S W A R M Q U E E N
A B E L L E D ' V O I R E ◼ 1 8 // 0 7 // 1 9 9 9 ( 1 7 ) ◼ F E M A L E
"There's a couple bugs in my code."
"I've always said to embrace your strange."
//STATS:◼ HEIGHT | 5'11"
◼ WEIGHT | 90lbs
◼ BUILD | Petite
◼ HAIR COLOUR | Brown
◼ EYE COLOUR | Light Green/Amber
//DESCRIPTION:Abelle, preferably Belle, has always kept a slightly mysterious and alien-like air about her persona, in an open-armed acceptance of the oddities of her existence. She stands at a tall 5'11, with long limbs that threaten to be clumsy but are instead coordinated into smooth, graceful motion. Her facial bone structure appears other-worldly and her expressions dip equally into adorable and uncanny. She keeps her hair short, for low-maintenance as well as to accentuate her bone structure, and coupled with a single plain nose ring and her near-amber coloured eyes, she appears extra-terrestrial. Belle always make sure to cast strong shadows (in the right lighting), and strike an eye-catching figure in her day-to-day.
Despite her decidedly 'alternative' choice of hairstyle and jewelry, Belle once again appeals to the contrarian within her by dressing light and loose, favouring creams, whites, and other bright, pure colours, often choosing sheer, silk, or satin fabrics. While many of her clothes are simple in shape and style, they usually bear some sort of minor affectation in such a way to allow them to stand out against other, similar garments. Her makeup swings between either natural-esque or dark and heavy, but no matter her daily fashion, Belle always appears comfortable and cutting-edge.
"The specifics of my biology has always bugged me."
Belle's parents, Lorin and Nathaneal, were both born in France, and met in class at Aix-Marseille University in Provence, where they were both taking Advanced Language Studies. Lorin's mother and father had lived through the Dark Eclipse and had passed to her the 'hype-gene', and while she had never realised, it had gifted her with an excellent capacity for learning all manner of foreign languages - a skill that had been put down to natural talent and gifted intelligence. Nathaneal, however, had secured his place through scraping every grade he could manage, working hard to achieve the results he needed - Nathan dreamed of a life travelling, and wanted to expand his knowledge of the world through its people. Together, they discovered a quiet, but fiercely powerful kinship, and the two began a deep, loving relationship that would endure many trials. They graduated with high honours, and began planning their lives together, moving to Paris to be young lovers. In 1998, Lorin fell pregnant unexpectedly, and the two young parents-to-be made a quick - and ultimately easy - decision to enter a brave new chapter in their lives. It did not start without its difficulties.
From early into the second trimester, Lorin's obstetrician identified a rare recessive defective gene from Nathaneal had been passed on to their child, that would cause a debilitating - and eventually terminal - neuro-degnerative condition. The couple refused to abort Belle, but instead took every course of treatment, medication, and surgery that was available to help their unborn child. Eventually, in July '98, Belle was born pre-maturely, and she spent 3 months in the NICU before she was declared stable enough to return home. Belle spent a year in Paris with her parents; according to them, it was the best year France, let alone Paris, had ever seen. Then Belle returned to the hospital. Her condition was taking its toll far more rapidly than any doctor - pre- or post-natal - has predicted. Lorin's chosen medical advisors had given Belle four to five un-impeded years, but she lasted only one before returning to white walls and vinyl flooring.
The situation was poor at best. Belle was declining at a rapid rate, and no known treatment could effectively stall the process that had already begun. She had maybe a few months at best, and her parents were distraught. Belle herself didn't - couldn't - understand, instead clinging to hazy, half-formed memories of the city of Paris. It was at the end of their rope that Belle's doctors and parents found a final, frayed string of hope.
An experimental trial treatment for Belle's condition was starting its preliminary stages in the US, and Belle qualified almost immediately. Lorin and Nathaneal, almost frantic with combined grief and bittersweet hope, signed the flood of paperwork with fervoured pens, and Belle was whisked away a mere 4 hours later. Belle spent three days in Washington before her parents cleared their Visa's and passports to join her. In their desperation, they had skimmed over the details of the treatment, and it was only when they had landed, settled, and had Belle returned to them post-treatment that they were de-briefed by the lead medical staff on the trial.
The participants selected had had isolated strains of genetically altered genome tags from select species of insect introduced to the faulty genes that caused their neuro-degnerative conditions; it was a long-shot, and in very early stages, but the scientists involved believed that the DNA, chosen from a very select set of insect species, had properties that could treat or cure the patients' conditions by binding to the faulty genes responsible and either fixing - or overriding - the imperfect processes that caused the degeneration. It took several months, and other participants saw no changes - but somehow, against all odds, it worked for Belle. She got better. Lorin and Nathaneal thanked whoever it was that had watched over their child, and began to pick up their new lives in the US, far removed from the idyllic Paris days of their youth.
Lorin and Nathaneal picked up small jobs that paid enough to get by as doctors and scientists monitored Belle's improvement over the next three years; shortly after Belle turned five, she was found to be clear of all signs and symptoms of her previously life-threatening condition, and her visits and check-ups ceased. Overjoyed, Lorin and Nathaneal searched for their perfect home, and found it in New Hampshire, Crestwood Hollow, where Nathaneal found work travelling and lecturing, and Lorin became a professor of language at a nearby university.
Belle grew up healthy and happy, living in the Beau-side of Crestwood Hollow with her parents, her favourite young memories being those of warm afternoons spent in Mather Park when her father came home from whichever state he had been lecturing in, hazy summer air and the smells of sizzling barbecues filling her. As she aged, Belle inquired of her early life in uncountable medical facilities, and her parents, not ones to hide the truth from their daughter, carefully explained the unfortunates of her first five years, and the circumstances that had allowed her to continue on past them. Belle recoiled at first, only twelve and naive, finding the foreign DNA's presence within her to be unsettling and unseemly; but her parents left her with medical records and research notes, and gently helped her towards acceptance. Belle acquired a keen interest in Human and Insect Biology, Biology as a subject quickly becoming her best, and as she moved up academically she began taking on extra-curricular courses related to Human Biology and Entomology, having a vested interest in the subjects. Now, Belle is 17, through most of her puberty and attending Mather Memorial. She has a small group of close friends, and hopes to move on to university when she graduates to study Entomology in full. She is still fond of Mather Park, and still visits with her father when she can, but otherwise lives a happy, decidedly-'teenaged' adolescence.
▼ A B I L I T I E S / S K I L L S:
"At least it means wasp-free barbecues."
//ABILITIES: Pheromone-based Insect Manipulation - Belle is able to secrete specific pheromones from the sweat pores of her body, creating an invisible beacon for all manner of insect, crustacean, and arachnid life to come crawling out of nooks and crannies of the world to seek the source - inevitable finding Belle herself - and then await further instruction. Belle's variety of pheromones are subtle enough in their distinctions to almost emulate telekinetic control, but in truth, Belle is simply signalling certain instinctual impulses in the swarms she can amass, which can range from complete aggression to total pacifism to absolute retreat.
The uses of her swarm are only limited by Belle's imagination, and her willingness to test the limits of her pheromone control. Only time will tell whether Belle's abilities will develop any unexpected advancements, or if her pheromones are limited only to bug-specific signals.
//SKILLS: Belle possesses a few talents outside of her abnormal pheromones, that prove to be as important to her as her hype-gene. A dedicated student, Belle takes her studies very seriously, as well as taking any extra-credit offered and attending some extra-curricular courses. She keeps herself healthy and fit, jogging, stretching and maintaining an exercise routine to keep her body as healthy and limber as possible, not wanting any further health issues after her first few years.
//LIMITATIONS: Belle cannot produce bugs, nor does she keep her pheromones in a permanent 'on-state', as this would lead to a bigger swarm than she can control, as well as massive ecosystem instability and a negative public reaction when she arrives on-campus with half a city's worth of bugs trailing behind her. As a result, Belle must preempt a situation in which a swarm will serve her, and then carefully amass such a hive with selective pheromones while also ensuring she does not let the size run amok. If there are no bugs in the immediate vicinity, Belle will have to wait longer and try harder to reach out further, and if there are no bugs at all, Belle will have no swarm.
Further, the larger Belle's current swarm, the more difficult it is to maintain pinpoint control as is possible with a smaller group. While she can use the swarm itself to proliferate her pheromones within itself for increased efficiency, the larger the swarm is, the more likely it becomes for sections of it to break away as the rest of it receives new or different instructions, resulting in a large chunk loss as half of the swarm begins leaving or even in-fighting due to the many different species of insect that can be co-habiting one of Belle's swarms at any given time. As such, Belle's pheromone control is a careful knife-edge game - enough to create a swarm and then make it large enough to allow it to govern itself, but not so big as to implode itself. It is far too easy for Belle to simply leave a pheromone lingering for too long, and a swarm to disappear as quickly as it arrived.
//WEAKNESSES: Despite Belle's pheromones, her control is not infallible. Strong enough instinctual responses in the insects that make up her swarm can override any existing pheromone commands and cause the insects to revert to their nature; as such, strong fear, hunger, or mating impulses can destabilize a swarm entirely.
As well as basic instinct, simple biology can also impede Belle's powers. The insects that make up her swarms are just that: insects. While, in large numbers and under Belle's command, they are capable of inspiring fear and causing lasting damage to Belle's enemies, they are still subject to the frailty of their forms - any method that would normally disperse a large cluster of insects will work equally well against Belle's swarms.
//SUPPORTING CAST:▼ ALLIES◼ LORIN D'VOIRE | Mother, and loving primary caretaker of her daughter. Possesses her own hype-gene that affords her an accelerated comprehension of foreign languages, but has never realised this to be the case. She is still paranoid of every flu and fever Belle picks up - afraid of the illness that plagued her daughter's first five years returning - but tries hard not to restrict her. She teaches language as a professor at a nearby university, and savours the time she gets with her family.
◼ NATHANEAL D'VOIRE | Father, and travelling lecturer on a mixture of language studies and neuro-degenerative conditions, a foundation of knowledge he expanded greatly through the trials of his daughter's treatments. He often spends one or two weeks in a particular state, roaming schools and universities to deliver his lectures, before flying back to New Hampshire to spend a week with his family. His feels some guilt for passing on the faulty recessive gene that caused Belle's condition, and spoils her somewhat as a result; his own father died too soon in Nathaneal's life, and so he knows how precious every second can be.
▼ FRIENDS◼ ALEXA FUMAL | A fellow student at Mather Memorial, heavily interested in architecture and history, and one of Belle's closest friends. They met early on in their academic careers, and have remained steadfast and loyal to each other ever since. Alex doesn't know much about Belle's medical past, feeling it rude to ask, but Belle has shared some details, and likely will again; neither really care - it is the now that matters.
▼ ENEMIES◼ N/A | None...yet
//STOMPING GROUNDS◼ MATHER MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL | The school Belle attends, taking extra-curricular courses in Entomology and working hard to get the grades she needs for university. Belle latches on to any extra-credit she can find, and she is shaping up to be one of the school's star students.
◼ MATHER PARK | Belle's favourite place in Crestwood Hollow, and where most of her afternoons and warm evenings are spent. The Hanging Tree ever-present, she often sits against its trunk on sunny days and listens to the world, enjoying every detail.
◼ CRESTWOOD HOLLOW PORT | A throbbing hive of buzzing activity, Belle likes to visit the docks when the sun is high just to watch the unfurling tendrils of new people coming in, going out, running around working, or just enjoying their lunch breaks. The thriving hub of movement is both comforting and exciting to Belle, and reminds her that life is far, far bigger than just the city she lives in.
//PARAPHERNALIA◼ MISC. | Not owning any notable tools or pieces of equipment, Belle instead has only the assorted typical goods of a high-school teenager: the latest smart phone, a laptop, several textbooks on entomology and biology, notepads, pencils and pens, and a copy of her medical history and a large sheaf of research notes from the experimental trial that saved her life.
