Name: Carmen Kaser
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Race: Modified Human
Character Type: Critical Character- Active Multiverse Participant
Physical Description: (rough sketch) Carmen appears several years younger than her age. Tanned skin, 5'4" in height, and a very thin yet athletic build. Averaged face, sharp light-brown eyes, and short black hair which hangs in waves (almost reaching her shoulders).
She wears a buttoned, close-fitting, pale beige longcoat which almost reaches her knees; underneath is a grey sleeveless top which also clings to her thin shape. Simple loose jeans with a white elastic belt, lightweight flat-heeled shoes which match her coat.
Personality Description: Sly, manipulative and extremely obtrusive, Carmen is somewhat driven by a desire for renowned trust, all whilst branding her actions in the name of order. Her morals and antics are outlandish as a result of her sheltering, and she will gladly pursue anything for the potential of treasures or acquaintances. She does not take well to being challenged, and tends to fear when she loses control of a situation.
She is highly respectful of those with high status, so long as enough of their views match her own. From her background, she is used to judging people's worth by their attire; perhaps due to this, persons lacking enough of an attire are not taken well. Her habits typically involve vast amounts of eating and meditation, and when not needing to be secretive she spends any spare moment toying with her abilities.
Skills, Powers and Abilities:
(Intermediate) Chimera Gene: Carmen's primary power, from which all of her others stem from. She is a biological shapeshifter, able to rapidly mutate or grow any part of her body into another form of matter. By tasting or ingesting a sample from another living being, she may transform herself with any number of that being's features at that instant. Along with changing shape, she may attain any of the sample's natural abilities, be it enhanced strength, infrared vision, breathing fire or even photosynthesis.
If she samples from an equal- or higher-tiered opponent, the abilities she copies may be slightly inferior (unless she finds another way to close the power gap, e.g. increasing in size). Likewise, samples from a lower-tiered being (i.e. typical humans and animals) can be optimised to be far superior than they are originally; inherits from a desert creature will be inanely resistant to heat, a poisonous creature can grant her more potent venom than it actually has, and so on. Physically, she can specialise a form to be able to lift 30 times her apparent weight, resist pressure up to 30 times, or run at 20 mph per foot she is tall or long; any hybrid form will settle somewhere below these values.
The less that a mutation matches the original sample, the longer it takes for her to perform it; for example, growing insect wings on her back could take a second, but anywhere else would take several moments, and even longer if grown in an unusual shape. If she foregoes using a sample entirely, her shapeshifts will be incredibly gradual.
(Intermediate) Body Compression: Carmen is able to compact her body to weigh seven times what she looks; this lets her carry resources to grow mutations or constructs from. She is even more resistant while compacted, but it takes a toll on her speed.
(Intermediate) Rapid Digestion (-): As suggested, Carmen's digestive system is immaculate. She can use nearly any living matter - even those considered corrosive or contaminated - with frightening speed and efficiency, either for growth or as nourishment.
(Intermediate) Toxin Resistance: Carmen has an actively-trained resistance to poisons, and is able to identify a wide library of them by taste. She can expel most poisons from her system within two to three posts of uninterrupted concentration (she can't use any other shapeshifting or mental abilities during this). In the case of infections, she can develop customised antibodies within several minutes, but usually cannot resist their effects entirely.
(Intermediate) Bio-Regen: Carmen can regenerate wounds over time, passively restoring cuts and bruises within an hour, or actively within 30 minutes. A damaged area can't be mutated, and must be reverted to her baseline Human form to heal quickly.
She cannot accelerate healing on any additional limbs she grows; for these injuries she must instead seal over the wound (without actually repairing it), or detach the limb entirely.
(Intermediate) Bio-Surgeon: Carmen can extend her power to mutate another living entity, modifying them as she wills. It is a slow process, taking half an hour to form a link, and up to two hours thereafter to alter and augment their body. Any mental resistance prevents her from doing this, and she cannot safely alter or remove memories.
Through this, she is able to fully repair a creature over time, correcting faults, injuries, poisonings and infections present in their body. Further than that, she can also enhance another's body, heightening their strength and efficiency like her own, or forming limbs and traits they did not have naturally, and temporarily adding instinctual behaviours. While the repairs stay intact, any enhancements soon become unstable, and will seamlessly revert themselves after half a day.
(Intermediate) Physical Prowess: Without transforming, Carmen can lift 500 pounds, or 1000+ pounds if combining her strength and telekinesis. She can run at 60 mph when uncompressed, or 30 mph at her maximum weight.
(Intermediate) Psuedo-Immortal: By default, Carmen's body is modified for absolute survivability, eliminating the most vulnerable of Human weak spots. Her lungs operate separately, and her heart is duplicated into two; due to this, a single puncture through either vital will hinder but not incapacitate her. Her skeleton is incredibly sturdy and flexible, and the bonds of her skin hold together as well as iron.
(High) Cognitive Enhancement: Carmen's mind has been improved to a prodigious level, through decades of self-experimentation with her shapeshifting ability. She can multi-task at a superhuman level, and her ability to recall and process information supersedes modern supercomputers. It is through this that she can understand the core structure of most any creature's genetics and their functions (even those considered magical in nature), theorise causes behind their strengths and weaknesses, and adopt them with careful splicing for her own use.
She has complete control over her pain and suffocation stimulus. All of her senses are above human level - her sense of sight and touch especially, with which she can identify persons down to their retina or fingerprint. Her balance and motor accuracy is perfected, enabling her to sprint with ease across tightropes and cliff faces (if her current form allows for it).
(Intermediate) Psychokinesis: Indeed, through virtue of her sheer cognitive power, Carmen is able to apply 500 pounds of outward or resistive force to objects (both physical and metaphysical) in her immediate surroundings. This can stack with her transformed physical power, meaning that her smaller forms can be deceptively powerful, and her leaps can be boosted to even faster speeds. It activates instinctually for defence, but otherwise it is limited to affecting objects she is in direct contact with.
Carmen can choose to halt her use of this power to build focus, and later release it in a powerful calculated blast. Just because she needs some way to abuse T1 preps.
(Intermediate) Telepathy: Carmen can project thoughts, words and detailed images into another's mind, provided they are within 100 yards of her. They are not particularly potent, and can be willed out if desired. She can also read others' thoughts, provided they actively push said thoughts to the surface of their mind for her.
(Intermediate) Chimera Construct: As well as mutating her own body, Carmen is able to grow completely separate organisms to fight alongside her, requiring only that she has enough body mass and resources to do so. Adult-sized Chimeras are rendered quickly, but creating multiple at once can take a toll on her energy. These Chimeras are able to match Carmen's transformational prowess, minus the telekinesis.
Carmen controls her created Chimeras by way of sophisticated telepathy. It is nigh impossible to override or decipher the telepathic signals she uses to control them. At present, she can control up to four Chimeras at a time, within a 100 yard radius.
Failing this, Carmen programs 'routines' into each Chimera -- logical and instinctual protocols that a Chimera will follow when not under direct control. Such routines could include practised or feral-like attacks on foes, protecting or following a certain individual, basic self-sustenance, self-termination, or a combination thereof. Carmen can also implant information such that Chimeras can carry out tasks unattended, such as delivering a message to a certain place, communicating to other Chimeras, or standing guard for a specific signal.
Chimeras class as Low-tier minions. They are soulless, devoid of personality and incapable of free speech. Carmen tends to keep a couple Chimeras discretely following her when able to conceal them, such as while in an urban area. If they're not described as present before a battle, the opponent decides how many she can insert.
(Intermediate) Chimera Construct: Augmenter: A specialised Chimera Construct, containing an exceptionally large brain mass to serve as raw cognitive power. While in contact, Carmen can use an Augmenter to amplify both the range of her telepathy and the number of Chimeras she can control. When not linked, it can instead operate its own routines amongst other Chimeras in range, serving as a hive-mind.
Augmenters require a lot of mass, energy and time to create (at least, to make one with a greater range than Carmen herself), and their upkeep normally comes at the cost of their mobility. Carmen will rarely get a chance to use this mid-combat.
(-) Perfect Prey: Carmen's sheer vitality radiates so much that it nauseates the undead with her presence alone. Her flesh and blood are far superior to any being with a taste for it, which can make for rather persistent foes.
(-) High Performance: Unless transforming to subvert this, Carmen is more dependant on breathing than the average being, and requires far more sustenance to stay at peak condition.
Current Mutations: (to be kept updated)
-300% compressed mass.
Current Constructs: (to be kept updated)
-None disclosed.
Equipment:(Low) A finely-crafted beige longcoat. It shows a few signs of wear along the stitches.
(Low) A large beige wallet, most often kept on her inner coat pockets or attached to her belt. It is filled with an impressive collection of DNA samples for her self-defence - including varied wildlife, insects and aquatic creatures, but not (m)any mythical creatures as yet.
(Low) A vast number of raw mineral supplements, kept in vials within her coat pockets.
(Low) A futuristic black smartphone, Used more for personal memos than actual calls. Its technology is so advanced that it can endure being dropped three whole inches without the screen cracking. (In seriousness though, it's pretty robust)
(Low) A modern seven-shot revolver with an untainted stainless steel finish. It is no longer in working condition.
Character History:
Carmen was born to a corporation of an alternate future-Earth, a world now limited in population and thriving in technology. CCTV, satellite monitoring and personal identification had become so advanced and widespread that physical crime barely existed, and networking milestones had rendered the digital fraud of today obsolete. Most companies in the country now solely produced digital hardware and software - but as technology began to reach its upmost peak, quality and innovation was no longer enough to stand out in the heavily saturated market, and bankruptcies were being filed by the day. Knowing it was a matter of time before one monopolised over the rest, the remaining firms' attention turned to bringing down their competition by any means.
Carmen was but one of the products of a particular company's investment; to develop a genetically-modified individual whose DNA and appearance could not be tracked, enabling them to commit sabotage in an otherwise locked-down country. Despite it still being an unlawful practice, Human engineering had also developed a long way, and many firms funded separate researches behind the public eye. Her developers were on a waning schedule, with too many failed experiments before to count; but it would not be until she was sold off that they realised they succeeded a little too well.
Her upbringing was within grey walls and reinforced plastic barricades, isolated from all contact save for her owners and peers. Most sold mutants were engineered to have a highly docile nature; however, Carmen was had rewritten her own mind several times, long before she was aware of her ability to do so, and thus had not kept such manageable traits. With a completely free will, she was treated far more like a slave compared to the other mutants the company had purchased. Carmen partook in various martial arts and firearms training, controlled to do so only by means of an insatiable appetite. However, as she gained skills at an incredible rate, she became unnerved by the disappearance of her fellow mutants, one after the other.
Carmen was first deployed at the age of nine. The city was a scary place for someone who had never seen the sky before, but she was made to learn fast. In the weeks that followed, several rival firms were infiltrated had their networks compromised, their prototypes stolen, and some of their employees outright assassinated - without a single trace left to identify the monstrous culprits who committed them. Company infiltrations had not been unheard of, however, the existence of an untraceable crime, combined with ever-increasing crime rates was enough to throw many people into alarm. A direct contrast to the companies' intentions, shareholders began to lose trust in every company as a whole, too afraid to invest in what might not even exist the next day.
Of course, the law was not her only enemy. Part of her job was also to combat other mutants, who had begun to assault her owners' company with increasing frequency. Most days out left her to the point of being half-dead, and her owners paid any amount of money to keep her alive. Thus far, her inability to live independently was the only thing keeping her to her duty, but it only took so many near-death experiences before deciding enough was enough.
Carmen was a free woman at age fourteen. Her former home was massacred in mere days after her escape, but the guilt was not on her hands. Her illegal birth meant that she could not acquire a proper job, and so she made a living from odd errands and theft while she explored the city. In all it was a great place to be, but it was clear just how much her previous involvements had set its civilians at unease.
Eventually, Carmen left for greener pastures in other cities. This search stretched to other countries, and eventually other planets, but what she found never satisfied her. Lawlessness seemed to thrive in the shadows of every civilisation she passed, and everyone there appeared to suffer because of it; a different mask to the one she grew up in, but always the same outcome. Giving up on her hopes to find somewhere people could live in complete security, Carmen then took it upon herself to execute this justice as best as her gifts enabled her to. She now travels frequently between worlds, scouting for untapped land, greater power and like-minded allies to enact her visions. In due time, the Multiverse would be her garden, and she would be the one who watched diligently over it.
