then he discovered being able to make needles deadly weapons. Then control string. Then seemingly memetic tailor abilities amped to 11. Lapis' best guess by now is that his Semblance is basically "what if someone took the archetype of a tailor, and made a mythical creature out of it". However, his Semblance only unlocks capabilities, but the actual applications required intense work to figure out and make usable, especially in combat.

For some reason, his mom Orchid is really quite fond and proud of her son's Semblance. In hindsight, she indirectly contributed to a lot of its combat and healing-adjacent capabilities, hmm...

 

Novice Seamster

In a mixture of trying to be real, humbleness, and a degree of induced impostor syndrome, Lapis thinks he is just very much a beginner in what he does, with his primary job being a seamster (due to Orchid employing his talents, fixing his dad's clothes and gear that got put through the wringer by his wild adventures, and making dresses for Tabby). Naturally, most seamsters don't fight Grimm and bandits with needle and thread, but, well, baby steps. Lapis is getting to thinking of himself as a Huntsman eventually.

Needle

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The first application of his Semblance that emerged. As long as he has Aura, Lapis seems to never run out of needles. Though there is no telling whether he might still have needles on him without. While Cyan thinks Lapis would be even better with a sword, he has come to think of Lapis' needlework as being like wielding a (very small) dagger with which his son smites evildoers and Grimm, making Cyan a very proud dad.

You May Feel A Light Prick

Lapis can do surprising damage by stabbing someone or something with a needle, through a combination of aiming for vital areas and his Semblance vastly increasing the force of the used needles. Thus his attacks are more comparable to gunshots with high-caliber, low-mass, high-velocity bullets.

Proverbial Haystack

Lapis is able to manipulate needle and thread at a range, and also propel them at very high velocities. The low mass and not being made to stabilize in the air hurt the range of his needles somewhat, but his aim has become pinpoint, and it is rather hard to see and hear a flying needle coming, especially when they can be flicked covertly.

Dust Needle

So, just creating temporary needles is also a thing Lapis can do, and if he includes Dust in it (usually in powdered form or threading it with Dust string he made), secondary harm befalls a hit target shortly after the initial impact as the Dust activates.

Pincushion

Lapis simply attacks with more needles, having become proficient at wielding several at the same time, and throwing them in large quantity and frequency as well. A leading cause for ninja-related stories about Lapis.

Hay In Needlestack

Yeah so, how about even more needles? What was that? More needles? Okay, more needles it is!

Thread

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The other basic application of his Semblance that first emerged, and much like with needles, Lapis seems to just not run out of thread. This absolutely contributed a lot to people thinking he is a spider-faunus.

Spin A Yarn

Trapping a target in thread patterns, making it more difficult for them to move offensively and defensively. Lapis outright controls the thread, but also uses momentum, leverage, and both his own and the target's motions to hinder them as much as possible. As a by product, does produce interesting patterns.

Bundled Up

Apply even more thread, and in much more intricate and stronger patterns, seeking to outright prevent movement by restricting limbs or tying the target to an object (or other person). Frequently results in beautiful web-like patterns, heavily fueling the spider rumors in addition to the function.

Joining Skeins

So much thread. Endless thread. Such webs Lapis weaves. At times creates a greater work of art consisting out of the individual tied-up targets.

Finishing Touches

At times, the weave could not be finished, thus it needs to be completed. Be it continuing his own work or adding to the efforts of one of his teammates matters little to Lapis, one just has to adapt to any given situation. Has been likened to wrapping up a victim stuck to a spider's net by Tabby, and a more physical version of people who got a taste for Lapis' fashion inevitably coming back for more (and thus driving themselves deeper into Orchid's network).

Battening
As Lapis had to learn, at times, a certain degree of crowd control becomes necessary, whether it is stopping rampaging Grimm, panicking civilians, or vampire spawn trying to escape as fart clouds. When in doubt, gather them all up and bundle them together to put them elsewhere.

String Theory

Experimentation in the applications of string. Lapis learned that string he wields can have incredible tensile strength, and Cyan did subject him to hellish physical training by way of dragging him through the Grimm-infested wilderness for years. Here are the results!

Pull Tight

Lapis does not look it in his usual choice of clothes and with his wiry five-and-a-half-ish foot frame, but the lad is strong, heavy on the functional strength while keeping excess muscle mass as low as possible, thanks to Cyan's training regiment (the man knows what he is doing and talking, after all) and Orchid's requirements that Lapis should aim for a pleasing physique for his own benefit. Lapis can also deliver said strength through string, often involving it in the applications, such as grabbing and throwing someone with ropes.

Mechanical Advantage

Lapis knows how to use his strength optimally, especially in combination with string to multiply its effects. Distributing weight, creating mechanical advantage, proper leverage, you name it. Since he can apply his strength through his string, this also allows for incredibly precise control of it, able to manipulate objects in a fine manner (Orchid made him learn to produce calligraphy via brushes operated with his string). Because of this, it is rather trivial to quickly pick up and carry objects (and people) with him.

Thread Sling

Cast out thread and pull himself towards where it tied itself to. Compensate the landing issues with Landing Strategy. Alternatively, he can launch himself through the air by pushing himself away via string bundles. So it is not technically outright flight, but close enough, given how quickly he can change his trajectory. Because of the necessary motion involved to not just splat against something (or to even get moving), it is rather difficult to do this tied up, perhaps somewhat ironically.

High Priority Commissions

Creating a lot of thread, and weaving it on the spot, with all the strength mentioned above, allowing him to create large projects in the blink of an eye, and also unravel them as quickly if necessary. Intense to use, but versatile, especially with different kinds of thread. From impromptu clothes to tents to ramps to surprising utility items, Lapis is able to accomplish a lot. Basically all of his abilities combined into one and taken as far as he can make them go at this time. Lapis himself prefers a less intense approach if he can help it and has the time (though "slower" is quite relative in this case).

Stitch

So when Lapis learned to be a medic while dragged along by traveling with Team SCCS and thus learned how to stitch wounds, he started figuring out that his Semblance helped with that. Followed by wanting to create surgical thread, something going wrong, and instead creating his first instance of thread consisting of sheer aura with no real normal physical qualities. From that, well, Lapis not only became a very proficient medic, but also a very fast and nigh miraculous one.

A Stitch In Time

With pure Aura needle and thread, fueled by actual medical training, Lapis sews wounds shut, creates Aura bandages promoting healing of larger-scale injuries, mends Auras, you name it. It is a mixture of accelerating natural healing, Aura infusion and amplfication, or perhaps it is simply Semblance not!magic. This sort of thing is best done on other people though, as treating himself this way takes a lot of doing.

Saves Nine

Doing the same as above, but on a wider scale. With this, Lapis tends to focus mostly on Aura and "easier" injuries, but it is not like he is incapable of providing full aid to multiple people at once. It is just not very easy.

Patchwork

Treating one's own injuries tends to be harder for a variety of reasons, including it being rather difficult to often see and reach injuries with enough precision to do the work. This allows Lapis to intuit the procedures enough to take care of himself when push comes to shove. Treating his own Aura is another matter, basically needing to amplify his own reserves, which again takes a lot of doing, though helped by the fact that he can see damage to his Aura as flaws he can mend.

Mending

It turns out he can also apply his healing techniques to objects, making them whole again, whether through actual stitchwork or by basically Aura-fusing them together like a supernatural weld bond. A bit of a nightmare with shattered objects, but, well, it is what it is. Would be nice to have a machine do the puzzling for him.

Labor of Love

As harrowing as the process of learning his medical skills was (and still is), and how unpleasant the situations where he needs them often are, Lapis does feel good about doing the work. That and he learned that if he doesn't do it, he can't necessarily expect someone else to step up. So even if he is facing cases where he can only wonder how to best go about it, gotta find a solution somehow.

Acupuncture

So acupuncture has some uses, but they are relatively minor all in all. However, things are very different when you have Aura needles, Dust-infused needles, and can channel Aura via them. This actually developed out of stress-relieving massage/acupressure, but adding his brand of needles and abilities led to such potent relaxation that... that he could actually use it in combat. As weird as that sounds.

Satisfying Trigger Points

Hitting just the right spots, and there goes body tension and keeping Aura stable from sheer good vibes.

Overwhelming Relaxation

Pile on even more relaxation and suddenly, doing harm becomes rather difficult when you swing like a pool noodle.

Group Therapy

Once again, doing all this to several people at once, usually in a similar manner as normally attacking with a mass of needles. Has at times led to weird situations where Lapis crowd-controlled multiple people this way, followed by Team SCCS taking out happily-noodly, babbling bandits.

Structural Weakness

So you have the ability to drive needles through Grimm plating, create Dust needles, have really good aim, and were forced to learn about how architecture works to put buildings back together while out with Team SCCS? Congratulations, you have all the ingredients to ram Dust needles into structural weak points and crack a building open. This came in handy during the invasion of Vale, given there were rogue military robots.

Chakra Stimulation???

One of the applications that is frankly weird to Lapis himself. As far as he could manage to find out, there are points where if Aura with perhaps a bit of specific Dust is channeled into, it helps get rid of various conditions. There is also basically pulling through semi-immaterial Aura needles and thread through someone to apply these forces on the inside of the body or directly attack the cause of an ailment. However, most of this is moot, as this has been hijacked by other people to mean that chakras are indeed real after all and Lapis is merely masterfully manipulating these with good ol' traditional medicine. Which Lapis has been trying to work against, because he doesn't want people to randomly jam needles or Dust crystals into their bodies.

Expertise

At this point, you probably know Lapis has been far busier having to learn more things than the average teenager probably should need to learn. To cope, one has to develop a certain skill set. And also, practice simply makes perfect. Tabby happily points out the stories of diligent tailors and seamstresses for this to explain Lapis just managing to cram all this into the average day alongside everything else (and sometimes even sleep). Lapis' face usually has deep dark rings under his eyes and a too tired to argue expression in those situations.

Time Management

Between the dozens of hats Lapis has been wearing, there is only so much time in a day. So he channels the example of tailors of legend (as Tabby happily puts it) and simply has to make do. Lapis has been doing what he has been doing so much he got good at it, and with getting good came getting fast. Now, he actually became... very quite fast at what he does. A bit inexplicably so. So his Semblance is to blame for this as well. Lapis is just grateful he can do this, though he does remark that he works efficiently, not just faster, not being fond of his weird emergent gameplay Semblance getting all the credit.

Team Management

And often, Lapis can't do everything himself. So he had to learn about team management as well, especially in situations where nightfall might mean bandit attacks, Grimm, or even worse, nobles without the clothes that were ordered with ludicrous time tables. But there is also that he cares about his colleagues not getting into trouble. So he basically wears the Producer hat, coordinating, motivating, helping, and as long as he can directly work with the team, they get stuff done quick. There is a flow state for everyone involved, with the perception of time getting weird as they hardly think about that anymore and it really not feeling that long despite how much they are actually doing, and afterwards going "wow, we really got a lot done, huh?".

Quality Control

You work with this much thread and a very demanding mother, and you start noticing what is good material quality and what isn't. And for the craftmanship. And who made it. And who made the material for the person who made it. And which of the hundreds of raw materials to pick for any given project. And how well someone takes care of their clothes. There may have been eye twitches.

Clear Workflow

By now, Lapis unfailingly remembers the order of everything he does in a project and can reverse-engineer it, as well as whatever path he took wherever he went, even when the surroundings mainly look like TREES AND MORE TREES.

Proper Attire

An off-shoot of his instant production capabilities. Lapis wondered if he could make entire bodysuits and spy masks and what-not, so he tried, and the answer was yes. So there is that. He absolutely does not have the infiltration capabilities for this, but Tabby sure is damn interested in this, and he is fairly sure Orchid has been keeping her eye on this as well. Why are those two frequently in alignment about stuff like this?

About 1.7m tall, long blue hair frequently styled differently (because of course he is also a hairdresser), blue eyes, fair skin. Wiry in build, he wears a wide variety of fashion in public, often with aspects of Mistralian culture, depending on circumstance and partially mood (and how likely it is to draw his mother's disapproval by underdressing in official settings).

In more casual settings, he likes baggier, comfy clothes, which often also mostly hides his physique. During more official events, he wears fitting garb ranging from sleek with intricate detail on closer inspection to quite elaborate. For combat, he wants full range of motion and access to his tools, which incidentally makes him look very ninja-adjacent, covered in elaborate patterns doubling as Dust thread reservoirs, and contributing to the persistent spider-faunus allegiations. His combination of high flexibility, quick precision strikes, thread weaving, and balance only further emphasize this.

Lapis trends somewhat androgynous on average, and he doesn't particularly mind wearing more feminine styles, courtesy of his fashion work done for his mother Orchid. So people often end up assuming he relies solely on agility and speed. These people are often surprised to see a sculpted physique trained to purpose to achieve the most effect with only as much muscle mass as necessary, and that he is more likely to withstand attacks with thread barriers and string traps than nimbly dodging out of the way. His dad Cyan is very big on being able to take hits in fights, so that was a big focus in Lapis' training.

Combat

Initiative: +20.

Defense: +6.

Resistance: +16.

Base Attack: +5 (DC 20 Damage, DC 15 Maneuver).

Powers: +11 (DC 26 Damage, DC 21 Effect).

 

Skills

Deception: +0. Expertise: +21. Insight: +10. Intimidation: +0. Investigation: +0.

Mobility: +20. Perception: +10. Persuasion: +0. Stealth: +0. Technology: +0. Treatment: +21.

Fields of Expertise (+2pp): Animal Handling, Architecture, Art, Business, Carpentry, Cooking, Crafts, Criminal, Current Events, Dance, Dust, Etiquette, Fashion & Styling, Grimm, History, Mistral Local, Music, Myths, Navigation, Pizza, Politics, Pop Culture, Scholastic, Science, Semblance Lore, Survival, Tactics, Tailoring, Vehicles (Air), Vehicles (Land), Vehicles (Water)

 

Advantages

Artificer, Benefit 2 (Bedside Manner [use Treatment for provoking positive emotion], Dustweave [use Tailoring Expertise for Artificer to weave Dust into cloth]), Improved Smash, Improvised Tools, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Treatment), Teamwork

 

Powers

Semblance - Threading the Needle: Semblance Scaling (Scaled Measure [Quickness]) {0}

Novice Seamster: 55-point Dynamic Array {55+11}

Needle: Multiple Effects.

You May Feel A Light Prick: Damage 11 [11]

Proverbial Haystack: Enhanced Range 9, Damage gains Precise and Subtle[11]

Dust Needle: Damage gains Secondary Effect [11]

Pincushion: Damage gains Multiattack [11]

Hay In Needlestack: Damage gains Shapeable Area [11]

Thread: Multiple Effects.

Spin A Yarn: Affliction 11 (Impaired+Vulnerable > Disabled+Defenseless; Extra Condition, Limited Degree) [11]

Bundled Up: Affliction gains Extra Condition (Immobilized > Stunned) [11]

Joining Skeins: Affliction gains Shapeable Area [11]

Finishing Touches: Affliction gains Cumulative [11]

Battening: Strength gains Shapeable Area [11]

String Theory: Multiple Effects.

Pull Tight: Strength 11 [11]

Mechanical Advantage: +10 Strength (lifting only), Strength gains Precise, Feature 2 (Easy Hold, Free Lift) [8]

Thread Sling: Winged Flight 10 [10]

High Priority Commissions: Create 12 (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle, Tether, Reduced Range, 2 ranks of Limited [volume only]) [26]

Stitch: Multiple Effects.

A Stitch In Time: Healing 11 (Limited [Others only]) [11]

Saves Nine: Healing gains Shapeable Area [11]

Patchwork: Remove Limit from Healing [11]

Mending: Healing gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Labor of Love: Healing gains Persistent [11]

Acupuncture: Multiple Effects.

Satisfying Trigger Points: Weaken 11 (Resistance) [11]

Overwhelming Relaxation: Weaken gains Additional Effect (Effect Bonus) [11]

Group Therapy: Weaken gains Shapeable Area [11]

Structural Weakness: Weaken gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Chakra Stimulation???: Healing gains Restorative [11]

Expertise: Multiple Effects.

Time Management: Quickness 21 [21]

Team Management: Quickness gains Affects Others (Quirk [Must actively work together with affected targets]) [20]

Quality Control: Senses 3 (Analytical Vision, Acute & Analytical Touch; Analytical limited to fabrics) [2]

Clear Workflow: Feature 2 (always able to retrace steps) [1]

Proper Attire: Morph 3 (humans and faunus; Affects Self and Others, Continuous, Increased Action 2 [standard], Limit [can't change someone's height or build or add body parts, just creates very real suits and masks], Quirk [other people can't change their Morph other than taking it off, Lapis has to change or re-apply it]) [11]

Calculations

Defenses 54 + Skills 43 + Advantages 11 + Powers 66 = 174/174 PP, PL 11.

Keep Things Together [Motivation - Doing Good] - Given current and past events, things are kind of coming apart at the seams. At least some people need to keep things from fraying too much so the actually important ones can fix things.

Get Real [Motivation - Acceptance] - If he has to become well-known, he would like to become well-known for what he actually is, not the endless array of rumors and yarns spun about him, thank you very much.

In The Footsteps of the Determinator [Motivation - Responsibility] - Being the guy who has to take the place of the quite literally globally (in)famous Lin Bane, on the globally (in)famous team RACL… is a rather tall order. People keep telling Lapis how RACL are a team of mad berserkers led by a crazy dog faunus and his hat, who literally eat Grimm for sustenance, and are always one step away from destroying whole cities. Surely, most of that is overblown… right? Still, he’s just a little guy with needles and some yarn, y’all.

Promoted Background Character [Quirk] - Never wanted to really stand in the limelight or be a Huntsman, but that just kind of happened. Hero’s Journey kicked down the door and dragged him out screaming. So outwardly he has an “it is what it is” attitude dealing with the many problems he now has to face, while there is much internal screaming.

Orchid Centaurea, Demanding Socialite Mom [Relationship/Responsibility] - Being a fixture of Mistralian high society, Lapis’ mother Orchid was quite adamant about having her only child excel. She also would have preferred a daughter, but she worked with what she was given, so her side of raising Lapis precisely did not care all that much about common wisdom on how boys should be raised. There was a lot of pressure on Lapis to fit his mother’s lofty expectations (not helped by her extolling his supposed talents and virtues). This is also how he ended up getting into tailoring, among other things, and came to like it. By now, Orchid still very much wishes Lapis to excel, but there is an understanding that she is proud of her son. But she also still ropes him into her high society dealings, especially since he is so skilled in creating fashion and art, among other things. As a side note, Orchid may or may not have been or still is an assassin of sorts. But such things surely are just hearsay. Or at least blown out of proportion/misinterpreted.

Cyan Cayenne, Gung-ho Supportive Dad [Relationship] - Cyan is a traditional, sword-toting outdoorsman of a Huntsman who never really got on that well with all the technological thingamajigs. After years of Orchid mostly dictating how Lapis should be raised, Cyan eventually put his foot down, told his wife that if she continued like this “the boy will implode”, and took him on an extended (we are talking two years) trip through the wilderness when Lapis was about 12 years old. They traveled extensively through almost the entirety of the continent of Anima, accompanied by the members of his team-mates Setzer, Celes, and Sabin (Team SCCS “Success”; I leave it to you which S is the leader).

So Lapis experienced a whole lot of Grimm and bandits, discovered his Semblance on the road, and just kind of filled whatever role was needed, either among the team or in whatever village they came across. Partially because Cyan has seemingly endless faith in what his son can accomplish (and also isn’t afraid to loudly claim such things) and being a big believer in learning through hardship. Nowadays, Cyan is a little disappointed Lapis never took up the sword, but he started training as a Huntsman and is protecting people where he can, so he’s a proud dad overall.

Tabby Boots, Wish-Granting Manipulator [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - A cheerful cat faunus, Lapis' self-proclaimed best friend, with a seemingly wish-granting Semblance, which she used to achieve riches and prestige in Mistral’s social circles. All because Lapis once found her out in the wilderness of Anima after she was left to die by bandits, helped her back on her feet and get a fresh start in Mistral (also outfitting her with clothes aiding her in making first impressions). That act of kindness caused Tabby’s Semblance to emerge, and she quickly went to work to make the most of the opportunity. Sadly, the now young woman has an amoral streak and felt few compunctions in terms of manipulating and exploiting her way towards the top in the murky Mistralian circles, now quite well-situated in the gray area where nobility and crime intersect, with connections to Spider.

She has offered Lapis to live with her in luxury several times, but the latter always refused, given what he’d have to stomach morally, and wishing Tabby would use her talents for more charitable purposes. They do like each other a lot despite their different views, though Tabby has caused Lapis no shortage of mostly accidental trouble by involving him in her schemes “for his own benefit”, or running into him during a particular predicament, or impromptu inviting him to a hangout, or Tabby’s enemies trying to go after the boy. It also doesn’t help that Tabby does her own sort of myth-building for Lapis, much to the latter’s chagrin. Lapis still tailors clothes for Tabby, partially in hopes of maybe effecting a slow change for the better. Tabby frequently favors a swashbucklery style with matching rapier, and of course her magnificent collection of boots, though also dresses for any given occasion, whether it is a social function or a heist.

Mila Fury, Tabby's Bodyguard [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - An icy young human woman with a Semblance allowing her to weaponize her blonde hair in an outlandish variety of ways. Lapis does not know much about her at present. Tabby seemed to have acquired her loyal services on her way up through Mistral's high society and crime circles, though she doesn't seem to solely be a servant, but rather a devoted partner in crime, so to speak. Mila seems quite fond of the way Tabby carves out her own fortune regardless of everything and disregarding societal rules, though Tabby's fondness for Lapis seems to irk Mila, seeing him as something holding her back, so she is rather cold (more than with most people) towards Lapis. When Lapis literally lost his arm and leg (though only temporarily) to defend Mila during the attack, while she doesn't agree with his way of trying to fit into society (and really doesn't like that he got Tabby marked as an enemy of the radical White Fang), she could appreciate his dedication to doing what he believes in, even at personal cost. Baby steps.

Also ever since Lapis stitched his own limbs back on with strands of her Aura-infused, Semblance-enhanced hair, she more or less can track down Lapis when she wants to. Jury's out on what she decides to do with this information, and whether as well as who she might decide to share this with (or not). Lapis gets the feeling Mila derives a degree wicked joy from this, and that she likes having information Tabby would like to have for her shenanigans that she can feel like not sharing if Tabby is causing her too many headaches. In retaliation, Tabby has started shipping Mila and Lapis, much to their chagrin, and Tabby's cackling glee.

The Grimm-Faunus-Shadow Creature [Enemy] - Better naming pending. The creature encountered during the attack on Vale, which seemingly accompanied the White Fang. Frankly, Lapis has no idea what this thing is. His best guess it is some weird creature of Grimm grafted onto a male faunus (type unknown, too hard to see in the heat of the moment) in some way, but that is speculation. Could also be some freaky Semblance that went out of control, or someone else using their Semblance (given the messed-up things Mac has done, well...). The result is a highly dangerous and vicious creature able to weaponize the shadowy substance it seems to be mostly made of and can spread out into puddles, able to form weapons and creature parts like huge maws from it. At the same time, it seems intelligent, if unwilling to talk as of yet. Mila appears to be familiar with this creature, or more specifically the faunus inside it, but she has kept silent about this. The creature fled when Lapis, Tabby, and Mila tried to separate "Grimm" and faunus, so it is still out there. Whatever it is planning or doing.

Reputational Superposition [Reputation] - Due to years of people claiming things about Lapis and the boy seemingly attracting this sort of thing, people who do know about him tend to have a bunch of different opinions, often based on what they heard, rather than the person himself. Depending on who said reputation stemmed from, people might think he is some sort of high society distinguished smooth operator (Orchid), a giant man uprooting trees and slaying Grimm by the dozens with his bare hands (Cyan), or something like a mysterious ninja living in the shadows (Tabby). Add additional reputations to taste.

Nexus of 1001 Dubious Tales [Reputation/Quirk] - Additionally, there are a ton of rumors floating about of what Lapis allegedly did or can do, and these have been passed around for so long that they have taken on a life of their own entirely. Able to see and weave one’s innermost desire, burst boulders with but a needle prick, puppet unknowing people, break through the shell of even the most hardened politician, stop an Alpha Nevermore dead in its tracks, slice through a dozen bandits with atomically-thin wire without them even noticing. Needless to say, Lapis does his best to debunk, at times having to deal with the fallout, or people thinking he is being modest. However, there are also the counter rumors of him just being a random seamster innocent of any wrongdoing or even having a Semblance or aura who couldn’t hurt a fly, which is overall nicer, but really doesn’t help with being taken seriously during Huntsman work.

The Incredible Spider-Fauxnus [Prejudice] - The most baffling rumor that also seems to be the most adamant to be universally accepted as true is that people think Lapis is a spider faunus, projecting webbing from his hands. He can create thread on the fly, and he has become rather good at navigating and balancing on strings and such, and he does immobilize bad guys by binding them, but he is really, really not a faunus, you guys! Even the White Fang and the Farm seem to believe it. Lapis is just so thankful whenever someone actually believes he is human.

Semblance - Threading the Needle

The true nature of Lapis' Semblance remains a bit of a mystery, even to himself. At first, no one actually realized he had a Semblance. Then he thought he was just good with needlework. Then he discovered being able to make needles deadly weapons. Then control string. Then seemingly memetic tailor abilities amped to 11. Lapis' best guess by now is that his Semblance is basically "what if someone took the archetype of a tailor, and made a mythical creature out of it". However, his Semblance only unlocks capabilities, but the actual applications required intense work to figure out and make usable, especially in combat.

For some reason, his mom Orchid is really quite fond and proud of her son's Semblance. In hindsight, she indirectly contributed to a lot of its combat and healing-adjacent capabilities, hmm...

 

Novice Seamster

In a mixture of trying to be real, humbleness, and a degree of induced impostor syndrome, Lapis thinks he is just very much a beginner in what he does, with his primary job being a seamster (due to Orchid employing his talents, fixing his dad's clothes and gear that got put through the wringer by his wild adventures, and making dresses for Tabby). Naturally, most seamsters don't fight Grimm and bandits with needle and thread, but, well, baby steps. Lapis is getting to thinking of himself as a Huntsman eventually.

Needle

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The first application of his Semblance that emerged. As long as he has Aura, Lapis seems to never run out of needles. Though there is no telling whether he might still have needles on him without. While Cyan thinks Lapis would be even better with a sword, he has come to think of Lapis' needlework as being like wielding a (very small) dagger with which his son smites evildoers and Grimm, making Cyan a very proud dad.

You May Feel A Light Prick

Lapis can do surprising damage by stabbing someone or something with a needle, through a combination of aiming for vital areas and his Semblance vastly increasing the force of the used needles. Thus his attacks are more comparable to gunshots with high-caliber, low-mass, high-velocity bullets.

Proverbial Haystack

Lapis is able to manipulate needle and thread at a range, and also propel them at very high velocities. The low mass and not being made to stabilize in the air hurt the range of his needles somewhat, but his aim has become pinpoint, and it is rather hard to see and hear a flying needle coming, especially when they can be flicked covertly.

Dust Needle

So, just creating temporary needles is also a thing Lapis can do, and if he includes Dust in it (usually in powdered form or threading it with Dust string he made), secondary harm befalls a hit target shortly after the initial impact as the Dust activates.

Pincushion

Lapis simply attacks with more needles, having become proficient at wielding several at the same time, and throwing them in large quantity and frequency as well. A leading cause for ninja-related stories about Lapis.

Hay In Needlestack

Yeah so, how about even more needles? What was that? More needles? Okay, more needles it is!

Thread

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The other basic application of his Semblance that first emerged, and much like with needles, Lapis seems to just not run out of thread. This absolutely contributed a lot to people thinking he is a spider-faunus.

Spin A Yarn

Trapping a target in thread patterns, making it more difficult for them to move offensively and defensively. Lapis outright controls the thread, but also uses momentum, leverage, and both his own and the target's motions to hinder them as much as possible. As a by product, does produce interesting patterns.

Bundled Up

Apply even more thread, and in much more intricate and stronger patterns, seeking to outright prevent movement by restricting limbs or tying the target to an object (or other person). Frequently results in beautiful web-like patterns, heavily fueling the spider rumors in addition to the function.

Joining Skeins

So much thread. Endless thread. Such webs Lapis weaves. At times creates a greater work of art consisting out of the individual tied-up targets.

Finishing Touches

Lapis knows his knots and patterns, weaving them so that the target's motions trying to free themselves contributing to making them more helpless. Met with particular approval by Orchid and Tabby. This was really hard to get right and Lapis felt quite proud about accomplishing this, but those approvals do make him feel weird about this, kind of souring on it a little.

Battening

String Theory

Experimentation in the applications of string. Lapis learned that string he wields can have incredible tensile strength, and Cyan did subject him to hellish physical training by way of dragging him through the Grimm-infested wilderness for years. Here are the results!

Pull Tight

Lapis does not look it in his usual choice of clothes and with his wiry five-and-a-half-ish foot frame, but the lad is strong, heavy on the functional strength while keeping excess muscle mass as low as possible, thanks to Cyan's training regiment (the man knows what he is doing and talking, after all) and Orchid's requirements that Lapis should aim for a pleasing physique for his own benefit. Lapis can also deliver said strength through string, often involving it in the applications, such as grabbing and throwing someone with ropes.

Mechanical Advantage

Lapis knows how to use his strength optimally, especially in combination with string to multiply its effects. Distributing weight, creating mechanical advantage, proper leverage, you name it. Since he can apply his strength through his string, this also allows for incredibly precise control of it, able to manipulate objects in a fine manner (Orchid made him learn to produce calligraphy via brushes operated with his string). Because of this, it is rather trivial to quickly pick up and carry objects (and people) with him.

Thread Sling

Cast out thread and pull himself towards where it tied itself to. Compensate the landing issues with Landing Strategy. Alternatively, he can launch himself through the air by pushing himself away via string bundles. So it is not technically outright flight, but close enough, given how quickly he can change his trajectory. Because of the necessary motion involved to not just splat against something (or to even get moving), it is rather difficult to do this tied up, perhaps somewhat ironically.

High Priority Commissions

Creating a lot of thread, and weaving it on the spot, with all the strength mentioned above, allowing him to create large projects in the blink of an eye, and also unravel them as quickly if necessary. Intense to use, but versatile, especially with different kinds of thread. From impromptu clothes to tents to ramps to surprising utility items, Lapis is able to accomplish a lot. Basically all of his abilities combined into one and taken as far as he can make them go at this time. Lapis himself prefers a less intense approach if he can help it and has the time (though "slower" is quite relative in this case).

Stitch

So when Lapis learned to be a medic while dragged along by traveling with Team SCCS and thus learned how to stitch wounds, he started figuring out that his Semblance helped with that. Followed by wanting to create surgical thread, something going wrong, and instead creating his first instance of thread consisting of sheer aura with no real normal physical qualities. From that, well, Lapis not only became a very proficient medic, but also a very fast and nigh miraculous one.

A Stitch In Time

With pure Aura needle and thread, fueled by actual medical training, Lapis sews wounds shut, creates Aura bandages promoting healing of larger-scale injuries, mends Auras, you name it. It is a mixture of accelerating natural healing, Aura infusion and amplfication, or perhaps it is simply Semblance not!magic. This sort of thing is best done on other people though, as treating himself this way takes a lot of doing.

Saves Nine

Doing the same as above, but on a wider scale. With this, Lapis tends to focus mostly on Aura and "easier" injuries, but it is not like he is incapable of providing full aid to multiple people at once. It is just not very easy.

Patchwork

Treating one's own injuries tends to be harder for a variety of reasons, including it being rather difficult to often see and reach injuries with enough precision to do the work. This allows Lapis to intuit the procedures enough to take care of himself when push comes to shove. Treating his own Aura is another matter, basically needing to amplify his own reserves, which again takes a lot of doing, though helped by the fact that he can see damage to his Aura as flaws he can mend.

Mending

It turns out he can also apply his healing techniques to objects, making them whole again, whether through actual stitchwork or by basically Aura-fusing them together like a supernatural weld bond. A bit of a nightmare with shattered objects, but, well, it is what it is. Would be nice to have a machine do the puzzling for him.

Labor of Love

As harrowing as the process of learning his medical skills was (and still is), and how unpleasant the situations where he needs them often are, Lapis does feel good about doing the work. That and he learned that if he doesn't do it, he can't necessarily expect someone else to step up. So even if he is facing cases where he can only wonder how to best go about it, gotta find a solution somehow.

Acupuncture

So acupuncture has some uses, but they are relatively minor all in all. However, things are very different when you have Aura needles, Dust-infused needles, and can channel Aura via them. This actually developed out of stress-relieving massage/acupressure, but adding his brand of needles and abilities led to such potent relaxation that... that he could actually use it in combat. As weird as that sounds.

Satisfying Trigger Points

Hitting just the right spots, and there goes body tension and keeping Aura stable from sheer good vibes.

Overwhelming Relaxation

Pile on even more relaxation and suddenly, doing harm becomes rather difficult when you swing like a pool noodle.

Group Therapy

Once again, doing all this to several people at once, usually in a similar manner as normally attacking with a mass of needles. Has at times led to weird situations where Lapis crowd-controlled multiple people this way, followed by Team SCCS taking out happily-noodly, babbling bandits.

Structural Weakness

So you have the ability to drive needles through Grimm plating, create Dust needles, have really good aim, and were forced to learn about how architecture works to put buildings back together while out with Team SCCS? Congratulations, you have all the ingredients to ram Dust needles into structural weak points and crack a building open. This came in handy during the invasion of Vale, given there were rogue military robots.

Chakra Stimulation???

One of the applications that is frankly weird to Lapis himself. As far as he could manage to find out, there are points where if Aura with perhaps a bit of specific Dust is channeled into, it helps get rid of various conditions. There is also basically pulling through semi-immaterial Aura needles and thread through someone to apply these forces on the inside of the body or directly attack the cause of an ailment. However, most of this is moot, as this has been hijacked by other people to mean that chakras are indeed real after all and Lapis is merely masterfully manipulating these with good ol' traditional medicine. Which Lapis has been trying to work against, because he doesn't want people to randomly jam needles or Dust crystals into their bodies.

Expertise

At this point, you probably know Lapis has been far busier having to learn more things than the average teenager probably should need to learn. To cope, one has to develop a certain skill set. And also, practice simply makes perfect. Tabby happily points out the stories of diligent tailors and seamstresses for this to explain Lapis just managing to cram all this into the average day alongside everything else (and sometimes even sleep). Lapis' face usually has deep dark rings under his eyes and a too tired to argue expression in those situations.

Time Management

Between the dozens of hats Lapis has been wearing, there is only so much time in a day. So he channels the example of tailors of legend (as Tabby happily puts it) and simply has to make do. Lapis has been doing what he has been doing so much he got good at it, and with getting good came getting fast. Now, he actually became... very quite fast at what he does. A bit inexplicably so. So his Semblance is to blame for this as well. Lapis is just grateful he can do this, though he does remark that he works efficiently, not just faster, not being fond of his weird emergent gameplay Semblance getting all the credit.

Team Management

And often, Lapis can't do everything himself. So he had to learn about team management as well, especially in situations where nightfall might mean bandit attacks, Grimm, or even worse, nobles without the clothes that were ordered with ludicrous time tables. But there is also that he cares about his colleagues not getting into trouble. So he basically wears the Producer hat, coordinating, motivating, helping, and as long as he can directly work with the team, they get stuff done quick. There is a flow state for everyone involved, with the perception of time getting weird as they hardly think about that anymore and it really not feeling that long despite how much they are actually doing, and afterwards going "wow, we really got a lot done, huh?".

Quality Control

You work with this much thread and a very demanding mother, and you start noticing what is good material quality and what isn't. And for the craftmanship. And who made it. And who made the material for the person who made it. And which of the hundreds of raw materials to pick for any given project. And how well someone takes care of their clothes. There may have been eye twitches.

Clear Workflow

By now, Lapis unfailingly remembers the order of everything he does in a project and can reverse-engineer it, as well as whatever path he took wherever he went, even when the surroundings mainly look like TREES AND MORE TREES.

Proper Attire

An off-shoot of his instant production capabilities. Lapis wondered if he could make entire bodysuits and spy masks and what-not, so he tried, and the answer was yes. So there is that. He absolutely does not have the infiltration capabilities for this, but Tabby sure is damn interested in this, and he is fairly sure Orchid has been keeping her eye on this as well. Why are those two frequently in alignment about stuff like this?

About 1.7m tall, long blue hair frequently styled differently (because of course he is also a hairdresser), blue eyes, fair skin. Wiry in build, he wears a wide variety of fashion in public, often with aspects of Mistralian culture, depending on circumstance and partially mood (and how likely it is to draw his mother's disapproval by underdressing in official settings).

In more casual settings, he likes baggier, comfy clothes, which often also mostly hides his physique. During more official events, he wears fitting garb ranging from sleek with intricate detail on closer inspection to quite elaborate. For combat, he wants full range of motion and access to his tools, which incidentally makes him look very ninja-adjacent, covered in elaborate patterns doubling as Dust thread reservoirs, and contributing to the persistent spider-faunus allegiations. His combination of high flexibility, quick precision strikes, thread weaving, and balance only further emphasize this.

Lapis trends somewhat androgynous on average, and he doesn't particularly mind wearing more feminine styles, courtesy of his fashion work done for his mother Orchid. So people often end up assuming he relies solely on agility and speed. These people are often surprised to see a sculpted physique trained to purpose to achieve the most effect with only as much muscle mass as necessary, and that he is more likely to withstand attacks with thread barriers and string traps than nimbly dodging out of the way. His dad Cyan is very big on being able to take hits in fights, so that was a big focus in Lapis' training.

Combat

Initiative: +20.

Defense: +6.

Resistance: +16.

Base Attack: +5 (DC 20 Damage, DC 15 Maneuver).

Powers: +11 (DC 26 Damage, DC 21 Effect).

 

Skills

Deception: +0. Expertise: +21. Insight: +10. Intimidation: +0. Investigation: +0.

Mobility: +20. Perception: +10. Persuasion: +0. Stealth: +0. Technology: +0. Treatment: +21.

Fields of Expertise (+2pp): Animal Handling, Architecture, Art, Business, Carpentry, Cooking, Crafts, Criminal, Current Events, Dance, Dust, Etiquette, Fashion & Styling, Grimm, History, Mistral Local, Music, Myths, Navigation, Pizza, Politics, Pop Culture, Scholastic, Science, Semblance Lore, Survival, Tactics, Tailoring, Vehicles (Air), Vehicles (Land), Vehicles (Water)

 

Advantages

Artificer, Benefit 2 (Bedside Manner [use Treatment for provoking positive emotion], Dustweave [use Tailoring Expertise for Artificer to weave Dust into cloth]), Improved Smash, Improvised Tools, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Treatment), Teamwork

 

Powers

Semblance - Threading the Needle: Semblance Scaling (Scaled Measure [Quickness]) {0}

Novice Seamster: 55-point Dynamic Array {55+11}

Needle: Multiple Effects.

You May Feel A Light Prick: Damage 11 [11]

Proverbial Haystack: Enhanced Range 9, Damage gains Precise and Subtle[11]

Dust Needle: Damage gains Secondary Effect [11]

Pincushion: Damage gains Multiattack [11]

Hay In Needlestack: Damage gains Shapeable Area [11]

Thread: Multiple Effects.

Spin A Yarn: Affliction 11 (Impaired+Vulnerable > Disabled+Defenseless; Extra Condition, Limited Degree) [11]

Bundled Up: Affliction gains Extra Condition (Immobilized > Stunned) [11]

Joining Skeins: Affliction gains Shapeable Area [11]

Finishing Touches: Affliction gains Cumulative [11]

Battening: Strength gains Shapeable Area [11]

String Theory: Multiple Effects.

Pull Tight: Strength 11 [11]

Mechanical Advantage: +10 Strength (lifting only), Strength gains Precise, Feature 2 (Easy Hold, Free Lift) [8]

Thread Sling: Winged Flight 10 [10]

High Priority Commissions: Create 12 (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle, Tether, Reduced Range, 2 ranks of Limited [volume only]) [26]

Stitch: Multiple Effects.

A Stitch In Time: Healing 11 (Limited [Others only]) [11]

Saves Nine: Healing gains Shapeable Area [11]

Patchwork: Remove Limit from Healing [11]

Mending: Healing gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Labor of Love: Healing gains Persistent [11]

Acupuncture: Multiple Effects.

Satisfying Trigger Points: Weaken 11 (Resistance) [11]

Overwhelming Relaxation: Weaken gains Additional Effect (Effect Bonus) [11]

Group Therapy: Weaken gains Shapeable Area [11]

Structural Weakness: Weaken gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Chakra Stimulation???: Healing gains Restorative [11]

Expertise: Multiple Effects.

Time Management: Quickness 21 [21]

Team Management: Quickness gains Affects Others (Quirk [Must actively work together with affected targets]) [20]

Quality Control: Senses 3 (Analytical Vision, Acute & Analytical Touch; Analytical limited to fabrics) [2]

Clear Workflow: Feature 2 (always able to retrace steps) [1]

Proper Attire: Morph 3 (humans and faunus; Affects Self and Others, Continuous, Increased Action 2 [standard], Limit [can't change someone's height or build or add body parts, just creates very real suits and masks], Quirk [other people can't change their Morph other than taking it off, Lapis has to change or re-apply it]) [11]

Calculations

Defenses 54 + Skills 43 + Advantages 11 + Powers 66 = 174/174 PP, PL 11.

Keep Things Together [Motivation - Doing Good] - Given current and past events, things are kind of coming apart at the seams. At least some people need to keep things from fraying too much so the actually important ones can fix things.

Get Real [Motivation - Acceptance] - If he has to become well-known, he would like to become well-known for what he actually is, not the endless array of rumors and yarns spun about him, thank you very much.

In The Footsteps of the Determinator [Motivation - Responsibility] - Being the guy who has to take the place of the quite literally globally (in)famous Lin Bane, on the globally (in)famous team RACL… is a rather tall order. People keep telling Lapis how RACL are a team of mad berserkers led by a crazy dog faunus and his hat, who literally eat Grimm for sustenance, and are always one step away from destroying whole cities. Surely, most of that is overblown… right? Still, he’s just a little guy with needles and some yarn, y’all.

Promoted Background Character [Quirk] - Never wanted to really stand in the limelight or be a Huntsman, but that just kind of happened. Hero’s Journey kicked down the door and dragged him out screaming. So outwardly he has an “it is what it is” attitude dealing with the many problems he now has to face, while there is much internal screaming.

Orchid Centaurea, Demanding Socialite Mom [Relationship/Responsibility] - Being a fixture of Mistralian high society, Lapis’ mother Orchid was quite adamant about having her only child excel. She also would have preferred a daughter, but she worked with what she was given, so her side of raising Lapis precisely did not care all that much about common wisdom on how boys should be raised. There was a lot of pressure on Lapis to fit his mother’s lofty expectations (not helped by her extolling his supposed talents and virtues). This is also how he ended up getting into tailoring, among other things, and came to like it. By now, Orchid still very much wishes Lapis to excel, but there is an understanding that she is proud of her son. But she also still ropes him into her high society dealings, especially since he is so skilled in creating fashion and art, among other things. As a side note, Orchid may or may not have been or still is an assassin of sorts. But such things surely are just hearsay. Or at least blown out of proportion/misinterpreted.

Cyan Cayenne, Gung-ho Supportive Dad [Relationship] - Cyan is a traditional, sword-toting outdoorsman of a Huntsman who never really got on that well with all the technological thingamajigs. After years of Orchid mostly dictating how Lapis should be raised, Cyan eventually put his foot down, told his wife that if she continued like this “the boy will implode”, and took him on an extended (we are talking two years) trip through the wilderness when Lapis was about 12 years old. They traveled extensively through almost the entirety of the continent of Anima, accompanied by the members of his team-mates Setzer, Celes, and Sabin (Team SCCS “Success”; I leave it to you which S is the leader).

So Lapis experienced a whole lot of Grimm and bandits, discovered his Semblance on the road, and just kind of filled whatever role was needed, either among the team or in whatever village they came across. Partially because Cyan has seemingly endless faith in what his son can accomplish (and also isn’t afraid to loudly claim such things) and being a big believer in learning through hardship. Nowadays, Cyan is a little disappointed Lapis never took up the sword, but he started training as a Huntsman and is protecting people where he can, so he’s a proud dad overall.

Tabby Boots, Wish-Granting Manipulator [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - A cheerful cat faunus, Lapis' self-proclaimed best friend, with a seemingly wish-granting Semblance, which she used to achieve riches and prestige in Mistral’s social circles. All because Lapis once found her out in the wilderness of Anima after she was left to die by bandits, helped her back on her feet and get a fresh start in Mistral (also outfitting her with clothes aiding her in making first impressions). That act of kindness caused Tabby’s Semblance to emerge, and she quickly went to work to make the most of the opportunity. Sadly, the now young woman has an amoral streak and felt few compunctions in terms of manipulating and exploiting her way towards the top in the murky Mistralian circles, now quite well-situated in the gray area where nobility and crime intersect, with connections to Spider.

She has offered Lapis to live with her in luxury several times, but the latter always refused, given what he’d have to stomach morally, and wishing Tabby would use her talents for more charitable purposes. They do like each other a lot despite their different views, though Tabby has caused Lapis no shortage of mostly accidental trouble by involving him in her schemes “for his own benefit”, or running into him during a particular predicament, or impromptu inviting him to a hangout, or Tabby’s enemies trying to go after the boy. It also doesn’t help that Tabby does her own sort of myth-building for Lapis, much to the latter’s chagrin. Lapis still tailors clothes for Tabby, partially in hopes of maybe effecting a slow change for the better. Tabby frequently favors a swashbucklery style with matching rapier, and of course her magnificent collection of boots, though also dresses for any given occasion, whether it is a social function or a heist.

Mila Fury, Tabby's Bodyguard [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - An icy young human woman with a Semblance allowing her to weaponize her blonde hair in an outlandish variety of ways. Lapis does not know much about her at present. Tabby seemed to have acquired her loyal services on her way up through Mistral's high society and crime circles, though she doesn't seem to solely be a servant, but rather a devoted partner in crime, so to speak. Mila seems quite fond of the way Tabby carves out her own fortune regardless of everything and disregarding societal rules, though Tabby's fondness for Lapis seems to irk Mila, seeing him as something holding her back, so she is rather cold (more than with most people) towards Lapis. When Lapis literally lost his arm and leg (though only temporarily) to defend Mila during the attack, while she doesn't agree with his way of trying to fit into society (and really doesn't like that he got Tabby marked as an enemy of the radical White Fang), she could appreciate his dedication to doing what he believes in, even at personal cost. Baby steps.

Also ever since Lapis stitched his own limbs back on with strands of her Aura-infused, Semblance-enhanced hair, she more or less can track down Lapis when she wants to. Jury's out on what she decides to do with this information, and whether as well as who she might decide to share this with (or not). Lapis gets the feeling Mila derives a degree wicked joy from this, and that she likes having information Tabby would like to have for her shenanigans that she can feel like not sharing if Tabby is causing her too many headaches. In retaliation, Tabby has started shipping Mila and Lapis, much to their chagrin, and Tabby's cackling glee.

The Grimm-Faunus-Shadow Creature [Enemy] - Better naming pending. The creature encountered during the attack on Vale, which seemingly accompanied the White Fang. Frankly, Lapis has no idea what this thing is. His best guess it is some weird creature of Grimm grafted onto a male faunus (type unknown, too hard to see in the heat of the moment) in some way, but that is speculation. Could also be some freaky Semblance that went out of control, or someone else using their Semblance (given the messed-up things Mac has done, well...). The result is a highly dangerous and vicious creature able to weaponize the shadowy substance it seems to be mostly made of and can spread out into puddles, able to form weapons and creature parts like huge maws from it. At the same time, it seems intelligent, if unwilling to talk as of yet. Mila appears to be familiar with this creature, or more specifically the faunus inside it, but she has kept silent about this. The creature fled when Lapis, Tabby, and Mila tried to separate "Grimm" and faunus, so it is still out there. Whatever it is planning or doing.

Reputational Superposition [Reputation] - Due to years of people claiming things about Lapis and the boy seemingly attracting this sort of thing, people who do know about him tend to have a bunch of different opinions, often based on what they heard, rather than the person himself. Depending on who said reputation stemmed from, people might think he is some sort of high society distinguished smooth operator (Orchid), a giant man uprooting trees and slaying Grimm by the dozens with his bare hands (Cyan), or something like a mysterious ninja living in the shadows (Tabby). Add additional reputations to taste.

Nexus of 1001 Dubious Tales [Reputation/Quirk] - Additionally, there are a ton of rumors floating about of what Lapis allegedly did or can do, and these have been passed around for so long that they have taken on a life of their own entirely. Able to see and weave one’s innermost desire, burst boulders with but a needle prick, puppet unknowing people, break through the shell of even the most hardened politician, stop an Alpha Nevermore dead in its tracks, slice through a dozen bandits with atomically-thin wire without them even noticing. Needless to say, Lapis does his best to debunk, at times having to deal with the fallout, or people thinking he is being modest. However, there are also the counter rumors of him just being a random seamster innocent of any wrongdoing or even having a Semblance or aura who couldn’t hurt a fly, which is overall nicer, but really doesn’t help with being taken seriously during Huntsman work.

The Incredible Spider-Fauxnus [Prejudice] - The most baffling rumor that also seems to be the most adamant to be universally accepted as true is that people think Lapis is a spider faunus, projecting webbing from his hands. He can create thread on the fly, and he has become rather good at navigating and balancing on strings and such, and he does immobilize bad guys by binding them, but he is really, really not a faunus, you guys! Even the White Fang and the Farm seem to believe it. Lapis is just so thankful whenever someone actually believes he is human.

Semblance - Threading the Needle

The true nature of Lapis' Semblance remains a bit of a mystery, even to himself. At first, no one actually realized he had a Semblance. Then he thought he was just good with needlework. Then he discovered being able to make needles deadly weapons. Then control string. Then seemingly memetic tailor abilities amped to 11. Lapis' best guess by now is that his Semblance is basically "what if someone took the archetype of a tailor, and made a mythical creature out of it". However, his Semblance only unlocks capabilities, but the actual applications required intense work to figure out and make usable, especially in combat.

For some reason, his mom Orchid is really quite fond and proud of her son's Semblance. In hindsight, she indirectly contributed to a lot of its combat and healing-adjacent capabilities, hmm...

 

Novice Seamster

In a mixture of trying to be real, humbleness, and a degree of induced impostor syndrome, Lapis thinks he is just very much a beginner in what he does, with his primary job being a seamster (due to Orchid employing his talents, fixing his dad's clothes and gear that got put through the wringer by his wild adventures, and making dresses for Tabby). Naturally, most seamsters don't fight Grimm and bandits with needle and thread, but, well, baby steps. Lapis is getting to thinking of himself as a Huntsman eventually.

Needle

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The first application of his Semblance that emerged. As long as he has Aura, Lapis seems to never run out of needles. Though there is no telling whether he might still have needles on him without. While Cyan thinks Lapis would be even better with a sword, he has come to think of Lapis' needlework as being like wielding a (very small) dagger with which his son smites evildoers and Grimm, making Cyan a very proud dad.

You May Feel A Light Prick

Lapis can do surprising damage by stabbing someone or something with a needle, through a combination of aiming for vital areas and his Semblance vastly increasing the force of the used needles. Thus his attacks are more comparable to gunshots with high-caliber, low-mass, high-velocity bullets.

Proverbial Haystack

Lapis is able to manipulate needle and thread at a range, and also propel them at very high velocities. The low mass and not being made to stabilize in the air hurt the range of his needles somewhat, but his aim has become pinpoint, and it is rather hard to see and hear a flying needle coming, especially when they can be flicked covertly.

Dust Needle

So, just creating temporary needles is also a thing Lapis can do, and if he includes Dust in it (usually in powdered form or threading it with Dust string he made), secondary harm befalls a hit target shortly after the initial impact as the Dust activates.

Pincushion

Lapis simply attacks with more needles, having become proficient at wielding several at the same time, and throwing them in large quantity and frequency as well. A leading cause for ninja-related stories about Lapis.

Hay In Needlestack

Yeah so, how about even more needles? What was that? More needles? Okay, more needles it is!

Thread

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The other basic application of his Semblance that first emerged, and much like with needles, Lapis seems to just not run out of thread. This absolutely contributed a lot to people thinking he is a spider-faunus.

Spin A Yarn

Trapping a target in thread patterns, making it more difficult for them to move offensively and defensively. Lapis outright controls the thread, but also uses momentum, leverage, and both his own and the target's motions to hinder them as much as possible. As a by product, does produce interesting patterns.

Bundled Up

Apply even more thread, and in much more intricate and stronger patterns, seeking to outright prevent movement by restricting limbs or tying the target to an object (or other person). Frequently results in beautiful web-like patterns, heavily fueling the spider rumors in addition to the function.

Joining Skeins

So much thread. Endless thread. Such webs Lapis weaves. At times creates a greater work of art consisting out of the individual tied-up targets.

Finishing Touches

Lapis knows his knots and patterns, weaving them so that the target's motions trying to free themselves contributing to making them more helpless. Met with particular approval by Orchid and Tabby. This was really hard to get right and Lapis felt quite proud about accomplishing this, but those approvals do make him feel weird about this, kind of souring on it a little.

Battening

String Theory

Experimentation in the applications of string. Lapis learned that string he wields can have incredible tensile strength, and Cyan did subject him to hellish physical training by way of dragging him through the Grimm-infested wilderness for years. Here are the results!

Pull Tight

Lapis does not look it in his usual choice of clothes and with his wiry five-and-a-half-ish foot frame, but the lad is strong, heavy on the functional strength while keeping excess muscle mass as low as possible, thanks to Cyan's training regiment (the man knows what he is doing and talking, after all) and Orchid's requirements that Lapis should aim for a pleasing physique for his own benefit. Lapis can also deliver said strength through string, often involving it in the applications, such as grabbing and throwing someone with ropes.

Mechanical Advantage

Lapis knows how to use his strength optimally, especially in combination with string to multiply its effects. Distributing weight, creating mechanical advantage, proper leverage, you name it. Since he can apply his strength through his string, this also allows for incredibly precise control of it, able to manipulate objects in a fine manner (Orchid made him learn to produce calligraphy via brushes operated with his string). Because of this, it is rather trivial to quickly pick up and carry objects (and people) with him.

Thread Sling

Cast out thread and pull himself towards where it tied itself to. Compensate the landing issues with Landing Strategy. Alternatively, he can launch himself through the air by pushing himself away via string bundles. So it is not technically outright flight, but close enough, given how quickly he can change his trajectory. Because of the necessary motion involved to not just splat against something (or to even get moving), it is rather difficult to do this tied up, perhaps somewhat ironically.

High Priority Commissions

Creating a lot of thread, and weaving it on the spot, with all the strength mentioned above, allowing him to create large projects in the blink of an eye, and also unravel them as quickly if necessary. Intense to use, but versatile, especially with different kinds of thread. From impromptu clothes to tents to ramps to surprising utility items, Lapis is able to accomplish a lot. Basically all of his abilities combined into one and taken as far as he can make them go at this time. Lapis himself prefers a less intense approach if he can help it and has the time (though "slower" is quite relative in this case).

Stitch

So when Lapis learned to be a medic while dragged along by traveling with Team SCCS and thus learned how to stitch wounds, he started figuring out that his Semblance helped with that. Followed by wanting to create surgical thread, something going wrong, and instead creating his first instance of thread consisting of sheer aura with no real normal physical qualities. From that, well, Lapis not only became a very proficient medic, but also a very fast and nigh miraculous one.

A Stitch In Time

With pure Aura needle and thread, fueled by actual medical training, Lapis sews wounds shut, creates Aura bandages promoting healing of larger-scale injuries, mends Auras, you name it. It is a mixture of accelerating natural healing, Aura infusion and amplfication, or perhaps it is simply Semblance not!magic. This sort of thing is best done on other people though, as treating himself this way takes a lot of doing.

Saves Nine

Doing the same as above, but on a wider scale. With this, Lapis tends to focus mostly on Aura and "easier" injuries, but it is not like he is incapable of providing full aid to multiple people at once. It is just not very easy.

Patchwork

Treating one's own injuries tends to be harder for a variety of reasons, including it being rather difficult to often see and reach injuries with enough precision to do the work. This allows Lapis to intuit the procedures enough to take care of himself when push comes to shove. Treating his own Aura is another matter, basically needing to amplify his own reserves, which again takes a lot of doing, though helped by the fact that he can see damage to his Aura as flaws he can mend.

Mending

It turns out he can also apply his healing techniques to objects, making them whole again, whether through actual stitchwork or by basically Aura-fusing them together like a supernatural weld bond. A bit of a nightmare with shattered objects, but, well, it is what it is. Would be nice to have a machine do the puzzling for him.

Labor of Love

As harrowing as the process of learning his medical skills was (and still is), and how unpleasant the situations where he needs them often are, Lapis does feel good about doing the work. That and he learned that if he doesn't do it, he can't necessarily expect someone else to step up. So even if he is facing cases where he can only wonder how to best go about it, gotta find a solution somehow.

Acupuncture

So acupuncture has some uses, but they are relatively minor all in all. However, things are very different when you have Aura needles, Dust-infused needles, and can channel Aura via them. This actually developed out of stress-relieving massage/acupressure, but adding his brand of needles and abilities led to such potent relaxation that... that he could actually use it in combat. As weird as that sounds.

Satisfying Trigger Points

Hitting just the right spots, and there goes body tension and keeping Aura stable from sheer good vibes.

Overwhelming Relaxation

Pile on even more relaxation and suddenly, doing harm becomes rather difficult when you swing like a pool noodle.

Group Therapy

Once again, doing all this to several people at once, usually in a similar manner as normally attacking with a mass of needles. Has at times led to weird situations where Lapis crowd-controlled multiple people this way, followed by Team SCCS taking out happily-noodly, babbling bandits.

Structural Weakness

So you have the ability to drive needles through Grimm plating, create Dust needles, have really good aim, and were forced to learn about how architecture works to put buildings back together while out with Team SCCS? Congratulations, you have all the ingredients to ram Dust needles into structural weak points and crack a building open. This came in handy during the invasion of Vale, given there were rogue military robots.

Chakra Stimulation???

One of the applications that is frankly weird to Lapis himself. As far as he could manage to find out, there are points where if Aura with perhaps a bit of specific Dust is channeled into, it helps get rid of various conditions. There is also basically pulling through semi-immaterial Aura needles and thread through someone to apply these forces on the inside of the body or directly attack the cause of an ailment. However, most of this is moot, as this has been hijacked by other people to mean that chakras are indeed real after all and Lapis is merely masterfully manipulating these with good ol' traditional medicine. Which Lapis has been trying to work against, because he doesn't want people to randomly jam needles or Dust crystals into their bodies.

Expertise

At this point, you probably know Lapis has been far busier having to learn more things than the average teenager probably should need to learn. To cope, one has to develop a certain skill set. And also, practice simply makes perfect. Tabby happily points out the stories of diligent tailors and seamstresses for this to explain Lapis just managing to cram all this into the average day alongside everything else (and sometimes even sleep). Lapis' face usually has deep dark rings under his eyes and a too tired to argue expression in those situations.

Time Management

Between the dozens of hats Lapis has been wearing, there is only so much time in a day. So he channels the example of tailors of legend (as Tabby happily puts it) and simply has to make do. Lapis has been doing what he has been doing so much he got good at it, and with getting good came getting fast. Now, he actually became... very quite fast at what he does. A bit inexplicably so. So his Semblance is to blame for this as well. Lapis is just grateful he can do this, though he does remark that he works efficiently, not just faster, not being fond of his weird emergent gameplay Semblance getting all the credit.

Team Management

And often, Lapis can't do everything himself. So he had to learn about team management as well, especially in situations where nightfall might mean bandit attacks, Grimm, or even worse, nobles without the clothes that were ordered with ludicrous time tables. But there is also that he cares about his colleagues not getting into trouble. So he basically wears the Producer hat, coordinating, motivating, helping, and as long as he can directly work with the team, they get stuff done quick. There is a flow state for everyone involved, with the perception of time getting weird as they hardly think about that anymore and it really not feeling that long despite how much they are actually doing, and afterwards going "wow, we really got a lot done, huh?".

Quality Control

You work with this much thread and a very demanding mother, and you start noticing what is good material quality and what isn't. And for the craftmanship. And who made it. And who made the material for the person who made it. And which of the hundreds of raw materials to pick for any given project. And how well someone takes care of their clothes. There may have been eye twitches.

Clear Workflow

By now, Lapis unfailingly remembers the order of everything he does in a project and can reverse-engineer it, as well as whatever path he took wherever he went, even when the surroundings mainly look like TREES AND MORE TREES.

Proper Attire

An off-shoot of his instant production capabilities. Lapis wondered if he could make entire bodysuits and spy masks and what-not, so he tried, and the answer was yes. So there is that. He absolutely does not have the infiltration capabilities for this, but Tabby sure is damn interested in this, and he is fairly sure Orchid has been keeping her eye on this as well. Why are those two frequently in alignment about stuff like this?

About 1.7m tall, long blue hair frequently styled differently (because of course he is also a hairdresser), blue eyes, fair skin. Wiry in build, he wears a wide variety of fashion in public, often with aspects of Mistralian culture, depending on circumstance and partially mood (and how likely it is to draw his mother's disapproval by underdressing in official settings).

In more casual settings, he likes baggier, comfy clothes, which often also mostly hides his physique. During more official events, he wears fitting garb ranging from sleek with intricate detail on closer inspection to quite elaborate. For combat, he wants full range of motion and access to his tools, which incidentally makes him look very ninja-adjacent, covered in elaborate patterns doubling as Dust thread reservoirs, and contributing to the persistent spider-faunus allegiations. His combination of high flexibility, quick precision strikes, thread weaving, and balance only further emphasize this.

Lapis trends somewhat androgynous on average, and he doesn't particularly mind wearing more feminine styles, courtesy of his fashion work done for his mother Orchid. So people often end up assuming he relies solely on agility and speed. These people are often surprised to see a sculpted physique trained to purpose to achieve the most effect with only as much muscle mass as necessary, and that he is more likely to withstand attacks with thread barriers and string traps than nimbly dodging out of the way. His dad Cyan is very big on being able to take hits in fights, so that was a big focus in Lapis' training.

Combat

Initiative: +20.

Defense: +6.

Resistance: +16.

Base Attack: +5 (DC 20 Damage, DC 15 Maneuver).

Powers: +11 (DC 26 Damage, DC 21 Effect).

 

Skills

Deception: +0. Expertise: +21. Insight: +10. Intimidation: +0. Investigation: +0.

Mobility: +20. Perception: +10. Persuasion: +0. Stealth: +0. Technology: +0. Treatment: +21.

Fields of Expertise (+1pp): Animal Handling, Architecture, Art, Business, Carpentry, Cooking, Crafts, Current Events, Dance, Dust, Etiquette, Fashion & Styling, Grimm, History, Mistral Local, Music, Myths, Navigation, Pizza, Pop Culture, Scholastic, Science, Survival, Tactics, Tailoring, Vehicles

 

Advantages

All-out Attack, Artificer, Benefit 2 (Bedside Manner [use Treatment for provoking positive emotion], Dustweave [use Tailoring Expertise for Artificer to weave Dust into cloth]), Improved Smash, Improvised Tools, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Treatment), Teamwork

 

Powers

Semblance - Threading the Needle: Semblance Scaling (Scaled Measure [Quickness]) {0}

Novice Seamster: 55-point Dynamic Array {55+11}

Needle: Multiple Effects.

You May Feel A Light Prick: Damage 11 [11]

Proverbial Haystack: Enhanced Range 9, Damage gains Precise and Subtle[11]

Dust Needle: Damage gains Secondary Effect [11]

Pincushion: Damage gains Multiattack [11]

Hay In Needlestack: Damage gains Shapeable Area [11]

Thread: Multiple Effects.

Spin A Yarn: Affliction 11 (Impaired+Vulnerable > Disabled+Defenseless; Extra Condition, Limited Degree) [11]

Bundled Up: Affliction gains Extra Condition (Immobilized > Stunned) [11]

Joining Skeins: Affliction gains Shapeable Area [11]

Self-Tightening Coil: Affliction gains Progressive [22]

String Theory: Multiple Effects.

Pull Tight: Strength 11 [11]

Mechanical Advantage: +10 Strength (lifting only), Strength gains Precise, Feature 2 (Easy Hold, Free Lift) [8]

Thread Sling: Winged Flight 10 [10]

High Priority Commissions: Create 12 (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle, Tether, Reduced Range, 2 ranks of Limited [volume only]) [26]

Stitch: Multiple Effects.

A Stitch In Time: Healing 11 (Limited [Others only]) [11]

Saves Nine: Healing gains Shapeable Area [11]

Patchwork: Remove Limit from Healing [11]

Mending: Healing gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Labor of Love: Healing gains Persistent [11]

Acupuncture: Multiple Effects.

Satisfying Trigger Points: Weaken 11 (Resistance) [11]

Overwhelming Relaxation: Weaken gains Additional Effect (Effect Bonus) [11]

Group Therapy: Weaken gains Shapeable Area [11]

Structural Weakness: Weaken gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Chakra Stimulation???: Healing gains Restorative [11]

Expertise: Multiple Effects.

Time Management: Quickness 21 [21]

Team Management: Quickness gains Affects Others (Quirk [Must actively work together with affected targets]) [20]

Quality Control: Senses 3 (Analytical Vision, Acute & Analytical Touch; Analytical limited to fabrics) [2]

Clear Workflow: Feature 2 (always able to retrace steps) [1]

Proper Attire: Morph 3 (humans and faunus; Affects Self and Others, Continuous, Increased Action 2 [standard], Limit [can't change someone's height or build or add body parts, just creates very real suits and masks], Quirk [other people can't change their Morph other than taking it off, Lapis has to change or re-apply it]) [11]

Calculations

Defenses 54 + Skills 42 + Advantages 12 + Powers 66 = 174/174 PP, PL 11.

Keep Things Together [Motivation - Doing Good] - Given current and past events, things are kind of coming apart at the seams. At least some people need to keep things from fraying too much so the actually important ones can fix things.

Get Real [Motivation - Acceptance] - If he has to become well-known, he would like to become well-known for what he actually is, not the endless array of rumors and yarns spun about him, thank you very much.

In The Footsteps of the Determinator [Motivation - Responsibility] - Being the guy who has to take the place of the quite literally globally (in)famous Lin Bane, on the globally (in)famous team RACL… is a rather tall order. People keep telling Lapis how RACL are a team of mad berserkers led by a crazy dog faunus and his hat, who literally eat Grimm for sustenance, and are always one step away from destroying whole cities. Surely, most of that is overblown… right? Still, he’s just a little guy with needles and some yarn, y’all.

Promoted Background Character [Quirk] - Never wanted to really stand in the limelight or be a Huntsman, but that just kind of happened. Hero’s Journey kicked down the door and dragged him out screaming. So outwardly he has an “it is what it is” attitude dealing with the many problems he now has to face, while there is much internal screaming.

Orchid Centaurea, Demanding Socialite Mom [Relationship/Responsibility] - Being a fixture of Mistralian high society, Lapis’ mother Orchid was quite adamant about having her only child excel. She also would have preferred a daughter, but she worked with what she was given, so her side of raising Lapis precisely did not care all that much about common wisdom on how boys should be raised. There was a lot of pressure on Lapis to fit his mother’s lofty expectations (not helped by her extolling his supposed talents and virtues). This is also how he ended up getting into tailoring, among other things, and came to like it. By now, Orchid still very much wishes Lapis to excel, but there is an understanding that she is proud of her son. But she also still ropes him into her high society dealings, especially since he is so skilled in creating fashion and art, among other things. As a side note, Orchid may or may not have been or still is an assassin of sorts. But such things surely are just hearsay. Or at least blown out of proportion/misinterpreted.

Cyan Cayenne, Gung-ho Supportive Dad [Relationship] - Cyan is a traditional, sword-toting outdoorsman of a Huntsman who never really got on that well with all the technological thingamajigs. After years of Orchid mostly dictating how Lapis should be raised, Cyan eventually put his foot down, told his wife that if she continued like this “the boy will implode”, and took him on an extended (we are talking two years) trip through the wilderness when Lapis was about 12 years old. They traveled extensively through almost the entirety of the continent of Anima, accompanied by the members of his team-mates Setzer, Celes, and Sabin (Team SCCS “Success”; I leave it to you which S is the leader).

So Lapis experienced a whole lot of Grimm and bandits, discovered his Semblance on the road, and just kind of filled whatever role was needed, either among the team or in whatever village they came across. Partially because Cyan has seemingly endless faith in what his son can accomplish (and also isn’t afraid to loudly claim such things) and being a big believer in learning through hardship. Nowadays, Cyan is a little disappointed Lapis never took up the sword, but he started training as a Huntsman and is protecting people where he can, so he’s a proud dad overall.

Tabby Boots, Wish-Granting Manipulator [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - A cheerful cat faunus, Lapis' self-proclaimed best friend, with a seemingly wish-granting Semblance, which she used to achieve riches and prestige in Mistral’s social circles. All because Lapis once found her out in the wilderness of Anima after she was left to die by bandits, helped her back on her feet and get a fresh start in Mistral (also outfitting her with clothes aiding her in making first impressions). That act of kindness caused Tabby’s Semblance to emerge, and she quickly went to work to make the most of the opportunity. Sadly, the now young woman has an amoral streak and felt few compunctions in terms of manipulating and exploiting her way towards the top in the murky Mistralian circles, now quite well-situated in the gray area where nobility and crime intersect, with connections to Spider.

She has offered Lapis to live with her in luxury several times, but the latter always refused, given what he’d have to stomach morally, and wishing Tabby would use her talents for more charitable purposes. They do like each other a lot despite their different views, though Tabby has caused Lapis no shortage of mostly accidental trouble by involving him in her schemes “for his own benefit”, or running into him during a particular predicament, or impromptu inviting him to a hangout, or Tabby’s enemies trying to go after the boy. It also doesn’t help that Tabby does her own sort of myth-building for Lapis, much to the latter’s chagrin. Lapis still tailors clothes for Tabby, partially in hopes of maybe effecting a slow change for the better. Tabby frequently favors a swashbucklery style with matching rapier, and of course her magnificent collection of boots, though also dresses for any given occasion, whether it is a social function or a heist.

Mila Fury, Tabby's Bodyguard [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - An icy young human woman with a Semblance allowing her to weaponize her blonde hair in an outlandish variety of ways. Lapis does not know much about her at present. Tabby seemed to have acquired her loyal services on her way up through Mistral's high society and crime circles, though she doesn't seem to solely be a servant, but rather a devoted partner in crime, so to speak. Mila seems quite fond of the way Tabby carves out her own fortune regardless of everything and disregarding societal rules, though Tabby's fondness for Lapis seems to irk Mila, seeing him as something holding her back, so she is rather cold (more than with most people) towards Lapis. When Lapis literally lost his arm and leg (though only temporarily) to defend Mila during the attack, while she doesn't agree with his way of trying to fit into society (and really doesn't like that he got Tabby marked as an enemy of the radical White Fang), she could appreciate his dedication to doing what he believes in, even at personal cost. Baby steps.

Also ever since Lapis stitched his own limbs back on with strands of her Aura-infused, Semblance-enhanced hair, she more or less can track down Lapis when she wants to. Jury's out on what she decides to do with this information, and whether as well as who she might decide to share this with (or not). Lapis gets the feeling Mila derives a degree wicked joy from this, and that she likes having information Tabby would like to have for her shenanigans that she can feel like not sharing if Tabby is causing her too many headaches. In retaliation, Tabby has started shipping Mila and Lapis, much to their chagrin, and Tabby's cackling glee.

The Grimm-Faunus-Shadow Creature [Enemy] - Better naming pending. The creature encountered during the attack on Vale, which seemingly accompanied the White Fang. Frankly, Lapis has no idea what this thing is. His best guess it is some weird creature of Grimm grafted onto a male faunus (type unknown, too hard to see in the heat of the moment) in some way, but that is speculation. Could also be some freaky Semblance that went out of control, or someone else using their Semblance (given the messed-up things Mac has done, well...). The result is a highly dangerous and vicious creature able to weaponize the shadowy substance it seems to be mostly made of and can spread out into puddles, able to form weapons and creature parts like huge maws from it. At the same time, it seems intelligent, if unwilling to talk as of yet. Mila appears to be familiar with this creature, or more specifically the faunus inside it, but she has kept silent about this. The creature fled when Lapis, Tabby, and Mila tried to separate "Grimm" and faunus, so it is still out there. Whatever it is planning or doing.

Reputational Superposition [Reputation] - Due to years of people claiming things about Lapis and the boy seemingly attracting this sort of thing, people who do know about him tend to have a bunch of different opinions, often based on what they heard, rather than the person himself. Depending on who said reputation stemmed from, people might think he is some sort of high society distinguished smooth operator (Orchid), a giant man uprooting trees and slaying Grimm by the dozens with his bare hands (Cyan), or something like a mysterious ninja living in the shadows (Tabby). Add additional reputations to taste.

Nexus of 1001 Dubious Tales [Reputation/Quirk] - Additionally, there are a ton of rumors floating about of what Lapis allegedly did or can do, and these have been passed around for so long that they have taken on a life of their own entirely. Able to see and weave one’s innermost desire, burst boulders with but a needle prick, puppet unknowing people, break through the shell of even the most hardened politician, stop an Alpha Nevermore dead in its tracks, slice through a dozen bandits with atomically-thin wire without them even noticing. Needless to say, Lapis does his best to debunk, at times having to deal with the fallout, or people thinking he is being modest. However, there are also the counter rumors of him just being a random seamster innocent of any wrongdoing or even having a Semblance or aura who couldn’t hurt a fly, which is overall nicer, but really doesn’t help with being taken seriously during Huntsman work.

The Incredible Spider-Fauxnus [Prejudice] - The most baffling rumor that also seems to be the most adamant to be universally accepted as true is that people think Lapis is a spider faunus, projecting webbing from his hands. He can create thread on the fly, and he has become rather good at navigating and balancing on strings and such, and he does immobilize bad guys by binding them, but he is really, really not a faunus, you guys! Even the White Fang and the Farm seem to believe it. Lapis is just so thankful whenever someone actually believes he is human.

Semblance - Threading the Needle

The true nature of Lapis' Semblance remains a bit of a mystery, even to himself. At first, no one actually realized he had a Semblance. Then he thought he was just good with needlework. Then he discovered being able to make needles deadly weapons. Then control string. Then seemingly memetic tailor abilities amped to 11. Lapis' best guess by now is that his Semblance is basically "what if someone took the archetype of a tailor, and made a mythical creature out of it". However, his Semblance only unlocks capabilities, but the actual applications required intense work to figure out and make usable, especially in combat.

For some reason, his mom Orchid is really quite fond and proud of her son's Semblance. In hindsight, she indirectly contributed to a lot of its combat and healing-adjacent capabilities, hmm...

 

Novice Seamster

In a mixture of trying to be real, humbleness, and a degree of induced impostor syndrome, Lapis thinks he is just very much a beginner in what he does, with his primary job being a seamster (due to Orchid employing his talents, fixing his dad's clothes and gear that got put through the wringer by his wild adventures, and making dresses for Tabby). Naturally, most seamsters don't fight Grimm and bandits with needle and thread, but, well, baby steps. Lapis is getting to thinking of himself as a Huntsman eventually.

Needle

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The first application of his Semblance that emerged. As long as he has Aura, Lapis seems to never run out of needles. Though there is no telling whether he might still have needles on him without. While Cyan thinks Lapis would be even better with a sword, he has come to think of Lapis' needlework as being like wielding a (very small) dagger with which his son smites evildoers and Grimm, making Cyan a very proud dad.

You May Feel A Light Prick

Lapis can do surprising damage by stabbing someone or something with a needle, through a combination of aiming for vital areas and his Semblance vastly increasing the force of the used needles. Thus his attacks are more comparable to gunshots with high-caliber, low-mass, high-velocity bullets.

Proverbial Haystack

Lapis is able to manipulate needle and thread at a range, and also propel them at very high velocities. The low mass and not being made to stabilize in the air hurt the range of his needles somewhat, but his aim has become pinpoint, and it is rather hard to see and hear a flying needle coming, especially when they can be flicked covertly.

Dust Needle

So, just creating temporary needles is also a thing Lapis can do, and if he includes Dust in it (usually in powdered form or threading it with Dust string he made), secondary harm befalls a hit target shortly after the initial impact as the Dust activates.

Pincushion

Lapis simply attacks with more needles, having become proficient at wielding several at the same time, and throwing them in large quantity and frequency as well. A leading cause for ninja-related stories about Lapis.

Hay In Needlestack

Yeah so, how about even more needles? What was that? More needles? Okay, more needles it is!

Thread

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The other basic application of his Semblance that first emerged, and much like with needles, Lapis seems to just not run out of thread. This absolutely contributed a lot to people thinking he is a spider-faunus.

Spin A Yarn

Trapping a target in thread patterns, making it more difficult for them to move offensively and defensively. Lapis outright controls the thread, but also uses momentum, leverage, and both his own and the target's motions to hinder them as much as possible. As a by product, does produce interesting patterns.

Bundled Up

Apply even more thread, and in much more intricate and stronger patterns, seeking to outright prevent movement by restricting limbs or tying the target to an object (or other person). Frequently results in beautiful web-like patterns, heavily fueling the spider rumors in addition to the function.

Joining Skeins

So much thread. Endless thread. Such webs Lapis weaves. At times creates a greater work of art consisting out of the individual tied-up targets.

Self-Tightening Coil

Lapis knows his knots and patterns, weaving them so that the target's motions trying to free themselves contributing to making them more helpless. Met with particular approval by Orchid and Tabby. This was really hard to get right and Lapis felt quite proud about accomplishing this, but those approvals do make him feel weird about this, kind of souring on it a little.

String Theory

Experimentation in the applications of string. Lapis learned that string he wields can have incredible tensile strength, and Cyan did subject him to hellish physical training by way of dragging him through the Grimm-infested wilderness for years. Here are the results!

Pull Tight

Lapis does not look it in his usual choice of clothes and with his wiry five-and-a-half-ish foot frame, but the lad is strong, heavy on the functional strength while keeping excess muscle mass as low as possible, thanks to Cyan's training regiment (the man knows what he is doing and talking, after all) and Orchid's requirements that Lapis should aim for a pleasing physique for his own benefit. Lapis can also deliver said strength through string, often involving it in the applications, such as grabbing and throwing someone with ropes.

Mechanical Advantage

Lapis knows how to use his strength optimally, especially in combination with string to multiply its effects. Distributing weight, creating mechanical advantage, proper leverage, you name it. Since he can apply his strength through his string, this also allows for incredibly precise control of it, able to manipulate objects in a fine manner (Orchid made him learn to produce calligraphy via brushes operated with his string). Because of this, it is rather trivial to quickly pick up and carry objects (and people) with him.

Thread Sling

Cast out thread and pull himself towards where it tied itself to. Compensate the landing issues with Landing Strategy. Alternatively, he can launch himself through the air by pushing himself away via string bundles. So it is not technically outright flight, but close enough, given how quickly he can change his trajectory. Because of the necessary motion involved to not just splat against something (or to even get moving), it is rather difficult to do this tied up, perhaps somewhat ironically.

High Priority Commissions

Creating a lot of thread, and weaving it on the spot, with all the strength mentioned above, allowing him to create large projects in the blink of an eye, and also unravel them as quickly if necessary. Intense to use, but versatile, especially with different kinds of thread. From impromptu clothes to tents to ramps to surprising utility items, Lapis is able to accomplish a lot. Basically all of his abilities combined into one and taken as far as he can make them go at this time. Lapis himself prefers a less intense approach if he can help it and has the time (though "slower" is quite relative in this case).

Stitch

So when Lapis learned to be a medic while dragged along by traveling with Team SCCS and thus learned how to stitch wounds, he started figuring out that his Semblance helped with that. Followed by wanting to create surgical thread, something going wrong, and instead creating his first instance of thread consisting of sheer aura with no real normal physical qualities. From that, well, Lapis not only became a very proficient medic, but also a very fast and nigh miraculous one.

A Stitch In Time

With pure Aura needle and thread, fueled by actual medical training, Lapis sews wounds shut, creates Aura bandages promoting healing of larger-scale injuries, mends Auras, you name it. It is a mixture of accelerating natural healing, Aura infusion and amplfication, or perhaps it is simply Semblance not!magic. This sort of thing is best done on other people though, as treating himself this way takes a lot of doing.

Saves Nine

Doing the same as above, but on a wider scale. With this, Lapis tends to focus mostly on Aura and "easier" injuries, but it is not like he is incapable of providing full aid to multiple people at once. It is just not very easy.

Patchwork

Treating one's own injuries tends to be harder for a variety of reasons, including it being rather difficult to often see and reach injuries with enough precision to do the work. This allows Lapis to intuit the procedures enough to take care of himself when push comes to shove. Treating his own Aura is another matter, basically needing to amplify his own reserves, which again takes a lot of doing, though helped by the fact that he can see damage to his Aura as flaws he can mend.

Mending

It turns out he can also apply his healing techniques to objects, making them whole again, whether through actual stitchwork or by basically Aura-fusing them together like a supernatural weld bond. A bit of a nightmare with shattered objects, but, well, it is what it is. Would be nice to have a machine do the puzzling for him.

Labor of Love

As harrowing as the process of learning his medical skills was (and still is), and how unpleasant the situations where he needs them often are, Lapis does feel good about doing the work. That and he learned that if he doesn't do it, he can't necessarily expect someone else to step up. So even if he is facing cases where he can only wonder how to best go about it, gotta find a solution somehow.

Acupuncture

So acupuncture has some uses, but they are relatively minor all in all. However, things are very different when you have Aura needles, Dust-infused needles, and can channel Aura via them. This actually developed out of stress-relieving massage/acupressure, but adding his brand of needles and abilities led to such potent relaxation that... that he could actually use it in combat. As weird as that sounds.

Satisfying Trigger Points

Hitting just the right spots, and there goes body tension and keeping Aura stable from sheer good vibes.

Overwhelming Relaxation

Pile on even more relaxation and suddenly, doing harm becomes rather difficult when you swing like a pool noodle.

Group Therapy

Once again, doing all this to several people at once, usually in a similar manner as normally attacking with a mass of needles. Has at times led to weird situations where Lapis crowd-controlled multiple people this way, followed by Team SCCS taking out happily-noodly, babbling bandits.

Structural Weakness

So you have the ability to drive needles through Grimm plating, create Dust needles, have really good aim, and were forced to learn about how architecture works to put buildings back together while out with Team SCCS? Congratulations, you have all the ingredients to ram Dust needles into structural weak points and crack a building open. This came in handy during the invasion of Vale, given there were rogue military robots.

Chakra Stimulation???

One of the applications that is frankly weird to Lapis himself. As far as he could manage to find out, there are points where if Aura with perhaps a bit of specific Dust is channeled into, it helps get rid of various conditions. There is also basically pulling through semi-immaterial Aura needles and thread through someone to apply these forces on the inside of the body or directly attack the cause of an ailment. However, most of this is moot, as this has been hijacked by other people to mean that chakras are indeed real after all and Lapis is merely masterfully manipulating these with good ol' traditional medicine. Which Lapis has been trying to work against, because he doesn't want people to randomly jam needles or Dust crystals into their bodies.

Expertise

At this point, you probably know Lapis has been far busier having to learn more things than the average teenager probably should need to learn. To cope, one has to develop a certain skill set. And also, practice simply makes perfect. Tabby happily points out the stories of diligent tailors and seamstresses for this to explain Lapis just managing to cram all this into the average day alongside everything else (and sometimes even sleep). Lapis' face usually has deep dark rings under his eyes and a too tired to argue expression in those situations.

Time Management

Between the dozens of hats Lapis has been wearing, there is only so much time in a day. So he channels the example of tailors of legend (as Tabby happily puts it) and simply has to make do. Lapis has been doing what he has been doing so much he got good at it, and with getting good came getting fast. Now, he actually became... very quite fast at what he does. A bit inexplicably so. So his Semblance is to blame for this as well. Lapis is just grateful he can do this, though he does remark that he works efficiently, not just faster, not being fond of his weird emergent gameplay Semblance getting all the credit.

Team Management

And often, Lapis can't do everything himself. So he had to learn about team management as well, especially in situations where nightfall might mean bandit attacks, Grimm, or even worse, nobles without the clothes that were ordered with ludicrous time tables. But there is also that he cares about his colleagues not getting into trouble. So he basically wears the Producer hat, coordinating, motivating, helping, and as long as he can directly work with the team, they get stuff done quick. There is a flow state for everyone involved, with the perception of time getting weird as they hardly think about that anymore and it really not feeling that long despite how much they are actually doing, and afterwards going "wow, we really got a lot done, huh?".

Quality Control

You work with this much thread and a very demanding mother, and you start noticing what is good material quality and what isn't. And for the craftmanship. And who made it. And who made the material for the person who made it. And which of the hundreds of raw materials to pick for any given project. And how well someone takes care of their clothes. There may have been eye twitches.

Clear Workflow

By now, Lapis unfailingly remembers the order of everything he does in a project and can reverse-engineer it, as well as whatever path he took wherever he went, even when the surroundings mainly look like TREES AND MORE TREES.

Proper Attire

An off-shoot of his instant production capabilities. Lapis wondered if he could make entire bodysuits and spy masks and what-not, so he tried, and the answer was yes. So there is that. He absolutely does not have the infiltration capabilities for this, but Tabby sure is damn interested in this, and he is fairly sure Orchid has been keeping her eye on this as well. Why are those two frequently in alignment about stuff like this?

About 1.7m tall, long blue hair frequently styled differently (because of course he is also a hairdresser), blue eyes, fair skin. Wiry in build, he wears a wide variety of fashion in public, often with aspects of Mistralian culture, depending on circumstance and partially mood (and how likely it is to draw his mother's disapproval by underdressing in official settings).

In more casual settings, he likes baggier, comfy clothes, which often also mostly hides his physique. During more official events, he wears fitting garb ranging from sleek with intricate detail on closer inspection to quite elaborate. For combat, he wants full range of motion and access to his tools, which incidentally makes him look very ninja-adjacent, covered in elaborate patterns doubling as Dust thread reservoirs, and contributing to the persistent spider-faunus allegiations. His combination of high flexibility, quick precision strikes, thread weaving, and balance only further emphasize this.

Lapis trends somewhat androgynous on average, and he doesn't particularly mind wearing more feminine styles, courtesy of his fashion work done for his mother Orchid. So people often end up assuming he relies solely on agility and speed. These people are often surprised to see a sculpted physique trained to purpose to achieve the most effect with only as much muscle mass as necessary, and that he is more likely to withstand attacks with thread barriers and string traps than nimbly dodging out of the way. His dad Cyan is very big on being able to take hits in fights, so that was a big focus in Lapis' training.

Combat

Initiative: +20.

Defense: +6.

Resistance: +16.

Base Attack: +5 (DC 20 Damage, DC 15 Maneuver).

Powers: +11 (DC 26 Damage, DC 21 Effect).

 

Skills

Deception: +0. Expertise: +21. Insight: +10. Intimidation: +0. Investigation: +0.

Mobility: +20. Perception: +10. Persuasion: +0. Stealth: +0. Technology: +0. Treatment: +21.

Fields of Expertise (+1pp): Animal Handling, Architecture, Art, Business, Carpentry, Cooking, Crafts, Current Events, Dust, Etiquette, Fashion, Grimm, History, Make-up, Mistral Local, Music, Myths, Navigation, Pizza, Pop Culture, Scholastic, Science, Survival, Tactics, Tailoring, Vehicles

 

Advantages

All-out Attack, Artificer, Benefit 2 (Bedside Manner [use Treatment for provoking positive emotion], Dustweave [use Tailoring Expertise for Artificer to weave Dust into cloth]), Improved Smash, Improvised Tools, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Treatment), Teamwork

 

Powers

Semblance - Threading the Needle: Semblance Scaling (Scaled Measure [Quickness]) {0}

Novice Seamster: 55-point Dynamic Array {55+11}

Needle: Multiple Effects.

You May Feel A Light Prick: Damage 11 [11]

Proverbial Haystack: Enhanced Range 9, Damage gains Precise and Subtle[11]

Dust Needle: Damage gains Secondary Effect [11]

Pincushion: Damage gains Multiattack [11]

Hay In Needlestack: Damage gains Shapeable Area [11]

Thread: Multiple Effects.

Spin A Yarn: Affliction 11 (Impaired+Vulnerable > Disabled+Defenseless; Extra Condition, Limited Degree) [11]

Bundled Up: Affliction gains Extra Condition (Immobilized > Stunned) [11]

Joining Skeins: Affliction gains Shapeable Area [11]

Self-Tightening Coil: Affliction gains Progressive [22]

String Theory: Multiple Effects.

Pull Tight: Strength 11 [11]

Mechanical Advantage: +10 Strength (lifting only), Strength gains Precise, Feature 2 (Easy Hold, Free Lift) [8]

Thread Sling: Winged Flight 10 [10]

High Priority Commissions: Create 12 (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle, Tether, Reduced Range, 2 ranks of Limited [volume only]) [26]

Stitch: Multiple Effects.

A Stitch In Time: Healing 11 (Limited [Others only]) [11]

Saves Nine: Healing gains Shapeable Area [11]

Patchwork: Remove Limit from Healing [11]

Mending: Healing gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Labor of Love: Healing gains Persistent [11]

Acupuncture: Multiple Effects.

Satisfying Trigger Points: Weaken 11 (Resistance) [11]

Overwhelming Relaxation: Weaken gains Additional Effect (Effect Bonus) [11]

Group Therapy: Weaken gains Shapeable Area [11]

Structural Weakness: Weaken gains Affects Objects and Creatures [11]

Chakra Stimulation???: Healing gains Restorative [11]

Expertise: Multiple Effects.

Time Management: Quickness 21 [21]

Team Management: Quickness gains Affects Others (Quirk [Must actively work together with affected targets]) [20]

Quality Control: Senses 3 (Analytical Vision, Acute & Analytical Touch; Analytical limited to fabrics) [2]

Clear Workflow: Feature 2 (always able to retrace steps) [1]

Proper Attire: Morph 3 (humans and faunus; Affects Self and Others, Continuous, Increased Action 2 [standard], Limit [can't change someone's height or build or add body parts, just creates very real suits and masks], Quirk [other people can't change their Morph other than taking it off, Lapis has to change or re-apply it]) [11]

Calculations

Defenses 54 + Skills 42 + Advantages 12 + Powers 66 = 174/174 PP, PL 11.

Keep Things Together [Motivation - Doing Good] - Given current and past events, things are kind of coming apart at the seams. At least some people need to keep things from fraying too much so the actually important ones can fix things.

Get Real [Motivation - Acceptance] - If he has to become well-known, he would like to become well-known for what he actually is, not the endless array of rumors and yarns spun about him, thank you very much.

In The Footsteps of the Determinator [Motivation - Responsibility] - Being the guy who has to take the place of the quite literally globally (in)famous Lin Bane, on the globally (in)famous team RACL… is a rather tall order. People keep telling Lapis how RACL are a team of mad berserkers led by a crazy dog faunus and his hat, who literally eat Grimm for sustenance, and are always one step away from destroying whole cities. Surely, most of that is overblown… right? Still, he’s just a little guy with needles and some yarn, y’all.

Promoted Background Character [Quirk] - Never wanted to really stand in the limelight or be a Huntsman, but that just kind of happened. Hero’s Journey kicked down the door and dragged him out screaming. So outwardly he has an “it is what it is” attitude dealing with the many problems he now has to face, while there is much internal screaming.

Orchid Centaurea, Demanding Socialite Mom [Relationship/Responsibility] - Being a fixture of Mistralian high society, Lapis’ mother Orchid was quite adamant about having her only child excel. She also would have preferred a daughter, but she worked with what she was given, so her side of raising Lapis precisely did not care all that much about common wisdom on how boys should be raised. There was a lot of pressure on Lapis to fit his mother’s lofty expectations (not helped by her extolling his supposed talents and virtues). This is also how he ended up getting into tailoring, among other things, and came to like it. By now, Orchid still very much wishes Lapis to excel, but there is an understanding that she is proud of her son. But she also still ropes him into her high society dealings, especially since he is so skilled in creating fashion and art, among other things. As a side note, Orchid may or may not have been or still is an assassin of sorts. But such things surely are just hearsay. Or at least blown out of proportion/misinterpreted.

Cyan Cayenne, Gung-ho Supportive Dad [Relationship] - Cyan is a traditional, sword-toting outdoorsman of a Huntsman who never really got on that well with all the technological thingamajigs. After years of Orchid mostly dictating how Lapis should be raised, Cyan eventually put his foot down, told his wife that if she continued like this “the boy will implode”, and took him on an extended (we are talking two years) trip through the wilderness when Lapis was about 12 years old. They traveled extensively through almost the entirety of the continent of Anima, accompanied by the members of his team-mates Setzer, Celes, and Sabin (Team SCCS “Success”; I leave it to you which S is the leader).

So Lapis experienced a whole lot of Grimm and bandits, discovered his Semblance on the road, and just kind of filled whatever role was needed, either among the team or in whatever village they came across. Partially because Cyan has seemingly endless faith in what his son can accomplish (and also isn’t afraid to loudly claim such things) and being a big believer in learning through hardship. Nowadays, Cyan is a little disappointed Lapis never took up the sword, but he started training as a Huntsman and is protecting people where he can, so he’s a proud dad overall.

Tabby Boots, Wish-Granting Manipulator [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - A cheerful cat faunus, Lapis' self-proclaimed best friend, with a seemingly wish-granting Semblance, which she used to achieve riches and prestige in Mistral’s social circles. All because Lapis once found her out in the wilderness of Anima after she was left to die by bandits, helped her back on her feet and get a fresh start in Mistral (also outfitting her with clothes aiding her in making first impressions). That act of kindness caused Tabby’s Semblance to emerge, and she quickly went to work to make the most of the opportunity. Sadly, the now young woman has an amoral streak and felt few compunctions in terms of manipulating and exploiting her way towards the top in the murky Mistralian circles, now quite well-situated in the gray area where nobility and crime intersect, with connections to Spider.

She has offered Lapis to live with her in luxury several times, but the latter always refused, given what he’d have to stomach morally, and wishing Tabby would use her talents for more charitable purposes. They do like each other a lot despite their different views, though Tabby has caused Lapis no shortage of mostly accidental trouble by involving him in her schemes “for his own benefit”, or running into him during a particular predicament, or impromptu inviting him to a hangout, or Tabby’s enemies trying to go after the boy. It also doesn’t help that Tabby does her own sort of myth-building for Lapis, much to the latter’s chagrin. Lapis still tailors clothes for Tabby, partially in hopes of maybe effecting a slow change for the better. Tabby frequently favors a swashbucklery style with matching rapier, and of course her magnificent collection of boots, though also dresses for any given occasion, whether it is a social function or a heist.

Mila Fury, Tabby's Bodyguard [Relationship/”Enemy”/Accident] - An icy young human woman with a Semblance allowing her to weaponize her blonde hair in an outlandish variety of ways. Lapis does not know much about her at present. Tabby seemed to have acquired her loyal services on her way up through Mistral's high society and crime circles, though she doesn't seem to solely be a servant, but rather a devoted partner in crime, so to speak. Mila seems quite fond of the way Tabby carves out her own fortune regardless of everything and disregarding societal rules, though Tabby's fondness for Lapis seems to irk Mila, seeing him as something holding her back, so she is rather cold (more than with most people) towards Lapis. When Lapis literally lost his arm and leg (though only temporarily) to defend Mila during the attack, while she doesn't agree with his way of trying to fit into society (and really doesn't like that he got Tabby marked as an enemy of the radical White Fang), she could appreciate his dedication to doing what he believes in, even at personal cost. Baby steps.

Also ever since Lapis stitched his own limbs back on with strands of her Aura-infused, Semblance-enhanced hair, she more or less can track down Lapis when she wants to. Jury's out on what she decides to do with this information, and whether as well as who she might decide to share this with (or not). Lapis gets the feeling Mila derives a degree wicked joy from this, and that she likes having information Tabby would like to have for her shenanigans that she can feel like not sharing if Tabby is causing her too many headaches. In retaliation, Tabby has started shipping Mila and Lapis, much to their chagrin, and Tabby's cackling glee.

The Grimm-Faunus-Shadow Creature [Enemy] - Better naming pending. The creature encountered during the attack on Vale, which seemingly accompanied the White Fang. Frankly, Lapis has no idea what this thing is. His best guess it is some weird creature of Grimm grafted onto a male faunus (type unknown, too hard to see in the heat of the moment) in some way, but that is speculation. Could also be some freaky Semblance that went out of control, or someone else using their Semblance (given the messed-up things Mac has done, well...). The result is a highly dangerous and vicious creature able to weaponize the shadowy substance it seems to be mostly made of and can spread out into puddles, able to form weapons and creature parts like huge maws from it. At the same time, it seems intelligent, if unwilling to talk as of yet. Mila appears to be familiar with this creature, or more specifically the faunus inside it, but she has kept silent about this. The creature fled when Lapis, Tabby, and Mila tried to separate "Grimm" and faunus, so it is still out there. Whatever it is planning or doing.

Reputational Superposition [Reputation] - Due to years of people claiming things about Lapis and the boy seemingly attracting this sort of thing, people who do know about him tend to have a bunch of different opinions, often based on what they heard, rather than the person himself. Depending on who said reputation stemmed from, people might think he is some sort of high society distinguished smooth operator (Orchid), a giant man uprooting trees and slaying Grimm by the dozens with his bare hands (Cyan), or something like a mysterious ninja living in the shadows (Tabby). Add additional reputations to taste.

Nexus of 1001 Dubious Tales [Reputation/Quirk] - Additionally, there are a ton of rumors floating about of what Lapis allegedly did or can do, and these have been passed around for so long that they have taken on a life of their own entirely. Able to see and weave one’s innermost desire, burst boulders with but a needle prick, puppet unknowing people, break through the shell of even the most hardened politician, stop an Alpha Nevermore dead in its tracks, slice through a dozen bandits with atomically-thin wire without them even noticing. Needless to say, Lapis does his best to debunk, at times having to deal with the fallout, or people thinking he is being modest. However, there are also the counter rumors of him just being a random seamster innocent of any wrongdoing or even having a Semblance or aura who couldn’t hurt a fly, which is overall nicer, but really doesn’t help with being taken seriously during Huntsman work.

The Incredible Spider-Fauxnus [Prejudice] - The most baffling rumor that also seems to be the most adamant to be universally accepted as true is that people think Lapis is a spider faunus, projecting webbing from his hands. He can create thread on the fly, and he has become rather good at navigating and balancing on strings and such, and he does immobilize bad guys by binding them, but he is really, really not a faunus, you guys! Even the White Fang and the Farm seem to believe it. Lapis is just so thankful whenever someone actually believes he is human.

Semblance - Threading the Needle

The true nature of Lapis' Semblance remains a bit of a mystery, even to himself. At first, no one actually realized he had a Semblance. Then he thought he was just good with needlework. Then he discovered being able to make needles deadly weapons. Then control string. Then seemingly memetic tailor abilities amped to 11. Lapis' best guess by now is that his Semblance is basically "what if someone took the archetype of a tailor, and made a mythical creature out of it". However, his Semblance only unlocks capabilities, but the actual applications required intense work to figure out and make usable, especially in combat.

For some reason, his mom Orchid is really quite fond and proud of her son's Semblance. In hindsight, she indirectly contributed to a lot of its combat and healing-adjacent capabilities, hmm...

 

Novice Seamster

In a mixture of trying to be real, humbleness, and a degree of induced impostor syndrome, Lapis thinks he is just very much a beginner in what he does, with his primary job being a seamster (due to Orchid employing his talents, fixing his dad's clothes and gear that got put through the wringer by his wild adventures, and making dresses for Tabby). Naturally, most seamsters don't fight Grimm and bandits with needle and thread, but, well, baby steps. Lapis is getting to thinking of himself as a Huntsman eventually.

Needle

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The first application of his Semblance that emerged. As long as he has Aura, Lapis seems to never run out of needles. Though there is no telling whether he might still have needles on him without. While Cyan thinks Lapis would be even better with a sword, he has come to think of Lapis' needlework as being like wielding a (very small) dagger with which his son smites evildoers and Grimm, making Cyan a very proud dad.

You May Feel A Light Prick

Lapis can do surprising damage by stabbing someone or something with a needle, through a combination of aiming for vital areas and his Semblance vastly increasing the force of the used needles. Thus his attacks are more comparable to gunshots with high-caliber, low-mass, high-velocity bullets.

Proverbial Haystack

Lapis is able to manipulate needle and thread at a range, and also propel them at very high velocities. The low mass and not being made to stabilize in the air hurt the range of his needles somewhat, but his aim has become pinpoint, and it is rather hard to see and hear a flying needle coming, especially when they can be flicked covertly.

Dust Needle

So, just creating temporary needles is also a thing Lapis can do, and if he includes Dust in it (usually in powdered form or threading it with Dust string he made), secondary harm befalls a hit target shortly after the initial impact as the Dust activates.

Pincushion

Lapis simply attacks with more needles, having become proficient at wielding several at the same time, and throwing them in large quantity and frequency as well. A leading cause for ninja-related stories about Lapis.

Hay In Needlestack

Yeah so, how about even more needles? What was that? More needles? Okay, more needles it is!

Thread

The most direct applications of the needle, with little thematic bending. The other basic application of his Semblance that first emerged, and much like with needles, Lapis seems to just not run out of thread. This absolutely contributed a lot to people thinking he is a spider-faunus.

Spin A Yarn

Trapping a target in thread patterns, making it more difficult for them to move offensively and defensively. Lapis outright controls the thread, but also uses momentum, leverage, and both his own and the target's motions to hinder them as much as possible. As a by product, does produce interesting patterns.

Bundled Up

Apply even more thread, and in much more intricate and stronger patterns, seeking to outright prevent movement by restricting limbs or tying the target to an object (or other person). Frequently results in beautiful web-like patterns, heavily fueling the spider rumors in addition to the function.

Joining Skeins

So much thread. Endless thread. Such webs Lapis weaves. At times creates a greater work of art consisting out of the individual tied-up targets.

Self-Tightening Coil

Lapis knows his knots and patterns, weaving them so that the target's motions trying to free themselves contributing to making them more helpless. Met with particular approval by Orchid and Tabby. This was really hard to get right and Lapis felt quite proud about accomplishing this, but those approvals do make him feel weird about this, kind of souring on it a little.

String Theory

Experimentation in the applications of string. Lapis learned that string he wields can have incredible tensile strength, and Cyan did subject him to hellish physical training by way of dragging him through the Grimm-infested wilderness for years. Here are the results!

Pull Tight

Lapis does not look it in his usual choice of clothes and with his wiry five-and-a-half-ish foot frame, but the lad is strong, heavy on the functional strength while keeping excess muscle mass as low as possible, thanks to Cyan's training regiment (the man knows what he is doing and talking, after all) and Orchid's requirements that Lapis should aim for a pleasing physique for his own benefit. Lapis can also deliver said strength through string, often involving it in the applications, such as grabbing and throwing someone with ropes.

Mechanical Advantage

Lapis knows how to use his strength optimally, especially in combination with string to multiply its effects. Distributing weight, creating mechanical advantage, proper leverage, you name it. Since he can apply his strength through his string, this also allows for incredibly precise control of it, able to manipulate objects in a fine manner (Orchid made him learn to produce calligraphy via brushes operated with his string). Because of this, it is rather trivial to quickly pick up and carry objects (and people) with him.

Thread Sling

Cast out thread and pull himself towards where it tied itself to. Compensate the landing issues with Landing Strategy. Alternatively, he can launch himself through the air by pushing himself away via string bundles. So it is not technically outright flight, but close enough, given how quickly he can change his trajectory. Because of the necessary motion involved to not just splat against something (or to even get moving), it is rather difficult to do this tied up, perhaps somewhat ironically.

High Priority Commissions

Creating a lot of thread, and weaving it on the spot, with all the strength mentioned above, allowing him to create large projects in the blink of an eye, and also unravel them as quickly if necessary. Intense to use, but versatile, especially with different kinds of thread. From impromptu clothes to tents to ramps to surprising utility items, Lapis is able to accomplish a lot. Basically all of his abilities combined into one and taken as far as he can make them go at this time. Lapis himself prefers a less intense approach if he can help it and has the time (though "slower" is quite relative in this case).

Stitch

So when Lapis learned to be a medic while dragged along by traveling with Team SCCS and thus learned how to stitch wounds, he started figuring out that his Semblance helped with that. Followed by wanting to create surgical thread, something going wrong, and instead creating his first instance of thread consisting of sheer aura with no real normal physical qualities. From that, well, Lapis not only became a very proficient medic, but also a very fast and nigh miraculous one.

A Stitch In Time

With pure Aura needle and thread, fueled by actual medical training, Lapis sews wounds shut, creates Aura bandages promoting healing of larger-scale injuries, mends Auras, you name it. It is a mixture of accelerating natural healing, Aura infusion and amplfication, or perhaps it is simply Semblance not!magic. This sort of thing is best done on other people though, as treating himself this way takes a lot of doing.

Saves Nine

Doing the same as above, but on a wider scale. With this, Lapis tends to focus mostly on Aura and "easier" injuries, but it is not like he is incapable of providing full aid to multiple people at once. It is just not very easy.

Patchwork

Treating one's own injuries tends to be harder for a variety of reasons, including it being rather difficult to often see and reach injuries with enough precision to do the work. This allows Lapis to intuit the procedures enough to take care of himself when push comes to shove. Treating his own Aura is another matter, basically needing to amplify his own reserves, which again takes a lot of doing, though helped by the fact that he can see damage to his Aura as flaws he can mend.

Mending

It turns out he can also apply his healing techniques to objects, making them whole again, whether through actual stitchwork or by basically Aura-fusing them together like a supernatural weld bond. A bit of a nightmare with shattered objects, but, well, it is what it is. Would be nice to have a machine do the puzzling for him.

Labor of Love

As harrowing as the process of learning his medical skills was (and still is), and how unpleasant the situations where he needs them often are, Lapis does feel good about doing the work. That and he learned that if he doesn't do it, he can't necessarily expect someone else to step up. So even if he is facing cases where he can only wonder how to best go about it, gotta find a solution somehow.

Acupuncture

So acupuncture has some uses, but they are relatively minor all in all. However, things are very different when you have Aura needles, Dust-infused needles, and can channel Aura via them. This actually developed out of stress-relieving massage/acupressure, but adding his brand of needles and abilities led to such potent relaxation that... that he could actually use it in combat. As weird as that sounds.

Satisfying Trigger Points

Hitting just the right spots, and there goes body tension and keeping Aura stable from sheer good vibes.

Overwhelming Relaxation

Pile on even more relaxation and suddenly, doing harm becomes rather difficult when you swing like a pool noodle.

Group Therapy

Once again, doing all this to several people at once, usually in a similar manner as normally attacking with a mass of needles. Has at times led to weird situations where Lapis crowd-controlled multiple people this way, followed by Team SCCS taking out happily-noodly, babbling bandits.

Structural Weakness

So you have the ability to drive needles through Grimm plating, create Dust needles, have really good aim, and were forced to learn about how architecture works to put buildings back together while out with Team SCCS? Congratulations, you have all the ingredients to ram Dust needles into structural weak points and crack a building open. This came in handy during the invasion of Vale, given there were rogue military robots.

Chakra Stimulation???

One of the applications that is frankly weird to Lapis himself. As far as he could manage to find out, there are points where if Aura with perhaps a bit of specific Dust is channeled into, it helps get rid of various conditions. There is also basically pulling through semi-immaterial Aura needles and thread through someone to apply these forces on the inside of the body or directly attack the cause of an ailment. However, most of this is moot, as this has been hijacked by other people to mean that chakras are indeed real after all and Lapis is merely masterfully manipulating these with good ol' traditional medicine. Which Lapis has been trying to work against, because he doesn't want people to randomly jam needles or Dust crystals into their bodies.

Expertise

At this point, you probably know Lapis has been far busier having to learn more things than the average teenager probably should need to learn. To cope, one has to develop a certain skill set. And also, practice simply makes perfect. Tabby happily points out the stories of diligent tailors and seamstresses for this to explain Lapis just managing to cram all this into the average day alongside everything else (and sometimes even sleep). Lapis' face usually has deep dark rings under his eyes and a too tired to argue expression in those situations.

Time Management

Between the dozens of hats Lapis has been wearing, there is only so much time in a day. So he channels the example of tailors of legend (as Tabby happily puts it) and simply has to make do. Lapis has been doing what he has been doing so much he got good at it, and with getting good came getting fast. Now, he actually became... very quite fast at what he does. A bit inexplicably so. So his Semblance is to blame for this as well. Lapis is just grateful he can do this, though he does remark that he works efficiently, not just faster, not being fond of his weird emergent gameplay Semblance getting all the credit.

Team Management

And often, Lapis can't do everything himself. So he had to learn about team management as well, especially in situations where nightfall might mean bandit attacks, Grimm, or even worse, nobles without the clothes that were ordered with ludicrous time tables. But there is also that he cares about his colleagues not getting into trouble. So he basically wears the Producer hat, coordinating, motivating, helping, and as long as he can directly work with the team, they get stuff done quick. There is a flow state for everyone involved, with the perception of time getting weird as they hardly think about that anymore and it really not feeling that long despite how much they are actually doing, and afterwards going "wow, we really got a lot done, huh?".

Quality Control

You work with this much thread and a very demanding mother, and you start noticing what is good material quality and what isn't. And for the craftmanship. And who made it. And who made the material for the person who made it. And which of the hundreds of raw materials to pick for any given project. And how well someone takes care of their clothes. There may have been eye twitches.

Clear Workflow

By now, Lapis unfailingly remembers the order of everything he does in a project and can reverse-engineer it, as well as whatever path he took wherever he went, even when the surroundings mainly look like TREES AND MORE TREES.

Proper Attire

An off-shoot of his instant production capabilities. Lapis wondered if he could make entire bodysuits and spy masks and what-not, so he tried, and the answer was yes. So there is that. He absolutely does not have the infiltration capabilities for this, but Tabby sure is damn interested in this, and he is fairly sure Orchid has been keeping her eye on this as well. Why are those two frequently in alignment about stuff like this?

About 1.7m tall, long blue hair frequently styled differently (because of course he is also a hairdresser), blue eyes, fair skin. Wiry in build, he wears a wide variety of fashion in public, often with aspects of Mistralian culture, depending on circumstance and partially mood (and how likely it is to draw his mother's disapproval by underdressing in official settings).

In more casual settings, he likes baggier, comfy clothes, which often also mostly hides his physique. During more official events, he wears fitting garb ranging from sleek with intricate detail on closer inspection to quite elaborate. For combat, he wants full range of motion and access to his tools, which incidentally makes him look very ninja-adjacent, covered in elaborate patterns doubling as Dust thread reservoirs, and contributing to the persistent spider-faunus allegiations. His combination of high flexibility, quick precision strikes, thread weaving, and balance only further emphasize this.

Lapis trends somewhat androgynous on average, and he doesn't particularly mind wearing more feminine styles, courtesy of his fashion work done for his mother Orchid. So people often end up assuming he relies solely on agility and speed. These people are often surprised to see a sculpted physique trained to purpose to achieve the most effect with only as much muscle mass as necessary, and that he is more likely to withstand attacks with thread barriers and string traps than nimbly dodging out of the way. His dad Cyan is very big on being able to take hits in fights, so that was a big focus in Lapis' training.