Full Name: Laura Ashburn
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Hetero
Occupation: graphic novel artist/painter
Languages: English
Species: Human
Powers: ability to see glimpses of someone's past through skin contact
Appearance: Laura is of average female height, mostly athletic but with a pleasant curve to her body. She has a nice oval face, bright green eyes in stark contrast to her long dark hair and a wide smile on her face for most of the time.
She has a small white scar in the top right corner of her face, half hidden by her hairline, which she got in her pool accident when she was 17.


Height: 5'5"
Weight: 123 lbs
Eye Color: Green
Hair color: Brunette
Hair Style: Long, curled ends
Complexion: Fair
Body shape: Athletic
Clothing: Laura dresses for practicality and easy movement, usually combining jeans with shirts and jackets when she's out and about, but prefers wide and comfortable clothing while working at home.
She doesn't like to show much skin (because of the "issues" with skin-on-skin contact) and even though she is not very fond of being cold, she prefers it when she has to wear long sleeved shirts and multiple layers of clothing.
Character Model: Evangeline Lilly


Personality: Laura is often described with one word: a wise-ass, though people who are familiar with her, usually do not take offense at her remarks, because they know the difference between Laura who is really intending to insult and the Laura who is only poking fun.
Besides, it's very easy to notice what mood she's in, since she seems like a very open and genuinely nice person, who will always be straight with you, even when she's trying to deliver her opinion without the intention to hurt you.

She's very imaginative, and sometimes seems to close up in her own head or simply to float away from the conversation, while she's mulling over ideas, giving out the impression that she's bored and not listening.
It's not an unfamiliar sight to have her stop talking in the middle of the sentence, pull out a pen and write down ideas and reminders on... well, in the lack of paper, on anything really. Usually it's on her own arm.
Though she seems like she likes socializing with people, she has one very obvious trait that makes her stand out as unusual.
She avoids being touched.
People who know her are more or less used to it and respect her personal bubble.
She does not shake hands, or give hugs, or high-fives people of her own accord. Ever.
Because when that happens, her eyes seem to glaze over, she shudders and gets a weird expression on her face.
On most occasions, she brushes it off as an annoyance.
But there are times when she gets really upset, sometimes even angry and avoids contact with that person without giving an explanation.

Though it seems like she suffers from a case of Haphephobia, the reason for her odd behavior is none other but what she calls "Past Flashes".
When she touches someone, she gets bombarded by images of that person's past. Sometimes it's just glimpses of mundane things which last a few seconds: someone putting toothpaste in their toothbrush, looking around for a misplaced earring...

But sometimes, the flashes last longer and she sees things that are much, much worse: a hand swinging in the air and sharply connecting with someone's face, telling a single mother of four that she has to move out of the apartment or you will call the police, while she begs you to reconsider...

When Laura noticed that the "bad" things by far outweighed the "good", she opted for simply not touching anyone at all.
Of course, there are times when it can not be avoided.

Sexual Likes: Comfortable with being submissive (and assertive) in bed, but as soon as she starts to feel like it's getting out of hand, she easily switches roles and calls the shots from then on out.
If she is in an assertive mood, she likes to tease her partner with light touches everywhere, until they almost can't take it anymore, all the while wearing a Cheshire cat smile on her face, being full aware of what she's doing and enjoying every minute of it. She knows that subtlety is an equally powerful weapon, as much as using force is.
Sexual Dislikes: Pain, Humiliation, Toilet, Extreme S&M, Threesomes and Moresomes (it's difficult enough to handle one partner)
Sexual Strengths: Enjoys seduction, no matter if she is giving or receiving.
Sexual Weaknesses: Though she has issues with touching, she is not celibate and she had several partners through her life. Once that first touch happens and if the "flash" is not that bad to kill her mood, she requires of her partner to keep constant skin contact. Because if the skin contact is broken, the cycle repeats itself and she gets flashes again.

Merits: Honest, helpful, witty, always takes the side of the underdog, artistic
Flaws: Sometimes brutally straight forward, stubborn, known to bear a grudge for a long time
History: Laura had a rather unremarkable life, up until her teen years.
As an only child of an upper middle-class family, she rarely lacked anything, but was never truly spoiled, since her parents were rather strict and raised her to earn the things she wanted.

But when she was seventeen, things drastically changed: Laura died.
She was sneaking out of the house late at night to go for a drive with a few of her friends and while she was trying to run across the back yard, she came too close to the pool, slipped and fell in, banging her head on the hard edge and knocking herself unconscious.

All Laura remembers from that night was that she felt weightless and that she was floating in warm darkness and waited for something to happen.
And then she woke up in the hospital.
Her parents were there and they told her that she had drowned and has been dead for a few minutes. Thankfully, her paramedic neighbor was just coming home from his shift, heard her scream as she fell in and got her out before it was too late.

Later, when the nurse came in to check on her, the moment their skin touched, Laura screamed as her mind got all but assaulted by images of a car crash the nurse was in a few years ago.
It took her a few days to figure out what was happening to her and that's when Laura started to withdraw and avoid direct contact with people.

Now, almost ten years later, Laura lives alone, in a large studio apartment and earns a living as a graphic novel artist.
She often gets complimented on how her her drawings are "detailed" and "spot on".
She never mentions that's mostly because she saw it happen and had simply put it on paper.