Clara Kennedy

World: POWERS
Name: Clara Kennedy
Date of Birth: 9th November 2002
Age: 13
Position: Student at Tyler Jacobson Academy
Class: Sentinel
Appearance: Clara is short and slight, with large green eyes and short blonde hair with a fringe that sweeps across her forehead. She loves wearing skirts and pretty much any top she can find. Her clothing choices are always brightly colored, but she's not the best at co-ordinating outfits, throwing together whatever she feels like wearing, which may not always look good as a cohesive whole. She will elect to wear brightly colored dresses for formal events.
Backstory: Born as Clara Walker to a military family in Washington DC, her father was a pilot for the United States Air Force, and her mother was a medic in the Marine Corps. She was discovered as a meta-human at the age of 3 - close to the same time as Josh - when her father accidentally cut himself with a knife whilst cooking dinner. Clara approached the large cut on her father's hand, her hands emitted a sphere of soft blue light, and the wound began to heal. Her parents called upon Lyra Kennedy, knowing that she was a leading military researcher, and helped her kickstart a project for 'human enhancement'. Shortly after this, they discovered Clara's capacity to turn invisible, as she was caught trying to take candy from a kitchen cabinet, becoming visible before she could even take a treat for herself. The clinical nature of her biological parents quickly allowed them to detach from Clara after discovering her powers, seeing her as something inhuman, and clearly not their own. As the Human Enhancement project went forwards, Clara's parents took less interest in their daughter's well-being, eventually allowing for the project to strip her of her identity as with all other metas, but they had a sense of guilt which kept them posted at the Nevada base in which their daughter was being held, yet they refused to ever interact with her, working only above ground. Unknown to the other metas (except for Josh, whose mind reading ability allowed him to learn this information), Clara's background afforded her certain luxuries and privileges that the other test subjects didn't receive. She was given three meals a day and allowed to roam freely around the underground section of the base, where there was a library, mess hall, games room and much more. With all the spare time she had, she actively helped the scientists working on the project to analyze data from the perspective of a meta and consented to giving them demonstrations and samples. She didn't enjoy her time in the base, as she despised how her fellow metas were treated, and while she was seen as sub-human herself, she was treated far better than the others. She used her privileges to treat the other metas when possible, giving them extra food from her spare meals, extra water whenever possible, and gathering intel to help with escape plots by befriending the guards. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't wholly exempt from being tested, although she did recieve quite a lot of mercy in that regard, never fully cut open, always anaesthetised during the more painful procedures, practically treated like a normal young girl being given surgery. Her method of coping with her imprisonment was escapism, launching herself fully into fictional worlds of video games, or reading as much non-fiction as she could to help her gain a clearer picture of the world outside of the desolate military base. The eight metas kept in the facility were all identified only by their first names. Other than Josh and Clara, there was Annie, whose powers were unknown, Alex, who had an enhanced speed, Mark, who had the ability to temporarily stop time, Lexi, with powers of enhanced strength, David, who had powers of pyromancy, and Katherine, who had the ability to create psionic blasts. Clara interacted with all of them frequently. Throughout the duration of their imprisonment, the metas made multiple attempts to escape. On the first occasion (note that Clara was unaware of Josh's solo escape attempt), Clara utilized her proximity to some of the guards to ascertain exactly when the shifts switched, finding that there was a very small window of opportunity in which she could infiltrate the control room whilst invisible. Clara was caught mid-way through opening the cells, with Lexi, David, Mark and Alex set free. The four tried to escape with the use of their powers, but they were executed immediately. Clara was left to punish herself by struggling with her own guilt. In the third and final attempt, Katherine found that her psionic blasts could destroy some of the wall of her living quarters and fired upon the same area of everyone else's. Katherine then tried to unleash a powerful blast of energy to blow the doors off, but the alarm was raised and the four were moved into new cells reinforced with eight inches of steel. The night after the Meta-Humans Rights Act passed, a group of militant activists stormed the base. Clara and her fellow metas used their powers in an attempt to gain freedom, but only she and Josh managed to get out of the chaotic skirmish alive. Clara found her parents dead outside, unable to bring them back, despite using her healing powers on them. Josh and Clara then found Lyra, who legally adopted the two and tried to raise them herself. From that point on, Lyra essentially became Clara's mother, and Josh her brother. However, Josh was severely mentally damaged by his time in the Nevada military base, and Clara was shaken by the death of her parents. Although struggling similarly to Josh for a while, becoming introverted and moody, Lyra's compassionate and loving method of raising Clara, and having the bad example of Josh as a reference to what she was in danger of becoming, Clara focused her energy into re-adjusting and managed to stabilize herself. Lyra still feared the mental instability of Josh though, and so upon the announcement of the Tyler Jacobson Academy, the two children were enrolled immediately in the hopes that they could learn to use their powers to the best of their abilities, and to make sure that they were being used for the right reasons. Clara has been tasked with caring for Josh, and ensuring he doesn't spiral out of control.
Powers: Clara can turn invisible at will. There is no real limit as to how long Clara can stay invisible for, but if she moves, there is a slight shimmering effect from the diffraction of the light passing through her. While it is difficult to notice, a trained eye would know what to look for, and can single it out without too much difficulty. While stationary, though, Clara is impossible to spot, provided that she isn't holding anything. Unfortunately, Clara's clothes and any other external objects don't turn invisible with her. To provide some modesty, the Academy provided her with a suit that can change alongside her as part of her uniform. Although she absolutely despises wearing it for how bland it looks, she recognizes its utility. Still, she only keeps it on when she feels like she has to. She also has strong healing powers, emitting a sphere of glowing blue light from her hand which, when passed over a wound, can heal it fairly quickly. Severe wounds require prolonged exposure to Clara's healing ability, and mortal wounds need to be seen to immediately with the hopes of being partially healed to prevent death of the target. She cannot heal internal injuries.
Personality: In spite of the way she was treated, Clara considers herself to be human, almost out of sheer stubbornness. She argues that she is physically, mentally and biologically human, seeing no reason to think otherwise. Lyra helped her cement this belief for good. Clara is bubbly and fun for the most part, suppressing the dark history of her parents' death and the treatment towards the other metas that she witnessed while held in the Nevada base. Her darker, more introspective side is only brought out by Josh. She is easy to get along with, mischievous and funny, with a passionate love of video games, card games, and board games born out of the many hours she spent in the games room in the military base. She is also highly intelligent, having read a lot of non-fiction from the library on as many subjects as she could comprehend. As such, she became passionate about astrophysics, hoping to explore space as an astronaut some day. She enjoys playing pranks by taking advantage of her own invisibility and Josh's telekinesis. If someone gets on her bad side, however, she will sink as much effort into pranking her enemy as possible in an attempt to make their life hell.

A well-adjusted, compassionate and happy character! I have a feeling those will be rare in POWERS, so I'm always happy to see one! Still, there are a few issues I believe should be addressed.

1. I say this on almost every profile, but we know little to nothing about her childhood. Skipping the first few years of her life, what was she like in the military base? I know she was given free reign and all, but I'd like to know more about her rather than about what she has done. Was she always a cheerful little girl? What were her hopes and dreams? How did she deal with the fact that her parents basically betrayed her and kept her imprisoned? Did she have a lot of contact with her parents, and if so, how did she handle the fact that they no longer even treated her as a human being? Did she think of herself as human, or did she develop an inferiority complex based on the behavior of those around her? Did she ever believe that she'd get out? What experiments was she subjected to? I know that the other kids were vivisected and all that kind of stuff, but did she receive special treatment and leniency when it came to the experiments or did she have to go under the knife as well?

2. Even if all of the information about the experiments and escape attempts is detailed in Jimmy's profile, I think it's good to have it here as well just in case anyone who wants to check out her profile doesn't have to jump around threads to get the complete picture, you know? Even if you just have to copy/paste it with minor adjustments, I think it'd be alright.

3. How did she deal with her life when she was out of confinement? We're talking about a girl who has spent most of her conscious life behind bars and being experimented upon, and all of a sudden she's experiencing normalcy. I doubt she'd just be able to grin and accept it, considering that her formative years - the years that teach her how the world works - were spent in what is essentially a prison. She had to learn a whole lot about society when she was let go. How did she adjust? There's so much you could have explained here.

4. Her invisibility power... Does it extend to her clothes, or only to her body and hair? I suppose it'd be kind of inconvenient (if very hilarious and adorable) if she had to strip down every time she had to infiltrate something, but then again, I'm sure they could provide her with an outfit made out of unstable molecules that turns invisible alongside her. And in case her clothes turn invisible as well, then does that mean any items she's holding turn invisible too? What about the floor she's stepping on? I think you'll need to think this through a lot more. The healing powers seem fine, though.

Giving this a bump because I made some changes. Hope it's up to scratch now.

Approved.