Shula Carinae

"Sometimes I can't believe how shallow I was. Right now though, dwelling on the past isn't going to get me anywhere."

- Shula, reflecting on her earlier outlooks.

Appearance
Shula is a teenager with a slightly above-average build and height. She has amber colored eyes and somewhat short, red hair that turns to blonde the further it goes down. Shula's main attire consists of a dark red shirt, along with a pair of gray pants. She often wears an unzipped, lightweight, black colored jacket over her shirt. Depending on the situation (such as the weather), Shula will sometimes wear her jacket around her waist by tying the arms, similar to how some might do with a sweatshirt or hoodie. The back of her jacket also displays her emblem: A white circle with spiked points on the outer edges, each one facing a cardinal direction, along with points in-between facing diagonal directions. Within the circle is also a triangular shape connected to the inner edges. Notably, Shula wears a necklace with a similar, golden triangle shape on it. On her pants she wears a belt, primarily to keep holsters for her weapon in both of its forms. Her footwear includes a pair of black boots with a golden colored trim on the outsole. Aside from taking off her jacket, Shula also tends to switch up other portions of her attire in certain situations: Such as swapping out her pants for a pair of dark blue, denim jean-shorts on warmer days. She is also known to wear a pair of simple, brown sandals in place of her boots during her downtime.

Personality
At her core, Shula is a very emotional person with a fierce desire to find her place in life. On the surface however, Shula can appear to be rather easy-going at first glance. She speaks in a somewhat mellow tone of voice, and tends to be quite laid-back when it comes to most forms of casual situations. Once others get to know her however, it soon becomes evident how passionate she can be regarding certain subjects. She is very dedicated when it comes to work and combat; The latter especially so, with her desire to become stronger stemming from past situations of helplessness. Despite her mellow voice, she still has noticeable tone shifts when becoming more serious or when her emotions flare up. She is also quite easily flustered at times, especially when it comes to her attire. Shula herself has admitted that she is somewhat tomboy-ish when it comes to clothes. She tends to steer clear of anything she considers too "girly," feeling that it wouldn't suit her. She isn't afraid to speak her mind when something like this bothers her, among other subjects.

Initially however, Shula was much more quiet and reserved when compared to her current state. Due to past events involving her father and her previous team, Shula began suppressing pent up feelings of rage, along with a sense of jealousy for those that came from more loving families. For the longest time, she was never able to fully express these negative emotions. It wasn't until she met and eventually befriended Beryl Mariana that she was finally able to let out these bitter feelings, and soon realized no good could come from her continuing to harbor them. Since then, Shula has been focusing more on controlling her emotions and opening up to others. While she has become more sociable over time, she has still not completely let go of some aspects from her past: Due to her father's addiction to it, Shula has a strong aversion to alcohol. While she states that she doesn't necessarily mind other people drinking around her, she still seems to show signs of discomfort when someone does so. Shula also avoids talking about her parents at virtually all times, showing more of a lack of interest in them than anything, and feeling that attempting to rekindle her relationship with either would be pointless.

Despite cutting ties with her parents, the sense of abandonment from both them and her former team had a profound impact on Shula. As she began opening up to more people, she soon made a vow to never abandon those closest to her. She'll often lend a hand to those in dire situations, even if advised not to do so. Some have called these actions reckless on her part, though she usually tends to brush off this type of response, stating that the risk is worth it if she's able to help someone. Although Shula wishes for no one else to go through the type of abandonment she did, she can't help but feel a strange sense of gratefulness in regards to one aspect from her experiences: Her affinity towards the element of fire. As Shula traveled out on her own, she would often find herself sleeping in less than ideal locations without warmth. To fix this problem, she began using red dust to create small campfires in order to stave off the cold. Over time, Shula eventually started to associate these fires and their warmth as a symbol for hope. She finds a strong sense of comfort in both flames and generally warm climates, and often turns to them in times of sorrow or simple relaxation.

Because of her traveling and initial lack of resources, Shula follows the philosophy of "making do with what you can." She often observes her surroundings for potential help, be it during her journeys or while in combat. This is what eventually led her to taking an abandoned house as her residence, and while she fully admits that it's not the best of solutions, she still feels comfortable in calling it a place of her own. Working with what little she had also contributed to another factor of her personality: As when Shula initially fled to the kingdom of Vale, one of the few things she brought with her was a small handbook detailing the various creatures of Grimm. With this being her only form of reading material for the longest time, Shula began to study Grimm, both as a hobby and eventually as a means to prepare herself for potential combat situations. She finds great interest in looking up information on the creatures, and even carries the handbook with her while out on jobs or casual trips. The book itself is somewhat outdated however, and thus doesn't have info on every current Grimm-type. Despite wanting to get a more up-to-date book, Shula feels that she ultimately won't throw away the outdated one, if simply for nostalgic reasons.

Notably, while Shula has mostly let go of her bitter emotions, she can still be quite outspoken and brash at times. This mainly seems to happen when anyone attempts to insult her friend, Beryl. While Beryl is often quick to forgive others that taunt her thanks to her philosophy of finding good in everyone, Shula doesn't necessarily share the same view-points. She is quick to defend Beryl and her integrity, even if she isn't around at the time. Although Beryl has assured her that such defensive actions aren't necessary on her behalf, Shula continues to do so out of habit. Shula sees her relationship with Beryl as both one of friendship and debt, as she feels the need to repay Beryl after the events of their first meeting. Despite having let out most of her bitter emotions from that event, Shula's negative thoughts eventually settled into another form: Although she hasn't revealed it to Beryl yet, Shula secretly worries of what might happen when they eventually do manage to find Beryl's sister. Though she hopes for the two to be reunited, she also fears the potential situation of having to say goodbye to the first person who was ever truly a friend to her.

History
Born in the Kingdom of Vacuo, Shula's early life was plagued by a very rough upbringing. While her family was financially sound, her father had to juggle multiple jobs in order to maintain stability after her mother fell ill and could no longer work. The long work hours and resulting stress eventually caused him to turn to drinking, which he soon became addicted to. This eventually caused Shula's father to become abusive towards her and her mother. Although Shula tried to stand up against her father, this only resulted in more trouble for her. Failing this, Shula mainly focused on helping her mother regain her strength, in hopes that her father's drunken tendencies would end once she was well again. While her mother eventually did recover, the end result wasn't the outcome that Shula had hoped for: As her mother fled the next day, leaving Shula behind with her still bitter father. Cursing her mother as a coward, Shula secretly vowed that she would build up enough skills and resources to eventually move out on her own.

For the next six years, Shula trained herself to fight through whatever means she could; whether it was by herself, watching others, or taking lessons, she was determined to increase her combat prowess. Upon turning 17 years old, Shula immediately set her sights on joining Shade Academy. Using the skills she had built up over the years, she passed the entrance exam and was accepted into the school. Though she was scheduled to head off the following day, Shula's anxiousness to finally leave her home got the better of her. Attempting to sneak out at night, she was suddenly confronted by her father. Though he tried to stop her, Shula's training allowed her to easily overpower him this time. Despite having the prime opportunity to enact revenge, Shula stopped short of seriously injuring her father, figuring that resorting to such would make her no better than him. Shortly afterwards, Shula quickly departed for Shade Academy with the intent of never looking back.

Upon arriving at Shade Academy, Shula quickly prepared to adapt to her new surroundings. Seeing her acceptance into the school as an opportunity to make a better future for herself, she became very involved with both her class work and the other students. Although her studies went relatively well, she found herself suddenly having trouble connecting with others. While not openly expressing it, she seemed to develop unshakable traces of jealously for those that came from normal, caring families. These negative thoughts prevented her from forming what could have been considered true friendships, as she steadily grew more quiet and reserved. This even extended somewhat to the team she was eventually placed on. Although she did communicate more with her teammates than the other students, she never seemed to form a true bond with them. Despite this emotional block hindering her social abilities, she was able to contribute a fair amount to her team when it came to combat situations.

For a while, all was relatively stable with her school life. Five months after enrolling however, Shula and the rest of her team members took up an assignment: A minor security mission involving wall repair near the borders of Vacuo's city. Due to the relatively barren area, it was assured that there would be very low Grimm activity to contend with. However, as the team worked on repairing the security wall, the heavy equipment used in the process caused several vibrations in the ground. This eventually caught the attention of a nearby group of Death Stalkers in hidden burrows, as they quickly surfaced to confront the source of the noise. Although Shula was willing to fight against the Death Stalkers, the rest of her team quickly fled, leaving her to confront them alone. Even with her training and recent studies of Grimm-kind, Shula was vastly outmatched against the sheer power and numbers the Death Stalkers possessed. It didn't take authorities long to notice the sudden emergence of these Grimm however, and soon mobilized to fend them off before Shula suffered lethal injuries.

Although Shula had suffered several physical wounds from the ordeal, her emotions had taken a far greater hit. Even though she hadn't necessarily made the strongest of bonds with her teammates, she couldn't help but feel a heavy sense of betrayal from their actions. Feeling abandoned for the second time in her life, she soon came to and acted upon an impulse decision: After regaining her strength and gathering her current belongings, Shula made one more attempt to run away and start a new life. Setting her sights on Vale this time, Shula departed for the kingdom via a route across the eastern deserts of Vacuo. The journey itself gave her more chances to build upon her combat abilities, along with giving her time to pause for reflection. Shula still harbored a great deal of bitterness and anger in her heart, which she had attempted to quell by channeling it through her already semi-aggressive fighting style. Finding little success in this method however, and wanting to begin her new venture with an unclouded mind, she quickly resorted to concealing these negative thoughts behind the guise of her personality once more.

Once Shula reached the kingdom of Vale, she took up several minor jobs as a means of getting by. Over time, she focused more on jobs involving the extermination of Grimm, and eventually began labeling herself as a wandering, freelance Huntress. Over the course of the next few months, Shula continued this form of self-employment while traveling the kingdom. This eventually led her to the northern shores of Vale, where she soon stumbled across an abandoned house. Taking it for her own, Shula converted the house into her "base of operations." With a new place to call her own, Shula was finally beginning to feel more comfortable with herself, despite the occasional packs of Grimm that would roam too close for her own liking. Although she would have to fend off these local Grimm every now and then, the act of doing so became nothing more than a casual routine for her after a while.

One day however, as Shula was heading off to meet with a new client, she accidentally bumped into a young Faunus by the name of Beryl Mariana. The two quickly apologized to each-other and soon began conversing afterwards, with Shula being somewhat surprised to see another person out so far in the wilderness. After Beryl introduced herself, she soon explained her reasoning for being so far north into Vale: In that she was currently looking for her older sister, who had gone missing after volunteering for an investigation mission a week prior. Hearing of Beryl's strong connections with her sister seemed to trigger a deep anger within Shula: The bitterness and family-related jealously she had bottled up for so long had resurfaced, and was now beginning to boil over. With her old envy getting the better of her, Shula finally let out her pent up emotions by verbally lashing out at Beryl, stating that Beryl's sister couldn't have possibly cared about her that much in return. This sparked an argument between the two, which Beryl eventually countered by showing the scars on her left arm; explaining that her sister had saved her from a pack of Beowolves when they were younger, and that Beryl had wanted to repay her ever since.

The argument itself eventually ended with Shula storming off. Although she wanted nothing more than to forget what had happened, the exchange of words between her and Beryl kept picking away at her for the rest of the day. With her thoughts continuing to go back to it, Shula slowly began to realize just how petty she had sounded during her outburst. Even though it was a chance for her to finally let out her negative emotions, she couldn't help but feel shallow; a crushing sense of guilt and shame soon overcoming her. This eventually caused her to have a small, mental breakdown of sorts while heading back to her home at the end of the day. While she tried to pull herself together, a sudden noise in the distance caught her attention: A fight had broken out as Beryl found herself facing a pack of local Grimm. Without hesitation, Shula quickly dived in to lend her assistance to Beryl. Working together, the two quickly dispatched the pack of Grimm, though Shula immediately began to apologize to Beryl after the fight concluded; Admitting she foolish when she attempted to argue with her, and that she was too caught up in her bitter emotions. Shula then expressed that she'd be willing to help her look for her sister to further make amends, though also understood if Beryl didn't want her help as well. Much to her surprise however, Beryl accepted Shula's offer, feeling that she learned from this experience and sincerely wanted to change for the better. From that point on, the two formed a partnership and bond of trust, as they searched through-out the kingdom for any leads on the whereabouts of Beryl's sister.

Fall of Beacon
During the Battle of Beacon, both Shula and Beryl were relatively close to Vale's main city at the time. The two were eventually caught up in fighting a sudden stampede of Grimm that were migrating towards Beacon Academy. Though they were able to take out a few of the creatures together, the situation soon became too much to handle, as more powerful Grimm-kind began emerging. The sheer number of Grimm, coupled with their onslaught of attacks, eventually caused Shula and Beryl to become separated in the chaos. Both managed to survive by fleeing as far as they could in the opposite directions of the Grimm stampede, though were now left with the challenge of attempting to regroup. After taking a brief rest to regain her strength, Shula quickly set off to look for her friend.

Sharur
Shula's initial weapon is a morning star known as "Sharur." This mace-type weapon is roughly 20 inches in terms of height, which includes the spikes protruding out of the head portion. The spikes themselves can be retracted into the mace head, both as a means of using even more blunt force when attacking, and to make it easier to carry while holstered. The Sharur also has a small dust container within the hilt, allowing for a single dust effect to be transferred into the mace at any given time. Despite being somewhat smaller when compared to similar clubs or cudgels, the Sharur is slightly heavier than its initial appearance would let on. This is primarily due to its inner mechanisms which allow it to transform into its secondary mode. In regards to this, the Sharur has two small switches behind a small panel on the hilt opposite to the side that houses the dust container: The first button retracts and extends the spikes on the head accordingly, while the second button initiates its transformation.

Sharur's secondary form is a high-powered pistol. When prompted via button press, the mace's transformation process begins: The spikes on the head will retract (if they aren't already), which is soon followed by the upper portions of mace condensing and lowering. Once its height is reduced enough, the mace essentially folds to create an horizontal and vertical half, with both still attached and interlocked with each-other. Afterwards, the mace head splits apart and moves back around the edges, forming into/revealing the barrel of the gun. The trigger and its guard is also revealed from the vertical section acting as the grip, which then connects and locks into place with the horizontal section acting as the barrel. In this state, the bottom of the hilt opens to reveal a holder for the gun's magazines. Each magazine clip holds 12 bullets, with Shula often carrying up to 4 back-up clips with her. Notably, the dust container can still be used with this form, allowing for a single dust effect to be infused with the bullets.

Shula herself takes a somewhat aggressive approach when it comes to fighting. She prefers to keep pressuring her foes whenever she has the chance to, primarily through the use of melee attacks. Through several years of training, Shula has built up enough strength and dexterity to swing her mace at a relatively fast pace. She is capable of swinging it with one hand, though isn't beyond using both hands in situations where more power and momentum is needed in her attacks. Despite seemingly having a one-track mind when it comes to attacking, Shula is capable of thinking strategically in fights. If she finds herself in a tight situation, she'll begin to observe her opponents and her surroundings for anything that can be used to her advantage. If necessary, she'll also switch her weapon to its gun mode to pick off foes at certain distances. Even though her weapon can be infused with any form of dust crystals, Shula mainly prefers fire dust. She is known to carry up to 4 fire dust crystals on her person, for use in both her weapon and semblance.

Semblance: "Guardian Ember"
Note: This Semblance is currently a WIP with two different versions in mind for the time being.

General idea:

Shula's semblance is known as "Guardian Ember." In order to use this semblance, Shula must first make physical contact with a red dust crystal in some way. By using the dust itself as a catalyst, she can create fiery constructs composed of heat-energy. The constructs themselves take the form of a small, floating orbs of fire. Shula can directly control the orbs movements, as they often float directly above or slightly behind her. She'll often use them in conjunction with her attacks, via swinging them around and forcing them into the enemy. She can also focus the construct's energy and utilize it as a single-use projectile, forcing the construct to fly towards a target and cause a small explosion on contact.

Version 1:

When creating a construct, Shula's semblance will drain 1/5th of the red dust's energy. This allows Shula to create up to 5 constructs per dust crystal, which is also serves as the maximum amount of constructs she can have out at any given time. Creating a single construct takes roughly 5 seconds to complete. While she can make multiple constructs at the same time, the process takes longer the more she creates in a single use. Additionally, if Shula has all 5 constructs present, she can utilize and combine all of them to create a single, devastating projectile - which she often launches by channeling it into her mace and swinging towards her target to unleash it. Notably however, her constructs do not last forever while idle. Each construct has a 3 minute life-span before they lose their energy and dissolve.

Version 2:

When creating a construct, Shula's semblance will drain 1/3rd of the red dust's energy. Shula is only capable of having a single construct with her at any given time, with the construct itself having a life-span of 7 minutes before dissolving out. Although she can only have a single construct, Shula is capable of putting more energy into it by using the same dust crystal again. When infused with 2/3rd's of the dust's energy, the floating ember construct gains a power boost along with two smaller trails of fire extending from its sides, acting roughly like "wings" in appearance. When infused with all of the red dust's energy, the construct gains a slight speed boost, along with slightly more recognizable form; taking the appearance of a small, avian-type creature composed of fire. The construct's overall life-span is increased by 1 minute each time it is boosted by infusions from dust, but the process of doing so takes longer with each use. Initial creation of the construct takes 5 seconds; Secondary boost takes 10 seconds, and the final boost takes 20 seconds to complete.

Overall Notes/Weaknesses:

Red/Fire dust is the only type that will work with Shula's semblance. Additionally, Shula must have physical contact with a red dust crystal in order to use her semblance. If she does not have contact with it, or if her contact with the dust is broken while she is attempting to create a construct, the process will be cancelled and Shula will have to attempt it again. Given this semblance's affiliation towards the elements of fire, it is incredibly weak against water. Strong amounts of liquid will cause her constructs to fizzle out and fade away. Due to this, she is incapable of using her semblance in the event of rainfall, as her constructs would disappear shortly after being created.

Trivia
- Shula's first name means "flame" in Arabic.

- Her last name is derived from the "Eta Carinae," a stellar system with two stars are speculated to be around 72,000 degrees Fahrenheit (40,000 Kelvin).

- Shula's primary color is red, which is seen in both her hair, her shirt, and somewhat in her eye color.

- The triangle shape that appears on her emblem and her necklace is a reference to the alchemical symbol for fire.

- Shula's weapon, the Sharur, is named after a mythical mace used by Ninurta, the Sumerian God of hunting and war. Its name translates to "Smasher of thousands."

- The constructs created through her semblance are initially meant to resemble Will-o'-the-Wisps, a form of spectral light phenomenon in English and European folklore.

- Many of Shula's attributes serve as parallels to her best friend, Beryl: Shula's primary color is red and has an affinity for warmer climates. Beryl's primary color is aquamarine (a color with shades of green, which is red's complementary color), and has an affinity for cold environments. Additionally, there is a variant of aquamarine gems called "maxixe," which are known to change to white when exposed to heat or sunlight. In relation to this, Shula's personality rubs off on Beryl by teaching her how to be more calm and clear when it comes to certain casual situations.