Brooke

Brooke is a Human. He has light grey eyes and pale blue (more accurately: violet?) short, messy hair. He's very athletic, despite how he acts, and can hit very hard if people get too close. He isn't the squishy mage that most would expect!

He has various scars across his neck and hands, caused by his magic, and a long, jagged scar across the left side of his abdomen. He tends to cover these scars with clothing. They're more noticeable in his feral forms, even if covered by some fluff.

When Brooke uses magic, his eyes change to an icy blue with white diamond-shaped pupils. His eyes can change depending on his mood; mostly if he experiences a great amount of fear or anger. He can willingly change his eyes to intimidate people or other creatures as well.

He is capable of shapeshifting into two feral forms: a jackalope and a buck. In either form, his soft fur is primarily silver with an off-white underbelly, ear tips, and front toes; he has dark grey fur over his upper back, front legs, tail, and back toes. He has distinct pale blue facial, upper back, and tail markings to match his hair.
During winter, most of his fur turns white with only a few dark grey and pale blue markings. As he lives in a location that's eternally winter, he's in his winter coat all the time.

Both of his feral forms have antlers formed of ice. These antlers grow and extend into various shapes and patterns as he uses his magic. They can also shatter. If he doesn't use any magic, they'll stay as small ice nubs or not appear at all.

Brooke is always wearing some kind of scarf or neckerchief and gloves, in order to hide his scars. He doesn't take them off unless he absolutely has to. He always has a little blue crystal trinket clipped onto his neckwear or shirt. He's never seen without it.
When he shapeshifts, the neckwear and crystal remain on his feral forms.

His main outfit is a black short-sleeved shirt with a dark blue middle, covered by a zigzag thread pattern, dark purple pants, black gloves, and a tan cloak that's slightly tattered at the ends. He doesn't wear clothes with the intention of keeping warm. The cloak is for lending to others in emergencies, to keep them warm.

He carries around a blue crystal staff with a magically-preserved glowing flower attached to the end. The staff is there to help focus his magic and keep it in check, but he will use it to bludgeon enemies and break things.

If he loses his staff, he avoids using his magic altogether and resorts to physical combat (which is actually a lot worse; he breaks bones.)

Brooke has ice and water powers, but he uses his ice spells over water. His magic is powerful but very dangerous to himself and others. It's often erratic and, if not controlled, causes a ton of damage. He rarely makes use of it, because it comes at a great cost.
If he uses too much, he'll suffer heavy frostbite, and ice crystals start forming across his skin and causes pain. It eventually gets much harder to move.

His ice spells range from summoning massive rings of ice, icicle projectiles, large lines of ice spikes, summoning ice golems, to even calling a full snowstorm to the surrounding area. The snowstorm only appears around him, though, and serves as a way for him to ruin his enemies' line of sight. He cannot willingly change the weather of an entire town or city. If he grabs someone with his bare hands, he can instantly kill them via flash freezing.
Because of nerve damage, his accuracy suffers greatly from distances. He doesn't take shots if he knows he'll miss and waits for people to get closer.

His water spells range from summoning massive waves of water to crush and drown his targets to generating a ton of fun bubbles. (Yes, it's totally useless, but he created that spell anyways.)

Unlike other magic users, Brooke's magic circles are never the same design. It always generates randomly in snowflake-like patterns and branches out in different directions. He has no control over this.

Brooke is highly resistant to the cold and can swim in freezing waters. He'll still suffer the side effects of frostbite, but he can last longer than a normal person. His magic keeps his body from freezing completely. (If he wanted, he could run outside in only a pair of shorts and still be fine.)

• Brooke can cast a large variety of ice spells, from ice projectiles to ice golems.
• Some of his other spells include rings of ice, ice mazes, ice spires, summoning local snowstorms, and freezing people.
• He can flash freeze people with his bare hands.

• Brooke can summon and manipulate massive amounts of water to crush and drown enemies.
• When using heavy water spells, he cannot use anything else or multitask; it requires all his focus.
• He can summon bubbles for no good reason, too.

• Brooke can shapeshift into a jackalope or buck in mere seconds.
• He can also shapeshift into anthro or anything between anthro to Human. (Animal ears & tail, antlers, etc.)

• Brooke is highly resistant to the cold and cannot be completely frozen.

Brooke is an ice mage who is often described as being figuratively and literally ice cold. He's rarely seen smiling. If not neutral, his expression is often a scowl or slight frown. He's extremely wary of new faces and is slow to trust. As the town's guardian, he doesn't make good first impressions; he has a habit of following "shoot first; ask later." He avoids physical contact like the plague and gets very uncomfortable when people try to shake his hand or hug him.

Brooke is quiet and only speaks if it's important or if someone bugs him enough. Otherwise, he doesn't bother. He does openly talk with his friends, but it's never more than a few sentences. He's not shy, but he quickly gets tired of socializing. He'd rather sleep.
When he does talk, he tends to be very sarcastic and negative. He doesn't like joking around and takes things seriously. He doesn't share the townsfolks' love for horrible snow puns or Christmas songs.

Though he really sucks at making friends, Brooke still manages to have some, with Ulysses, Chryssi, and Maska being particularly close. (But it was mostly Chryssi and the Doctor's faults.) He's distant with most of them, but he still takes the effort to be nice and do nice things for them when he can. He'll listen to them, and he'll protect and save them as needed. As long as you're on his good side, he makes a very powerful and reliable ally.

Brooke doesn't get along well with cheerful and energetic people. He finds it difficult to keep up with them. Because of this, he gets along poorly with a certain pink-haired wizard, but, somehow, he's still friends with Chryssi, who is leagues more energetic and vocal.

While Brooke doesn't talk much about his past, it's clear that he suffers from depression and survivor's guilt over what happened years ago. When the corruption destroyed the Lusus tower, he was one of the last two survivors; he deeply regrets it. That singular event was the cause of his powers and ruined his life. But, despite all the bad memories, he remains overprotective of the ruins and refuses to let anybody in without explicit permission. It's sacred ground.
Because of his powers, he considers himself a danger to others and tries his hardest not to form close bonds. He avoids the townsfolk that he works to protect, because he fears hurting them.

He's absolutely terrified of earthquakes. At the first, even slightest, signs of a tremor, he drops and curls up on the floor with his hands over his head. He can't stand any wobbling or shaking sensations; it makes him feel sick.
The only time he ever stood up to his fear was when he chose to ignore it in order to help his friends. And he hopes that he never has to do that again.

Even if someone were to spend a whole month up in Lusus, they might never catch a glimpse of Brooke at all. He spends most of the day hiding away in the ruins, hunting in the forest, or sleeping. He's more active during late afternoon to midnight.
By morning, before anybody in town wakes, he's already back in the ruins. His awkward schedule makes it difficult for others to meet him. In fact, there are many townsfolk who aren't aware that he even leaves the ruins.

Brooke gets mistaken for a female all the time due to his few appearances and little social interaction with others. People usually hear his name, but they're never clear on his gender until they meet him or a friend corrects them. He doesn't like it, but he's already grown used to it.
He'll say his name is "Brooke" because his parents wanted a daughter - not a son.

Brooke currently resides in the tower ruins, located on the northern side of Lusus Naturae, a massive mountain range on the east half of the continent. The icy ruins are sunk deep into the side of the mountain. It can be found with a short walk from the snowy town nearby, but it is only accessible through a specific cave and path. Only those who live there and a few townsfolk know how to reach it.

All of the walls and the floor are mostly frozen solid and slippery. People are always warned to watch their step in the ruins. Brooke is not responsible if you slip, fall, and break something.

The ruins has several floors of dorm-like room structures, old classrooms, and caved in sections that are no longer accessible. In the center of the first floor (which is technically the top of the tower), is a nicely decorated but still icy cold lounge area with sofas, a rug, and a coffee table.

A huge magic core is hidden away on the middle floor. The core is what powers the entire northern town. Brooke spends plenty of time ensuring that the core doesn't burn out or explode. He uses it to keep the barrier over surrounding area running.

There are various light blue runes set up around the area as a security measure. The runes glow if interacted with and will alert Brooke to anybody's presence. If someone gets too close, he'll know, and they're going to regret it.

Brooke grew up in a poor fishing village that's more or less gone off the map now, because corruption blew it up. :,c

...and he spent a few years alone in the ruins before everybody else came along. He's less lonely and has a responsibility now that the town of Crystalwake has been a thing.