Isambard Steiner

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Cobalt Ingénieur is an engineer at Beacon, who is studying there as part of his education.

Appearance
Cobalt appears as the average slim build white male of his age with a clear complexion, short, somewhat spiky brunette hair, a short, spiked beard protruding from his chin, and eyes with dark gray sclera and pure white irises, which glow in the dark, he normally dons a neutral or tired expression.

Cobalt's normal attire is heavily cyberpunk themed, consisting of a black, white and cobalt blue highlights, but the clothing itself takes inspirations from stereotypical anarchist and mechanic looks. In most occasions, Cobalt will don a scruffy black and cobalt blue hoodie with the sleeves rolled up, incorporating slim fitting black cargo pants and shoes with white highlights, as well as a gas mask that covers up his entire head, in which the eyes glow a brilliant blue, and a small white and cobalt blue duffle bag; Cobalt's emblem is printed on the back of the hoodie.

On closer inspection one could see that he is actually an android, with heavy augmentation to the limbs and face, the body presumably shares this trait, but is normally covered up in most scenes, Cobalt can remove his synthetic skin at will, revealing white and black synthetic muscles and sub-dermal implants.

Cobalt claims that he takes off his synthetic skin on occasion to clean and maintain said implants and muscle, although this is a common feature among self-preserving models

Personality
Cobalt is an imaginative, boisterous good ol' boy and a tinkerer at heart, but this is normally hidden behind a calm or tired expression, which he dons most of the time when he is caught up in his work, he prefers to keep things casual most of the time, but is willing to listen and sympathise with people's problems.

Like most Androids (such as Penny), Cobalt talks and acts in a robotic fashion, although this is somewhat mitigated by Cobalt having understood the subtleties of social situations more than most other androids due to his time among humans, and is often found making quips or jokes in response to events.

Cobalt is known to be a avid music fan, and is often listening to electronic music while working and in some cases while fighting. He enjoys nothing more than breaking into a complex piece of machinery, and because of this has set up a small workshop in the industrial area Vale to satisfy his need to tinker and build, this has often attracted small business from civilian and hunter alike.

He normally carries around a small duffle bag full of Tools and Printing Resin, and is otherwise highly prepared for most situations. he often attempts to show off his prepared-ness and his engineering prowess by offering a complex solution to a problem, which often leads to him getting caught out when someone suggests a simpler alternative.

He dislikes the heavy reliance of dust most students use, and normally uses and/or experiments with alternate means of power (i.e small reactors attached to whatever) to fuel his battles, in hopes that people will one day follow with this trend, as he predicts there to be a great dust crisis given this heavy reliance on dust, and has often experimented with unusual technologies (such as lasers or nuclear energy) as a result of his research into alternatives to dust, these have occasionally failed with comedic results.

Life before Beacon
Twenty years before the events of RWBY, Scientists were tasked by an unknown source to create an Android that would have the ability to fit in and integrate with society, and ultimately have an aura, using human tissue from two perspective "parents" and robotics. The experiment was a great success, and the first batch of successful Androids, unlike their Robot cousins, they were capable of free thought and human interaction greater than just following orders. This research eventually culminated into Penny's creation, as the first Android to have an Aura.

Two years later, Cobalt was "born" to a faunus father, and heavily augmented mother, named Rhodes and Iris Ingénieur, as well as one faunus brother and a human sister, whose names are as of yet unknown.

At the age of thirteen, Cobalt and his father, Rhodes, attended a weapons convention where they competed in a competition to make a small catapult using dust as a source of power, they came 1st place, reaching speeds on par with most conventional weapons using little to no dust, a runner up, infuriated by their loss, pointed their contraption at Cobalt, where it misfired and shot a projectile straight through Cobalt's head.

Cobalt was able to make a recovery, with exception to one of his processors, whose connectors had been damaged beyond repair, doctors were unable to remove it without causing severe damage to the surrounding area. However, the processor was still functional, and given some wiring, Cobalt's Overclock "semblance" was born.

For his efforts in the competition, Cobalt was given the opportunity to take up an education at the hosting company, Atlas State Armaments, where he would receive a high quality education for the next 4 years.

Joining Beacon
At eighteen years of age, Cobalt applied for training at Beacon Academy, where tutors had seen particular potential in Cobalt during an attack on his workplace by criminals of unknown affiliation, with his work destroyed, and all of the combat data lost, Cobalt took up the only functioning prototype of the weapons he had been working on for the past two years, and decided to take research into his own hands.

Abilities
Cobalt has access to a wide variety of utilities in his arsenal due to his robotics, such as being able to interface with and diagnose electronics, among others, although this is standard for Androids. Cobalt is also a crack shot and an excellent engineer, making him efficient at a distance.

However, Cobalt struggles to keep up with the standards at Beacon, due to his refusal and/or inability to use dust or semblances, he is put at great disadvantage compared to his fellow students, and is often encouraged by his tutors to use dust.

Cobalt (like most Androids) lacks an Aura, therefore has no Semblance in a traditional sense, but does have some unique abilities that compensate for this problem, which are: Weapon: Hacker Hands
 * Subroutines: Cobalt can run a Subroutine, which allows him to increase the effectiveness of certain aspects, such as his strength, endurance or perception, however, doing so makes him vulnerable to certain actions, which will result in an "Overload", limiting the function of the affected part(s). Cobalt learns how to quickly switch between each Subroutine and increase the magnitude of the effects, while learning to avoid and reduce the backlash that occurs from Overloads, eventually making him adaptable, unpredictable and efficient in battle.

The Hacker Hands are a more recent development in the Arms industry, and allow Cobalt to create a temporary copy of the target's weapon, but he normally adds a twist to the copy, such as an alternate element or function, the created copies are not-permanent, and Cobalt often requires a special and rather costly Printing resin and Dust to create functioning copies. The Hacker Hands can also create unique weapons given that there is a pre-loaded schematic; multiple schematics can be stored, loaded and replaced at any point.

The Hacker Hands allow Cobalt to effectively substitute for anyone if needs be, by copying their weapons, but will be unable to replicate the semblance (if any), the copies are also temporary, and are thrown away when used up, the copies have been rigged to explode when thrown.

Alternate Weapon: Twin Kestrel HSMGs

Although Cobalt can create any other weapon using his primary weapon, he keeps two standard issue Kestrel HSMGs (Heavy Sub-machine Guns) at hand as a back-up weapon. The Kestrels HSMGs are renowned for being heavily and easily modifiable, and being able to accept nearly any conventional load, as such Cobalt can make quick modifications to the weapons by printing the components using his Hacker Hands, or will have a few pre-made components ready.

Later on Cobalt receives small upgrades from AS Armaments, which have been developed using a combination of battle data, developments at AS Armaments, and from Cobalt's own research. These upgrades give small tweaks and improvements to his weapons, but larger modifications are added on as he experiments with his abilities in the field of battle.

Trivia

 * Cobalt's Name, refers to the colour Cobalt Blue, while his surname is French for "Engineer", as per his character.
 * Cobalt's Parents, Iridis and Rhodes, are references to the elements Iridium and Rhodium respectively, which share the same group on the Periodic Table.
 * Cobalt's middle name: Dell, is in reference to the Team Fortress 2 character "The Engineer", he also references this character in some quotes and mannerisms.
 * Within Cobalt's workshop there are multiple references to other characters in the RWBY universe to other works of fiction, for example, the helmet worn by the character Zer0 from the "Borderlands" franchise can be seen on a shelf, this is reportedly one of many references that can be found in the workshop. Also to note that there is a Blue-coloured version of Ruby's Crescent Rose leaning on the side of a cupboard named "Prototypes", although Cobalt has never copied Ruby's weapon.
 * A Close up inspection of the ammo Cobalt uses for his Kestrel HSMGs shows a small Beowulf etching on the shell, a play on the type of ammunition the weapons use, and the Creature of Grimm or the same name.