Lawful Newtral

Ju-V

<Snipped quote by OldManMountain>

As I mentioned above, I'm accepting a few new "weird" characters (think down the vein of Doom Patrol or some of the more "out there" X-Men ideas). My next GM post will be intro-ing these characters, and I'll grab some excerpts off of people pertaining to their new characters for that post as well.

I'll give you all until a few days after Christmas though.

I'll also take a roll call and see who's still on board a bit after Christmas as well. I don't want to hammer people too hard or get into their business in the holiday stretch.

And since it's 5:30pm Christmas eve here, and I'll likely be busy over the next 48 hours... a Merry Christmas to you all, and when I get started again AFTER Christmas, I'll be looking to build momentum with the rest of you once more.

Hope you and your families are all well and merry.

@Hound55

First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Second of all, I am still intent on keeping things going as Zelda. Holiday season has just been an unexpected hell going back on forth between work and family obligations. I'm using every second of breathing room I have to cook a response for Haven. Looking forward to calmer seas where I can RP more frequently!

esarus thar no'darador | a warcraft-based roleplay

I watched the new WOW expansion trailer and was reminded of (1) the cruel and unfeeling passage of time since I last left Azeroth at Cataclysm, and (2) this RP. I might as well throw my interest in.

Ju-V

^{MENTIONS: @Skai
INTERACTIONS: Still talking with new roommate Haven
LOCATION: New Alcatraz, San Francisco, California, US
NOW PLAYING: ♫ C418 - Aria Math ♫}

---

It's official. Haven was one of the good ones.

Zee saw the statement as what it was: an olive branch of empathy and understanding. Were she literally another person, she would go right up to the winged girl and hug her tight. Alas, her touch kills and still she feels nothing. The best Zee could offer was a small smile. Rigid and fleeting, but certainly looked more genuine than the last, the permafrost around her eyes creasing ever so slightly.

"That's nice of you to say," Zee said. "Thank you. I'll try my best to not be a threat to anyone here." Emotion still failed to color her voice, but she tried to. God, did it strain her, but she tried. Sighing, her eyes averted to the slow defrost of the water bottle, this plastic microcosm of the long thaw in the north and south. The sigh was soon replaced by a rhythmic hum. A melody from the past, eliciting images of foggy forests and endless lava buckets. Lava was a similar sort of destruction to the one on her hands. Uncontrollable, unstable, indiscriminate. How Zee wished the power to destroy remained solely in the confines of Creative Mode.

"And don't worry. I don't have the emotional capacity to have enemies." Was this another joke? No, it wasn't. Factual sincerity in her voice, this was the truth. Zee has no enemies. There is only Zee, and everyone else...and Haven.

Ju-V

^{MENTIONS: @Skai
INTERACTIONS: Still talking with new roommate Haven
LOCATION: New Alcatraz, San Francisco, California, US
NOW PLAYING: Still nothing.}

---

"Planes go up, like, five miles into the air," Zee remarked in a matter-of-fact tone that masked how impressed she was. So Haven can fly with those. It must be nice to be able to reach the open air and soar through it like it was nothing. Though there was little enthusiasm when talking about her wings. The flight came with unwanted cargo, it seemed. Zee nodded at the explanation, silent confirmation that she would pry no more.

Now, as for what kind of trouble she herself was...

"It does have to do with the gloves, actually," Zee said. She reckoned that it'd be easier to just show Haven. Reaching into her backpack, the blonde picked up a plastic bottle of water, reasonably full. With a deep breath that frosted up in the air like a winter day, she took the risk and removed her left glove. Pale bare skin made contact with the bottle, and it was not long before the water within froze completely and thoroughly. So sudden and swift was the freezing, loose droplets on the bottle's plastic froze into ice particulates that flaked down onto her lap.

"I'm an ice person. I freeze things." Before anything bad could happen, Zee put the gloves back on and left the bottle of water next to the sunlight so as to melt. It'd be a waste of water otherwise. All well and good for now, but Haven needed to know the risk her roommate posed. She owed her that much.

"...Yes, I can freeze people too. They die if I do that. So, gloves."

Haven did not look like the type of person to judge, of that Zee was grateful, but people's opinions tend to change when forces that could take their lives were in the conversation. She was dangerous, she might be the only kid here who deserved this incarceration guised as counseling. She wouldn't begrudge anyone for calling her for what she was: a monster.

Then again, she wasn't exactly able to begrudge much of anything anymore, was she?

Ju-V

^{MENTIONS: @Skai
INTERACTIONS: Still talking with new roommate Haven
LOCATION: New Alcatraz, San Francisco, California, US
NOW PLAYING: Nothing.}

---

This was a good start. Haven has proven pleasant enough already, even if the bar set by the rec room incident was not very high to begin with. There was the ghost of a smile on the winged girl's, and though Zee had no emotional compulsion to smile, she still felt it polite to curve her lips in turn. It was an empty smile that did not match her eyes, too blank to even be confused for emotionless.

"Suit yourself," Zee said as she moved to occupy the righthand side. So begins the unpacking. She did not bring many items of affection from home; a lot of what she could call keepsakes were in a government-owned storage locker after she was arrested. Books inevitably found their way into her backpack. Textbooks from her final school years, a collection of YA drivel Mom had thought she would enjoy reading, and a crossword puzzle book that Dad had bought on a whim without realizing how shit he was at trivia. Such fond memories. And not a single one could knock Zee out of her frigid exterior. The memories remained, but the pathos was gone, the feelings scourged. By that point, what was the use of memories?

Another unproductive line of thought. Zee distracted herself with the crossword puzzle, penciling in answers her father could never think of. The commotion of her peers settling in gave way to a pleasant harmony of white noise diminishing into silence. This room would follow in that silence were it not for Haven.

"This is... a lot cushier than I expected," the winged girl said as she nodded her head to the TV. Zee followed her gaze and gave the idiot box an inquisitive glance that centered back on Haven before long. "Guess they think we won't cause as much trouble if we're entertained."

"Maybe," Zee muttered coolly in response after a few moments of awkward silence. "But let's not sugarcoat it, we are trouble."

That came off a bit...harsh. It was the truth as she saw it, but the truth didn't have to sound so harsh, did it? Well, no going back on that, butt maybe Zee could turn it into a conversation starter. The thought sent shivers down her spine.

"...So what kind of trouble are you? What can you do?"

Ju-V

^{MENTIONS: @Skai @Retired
INTERACTIONS: Sharing a look with Wes, talking with new roommate Haven
LOCATION: New Alcatraz, San Francisco, California, US
NOW PLAYING: ♫ Tinashe - Treason ♫}

---

It did not take long for that table of Zee's to become its own snowglobe, the pale ornament within suspended in her own snowy world as everything else moved and shook around it. At the very least, her reading in complete silence made for a much less unnerving sight. Reading in silence made sense. Sitting and standing in the same silence, which was essentially what she had been doing since the bus ride, made less sense. Maybe people might even find Zee approachable like this.

That was a joke, of course, but right as that thought crossed her mind, a boy passed by Zee's table. Brown hair, pasty skin, so average he might as well have been plucked from any street in the country. And yet there was one thing remarkable about him: he noticed Zee.

Was 'notice' a stretch? It might be a stretch. He was just pausing to look at her for just a moment before continuing on. But that moment was him with his mind at Zee, there was no questioning it. There was a question at the tip of her tongue: why? It remained there because she knew the answer. She was weird, she was scary, she was a freak. That description did extend to everyone in the room, that boy included, but Zee really felt like one of the only ones to deserve her place here. To deserve the confinement, the isolation. There's cold blood on her hands. That must be what he was staring at. The two shared glances, his curious expression bouncing off of her indifferent wall of ice. The moment soon passed, and that boy was on his way while her eyes returned to the pages below.

And that was precisely when a table exploded.

^{"Voices in my head goin' silent"}

It was a blur of excitement and activity, destructive force colliding into the body of one of the veterans. Chaos and the rough fist trying to enforce order came in like armies into the rec room, trampling over the peace and any hope of Zee figuring out the context of what in the world just happened. It was a flash of red hair, that was for certain, but she had been too focused on her book to notice anything else. What set them off? What else can explode in their presence? Why explode that table in particular, which was close enough to her own that splinters bloodied her face? Perhaps all that was not important at the moment. It certainly wasn't to the New Alcatraz officers, who swiftly and indiscriminately had everyone to the wall. She barely had the time to put the book back on the shelf before everyone was directed away from the wall and into...somewhere else.

That somewhere else ended up being their living quarters, the former cells of Alcatraz and current dorm rooms of New Alcatraz. Gender segregated, of course, but what did Zee expect? She kept walking in that apathetically sluggish pace until she found her name and one other in the words of an officer.

"Room 110 for Haven Barnes and Zelda DiAngelo." So this one was her room. Which of the kids was Haven Barnes again?

It turned out to be the one with the wings. Cool. That one was hard to ignore among the other unconventional misfits, but if she can fly with those...that was a freedom Zee had long dreamed about. What would that world look like, if she had Haven's life, and Haven hers? Could she sign off on another person going through what she went through?

"Hey," came Haven's voice to take her out of that thought. It was a soft and slightly shaky voice, and she cleared her throat to start again, less shakily this time. "You can just call me Haven. I don't... really use my last name." Once upon a time, Zee might have questioned the history behind disavowing a perfectly good surname, but the part of her cared froze over. She did not want to dig up the snow under her roommate. Not yet, anyway.

"Hey," Zee replied. Her own voice was a stable and cold nonchalance, more of an effortless exhale than an utterance. "I'm Zelda. Call me Zee or Zelda, call me whatever you want."

"Do you want to pick what side you want? I don't really mind what I get." It was comforting that Zee had a friend in not really minding or caring. Almost put a smile on her face. Almost.

"Neither do I. I can sleep on the floor if you want both beds." That was half of a joke. An attempt, even.

Ju-V

^{MENTIONS: @mickilennial
INTERACTIONS: Passing by Kaitlin
LOCATION: New Alcatraz, San Francisco, California, US
NOW PLAYING: ♫ Andromeda - Weyes Blood ♫}

---

Man.

This was day one of many to come and there was already this much going on? All the chaos, all the frustration, all the rage. On one hand, Zee struggled to find any reason to antagonize the wardens of their new home other than juvenile carelessness. On the other hand, she so desperately wished she had enough energy to be like them. To rave and riot against the Man. Instead, everything passed by her as she just stood there, motionless, wordless. Just a tired stare in her blank blue eyes as everyone else fell into the chaos.

There was a common motif in the anime she used to watch religiously. 存在証明, sonzai shoumei. Proof of life. The kind of rah-rah "I'm going to be the best" energy all anime protagonists seemed to have. Everyone else had a similar mission statement, proclaiming their lively youthful days. Zee was nominally among them in terms of age, but it was clear from but one glance that she was missing something they had. She lived like she had no life to prove.

^{"Nothing in it for me except a heart that's lazy..."}

The frosty blonde remained frosty well after the altercation at the court, disconcertingly aloof about the stinging pepper in her eyes. Tears from the pepper spray had frozen over her cheeks, an alien makeup of clear-white. The group was ushered into a rec room of sorts. They were in a prison, but Zee could only think of a hospital's idea of recreation when she saw the room. Modest, functional, both to a depressing extreme. A sad idea to even have a place like this where criminals used to live. She shook her head. Still had to learn to separate what she saw from what her frozen and cynical mind saw.

Zee tried to pay attention to the welcoming committee instead. A rogue's gallery of misfits and pariahs. People in similar circumstances, they had just arrived earlier. The most conversational of the bunch was...a child. Well, she might not be that young given her way of speaking. Maybe her power related to aging or immortality. Still, it threw Zee in for a loop to see someone who looked that young in a place like this. The wide-eyed one also raised some questions because there was no way those eyes did not carry the weight of her powers. The others did not look as remarkable with their various shades of aloof confidence or machismo, but it couldn't hurt to offer a good first impression. Zee slowly went around the room and said a soft and disturbingly monotone "Hello." to each of her 'seniors'. Maybe in a better state of mind, she'd realize how fucking terrifying it was for a pale blonde girl to almost float across just to say hello. This was not that state of mind.

Good first impression: failed.

No one could say Zee didn't give it a try, though. Whether anyone cared enough to look past the first impression and approach, that was not her problem. Her purpose here was to be safe, and no matter how it seemed that AEGIS was lording over her, these walls would keep her safe. People wanted her executed out there. That wasn't something she could go back to. No chance in hell.

God, Zee needed a distraction. It was a snowstorm in her head, tumultuous thoughts swirling under black ice. One of her peers went to a bookshelf off to the side. Now there's an idea. She followed her lead and picked a random title from the shelf. In her gloved hands was a book on the thicker end, painted in a cover of red and white. M. Butterfly. There would have been a smile on Zee's lips if she still could. This was a screenplay from her high school theater club days, thoroughly dissected and discussed despite never making it on stage. A small piece of home so far away.

"Hello," Zee once again muttered at the girl also sitting alone against the wall. A strange way of saying 'thank you for bringing attention to the bookshelf'. She elected not to follow her lead and instead sat at a nearby table, close to a chess game in waiting. Or was it an argument? She wasn't paying attention.

Pacific Royal Collegiate & University - [CLOSED]

“Hi! Hello. Again. We're bears now." Pleased with this turn of events, Lucas made his way over to Ariel with a wide grin on his face as the Ceremony ended and the Houses gathered in their groups to lead the way to the dorms. He was glad that there were people he knew in both his Team and his House, and feeling vaguely proud of himself for stepping up and making decisions, even if, at most, the Team one could only really be called half a decision... “Switching beds was hard. It's good now, right?"

Ariel, meanwhile, shared in the comfortable glee of familiarity. The first friend they had made on Dundas Island, and he was back again like a boomerang. Sure, they could swim and survive in unfamiliar waters, but they weren't so obnoxious as to complain when life tossed a lifeboat at them. Their smile was not as wide as Lucas', but it shone truly enough to compensate.

"Dominik! I'm glad we are both bears, even if you're no longer a fiery bird." Clearly not willing to let the stupid nickname from the camping trip die out, Ariel went to Lucas and wrapped their arm around his shoulder. As his warmth set in, the realization thawed out of them, that the past few hours have been more touchy-feely than Ariel had ever been since the day they had left Truth or Consequences. Contrasting heats between them defrosted a question: had they always been this cold?

Ariel preferred not to think about it. At least not with Lucas around.

"I was surprised, to be honest, when you made the decision to switch teams," they said matter-of-factly. "Getting to know a whole other clique gets scary at times, so it was brave of you. Good job." The hand on his shoulder went for a friendly pat. A gesture and a statement—"You're safe with me." And yet it still felt like Ariel was holding back, like a bundle of eggshells was in their arms.

"Enough about that, though. Let's go find our rooms!"

“All right, thanks. Thank you. Surprised. Yeah. Let’s go.” Giving their hand on his shoulder a pat in return, Lucas didn’t mind the odd disquiet hanging between them. He just gave them a calmer grin as he worked through the echoes of their words and after another moment of patting their fingers, he set his own arm around their shoulders as they headed off for the dorms. Everyone needed a hug, he thought, but that would make things weird. And he didn’t actually want to hug anyone. This much was all right though. And if it made him feel better, then it might make them feel better, too.

His enthusiasm and grin had faded by the time they arrived, walking separately again but having bounced back to an earlier discussion, Lucas was asking Ariel more questions, and possibly several similar ones, about professional wrestling. He remembered how easily that subject got them talking—the running joke about his name had certainly helped—and was just getting around to asking if there was something they could watch later when they arrived. Staring up at the buildings and already knowing what was coming after the Intake House, Lucas only grimaced and trailed off as he heard someone else mentioning rooms.

“Rooms again… Do we know them? I’m not listening inside, okay?”

That kind of worrying was what made Lucas really endearing. Like a doe in distress. Ariel just smiled in that toothy, lopsided way of theirs and grasped his hand, giving him something to ground on before the worrying got worse.

"And you won't have to," Ariel said, gripping his hand tighter to reassure him. "Watch this." They then turned to the assembled Ursus students and made the call.

"Hey, Bears! Me and Lucas are going to be rooming together!" Ariel called out. This may be the loudest they've ever spoken on this Island, but they had to be loud to get the point across. And to get the attention away from Lucas. "Just making it easier for all of us, okaythanksbye!" And that was that. Ariel went back to Lucas, with another reassuring smile. A wordless "told you".

"Now, I don't know about you, Dominik, but I think today has been very exhausting. Let's find our rooms, shall we?

--

Modest lodgings were what the two got, as modest as a repurposed mansion in a Canadian island could be. This room was already bigger than their entire living room back at T-and-C. Ariel and Lucas wasted no time settling in after what had been a long day, yet something caught the former's eye before they fell asleep. An envelope, pitch black, nestled in the assigned uniforms placed in the room earlier. Hidden enough to be passed over but just visible enough to be noticed. Its color and make reminded them of the House invitation envelopes, but they had already found a House, what else could this be?

Curiosity got the better of Ariel, and they opened up the invitation.

Orcinus? Southern Plateau? The Pod? Had Ariel been selected as part of a secret society? Wasn't this school secret enough as a society? The very idea troubled them, as there were so many unknowns. Who were House Orcinus? What qualities made Ariel qualify for the House? Why all the secrecy? Were they the only one? Ariel needed to be careful. If anything could be a trap for over-ambitious hypes, this was it...

...And yet they could not stop the excitement boiling under their skin. They stuffed the letter into their backpack and set two phone reminders. One for the morning and one for the next full moon.

_{Location: Augmented Reality Center - PRCU, Dundas Island}

First Class #2.96: A Place for Everything

---

_{Interaction(s): Lucas in the prelude @Nemaisare, Adie@Hound55}

Previously: Meet the New Team, Same as the Old Team

So much had transpired within the confines of Dundas Island that Ariel kind of forgot that they were assigned here in the context of academia. They were supposed to be a student, something they never thought would happen again past high school (first for monetary reasons, then for 'wanted for murder' reasons). The realization came as they were carrying out Community Placement, cleaning out the numerous ponds and fountains that completed the PRCU grounds' old world old money aesthetic. It was hard labor, but the good kind of hard labor. The kind that didn't involve insufferable tourists.

Thus far, each and everyone of their peers were sufferable.

Ariel was finished before they could fully appreciate the work. The ponds were flowing clear and free of scum, but the one that made it so was too deep in their thoughts. The day had just begun and they were already tired. Oh, well. At least there was class to look forward to. Shame it had to be the most physically intensive class up first. Practical Ability. A bunch of stressed and unstable young adults with world-changing powers flinging those powers at each other. Joy. Fatigue melted into excitement, stirred well and topped with a peel of dread. Start the day off with an anxiety cocktail!

After lightly washing up in the bathroom, Ariel wasted no time convening in the Mess Hall and congregating with the rest of Firebird. They couldn't much read how excited or reluctant their teammates were in displaying their powers. Come to think of it, there were some among Firebird that had really heavy-duty and even destructive powers, Ariel's among them. How were they supposed to practice them in an enclosed environment without collateral, physical, and/or mental damage?

"—you’re the first of this year’s Hyperhuman Enforcement Accelerated Training program to use the Augmented Reality Center.” Oh, never mind. Tricking their brains into unsafe situations in a safe situation. That'll do it.

A man awaited Team Firebird's arrival in the Augmented Reality Center. He was introduced as Aiden Roth, one of the PRCU's originals and part of the batch that made the shoes Ariel and the others were walking a long mile on. Pride twinkled in his eyes as he spoke to the young ones before him. Ariel could hardly fault him for that; they'd be damn proud too if they could survive that long babysitting baby hyperhumans.

"Some of you might be aware of how your abilities work. To others, this might be new, but all Hyperhuman abilities rely on the manipulation of high-energy particles, particles which are driven by Earth's electromagnetic spheres. These high-energy particles, or hazies as they’re colloquially referred to, exist all around us, not unlike an active energy field." Wait, really? That was how their powers work? The same way gravity works? No way. It was a strange hill to die on, but Ariel felt like there was a more...fantastic explanation in there somewhere. Divine intervention. Anomalies in the fabric of reality. The influence of eldritch powers, anything more exciting than just particles.

"But there is a finite limit to them at any given time and the more Hyperhumans localized in one sphere, the weaker they become as there are fewer hazies available to each of them to manipulate. For some of you with abilities normally beyond your control, this makes P.R.C.U. the safest place for you to be.” That was a good joke. After everything that had happened in the past week, safety was out the window. An orderly and controlled environment, still applicable, but safe? That was a good joke. Ariel almost didn't realize that a laugh escaped their lips. No way that wasn't going unnoticed, but in their defense, it was a really good joke.

"Sorry," Ariel said, not looking sorry in the slightest. They turned their attention back to the lecture.

“All Hyperhumans are able to suppress the abilities of others by exerting control over the immediate hazies around them. Yes, that includes the stored ions belonging to the Esoteric among you.” So every hyperhuman had a degree of influence over every other hyperhuman. Interesting. Ariel wondered how much that influence was predicated on the imbalance of power levels, as it were, between two hyperhumans in conflict. Hyperion had so thoroughly suppressed everyone back then, but was that a sign of how powerful the man was or how powerful the man's power was? Was there even a difference?

The itinerary was simple. Know your powers before getting into the ARC. Ariel went up to Mr. Roth and asked what kind of class their water powers fell into. Exoteric, Elemental. They got their answer in a very terse manner. Maybe he wasn't amused by their giggle back there. They simply shrugged and thanked the ARC's caretaker before suiting up to enter it.

Exoteric. Exo-, outside. To influence the 'without'. Elemental. Dominion over forces of nature. Putting on an ARC suit that accommodated their height, Ariel thought about the theory that came to mind previously. Imbalance of power. It would be ideal to pair up with someone with greater or lesser control over their powers than themself. Yuri, the weather-controlling pretty boy, came to mind almost immediately, as did Tista, who could literally bend gravity. But they instead focused on the techno-wizard, Adie. Judging by the stick up her ass and her self-assured bravado, she'd likely have some sort of confidence in her powers to back that up. Uncertain until they saw her in action. What was certain, though, was that Ariel would have so much fun trying to find which buttons set her off. A reflection of their empathetic affinity to the endearing Lucas. This was like a mad scientist pushing envelopes for nothing beyond insane curiosity.

Ariel walked up to Adrianna, almost shadowing her with the height difference.

"Pair up?" they asked innocently. It wasn't hard to sound clueless, but they knew it'd push her to read between the lines. Ariel wanted to see the gears turn in her head. Adie looked like an overthinker. She and them both. "We're both exoteric, right? I think? Kind of? This is all new to me, so let's just see how this works for day one."

---

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Ju-V

^{MENTIONS: -
INTERACTIONS: None
LOCATION: New Alcatraz, San Francisco, California, US
NOW PLAYING: ♫ Spectre - Radiohead ♫}

---

This wasn't the first time Zee crossed the States alone on a bus, but it was the first time she saw this many metahumans in one place.

Metahumans. The notion still didn't sit right in her mind. Once upon a time, she had been nothing more than a upper-middle-class WASP well on her way to college. Now, she knew that she wasn't even human. Part woman, part force of nature, a sub-zero body that froze anything it touched. Tony and Liv DiAngelo, her own parents, found that out the hard way. Nothing about this sat right with Zee. Her parents were cold, dead corpses, their pained screams haunted her head, and for the sake of 'safety', she was being shipped to Alcatraz of all places. Her life was flipped on its head, she should have broke. She should have raged against the machine. But she didn't.

She couldn't.

The unbearable weight of circumstance and all Zee felt was the slightest discomfort. Like a primordial monster slumbering under miles and miles of ice, the pain was imprisoned under her frozen disposition and she could not feel what she should have been feeling. Was that another part of her curse; tragedy with no way of processing it healthily, like a human? Was that another one of the universe's sick jokes?

^{"Spectre, how he laughs..."}

So went the train of thought that she forgot to put on her gloves before getting on the bus to Alcatraz. The metal parts of the bus seat began to freeze over. "Shit," Zee swore under her frosty breath. Pulling her hand away, she immediately slipped on a pair of cloth gloves. Only then was she calm enough to sit down. The old Zee might have been bothered on how public that was. How many people saw her almost freeze a seat? The old Zee's answer would have been 'enough to be embarrassed'. Now, her answer was 'not enough to care'. The side-eyes and glances bounced off her icy exterior like winter sunlight against a frozen lake. Nothing seemed to faze her.

Not even when an otter pitter-pattered its way into the bus.

---

The entire ferry ride, Zee's eyes were glued to the waters of San Francisco Bay. It felt...strange. She had always been leery of water any deeper that she was tall, since her idea of swimming was 'paddling helplessly until her head was above the water'. Now, she had ample reason to fear water. For all she knew, she could freeze the entire bay if she gave it so much as a touch. Already, stray splashes from the ferry that fell onto the frigid Zee condensed into slurry and mist. She was already responsible for two deaths, let's not add crippling an entire city's maritime ecosystem to the list.

Maybe Aegis had a point with the whole Alcatraz thing.

The inescapable compound was an intimidating structure no matter how many coats of paint it received, once home to such notable criminals as Al Capone, the Birdman, and Sean Connery in that spy thriller movie. Zee had her own initial misgivings at the thought of teenagers and young adults having to live their lives in such a daunting compound. It was a prison of stone inside a prison of water. And yet the more she put her mind to it, there was no place safer. How many of these youngbloods had powers just as destructive as Zee's? How many of them had much more destructive psyches than hers? The world they used to call home was inherently (and rightfully) mistrustful of the inhuman. People have lost their lives to the mob for much, much less. A secure philanthrophist facility where the young metahumans would learn how to be...metahuman.

Zee's mouth curled into a silent sneer at the thought. Maybe she was just looking for reasons why she felt nothing upon seeing their newfound home of a compound. Why she felt a profound nothing at the inspection and seizure of forbidden items. Whe she felt that very same nothing when the Director—Virgil, was it?—gave his matriculation speech, even as her fellows raved and chafed against their bindings. The chiseled jock and the other New England blonde made their juvenile displeasure clear as day. Others awkwardly looked around and mumbled their own ways of assent or dissent. Some bastard even tried to nick a feather from a winged girl and got a wicked smack for the trouble. Life at Alcatraz was to be exciting, this she could see. This she could understand.

And still, Zee felt nothing.

^{"A spectre of my mortal soul,"}

She could only imagine how it must have looked like to the others. This stark bleached blonde with a stone cold disposition, standing there motionless, emotionless, frozen even as the flames of youth were stoked around her. Pale eyes looked onwards, but it was as if there was nothing behind them. Maybe there really was nothing behind them. Maybe Zee DiAngelo really did freeze over on her graduation day, just like her parents. And this was all that was left.

Just Zero.

Ju-V

Z E R O

---

^{Z E L D A "Z E E" D I A N G E L O ◼ N O V E M B E R 5 T H ( 1 9 ) ◼ ( C I S ) F E M A L E}

"I'm not living, I'm just killing time..."

▼ A P P E A R A N C E:

---

^{"For a minute there, I lost myself."}

//DESCRIPTION:

An emotional snowball of energy, Zee seems to always be at the edge of melting, so to speak. Her efforts to maintain some semblance of control manifest in tight lips with an expressive face. Zee's good company, truly, if you look past her laconic troubled exterior. Dark humorous with a penchant for the drama. 60% of her vocal real estate is swearing and quoting songs.

Through circumstances beyond her control, Zee is unable to be physical with...well, anyone. And she dresses as such. A modest wardrobe in the form of oversized shirts, sweaters, and hoodies. Rarely seen in public without gloves.

//STATS:

◼ HEIGHT | 5'6"

◼ BUILD | Slender, unathletic.

◼ HAIR COLOUR | Black hair bleached white by her metahuman powers.

◼ EYE COLOUR | Dark brown

◼ 'VOICE' TEXT COLOUR | #AACCDD

◼ BODY MODIFICATIONS| An old tattoo of a black sun inked over an older bruise on her left leg. Scar tissue spelling out 'murderer' on her right palm, art of her own making.

◼ SEXUALITY| Bisexual

▼ B I O G R A P H Y:

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^{"I used to be alright. What happened?"}

It was a good life of plenty in the suburbs off Boston for Zelda, her only worry the fact that she was named after a damned video game. The only child of the DiAngelos, a loving if eccentric couple of musicians, 'Zee' was nevertheless accompanied by a household of warmth and joy. She could care less about how many people at school made fun of her name and her small stature, home was always there to comfort her with a song. Zee idolized her parents and the happiness they brought to her life.

So imagine what happened if both were taken from her, by her own hands.

High school graduation day. Despite rising tensions with the metahumans, Zee was hopeful for the future. Boston University was on the horizon, and her parents couldn't be more proud. As she rushed them for a hug after receiving the diploma, the die was cast and her latent metahuman powers chose this precise time to make itself known. And it did so in lethal fashion. Zee's tight embrace brought forth a chill, then biting cold, then unbearable frost. Her parents screamed as abysmal temperatures set in, hypothermia claiming them faster than Zee could stop. Well, that's not entirely accurate. She couldn't stop it, and the people that raised her were soon naught but frozen corpses on the ground.

Panic defrosted the stunned Zee. Amidst screams, her own and otherwise, 911 was called and the celebration was soon broken up by the authorities. Manslaughter in broad daylight, what else could she even say to that? She resigned herself to the chains of the law and for the next several months in confinement, she would exercise her right to remain silent. Silence was preferrable to the blood-curdling screams of that day. Silence would have been all she knew were it not for AEGIS' intervention.

Pioneers of peace between humans and the humans beyond, they arrived to negotiate for Zee's release in exchange for her continued interment within their own facility, specialized compounds of rehabilitation for young metahumans. The warmth of compassion pierced through the cold exterior. Was this a chance at a new life? Zee really had nothing left to lose. No parents, no home, no future. Zero.

So why not?

▼ M O T I V A T I O N / O B J E C T I V E:

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^{"I want to live, I want to breathe. I want to be part of the human race."}

Few incidents are as scarring as seeing your own parents freeze to death in front of you. Their impromptu tombs haunt Zee's dreams day in and day out, and she suspects they will never stop haunting her until she forgives herself and does better. That first one is a bit too far-fetched, but the second one is something she can reach for.

Zee's powers have already claimed two lives, and by her reckoning, that's two lives too many. With nothing else to cling onto but the weight of the world, she will not let this second chance slip by. From here on, she will use her powers wisely. No one else is getting hurt. Especially Zee. She is never getting hurt ever again.

▼ A B I L I T I E S:

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^{"Murderer, I'm a murderer. I'm not the same as you."}

//ABILITIES:

◼ CRYOHUMANITY | Zee's metahuman body is permanently locked at slightly below 0 degrees Celsius. In lieu of shutting down, she has instead adapted to such low temperatures, giving her the ability to freeze anything she touches. With focus, she can also project her body 'heat' into a short-range freezing aura. Additionally, her body's temperature lock means that Zee is extremely resistant and even immune to the cold.

//LIMITATIONS:

◼ RANGE | As above, Zee's powers is lethal at close range but ineffective beyond. Until she can master her ice powers enough to actually make ice from nothing, which may be never at this rate, she is as effective in combat as a maniac with a knife. But, you know, that knife turned people into ice cubes

//WEAKNESSES:

◼ HEAT | Customary for an ice person, Zee does not operate well in extreme heat or the proximity of fire. The sheer cold of her own static body makes her somewhat functional in the heat, but high temperatures stop everything else from freezing, defeating the purpose of her powers.

◼ MIDAS EFFECT | Due to the nature of her body, Zee cannot exactly turn off her freezing touch. Anyone spending more than a few seconds of contact with her skin is at risk of deadly sub-zero temperatures. The wild aspect of this power requires her to wear gloves and minimize physical contact with anyone.

▼ N O T E S:

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//SUPPORTING CAST:

▼ FAMILY

◼ ANTHONY & OLIVIA DIANGELO | Zee's late parents. They were a folk music duo, with all the new-age nonchalance that entails. They cared for their daughter more than anything else, and it pains her to think that the last moments of two wonderful people were excrutiating cold.

▼ FRIENDS

◼ TBD | Test

▼ ENEMIES

◼ TBD | Test

//STOMPING GROUNDS

◼ Newton, MA | A small suburbia, stone's throw away from downtown Boston. Far removed from the troubles of the world until Zee burned that bridge.

//PARAPHERNALIA

◼ TABLET | A laptop is clunky to charge and her phone is worth for little more than a call. Zee relies on the middle ground: a tablet for reading, browsing, and communicating.

◼ HARMONICA | Her mom's favorite instrument. Zee can't play it without the whole thing turning into ice, so this is a sentimental memento above all.

//SKILLS:

◼ INTELLECT | Neither athletic nor a people person, Zee's lot at life seemed to be academia. She has a keen mind for humanities: anthropology, history, and literature studies. She'd like to use her future to learn from the past, preferrably in a reputable institute, but there's little chance of that with her criminal record, is there?

◼ MUSICALITY | An inherited skill from her virtuoso parents, Zee has a way with music and rhythm. Her specialty is playing the piano, having been taught sonatas since the age of 5. Ever since the advent of her powers, however, Zee has yet to find a piano that feels...right against her icy fingers. To say nothing of the damage she would cause to the piano.

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