RECRUIT REPORT OBSID-LAT40.LON-73
DATE - [REDACTED]
RECRUITER: K. SMITH
Comments Updated by K. Smith in co-operation with the subject
Recruit's Real Name: Vernita Gale
Recruit's Chosen Codename: Lambda
Current Age of Recruit: 25
Power Obtained Post-Procedure: Persuasion
The recruit has thus far been honest and as descriptive as possible in explaining her abilities, although I have had her write out her thoughts rather than speak them as an extra precaution, a summary of which is outlined below:
The subject is able to use her voice to persuade (or, more accurately, command) others to do her bidding, and is able to broadcast an aura that seems to attract others to her and engender trust in them, but is also able to reverse this to the point where she does not attract any attention to herself.
Using her voice, the subject can command others to perform actions or persuade them to wholeheartedly believe concepts. However, the way in which it is used and the situation in which it is used in as well as the person it is being used on. For example, the recruit's abilities are more effective on those of lower or average intelligence than those of higher intelligence due to the fact that those possessing a higher intelligence tend to be more suspicious and ask more questions. Lambda's ability works best on those who trust her or at least have a positive attitude toward her, which her second ability aids in. Simple commands relating to actions are generally more easily implemented and require less energy, while more complex commands such as directing a person to bake a cake by listing off the ingredients and directions or changing a person's beliefs or making them forget or imagine things require more energy. Lambda's ability cannot make a person do things they are not physically capable of, however. For example, if the recruit told a person that they could fly using her ability, while the person might believe himself capable of flight, Lambda's ability would not make him physically able to do so. While usually anyone in almost any situation can be persuaded effectively by Lambda, there are some exceptions. The recruit's ability would be rendered ineffective by making Lambda's speech impossible. In addition, in certain situations or in cases where the person is trying to be persuaded against a previously deep-rooted belief, a person may break free of Lambda's persuasion. Lambda must also be conscious in order use her power, and since Lambda's persuasion requires a constant stream of power to maintain (unless in the case of temporary persuasion, such as telling someone to forget an event or after discontinuing use of the power on a person or changing another's beliefs) if she is ever knocked unconscious or for some reason goes to sleep, the use of the power will discontinue. A person may fight the ability if they are aware that they are being persuaded, although with significant energy Lambda can attempt to squash the person's will to fight and awareness of the situation.
As for the subject's ability to elicit certain emotions within others using her presence, it is the weaker of the two powers by a significant margin. Rather than a proactive power to be used in battle, it is more of an infiltrative power that only works when the other person is not particularly suspicious of Lambda or is not on high guard, even if one knows about her power. When the power is in use, the recruit can use it one of two ways: to attract people to her or direct others' attention away from her. When using the power to attract, the person or people must be within the same room. Lambda does not have much control of this power besides turning it on and off. When it is on, it usually slowly over the course of a minute begins affecting those in the same room with the subject, engendering within them a sense of trust in the subject or at least general goodwill towards her. In the case of those that are already attracted to the subject, they may claim they feel a stronger attraction to the recruit, a dedication or love almost. In the other direction, the power just seems to dampen Lambda's usual rather noticeable presence to a normal or almost unnoticeable presence, making eyes seem to glide over her form. This power is less effective if she is alone in a room with someone and doesn't usually work if someone has noticed or seen her before. It does nothing if someone has focused their attention on her.
Description of Appearance: Subject has long waist-length raven black hair (naturally) that she usually wears down or in a ponytail, braid, or bun and bangs that are swept to the left side of her face. Lambda has dark blue eyes. The subject here wishes to mention that her wardrobe is very fashionable despite what people might think given only a basic description. She also wishes to say that while she takes pride in her body and taking care of it, she rarely wears makeup as she feels like it "masks her natural beauty". Lambda stands at 5'8" and---even though the subject is at a very healthy weight, she wishes for it not to be reported here, only in the "official files". I have agreed to her request for now to avoid any conflict. Occasionally the subject will wear black glasses without lenses "for fashion purposes". The subject would here like to interject that she is not as vain as this description has made her seem.
Description of Personality: Based on observation of the recruit, it has been concluded that the subject is somewhat of a "pretender" and is very good at masking her true emotions. On the surface, Lambda is deceptively pleasant with most all people, even those she greatly dislikes, at least for a period of time. When Lambda does choose to make her negative emotions apparent, her tongue often becomes sharp and often Lambda shows her real self. In previous encounters, Lambda has been rather cruel, teasing and even torturing those who have crossed her. Lambda has been shown to be very manipulative, often playing with the lives of others, as demonstrated throughout her schooling and during her time as the leader of a gang. While leading the gang, it has been illustrated that the subject is able to kill in cold blood without guilt; it is suspected that Lambda has been made numb to such acts by her past. Even though Lambda seems to take joy in the manipulation of others, she is able to totally mask this and appear as a very kind, innocent person. It is known, however, that the subject is capable of love and most possibly craves it due to the lack of love shown to her throughout her lifetime. While Lambda will kill without provocation, she does not do so without reason, only when it is convenient. In fact, Lambda will do almost anything to turn the odds in her favor and make things easier for herself and does not seem to have any morals. It has been concluded, however, that Lambda will not kill other Operatives as this would be a greater inconvenience than anything else. The subject seems to shrewdly calculate any situation without bias, although she often acts impulsively. The subject does have a softer side, however, as it is suspected that she still mourns her twin brother. The recruit is also very fond of plants and fictional novels and has a strange preoccupation and affection for certain objects (cute things, fashionable clothes/accessories, jellyfish, good food, etc.).
Outline of Recruit's Strengths and Weaknesses: Strengths: The recruit is very good at masking her emotions and appearing to be someone she is not. The recruit will not shy away from any tasks but before her as long as she feels it is in her best interest to perform them. The recruit is rather skilled in physical combat, especially with weapons. During her time on the streets, she learned how to handle many weapons she had not used before, although her specialty still lays with knives and guns (particularly small guns and sniper rifles). In general, Lambda's aim is very good, although we have not yet gathered any statistics on exactly how good her aim is. Lambda has a high physical endurance and pain tolerance as well as considerable physical strength despite her slender figure. Lambda has proven herself to be resourceful as well as very intelligent. Lambda's power could be very useful in both combat and espionage missions.
Weaknesses: Lambda can be very unpredictable in her actions as well as her fighting style, which does not seem to follow any particular pattern. The subject can be impulsive, not caring about the results of her actions. In addition, she seems to be overly confident, seeing herself as a figure that cannot be defeated, and does not react well to defeat; being overly confident, Lambda often does not think completely through her plans, leaving them flawed, and her fighting style, if she is not totally on guard, can leave open spots for the enemy to land a blow. Lambda is not completely mentally stable and has certain ticks. For example, if she is pushed onto the ground with someone standing above her, she completely loses her cool and may become incapacitated. Lambda is also easily provoked by seeing animals or plants injured and is likely to start an unnecessary fight over such situations. Lambda is also uncomfortable with being alone in large spaces and actually has a phobia of large, flat, open spaces. The recruit is oddly picky about what kinds of food she will eat as well as clothes. Oddly, while Lambda is very good at dealing with "mean" people, she has a soft spot for people who are kind to her despite her personality and history, and remembers very well both those who have betrayed her and those who have shown her kindness.
Summary of Recruit's History: Lambda (previously Vernita Gale) was born into a rather well-off family to her parents Ryan and Tanya Gale along with her fraternal twin Samael as the first children in the family. As children, Vernita and Samael were very close despite being total opposites. Samael was noted by others to be much more extroverted than Vernita, easily making friends, while Vernita kept mostly to herself, focusing mostly on learning, and, once she had learned to read, breezing through harder and harder books. While Vernita and Samael seemed to be of equal caliber when it came to learning at first, as they grew the gap between them grew, Vernita breezing past Samael in her studies. Consequently, Vernita skipped both the second and third grades, leaving Samael behind. It is known that Vernita was very unhappy about this, wishing to stay with her brother as they were very close.
According to teacher reports, Samael started making friends outside of he and Vernita's shared friend group, which seemed to make Vernita angry. Vernita's teachers note that the girl seemed to have unhealthy possessive tendencies toward her brother, telling him not to make friends with other children because he didn't need anyone besides her. When Samael continued to make contact with the other children, Vernita began to commit violence against the other children. (This was when Samael was in 4th grade and Vernita was in 6th.) Vernita started at simply threatening other children around Samael, but continued on to physical fights (or rather, assaults) when they refused. Vernita was disciplined by the school, but it seemed to have no effect. The school began having regular talks with the twins' parents, suggesting counseling by a professional other than the school counselor, who was having no luck with Vernita. Teachers report that one day when Tanya Gale arrived at the school to talk with the principal after one of Vernita's fights (which usually happened around once a week) Vernita was in counseling with the school's counselor. Upon hearing this news, the principal and several teachers report that Tanya Gale "freaked out" and started screaming at the principal then rushed down the hall and pulled Vernita physically out of the counselor's office. Tanya Gale then left the school with Vernita without attending the meeting.
Soon after the trouble with Vernita started, Ryan Gale began working toward a divorce with his wife. Friends close to the Gale's cite Vernita's issues as one of the key fighting points between the couple that led up to the divorce. As both of the Gales were prominent politicians in the area, money was not the issue. Rather, it was the problem of how the kids would be split up. It is reported that neither of them wished to have Vernita and her troubles, both of them struggling to have Samael, who was sociable and kind, as their sole child. The school's counselor reports that Vernita somehow had found out about this and was very distraught. The counselor remarked that Vernita finally opened up to her one day, crying that her parents had never loved her, her mother having gone so far as to call her a "devil child", acting both afraid and angry toward her for as long as she could remember, and her father avoiding her completely for just as long. Vernita claimed that the only person who had ever loved her had been Samael, and that she couldn't afford to lose him to anyone, whether it be other children or her parents. Vernita also claimed that she would do anything to keep Samael with her, and the counselor claims that Vernita had an odd expression and that it was almost creepy in nature. While it was later uncovered that Tanya Gale had been sleeping around with some vagrant who had been wandering through the town around the time the twins would have been conceived, it is not certain that the stranger ever existed or that the twins were his children, although both of their parents have blond hair and brown eyes, not black hair and blue eyes like the twins have. In fact, practically no one in either of the parents' extended families have dark hair. However, it is still unclear whether Vernita's confession was true or if it was one of her earliest manipulations.
Eventually the court decided that Tanya Gale would take care of Vernita while Ryan Gale would take care of Samael. Reports show that Tanya Gale became frantic at the court's decision, pleading with the judge to change his decision. Tanya never gave any reasons, however, and it is unknown what made Tanya so wary and scared of Vernita, as neither of her parents ever talked to friends about the child. In fact, many friends only knew that they had one child named Samael and knew not that he had a twin sister. Regardless, Ryan Gale had not yet moved out of the house as they lived in the Manhattan Area of New York City and Ryan was having trouble locating a proper apartment close to his office to move into.
It was reported by friends that a few days before the tragedy Ryan Gale had discussed with friends a specific apartment that he was strongly considering moving into. During the night in the summer before Vernita's 8th grade year, neighbors reported hearing screams from the Gale house. When police showed up, they opened the door and saw a man with a knife standing over Vernita and immediately shot him down, causing the man's dead body to fall on top of Vernita. Police pulled Vernita out from underneath the man and tried to get her to talk to them while others searched the rest of the house. Vernita refused to speak, staring into the distance without focusing on any people or objects. As Vernita was covered in blood at this point, the police were unable to tell whether or not she was injured so she was taken to the hospital. Upon searching the house, police found that both of Vernita's parents as well as Samael had been brutally murdered. While police are still unsure exactly what happened that night, Vernita has refused to speak about the incident since.
Forensics show that the man broke in the back door, killing Tanya, then Ryan, then Samael. This is also indicated by the numbers he carved into their chests after their deaths and the corresponding numbers and letters found carved into Vernita's body. The letter T under the number 1 was carved into her right arm, the letter R and the number 2 on her left arm, the letter S and the number 3 found on her right leg, and the number 4 with the word YOU written under it on her left leg. For days Vernita refused to talk at all and was kept at the house of the police chief for lack of knowing what to do with the child. On the fourth day after the event, the police chief woke up to Vernita standing silently at the foot of his bed, blood dripping onto the floor. Vernita had used a knife from the kitchen to "scratch out" the marks the murderer had left on her body.
After that day, Vernita totally changed, becoming fascinated with her parents' murders and claiming that they were much more horrible to her than she had previously told the counselor. She often made disturbing remarks about how she was glad her parents were dead and how they deserved to die, saying that the sight of their dead bodies was beautiful. When she was asked about her brother's death, her face became blank, losing all expression, lapsing into an empty stare, and she would often change the subject. If pushed, she would claim that she had no idea what the other person was talking about, but she never claimed that her brother was alive. If her brother's name was mentioned, she would often say that she didn't know who they were talking about, almost as if she denied her brother's existence in the first place.
Eventually it was decided that Vernita would live with her aunt since she was the closest, although the aunt wanted nothing to do with her and totally ignored her. Despite her morbid attitude toward the police, Vernita showed a totally different face to those at school, crying when the tragedy was mentioned, and thanking others profusely for their kindness. She soon gathered a following and was often given gifts. When talking to her assigned counselor, however, Vernita talked about how none of them were sincere about their concern and mocked them, often laughing about how they followed her around like puppies. By the time the sensationalism of the tragedy wore off, Vernita had gained a significant group of friends and was well-known throughout the school. People came to her for advice, and Vernita would give them seemingly earnest advice; however, school officials soon realized what Vernita was truly doing. Vernita would spread rumors, instigate fights, make and break relationships almost as if she was playing a video game. When approached about the matter, Vernita seemed honest in her regret about what had happened but denied any involvement, seeming shocked. This fooled most of the school staff. Vernita continued through high school as if it were a game, staging more and more, larger and larger high school dramas while remaining on top of the social ladder. Vernita's grades and test scores were impeccable and, with the aid of her tragic past, she was accepted into Columbia University.
On the larger scale of the university, Vernita's antics were barely noticed if at all, though she was a darling among both teachers and students due to both her intelligence, physical attractiveness, and social skills. If she was ever confronted angrily about her duplicity, she would make sure she was around many people and then begin to cry and whimper, drawing the others to her aid. Once there was even a broken nose involved. Vernita double-majored in Materials Engineering and Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Sociology. Once graduated (1 year early in fact), Vernita began working at a weapons development facility where she secretly invented new guns and began selling them on the black market as well as to the company. Vernita lived in the crappiest apartment she could find in order to save up money for her next plan.
After working for the company for 2 years, Vernita quit her job and approached the largest, most powerful gang in the city, Bloody Gravity, and proposed her weapons to him and agreed to help manufacture these weapons for him if he gave her a nice place to stay and money for good food and clothes. The gang leader agreed as long as Vernita became an active member of the gang, going on missions and obeying orders. Vernita agreed and quickly proved her physical abilities and resourcefulness, causing her to become one of the gang leader's favorite goonies. After a few months, Vernita was promoted to the gang member's right hand person, displacing another who was very angry and promptly challenged her to a battle-to-the-death. Vernita easily beat him, knifing him in the chest before slamming his head into the pavement. From then on she was the most respected member of the group, even more so than the leader. After a startling defeat, Vernita began to plant seeds of a coup d'etat among the gang which slowly grew into a rebellion. One night Vernita and a group of her followers broke into the gang leader's apartment. Gang members restrained the leader while Vernita gouged out his eyes--the right of passage for someone forcibly taking over Bloody Gravity.
Over the next year and a half Vernita made her gang the biggest gang in the city, absorbing several other smaller gangs. Bloody Gravity became known for its extreme violent tendencies and especially by its leader, a girl who often tortured people herself for information. Vernita began acquiring a small fortune and living the high life. Vernita stored most of her money away from her home in a safe in an abandoned house as a precaution in case she became under suspicion from the law.
During a particularly bloody fight, the police arrested 13 Bloody Gravity members, one of whom blabbed about their leader's identity. The next morning Vernita woke up to the sound of police breaking down her door. Needless to say, the snitch was given worse than stitches. Vernita was charged with so many counts of murder it was "ridiculous" and was sentenced to death. However, Vernita began seducing one of the guards that worked her prison block, pleading that she was innocent and simply a scapegoat for the gang's activities, being a son of a former member. According to the guard's friends, he felt sympathy for the girl as well as an attraction to her which grew by the day. After a month, the guard offered to help Vernita escape from prison. I worked both from within the mafia and within the prison, monitoring the recruit. During the midnight shift, the guard helped Vernita escape by loading her into a box that he put in the back of his truck that he said the detention center needed, a box that formerly contained green bean cans. The guard drove Vernita on back roads to the edge of the state, stopping so she could pick up her cash. Vernita left, reportedly thanking the guard with a kiss.
Vernita was on the run for a month before an elaborate scheme was created in which the cops found her and reportedly killed her. Three cops were recruited to tell this story and then were killed off inconspicuously and separately to ensure that they did didn't talk. After recruitment, subject's records were deleted. Vernita Gale accepted Obsidian's offer happily and was deemed physically and mentally ready for the procedure, which the subject took very well. The only unexpected side effects are a change of hue in the subject's eyes, causing them to be a rather unnaturally blue color of blue and the subject's odd avoidance of the color white and the insertion of needles by others.
The subject took the codename Lambda. While the subject did not give an explanation on this matter, I believe it is a reference to the Greek letter lambda, which is often used in reference to the diagnosis of fraternal and early-split twins. As mentioned before, the tragedy is still a sore spot for the subject.
Notes/Concerns: While not important, it is rather ironic that Samael's name means "angel of death" and the name "Vernita" means "green spring".
