[hider=Sterling][color=95c9f4][b]Name:[/b][/color] Sterling Lucien
[color=95c9f4][b]Age:[/b][/color] 20
[color=95c9f4][b]Gender:[/b][/color] Female
[color=95c9f4][b]Race:[/b][/color] Faunus
[color=95c9f4][b]Nationality:[/b][/color] Vale
[color=95c9f4][b]Appearance:[/b][/color] Average in height, Sterling stands at 5’5 with light skin, a product of both genetics and her habits of wearing hoods and clothing which basically covers everything except for her face. Her hair is a shade of dark silver, with black roots. It barely reaches her shoulders, usually kept relatively short, sometimes tied back. Her eyes are a light blue, though her left eye has a slight shade of amber around the edge of the iris. Her faunus trait is the lynx ears on the top of her head. She is somewhat considered cute in a way, though she doesn’t find that a defining characteristic.

[color=95c9f4]“Keep my hair short for the hood, it’s easier."[/color]

She’s of a smaller build which helps in her maneuvering, considering she’s not a brawler or one to get close, this doesn’t matter. Her clothing and armor follow up when it comes to the lighter theme, despite somewhat generic. She wears a dark blue sweatshirt with light padding, outlined in black and silver. It’s all designed to keep her capable of full movement and give some protection. She wears jeans with similar padding by the shins and knees, and combat boots slipped under the cuff. 

[color=95c9f4]“It’s a bit light, and I know some people don’t even use armor, but my aura is mediocre at best.”[/color]

Equipment wise, she’s got a small bag she also carries with her, usually containing some simple supplies. A small medkit for various emergencies, especially if someone’s aura ends up depleted out in the field. Canned food and water. On the right side of her belt, she has a pouch for individual dust rounds, usually for utility. Her various magazines are kept on her lower back and the left side of her belt. 

[color=95c9f4]“Utility is important. You usually only need two, three days to get from the Grimm hunts to the nearest town or city.”[/color]

Decorative wise, she doesn’t wear too much. She has a watch inside her left sleeve, fingerless gloves with a bit of padding by the palm, a bit more rigid by the knuckles. She has a silver Sun pendant she keeps under her jacket.

[color=95c9f4]“I’ve had it ever since I had my first sparring match with my dad.”[/color]

[color=95c9f4][b]Personality:[/b][/color]
First on the outside, Sterling is a bit shy and more reserved, although she comes off as cold a lot of the time. She’s more of a follower than a leader, kinda off to the side and avoiding too much confrontation. She’s not all too good with people, usually being a bit too professional when it comes to others, and not meshing all too well when it comes to social interactions. Though she tries to understand them a lot, sometimes she misunderstands intent. She does step in occasionally when it comes to discussions on faunus rights, or if she needs to for combat, planning, etc. But she usually stays quiet when it comes to people she doesn’t know. 

[color=95c9f4]“It’s easier to keep things simple.”[/color]

When you first meet her, she’s probably giving you a colder attitude of quiet, defensiveness, or over-professional intent. That’s somewhat normal, that’s her way of trying to figure out what type of person she’s meeting. She tends to warm up after some time although keeps her professional attitude under most circumstances, usually needing to be told to lighten up, and she sometimes does. 

[color=95c9f4]“Newer people can be sometimes confusing. I find it’s easier this way then actively asking questions. Prove yourself.”[/color]

The more professional side to her attitude is mostly due to her views on Humans vs. Faunus, where the Faunus are somewhat in a moral obligation to prove themselves to be equal or superior to humans in order to gain their equality. Somewhat contradictory, maybe, but that’s what she thinks will get everyone to believe that faunus are elegant, sophisticated, etc. All good characteristics to prove their equality.

[color=95c9f4]“I don’t believe that Faunus are better than humans, though we have to act like it to prove ourselves.”[/color]

There’s another part of her drive, it’s protecting the peace. She strives for keeping that up, as it’s part of her job, and it seems the Grimm and many random people seem to dislike that for whatever reason. The Grimm are constantly trying to ruin humanity, and it’s part of her job to fight that. There also seem to be criminals actively breaking the peace, and Sterling absolutely hates them. She can get pretty dark when it comes to those people, adding onto the cold aspect of her personality.

[color=95c9f4]“What’s more to say? People who try to ruin people’s lives shouldn’t receive that much mercy.”[/color]

Then there’s the internal side of her, warmer and nicer than her colder side. She does like to find some friends, however she has issues trusting some people, sometimes humans. Somewhat due to her past experiences with several people. She does work to make good impressions, and make some sort of mental image of someone who conducts herself in an outstanding manner, and yet is loyal to her friends. When you get her to open up, she starts to relax a bit, and starts to actually show that she’s a nice person.

[color=95c9f4]“Not that I’m mean in general, it’s mostly that it’s hard to trust people.”[/color]

[color=95c9f4][b]Aspiration:[/b]
“I dream of a world where hate isn’t the loudest voice for Faunus rights. I want help the people I watch over. I want to fight the people who actively go against peace.” [/color]

Her dreams of equality are more than a driving factor for her, which is relatively common for most common. Being able to protect those she works with or those who can’t protect themselves? That’s another thing. She always wants to go out of her way and protect people who can’t. Sometimes night patrols keep her Lightning Gaze watching over the walls or rooftops in order to keep the Grimm away. As for the last part, she absolutely hates those who try and ruin the peace and is willing to fight for it.

On a side note, she wants to try and get some wicked shots for shooting as a sport.

[color=95c9f4][b]Fears:[/b] [/color]
[color=95c9f4][b]Betrayal -[/b]
“There’s a lot of reasons I have not to trust people. If I get stabbed in the back…” [/color]

[color=95c9f4][b]Grimm Invasions -[/b]
“It worries me too often that innocent people might get hurt because we can’t protect them.” [/color]

[color=95c9f4][b]Enemy Snipers -[/b]
“While not all too bone chilling, it’s sometimes a terrifying sight to see someone else with my skillset. Having them find me is scarier.” [/color]


[color=95c9f4][b]Ethics:[/b]
“I’m somewhat cynical when it comes to most people, I know. But there’s a reason. A lot of people don’t seem to be trustworthy, and there are just some things that we just can’t change about people. Yes, I’m a bit cold but there are a lot worse. Granted, people can earn trust, they can earn their spot in history, though still. Traitors, liars, murderers, all those bad people? I might be cruel for saying this but no mercy. Honestly. It’s not right to forgive people who actively go off to hurt others.” [/color]

[color=95c9f4][b]History:[/b][/color] Sterling grew up in Vale to a simple family, both parents being Huntsmen. Her mother taught her morals for the most part, all about Faunus equality and the like. Her mother is where she learned about conducting herself with dignity, in order to stray away from the stereotypes of Faunus being somehow lower than Humans. Her father taught her to defend herself if her mother's teachings weren't enough. The two of them associated themselves with The White Fang, although with recent events have branched away, seeing the group beginning a different moral transition.

Her youth was pretty full of generic fun, being a lot more cheerful than she appears now. Signal to Beacon, she kept up her role as a sniper for support. Faunus innate night vision along with her semblance kept that one up, and she was quickly able to adapt to using her own custom sniper rifle. As per her father's recommendation, the second version the two created included the shift to a closer range weapon. 

Her younger years dealt with a bit of harassment for her heritage, with some people turning their backs on her after dealing with it for quite a bit of time, not wanting to get dragged into it. It was only the first bit of her issues, though she did put up with it and still kept up that friendly attitude she used to have.That seemed to alleviate after a bit, when she started at Signal, which was a simpler experience. 

Skip towards Beacon, her experience was mostly generic. Her team never excelled at the tournaments, but they still got well into it. However, Team FWKS (Fawkes) disbanded a bit before their time was over. Sterling was actually the only one able to finish Beacon relatively properly. Flare bailed from Beacon after an emergency in his hometown, never coming back. That left Wisteria and Key both in Beacon with Sterling. The last interactions between Sterling and her two teammates is a story that she never likes to tell, although explains some of her attitude.

The remaining two caused the team to split. The both of them actually ended up abandoning Sterling off in the middle of one of their missions out in the field. Key was just a racist who only put up with Sterling due to Flare, though after he left, things went south. Key stopped dealing with Sterling with words and got physical with it, catching her off guard. Wisteria was just easily manipulated and believed that Sterling had actually bailed on the both of them. 

Somewhat obviously, Key got heavily reprimanded and ejected from Beacon, and Wisteria quit that week, thinking that she left Sterling for dead. Sterling actually made it back to a nearby town where she could get reception for her scroll, calling in that she was alive, thought a few days later. Sterling never actually was able to talk to the two of them afterwards, only working off of the paranoia and hints dropped by Key, which drove her trust issues to start up.

After that week, Sterling developed quite some issues with trust and dealing with people, slowly becoming a lone-wolf type who avoided other people. The two people she trusted the most just left her out in the middle of nowhere, and those days were pretty hellish. She's slowly been trying to fix that up, though she has issues opening up for that sole reason that her team broke down after some time. Sterling felt as if her own efforts to protect her teammates were dropped for some unknown reasons, and felt that the people she protected absolutely didn't care. 

In the current day, Sterling takes up some work in defense or hunting Grimm. She finished her training (albeit improperly), and has made the distinction in terms of other people's morals. She still has that attitude of protecting those who can't protect themselves, but her own loyalties are relatively questionable. She still keeps up many of the morals she was taught, although her trust issues and cynical beliefs have strayed away from what she used to be. She seems to linger on the past a lot, however, in a poor attempt to look to the future.

[color=95c9f4][b]Semblance:[/b][/color] Lightning Gaze - [color=95c9f4]“It’s not foresight. It’s prediction.” [/color]
Her vision is highly enhanced, seeing distance wise, particularly with her left eye. The primary ability causes her left eye to glow amber, where she has predictive sight on the movement of her targets. It requires a bit of mental calculations, though it’s not much that she can’t handle.

[color=95c9f4][b]Combat Style:[/b][/color] Being a sniper, Sterling usually takes the route of staying back and taking shots at the more powerful targets from trees, rooftops, or simply the backlines. That’s not to say that she doesn’t do too well in melee, although since her only physical attacks are punches, or hitting her opponents with her gun, it’s not too effective. She’s not all too quick with the fist, though her semblance does help in close quarters. Primarily, she chooses to distance herself and fire her lighter dust bolts, being able to transition quickly. That being said, her aura isn't too strong and she prefers to not get hit.

[color=95c9f4][b]Weapon:[/b][/color] Argent Lux - A black and navy blue weapon case with silver accents in standby form, with a strap to be slung over her shoulder, Argent Lux shifts to a sniper rifle with a somewhat longer than expected barrel. This form has a scope on the top with a beam of light design on the side. This form fires three different forms of ammo, the first being high power dust ‘bolts’ with various properties, usually explosive on impact. Each shot requires Sterling to pull back the bolt on the gun and let the chamber and dust magazine to air cool for a second or two. (It’s actually more reminiscent of a battery pack to an extent) Time increases the more she fires the full power bolts. 18 shots per magazine. Second is a lighter bolt, not nearly as powerful but can be used in rapid succession, and can also be used in secondary form, can be fired a lot faster, either single shot or with a 3 round burst. The former is for longer range, the latter for shorter range. 36 shots per magazine. The final is an actual solid/explosive cartridge for taking down larger Grimm, some modified for various dust applications. 12 rounds per magazine. The weapon shifts to a bullpup rifle with the firing mechanism and the magazine shift behind the grip and into the stock, and the barrel length cutting in half and folding into itself. Sterling uses this for close combat, accompanied by her lower power dust cartridge. 

[color=95c9f4][b]Non-Combat skills:[/b][/color] She’s good with cooking, chess, strategy. She's also really good at climbing and free running, [s]to almost an assassin's creed level[/s]

[color=95c9f4][b]Deficiencies:[/b][/color] Sterling isn’t all too good with understanding people socially, although she tries to deconstruct morals and other things. She’s a bit uptight when it comes to her own appearances and other people, but that’s somewhat to be expected. She tends to shut people out sometimes, with a cold shoulder, and is sometimes seen as merciless to criminals and the like.

[color=95c9f4][b]Miscellaneous:[/b][/color] N/A[/hider]