CHARACTERName: Saffron Biel
Age: 20
Species and Gender: Human female
Symbol: Crocus flower in white and gold color scheme
Occupation: First year student at Beacon Academy
Appearance: Saffron is 158 cm tall and weighs 50 kg. She has dark brown, shoulder length hair, brown eyes and pale complexion. Her standard outfit consists of: a white lab coat which she used during her last two years at school in Atlas and which she modified by adding a hood and saffron colored stripes (giving it appearance similar to the robe in icon below).
She uses two large pockets in the coat to carry dust containers and two pairs of white latex gloves, which, although rarely used are considered by her to be an essential part of her outfit. Underneath the coat she wears a white T-shirt with her emblem on the right shoulder. In addition to that she has a pair of white, skinny jeans, tall, leather boots and a leather belt around her lab coat, giving it an appearance similar to a tunic. On that belt she carries a sheath for her dagger, small first aid kit and even smaller water bottle.
History: Saffron was born in a family which generation after generation gifted the world with skilled physicians of various specializations. She grew up in Vale with her parents (both of them were doctors) and a brother who was 4 years older than her. She had a happy, peaceful childhood, which ended on her 17th birthday, when she chose her path through life. She wasn't sure if it was a right choice, but out of lack of better ideas she decided to follow her family's tradition. And just like her brother 4 years earlier, she traveled to Atlas to enroll at a medical academy located there. The same one that many of her relatives graduated from.
From the very beginning she was recognized as a member of Biel family, which came with an unforeseen legacy to uphold - she was expected to do at least just as well, if not better as her relatives in the past. It wasn't so bad for first two years - not only they were only learning the basics, but also her brother was still studying there, and he was always able to find some time to help her if she had trouble with some subject. As a result, she felt the true weight of that responsibility for the first time during the third year. The fact that she had very specific interests didn't help - she was fascinated by artificial body parts and herbalism - both of which were only covered in basics, as they were unlikely to ever be useful to an average physician. That part of her time at school lasted 3 years and was filled with hours of learning, spent not to gain knowledge, but to do well enough. That changed at the beginning of her sixth and final year in the academy, when a classmate introduced her to his cousin - a huntsman in training from Atlas Academy. From that moment she spent less and less time on studying for her school, instead spending time learning about Grimm, dust and everything huntsman related, as a dream slowly formed in her mind. She stopped trying to uphold the standard that previous members of her family set. She now had a goal, a vision that she was willing to dedicate her entire life to, should that be required.
She started visiting her new friend to watch him and his team practice and after creating her own weapon - also join them. She almost completely ignored studying for many subjects at school to focus on few which she thought would help her achieve her goal. She worked harder than ever before, which eventually lead her to discovering her semblance. All of that didn't mean that she stopped putting effort into learning all the subjects at school. She still did her best to gain as much knowledge and experience from them as possible, but only during classes and not a second longer. She remembered the last part of the year as an exhausting streak of studying, exams and work. In the end she managed to graduate the academy with a very average score - significantly lower than what was expected from a member of Biel family. She then returned home, unlike most students, who stayed at the academy for another year or two to gain skills related to the specialization they chose.
After returning to Vale she announced that she wants to enroll at Beacon Academy, which was a surprise for most members of her relatives and a big shock for the rest. Not listening to any arguments, she took the Enrollment Exam and at the age of 20 began her study at Beacon.
Personality: Saffron was always a cheerful, selfless person and she stayed this way throughout the years spent in Atlas. But one noticeable trait she gained there was talkativeness - most conversations with her sooner or later turn into a monologue about whatever is on her mind at the moment. And just as much as she enjoys talking, she dislikes listening. Unless she's interested in the topic of the conversation she gets bored very quickly and while she tries to hide it, she's not doing a very good job at that.
Although as a child she was repelled by mere sight of blood, during the time spent in the medical school she became indifferent to the sight of even serious injuries. That didn't stop her classmates from jokingly claiming that the exceptional speed at which she worked was caused by the fact that she wanted to stop seeing the wounds as quickly as possible. Saffron considered it to be really funny and often used that claim herself.
While cheerfulness is a defining feature of Saffron's personality, when a situation gets serious - be it because she was about to fight, or take care of someone's injury, that feature disappears without a trace. She becomes serious and focused on her current task. The only thing that doesn't change about her is her selflessness. Which can be seen in her fighting style.
Aura and Semblance: Saffron's aura was unlocked with help from a student at Atlas Academy during her last year in Atlas. It is saffron in color.
Her semblance - Rally - allows her to temporarily strengthen the willpower of either herself, or someone who she touches. As a result, the affected finds it easier to make certain decisions - from waking up on time, resisting peer pressure, doing whatever they are supposed to do instead of procrastinating all the way to getting back up after a crushing defeat. But while it might help someone get over the obstacles that life puts in their way, if a person intended to give up as soon as things start getting more difficult, being affected with this semblance would just fortify their decision. Using this semblance requires Saffron to first focus for few seconds. She can only affect one person at a time and to do so, she must maintain physical contact.
Combat Behavior: Saffron tends to fight from just behind the first line, focusing on supporting her allies. Provided that she has proper dust types, she can prove to be very helpful, despite rarely landing a finishing blow. Disrupting enemy attacks, creating openings, pushing allies out of the way of a strike and many more - her most common actions during battle all revolve around getting the most out of ranged options of her weapon. Still, if needed, she can replace a fighter in a front line, using the blade of her weapon to cripple her opponents.
Saffron is a team player. But that skill turns out to be useless when she's alone. When there isn't anyone she could support, all the flaws of her weapon become apparent, most significant two being lack of good defensive options and the fact that dust must be loaded right before firing. That leaves her only with her agility and close range combat - both of which are considered by Saffron to not be that important for her fighting style. She never fought a serious battle alone and as a result she isn't fully aware of these weaknesses.
WEAPONName: Phoenix's Claw
Primary Form: In its primary form Phoenix's Claw is a single-edged dagger with 12 cm long, wooden handle and 20 cm long, obsidian blade. This choice of material allowed for sharpest edge physically possible but at the same time it made the blade extremely brittle. Because of that it can only be used when protected by user's aura. This weapon lacks a pommel and instead a small ring is put around the end of the handle to prevent it from slipping out of user's hand.
Secondary Form: The handle of Phoenix's Claw can be extended to 60 cm. It changes nothing about the basic functions of the weapon.
Dust Functions: Lack of a pommel leaves the inside of the handle open, allowing the user to fill it with dust, which is used to shoot out a continuous beam of energy. Once the dust is inserted into the weapon it'll fire with few seconds of delay. Beam's power can be adjusted by rotating the ring on the handle, but it's impossible to stop it until it runs out of dust. Because of small size of the handle it can only contain small amount of dust, heavily limiting it's usefulness as a weapon, since a beam powerful enough to cause serious damage would only last a fraction of a second. In it's secondary form, due to increased volume of the handle, significantly more dust can be inserted, allowing even a powerful beam (which, if used with fire dust is hot enough to melt aluminum, while the weakest setting requires 2-3 seconds to cause a 1st degree burn) to last for almost 10 seconds if filled completely; the delay before firing is also increased to make sure that the user has enough time to load the dust and point the weapon towards their enemy.
While this function can be used with any kind of dust to give the beam different properties, Saffron's primary choice is fire dust.
History: Saffron created Phoenix's Claw during her last year in Atlas, after she learned basics of that process from a student at Atlas Academy. She designed it to resemble (and work as) an improvised set of medical tools - the blade could perform precise cuts, and the beam, set to low power and generated with fire dust, could cauterize wounds.
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