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Name
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mary Maier.
Alias
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Varies depending on her situation and disguise. When masquerading as an ordinary woman, she'll always use an alias as a matter of principle. Perhaps out of a lack of creativity, or perhaps because of some kind of in-joke on her part, however, Mary tends to favor music-themed names like "Melody," "Calliope," or "Lorelei." Her current fake name, established by the Grey Fox Syndicate, is "Aria Argent."
When she has no choice but to reveal any of her less-than-human aspects, she'll always hide her face and name completely, if she can help it, not wanting her escapades to be tied back to any of her cover identities, let alone her true self. To do this, she usually adopts the persona of a masked thief, and goes by the sobriquet of "The Silver Phantom."
Age
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________22.
Race
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Human/Collective High Caste Artificial Genetic Hybrid
Home Planet
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Earth.
Physical Description
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On the surface, Mary is an unremarkable, if rather beautiful young woman. She's tall and a bit on the willowy side, without very much in the way of either muscle or fat to her. Nevertheless, she does have some... shall we say "substance" to her, and more importantly, seems to have mastered the fine art of moving in such a way to draw attention to what curves she has. A slight, sassy swaying of hips accentuates her steps. Her posture is always upright, but never quite rigid, and her head is always held high and proud.
She's a woman charming enough to make features that would seem unusual or perhaps even creepy in another person seem quite natural, or even beautiful. Her silver hair and pale skin - signs of the albinism caused as a side-effect of her heritage - make her seem to glimmer and shine. Although one might formerly be inclined to think of someone with such milky white skin as an obvious shut-in, for Mary, her paleness becomes a charm in and of itself, drawing even greater attention to the lively splash of color in her cheeks with each blush.
Her ghostly light green eyes - just a few shades brighter and more vibrant than those of a pure-blooded human should probably be - seem perfectly natural in conjunction with her otherwise pale appearance, and only further serve to enhance the radiance of her face. And, although like anyone else, she has her flaws - minor pockmarks, the occasional scar from a childhood scrape, a few moles here and there, dark circles under her eyes which, try though she might to cover with makeup, she can't quite erase - they become somehow more difficult to notice, and incredibly easy to forget when one hears her clear, sweet voice. As such, the overall impression one gets of her is generally entirely favorable.
But of course, this is all on the surface - a carefully crafted veneer meant to draw attention away from certain less obvious physical traits which she covers at all times. She thus usually dresses very conservatively, taking great pains to hide the painfully noticeable crisscrossing of unnaturally dark blue veins running beneath her skin, the fact that she has three less sets of ribs than a human, or the arched ridges of bone and tense coils of musculature surrounding her spinal column, or the faint, bony protrusion of her tailbone from underneath her skin, forming the wickedly sharp hooked tip of an alien weapon merged with her musculature, hidden just beneath her skin.
However, even less obtrusive elements of her body could be a dead giveaway of her nature if viewed in the wrong context, such as the red tattoo on her left cheek. Originally, it was a simple straight line - just one of many forms of geometric marking performed using a specific chemical that is near-impossible to remove, traditionally worn on the faces of members of the Collective to show their rank and standing within the alien hegemony's complex caste system. The less extensive the marking, the more "pure" the wearer - or so it is held. As the simplest possible 2D figure, a line marks her as bearing the blood of the Collective's intellectual caste of scientists, researchers, and philosophers, just below the "royal" rank of their leaders and hierarchs. However, it's prominently shifted from where it would normally be placed - at the center of her forehead, a sign of symmetry, purity, and enlightenment - to her left cheek, signifying her lower status as a tool of the hierarchy, rather than a proper member of it. In the Collective's society, thus, while she would be honored as one of the "enlightened," that honor would come with the expectation that her life, being given to her by her caste, should in turn be given utterly and selflessly to serve her betters.
As a recognizable sign of her ties to the Collective which she could not simply remove, however, it was one of the first things she changed to disguise her true nature, adding on an extra blotch of red at the bottom of the line to make it into a "teardrop" which she could plausibly excuse as a mere aesthetic choice. If she can help it, she covers the symbol entirely with makeup, not wanting to display such a defining marking that would allow her to be easily recognized.
Skills and Powers
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mary possesses not one, but two unique powers: the first inherent to the experimental strain of the Collective's infamous pathogen incubated within her blood, and the second due to the physical modifications she was subjected to in order to turn her into a living weapon. Her intended purpose was simple: talk humans into lowering their guard around her, gather information, gain access to priority targets, and then eliminate them with an undetectable weapon hidden inside her own body.
To that end, her first ability, and her only outright "superpower" is her hypnotically beautiful voice, uniquely clear and pure and resonant beyond that of anyone else alive. Although perhaps rather underwhelming compared to the abilities of others infected by the pathogen, this very subtlety is in fact her greatest strength. When she speaks, the beauty of her voice is obvious, but its effects are not, making it difficult to realize she's even using any kind of power whatsoever, or to recognize the progression of her powers as they work upon a victim.
The longer one listens to her, however, the less one cares to pay attention to almost anything else. The pitch and cadence with which she speaks causes a minor hypnotic effect, slowly drawing her hearers into a sort of trance where their awareness becomes distracted, their thoughts elsewhere. To someone under the effects of this trance, Mary herself seems more beautiful, her words somehow inherently more innocent or trustworthy. Because of this, while she can't hypnotize someone completely or otherwise erase their free will, she herself nevertheless becomes an impossibly persuasive speaker, capable of compelling or convincing people to comply with almost any request she might make, provided she can make it seem logical and it doesn't cause them immediate physical harm - as generally, their sense of self-preservation will interfere with such actions.
So, if she gave a sob story about having her wallet stolen and needing money to pay for something immediately necessary - say, a train ticket, or a restaurant bill - she could easily talk someone into giving her much more money than such a thing would require without them ever considering it was strange that she'd ask for that much - at least, not until some time after she stopped talking. On the other hand, she couldn't just ask someone to kill themselves and have them comply unthinkingly - at least, unless they were already considering suicide before she even began to speak to them.
On that note, there are a few things that tip the balance of power in her favor. For one thing, it's much easier to compel people who are already contemplating the course of action which she suggests, or individuals who are in heightened emotional states. If someone was angry at someone else - even a friend - she might be able to direct that anger and make them attack that person, if they were already entertaining the idea of revenge. Or, by playing the victim herself, she might be able to motivate even random passers-by to spring to her aid by instilling them with sufficient panic - I.E., "Please help me! There's a man trying to kill me!" Finally, since her "charm" is more effective the more attention is being paid to Mary herself, it's obviously more effective on people who are physically attracted to her, giving her a particular advantage when it comes to beguiling men.
However, conversely, there are several circumstances which may make her efforts significantly less successful. The most obvious counter to her powers is that the less clearly one can hear her, the less effect her voice can have. It also takes some time to fully charm a listener, and as such, she'll have much better luck if she can convince someone to listen or talk to her for a few minutes before making her request. And, finally, just because she can reduce people's natural resistance to her charms doesn't mean she can entirely eliminate them. If one is already inclined not to trust her, even if one is captivated by the beauty of her voice, one can still resist and refuse her requests. And, if one is already acquainted with the specifics of her powers, they can much more easily shrug off her attempts to entrance them. This, in particular, can be a serious problem for her, since someone she's persuaded once may have since had time to contemplate the strangeness of their own actions, and may realize to some extent what her powers are capable of.
To those unfortunate enough to fall completely under her sway despite such stumbling blocks, however, after a matter of minutes, her voice's power grows beyond mere compulsion to follow simple requests. At this point, she can even begin influencing their perceptions with her words. If she were to hand a thoroughly entranced victim 500 dollars of Monopoly money, for example, she could tell them it was real, and to them, it would appear to be such. However, just because she can cause minor hallucinations does not mean she can simply fabricate sensations wholecloth. Generally, her "persuasion" in this sense takes the form of convincing people that something real which they can see and touch is something similar, but different. For example, if there was a sufficiently large object in the corner of a room, she could convince someone not looking at it that a person was standing behind them, however briefly. The problem with these illusions and parlor tricks is that anything bigger than a slight lie - I.E. the example of the Monopoly money - tends to fall apart at a second glance. So, while this application of her power can be useful for split second bluffing - for example, convincing people not to take notice of her inhuman physical traits in order to preserve her secret identity - generally, it's not so well suited for long-term deception.
As a final addendum, although not useful for persuasion, she can focus her abilities solely on drawing her hearers into a trance by - you guessed it - singing. While they remain aware enough to realize that any lyrics are just that rather than a request or a command, the sheer, incomprehensibly beautiful sound of her singing voice is enough to make her hearers forget everything else around them and focus solely on her. The trance created by her songs is more powerful than anything else she can muster. In such a state, not only does her voice dazzle the ears, but she herself seems more beautiful to behold than any other woman - an effect of minor hypnotic hallucinations, such as the ones mentioned above. Her listeners become deaf to all but her, blind to all but her, and generally remain in a daze, as if dreaming asleep on their feet. This is one charm that it's very difficult to resist through force of will, even if one knows what she's capable of and doesn't trust her at all. While one with sufficient strength of mind may not become wholly infatuated for the duration of her song, they'll nevertheless likely be distracted, unable to divert their attention fully from her performance. Barring earplugs, there's no completely perfect defense against her songs.
Her second "power" is significantly less esoteric. Designed to fulfill her purpose as an assassin, a special alien "prosthetic" is interwoven with her tailbone and up her spinal cord. Synchronized with her nervous and circulatory systems, this weapon consists of several mechanical discs and a hooked blade built into her tailbone. These "discs" can secrete a compound into surrounding symbiotic alien tissue that serves as a secondary "heart" - helping her pump blood - implanted close to the base of her spinal column. This compound, based in the Collective's advanced medical science, stimulates incredibly rapid cellular growth within the symbiotic organ, causing alien "host cells" to sprout outward into an appendage of raw, ultra-dense muscles within the mechanical frame, which expands to form a thin, scaly coating on the outside of the new limb. Then, when this appendage is no longer needed, the mechanism secretes a highly volatile compound that destroys the boundaries of each secondary cell created by the original process, liquefying the appendage and allowing the host cells to cannibalize the resulting biological slush to recover somewhat from the caloric cost of reproducing so quickly. Meanwhile, the mechanism once more contracts into her tailbone, seemingly causing the anomalous limb to vanish without a trace back into her body.
Put more simply, then, she's capable of growing
a bladed, fully prehensile tail from her back, and extending and contracting it at will. It takes only a few seconds to grow to an operational length of five feet, and can reach up to almost 15 feet for a brief period of time before it becomes impossible for her to circulate blood effectively - almost triple her own height. This limb also possesses extreme physical strength and durability, perhaps sufficient to hold its own against empowered humans, or other alien technology. What's more, the blade mounted at its tip can shear through metal with a clean strike, and between its piercing and cutting power and its size, would almost certainly be fatal to a human upon a direct thrust or slash. Even if amputated, her tail can be regrown over time provided the basic machinery in her tailbone is left intact and the alien host cells from which it sprouts remain. However, sprouting the tail, circulating blood to it, and extending and contracting it to suit her needs in battle does take a great toll on her metabolism, causing her to tire very quickly while using it for anything complex. Because of this, it's ill suited to prolonged combat, and is best suited to its intended purpose: launching an unexpected, lethal surprise attack against a single target, then swiftly collapsing back into her body to avoid detection.
Aside from these outright unique abilities, Mary possesses a few useful talents. She's an incredibly skilled liar, capable of coming up with convincing-sounding falsehoods and reciting them without so much as batting an eye. She's also a decently good actress, and is particularly good at changing her own inflection, posture, and speech patterns in accordance with a predetermined role, even if much of her real personality and feelings tend to shine through. Although her education has been admittedly rather lacking by most objective standards, she's nevertheless incredibly well-spoken, and capable of fitting into almost any social function, be it an informal party bash or a formal gala.
When it comes to combat, however, she's a bit less prepared. She lacks combat experience and, if given the choice, would much rather run than fight. She sometimes has trouble keeping her cool in battle, and would likely hesitate to decisively kill an opponent.
Her reaction time isn't particularly above or below average, and as a side-effect of her albinism, she's rather near-sighted, although her vision is strangely keen when it comes to noticing things that are close to her, and her other senses - particularly an almost beastlike sense of smell - can compensate in most cases. However, once particular advantage Mary does have is her tremendous flexibility. Due to her inhuman heritage, her skeletal structure has a larger emphasis on cartilage than bone - making it much more fragile, but also giving many of her joints a much wider range of movement. This is most noticeable with regards to her waist, as her ribcage takes up much less space than that of a human, allowing her to bend her body almost completely in half. She can thus perform such contortions as lying face down almost flat upon her own outstretched legs, or lifting one leg completely over her head, and is equally comfortable standing upright or dropping to all fours if need be to employ her tail more effectively.
Equipment
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________She possesses a vast collection of disguises - cosmetics, costumes, accessories, and anything between - used in establishing her various fake identities, concealing identifying features, and blending in with her surroundings. Although she lacks any other particular equipment, if it's available on the black market and is needed for a mission, it's likely that her handlers in the Grey Foxes would be able to obtain it for her.
Affiliation
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The Grey Fox Syndicate, or Grey Foxes - an underground society of thieves using an international shipping conglomerate as a front for their operations. Their general modus operandi is profit through the procurement of rare objects for interested parties, ranging from the theft of priceless artworks to their forte: stealing samples of illegal alien technology for sale on the black market.
Alignment
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Neutral.
Short Bio
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Conceived near the turning point of the war against the Collective, Mary was designed as a way to sow dissent and chaos within the Human resistance. Originally, she was supposed to be a full-blooded human armed with experimental technology. However, her designer and biological "father" - a High Caste Collective researcher and one of the key minds behind the Collective's simultaneous developments in bioweaponry - soon realized that while human biology could be altered to suit some of their needs using the mutagenic compound that would form the basis for their infamous pathogen, it was utterly incompatible with the modifications necessary in order to create a truly living weapon. As such, a compromise was struck, and a clone hybrid was created between some elements of human DNA added to her "father's" genetic sample. On the surface, she would appear human, but her body's chemistry would be sufficiently altered to accept the alien implants that were later placed within her.
However, there were difficulties accelerating her growth, and several issues with her body rejecting her implants. Although she responded well to conditioning and demonstrated absolute obedience to her masters, ultimately, the project was scrapped in favor of the more immediately usable bioweapon, and she was placed into indefinite cryostasis around the physical age of six. It was in this state that she was discovered during the final stages of the war when the lab where she was stored was raided - not by the resistance, but by a lone "hero": The Scarlet Dragon, Alida Maier.
Alida's first inclination was to kill the young alien she found there. However, she could not bring herself to go through it the act. Perhaps she took pity on the young girl, reasoning that she was innocent of the crimes of her makers, regardless of the intent belying her creation. Perhaps this was just the first manifestation of Mary's preternatural charisma. Or, perhaps Alida merely desired a family of her own to replace the one that had abandoned her following her pathogen-induced transformation into a "monster" with scales, wings, tail, fangs and claws.
Regardless of the reason, Alida sheltered the young girl, and concealed her new daughter from everyone she could. They lived in seclusion on the edge of a small town in the midwest, avoiding any human contact they could. The mother was generally shunned as a freak, after all, and the daughter needed to be kept as secret as possible for her own safety. As such, her new family life largely consisted of remaining safe at home, schooled carefully by her loving new mother. Bit by bit, Mary's conditioning was worn down, and the instincts of the child won over. She was curious, cheerful, and affectionate, spoiled in turn by a mother who cared for her deeply as the only family she had.
With the end of the war and the brief period of relaxation that followed, Alida enjoyed a very short period of recognition once her deeds during the war were brought to light, and the townspeople - while not perhaps welcoming the monstrous woman - tolerated her presence. Because of this, she perhaps got a little more careless than she should have, and allowed her daughter to occasionally go and play with the other local children, claiming that Mary was just a girl she'd rescued during the war in order to hide her real nature.
While there were many initial suspicions surrounding the daughter of such a suspicious figure as Alida Maier, Mary actually got along very well with the few children who lived closeby, and made several friends among their number. Although they were warned away from her house for fear of her mother - as if Alida were a fairy tale monster who might eat them - it was strangely accepted that Mary herself was blameless - no doubt another result of her charismatic voice. As such, she lived a surprisingly normal childhood - or at least, something close to one. She was beloved and admired by all her friends, and many times had to break up fights between the local boys to decide who would earn the coveted right to marry her when they were all grown-ups. Their parents would always laugh and shake their heads, saying "She'll grow up to be a real heartbreaker one day."
Heh. If only they knew.
Everything changed around the time she was thirteen. Due to increases in superpowered crime, the locals grew increasingly paranoid about the "monster" living in their midst. Alida was eventually blamed for all manner of crimes, rumors, and misdeeds - some entirely fabricated, and others not her fault. Ultimately, the Vanguard was called in to deal with the "problem."
Alida caught word of this, but she was not the firebrand and warrior she had been during the war. She did not want to fight, didn't want to be proven to be the monster everyone claimed her to be. She thought that if she just turned herself in, they could negotiate, and eventually, the Vanguard would see reason and release her. Needless to say, they didn't. She surrendered without a fight, and her daughter never saw her again.
Thankfully, she had taken precautions to keep her daughter safe. Fearing initially that Mary's secret might be discovered, she had never actually formally adopted the girl. Mary thus was not on official government records, and nobody but the locals knew she existed. So, she sent Mary over to her best friend's house just before the task force arrived to take her, with instructions not to go outside and to ask the family not to mention her to anyone. Initially, although somewhat unnerved by these rather unexpected injunctions, Mary went without a care. After all, her mother had always been rather paranoid, but she was confident in her ability to keep her secrets secret. Besides, she was eager to spend more time with her friend... and with her friend's exceedingly kind and polite older brother, on whom she had a not-so-secret crush. It was only later that day when the adults of the family burst in to tell her that her mother had been arrested that she realized what had happened.
She was scared, to be sure, but she hoped that everything would blow over in a few days. Her mother had to have had some kind of plan, and this was all obviously some big mistake. She'd be back, right? And until then, Mary would be safe with her friends... Unfortunately, even if they didn't talk, others did, and the Vanguard, hearing about a mysterious "daughter" who was on no records whatsoever, sent a small group to look for who they assumed was an ordinary child kidnapped by the "evil" Scarlet Dragon. No combat agents were deployed. After all, they were only seeking a harmless girl, right?
When they found her, she asked what they had done to her mother - and their response baffled her. Instead of answering, they tried to console her in words she couldn't understand, saying she was "safe now" and they were there to help. They told her that the "freak" who had taken her wouldn't be able to hurt her anymore, so she didn't have to lie. Mary was already frightened and confused that her mother had been taken in the first place, but this was the last straw. When they spoke of Alida so callously, she remembered all the warnings her mother had given her about what would happen if she herself was figured out. The fact that they were here for her... it was all a trap, right? She feared that she, too, would be discovered as a "monster," and then they would take her and kill her, just like they might have already killed her beloved mother. Equally enraged and terrified for her life, she lashed out with her tail, wounding several bewildered agents in a frenzy of blows and then making a break back to the home of the friends she had been staying with. She beat upon their door, screaming for them to let her in, to help her get away, to please just do something - anything!
But though she cried for them to save her, they didn't help her. They saw her standing there, saw what she had done, screamed in terror, and chased her away. Just like that, the ones she had trusted, had cared for, had even loved...! They all looked at her as if she was nothing more than a wild animal - just because she wasn't the same as them!
With reinforcements on the way, she had no choice but to flee on foot. She was quickly surrounded and apprehended, but managed to get the upper hand on her pursuers using her voice to charm them long enough to wound the combat team sent to retrieve her and make her getaway. Thankfully, Alida had taught her quite well how to live as a fugitive, just in case. Hitchhiking across the country, she ended up in New York, living among dilapidated buildings and in back alleys and using her voice to gather enough money to keep herself fed and clothed. It was a miserable existence, but at least she was alive.
She was alive, but she was far from satisfied. She wanted to see her mother again, wanted to know if the only person who hadn't betrayed her yet still lived. And more than that, she wanted to stop hiding, wanting things to go back to the way they had been, to when she could just pretend to be normal, when people had loved and accepted her without question. But that was all a lie. The longer she lived this way, the more bitter her grudge became. She had learned her lesson, and learned it well. Humans care only for their own kind, which she herself most assuredly not. She had no place among them, no matter what they might say - all of that was just because of her voice, a pretty lie to make her think she was welcome, think she was wanted. But the moment she showed her true self, she would be forsaken. Trust was only a means to betrayal, and the first one to do so would lose.
But that made it easy. Making others trust her, even if it was only for an instant, was easy. In that case, all she had to do was use them, deceiving each and every one in turn to ensure that they'd never be able to do the same to her. Upon the backs of her pawns, she would climb until she could climb no higher - until she was finally free and didn't have to hide anymore. And then... Then she didn't know what she would do. Maybe she'd get her revenge? Or maybe she'd overthrow the Vanguard? Or maybe she'd finally get to see her mother again?
No matter. There were more important matters to address. First, she needed to find a way out of her dead-end lifestyle in the slums, always hiding and cowering in the shadows to avoid being unmasked and destroyed.
She found it soon enough, taken in by a visionary with an agenda. She didn't trust him as far as she could throw him, of course - she'd learned better than that. But he offered her safety, security, comfort, and most importantly secrecy - all she needed to do in exchange was a little bit of dirty work. It made her sick to think about it - becoming a criminal had never been her desire. But wasn't it necessary? Surely, her mother would have understood why she did it when she agreed to join the Grey Foxes. Just like that, she had a new identity - a place in society, however fake. She had a place to call home - food on her table and a roof over her head. Even if the people around her just wanted to make use of her, at least they were honest about it. They couldn't betray her without compromising themselves, and it was in their best interest to keep their noses out of her secrets. The fact of her birth was still safe.
Besides, she wouldn't have to hurt anyone - at least, not physically. She didn't even need to do the deed herself. She just needed to get information, open a path, so that her new associates could get what they wanted. It was... easy. And it only got easier. But even so, there was something in it that repulsed her. How many masks had she worn, she wondered, and how many had she discarded in turn? And how much closer had she come to her goal? She had money and immediate security now, but at what cost? Her ideals? Her freedom? She had simply traded being a monster for being a tool. This wasn't what she had wanted - there had to be something more!
But how could she find it? Was it even worth trying?
So, as always, Mary wears her mask, tells her lies, trusts no one, and does as she must, looking for the answer that might one day change everything...
