Clare Custos

"You couldn't hit me if I had my hands tied behind my back. But I do have some handcuffs if you really want to try it."

- Clare Custos

History
Trouble. This one word could describe Clare's life. A nice little girl that made life difficult for her parents. Never sitting still, never holding herself back. By the time she was ten, she had a small reputation as being the cute girl with hell in her wake. It was an exaggeration of course, but Clare was responsible for more than her share of tricks and traps. People that knew her watched her warily, waiting for her to cause a scene. Most people put up with the cute young girl, reasoning that she would grow out of the phase. This of course, did not happen. Clare loved how people reacted when things went wrong, their faces just made her giddy with excitement. Then one day she found someone that didn't respond to kindly to her fun. A faunus shopkeeper took offence to her actions, somewhat justified in retrospect. He had smacked her once, barely hard enough to leave a mark. But she remembered. Clare always remembered. After that, she made his life a living hell.

Her parents had tried disciplining her, but the sudden determination prevented it from taking hold. Tension grew for some time, Clare riling up the faunus in the community. And so a man was hired to distract her, keep her busy with a self defence course. Had they realised he was faunus himself, things might have been different. She argued with him every lesson, being a very stubborn student. But he persisted, and inbetween Clare's acts of defiance, she learnt. What really made the difference though was that she was distracted. She was treated a bit better now that she wasn't causing trouble. Years later, she was still being stubborn and annoying. It was only once her mentor said one particular line that something inside her clicked.

"You're a good kid Clare, even though you're a pain in the ass."

It became a bit moment in her life. She treated him poorly, or rather, down right terribly. But he didn't care, he saw through it. The next day, Clare acted differently. She was still very annoying, but in a friendly way. Punishing him for something that he wasn't even involved in seemed silly to her now, and while Clare would always harass him, the change made him smile. He offered her private tutoring in exchange for her working with him. She accepted, with the compulsory jab at his skills. Their arrangement kept up until she was twenty years old.

Her mentor left. Family he had not seen in years were calling him away, and Clare had suddenly found her world crumbling. He promised to return and continue working with her one day, but it would be the last time she ever saw him. Alone and with skills suited only for fighting, she was at a loss. What could she do? Her skills were promising, but hardly at a level that she could earn a living by teaching them. And so the only thing that came to mind was her choice. Selling her skills to anyone that could make use of them. Mainly as a personal bodyguard. For the next seven years she worked to survive, and trained to further herself. It was a dull existence, bar several exciting fights now and again. Her self control slipped, her old troublesome ways finding their way back into her daily life. More than once she had provoked the police just for some excitement, making them run to catch her. Clare found life regaining some of the fun she had lost seven years ago.

Appearance
.

Moenibus Altis
Weapon is perhaps not the right word for Clare's equipment, as Moenibus Altis is actually twin tower shields that can compact into their bracers. Fully expanded, they reach a size of one point four metres, with a width of sixty centimetres. Built to withstand a great deal of damage, Moenibus Altis can emerge relatively unscathed from most battles. But built with defence in mind, they have no offensive traits other than being large solid objects.

Diffusion Gloves
Clare's actual weapon, a pair of gloves laced with Dust 'veins' which permit the discharge of large amounts of electricity or lightning. They reach up to her shoulders, with enough Dust to last a decent period of time. They are not overly lethal without large discharges, but their inconspicuous nature mean they often go unnoticed until they are used. The Dust is channelled down to the hands, being released from pads along the fingers. To activate a charge, Clare must snap her fingers together.

Skills and abilities
A style built around evasion and defence, Clare is superb at dodging and blocking attacks. With training in acrobatics and a highly athletic body, she is a very difficult target to hit. Every move is chosen to avoid damage, or remove the effectiveness of an attack. But this only gets her so far. To end a fight, Clare has to counter her opponents when she can. With such a defensive style, directly attacking people isn't wise, and so she makes use of her evasion to latch on to whomever she faces as they attack, before quickly landing a blow with the intention of doing as much damage in one go as she can. It is far from a fool proof method, but her naturally higher speed often means that she can pull it off, even against stronger opponents.

Semblance: Distort
This semblance lets Clare distort her image for a brief moment. When activated, her appearance is violently distorted, shifting and moving. At the same time, mirror images of herself appear around her in the same distorted fashion, in random positions within a five metre radius. If Clare uses enough energy, her actual position is no longer shown, with only the mirror versions giving any hint as to her position. She can maintain this for a few minutes, but it takes a great deal of concentration to keep up and is rarely used for more than a few seconds.

Personality
The sweetest girl you'll ever know, and an absolute joy to be around. This is the Clare you should hope to meet. While this is true to a degree, she loves nothing more than chaos. She may not be actively out to harm people, but wouldn't give it a second thought were it to happen. What Clare wants to see isn't the world burning, she wants it dancing. With no desire to take control, to kill, or even steal, she is an oddity. She would provoke the police into giving chase, just to watch them run. Start a fight just to cause a disturbance. And just to make things even better, Clare thinks she is almost untouchable. Which isn't that far from being true, making her rather cocky most of the time. But then the nice side of her comes into it. During her calmer moments, she is a genuinely sweet girl. Friendly and helpful, she is very different from her chaotic side. Clare does still love to see people squirm, but for the most part will keep it to herself. The only exception is faunus. It doesn't stem as far as hate, but she dislikes them greatly. An encounter during her childhood began this distrust, which was deepened in the years to come.

Trivia

 * Clare is derived from Latin, meaning bright or clear.