It's been seven years since the infamous Verthaven disaster, and faces new and old are coming to Baybridge for their own reasons. Recently, the Liu Pharmaceutical Company, headed by genius Jiao-Long Liu, has finally finished construction on the Strong-Gold community which will supply cheap housing. To commemorate this event, there will be an open celebration featuring food, fun, and games. It'll certainly be a night to remember.
Wavy mess of chocolate brown and chestnut blonde streaks
Eye Color:
Rich hazel brown with flecks of grey and green
Ethnicity:
Hapa Haole, or mixed Hawaiian blood. While her mother is Serbian, her father's family has heavy Hawaiian, Irish, and Portuguese elements
Physical Appearance:
Anna may not be conventionally beautiful, but she is certainly striking. With an even, sun-drenched, olive skin from head to toe, and a lean physique to match her tropical flare, she definitely earns the hard stare of other women and steals the gaze of passing men. However, is face somewhat plain, framed between long furls of silky brown hair and a sharp jaw with rounded chin. High cheeks and a hint of almond-shaped eyes combined with her mother's piercing hazel brown irises makes her gaze stand out and demand attention. Her muscles have been toned by relentless effort and the effects show. Some of her younger feminine curves remain, but tight chords of muscle often break this outline. Only her skin retains some sense of softness, which is a dainty facade to an otherwise hardened body.
Personality
Innate & Outward Personality:
Anna has two faces: one she shows the world, and the other only her mirror knows. To world, she is as much an unstoppable wellspring of energy as she is a calming presence. From cutting the ocean swells on a surfboard in her spare time and tutoring younger students in the Academy Program to hunting criminals as part of RAVEN investigative team. She dabbles in everything, and she seems to do it effortlessly. Her expression is always relaxed and just being near her somehow quells the anxiety in others. She follows her own flow and it's all too easy to easy to get caught in her subtle current.
For her, other people come first. If they need encouragement, she'll cheerfully brighten their spirits. For those in rough times, she always greets with arms wide open. Unassuming and always reserved in judgment, many vent their frustrations to her, some even speak their deep-seated insecurities in a bid for a raw human connection. She always tries to be there for it--determined to make a difference.
The face she sees in the mirror seems to be capable of no such accomplishments. She sees weakness, lies, fear; But within that she finds her drive. Any personal weakness is simply an obstacle that needs to be overcome. Accolades and achievements are immaterial because they will always be replaced by newer, loftier goals. With so much tragedy, regret, and fear in her past, she'll do anything in her power to make herself better than she was yesterday. The only option is to move forward and do her absolute best everyday.
Hobbies/Interests:
Her curiosity is insatiable: Anna has dabbles into anything that seems interesting and she changes hobbies like they were fashion trends. At one time or another she's invested herself in sidewalk chalk art, sculpting, poetry, Engineering club, gymnastics, reading biographies, competitive MOBA gaming, DDR dance competitions, flower arrangement, piano, choir, et cetera; the list goes on, but all her hobbies are short-lived. None of them feel like a good fit, with on exception: As an avid swimmer, surfer, and diver, Anna spends much of her spare time in the water. In part as a way to relieve stress, but having grown up in Oahu it's ingrained in her lifestyle. The Ocean's call is hard to ignore.
Skills/Talents:
Proven herself competent at nearly anything she works on, Anna possesses a natural talent to acquire new skills quickly. Maintaining those skills, however, is separate issue entirely; she doesn't practice often, if at all. She's passingly familiar with many things from music history, costume-making, and Classical Latin to sailboat rigging, personal accounting, and foreign cultures. She is a master of nothing, but keenly resourceful. For her, fresh ideas aren't hard to come by.
Her RAVEN training taken this natural talent and molded her into one of the finest investigators they have. From forensic accounting and metahuman psychology to linguistic sociology and criminal profiling, she has been trained and specialized to work with a small group of intelligence officers to profile and track RAVEN's most wanted.
Goals/Motivation
Though mainly driven by an instinctual self-determination to become better. Her time in RAVEN has given her a vastly different perspective in the world than she used to have. She visualizes life in the universe as an evolutionary battle for survival and is built around the victory of the superior human (or metahuman) over both its opponents and peers. This has begun to culminate into a near obsession with physical and mental perfection.
History/Bio:
Born to Bruno Aikau of surfing fame and Ilijana Tuvić, a Serbian refugee of the Yugoslav Wars, Anna was conceived and raised in Oahu, Hawaii. Both her parents are very passionate people who walked their own path in life. Ilijana, a successful defense attorney, would turn down cases simply because they didn't interest her. Bruno made a career of big wave surfing but never went to a championship or tournament which lacked a certain je ne sais quoi, regardless of how much prize money was involved. His passion was in the waves and Illijana's in helping those she believed in. Having grown up in a family that nurtured her curiosity, she had a lot of freedom. Often left to her own devices, Anna had to invent ways to entertain herself and her younger brother. The fires started small. There wasn't much harm in setting some paper aflame in a pile on the dry beach. She could even poke at it with sticks. It always starts small. A soft scolding from her father made her stop, but soon she was stealing oil from the scented lamps and taking forgotten lighters from Uncle Eddie's couch cushions. She thought no one would find her by the recycle dumpster down the street. When the blazing high noon sun is scorching the white gravel and the titanic green containers radiate a enough eat to fry eggs, no one comes by, not even in midday. She set it ablaze. The glowing embers were mesmerizing. Billowing streaks of black, orange and red surged through the paper-filled bins, growing hotter and hotter until the aged green paint peeled away revealing the seething metal beneath. The smoke cloud from a mile away, so it wasn't hard for the fire department to find. Anna was to entranced by the flames to resist being carried away by men in bright yellow suits. When her father claimed her at the police station, he exchanged only a few words with the officers and scooped her into his arms and carried her away. He said nothing during the drive home. Anna didn't like the silence and something felt wrong about tension in her father's face. His expression was a grim mix of terror and rage. They made lunch together and ate quietly. She wasn't yelled at or spanked like she had expected. Like a calm before the storm, her father only said "I'm worried about you." before starting to clean the plates. The shouting started when her mother got home. That night she was forced to use an entire box of matches on herself, forced to hold every match until it singed her finger tips. Looming over Anna and watching closely, her mother made sure each was wasted on the painful lesson. Afterward, she was instructed on why fire was dangerous, that she could hurt someone, but above that she could ruin the family, and strong-armed into promising never to do it again.
That should have been the end of it. Case closed.
Anna spent the next two years forlornly watching volunteers douse house fires and taking a special interest a select few Youtube series.
Now at the trustworthy age of eleven, one humid evening in the depth of Summer, her parents left her and her brother at home. It was only going to be for a few hours while the two celebrated their 12th anniversary. Anna had been staring out at the sunset, her head resting against the curtains while playing with her favorite lighter, the Zippo she'd rescued years earlier from a couch crevice. Boredom is the devil. It's true. If she hadn't been grounded for not doing chores, she could watch TV. If her dad was home, he could take her out surfing. If Jonah was still dumb enough to fall for her tricks, maybe none of it would have happened The fire slithered up the curtains, before it leapt to recliner. In just a few minutes, half the living room was on fire. The nascent inferno was all too willing to grow and consume every inch of the house. It lurched its way into the hallway and licked at the frame of Jonah's door. The wood creaked and snapped as she watched as if in a fugue. In that moment, imagined the fire she created that day at the dumpster and how her brother would burn just as easily; the image of him melting flashed before her eyes. Her stomach knotted, twisted and bounced her quickly beating heart into her throat. Shaken from her trance by the sudden realization, she grabbed a untouched chair pillow and began beating the flames back with her tiny arms, flailing at them relentless. No matter how annoying he was, no matter how often he stole Anna's snacks or barged into her room, he wasn't supposed to melt in a fire. She had to save him. All those times her mom and dad said they were a family, that family looks out for one another, the words hadn't sunk in. Anna understood it now.
The smoke stung her eyes. Wild current of heat seared her fingers as she trashed and wrestled with the flames. For a moment the doorway was clear, but the hot handle barred her entry. She tried gripping it with the case of her pillow, but it wouldn't budge. She fought with it until the black clouds took her.
She awoke to the unfamiliar ceiling of a sterile white room and a steady, incessant beep. Queen's Medical Center's intensive care unit had been more than accommodating to her and Jonah. Although she survived with minimal injuries, her brother suffered second and third-degree burns on his neck, back, and arms.
The damage had been done and her home was in ruin. Anna spent the next three years in and out of psychiatric offices. One-on-one interviews, case management, prognostic analyses, medication, screaming, crying, numbness, shame. Those three years exist very much as blur in her memory. Between the therapy sessions, the shouting sessions, the pleas, and the tirades it was all a muddled mixture of harsh words and raw emotion.
In those three years tensions grew around her like the rift between her parents. Haunted by guilt over what happened, Anna could not be consoled. She had convinced herself she wasn't human and punished herself far more than anyone could. No matter how overjoyed she was to learn Jonah survived and could make a full recovery, the years after were not kind and neither was Jonah. Just being in his presence as torture and as he grew older he found cutting words to tear into her. Resentment seemed to be the only thing Jonah held for her.
The day her parents announced their divorce, she permitted herself a selfish, relieved sigh. Living in her own wake was suffocating.
It was during this the time of her life when she truly felt what "rockbottom" was like that her father started show signs of superpowers. Late to bloom, but still a true-blue metahuman. Bruno had taken a break from the professional surfing scene for obvious reasons. At first invitational he'd competed in over 5 years, he's out-performed 53 contestants. At the age of 46, he bested more than 20 surfers still at the height of their game. It was landslide victory for him, a metahuman empowered by water.
While the discovery provoked many questions and interests, it ultimately cost Bruno his ranking in the tourney. More importantly, it cost him his career. With a power like his it gave him an "unfair advantage" or so the judges said. And while their was considerations to revoke his other championship titles as well, Bruno formally and publicly announced his retirement from professional surfing.
Through a friend now living in Verthaven, Bruno found work teaching members of a private gym how to surf. While the divorce proceedings continued, He and Anna settled into a beach house in Fire Shores while Ilijana and Jonah stayed with family in Oahu. Her parents were working out their disputes amicably enough, but felt after all that had happened some distance was for the best, even if it was temporary.
Anna transferred into Verthaven's public high school system as a sophomore (now a Junior) and has tried her best to start life her anew.
During her time in Verthaven, she became increasingly involved in metahuman affairs, eventually discovering she was a metahuman at a house party. Shortly thereafter, she was abducted by the Hands of Science. She was held in captivity for over two days and subjected to excruciating torture, forcibly made to manifest her powers to the brink of exhaustion. The ordeal left her hospitalized for two months afterwards.
Despite tireless efforts by her politically combative attorney and mother, Ilijana, Anna was ultimately registered under the existing legislation, but not before her case turned into a class action suit. The trials were highly publicized, but fell short of arriving in front the Supreme Court in light of the events leading up to the Verthaven disaster.
The legal battle stressed Anna's already fragile family ties, but the tragedy in Verthaven shattered any hope of her and her family being together. Her father, Bruno, and many of her friends died during the disaster. Her father was always a much need pillar a strength when she felt weak or lonely. Losing him, felt like losing everything.
Embittered by daunting court affairs, the death of her father and many of her close friends, and rising tensions with her mother, she cut a deal with former NEST agents and escaped to Academy 218. RAVEN had managed to recover data left behind by the Hands of Science, outlining their inhuman research into extent of her abilities. In exchange for willingly becoming a guinea pig for DOVE's admittedly much more pleasant research division, she would become a ward of the state under DOVE and RAVEN's supervision.
However, several other organizations had acquired the Hand's research data, likely through black market dealings. As Anna grew older, she became more and more aware that she was going to be target. More than once did she have ditch a conspicuous person tailing her, or being saved by RAVEN agents during an attempted kidnapping.
Instead of being a target, Anna resolved herself to become an agent and hunt down all the cruel and nefarious people that had stalked her well into adulthood. Despite repeated requests by DOVE to become a counselor or teacher, she joined RAVEN. After basic training, she went on to study criminal law. She has since served as a field agent attached to reconnaissance teams, an intelligence officer for Headquarters, and also as RAVEN's prosecutor in many special tribunals, particularly those sanctioned by the government to try "dangerous metahuman elements" in a court of law.
She has recently been stationed in Baybridge following an 18-months tour. Her commander said she "worked too much."
Relationships
Family:
Bruno Aikau - Father [Deceased] Eddie Aikau - Uncle Ilijana Aikau - Mother Jonah Aikau - Brother
Dynamics:
Eddie Aikau | Good | Uncle | "After Dad died, he's the only one I could still talk to. He works as a linguist at the EU headquarters now. I see him on occasion." |
Ilijana Tuvić | Bad | Mother | "Fantastic laywer, terrible mother. It's still ten years too soon for me to see her again." |
Meifeng Zhao | Mixed | Former Best Friend | "A loud and crude tomboy, and I wouldn't have her any other way. Except... She confessed to me. We even kissed, but that's ancient history. I haven't heard from her in years." |
Abilities
Power Class:
Power (Charger)
Power: --Stoke
Anna passively amplifies any metahuman power in her vicinity. The exact consequences are as varied as the powers affected. It manifests as a layer of translucent, pale white shimmering along her skin. As she put more effort into the manifestation, the more the display resembles a roiling corona of heatless, white fire.
Stoke tends to enhance existing traits. Telepaths can project farther. Speedsters can move faster. Elemental mimics can stay transformed longer. Most importantly, the affected power becomes easier to manipulate, requiring little to no effort to manifest and control. In many cases, this has triggered accidental manifestations in poorly-trained or unsuspecting metahumans.
However, as always, some exceptions exist. How this affects certain Super-system abilities is not always so obvious, especially for Bestial types. Permanent alterations tend to be enhanced only after periods of long exposure, several days at most. It could start with more hair and scales, perhaps fingernals slowly become claws. However, longer-term exposure tends to cause a shift mental state to more closely align with animal instincts.
The metahuman energy her body outputs is readily absorbed by other metahumans, replenishing depleted reserves. Much like a battery, she can indirectly supply the power needed to manifest metahuman abilities. For example, with Anna's support, an elemental class metahuman with pyrokinetic capabilities could completely avoid exhaustion, if exclusively drawing on the potent energy radiating from Anna. Interestingly, her training in the academy has led to the suspicion her power could be used to forestall the Ashing; although no one has yet attempted to confirm this.
While the long-term consequences are not completely understood or apparent for metahumans. The opposite is true for normal humans. While it does takes a few months to fully manifest, Anna's power induces a metahuman evolution in humans who had no previous potential. (This particular fact is why DOVE/RAVEN rotates her field assignments frequently).
Limits:
Proximity is key. The closer a metahuman the more the amplification effect becomes apparent. Left unmanaged, the area of effect would be a rough 3 meter spread in all directions. The output levels can also be controlled, making the radiation effect more or less intense. This directly modifies the range at which a metahuman can be reached by Anna's power--to a current maximum of 10 meters.
Weaknesses/Drawbacks:
There is no "OFF" switch. This power will always be active, even if Anna is unconscious.
Direct skin contact, allows Anna to channel nearly all of her energy into another person, or multiple people. The disadvantage is realized in that any metahuman she is touching can exhaust her in a few seconds by drawing on all of her power at once. Anna has no ability to prevent this, and the reverse is not possible either.
@BurningDaisies We'll see who's guzzling cum when I'm finished. Give her an actual physical description rather than just using a picture. And I do like the idea of a RAVEN investigator (Even though we have more than enough of those guys jesus christ).
Also I changed Lihua/Meifeng's last name to Zhao because the last one was really gay.
Dropped in the physical appearance, which should be the last thing.
If there's anything else I need to change, it'll have to wait. I got called into work, since people apparently can't be bothered to test their newly compiled software before releasing it to the rest of the company.
Also, I put the powers each character has next to their name on the character list, just as a quick reference in case someone wants to join and skims it.
