Individual Character's full name: Jocelyn Banks
Nickname: Josie, Puppy (She is not particularly fond of her nicknames.)
Code name: Bloodhound, Lupe (used while with the Order)
Gender: Female
Age: 29
Birthday: October 3, 1981
Ethnicity/ Nationality: African American
Birthplace: New York City
AppearanceHair color and style: Long, black, and curly
Skin: Medium Brown
Eyes: Dark Brown
Height: 5'8" (1.52 meters)
Build: Athletic
Visible mutation: None
Scars: Small things, nothing notable
Tattoos: A stylized wolf on her left shoulder (received
here)
Piercings: Ears double pierced, hoop through left cartilage
Other features:Everyday clothing style: Jeans, t-shirts (mostly from various rock concerts), sweatshirts, tan trench coat (Warning: call her McGruff while she's wearing it and risk death or worse.)
Uniform: On duty, public functions: The standard uniform for the NYPD; either navy blue, light blue, or black button down shirt and pants, black tie, utility belt, underneath; chest armor and flame retardant undershirt and leggings.
On duty, investigations: Dress pants, shirt, and trench coat, underneath; shoulder holster, light weight kevlar vest and same flame retardant underclothes
On duty, patrolling (motorcycle): same as public functions, with the addition of a black jacket and bullet proof motorcycle helmet (because of her sensitivity to certain chemicals, Jocelyn's helmet has a custom air purifier built into it)
Sleepwear: Tank top, panties
Miscellaneous clothing: Vest,
Helmet (in
black), and
Ensemble.
CharacterPersonality: Strong willed, sarcastic, and direct. When she was young her mother called her plucky; her brother called her a pain-in-the-@$$... he still does, actually.
Hobbies/ Interests: She LARPed with her brother when she was younger, but once she started working as a cop, playing “grown-up pretend” just wasn't as exciting any more. She still reads manga, though, and often has an issue on hand somewhere.
Job or part time job and description: Detective for the New York Police Department, Mutant Related Crimes Division (also known as MRC, pronounced “mercy”)
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: She is fiercely devoted to her nine year old son, Felix. Her greatest fear is that something will happen to him.
Special talents: Running; every morning. Sometimes in the evening too, if the criminals feel like getting chased.
Cooking; her sense of smell makes her taste things that much more effectively. She has gotten good at picking out what is in a dish that she likes so she can replicate it at home. She has also learned which flavors to avoid combining.
MoralityNeutral / good: Jocelyn believes in social order through laws. Without laws and people to enforce them, the world would fall into chaos. The laws may not be perfect, or even just, but the world would be a whole lot worse off without them. Just because she enforces laws, doesn't mean that she follows them all herself. When she thinks a law is unfair, she sometimes looks the other way when someone breaks it or even breaks it herself. In self defense, or in defense or people she cares about, Jocelyn has no trouble killing. On occasion she has also been known to take justice into her own hands. Sometimes a criminal just doesn't deserve free room and board at the state penitentiary while he or she waits for a trial by their peers.
MutationsMutation description: Hyperosmia, or super acute sense of smell. She is capable of detecting and identifying a myriad of scents outside of the normal human capacity as well as scents in infinitesimally small amounts. An average sniff would smell slightly more intensely than it would be for a human, but the real strength is in the clarity and diversity of the scents that she can distinguish on one inhaled breath.
Strengths:- Distinguish an individual's unique smell: body odor, breath, scented products, pheromones, and other factors create a unique scent for each person. Blood relatives share a scent similar enough that Jocelyn can detect the familial relationship.
- Detect particular substances: Jocelyn has trained to be able to recognize the scents of weapons, explosives, corpses, drugs, and currency, to name a few scents in particular that she has found useful to know in her line of work; there are many others.
- Tracking: Atmospheric conditions depending, Jocelyn can track a scent up to a month after it has been laid.
- Detect basic emotions: Combinations of adrenaline, sweat, endorphines, hormones, and pheromones give her clues as to whether a person is happy, sad, angry, aroused, nervous, or scared. She can sometimes tell if people are lying, based on the changes in their scent, but it is a very inaccurate method.
- Detect mutants / mutations: Mutants have a scent that sets them apart from humans. Different types of mutants also smell differently. Thus far, Jocelyn has begun to categorize the various mutant scents into some basic groups. She can distinguish the following types: psychics, elementals, shifters, physically enhanced mutants, and the ever allusive other.
- Detect adapteds: Particular chemicals that aid adapteds' brains in sending out their mutation canceling brainwaves also slightly alter their human smell, so they leave behind a slightly different odor trail. Up close, of course, they don't smell much at all.
Weaknesses:- Skunks and other malodorous things: Sometimes being able to smell really well just plain stinks.
- Colds and other nasty viruses: Runny noses pretty much nullify her mutation.
- Inhalants and unhealthy-to-breathe things: Jocelyn feels the ill effects of gases and fumes even before the canary in the coal mine. She is hypersensitive to certain chemical fumes including latex paint, perfumes, cigarette smoke, and other unknown substances. When she has a reaction to one of these substances, she either has uncontrollable coughing or sneezing fits or quickly gets dizzy and soon afterwards passes out without access to fresh air.
Secondary mutation description: Nearly perfect scent memory. This is similar to photographic memory, but for smells rather than pictures.
Strengths: Jocelyn never forgets a smell once she's learned it. Her brain is capable of distinguishing and remembering the particular combinations of odors that make up an individual's scent as well as those of foods, particular locations, and various types of objects and substances.
Weaknesses: The witness stand: No, she does not remember what the criminal looked like. Would a description of his smell suffice?
Fighting StyleExplanation: After having trained to be a cop and spending several years on the late shift in Los Angeles, Jocelyn is well versed in surviving in a variety of combat situations. She can throw punches with the best of them in a bar brawl, or pick off a target at range with a hand gun. (Formerly, she also participated in “step combat” during outings with her brother.)
Pros for fighting style: She is a natural improviser, which sometimes throws off opponents that have a set style.
Cons for fighting style: She's not the biggest, the strongest, or the fastest, just a rough and tumble girl who wrestled with her brother as a kid and grew up to be a cop.
Weapon: police issued handgun with a smiley face sticker on the bottom of the handle so anyone standing behind her while it is holstered would be able to see it. The sticker is slightly worn from use.
Faction AllegianceUnaffiliated.
History Of Your CharacterJocelyn was born to William Banks, a New York City police officer, and Lucile Banks, former housekeeper turned homemaker. She had a brother, three years her elder, named Nigel. The family didn't realize that Josie was a mutant until she entered kindergarten and created her first ever art project. It was a white piece of paper, scratched, wrinkled, and smeared with dirt.
“She said it was a painting of her house,” the concerned teacher raised one eyebrow as if expecting some sort of explanation from the parents.
“It
is our house,” little Josie protested. “It's a smell picture. Down here is the grass, over there is the irises,” she pointed out the different parts, stopping finally at a grease stain, “and that's the apple pie Mama puts in the window.”
Mr. Banks took the picture from the teacher's hand and held it up to his nose. He inhaled deeply and thoughtfully. “Ahh,” he sighed with satisfaction and understanding. “It's a beautiful picture, Josie.” His daughter simply grinned at him.
Growing up, Jocelyn's parents instilled values of hard work, equality, loyalty, and a certain sense of justice in their children. Or rather, they tried. Josie and Nigel, though, were more interested in getting into trouble. They got in more than their share of fights, much to the exasperation of their mother. There was always some excuse, “...but Mama, he deserved it. He was picking on someone half his size.”
The year Jocelyn started middle school and Nigel entered high school, their father was shot and killed in the line of duty; his killer was never apprehended. The family was distraught. Lucile had to go back to work to support them all, and Nigel had to take on the responsibility of keeping an eye out for his younger sister.
“You're such a pain,” was Nigel's motto for the next four years, as Josie tagged along everywhere he went. Rather than join wrestling, or some other sport, Nigel picked theatre because his little sister could sit in the audience. Soon though, she too was up on the stage. The acting helped distract them from the hardships and the stress at home, and the friends they made there eventually started to invite them to participate in their other hobbies, such as Live Action Role Playing. Nigel took to it like a fish to water. Josie did it because her brother and his cool older friends liked it. She was one of the only girls around, and she wasn't about to complain about being the damsel that could kick the dragon's tail all on her own before the knights in shining armor ever showed up.
“You were supposed to wait for us to rescue you!”
“You can still sweep me off my feet,” she compromised. Her would be rescuer usually agreed to these terms.
Her freshman year of college, someone swept her off her feet for real. She gave her heart to ___, a senior Bulgarian exchange student. He whispered golden promises in her ear that made her heart flutter. He bought her the sweetest smelling flowers. He moved back home at the end of the school year and left Josie heartbroken and pregnant.
Nine months later, Jocelyn's son Felix was born. Ever after, she swore that he was the best thing that ever happened to her.
With the support and help of her family, she finished school at NYU, then moved to Los Angeles to train as a police officer. She served on the LAPD for four years, moving up in the ranks from beat cop to canine handler to detective.
Late one night, after a long day of work, she received a telephone call.
“Hi honey, this is your mama. Your brother is in the hospital with a coma. They say a building fell on him.”
Her family needed her. It was time to go home.
RoleplayWhere did you learn about this site?: My (former) roommate Calley introduced me in 2007 and I've been here ever since.
Other characters on MRO: Katrina, Sebastian, Calliope (mod account)
Sample RP:(Summer 2009)
Nigel's eyes fluttered open. The first thing he saw were the deep brown eyes of his younger sister, leaning over his bed. Behind her, florescent lights. The first thing he heard was the young, but ever serious, voice of his nephew, “Uncle Geli, are you awake? You were asleep for two weeks.”
“Nnhhhmm,” was his reply.
“I don' think he's ready to talk, honey,” drawled his mother. So the whole family was here then, watching over him like he was some kind of invalid. The matriarch of the family continued, “C'mon baby, let's go for a walk and let him wake up for a bit.”
“'Kay,” came the reluctant reply. The door clicked open then closed again.
“Puppy, nwhu' happen'?” His tongue felt like it was wearing a sweater.
Brown eyes glowered down at him, for the use of his favorite nickname, “You let a building fall on you. That was most careless, brother dearest. I do hope you at least get paid medical leave.”
Jocelyn flopped back into her chair and and began paging through an issue of Negima as if she hadn't already read the same volume three times in the past week, waiting for him to wake up again. Offhandedly, she added, “You should think about getting a safer job.”
“Mthanks for th'advice, Kettle,” came the mumbled reply.
Jocelyn let a grin slip its way silently onto her face, allowing the smile to exist for the briefest of moments only because from his angle in his hospital bed her brother couldn't see it. It seemed that his sense of humor was still intact.
“Speaking of jobs, I got a transfer to New York,” she turned another page without really looking at it. Her eyes peered over it to Nigel's profile on the bed.
“Nwhy'd you do tha?”
“Oh, you know, someone has to keep an eye on you. Always getting in trouble, you are.”
“Right.
I'm always n'trouble,” he lifted his hand like he was going to point to himself, but it didn't move far. It was to entangle in intravenous tubes and and he had too little energy to overcome them just now. Jocelyn frowned again at the reminder that her big brother was not the invulnerable impervious being she had always thought he was when they were younger.
“'M gonna go ta'sleep now,” he informed her. She stood to adjust his blankets for him.
“You had better. And hurry up with this healing thing, hanging around in a hospital stinks, you know?” She was hoping to see a smile, but he was already asleep. Instead, she kissed his cheek and showed herself out of the room.
--
(Attributes pending approval)
Physical Strength: 4
Speed: 4
Mental Strength: 4
Stealth: 4
Senses: 50 / 5 (smell, taste / sight, hearing, touch)
Mutated Strength: 0 (covered in other areas)
Mutated Control: 0 (ability is always on, she has no choice whether or not to smell)
Total = 66 points (16 on loan from Katrina)
Cool powers, simple yet awesome. Also, bonus points on African-American. Been missing that lately 
