character :: Claudia Costello
Claudia was dealt a raw deal with life, as goes for most children born in the Junkyard. Sold young as tiny, fast fingers to work in the Tech region, her job for three long years revolved around screwing a microscopic bolt onto a motherboard before sending off the next menial task to the child beside her. It was long and grueling work, but she dreamed of escape…and escape she did. A Junkyard child wandering around the Tech with all of these adults with expensive gear and cosmic clothing made her stand out like a sore thumb, and, believe it or not, she got captured within minutes. Luckily for Claudia, it was not her Supervisor, but a kind woman with glowing blue eyes and purple hair that cascaded with every star of the night sky. She took Claudia home and went to work: she now belonged to them. It would be okay.
She accepted the clothing, the hair, and the mindset of the Tech region as she grew. A beloved adopted daughter to a barren family, she was given all a child should be given in life. Before long, her intellect took wing; the Costello family had lucked out. She graduated with honors, and then went on to become the most deadly woman alive: the creator of the directed energy weapon that would be the representation of weaponization in this region. What an honor that everyone who came to visit, either on their Requisite journey or otherwise, needed to have one of these guns. Claudia opened a shop quite early, and while she didn’t like the droves of customers very much; she loved her craft.
a woman determined to
do something others are
determined not be done.
As will all stories however, with great success comes great struggle. Claudia found herself burned by multiple employees who had applied just to steal her expensive and valuable wares. Even though the shop were far too much to handle for just one person, Claudia found herself at the helm of the business anyway…and the stress was immense. The thought of a relationship was far too much for her at the moment, even though many men mercilessly pursued her. One such men, Joseph, was quite appealing to Claudia: the ever-smart business man could tell he was strong. He was certainly used to a fight, despite his misleading hairstyle and clothing choice that would land him squarely in the docile Tech region. He had a hidden past, and Claudia could tell – but, more than that, he was muscly and for some reason willing to hang around.
He’d do.
So, Claudia plopped Joseph at the head of the shop to deal with customers all day long as she re-dedicated herself to her passion. When Joseph began courting her, she did eventually give in – with the expectation that she would hold him at arm’s length. And that’s exactly what she did for five long years with this man who lived with her as a stranger…exactly what the cunning businesswoman would have wanted.
So, imagine her surprise when Joseph comes home one night with singed hair and a wild look to his eye, spinning some ridiculous tale about how he had spent a night out on the town and a little boy turns up behind him. “Oh but Claudia!” Joseph spun his tale “-I rescued him from death!” She didn’t buy it for a moment. But the look of fear on the little Emil’s face was all it took…Claudia finally fell in love at 29 and the tug to be a mother to this child was too great.
Emil, as it turned out, was an Emily…a little girl who was too shy to correct this terrifying man who was there at the death of her parents. Claudia makes her entire life about this child, and when Joseph shows his true colors and the two end up alone; she couldn’t be more okay with it.
To say Joseph and Claudia have a dysfunctional relationship is an understatement. But, Joseph does have a kind streak to him; how far will a man go to smooth over his past?
