Gender: Female
Age: 18
Grade: Senior
Hobbies and Interests: Hiking, mountain biking, environmentalism, socialism, Latin American history, volleyball
Gift: Flashbang
Power Details: Claudia can voluntarily produce a pulse of light at 7 megacandela and a burst of sound at 175 decibels, simulating the effects of a stun grenade, which include temporary blindness and hearing loss, loss of balance, and the creation of an afterimage which impairs vision after the blindness effect has worn off. This effect generally lasts around 15 to 20 seconds after the blast. The concussive blasts produced by each burst have the capability to cause blunt force trauma, and the heat generated in the burst can ignite flammable materials. Claudia also seems to be the source of the shockwaves and heat, so the heat and force damage done to her are negligible. The concussive waves emanate one inch away from her skin and expand in all directions. She has the choice on whether to activate each effect simultaneously or whether she wants activate them separately. When she activates Flashbang voluntarily, she can choose whether just to emit light or sound, but the concussive waves always come with both. If Flashbang is activated involuntarily, it always comes at full effect.
Limitations and Drawbacks: Claudia suffers from lessened, but still significant, sensory effects of the pulse she creates, with blindness, deafness, and loss of balance lasting anywhere from 10 to 16 seconds after the blast. Claudia cannot use Flashbang during this timeframe. The constant barrage on her eyes and ears have also lowered her senses of hearing and sight to below-average levels, and she requires corrective contact lenses to see properly. Claudia has no known limit on how many times she can use Flashbang in one day, but using it over five times in one minute physically weakens her to the point where she cannot stand on her own. After Flashbang has been used once, Claudia has a 1 minute window to use Flashbang until she is required to rest. 1 minute after using Flashbang once, Claudia develops fatigue, and must sit perfectly still and rest for 1 minute afterwards to avoid worsening the fatigue. If she keeps moving for up to an additional 5 minutes, she will collapse from exhaustion. If she uses it more than once, the amount she has to rest increases by one minute per use and cannot move for an additional minute per use. Flashbang cannot be used again until Claudia completes this rest. Whenever put under exceptional emotional duress, whether it be fear or anger, Claudia will involuntarily use Flashbang as a reflex. Something as mundane as a sudden scare in a horror movie can cause Flashbang to trigger.
Appearance: Claudia stands at 5' 6" and weights 131 pounds, with around 8% of her weight being body fat, which is most prevalent around her thighs. She has a small but shapely hourglass figure with a slim but muscular frame. She has bronzed olive skin, belying her Guatemalan heritage. She has straight black hair which cuts off just below her shoulder blades, although Claudia usually has her hair tied up in a low, loose bun. Her brown, almond-shaped eyes are capped by thin, arched eyebrows, accompanied by a button nose and thick, full lips. She has a prominent, smooth chin with a rounded jawline and high but recessive cheekbones, giving her face a rounded appearance.
Claudia usually wears clothes that are suitable for hiking in a variety of colors. Her usual attire consists of a tank top, denim shorts, a baseball cap, and pair of Chaco shoes, the last of which she is almost always wearing. Socks rarely make it into her wardrobe, and she only puts on thermal socks if it simply gets too cold outside for even her to bear. Claudia paints her fingernails red and her toenails in a rainbow pattern, representing her political orientation and sexual orientation respectively. She has a tattoo in the outline of the Raised Fist on her left shoulder, with the word RESIST in all capitals underneath. On the day of her abduction, Claudia was wearing a red zip-up jacket, a gray tank top with the Socialist Rose print, denim shorts, a red baseball cap, and a pair of black Chaco shoes.
Background:
- Claudia was born on May 12, 2003 in Phoenix, Arizona to Arturo and Carmen Salgado. She was the oldest of 4 children, with her younger siblings being Juan, Isabel, and Rodrigo. Both of her parents were doctors at the local hospital.
- Claudia's Gift first manifested when she visited the Phoenix zoo at age 4. A chimpanzee scared her when it started banging on the glass, and she used Flashbang involuntarily. Several injuries were reported among the crowd, and her parents had to pay $100,000 in damages. Her parents decided it would be a good idea to move to a smaller city, and chose to move to Bend, Oregon.
- Claudia's parents decided to invest money into a therapist who could help keep Claudia's negative emotions in check. After several years of therapy, Claudia could reliably suppress feelings of extreme anger or fear, but sudden scares could still cause her to use her Gift.
- Her love of the outdoors comes from her parents, who used to take her on hikes all around the Oregon wilderness. She took up mountain biking after learning to ride a bike at age 12, though she always stuck to the safer trails to avoid injury.
- Claudia had become somewhat overweight in middle school, and her parents nudged her into taking a sport to improve her health. She chose volleyball, and quickly became engrossed with the sport. She practiced whenever she was able, and quickly shed much of her excess body fat. Her dedication and natural talent for volleyball has turned her into a permanent starter for the school volleyball team.
- In 10th grade, Claudia decided to research the history of Guatemala, the origin country of her parents. She was appalled to find out that the United Fruit Company, based in the United States, had exploited Guatemala and its people for simple monetary gain. In response to what she had seen as a disgusting excess of capitalism, she adopted socialism as her political ideology, and became a fervent socialist activist and was a harsh critic of American foreign policy.
- In 11th grade, Claudia developed a crush on a senior member of the volleyball team, Yvonne Lisette, and came to the realization that she was a lesbian. Yvonne reciprocated Claudia's feelings, and the two began a highly successful relationship. The two shared many things in common, including their political views. Claudia eventually came out to her family, and they received the news warmly, which greatly relieved Claudia and Yvonne. Claudia was devastated when Yvonne graduated later that year, but the two maintain a healthy long-distance relationship, and Yvonne comes home on breaks and sometimes on weekends from Portland State University. Claudia and Yvonne both got matching tattoos in the same location.
- After Claudia graduates, she plans to attend Portland State University with her girlfriend Yvonne. She wants to continue her socialist activism in her adulthood, but is unsure of what her future career should be. Her parents are pushing her into following their footsteps to become a doctor, a career that she has no interest in.
Other Skills: Gift adeptness, emotional control
