Alexander Deraine

Rebellion

Alexander Deraine

16 || hetero || male || hero

PERSONALITY

POSITIVE
✔ Loyal, methodical, zealous, diligent, and charismatic.

NEGATIVE
✖ Intensely emotional, hypercompetitive, selfish, prideful, and greedy.

LIKES
✔ His Darkshine merchandise collection, competition, the spotlight, protein shakes, and flexing in front of mirrors when he thinks nobody is looking.

DISLIKES
✖ Rin Kurama, Thunder Shock, losing, laziness, and Class 1-A.

PERSONALITY
Alex has undergone quite the change over the course of his first semester at U.A. and his involvement in the JSDF Revolt. After seeing combat, the façade of confidence that he projected so hard ceased to be a consistent thing. The fact of the matter was, he didn’t need to play pretend as to whether he deserved his rank or whether he was comfortable in his own skin anymore. He had proved himself when shit hit the fan and the American is no longer afraid that he won’t measure up as a hero due to being paralyzed by fear.

His negative aspects did not go away, however, due to his increased self-confidence. Vendettas are still on the menu, and Alex has a mental catalogue of all the wrongs that he perceives being inflicted upon him. When an opportunity arises to get revenge, big or small, he isn’t above taking it and letting his pettiness get the better of him. His complete lack of deference to authority he perceives as illegitimate, as well, has not changed. Titles provide the benefit of the doubt, at best, and if the actions of someone in authority is perceived to be beyond those bounds… well, he’ll voice his displeasure and his lack of respect quite plainly and receive detention and other disciplinary action.

Tone and presentation, to be frank, are not the American’s strong suits. He comes off as intense, abrasive, and egocentric when confrontation is done. None of these are false observations, but it also doesn’t tell the whole story. Countless hours and late nights were spent in the construction of the Hero Ops Club facilities, for example, for the betterment of the school. Countless more hours and late nights were spent training to the point of physical failure after studies concluded and taking late night runs to center himself. In terms of positive traits, he is much more in the ‘show not tell’ camp and would rail against accolades he felt he hadn’t earned. Once he does earn them, he has zero issue gloating about it to his heart’s content… but until then? Never.

Because his Quirk requires so much attention, Alex turns noticeably quieter and noticeably more measured and precise in his movements when he uses it. Before and after a fight, he has zero issue trash talking with the best of them to set as many eyes on a big matchup as possible. Once it starts, however, the silence is normally going to be absolute. The more he talks during a fight, the less he respects the other person as a general rule. Doing more things at once means more potential for mistakes, and in a high danger situation that gamble is simply not worth it.

APPEARANCE

HEIGHT: 1.8m
WEIGHT: 72.5kg
HAIR/STYLE: Short, brown hair that is rarely maintained outside of special occasions.
SKIN/SCARS: Caucasian; Facial scar, left side of face. Approximately four inches in length, going from slightly below the jawline and extending up. Left shoulder scars, two round one roughly an inch in diameter that were the result of two bullets penetrating into his muscle tissue during the Semper Fi military camp.
EYES: Red.
NOTABLES: N/A

Alex is only slightly taller than average, but he does have a muscular body and an almost omnipresent cocky grin that permeates his features much more often than not. His red eyes are oftentimes said to be distant and cold, but he certainly doesn't normally intend to give off that aura. His usual projected confidence goes into his general stance, too, with his posture generally impeccable and his clothing when in professional settings absolutely immaculate. Alex is a firm believer in looking good to feel good, so his clothing choices whenever possible are on the dressier side in order to do this... but his current level of wealth and his expensive tastes do not exactly overlap, so he must live with what he has for now.

HISTORY

The Black Death was one of the most deadly serial killers ever to draw breath, with his mastery over the art of weaponizing darkness strong enough that he was able to claim dozens of lives before his reign of terror over the southeastern United States ended. He left the tarot card of Death as a calling card, which the media had a field day with until coverage of the murders was suppressed for national security purposes when the authorities found the true culprit.

He was a terrorist who believed in the supremacy of strength and that a new age of humanity was to begin, with the strong rising up and claiming power of the inferior normal humans. To speed along the process, he was determined to murder the most prominent anti-Quirker politicians in his state but was only moderately successful before he met his end. He was also a man of a fiery temper, as the scar on Alex’s face can attest to when he was a bit too loud and needy as a child and went for Dad to fix something at the wrong time. Out of paranoia about having things recorded about him by the local government, Alexander was pulled from public school in the middle of the third grade and was officially in homeschool for the rest of his time in America. In truth, his mother did her level best but simply was not cut out to be a teacher to a student who wasn’t all that intelligent to begin with.

Alex never found out what happened to his father, other than the fact that he died violently in battle. It was most likely a vigilante who killed him, but he would likely never know for certain. The details of the encounter were never made public, and the boy and his mother were moved across the world long before this final confrontation anyway. The boy had his quirk identified late, but once it was identified he was sent away for reasons that Alex still isn’t sure of. He knew there was a purpose to him moving to Japan, but he was never quite sure because his mother was arrested due to connections to the Black Death’s crimes before she ever told him – if she ever knew in the first place. He moved to Japan with his mother in late 2069, and his mother was arrested by authorities by June of 2070.

From June of 2070 until his admittance into UA in June of 2072, he was in the foster care system of Japan. Most of the money that he once had access to was confiscated by authorities, so he had nothing left save for a hand-me-down ability from a serial killer and a very modest bank account that could buy him a month or two of life when he aged out of the system. The fact that the Black Death had a son was not public knowledge, so it is a fact that Alex has kept very close to his chest for his entire life for the fear of it ruining his chance at making something of himself. The information about being an orphan in the koseki, or family registry system, was enough to get him discriminated against in any job market to begin with. He already had one large black mark on his record, and the last thing he needed was two before he even got a chance to start.

Living at the orphanage was far from a pleasant experience, and indeed until the end of December in 2071 he was in an underfunded government facility for wards of the state. Being a foreigner with no grasp of the language, he was a prime bullying target for the ‘throw away children’ that consisted of most of his house. The main caretaker was anything but sympathetic and was quick to deliver beatings when the American was perceived to be troublemaking or being a nuisance… which unfortunately for Alex was pretty often. He was also beaten for being seen as refusing to answer questions in schooling, which was almost all the time due to the complete lack of Japanese or formal education experience he had when he was first shoved into that orphanage.

By January of 2072 he made it to his first foster home, but was returned to the orphanage by the end of the month due to ‘conflicts with school’ which basically meant that he had gotten into a fight and proved himself to be a delinquent in the eyes of the foster family in that time span. He would get another chance in mid-May, where a family was willing to take the chance on the boy but again grew quickly disillusioned with his delinquency and seeming inability to adapt to Japanese society.

Luckily for him, however, his new foster family was much more willing to talk out the issue and see if there was a better place for him than back in the orphanage. He had a very strong quirk, of that they were fully aware, and suggested enrolling in a hero school. It was an idea Alex had never considered, but quickly latched onto as his ‘way out’. It would get him out of their house and also on his way to being a productive member of society, so they could pat themselves on the back and say they made a difference in the world.

Alex’s entrance into U.A. had more to do with written tests and psychological evaluations than most, because his quirk was so obviously useful. He had to prove he knew Japanese well enough to be in classes where it was the only language spoken, and prove he was not a threat to other students despite his discipline record at previous public schools. His Japanese wasn’t perfect, but full immersion in the language for a couple years did wonders for his ability to understand even if his speaking was with a noticeable accent.

His original idea for a hero name, Rebellion, at the surface level is a choice that plays off of his often times irreverent nature and at times dubious relationship to authority. In truth, it is a constant reminder to break away from the past that he can't change and strive towards a better tomorrow. The sun will always rise again, and destroy the darkness that night brings. The darkness in Alex's past and lineage cannot be erased, but it can start anew and mean something entirely different by the time he is done.

He is brash, yes. Irreverent, sure. Antagonistic, absolutely.

What Alexander’s first semester at U.A. proved, however, was that despite or perhaps because of these traits he could absolutely thrive in the school environment. His academics fought with the bottom of the class, but in hero related courses like combat or rescue he was consistently top of the table. Not only that, but he had been recognized by his peers by being voted Vice President in a highly contested election in a display of the bonds he was able to make in such a short span of time.

While he had many traits that marked him clearly as a delinquent, he also had traits that were perfectly suited for the profession of heroism and displayed them enough for his peers to take notice. His instantaneous decision making, initiative that led him to taking charge while most would hesitate, and the unwavering confidence to stand up and do his best even when the odds were stacked against him. In the first official student rankings, he was featured as the Number 5 student based on perceived potential as a hero at Yuuei High that circulated around the school and to parties privy to the internal communications of U.A. Top five out of three filled up hero classes and a support class to boot was vindication for a student who would have otherwise been back at the orphanage with no hope for a better life if things had gone even slightly differently.

At the Semper Fi military camp, Alex was definitely one of the U.A. students who received the most attention in the aftermath. A failed rebellion among the anti-quirkers in the military happened while the public and many students were within the walls of the event, and heavy fighting broke out. Alex, Yojin, Chimera, and Risaka all happened to be at the Armory at the time and managed to save the lives of quite a few people. They also managed to disable an enemy tank and neutralize at least a dozen hostile combatants, and the American was the first and only one to chat up the media afterwards with the zeal of someone who thought that having a good public image was a critical part of being a hero. They had ridden out of the event on a literal tank, so it was only natural that they got a bit of media attention with an entrance that cool.