Clara Ledford

""I'll continue my research, by my own standards. Eventually...maybe I'll finally be able to contribute some good to this world.""

- Clara, musing on the future of her work

Appearance
Standing at just under 6 feet tall with a somewhat pale skin complexion, Clara comes off as a rather gloomy looking individual at first glance. Her semi-blanched skin is further complimented by her pure white hair; Having a slightly unkempt looking style to its ending strands, Clara's hair is rather long, as it trails down to and stops at around the center of her back. On top of her head rests her Faunus traits, coming in the form of two Moth-like antennae with the same color as her hair. These antennae sprout just above her forehead, and have a very thin, almost feather-like quality to them. In direct contrast with her bleak complexion, Clara's eyes have an almost piercing quality to them, which is only further heightened by their bright, yellow coloration. Beyond this, Clara's main physique is somewhat slim, and overall would be considered mostly average at first glance.

Clara's primary attire includes a black, sleeveless blouse. The blouse itself has several yellow colored markings, mainly around the edges of the chest and bottom portions. A pair of black dress pants and boots make up the rest of her standard attire, with the boots possessing a yellow trim around the edges. Her most notable piece of attire however, is a light, flowing robe. Similar to the other portions of her outfit, the robe is mostly black in color, though its yellow linings and patterns are much more intricate; Wrapping around the edges of the sleeves and trailing up the arm portions via separated segments, culminating on the back with several swirling patterns. In the center of her robe lies her emblem: A small, fiery ball of light with smoke trails that resemble wings. Although this robe is Clara's most prominent piece of attire, she has been known to take it off during periods of downtime, along with switching it out for a standard issue white lab coat while working.

Personality
Clara possesses an overall calm and collected demeanor. She tends to be a very patient individual, in both regards to her work and when dealing with other people. She speaks in a rather gentle tone, as she generally strives to be kind and courteous to those around her. While Clara can sometimes be direct and to-the-point when it comes to speaking with others, she never does so in a condescending manner. If anything, casual conversations are something she looks forward to, especially if she's able to gain new insight and opinions from others. This mostly stems from her love of learning new information and doing research, which she then transfers to her work. By her own admission, Clara can be rather stubborn when it comes to her work process. If she is invested enough in a project, she'll often invest a great deal of time - usually several hours - to further its completion. Even with her ambitious nature however, Clara still has her limits when it comes to work, and understands the importance of taking breaks every now and then.

Despite her usually kind nature, Clara is not beyond exhibiting frustration or anger. This generally only happens in conjunction with personal affairs, such as those related to her family or friends. She is very protective of those she considers close, to the point where she'll actively put herself in danger if it means keeping them safe. Beyond this, Clara has also become rather defensive of her raw research in recent months. Though she is fully accepting and even welcoming of constructive criticism on her work, she deeply fears the destruction or theft of her research. As such, Clara often keeps her work documents locked away behind heavy security features, to the point where it could be considered an over excessive amount of defense. While she has admitted that she might have gone overboard with protection methods, she ultimately feels the "better safe than sorry" approach is the most effective.

Given her busy nature, Clara usually tries to make the most of her breaks. She'll often read, go for walks, or sometimes take a night to go into towns or other districts. When out in public, she never attempts to hide her Faunus attributes, even with the potential for "unwanted attention" in some form or another. In regards to this, Clara's main traits stem from the moth; Aside from having similar antennae, she has a decently strong affinity towards bright light sources, with her favorite type being neon. Given her Faunus nature, Clara is no stranger to the concept of discrimination. Although she hasn't faced heavy forms of it herself, she is still well aware that some are less welcoming of Faunus than others. Even though Clara takes a form of minor pride in being a Faunus, she is strongly opposed to the White Fang and their extremist ways; A somewhat hypocritical way of thinking which is not lost on her, given her own actions and those of the faction she is affiliated with.

Although Clara often displays a relatively gentle personality, she does harbor some forms of inner turmoil and conflict. While not outwardly expressing it, Clara has a very strong desire to contribute some form of good to the world. This primarily stemmed from a vow she made while taking up the responsibilities as a Huntress; In that she promised to never use her abilities with hateful intent behind them. Ultimately, Clara feels that she broke this vow after a situation involving a former co-worker, which ended with her brutally beating them after they destroyed her research. While she believes she's obtained some form of second chance through joining the "Crescent Wings" faction, she still can't deny that the group's actions are primarily motivated by vengeance more than anything. Even more-so, she believes that her creation of weapons and robotics for the group indirectly lead to others getting hurt as well. Ultimately, Clara believes that she can never go back to being a good person, and has more or less resigned to this fate.

Backstory
Clara was originally born to a middle-class family in the kingdom of Atlas. Under the guidance of two loving parents, her upbringing was relatively normal. Though her life didn't involve any form of combat training at this point, she found herself harboring an unshakable interest in the militaristic aspects of her homeland. More-so than anything else, she became enthralled with the robotic soldiers that made up a large portion of the kingdom's forces. From the moment Clara saw one of the Atlesian Knights, she immediately realized her calling: "When I grow up, I want to create robots," is what she thought to herself. In pursuing her dream, Clara began to study anything related to robots or technology that she could get her hands on. Although she struggled with the basic material she could find at first, she slowly but surely began to understand the information before her.

Just as Clara was comprehending her studies however, her progress was halted by a sudden dilemma: Due to a series of lay-off's in the local area, both of Clara's parents became unemployed. With a lack of stable income to support the family, Clara's mother and father eventually settled on a plan to move to Vale, where job opportunities were more plentiful at the time. Although Clara initially protested against the idea, there wasn't much she could do about the situation. With a heavy heart, she begrudgingly accepted Vale as her new home. Despite knowing full well that her studies would be severely hampered by the lack of robotic references, Clara never gave up on her dream. Upon arriving with her parents at their new home, Clara quickly began to seek out any and all resources related to robots and their creation process. Though her findings were minuscule at best, she eventually uncovered another field of research that piqued her interest: Weapons.

Though not exactly the field she had in mind, forging weapons was the closest thing Clara could find to her desired job. With few other choices, she soon began studying and practicing the art of weapon creation. Though her forging skills were minimal at first, she continued to practice with more materials and designs as she grew older. By the age of 14, Clara had taken her skills one step further by making her own weapon. Though the process took several months, she eventually completed the "Lantern Staff," which would become her primary weapon over the years. Testing it proved to be difficult however, mainly due to her parents. Clara had kept her forging practices a secret from them, largely out of fear of their disapproval. Feeling that her hobby wouldn't remain a secret for much longer - especially now that she had created a true weapon - she soon spoke with her mother and father, revealing her work and expressing her desire to one day move onto robotics.

Though initially surprised by the revelation, Clara's parents weren't as hard on her as she first expected them to be. While both expressed concerns, they both felt that Clara had overall good intentions with her dream. Her father in particular saw her practices as a potential opportunity, and suggested that Clara begin training to enter a Hunter's Academy. While the thought of doing so excited her, Clara's parents quickly reminded of her of the responsibilities and potential dangers that came with such a decision. Making a promise to her parents that she would only use her skills to fight Grimm, and never to intentionally harm others, Clara soon began practicing with her newly created weapon. Though it took some time and a bit of help via personal lessons, she eventually built up her fighting skills and a bit of physique in the process. By of the age of 17, she had honed her techniques enough to be accepted into Beacon Academy. Bidding her parents farewell, she vowed to return with enough knowledge and resources to move her family back to their home kingdom.

After arriving at Beacon Academy, Clara was overcome with anxiousness to begin her classes and studies. In her excitement however, she accidentally bumped into another student by the name of Reseda Lexine. After apologizing to one another and introducing themselves, the two began talking as they headed for the opening orientation. To Clara's relief, it seemed that making friends in this new environment wouldn't be too difficult. Even more-so, Clara and Reseda would eventually work together after being assigned to Team ZRCN (Zircon); Composed of Zeru Aldric, Reseda Lexine, Clara herself, and Niles Gereon. The four quickly became close friends, going through several assignments and missions together, with Clara primarily acting as their secondary fighter. During their downtime, the team conversed and eventually revealed that each had a life-long dream of sorts. As time went on however, it became more and more clear that the group would likely have to part ways to achieve their goals. Though they would eventually leave on their own paths, all four made a promise to stay in contact with one another, especially should any of them need help.

At the age of 20, Clara graduated from Beacon Academy with the rest of her team. Spending one last night together, Team ZRCN made the most of their time together before their inevitable departure. After exchanging their farewells the next morning, Clara left on her own way, as did the others. Her first goal was to move back to Atlas in order to continue her robotics research. Although she tried to convince her parents to move back to Atlas, her mother and father were more than content with their current status in Vale. Coming to an understanding and exchanging goodbyes with her parents, she soon set off for Atlas on her own. Now back in her home kingdom, Clara was more determined than ever to turn her dream into a reality.

Over the next few months, Clara's research eventually produced physical results. This primarily came in the form of test parts, such as robotic limbs and basic A.I. components. As her skills in robotics grew, so too did her ambitions; With Clara eventually joining a subsidiary company in association with Atlas' military, one mainly focusing on technology. For the next five years, Clara would work day in and out to make advancements in the field of robotics, though still keeping in contact with her parents and former team members when she had the chance. During that time, Clara began composing an advanced A.I. algorithm and system components, ones which would vastly improve the current robots used in Atlas; Allowing for quicker and more precise decision making, along with stronger security measures to their hardware.

While Clara's efforts earned her much notoriety and respect, it also created jealousy in some circles. In particular, one of Clara's co-workers grew very envious of the attention she and her work received. Feeling overshadowed by Clara's success, the co-worker sneaked into her office and stole her research and the back-up copy of it, just a few days before she was set to publish her findings. Clara was devastated at first, though eventually regained enough composure to seek out her stolen work. Following the tip of a fellow researcher, Clara eventually confronted her co-worker the following night. What ensued was a short, but heated argument, which ended with the co-worker destroying the stolen work out of spite. Seeing the research she had poured countless hours into destroyed, Clara's calm demeanor was immediately broken. Breaking her old vow, she attacked and severely wounded the co-worker, though managed to stop herself before inducing any life-threatening injuries. Realizing the severity of her actions shortly afterwards, Clara quickly fled the scene before anyone else could arrive.

Now in hiding, Clara knew that her reputation would essentially be in shambles. More-so than anything though, she was greatly disheartened with herself, mainly for breaking her promise and attacking another with malicious intents. Just as she was about to resign herself to a lonely fate of forever hiding away, she was suddenly approached by an ominous figure wearing a dark mask. This figure revealed themselves to be Zeru, the former leader of Team ZRCN. Zeru sympathized with Clara's situation, and soon explained his reasoning for seeking her out after so long: Reseda, their former team member, had been murdered in an incident involving the White Fang. As such, Zeru had been searching for members for his new faction, "the Crescent Wings," in order to enact vengeance upon Reseda's killers. Shocked and angered by the news, Clara accepted her old team leader's offer to join the faction. Henceforth, Clara Ledford soon became the Crescent Wing's leading scientist.

Battle of Beacon
During the events of Beacon's fall, Clara was situated at the Crescent Wings' main base of operations. Upon hearing the news that Beacon and Vale were essentially under attack, her thoughts immediately went to her parents. Deeply worried for them, she sent four Scouts to Vale specifically to ensure the safety of her parents. While her mother and father were saved from the ensuing chaos, Clara couldn't muster up the strength to call them directly; Still feeling that she had let them down by breaking her vows so long ago.

Weapons / Abilities
Although Clara may appear somewhat frail at first glance, she is anything but. Years of training with her father, along with the skills she picked up at Beacon have formed her into an adept fighter. Quick on her feet with nimble reflexes, Clara is a very agile combatant. She primarily fights by observing and outmaneuvering her opponent's moves, before making her own motions in the form of counter attacks. Given her choice of weapon, she is very proficient in the use of staffs and scythes. Clara's lifetime of studying has also given her knowledge of other armaments. In these regards, while she is capable of using other weapons, she isn't quite as skilled when utilizing them. More-so, she uses this knowledge to counteract different weapon types and fighting styles.

Notably, while Clara is perfectly fine with fighting Grimm, she is somewhat hesitant to fight other people at first. She'll often attempt to talk or work things out with others in most cases, rather than immediately resorting to fighting. If no other options will work however, she will defend herself and others when necessary. In these cases, she often fights with the intent to simply incapacitate her opponents. While Clara is mostly calm and tactical during battle, these traits essentially become null and void should her deeper frustrations surface. If she is enraged to the point of attacking someone, Clara will become far more relentless during combat. Her tactics become far more brutal, as she'll often aim for vital points on a person's body in relation to their weapon or fighting style. For example, if facing a bow-user, she would prioritize their hands over everything else.

Much like everyone else however, Clara has her own share of weaknesses: Her reluctance to fight can potentially be a detriment, especially if the other person is more serious over the matter. Additionally, while she is capable of finding ways to counter certain weapon-types, she may not always have the means to do so. Her choice of primary weapon usually relies on her being a set distance from an opponent in order to make more decisive hits. Due to this, she is generally put at a disadvantage against strong ranged combatants. Beyond this, Clara's suppressed frustrations can also be taken advantage of, provided the other knows her well or is potentially foolish enough to anger her. In these regards, Clara can and eventually will become exhausted after fighting for too long while enraged, seeing as she exerts far more energy behind each of her motions. Whether or not the foe can last that long is the main question in this case.

Lantern Staff
Clara's primary weapon, and the first tool she created by herself. The Lantern Staff has been modified over the years in accordance with Clara's height and fighting capabilities. The staff itself is roughly 6'3 in terms of height, and has an almost faded, black iron coloration to it. Mounted at the top of the staff is a traditional-styled street lantern, with golden colored rims and reinforced glass panels containing an burning flame. The flame itself is actually produced from an opening at the end of the staff, and is powered by red dust crystals via a small containment chamber in the center of the staff.

Aside from serving as a light source, the staff can be used in a more traditional fighting sense. To do so, Clara first removes the lantern at the top of the staff; Which can be done manually or through the press of a button, which is located in a center panel near the dust container. Once the lantern portion is off, the staff can be used properly to fend off opponents. While Clara employs several swings and spinning motions with it, she also utilizes its potential dust effects as well. She generally keeps red dust in the staff by default, though can switch it out for other dust crystals for different effects. For example, fire and electricity can spew forth small bursts of said elements from the opening, while ice creates a sharp frozen formation at the end, effectively turning it into a makeshift spear.

Flare-Reaver
The secondary form of the Lantern Staff. This mode is activated via button press, which is located in the same hidden panel containing the one that detaches the lantern portion from the staff. When used, a hidden blade emerges from the upper portions; First jutting upwards from the top of the staff, and then folding down to its next position where the blade fully forms. This effectively turns it into a scythe, to which Clara has named this form the "Flare-Reaver." In this mode, Clara adjusts her fighting style slightly to make better use of the weapon's form. Additionally, all dust effects are transferred into the blade should Clara decide to use them. More often than not, she tends to use fire effects in conjunction with this form, resulting in a super-heated scythe blade that emits embers. Notably however, Clara tries her best to only use this weapon mode against Grimm, rather than other individuals. The only time she'll use it against a human/Faunus opponent is during times of desperation, or when angered enough.

Trivia
- Clara's name is derived from the Latin name "Clarus," which in turn translates to, "clear," "bright," or "famous." In relation to this (specifically the "bright" definition), Clara's primary color is yellow; Which is mainly seen on portions of her attire and in her weapon.