Claret Gainsboro

"The wild, cruel beast is not behind the bars of the cage. He is in front of it."

Claret is an original character based in the RWBY-verse and created by WeissSchnee. She is a member of the White Fang and based on the Greek goddess Artemis.

Appearance
Claret is a young woman of average height. She has a slim, somewhat athletic build from a life of rigorous training, exercise and a strict vegetarian diet. She has unkempt cherry brown hair with two long strands, one hanging down either side of her neck. She has striking Persian blue eyes, lightly tanned skin and a smattering of freckles under each eye. She also has a pair of cherry brown colored Deer ears protruding from her head.

Claret's main outfit consists of a red zip-up jacket. The jacket also has zips on the sleeves and sides of the waist, though these are more cosmetic than serving any real function. There is a small pocket on the upper left side, and white panels of detailing on the shoulders and arm cuffs that resemble cherry blossoms. A black and grey cropped halter top that is worn under the jacket. Black three quarter pants. The waist band, cuffs and pocket tops of the pants are red. There are two red belts fastened around the bottoms of the pants. A pair of pale red boots. They have three silver buckles on the sides that keep the straps secure, black laces and black soles.

Claret also has a custom White Fang outfit. This consists of her own personalised white Grimm mask, a sleeveless white top with red fastenings and grey trim around the neck and hem, a grey cropped grey top, black pants with a grey strip down the sides, white boots and black elbow length gloves with grey trim.

Personality
Claret is, for the most part, quiet and reserved. She doesn't like to be the center of attention and prefers to let her skills and actions speak for themselves. This is mostly due to self discipline, though her mother was also noted to have had a similar nature. That isn't to say she won't speak up when she needs to. There are several topics she is passionate about, and will discuss and debate them at great length if given the chance.

Claret has a great deal of self confidence and this is most evident on the battlefield. In combat she becomes extremely focused and determined, and this has led to her pulling several missions from the brink of failure and achieving success.

Claret does her best to keep her emotions in check, but in times of great emotional distress, she has trouble controlling her impulses and can act rashly without thinking of the consequences.

History
Claret and her brother were the result of an affair their mother had with a married man whose house she was employed in as a maid. Their father's wife, when she found out about the affair and pregnancy, threatened to have their mother and her 'bastard' children killed if she ever showed her face in Vale or any of the other kingdoms ever again. Receiving no support from her lover, Claret's heavily pregnant mother fled into the forest of Forever Falls. It was there she came across a large group of White Fang members and their families etching out a living in the harsh wilderness. They welcomed her into their community with open arms. Claret and her brother were born two months later, but unfortunately their mother died following their birth.

Claret and her brother were taken in by a high ranking member of the White Fang and his family and raised no differently to his other children. They both joined the White Fang when they turned thirteen, both already talented fighters in their chosen styles by that time.

A year after joining, Claret was paired with sixteen year old Orion and the two became very close. Two years later, Claret was returning from a solo mission when she received word that Orion and her brother, who had been out hunting Ursa, were overdue reporting in. Claret headed out on her own to find them despite reassurances that the two were probably just slacking off somewhere after bagging a haul of Ursa skins.

If only that had been the case. Claret arrived at the hunting site the two were supposed to have been using and made a grizzly discovery. Orion was dead and her brother was in the midst of battling a mid sized Deathstalker. Together, the twins defeated the monster. Nye explained that he and Orion were on their way back from hunting when they were ambushed by the Deathstalker. He also told her that the fatal blow was intended for him. Orion had jumped in the way of the crystal stinger at the last moment and sacrificed his life to save his.

Claret tearfully thanked her brother for not abandoning Orion's body and the two of them returned it to the settlement to be buried. Losing the person who had become her heart made Claret even more committed to the White Fang, the belief that if the Faunus weren't so discriminated against and made outcasts by Humanity that they would never have had to seek refuge in such a dangerous place and Orion would never have been taken from her.

Unknown to the young Faunus, that was exactly what others had intended for his death to make her think and feel. Orion had begun to question the new direction and methods of the White Fang, and he confided in Nye that has was planning to leave. He was going to ask Claret to go with him after she returned from her mission. Not wanting to loose his sister, and knowing how valuable a soldier she was to the White Fang, Nye went to his stepfather and told him about the whole conversation.

They came up with a plan and set it in motion, a plan that successfully ended in Orion's death and strengthened Claret's dedication to the White Fang. To this day, she remains one of it's loyalist members.

Combat
Long range combat is Claret's field of expertise. She is nimble and fast, allowing her to quickly reach higher vantage points from where she can relay information about the field to whoever she is working with and attack opponents in a wider area.

Though she isn't without skills in close quarters combat, Claret's skills as an archer make her more useful, and deadly, when there is distance between her and her opponent. It was noted as she grew up that using ranged weapons came as natural to Claret as breathing, and so it was her skills in this area that were focused on and honed during training.

Claret's weapon is called Iokheira, and is a three form weapon. The most commonly used form is a rapid fire crossbow, with the second form being a hunting rifle and the third being an axe. When not in use, Iokeira collapses down and becomes compact enough to be carried with ease on the back of Claret's belt.

Aura and Semblance
Claret's Aura is cherry red in colour.

Claret's Semblance is called Proliferate. It allows her to create a glyph that multiplies her crossbow bolts when they're fired through it. The more glyphs Claret creates, the more cloned bolts that are created. The cloned bolts become weaker the more that are created. The number of glyph's Claret creates also determines how exhausted using her Semblance can make her. The effect could theoretically apply to any projectile passing through the glyph as long as it is infused with Claret's Aura. This means she could also infuse the bullets/ bolts/ arrows of a team mate and allow them to have the same effect when passing through the Glyph. The cloned projectiles are created from the energy Claret stores in the Glyphs. Once the energy in a Glyph runs out, it dissolves.

Trivia
- Both her given and surnames fit the colour rule of Remnant. Claret is a dark red colour, and Gainsboro is a shade of grey.

- Her middle name is Diana. Diana was the Roman equivalent of Artemis.

- Claret is a deer Faunus, and deers were known to be sacred to Artemis.

- The name of her weapon, Iokheira, means showered with arrows.

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