Alma Nadine Elizondo

Individual

Character's Full Name: Alma Nadine Elizondo

Alias/ Nickname/ Codename: n/a

Gender: Female

Age: 20

Date of Birth: 10/10/1992

Nationality/ Ethnicity: Latina (Mexican, Spanish, Chilean… and a tiny bit of Basque) with Canadian and American citizenship

Birthplace/ Home/ Place of Origin: Born in Buffalo, NY; moved to Saint-Jérôme, QC, Canada in January 2000

Appearance

Hair Color & Style: Jet-black, silky spill of hair. It’s of an average thickness and bears a low wave. Hangs down to her mid-back. Only tied back when exercising or working, otherwise worn down.

Eyes: Hazel, farsighted

Height: 5’7”

Build: Lank-limbed and leanly-muscled with moderate curves.

Visible mutation: n/a

Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: A gash upon her stomach that is still in the process of healing, and a smattering of pale scars from her younger years. Tattoo of two eagle feathers on the left side of her neck, and a small tattoo of a compass on her right wrist, which around the edges reads, “To thine own self be true.” Alma has two piercings per each ear lobe, amounting to four in total.

Other features: Clear, warm tan complexion. Oval-shaped face and fine, elegant features—Alma’s range of expressions bear a light of mischief, and she has a fantastic poker face. Moves with an air of casual grace.



Everyday clothing style: Alma likes to look good, favoring attire that is urban, feminine, and flattering.

Uniform: Variable upon job (not yet applicable).

Sleepwear: Pajama shorts coupled with a camisole or light t-shirt. Wears a cardigan and flip-flops rather than a robe and slippers.

Miscellaneous clothing: Occasionally dons silver-rimmed reading glasses, adores sunglasses. Accessorizes moderately, but steers clear of frumpy, gaudy, bizarre, or second-hand articles of clothing or accessorizing.

Character

Personality: Alma’s something of a trickster, her personality split between intellect and impulse. On certain days, she can be cunning and wily, while she can be as foolish as a clown on others.

She is an articulate girl, stubborn about certain ideals, and a very private person. Never has been one to trust easily, but if she does trust you, you can trust her to be genuine.

Yet, there’s a flipside to her personality—however private she may be, Alma can’t keep away from people. She’s full of mischief and life, and boasts an intrepidness and spontaneity that, coupled with her way with words, tends to draw people in (particularly, the boys). Alma is all about seizing the day, and frequents the night scene. She’ll also lie reflexively if she thinks that it’ll prove advantageous to herself.

Alma’s of a very mellow disposition, and can be incredibly charming. But, if you manage to get her to lose her temper, it’s something to be feared. In Alma’s nature, there is the constant push-and-pull of drawing people in, but pushing them back when they get too close. Her lifestyle boasts plenty of shallow friendships and noncommittal romances.

Alma is an addict of coffee, a closet-nerd, and an insomniac. If she can’t sleep, she’s read, play video games, clean, or cook. Alma hates eating-out, and can occasionally be spotted talking to herself, and spacing-out. She has a horrible habit of changing what language she’s speaking at the drop of a hat, particularly when she’s anxious, angry, or sad. English is not her best language—it’s formal, and clipped. Her Spanish and French are far more casual, and she tends not to mess-up colloquialisms in those languages as she does with English.

Hobbies/ Interests: debate, talking, clubbing, cooking and baking, cleaning, reading (books and graphic novels), playing video games, exercising, playing piano

Job and Description: Not yet applicable.

Fears/ Phobias/ Concerns:

Special Talents: Trilingual (French, Spanish and English), good memory for books she’s read, passable chef, skilled with words/charming

Morality

Other: Ambiguous. Alma lingers in a moral grey. She’s out to save her own hide, first and foremost, and then those that she calls her own (family, friends, and fellow mutants). She won’t stick her neck out for a total stranger if it proves a disadvantage to her, and she is of the mentality that, “The end justifies the means.” Her morals are such that she is rather unpredictable, almost capricious in her whims. Alma avows that she can be good if she wants to, it just isn’t always beneficial.

Mutations

Mutation Description: Alma is constantly followed about by an entourage of inhuman creatures, which she refers to as “bodachs”, and often mistakes to be spectral. They are vague, shadowy creatures that skulk about silently, and transition from solid to fluid, visible and invisible, with ease. The darkest parts of their bodies are their heads, and their torsos, which are an inky black—as one moves outwards, their hands and feet become an opaque dark grey. There are two groups of shades, which are very distinct in characteristics—the first group, which has more creatures, is weaker and diminutive in size—the second, which has very few creatures, that are of average human height. These are explained in more depth below.

Within the first group, there are about twelve of sprites in-total, and they stand between 4-9” tall, with 5” being the average. They are humanoid in shape, but plump and incredibly disproportionate, almost to the degree of a chibi character. Alma refers to them as “pests”, “imps”, or “little guys”. They travel in twos or threes, have kleptomanic tendencies, and are attracted to shiny things and sugary food. On a good day, they have the intelligence of monkeys. They tend to chatter amongst themselves, but don’t make much sense. The little guys like to mimic sounds they find interesting, or emulate odd gestures.

The second tier is generally referred to as “creepers” or “the quiet ones” or “big guys”. There are three of them, and they stand between 3’ to 5’10”, with the average being just shy of 5’6”. For the most part, they are proportionate, though their torsos are smaller than a humans (because they don’t have any legitimate innards), and their limbs are oddly-shaped. They do not always touch the ground, and sometimes don’t even have discernible legs. Big guys are solitary in nature, and far less spirited than their counterparts—they are quiet and distant, and though they have the same fondness of shiny objects and junk food, they aren’t as given to thievery. They seem intelligent enough to understand complex verbal commands, but do not verbalize anything. They just sit and stare.

In general, they’re a little creepy, but can be quite endearing, particularly the little ones—they are mischievous, but innocent, unless they are sent into a rage mode (mentioned in strengths and weaknesses).

Strengths:

• Fluid Composition:Can squeeze beneath doors and through small gaps (while instantaneous for the little guys, this can take big guys quite a while). Though bodachs are always visible to Alma, they can vary from being invisible-to-visible with humans. When invisible, the darkness that is congealed in their heads and torsos seems smaller and more concentrated, to Alma, but as they transition into corporeal forms, they must become visible, and the concentrations of darkness flower outwards, until they almost seem to be a solid black to Alma. As they are an inky black, transiting to a transluscent, dark grey at the edges, they blend into the darkness rather well, but their glowing white-blue eyes tend to be a dead giveaway.
  
  
• Not Alive: They are not alive in the traditional sense of the word, so lack some of the weaknesses shared by the living—they have no recognizable musculoskeletal system, no legitimate digestive tract, they go into “stasis” but do not sleep, and they do not breathe. Therefore, bodachs require less accommodations then a pet would.
  
  
• We Shall Obey… Once in a While: Even though they’re sentient creatures, they show an inclination to do what Alma tells them to. In high-stress situations, she can give them loose commands, or they will act on their own, in defense of their master.
  
  
• Can You Feel Them Now?: They are capable of interacting with the physical world in short bursts and brief touches on their own accord, and can do so for longer if enabled to touch things by Alma. If and when Alma’s in danger, bodachs will fasten onto whatever they can and begin to throw things at the “attacker” and create a ruckus until the threat is removed. This emulates poltergeist activity.
  

Weaknesses:

• Out of Control: Alma’s power only recently transitioned to this level, so to say lacks control would be quite true. Sure, the shades only answer to her, but they can and will disobey her. Yes, they have an “inclination” to do as they’re told, but this inclination is only a driving force when Alma goes from “frustrated” to “emotionally unstable”. Alma cannot command individual bodachs, but if she gets annoyed enough, she can get them to listen—occasionally resorts to bribery with Fruit Loops to get her way with them. She cannot directly control any of them, as one might do with a golem. She can only bark commands and hope they obey.
  
  
• What a Nightmare: Though Alma considers the bodachs to be “spiritual creatures”, they are actually created by her, however unwittingly. Because of recent events, Alma has recurring nightmares, of which the bodachs are born. The stuff of which they’re crafted leaks from her palms when she has these nightmares, icy-cold but intangible, initially. Based on how long the nightmare lasts determines the size of the bodachs—longer nightmares mean bigger bodachs. When Alma awakens, the bodachs-goop sloughs free, and “ta-da!” you have a bodachs. There do seem to be subconscious size and head-count limitations, however, so she won’t be getting any eight-foot-tall behemoths, nor will she be getting hundreds upon hundreds of bodachs. Yet. The numbers she has now (twelve little guys, three big guys) is where she seems naturally inclined to stop, and they never get any taller than 5’10”.
  
  
• Persist!: Shades will continue in their attacks up until either (a) the threat is neutralized or removed, or (b) Alma falls unconscious or is otherwise calmed-down. Attacks vary based on how stressed Alma is—if she’s peeved, they might tip something over. But, if Alma’s in a no-win situation, the bodachs will go into a frenzied defense, and will continue throwing objects or directly going-after whoever dared harm their master. When acting independently, bodachs can become corporeal (and thereby, interact with objects) in five second bursts, for five minutes each hour. The little ones find ways around this by working in teams to get what they want. The big ones solve this by just not touching things very often. HOWEVER, if Alma loses control, the bodachs get a boost in how long they can touch things. Rather than being able to interact with solid things for five minutes per hour, they can interact with things for fifteen minutes tops, which would hypothetically be enough time for them to rescue Alma, or for Alma to save herself.
  
  
• Psychic Advantage: To a degree, psychics can sense the bodachs, or that there is something slightly-off about Alma. Some may be creeped-out by her, while others may feel paranoid, like they’re being watched—see flickers of motion out of the corner of their eyes, or a chill. Psychics whose powers are oriented around more than one sense (e.g., a medium) might be able to sense bodachs fully, as opposed to psychics with abilities that only focus on a single sense.
  
  
• The On/Off Switch is Stuck!: Alma is always sensing the shades, fully and constantly. She cannot un-see or un-hear them. She also cannot ditch the bodachs, because they are honed-in upon her whereabouts (when she’s conscious), and are mildly reactive to her emotions.
  
  
• Oh Look, Shiny!: Sure, the bodachs only answer to Alma, but there are two things that are the greatest weaknesses of the creatures. They love sugary foods, especially candy and kids’ cereal, and they are drawn to shiny or sparkly objects. While a curt reminder can get the larger bodachs refocused after being sidetracked by these weaknesses, little guys become like children in a toy store after downing three Pixie Sticks if and when such objects are offered to them. No, other people cannot control them, but they can be sidetracked and bribed.
  
  
• Unliving, but Destructible: While bodachs cannot “die” in the popular interpretation of the word, they aren’t indestructible—when not corporeal, they are not wholly intangible, and bear the malleability of goo. It doesn’t hurt them to get squished, but it is an inconvenience for them to have to peel themselves off of sidewalks or out of carpets when they’re stepped on. When corporeal, they still bear a fluid composition, but are denser, almost solid. They can be killed by severing their heads from their bodies, or crushing their heads, and will dissipate if crushed or beheaded. Limbs will regenerate within a day. Also, when physical, they do not take well to fire or electrical shock.
  
  
• Throwing Rocks: They can only interact with inanimate objects, which means there is no throwing housecats or squirrels, or roughing people-up directly. The bodachs seem to find ways around this, however, when assaulting people, by instead interacting with their clothes—therefore, even if they can’t pinch your arm or punch you in the stomach, they can punch your shirt, or pinch your sleeve, and get similar results. So, if you character doesn’t wear a lot of clothes, there’s less of a chance of a direct assault. But there are still the flying objects that they will have to dodge.
  
  
• Other Limitations (Mostly Numerical Stuff): Little guys never venture farther than the same building as Alma, and will stop what they’re doing to follow her, if she departs. As big guys are more aloof, they usually linger within two blocks of her, but will not go to her unless they see her, or she calls them over. Little guys can only exert three pounds of force, and lift one-pound objects on their own, while big guys can exert forty pounds of force, and lift twenty-pound objects. Alma can only go into a rage once a day and rages can only endure for fifteen minutes, tops. If she gets slightly frustrated, and there is a single instance of a vase tipping over, this detracts from that time.
  
  

Secondary Mutation Description: Not yet applicable.

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Fighting Style

Explanation: Alma is actually something of a pacifist, in the sense that, if she can avoid crushing your windpipe, or avoid getting her own butt handed to her, she would prefer it. Alma will sooner talk her way out of her fight than partake in one. If that doesn’t work, she’ll let someone else intervene, take a cheap shot, or pull out her pepper spray. If none of these work, Alma will quickly and efficiently try to diffuse the situation by laying her attacker out flat. Her ultimate last resort is to let her bodachs go after them, and this will only occur if she can’t handle things herself. Her style focuses largely on kicks, punches and jabs, and relies on outmaneuvering the opponent as opposed to sheer strength. She learned from an array of styles from her uncle, the current Falcone.

Pros for Fighting Style: No one’s ever been beaten up in a battle they didn’t partake in. She tends to keep out of trouble, but if trouble comes to her, she isn’t totally helpless. Men will come to her defense, and there’s no shame in taking pepper spray to someone’s face of stomping on his foot. Alma isn’t concerned with morals, which gives her the advantage of being unpredictable, and she will run her mouth to get into the minds of opponents.

Cons for Fighting Style: Running away isn’t usually considered an act of bravery, even if running lets you live to see another day. Though Alma is not so proud that self-endangerment becomes second-nature, she can be egged-into fighting if you slander or threaten her friends, family, or mutant cohorts—either physically or verbally. Alma will not back out of a fight that she commits to, and she will not use her greatest strength—which is her mutation. She isn’t good at wrestling or grappling, relying on agility over strength. Also, her knowledge of fighting is relatively basic—just enough to get by on, and there isn’t much an opportunity for improvement, seeing as she’s a pacifist.

Faction Allegiance

Unaffiliated

History Of Your Character

Alma didn’t grow up seeing bodachs—as a matter-of-fact, she spent a good chunk of her childhood years aspiring towards a mutation and, when that mutation didn’t come, believing that she was human.

Yes, she aspired to be a mutant—her mother was the second of three children (and the only daughter of) Hector “Falcone” Merlo. He was a wealthy man, one of those “big business” sorts with money to spare—he was also the head of the mutant mob. Though their family wasn’t entirely comprised of mutants (genetics is so fickle with the X-gene), those who did have an X-Gene (and were male) went into the “family business” while humans were generally regarded as less desirable. They were never, officially outcast, but could never be as good as mutants. Jennifer Merlo met Alma’s future father, Anthony Elizondo, when this boy—her classmate—was employed by Falcone to keep an eye on his daughter during the school day.

Friendship became a relationship, and by college’s end, Anthony and Jennifer tied the knot. A year later, their first daughter, Sofia, was born. They left the city, trying to escape Falcone’s reputation by retreating to a suburb of Buffalo, NY. Two-and-a-half years later, Alma was born.

Alma wasn’t brought up in your stereotypical “criminal” home. In fact, her young life was nearly normal—she lived in a medium-sized house in a rather uneventful neighborhood. Jennifer was a physical therapist, while Anthony was a higher-up within a prestigious company. Alma was an introverted daddy’s girl, but at the request of their mother, Sofia would drag Alma to the next court over on a daily basis. Yet, unwilling to “babysit” her baby sister, Alma was generally left outside, at the mercy of the neighborhood boys, while Sofia went to play with the other girls.

A young boy by the name of Akshay took notice of her, and took the soft-spoken child under his wing. Alma quickly fell-in with the neighborhood boys, and slowly opened up.

By the time that elementary school rolled around, Alma was an all-out tomboy, rambunctious and full of life and opinions. Some children were intimidated by her rowdiness, while others were drawn in.

A lot of things changed, however, very early on—before Alma reached first grade, Akshay moved—when Alma was about to begin second grade, her sister’s mutation emerged, and she was shipped off to Xavier’s. And, later that year, just after Christmas, Anthony’s company expanded, and they offered him a higher-paying job, so long as he move to their newest location-- Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, Canada.

Alma didn’t handle the change well. Though her rowdiness had previously been the greatest thing that set her apart from her cohorts, when she switched schools, there was something else that presented an entirely different problem—she could not speak French. And in Saint-Jérôme, there were very few English speakers, and even fewer French-English bilingual people or even any Spanish speakers. Alma was at a total loss. And, with Sofia still in the States, Jennifer didn’t have her poster child to focus on. She therefore focused on reforming Alma. Alma pushed back, but with some help French-English bilingual coworkers of Mr. Elizondo, she slowly learned French. But, because of her ineptitude with the French Language, she was held-back a year in school. By the time she was twelve, Alma's French was passable. By fourteen, she was nearly fluent, but her writing skill took more work. Her mother, however, never managed to reform her.

With secondary school came new stressors—as Alma was now in adolescence, the talk about the family now was what mutation Alma would develop. Surely, with a personality as strong as her own, her power would be as equally as impressive. Yet, with each month that rolled by, tension increased—not everyone in the Merlo family was a mutant, but if you weren't a mutant, you were essentially not considered an adult within the family. Jennifer was disappointed, mortified even, and began to argue with her daughter about her lack of a mutation. Alma did as she had always done and fought back, seeking the company of "human and proud" friends. Together, they frequented the party scene, caused trouble around town, and were the crowd to avoid at school.

Little changed for her at the beginning of the Registration—Jennifer and Anthony made a mad-dash into the States to retrieve Sofia, who was in her senior year of high school at Xavier’s. The Merlos’ were considered “dangerous mutants” even when some of them were completely uninvolved with the criminal lifestyle. Thus, some of her family came to live with her—her Uncle Jack (the acting boss under Alma’s grandfather, and the heir to the Merlo throne, so to speak), his wife Cecilia, their children Daniel, Marcus, and Emily, and Alma’s grandmother, Leonor—to escape the situation in New York. Jennifer wanted to return to the states, to New York City, and to fight, but the conservative ideals of the Merlos' forbade it. Anthony, on the other hand, had grown comfortable with living the lawful life, and had no intention of reverting to his old ways. Outraged, Jennifer left, and Daniel went in his father's stead, to fight against human oppression in New York. Alma avoided her home, or tried to-- the anti-mutant ideology was growing stronger in her town, and all that her family ever spoke of was the "human oppression" and the changing relations. And Alma, being human, felt thoroughly out-of-place, thus took refuge with her school friends. They, all the while, sung a different song-- they saw the Registration as a great equalizer, and the imprisonment of "dangerous mutants" as a good thing. Alma kept her mouth shut. Whenever her uncle could snag Alma, he would train all of his children in hand-to-hand combat. (Even the girls'... he said that times were changing, so everyone needed to know how to protect themselves.)

It wasn’t until after the Registration that Alma’s mutation began to show through—Almas’ mother and cousin died in the Outbreak, Sofia left Xavier’s to be at home, and the extended family returned to the City. Hector stepped-down as “Falcone”, passing the title on to his eldest son, former acting boss Jacinto “Jack” Merlo. Alma’s Uncle Jack took on his cousin—Alma’s second cousin—as his underboss.

Anthony and Alma each handled the grief in very different ways—Alma cleaned herself up, focused on her studies, and got a part-time job at a local café. Anthony, all the while, plunged into a depression, drank, and started partaking in petty crimes (and getting very sloppy about it). From these two, different ways of handling grief, stemmed arguments—Anthony thought that Alma was unsympathetic, Alma thought that her father was acting like a child. With each argument that arose came new occurrences of “poltergeist activity”. A cup would tip itself over, a remote would hurl itself across the room. Both presumed that it was Alma’s mutation, finally coming into fruition. Anthony surmised that it was telekinesis. The Merlos’ were delighted.

Yet, when the bodachs began appearing, Alma began to figure that it was something else. All of them were passive observers, and no one else seemed to see them—so, Alma kept them to herself, masquerading as a telekinetic whose powers only arose in arguments. Because of her powers, Alma grew more distant from her friends, whose anti-mutant ideology had spiraled out of control in the recent years. She became an independent child—her father lost his job, and would vanish for weeks at a time, presumably frequenting Montreal, for the lucrative business of dealing “M” on the streets. In November of 2010, her father was finally caught—apprehended by the law, and incarcerated for his laundry list of crimes.

Her New York-based relatives insisted that Alma come back to the States, where she could be cared for, yet Alma refused, stating that she wanted to finish-up her last year of secondary school, only to come to the States after she graduated. She had to sell the home, even with allowance from her grandfather alongside the meager earnings from her job at the café by her school—Alma moved into the same home as her friend, Joëlle’s, renting a room from their parents, and continued living with them until the end of the year. She graduated in June 2011, and began to pack her boxes to return to the U.S.

Just recently, Almas’ former friends learned of her family’s reputation—of how they were a central feature in the mutant mob, which made Almas’ family (and Alma) their enemy. Using the excuse of “reliving old times”, Almas’ friends arranged to have a bonfire at one of their old, favorite spots. It was an isolated spot and, at this fake rendezvous, they cornered her, and attempted to kill her by stabbing her in the stomach.

This single event triggered her mutation, summoning all of the shades closer and rallying them into defense mode, beginning a frenzied attack. Because of the actions taken by her shadowy protectors, Alma was able to stagger to a nearby road, where she collapsed. Figuring that she would die before finding help, her friends did not follow, but a car that was passing by noticed her, picked her up, and took her to the hospital. [I’ll continue the rest of this in a solo~]

Roleplay

Where did you learn about this site?: Google, forever ago~

Do you have any other characters on MRO? If so, who?: Gina and Chase!

Sample RP:
Was this what it was like, to die? The pavement was icy cold against Alma's feverish skin. Each breath was a struggle, as if she were a fish who'd been dropped onto the deck of a ship. And, with how the world tilted and spun, it might as well have been one, enormous ship.

Alma lifted a hand, which had been previously been clutched to her stomach. Her abdomen spasmed in pain, and her hand came out red. Alma furrowed her brow. Since when were her hands red? Why hadn't-?

Pinpricks of light broke her train of thought, and they were expanding. Alma shifted, trying to sit up. Her grandma, in all of her spiritual wisdom, had always said that when one died, there was a tunnel of light. Alma tried to stand, but was too weak to.

As it drew closer, the sound of an engine became more apparent. A car? She was going to Heaven in a car? The thing rumbled closer, but as it went past, it came to an abrupt halt. Then there was silence.

Alma sank back onto the pavement, lifting her gaze as yellow lights flashed in her eyes. Hazard flashers. Two feet emerged from the car and rushed back. A man. A stranger.

He knelt, shouting something, but his voice sounded far away. Alma furrowed her brows, pressing her arms to her stomach. He shouted again, and his voice sounded closer, but was still garbled.

Finally, in perfect French, he yelled, "Ma'am, I'm going to get you to a hospital."

"Please," Alma replied. Then, the world went dark.