Claire Sharp

### Unique Markings

A handful of small moles and freckles dot Claire's face, but her most notable marking is a tattoo of three birds on her right wrist.

## Status

### Occupation

* Biochemist
* Investigative Journalist

**Claire Sharp**, pen-name **Cecelia Belpois**, is a human biochemist and investigative journalist. A trained biotic from the Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training program, she has been obsessed with exposing Carolyn Kang and the enigmatic corporation Blue Field Innovations since the revelation that Kang was behind her mother's death.

## Biography

### Different kind of Child

In 2157, during the infamous First Contact War, Claire Sharp was born in Rouen, France to Tora and Hugh Sharp - an attorney and engineer, respectively - in the midst of chaos that would seem to follow her throughout her entire life. Though initially a happy, healthy child, it became very evident to Claire's parents soon after her birth that something about their daughter was different. They didn't know what at first, but screenings were done, tests performed, and the results that came back were extraordinary - and unbelievable, for not only Tora and Hugh, but Claire's doctors as well.

It appeared that when Tora was still pregnant, during humanity's short conflict with the turians, a ship carrying supplies from Paris to the main Alliance fleet had malfunctioned and spilled eezo across a large part of northern France - including Rouen, the city where Claire was born. That exposure, though it hadn't seemed to have had any effect at the time, caused element zero to develop throughout Claire's nervous system, placing her among the first wave of human biotics to be discovered.

As the effects of element zero on the human body became apparent, interest in Claire and others like her grew - and with that interest, fear. Uncertainty surrounding the mystery of biotics was understandable, given how little was really known at the time, but fear of the unknown caused tension and animosity between those who were wary of these strange, new abilities and the families of the children known to have them. In that regard, Claire was rather lucky; Rouen was a quiet town, and her family - her mother, especially, was well-liked by the community. She wasn't faced with the same harassment many other biotics were - not yet, at least.

Claire's childhood, all things considered, was rather unremarkable. Though she was deemed a scientific marvel, Tora was adamant that she not be studied, tested, or treated like a freak simply for being different. Claire was always closest to her mother; Tora was Claire's hero, and she wanted nothing more than to protect her daughter from the cruelty of a world whose injustice she was all too familiar with. It was that ferocious dedication to her daughter's safety that led to Tora's decision to move her family from France all the way to the moon after giving birth to her second child, Maximilian, in 2164.

Minor incidents at Claire's school and a unique opportunity to do something to help not just her, but all biotics, were the driving factors behind the Sharp family's sudden move. Known as a notoriously unrelenting prosecutor, Tora was recruited to a team of legal experts building a case against companies who were believed to be responsible for purposefully spilling element zero across various cities and colonies since the discovery of biotics - likely in an attempt to create more. The actual results of the incidents, however, more often ended with the children being stillborn or suffering cancerous growths and other serious birth defects than possessing the fantastical powers they hoped for. Given Tora's personal stake in the matter, she jumped at the chance to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Over the next couple of years, as Claire neared the end of her primary school education, Tora became one of the loudest voices calling for corporations to be held accountable for the supposed malfunctions of their ships - malfunctions that became suspiciously more frequent following the discovery of biotics. Though it still hadn't been proven, she was vocal about her suspicions that the incidents were intentional - and they grew closer and closer to proving it as she and her team continued building their case.

### Family in Crisis

In 2167, a few months before Claire's 10th birthday, Tora Sharp was on her way home one evening when another skycar crashed into hers, sending her spinning uncontrollably into the side of a building below. The ensuing explosion, engulfing Tora's car and most of the floor on which she'd crashed, killed her and two others instantaneously while injuring several more and showering the streets below with flaming debris. The accident was highly publicized - first being labeled a possible terror attack, then simply a tragic accident after Tora was identified, but despite extensive efforts the driver who'd hit her was never found.

The Sharp family came apart at the seams in the wake of Tora's death; Hugh turned to alcohol, neglecting his children and forcing Claire to mature very quickly in order to take care of both herself and her four-year-old brother. The pressure to take on so many of her mother's responsibilities without having any time to properly grieve and process her situation was crushing, though, and Claire began lashing out against everyone but Max. As she entered secondary school, she began to experience biotic flare-ups more and more often, and that power was still scary and unnatural to many; with everything else being so out of her control, Claire relished in being able to make people feel as afraid as she did.

It was for that reason, feeling as though Claire had forced his hand, that Hugh enrolled her in the Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training program at the suggestion of an acquaintance from work. She was angry and uncontrollable, and on the brink of expulsion from her school; it worried him, of course - but truthfully, he wanted a break from her outbursts, so he was relieved to be able to send her away to what he thought was the safest option for all of them at the time.

Though she only spent a year at Gagarin Station before BAaT was shut down, it was the most intense experience of Claire's life at that point. She was fitted with a L2 implant and thrown to the wolves from her first day there; training was rigorous and unforgiving - made worse by the little acts of rebellion she'd commit whenever she could manage - and even if her father had cared enough to pry himself away from his drinking to check on her, he would find he had no way of doing so; for all intents and purposes, Claire was trapped.

By 2169, though, public opinion of biotics had shifted slightly. With BAaT's scandalous closure cutting her training short, Claire was returned home far more jaded than any twelve-year-old should ever have to be. Though she had returned changed, things at home remained much the same; she took over caring for her brother again, made sure her father didn't drink himself to death, and over time filled the role her mother had left vacant in her absence: the family's rock. But, despite spending all of her time taking care of others, Claire didn't neglect her own needs - she refused to. When she wasn't dealing with her family, Claire's sole focus was her education. Though she struggled to find the right balance for a time as she transitioned to high school, Max had finally grown old enough to take care of himself to a point, so it became easier to stay on top of things and she began to truly excel.

### A Life for Justice

Given the opportunity, Claire proved to be an exceptionally gifted student; she had inherited many of her mother's best traits, notably the dedication and tenacity that had made Tora the force of nature she was. Claire graduated at the top of her class in 2174, and likely would have been named valedictorian, had she not fallen behind after being forced to get a job her senior year to support her father. College, though, she wanted to be different. She wanted to finally have a life of her own, to pursue the things she'd been forced to put aside for so long - but after receiving an anonymous message one fateful day her life was propelled in another direction.

The message was long and detailed, explaining that Tora's death years before wasn't an accident: it had been a cover-up, orchestrated by a woman named Carolyn Kang as a way to silence her and stop the investigation into her company from progressing - which it did, to a point. Though Conatix Industries never actually faced criminal action, the company went under - and Kang with it, for years, until she resurfaced with a company of her own to continue what she'd started. The message was a bombshell, confirming all of her mother's previous suspicions and suggesting that Carolyn was still as dangerously obsessed with biotics as ever - something the sender apparently wanted Claire's help to stop.

Driven by her newfound discoveries - and newfound rage, Claire threw herself into her studies, double-majoring in chemistry and biology before combining the two after earning each of her bachelors. With school, work, and making sure Max was still being taken care of, Claire's life was so busy she didn't have time for anything. She had no friends, no time for dating, no breaks of any kind - she began wearing herself down to the bone as the need to avenge her mother consumed her. Claire learned everything she possibly could about Carolyn Kang and her strange, secretive company, Blue Field Innovations, hoping to find the slightest snag in her seemingly perfect set-up - anything she could jump on to expose her as the monster she was and bring her down.

The chance to do so finally came when Claire received another message from her anonymous informant, this time presenting her with an opportunity: work for BFI, and witness their experiments firsthand. With nothing left but dead ends, she felt she had no choice but to accept. It took some effort on both her part and her partner's, but she was eventually hired by Blue Field Innovations later that year, in 2179, as a low-level researcher at their laboratory on Luna. Several uneventful months went by of Claire doing seemingly pointless, menial work, until she and a handful of others were selected to be transferred to BFI's main base on Varmalus - where the real work occurred.

For more than a year, Claire took part in BFI's experiments, gathering the data and evidence she needed to expose them for their crimes and bring Carolyn's operation down. But her brilliance as a scientist was not overlooked, and in order to maintain her cover, she was forced to do things she would regret for the rest of her life. In her mind, though, the greater good always justified her actions - even if that never actually made her feel any better about what she did.

Finally, in 2181, Claire had what she needed to write a series of exposés on Blue Field Innovations under the pen name Cecelia Belpois, exposing their extensive, unethical experimentation and research methods as well as Carolyn's shady ties to criminal entities in Terminus Space. The uproar against them was enormous, and an investigation was launched into the claims 'Cecelia' made almost as soon as the article was released, leaving Kang and BFI scrambling to respond. Shockingly, though, nothing came of the investigation, and charges against them were dropped while the public decried the authorities' inaction.

### A Life for Vengeance

Claire, at a loss for what to do, slipped out from Blue Field's ranks among a wave of employees abandoning the project in an effort to distance themselves from the company as much as possible, lest their involvement be discovered. Carolyn Kang, though, would not be so easily betrayed; as the search for the whistleblower commenced, any employees who had managed to flee were kidnapped and returned to her facility on Varmalus, where they were to pick up where they had left off. Claire, though, knew they would be after her eventually, and went to ground as soon as she was able, finding the furthest corner of space she could to hide and plan her next move.

She'd gone all in, dedicated years of her life to honor her mother's sacrifice - but despite it all, had come away with nothing, and that enraged Claire more than ever before. She refused to allow Carolyn to get her way any longer, and that meant getting to the root of the problem: Carolyn's mysterious benefactors. But first, she had to find them, and that meant finally dealing with Kang herself by taking her operation down once and for all.

## Personality

In a life marred by hardship and riddled with trauma, a steeled will and desperation to survive are all that has kept Claire from falling apart as the world fights to tear her down. She is driven by her emotions; her love for her family, her anger at her loss - but most of all, her determination to change the world. All her life, Claire has had a vision of the future, of success and happiness, earning a place for herself in history. And though admittedly different from how she imagined as a child, she is doing just that: leaving a mark - and exposing a trail of lies and corruption along the way.

Vengeance and justice, two words that can become dangerously indistinguishable for Claire at times, are what push her forward when nothing else can. Naturally headstrong and shrewd, she always finds a way around problems to get what she wants. Paradoxically, she's a very stubborn, fixed person who is rarely eager to embrace change, but her circumstances have forced Claire to become adaptable and do things she would normally have never even considered - or so she tells herself, at least. Morality has become something she can no longer afford to contend with, meaning that at the end of the day, she's willing to do just about whatever it takes to achieve her goals.

As high-strung and insensitive as she may seem at first, though, Claire is not without a heart. In fact, her heart is her entire reason for being; she believes she was set on this path for a reason, and that fulfilling the destiny laid out for her is all she can do to give her life any meaning. To call her religious would be a stretch, but unlike most of humanity she still believes in something larger than herself - and for her, that's enough. She genuinely wants to help people, to be the kind of hero she saw her mother as, but her obsession can make it hard for her to recognize that the end does not always justify the means.

Though thrust from the only environment she's ever really known, Claire has always been a scholar, dependent on facts and information to guide her. Organization, detail, and understanding how things work are crucial to what she does. Intelligence can only get her so far, though, as her mouth often moves faster than her mind. She can be opinionated, belligerent, even arrogant in certain circumstances, but she tries her best to keep a cool head - as difficult as that often is. Of all the virtues Claire could claim to possess, patience is certainly not one of them.

## Physical Description

Unassuming as Claire may first appear, the hard, cold glint in her barely blue eyes and air of determination that she exudes point to a woman far more seasoned than one might expect. Her once-soft features have become sharp and strong, particularly her narrow, squared jaw and high-set cheekbones - a combination that would make her look rather gaunt, if not for the healthy pink glow of her skin. Dark brows are set low above her tired, almond-shaped eyes, straight nose and full, red lips, all of which sits framed by her straight, shoulder-length auburn hair. A smattering of small moles and freckles cover her face, stretching largely across the bridge of her nose, and appear sporadically over the rest of her body as well.

By the way she carries herself, it's clear that Claire is a very private person, closed off to most of those around her. She wears a very serious expression - suspicious, even, regardless of whether the hesitance is warranted or not, and often finds herself subconsciously fidgeting with her hair or clothes as she concentrates on a task. Claire can't help sometimes but wonder how odd she must look, pacing around, tugging on her hair or sleeve as she gets lost in thought. It's for that reason that she can never keep her hair nice, neat, and out-of-the-way; she just ends up pulling it down.

Her messy tendencies hardly end there, either, as her outfits are often a strange amalgamation of whatever is within reach when she gets dressed. When she wants to try to salvage her appearance, she'll attempt some mascara or lipstick, but makeup, too, has never been her strong suit. On the rare occasions she buys new clothes, Claire prefers dark colors, neutral tones - things that are easy to match together. Given her profession, she doesn't really believe fashion belongs at the top of her list of concerns.

## Armament

### Combat Arms

If forced into combat, Claire utilizes her M-4 Shuriken submachine gun, as well as her omni-tool, which is equipped with the Combat Abilities Energy Drain, Sabotage and Snap Freeze.

## Family

* Hugh Sharp - *Father*
* Tora Sharp - *Mother*
* Maximillian Sharp - *Brother*