Laura Tilney
19
Female (Heterosexual)
5'
114 lbs.
Violet Asclepian

Laura is a petite teenager, with grayish blue eyes and long dark red hair reaching down past her waist that is silky and slightly wavy. She tends to either wrap it into a bun at the nape of her neck, or braid it down her back. Her skin is pale, far lighter than it should be due to the amount of time she spends indoors. But though she is short, she's not exactly fragile looking either. She has broad shoulders and always stands straight, giving her an overall compact and steady look.

Laura tends to dress in a modest way, wearing clothes that aren't revealing and are on the long side. She isn't the kind of teenager to particularly care about fashion, she's more about the practicality. Most of her clothes are shades of blues, gray, blacks, and a purple or two.

For shirts, she tends to wear 1/2 sleeve shirts, and never spaghetti straps. If she's feeling a little more fancy once in a while, she'll wear a nicer tunic. x x
As for the lower half, she doesn't wear jeans. Most often she wears a practical skort, or a pair of loose-ish pants. It's less restricting and more comfy. x x

Since Laura is a healer, she often is not in the thick of combat but needs to keep herself protected so that she can keep healing others. She wears a chain-mail vest (without sleeves) that protects her upper body. The chain-mail reaches up and covers her neck as well. Over this chain-mail, she wears a light but fitting waterproof jacket with a purple symbol of the Asclepians on the back. High on her waist, she wears a thick black belt on which hang two 8 1/2" throwing knives on her right side. At the other side of her belt hangs a pouch that measures around 8" x 5" where she keeps basic first aid materials in case someone gets minor injuries that don't need magic to be healed.

Around her lower left arm is a black leather band that holds two 6" throwing knives on the underside for easy access. These weapons, when thrown properly have a short to medium range, and she uses them mainly for self protection in case a monster gets too close to her while she is tending to the wounded. Along with that she wears knee length combat boots, and gloves to protect and keep her hands clean in case she has to touch any wounds.
Laura is definitely one of those study fanatics. She won't settle for an A, she needs an A+. A 100% grade. She definitely works hard, setting her studies (including her studies of her magic) before anything else that is fun. Even then, her definition of fun often involves reading books. She is definitely smart and has a good memory, but perhaps she measures her values with her grades too much. Not everything depends on grades, and she has a hard time understanding that. Because of this, she spends too much time bent over books and paper, not getting outside much. She still exercises to keep her physique up, but even then she does it underground in one of the training rooms. Part of the problem is that she is a healer, causing her to think she is perfectly healthy and spend more time worrying about other people instead.

She does worry a lot about other people, though she won't always show it directly. Her concern normally comes in form of a command, ordering you to stop doing something or to do something more often. Even if she may pretend to be annoyed when you come to her with a problem while she is studying, you might be able to catch a glimpse of her pride that she is able to help. However, she doesn't like it when you come to her with petty injuries or issues, for she will not waste her power. She thinks that the best thing to do is pay attention and prevent, so if you keep coming back with the same recurring problem she is going to get annoyed and may scold you and tell you to take better care of yourself.
Laura's parents both worked full time and worked hard. She was the second child, having a brother who was three years older than her. She had been born after much debating, for though they had enough money to support two children, there was always the question of caring for the young child. But at last, they came to a decision, and Laura was brought into the world. She immediately proved to be more troublesome than her brother had been. Within an hour or two after her birth, it seemed that something was wrong. After performing tests, she was diagnosed with infant respiratory distress syndrome. This meant that she had to be kept at the hospital for treatment. The thought that their child was not entirely healthy distressed her parents a lot, and they viewed it as a big letdown.

As the weeks passed and Laura still remained hospitalized, they began to argue with each other. The stress of waiting and the disappointment needed an outlet, and so her parents took turns blaming and finding faults with the other. However, after one and a half months Laura was allowed to return home. The bickering eased up, though there was a slight tension in the home that had not been there before. As Laura's mother worked from home while Laura was still an infant, her older brother Sebastian did not go to daycare, and instead was taught to help care for his younger sister.

Finally, when Laura was three months and old enough to attend daycare so her mother could return to work properly, the two siblings went to daycare together. They had already begun forming a bond that would grow stronger and stronger. Unfortunately, the bond that Laura had with her parents wasn't particularly strong since she only saw them in the morning and night.

Years passed, and then her brother attended kindergarten while two-year-old Laura remained stuck in daycare. She missed her brother dearly when he was not there, and every day looked forward to the end of daycare when she could see him again. When it was time for Laura to attend school as well, her parents put a lot of pressure on her to get good grades. It was as if they had never fully recovered from the shock of Laura's little birth issue, and now needed to prove to themselves that even if their child had had issues at birth, her brain was perfectly fine. So at a young age, Laura studied hard.

It was when she was almost nine that a big change occurred. Her parents were getting divorced. No, it wasn't Laura's fault, at least not entirely. They had just decided that they were no longer a good match for each other. Then came the issue of who would have the children. The two sibling's parents weren't sure what to do. Their mother had recently acquired a job that had her flying on business trips more often, and their father was of the opinion that the mother should care for the children. At last, the mother consented to take the children, with the requirement that their father would take Laura and Sebastian whenever she had to fly.

It worked, kind of. Laura found it hard to be moving from one house to the next so often, her mother and sometimes her father on weekdays, and at their aunt's house on the weekends. She was actually able to find some consolation in her studies, able to absorb herself in them and reassure herself that as long as she got good grades, her parents would care. Of course, her brother was a big emotional help as well, and they told each other a lot of things.

But then her brother began to take up football, and this scared Laura. Though she was being a little paranoid, she had heard too much about concussions and accidents that happened to those who played. Thus, began her interest in the human body. She began just by looking up about concussions and how to diagnose them and what to do if someone you knew had developed one. Her interest spread, and it became a sort of game. Seeing how many bones she could label and remember, seeing how many of the major muscles she could remember. At thirteen, she convinced her mother to let her go to a first aid course.

At fourteen, she pretty much saved a life. Really. Her brother had his first major collision while playing football. He said he was fine, but Laura carefully observed him. She recognized the symptoms of a concussion, his tiredness, how he seemed too vague and distant. She went straight to her mother and pestered her until she gave in, and they drove him to the hospital. It turned out that he had a concussion, and they had been just in time. Too longer and he might have gone into a coma. After that, she knew what she wanted to be. A doctor. The feeling of relief and happiness when she found out that her brother would be okay, and the knowledge that it had been because of her that he was okay.

She continued her studies, until one day when she was fifteen something strange appeared to her. She had a hard time believing that she wasn't just imagining the talking ball of sunlight that had appeared to her. It told her about monsters, about knights, about helping to protect the world. And then it offered her a chance to join. Laura's first question was how. How would she tell her parents without really telling them the truth? It had agreed to help her sort things out if she passed the test, and she agreed, unable to resist. She knew it would mean a lot of changes, but she was willing.

She passed the test, and seeing her love and knowledge of healing, the sprite gave her the power of the Asclepians. The story that was worked out was that Laura had been offered a place at an elite private boarding school where only those that passed a special test could go. After a lot of paperwork, Laura was there. It hadn't taken much convincing, for the knowledge that Laura was that smart filled her mother with pride, even if the pride was for Laura's brains alone. The hardest part was lying to her brother and leaving him to go live in a dorm, but frequent visits at the beginning helped with that.

Her time training her power as part of the Chroma Knights paid off. Every time she healed someone, she felt had this wonderful feeling, and she knew she was making a difference. Her medical knowledge helped her heal better too, for though it was magic, it helped to know where exactly to focus her power to make it most effective.