Individual
Character's full name: Nyssa Grant (Middle name
inapplicable, she doesn’t have one.)
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Call her whatever
you want, she doesn’t care. Prefers her last name, but first, last or whatever
else flies.
Gender: Female
Age: 19 years
Date of Birth: 02/11/1998
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Born on the
side of a Colorado backroad just outside a ranch entrance. Has moved around a
lot since, so no real ‘home’. Currently in NYC, living light as usual.
Nationality: American citizen.
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Caucasian; Does
not know neither cares about her heritage.
Appearance
Hair color and style: Dark brown. It’s straight
but rather messy looking, cut just barely past shoulder length with incredibly
annoying fringe bangs often in her face. If down, it’s guaranteed to be in her
face. Usually up in a messy bun or ponytail.
Skin Tone: Fair skinned. Zero freckles, a light
natural tan.
Eye Color: Grey.
Height: 5’2”
Build: Athletic, lean and toned muscle with
little fat (but enough to be plenty healthy). Not a model, Nys has slightly
wide hips and average shoulders. She’s well proportioned if a little on the
short side. Bust is proportional to her body.
Visible mutation: None.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: Multiple light scars
from various weapons, mostly across her arms. A few are sprinkled on her face
but these are light and difficult to see with her light tan and hair. She has a
few bigger scars, including a bullet furrow on her right bicep, a deeper slash
from a knife cutting diagonally down along her left shoulder blade as well as a
another straight-across slash from the same blade just above her right hip (on
her back as well) and finally a clearly canine bite mark of her right
forearm(Inflicted by a dog, which walked away from attacking Nyssa unscathed.)
None of the scars are necessarily nasty, simply there. No piercings of any
kind, nor tattoo.
Other features:
Her steps are distinctive, if you know what you’re
looking for-She walks with a purpose yet an odd sort of tense calm about her.
It’s very unique and natural to Nys, so it can be difficult for her to walk
differently unless Nys is sneakin around.
When nervous, stressed or confronted with something
she isn’t quite sure how to deal with, she tends to run her hands through her
bangs and ruffle them, or fiddle with whatever weapon she has on her at the
moment.
Everyday clothing style: Practical to the
utmost degree, but if she isn’t ‘working’ she has a few t shirts she adores and
a couple of pairs of jeans. Her favored shirt is black t shirt with two simple silver
bands on the sleeves. She wears boy shorts and almost always some form of
sports bra underneath her clothes, as people seem to react to that less
negatively if she forgets it’s not socially appropriate to take her top or
pants off.
Uniform: She’d like to wear combat materials
but is supposed to be discreet, so she wears what she thinks will blend in
which consists of sunglasses, a simple t shirt in whatever color she grabs,
jeans, sneakers and a maroon ballcap. Very inconspicuous 😉
Sleepwear: Sports bra and workout shorts.
Miscellaneous clothing: Very little. A few t
shirts, couple of pairs of jeans and cargo pants, and a pair of combat boots as
well as a Kevlar vest she feels strong affection toward. It all fits easily
into a backpack.
Character
Personality:
Nyssa is….Um….Odd. She has a particularly strange view
of herself. She doesn’t really ask herself questions most people her age do.
Her life revolves around her work and her own self-interest. Nys is a person,
but at the same time, she’s a weapon and an employee to nasty people, who does
nasty things for those people, yet is a….good…person. It’s an interesting
outlook, though now that she doesn’t have her mother around to micro manage
what comes into her little bubble she’s likely to have wayyyy more questions
and questioning herself.
Grant’s surprisingly non-judgmental ninety percent of
the time, and great at keeping secrets. She’s loyal, and prefers to do jobs
with people she’s worked with before. Following that preference, she’s far more
likely to listen and respond positively to people she knows or strike her as
the type on her level. She knows she’s a detestable kind of person, or has done
bad things. That is who Nyssa is, in her mind. She doesn’t mind doing dirty
work for people, but don’t act like you’re better than her, she doesn’t care
who you are. Though she was a puppet on her mother’s strings, Nyssa is still
surprisingly independent and has her own opinion. She can seem an open book,
but tends to give away some select cards and hold most others tightly to her
chest.
The type of person to punch you in the face because
she thought a piece of hair was a fly and then apologize a lot over your
screams and bloody nose. Very much has a tendency to attack first, then ask
questions. Intimidated by children, the smaller the stranger. She’s changed a
lot since her mother’s death and her mutation. Goes from 0 to 60 in .5 seconds,
but thankfully not without warnings signs. On the downside, her ‘blatant
warnings’ tends to range from subtle body language to flat out threats. Still
learning how to person, so please bear with her, she tries very hard. Should
probably not be left alone with herself, yet here she is.
Note: Nyssa has no physical boundaries. She wears the
clothing she wears because it makes her feel secure and helps her to blend in,
and stands a good foot or two away from people when speaking to them because
she doesn’t want to be randomly hit. However, she has little concept of, like,
modesty. If she’s changing she’s changing right there(does thankfully use
changing rooms if she can) If she’s hot and sparring/exercising, don’t be
surprised if she takes her shirt off. It’s hot, ok?? This often leads to her
making situations awkward and not realizing it for a good long while.
Hobbies/ Interests:
Pew Pew: She has a thing for weapons, and finds
cleaning any firearms she owns or knives or even just assembling and
disassembling calming.
Literature: She likes books, but doesn’t read them
often at all. Her literary education is severely lacking. (Her education in
general is pretty lacking, actually. She knows what she needs to know, but
information deemed unnecessary wasn’t taught to her.)
Room For Improvement: She has a deep love for learning
new skills and finds it satisfying when she improves herself.
Sparring/exercise: Linked to the improvement of
herself, she prefers to spar to keep in shape above all other forms of exercise
(hasn’t yet discovered yoga, though, so…). She often stresses she’ll hurt her
sparring partner and can work overly hard at not doing that at times. The
exercise also helps her to relieve pent up emotions she refuses to actually
deal with as well as keeps her in shape.
Music: Adores almost all forms of music, but has
little exposure to it. Prefers classic rock and classical, but is testing the
waters of popular music.
Job or part time job and description: She’s a
half trained mercenary, essentially. Her mother didn’t exactly know fully what
she was doing, but was desperate enough to remain the sole ‘boss’ of her
daughter she refused to allow Nys to take much training elsewhere. Most of her
marketable skills lie in sniping people, but she can work as a sort of hired
soldier too. Has a wide range of skills, and while she’s very good she’s not
the best on the market. Currently unemployed, looking for some sort of job, be
it legal or….other.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns:
-Dislikes failure or mistakes.
-Worries she’ll someday be shunned by people she
respects for what she’s done.
-Dislikes feeling not-in-control of herself.
-Also, Nyssa really likes being armed. If unarmed, she
tends to become more tense and jumpy. If she feels threatened or is placed in a
confusing or stressing situation unarmed, she can become noticeably nervous. <o:p></o:p>
Special talents:
Disturbingly good poker face. Nyssa also has a
naturally oddly high pain tolerance that has been amped up further by her work.
(This doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel pain, or is infallible to it-A snapped leg
is probably going to make her shriek. However, finding random bruises she
doesn’t remember getting because she just doesn’t notice is pretty common for her.
This helps in a fight, but also means smaller injuries can go unnoticed or she
can push her body too far without realizing it. She also tends to ignore
signals her body gives her, like hunger. Or dehydration.)
Morality
Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: A good person who
does bad things, usually for her own self interest. She does her job, no more
but no less either. In a fight, she’ll often work hard to avoid bystander
injury or causalities, and children are completely off limits to her usual ‘anything
goes’ policy. As for mutants, she could not care less. They’re a nuisance if
they get in her way, but she has nothing against them. She has bigger problems
than discriminating against people. (So, neutral)
Mutations
Mutation description:
Soundwave Manipulation. Nyssa cannot see but can sense
sound waves around her, including infrasound and ultrasound. (These are more
difficult/’feel’ different to sense, but she can sense their existence.) She
can also manipulate these sound waves, distorting, redirecting or warping pitch
and/or volume of them, as well as figure out the source of a particular wave.
Sound manipulation/sensing shuts off when asleep or unconscious.
Strengths:
-Sound is an excellent weapon, or distraction.
-While she can’t effect the actual technology
producing the sound, she can make music playing louder or softer, or mute it
completely. (She often does this subconsciously. However, if she steps out of
range of the source of the sound it returns to the original volume.)
-She can currently make a sound as loud as 140db
(handgun/jet engine, and is the maximum allowed noise without hearing
protection.) This can cause temporary hearing loss in short
amounts, and permanent if she keeps some poor soul listening at this level for
an extended period of time.
-High pitched noises are super annoying even if she
doesn’t make it high enough to actually injure someone. On the same note, if
someone is within range she can mute them. So ultra-annoyingness plus being able
to actually shut someone or something up. Great for combat situations, when one
might need to silence a gunshot (remember that once sounds or sound producing
objects leave the 10 foot zone they return to normal sound-making, so sound
barrier breaking bullets will still make that cracking noise when close enough
to people, but the gunshot would not be heard) or footsteps.
-So long as Nyssa doesn’t become tired or distracted
or forget about the task at hand, she doesn’t seem to have a certain time limit
on her ability.
-Redirection of sound. This is more difficult and
requires more finesse than simply muting or increasing a sound still on its
original path, but can be super useful. (Redirect that whisper to your ears so
you know the plan? Move that cuss word away from children but still ensure it
reaches its recipient? She’s your girl.)
Weaknesses and Limitations:
- She has a 10 foot range, and that’s the max. She can
only play with sounds within that 10 foot radius.
-She can’t CREATE sound, only manipulate sound waves.
Well, ok, she can make sound by talking and whatnot, but she cannot randomly
start playing her favorite song perfectly out of nowhere.
-While she can sense infra and ultrasounds she cannot
currently manipulate it. Only sounds the human ear can detect (20-20,000 Hz,
approximately). Nyssa also cannot amplify a sound louder than 140 db (about as
loud as a handgun/jet engine) currently.
-Sound manipulation is a mental thing for Nys, so the
more tired or distracted she is (or if a mentally-affecting mutant is messing
with her) the less able she’ll be to control her power. It doesn’t make her
range smaller, but does make it harder for her to sense where sounds waves are
coming from or differentiate between them, as well as control them.
-Nyssa can only stop painfully loud or low noises from
reaching other’s ears when she consciously manipulates them to do so. Her brain
subconsciously softens noises to a comfortable level for her when they hit her
ears, as a defense mechanism. However, she has little to no conscious direction
to her power currently. If she makes a sound very loud or deep to take out an
enemy, she will probably also end up injuring any allies within range. Note as
well that the louder the sound, the more difficult it is to muffle it. Jet
engines or space shuttles landing nearby are going to put more mental stress on
her to bring down to ‘comfortable’ level. Even though the muffling is
subconscious, it is still working that mental muscle and as such she’s capable
of pulling said muscle. (Headaches and difficulty differentiating between sound
waves, less ability to alter/redirect a sound wave and migraines are symptoms
of overextending herself.)
Physical Abilities
General Physical Capabilities:
Strength: Above average for a normal human. However,
it is only above because she is very fit, and she is easily overpowered by a
larger opponent.
Speed: Definitely above average. While not petitely
built, she’s still reasonably small and light.
Reflexes: Excellent. She’s fast and excels at dodging.
Stamina: At a full speed run, she’s got average or
below average stamina. At a slow, light jog she can go for a longer period of
time. In fights, it depends on the many variables, but she has above average
stamina in general.
Flexibility: Quite naturally flexible, able to do
handstands and backbends but not splits. Can still probably kick you in the
face.
Fighting Style: No real fighting style other
than whatever seems to be working. She really, really prefers to shoot you from
a safe distance or stab you or avoid conflict period but if brought to hand to
hand she tends to fight dirty. As long as she comes out on top, she’ll do just
about anything.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons:
Pros: She’s very well trained and excels at adapting
to a situation. Also, uses firearms and other weapons with good accuracy and
skill, giving her an advantage. Small and fast, too, giving her an advantage
over bigger opponents. Grant has been fighting a long time (respectively) and
won’t hesitate to hit weak spots or injuries. All bets are off when you engage
with her.
Cons: While well trained, she isn’t infallible and
still has a ways to go before she’s a good hand to hand fighter. She has no
martial arts training, so while she can generally figure out some way to defend
against those with that training, she cannot use it and this is a disadvantage.
Mutants with mind altering or physically enhancing or altering powers have an
advantage. She isn’t the best in a mass fight without a weapon, or even a one
on one.
History Of Your Character
Nyssa was born to a former CIA agent named Sharon
Grant who’d been retired for a couple years and wasn’t exactly a
top-of-the-line spy, and a father defined exclusively as ‘irrelevant’. Still,
the lone Sharon had some level of know-how and decided to give birth to the
result of a one night stand rather than abort her, for the almost singular
reason of providing herself with a source of revenue in the future. Nyssa was
born and raised for most of her early childhood in a small CO town. It was
great, in her opinion! She had friends, though she was taken out of middle
school for barricading a teacher out of the classroom and setting up a
miniature, chaotic and short-lived g-rated version of what little she knew of
the French revolution. (No deaths or major injuries were sustained,
surprisingly.) This was mostly Sharon’s fault for already beginning to teach
the child how to defend herself and attack, how to fire a gun and weak points
to hit with a knife. Nyssa was firmly convinced that her path in life was the
best though, despite the fact even the young child could figure out she was
different from others. Nyssa relished in her mother’s verbal praise and worked
hard to earn it, and rapidly learned to keep secrets when she was harshly
admonished if she let slip anything concerning her training.
After all, the earlier the woman got the child trained
and ready to market, the sooner she could cash in. Mercenary work isn’t easy,
reliable or safe, but it pays the bills quite well. Around 13-14 years old,
Sharon began taking on small missions and jobs and traveling relatively
heavily, with her child accompanying her to get in-the-field training. As Nyssa
slowly began to become independent of Sharon as she grew older (the money still
went mainly to her singular parent, of course. That was the reason for Nyssa’s
existence, after all.) Nys tried her best to cling to what few outside
emotional attachments she had. It was hard, with her job, the moving and the
need to disappear often, but those relationships were key to Nyssa’s mental
state remaining intact as she aged and her mother sold Nys’s sniper skills to
whoever would buy.
Though the teen years were rough, Nyssa still believed
herself to be normal-ish, if different. She just did her job and didn’t really
think too hard about what she really did. It worked, most of the time. Most of
Nyssa’s current larger scars are from mistakes made during this period. 2 years
ago, Nys was finally released of the constant pressure of her single parent,
Sharon being hit by a drunk driver coming ‘home’ from her own cover job on the
4th of June. Grant’s changed a lot after that point, relaxed and
become better at interacting with others but remains reasonably socially
awkward and out of the loop. It’s much less noticeable at first glance now
though. She still takes dirty jobs to pay the bills, but jobs are more spread
out and legal ones are occasionally tested out since she isn’t supporting
herself and her mother. While attempting to stab a target(exact date undecided),
Nyssa’s power manifested. She accidentally made her opponent’s words extremely
high pitched and squeaky as well as quite loud, stunning Nyssa and the other
into silence. Nys recovered her wits quickly enough to succeed in her mission
but was thoroughly disturbed. In the last 2 weeks, Nyssa has moved for what
feels like the millionth time, this time to NYC, seeking out a new job or
mission or organization. (For more clarification, I’m setting Nyssa’s mutation
manifestation about 3 weeks from current day, if that is an acceptable
timeframe.)
Roleplay
What’s your OOC alias?: Giraffe
Where did you learn about this site?: Google.
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: No one….Yet.
Sample RP:
Nyssa really just wanted a coffee. A nice coffee, a
latte, warm and comforting and creamy. Sweeter than the brewed-at-home black
stuff she attacked her tastebuds with daily. They deserved a treat, she’d
decided this late morning, shifting her weight from on hip to the other as she
waited in line to order. The woman already knew what she was getting-She’d
looked up the menu and decided at home on her laptop. Nys didn’t have much tech
but she loved that portable computer. And she hated being put on the spot in
these social situations, so deciding before going helped a ton too. Nyssa was
happy and relaxed at this singular moment and that was great. She needed to get
a job, but wasn’t in a huge rush to go commit murder so whilst she was looking
she was eyeing ‘normal’ occupations in her new city of residence as well. The
female’s grey eyes flickered across the heads of those in line ahead of her,
stepping forward obediently when someone was served and the next stepped up.
Then Nys went back to eyeing the art on the walls with barely-masked confusion.
She liked auditory art, music, but visual was sometimes confusing. The abstract
piece with a seemingly random array of blues, greys and silvers with a couple
of splashes of bright, fresh red was appealing to Nyssa’s color tastes but the
art itself didn’t exactly strike an adoring chord in the mercenary’s heart. She
was mostly bored and examining the piece out of needing something to occupy her
mind rather than truly interested. Call her cold.
Also, the sudden assault of something touching and
wrapping around her leg was plenty to distract her from musing over
personal tastes in things she didn’t really care very much about. Grant’s head tilted at the three or four year
old messy headed boy grinning up at her cheekily, arms and legs wrapped tightly
around the woman’s right leg, body having stiffened significantly from the
moment unexpected tightness had curled around her leg. He giggled lightly as
Nyssa shifted nervously, unsure how to un-attach the apparent parasite of a
juvenile. Help? Please? Grant’s mouth twisted into an unsure frown as she
glanced around herself, looking for the parent. Kids always had parents or some
sort of guardian who was supposed to keep them on a leash or whatever. A woman
with similarly messy haired, sticky handed children clinging to her like
parasitic koalas seemed to match the description of a possible parental unit
for this particular youngling. She was attempting to clean baby vomit off her
shirt. A new feeling through her jeans made her glance down from firmly
ignoring the apparent middle child, now pretending to…Um…eat her leg? Yeah, he
was eating her leg. Ok. Nyssa nibbled her bottom lip lightly and sucked in a
breath through her nose. Calm down, try not to screech and flail away from the
odd little human gnawing on her. Noting the movement of the line ahead of her,
the threw an unsure gaze toward the kid again, who growled at her and tightened
his grip. Nyssa, thoroughly defeated by this horrifying human now attached to
her, took a couple steps forward with the line. There was now only one person
between her and the barista and her own parasitic koala was still. Clinging. To.
Her.
She had to admire his tenacity, it was admirable, but
she was really quite disturbed by the creature’s persistent chewing as well. A
more alarmed glance down at what sounded like a pain-induced screech mixed with
a laugh alerted Nyssa to the child’s apparent attempt to summon its siblings.
Nys’s mouth now finally opened to silently mouth ‘Oh h*** no.’ before waving
for baby-vomit-parental-unit’s attention as the person in front of the young
woman stepped away. “Is this yours?” A vague wave at messy haired horror now
whining loudly and clinging tighter once vomit-momma caught sight of her rogue
offspring.
A keening wail followed when the woman set the baby
down. Oh no Grant had angered it! What now?? Did she shake it? It seemed to
enjoy when she moved but her goal was not to harm the thing either. If that had
been on the table there’d be a much different outcome to the current situation.
The barista remained, wisely, absolutely silent, though Nyssa realized in the
back of her mind that fact was probably because it appeared this was going on
social media. Huzzah. But the parasitic koala was removed once Nyssa held her
leg out in what she thought was politeness so the mother could pry off her
now-screeching lunatic. The boy’s whines and whimpers only made Nyssa order and
skedaddle faster, fidgety and any peace and inner calm she’d achieved earlier
now thoroughly frayed to no end. The barista offered the unnerved female a
friendly smile, though professional, and earned Nyssa’s slightly confused
silence for a second before smiling back and trying to relax her shoulders as
she wrapped her hands around the cup’s warm exterior and making her escape out
of the café with a long exhale. That had gone from fine to stressful rather
quickly.
