App || Fellden

[primordialerebus]

PLAYER

NAME: Jejune
AGE: 23
PREFERRED CONTACT: JejuneN
OTHER CHARACTERS: N/A

CHARACTER

NAME: Coraline Li
AGE: 21
CANON & CANON POINT: N/A
RESERVATION LINK: N/A
HISTORY: Coraline’s story starts at birth, where due to either fate or chance, she was stolen from the hospital to be used in a ritual meant to bring upon the end of the world as most knew it. Except she was saved. The police crashed in during the ritual, foiling their plans of summoning the Primordial Void through the baby sleeping in the middle of a spell diagram. The cultists were seemingly all captured and the kidnapped child was safe. So after the usual media circus that happens after such an event, life went on. Her single mother moved from New York to escape the attention and traumatizing memories, ending up across the country in Los Angeles. There, she had a perfectly normal childhood, her mother having hidden the circumstances around her birth. She attended school, was enrolled in extracurriculars such as dance, temporarily got an emotionally abusive almost-stepfather, and made friends. All the usual things.

Then, she turned 14. Turns out, the ritual did do something to her: It gave her powers. And being who she was, she decided she would become a superhero with them, joining the junior branch of her local superhero organization. Her attempts at heroics spread rumors, and those rumors soon gained the attention of the very same cult that had taken her on the day she was born. They stole her away once again, monologueing about her purpose in bringing the end of the world all the while. And this time, she died, sacrificed in an attempt to free the thing that had been put inside her.

They succeeded, the dark void within her bursting free and consuming her. The cult stood triumphant, and her best friend, who had been attempting to rescue her, watched her die. Except, nobody accounted for the possibility that maybe, the thing had merged with the human it had been put inside (or perhaps, there was never truly a person at all). So, she awakens as something distinctly inhuman and with the knowledge that she is something terrible. The cult had disappeared (with the help of a rather angry Friend), and with some reassurance from said friend, they decide to keep this a secret, doing their best to move on with their lives.

But of course it’s not that simple. From here, she withdrew into self-loathing and fear, absolutely terrified of what she’s become and what her powers now wildly out of control powers represent. She very nearly dropped out of school, fearful of her peers seeing what she’s become as well as the possibilities of hurting them. It was only after her best friend agreed to place a partial seal on her abilities that she deigned to go back. Still, she isolated herself the best she could, becoming even more withdrawn and quiet. Any free time was spent developing her powers, gaining as much control as possible so she didn’t accidently hurt anyone.

She craved normalcy, going so far as to enroll in college with an undeclared major despite a strong desire for complete self-isolation. Unknowingly, she is returning to her place of birth: New York City. Though not before one final fight between her and her mother that reveals the truth of her past. Despite her fear, her anger and defiance over secrets kept made her stay her path, and she becomes a student of NYU. Despite all attempts to stay away from the superhero community, she continued to be drawn in due to a mixture of coincidence and her simple desire to help.

Three year pass and some measure of equilibrium has now been reached. During the day, she’s a mild mannered psychology major hoping to use her experiences to help others. At night however (or more accurately after class) and between school work, she works part time at a small boutique that secretly caters to members of the superhero community and patrols the streets of New York. She continues to wrestle with her sense of self and existence, and just hopes that her actions can overcome her supposed nature.

PERSONALITY: Upon first meeting her, most people’s perceptions of Coraline is that she’s rather quiet. And indeed, there is a timid side to her due to years of emotional abuse as well as the events that have occurred. She can be rather anxious, fearing what others think of her as well as constantly doubting her own worth. So in situations where she doesn’t feel comfortable, she tends to be rather quiet, shrinking in on herself. Not to say she isn’t capable of interacting with others, years of practice and learning to compartmentalize allowing her to put on a happy face when necessary. Still, she also does her best to keep others at a certain distance to minimize the crossover between the two sides of her life and to prevent anyone she cares about from getting hurt.

She also possesses a deep vein of guilt and self-loathing, started by the above mentioned almost-stepfather emotional abuse as he constantly pointed out how much of a drain Coraline was to her mother. One would think her mom discovering said abuse and kicking the man out of their lives would have helped her, but it only deepened it, which revealed her self-sacrificing side. Despite her mother’s protests, she quit dance, devoting that time to doing chores at home. This only magnified with her resurrection of sorts, her sense of guilt now extending to the whole world. The way she sees it, the least she can do in exchange for existing is use her powers for good, no matter at what cost to herself.

Still, at her core, Coraline is a rather bright person so to speak, displaying massive amounts of curiosity and willingness to throw herself into her tasks to the point of obnoxiousness. She loves to learn new things and can be rather nosy about it. This combined with her intelligence makes her a bit of a jack of all trades. On the other hand, she can be rather stubborn in her opinions when she thinks she’s right. This also extends to her views of people. If you give her a bad first impression, it can take quite a bit of work for her to warm up to you. Or, if you give her a good one, she’s automatically more apt to trust and defend you. As one may expect, she veers towards book smarts rather than street smarts, and hence, doesn’t always have the best judgements on people and situations. Still, no matter how she thinks of you, any who try to push her past her limits will see that there is a hardness to her. Though uncovering that might take a while, as she’s willing to put up with quite a bit as to not “rock the boat” and draw attention to herself.

In the end though, she is someone who loves people and will do anything she can to protect them. She is very compassionate, finding great joy in helping others and making others happy. She is fiercely protective of those she loves, willing to go to the ends of the earth for them whether they deserve it or not. And despite flashes of pessimism due to her anxiety, in the end, she is an optimist at heart. Coraline truly believes in the overall good and endless potential of humanity with a rarely dampened ferocity and hopes to aid in the protection of that in all she does.

ABILITIES/SKILLS:

• Darkness Manipulation: She can mold and change the properties of the darkness around her rather effortlessly. This allows rather novel ways of attacking, defending, and transportation through the use of her constructs. Said constructs are rather susceptible to light, as it causes them to dissolve away. Higher intensities of light require more concentration for her to maintain them. She also can’t create darkness from nothing, requiring a source of some sort. She is extremely unwilling to use her constructs on people unless absolutely necessary due to its unsettling qualities. Touching the constructs gives others a vague feeling of emptiness and the creations feel extremely cold.
  
• Inhuman Physiology: Instead of blood and other liquids, what runs through her body can best be described as shadow stuff. Due to this, everything about her has a grey, blackish tint to it, belying her now inhuman nature. She can take much more damage than before due to an immunity to poisons and illnesses, a deadened sense of pain, and the ability to seal her wounds with darkness. She can also use the shadows within her body to augment her speed and strength.
  
  With all of this, damage tends to build up quickly as the wounds aren’t actually healed, the shadows simply acting as a very effective band aid. The more damaged she becomes, the more she has to focus on holding herself together, weakening her other abilities. She is unable to heal herself, requiring outside healing to come back to full strength. And while she is hard to kill due to her abilities, enough damage will end her since she's still tied to her body. It just takes A Lot.
  
  Moving on to things that more affect everyday life: she can no longer sleep and everyday sensations have become duller than before. She is also sensitive to the light, requiring her to keep herself covered up to avoid discomfort/pain. At night, she can usually uncover herself with little irritation provided the lights aren’t too bright. She also lacks a pulse, doesn’t breathe unless required for talking, and her body temperature is extremely cold. The illusion spell tied to her choker gives her life signs and projects warmth. On a finally note, it's extremely hard to read her mind.
  
• Darkness Sense: She doesn’t have night vision really, more a highly precise and intuitive understanding of anything happening in shadows/darkness around them. The range is generally around 10 feet, though she can extend it with concentration. In continuous shadows/darkness, it can extend however far the darkness covers. Of course, that can very quickly become overwhelming, shutting her down mentally.
  
• Dark Form: They are no longer bound to human form, able to turn into a living shadow that can become incorporeal at will. This greatly increases her abilities, but the tradeoff is that light becomes extremely deadly in this form. Any bright light is extremely painful, and enough exposure will kill her. This ability is also partially locked by the seal placed on her, and she can usually only discorporate a limb. Even when the seal is inactivated though, she is extremely unwilling to use this.
  
• General Skills: Coraline has been trained in basic martial arts and the use of a staff in fighting. She is relatively skilled in parkour. She has also learned basic first aid and crucial phrases in Morse code/sign language.

INVENTORY/COMPANIONS:

• Choker: Contains the spell giving her the illusion of life and a “normal” appearance. Is also tied to the partial seal on her abilities. So deactivating one means deactivating both.
  
• Superhero Outfit: Image. There is some armor on common impact points, but overall, it’s just like blackout curtains with the normal durability of a tougher fabric.
  
• Collapsible Staff
  
• First Aid Kit
  
• General: Her cellphone, some cash, sunglasses, a face mask, and house keys.

FACTION CHOICE: Court of Stars

REASON: While she may hesitate before decisions and actions due to her anxiety, in the end, she works off her gut. She tends to jump into situations without fully considering the consequences to herself. That and her more idealistic big picture beliefs I think makes her a great fit in the Court of Stars.

TATTOO: Crux, in a dark purple that’s nearly black. Located over her heart.

SAMPLES

NETWORK: Meme Sample + Game Sample

LOG: TDM TL + Links

NOTES, QUESTIONS, COMMENTS: I’m going to go ahead and nerf her teleportation ability since it requires her to temporarily leave her current realm. I’m also going to make her unable to learn any additional magic besides possibly potion making. Feel free to suggest anymore changes!

Comments

Revisions

[primordialerebus]

Coraline had a tenuous relationship with the superhero community from the beginning of her involvement, and it certainly didn’t change when she got dragged back in as an adult. The boutique she works at as a cashier (and very occasional defender) doesn’t just sell ordinary clothes, it also sells custom super suits for the NYC superhero community. She actually applied unaware of its connection to the superhero community. It’s only due to a timely (or untimely in her opinion) villain attack where she helped defend the shop that she became aware of its other purpose. She was then convinced to stay with a large pay raise and sworn into secrecy. She continues to largely operate in the civilian section of the shop, and avoids contact with the shop’s true purpose as much as possible.

While some members are vaguely aware of her once she became an active patroller once more, she does her best to stay away from the larger community. This is partially out of fear that she will be discovered to be some monster, partially because she just wants to avoid as much attention as possible. This is why she doesn’t even possess a symbol on her suit, so it’s harder to track her identity. So, as far as anyone knows, she’s just another Metahuman, backed up by her old records from when she was still affiliated with an organization. Just in case someone does track down her identity somehow.

To aid in this, she currently strictly functions on a smaller scale. As previously stated, she focuses on nightly patrols, using her abilities to scare off potential muggers, drug dealers, and other small time criminals. Any larger, flashier crimes are left to “actual heroes” unless necessary. Even then, she’ll vacate the premises as soon as possible afterwards. If any formal contact is required, she goes through her boss, Mitsy. In short, they just view her as a particularly reclusive and small time hero. She believes this is the best way to keep everyone in her life safe.

Her best friend, Leon, is one of the two biggest influences on her life including her mother. She met them in Elementary School where they were a transfer student. At first, it was a case of two outcasts banding together, initiated by Coraline. But then, as kids do, they started to become friends and soon, became inseparable. They relied heavily on each other to the point of shunning others’ company, only made worse by the mutual discovery of their abilities. In Leon’s case, their ability being the ability to wield magic and weave spells. They proceeded to develop their abilities together, basically messing around until Coraline decided she wanted to live her dream of becoming a superhero. Soon, their relationship developed a slightly codependent edge. This wouldn’t start being resolved until about halfway through high school, leading to their biggest fight yet (and a much needed one).

As for how their relationship impacted her personality, Leon was a constant source of support and comfort for her, as well as someone who challenged her. In many ways, they’re why she still has a measure of confidence and self-worth. At the very least, in her eyes, if such an amazing person is still friends with her, it must mean she isn’t completely terrible. And despite how unhealthy their, relationship temporarily became, it did teach her how to set boundaries and stand up for herself. It was only through the support of her friend that she had enough courage to goad her abuser to the point of blowing up in front of her mother.

Currently, they live together in NYC, though they go to different universities. They largely don’t involve each other in their more “supernatural” activities due to differences in scope, but they’re still friends. Just with a healthy level of separation now.

When it comes to teammates, she never really had any. When she was active in the youth division of her local superhero organization, she wasn’t particularly interested in making any new friends. Any attempts to make deeper connections were rebuffed. This mixed with her natural shyness meant others soon stopped trying, especially since she started taking part less and less. This is due to the fallout from her mother coming home early from work and finding her daughter missing. As one can imagine, thinking your child’s been kidnapped for a second time isn’t the best thing for one’s psyche, and the ensuing blow up was catastrophic in many ways. The important part however, is that it completely set off Coraline’s burgeoning guilt complex.

Primed by years of being told how much of a drain she was, the ensuing rant from her mother about how much she’s sacrificed just confirmed all her fears. That she’s a burden. That she stole her mom’s happiness. Indeed, part of her still feels terrible for outing her then future stepfather as the piece of garbage he was, because he still made her mom happy then.

Coraline then drastically decreased the amount of patrols she went on, only going out when she knew for sure her mother wouldn’t come home while she was out (which due to her anxiety, isn’t very often). She rarely attended meetings, dropping those in favor of keeping a closer eye on the home. To make sure she’s doing her part. All of this, combined with her current evasiveness means she’s never really had a chance to develop close relationships within the superhero community. Even now, as much as she adores Mitsy, there’s still a boss employee relationship there. Despite everything though, a part of her has always desired to become closer to that section of her life. The only thing stopping her is her own anxieties and fear.