Note: In 2018, Caleb "Calley" Swartz was replaced by Cheshire during an alternate universe plot. If you're looking for the old Calley profile, just scroll to the second post.

Individual

Character's full name: Chelsea Swartz
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Cheshire, Chess
Gender: Born a female, but gender fluid. It comes with the power.
Age: 15
Date of Birth: April 13, 2003
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Newark, New Jersey. A good town to catch a plane through.
Nationality: American
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Chess is primarily Hungarian and Italian

Appearance

Hair color and style: Short black curls that stick out at all angles. *licks the back of her wrist and smoothes 'em down*
Skin Tone: Dark olive
Eye Color: Baby blue, and generally cat-slitted, just to see who notices
Height: 5'3"
Build: Lean and wiry, in the same way a street cat is. Fairly flat-chested, which she finds convenient. Bras are really hard for a tiger to get out of. Whoever invented elastic bands is a monster.
Visible mutation: Doesn't have to have one, but generally turns on the cat girl charm, complete with ears and a tail. Touch it, she dares you. She's got the claws, too.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: NA
Other features: While Chess is an extremely frequent bather, said baths aren't often of the human-standard variety. Read: she grooms herself in cat form, in lieu of regular showering. As such, she has a more natural smell than the typical biped—generally no shampoo or other chemical products, and a certain something that any cat owner would recognize. It's no more unpleasant or pervasive than that of a well-groomed housecat, and one would have to be extremely close, or have a particularly sensitive nose, to pick it up.

Everyday clothing style: Whatever looked good in the shop window, and walked out of the changing room with her. Usually a dress; they're easier to squiggle out of when she shifts. Don't ask about what's underneath. If she wasn't expecting to be human today, it might not be much.
Uniform: HAHAHAHA oh that's cute. Yeah. No.
Sleepwear: Whatever she had on, or the lack thereof. If she doesn't have at least a baggy shirt on hand, she'll sleep shifted.
Miscellaneous clothing: NA

Character

Personality: Chess has spent a wee too many hours with her brain firing through animal neurons. She's an upbeat, confident young woman, who's not afraid to (literally) take what she wants. Being an animal shifter means she doesn't need a job, money, or a home—she just needs to scrounge some food, and then she's got the rest of her day to do whatever catches her fancy. Chess has a playful sort of charisma that tends to draw people into her games. And if they don't want to play, well… she never said she was giving them the option. Doesn't have the best attention span or ability to think through long term consequences. Good thing those shifts wear off on their own…

Hobbies/ Interests: Making people's lives a little more surreal. <3

Job or part time job and description: Professional Unsolicited Life Priority Recalibration Assistant

Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Being confined, figuratively or literally. Small snotty children crying in her vicinity. Getting so injured she needs to go to someone else for help. Getting so old that a good fur coat won't see her through a winter on the street.

Special talents: Chess has the well-honed ability to pick the most cat-hating person out of a crowd and sidle up to them.

Morality

Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: Chaotic neutral. Chess takes care of Chess. She might help someone out of a pinch, but only if there's something in it for her. For the purposes of most situations, 'amusement value' will suffice. She might make it worse for them, too, if that'd be more of a laugh. She is generally not malicious when she plays, but her sense of mischief is somewhere to the left of most people's comfort zones.

Mutations

Mutation description: Animal shifter. Chess can turn herself (and you!) into anything in the animal kingdom, including chimera forms that involve more than one animal.

[/i]

Cats
Housecats (assorted genders, ages, and colors, x13)
Siberian tiger (male)

Dogs
Artic fox (male)
Coyote (female)
Gray wolf (female)
Red fox (female)

Birds
American crow (female)

Other
Horse (large black mare)
House mouse (male)

Chimera forms
Kitsune (2-9 tailed fox in white or red fur)[/ul]

Strengths:

- Chess can shift herself or other people/animals into anything from the animal kingdom that’s part of her repertoire. These can be either basic shifts (containing one animal form) or chimeras (multiple animals mixed together—she can change the basic size/shape of parts to aid in the fit). Shifts appear instantaneous to anyone without accelerated perception.

- When she shifts another person/animal, they're a mix between their original form and whatever she tried to turn them into, somewhere on the spectrum between "100% animal" and "1% animal, 99% human". At the 100% shifted end of the spectrum, mutant abilities are sealed; everywhere else along the line, abilities will still be active to one degree or another. Physical abilities (enhanced strength, speed, vision, etc) will be relative to their new body, while elemental/psychic ones (wind, telekinesis, etc) will be at their normal levels. Unless Chess is specifically trying, people will usually end up towards the animal end but with some of their own physical traits showing through: ie, a dinosaur mutant might be a duck with teeth and claws, a blonde illusionist might be a little white cat with blonde spots here and there, a rock elemental might be a rocky dog, etc.

- Shifts of others can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 days, with a few hours being the most common; whether the person wants to stay shifted has a huge influence on this time frame. Chess herself can stay shifted indefinitely, though it takes a toll on her ability to reason like a human. Who needs that, anyway?

- Since she's working off template blueprints of animals stored in her head, she can shift more than one person into the same form (or use the same form more than once in making a chimera, as in making a six-tailed fox). *rubber stamps three people into vulpixes*


Weaknesses and Limitations:

- It takes physical contact for her to shift others; something as simple as a t-shirt blocks this ability (though things like metal arms, scales, and other “natural” parts of a mutant’s body don’t hinder her). Chess has no control over when a shift naturally wears off for another person. Adapted fields revert all changes immediately.

- Chess can only turn herself/others into animals she's practiced extensively. To add a basic animal form to her library, Chess must come into physical contact with it, and then spend time mastering it—doing so leaves her trapped and unable to change back until full mastery is reached, which can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days depending on how familiar she is with the animal (if she already has a house cat, another house cat will be easy, and a tiger somewhat familiar, but an armadillo is a totally different ballpark).

- Clothes don’t come with during shifts, but injuries do.

- She can use her power almost indefinitely if she paces herself, but rapid-fire shifting leaves her headachy, nauseous, and eventually incapable of the concentration needed to pull off another until she's had a lengthy rest (longer than if she'd just paced herself to begin with).

- Chess’ thought patterns are heavily influenced by the form she’s wearing, and it gets worse the longer she spends in it. For example, as a cat she may condescend to allow scritching under her chin; as a puppy, she might think that running into the street after a ball is a great idea. The only way to counteract this is to spend equivalent time in a strictly human form. She… doesn't tend to do that.

- Her chimera forms are based on real anatomy, not mutational magic. They require meticulous planning and very careful (and occasionally painful) practice to get right—if she tried to make a griffin, she'd have to figure out how to hook bird wings into a lion's back so that the skeletal structure and musculature actually supports them, and the whole thing might still end up being too heavy to fly unless she can figure out how to shave off weight without compromising her health. This planning and practice can take from days to months, depending on the complexity of what she's attempting and how dissimilar the parts are. She can't chimera someone into a form she hasn't yet mastered herself.


Physical Abilities

General Physical Capabilities: Chess has a lean build with well-developed muscles in pretty much All The Places, earned through spending much of her time padding, hopping, or flying around our fair city (her back is super toned). In general, she doesn't put much trust in her human form—-in any serious fight, she'll shift herself or her opponent as soon as possible. Her animal forms have the usual physical capabilities of their species, with her general level of fitness and health/injury.

Fighting Style: Claw them the **** up. Preferably after turning them into something small and squeaky.

Fighting Style Pros/Cons: Compared to some of the flashier mutant abilities, she's pretty underpowered in a battle. If she can't close the distance and get them fighting on her terms within the first few seconds, she'll probably opt for retreating.

And following from a discrete distance.

And figuring out where they sleep, 'cause this ain't over.


History Of Your Character

Chess realized she was a mutant during the 7th grade when she woke up as the family cat. That was a pretty confusing couple of days for everyone, especially the cat.

Her parents were supportive—well, her dad was a little creeped out, but her mom was awesome about it. Took her to zoos, helped her volunteer at the wildlife center, the works.

But they were always on her case about studying, and grades, and was-she-thinking-of-college-yet, because these days you had to build your resume early--

Chess remembered those things being really important to her. She remembered realizing when they weren't anymore. She remembered being really, really worried about it, worried she was losing something she couldn't get back.

She doesn't have those worries anymore. Sometimes she shifts full-human and tries to feel them, just to see what it was like, but it's like hearing the echo of some other girl crying. Not the best feeling in the world, really. She doesn't do that much.

Pretty much never, these days.

When a rift opened between universes, a portal to a whole new reality, she winged it to New York. She didn't hear about it closing behind her until a week or two after it did. Made her stop and think for a second, about her parents, her friends. Had she… told them she was coming here? They should have figured it out without her saying, really. It was a new universe, who wouldn't jump on that?

Less thinking. More playing.


Roleplay

What’s your OOC alias?: Calley
Where did you learn about this site?: Da Googs
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: Slate, Rupert, Maxine, Jiri, Bennu, Panu
Sample RP:

It was drizzling. Drizzling on her. The audacity of the sky astounded Cheshire at times. The little white cat with black spots here and there sat under and overhang, her feet tucked under her, her tail tip twitching.

She was watching a townhouse. It had been quiet all morning, as its neighbors walked past windows and slammed car doors and carried small screaming children past windows. Either the person inside didn't have a nine-to-five job, or they weren't home.

But the cats were. The calico-spotted white had peeked out the window at her, and disappeared. Every once and a while she'd circle back and stare, and Cheshire would stare back, but it was the friendly sort of you-are-outside-I-am-inside-why-is-that-friend stare.

The tabby, now. The tabby had been sitting in the window for a half hour straight. Staring. Cheshire's soggy tail tip curled up. The tabby's fluffy dry tail swish-swished. Neither of them blinked.

Chess got to her feet, with a completely unconcerned arch of her back. Then she padded across the—ah car ah!—then she waited with regal patience for a gap in traffic, and padded across the street.

Swish-swish, went the tabby's tail. Cheshire's nose was in the air as she totally-didn't-watch.

Around the side of the townhouse, past its excellent blue doors, and over to—ah yes, her very favorites of places to break in. This was New York City: doors and windows were locked. In the bad neighborhoods, bared. But the one place no one ever had extra security?

The laundry vent.

Bat-bat-bat and there went the insect cover. She stuck her nose in the duct. Warm air, but not too warm. And more importantly, no rattling breeze of a drier still running. From out the duck wafted the lovely smell of warm foofy clothes that hadn't yet been graced with a layer of her fur.

Well. Time to fix that.

Shift, and the vent was an easier fit for a mouse, and her brain made the flip to his brain. His claws clicked along the aluminum. He slid down the little curve of the anti-rain drop, and skittering down the darkness until his whiskers touched the metal grate separating the duct from the main drum. Oh foofy clothes inside, how he longed to roll in you. But alas, the mess was too thin. Which left…

Sneeze

…The lint trap. An easy enough thing for a mouse to climb and wiggle out of, but goodness did he get dirty. Annnd this was a cat household, so shift back immediately.

And that is how the little white cat with black spots here and there ended up on top of the drier, with what felt like a half-pound of lint stuck to her soggy fur, being yowled at by a tabby as the calico-spotted cat ran back and forth in the room outside.

[Note: Here begins the old Caleb "Calley" Swartz profile. He was retired from play in 2018 during an alternate universe plot. Played from 2007-2016.]

Thread Archive // Slate's Profile

Playby: Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass. Most avis/sigs made by Katrina, some found randomly on le internets.

Individual

Character's full name: Caleb Swartz
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Calley, Miles, Kitten, Sinatra, Gringolet, Malako, Officer Whiskers—he collects names like he collects homes.
Gender: Male, thank you. No matter the current anatomics.
Age: 26
Date of Birth: April 13, 1990
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Newark, New Jersey. A good town to catch a plane through.
Nationality: American
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Calley is primarily Italian American, with sprinklings of a Hungarian nose, dark Irish curls, and German baby blues.

Appearance

Hair color and style: Dark brown and short in human form, with little care for styling—tousled and curly.
Skin Tone: Lightly tanned Italian olive by summer, a bit more Irish-white by winter.
Eye Color: Baby blue. Except when he likes cat green better, or wolf yellow, or gerbil beady.
Height: 5'8"
Build: Lean, in the same way a stray cat is lean.
Visible mutation: Why yes, quite often. Lately, he's in the habit of sprouting fuzzy black kitten ears and the tail to match.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: NA
Other features: While Calley is an extremely frequent bather, said baths are less and less often of the human-standard variety. Read: he grooms himself in cat form, in lieu of regular showering. As such, he has a more natural smell on him than the typical biped—generally no shampoo or other chemical products, and a certain something that any cat owner would recognize. It's no more unpleasant or pervasive than that of a well-groomed housecat, and one would have to be extremely close, or have a particularly sensitive nose, to pick it up.

Everyday clothing style: Unless someone makes him go back to his room and change, he tends to wear clothing scrounged from the nearest lost and found or charity donation box. Said clothes are generally two sizes too large: he likes to have room for wiggling free if he shifts to a smaller form. And if he shifts to something large... well, it's a good thing he didn't much like those clothes, anyway.
Uniform: Standard beat cop uniform for the NYPD.
Sleepwear: Boxers. Rainbow print, heart print, cat print: all the better to grin when people facepalm.
Miscellaneous clothing: Occasionally carries a sword in a poster tube over his shoulder, or a lime green squeaky hedgehog balanced companionably on his head.

Character

Personality: Generally avoids physical confrontations and has no respect for people who seek them. Is usually smiling his habitual smile. Has a strong, playful sort of charisma-—especially when wearing a cat form—-that tends to draw people into his games.
Hobbies/ Interests: Keeping on top of the city's latest gossip, preferably by being in the center of things (or watching them safely, from a tree branch near you).
Job or part time job and description: Former triple spy working with all of NYC's mutant Factions simultaneously (with varying degrees of willingness and loyalty), current NYPD officer.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Collars. Collars, and the concept of forcing someone to do something through intimidation or violence, strike close to home. He's not a fan of pillows, and general doesn't keep them on his own bed, but he doesn't feel the need to throw them off a couch before he sits down anymore. Violence; violence is always a concern. Violent people, violent situations, or the wrong people finding out about certain violence committed in his own past. He's starting to get his life in order, and he has people he cares about who care about him: that's just a recipe for jinxing the whole thing, isn't it? Life was so much easier as a cat. Also: gray squirrels. He's rather allergic.
Special talents: Calley has a good memory for people, and some might say he's half-way decent about piecing together information regarding them. Additionally, after spending almost two years in a constant battle for control of his mind with his psychic "brother" Slate, Calley has been left with an abnormally high resistance to psychics.

Morality

Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: He tries to do good, he tries to protect the people he cares about, but it would be better if those people never found out just what it was he's done to keep them safe.

Mutations

Mutation description: Multi-shifting! Calley can turn himself (and you!) into anything in the animal kingdom. He can also chimera (mix forms) and splinter (split himself into a few different forms simultaneously).

Two Notes: 1) For new readers: this power set is the product of multiple power growths since Calley was first approved in 2007. This ain't no starting power set! If you're looking for good examples of MRO's general power level, look at newer apps. 2) For the purpose of this power section, Slate doesn't count as a splinter. He's got his own thing going~

Strengths: Calley can shift himself or other people/animals into anything from the animal kingdom that’s part of his repertoire; he himself can “splinter” into up to five forms simultaneously, which can be either basic shifts (containing one animal form) or chimeras (multiple animals mixed together—he can change the basic size/shape of parts to aid in the fit). Shifts appear instantaneous to anyone without accelerated perception/vision.

When he shifts another person/animal, they are are themselves chimeras between their original form and the animal he is trying to change them into: this spectrum ranges from something as unobtrusive as a pair of cat ears to an honest-to-goodness pick-it-up-from-the-pound feline. At the fully shifted end of the spectrum, mutant abilities are sealed; everywhere else along the line, mutant abilities will still be active, to one degree or another. Physical abilities (enhanced strength, speed, vision, etc) will be relative to their new body, though, while elemental/psychic ones (wind, telekinesis, growing crystal armor, etc) will be at their normal levels. Unless Calley is specifically trying, people will usually end up towards the animal end but with some of their own physical traits still evident (ie, a dinosaur mutant might be a duck with teeth and claws, a blonde illusionist might be a little white cat with blonde spots here and there, a rock elemental might be a rocky dog, etc). Shifts of others can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 days, with a few hours being the most common; whether the person wants to stay shifted has a huge influence on this time frame. As injuries do not transfer between forms, this is an excellent way to bring injured allies to a healer without having to worry about them getting worse during the trip.

Weaknesses and Limitations: To add a basic animal form to his library, Calley must come into physical contact with it, and then fully master the form through spending time in it—doing so leaves him trapped in the form, unable to splinter or chimera. Full mastery can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. His own chimera forms require meticulous planning and practice to get right—birds don’t always have bone structures that match up with a lion’s, after all. Freaking true-griffons, making it look easy. This planning can take from days to months, depending on the complexity and number of forms to be used.

Calley can have a maximum of five splinters on the field. The more he has out, the more useless they all become--since all that sensory information is part of the same mind, having to deal with too much distinct information can leave him overwhelmed, and slow to respond. Splinters must all remain within a city's diameter each other; Calley will feel increasingly ill as they approach that limit, and be unable to cross it on his own power. If someone forces one of his splinters out of range of the others, it will die, sending a painful mental backlash to the remaining splinters.

Calley’s world view is heavily influenced by the form (or forms) he’s wearing at the moment. For example, as a cat he may condescend to allow scritching under his chin; as a puppy, he might think that running into the street is oh gosh such a great idea and oh wow is that a stick? Stick stick stick! Spending long stretches in a form can have an impact on his cognitive development, even after he’s shifted back to human; he’s still playing catch up for those two years he spent as a cat while he was a teenager.

It takes physical contact for him to shift another person; something as simple as a t-shirt blocks this ability (though things like metal arms, scales, and other “natural” parts of a mutant’s body don’t hinder him). He cannot shift other people into his sort of chimera: only one animal may be used. They’re already a combination of themselves and the animal he’s trying to shift them into, and that’s plenty complex enough. Calley has no control over when a shift naturally wears off for another person, and cannot use that form himself until it does.

When Calley runs afoul of those pesky Adapteds, he’ll be shifted back to human form immediately. Any splinters touching him when he hits field with him will be reabsorbed; any splinters not in contact with him will remain in animal form, but drop “dead,” with no minds of their own. Basic respiration, heart beat, etc will continue, but he’ll have no link to them. Once he leaves the field, that link will be re-established with many marvelous migraines. If his human form is outside the Adapted field... there will temporarily be two of him.

Calley has a maximum of twenty shifts in him per day: that counts all the faucets of his power. A singular animal form (for himself or another) is one shift; his chimeraing is one shift per animal used (so a nine-tailed fox would be nine shifts; one for the basic fox body, eight for the additional tails borrowed from his other fox forms). He is physically unable to go past this limit, and feels progressively more ill as he approaches it. Rapid-fire use of his shifting hurries these effects.

Physical Abilities

General Physical Capabilities: Calley has a lean, wiry build, earned through spending much of his time padding, trotting, or flying around our fair city. His strength as a human is about average, and he isn't likely to be winning long distance races, but in close quarters he has quick reflexes and a certain unorthodox flexibility that comes from spending most of his time in a form that always lands on its feet. In biped form, he would never be top contender in any physical contest, but he wouldn't be last, either. In general, he doesn't put much trust in his human form—-in any serious fight, he'll shift or splinter as soon as possible. His animal forms have the usual physical capabilities of their species.
Fighting Style: Calley started training at a mixed style of sword fighting under Sebastian Csendes, in December of 2011. He's past beginner level, but anyone with a decent mastery can beat him. He's been trained with guns and non-lethal weaponry by the NYPD.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons: While he can handle himself decently with a sword against others with similar experience, his style is entirely too reckless against anyone who really knows what they're doing—-having begun his training while under the silly impression that he was immortal, he developed very bad habits with regards to how much damage he considers serious: unless a attack is going to disable or kill him, he's more likely to treat it as an opening than as something that needs to be parried. If he expected a true fight, however, he'd leave the sword at home and rely on his mutation to see him through. A lot of people know the basics of sword-on-sword fighting. Sword-on-tiger? Not quite as common. When working the streets as an officer, Calley tries to play by the NYPD handbook unless he seriously fears for his life. Then it's back to anything goes.

History Of Your Character
IC History (what has actually been RPed at MRO):

Seventeen years old (May 2007 –2008)

A month after his birthday, a small white cat with black spots here and there looked up at a calendar, and realized... he’d been in a cat form for two years. Err. He soon followed Isabel back to the Sanctuary as her “Kitten”. Gratuitous cat spying upon the Order followed.

On the day he decided to try being a real boy again, Calley meant Hunter Antonescu. He may have been robbing the man’s apartment at the time, but let’s not point fingers. Violently short story made shorter, Calley was “recruited” into the Kabal in time to become a founding member. Hurray.

Calley continued spying on the Order through the pleasant dating of Isabel Duskmoor (whose Kitten, sadly, had run away), and broadened his information gathering horizons to the X-Men by successfully completing trainee tryouts in Fall 2007.

Hunter’s continued physical and mental abuse upon the undeserving and purely obedient young shifter continued despite his successes as a spy, however, and in Fall 2007, Calley developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. Its name was Slate. As the Registration Act passed, Calley and Slate curled up together in the Mondragon Labs library, plotting against Hunter as they read books with the refugee Katrina. Calley’s chimeraing ability developed during this time.

Eighteen years old (April 2008 – 2009)

Calley challenged Hunter to a death match. Manticores were summoned; whales were dropped. The eighteen year old walked away alive. Hunter wasn't seen again for years.

With Calley’s new found splintering ability, he and Slate started to train to be separate people; this was sped up when they ran across the Adapted Jacen in February 2009. They now call each other "brothers," and have two distinct—though identical—human forms. Slate took over the Kabal as Leader in January 2009; Calley kept playing around as an X-Trainee, without any real leader. He told Issie about his former spying on the Order, as well. She, ah, did not take it well. They broke up. Some promises of stabbing may have been made.

Nineteen years old (April 2009 – 2010)

After waking up from the Future Dream with memories of his own death—and how little anyone even noticed it—Calley stood up on the steps of King Pharmaceuticals and confessed to spying on the X’s. Loudly. Just to make sure his former teammates fully understood, he then mauled X-Man Luke Jacobs thoroughly. Unfortunately, the big mean blind man got in a decent hit, too: one of his attacks nicked Calley’s consciousness. After the brawl, Calley hooked up with the reforming Order.

He’s starting to realize that whatever Luke did, it was permanent: his abilities have only begun to give him troubles.

Twenty & Twenty-One (April 2010 – present)

Hunter returned. Calley overreacted. Some times when you spill something, you can never get the stain out.

The changes caused in his mutation continued; Calley progressively got worse and worse headaches, and began swearing... in Serbian. A visit to a mutant fortune teller convinced him that if he didn't change his path, he was going to die. He did what any rational young man would do: he hooked up with a unicorn who promised him immortality.

Yep.

The immortality was temporary, but it seems to have averted his untimely demise, at least for now. Calley is currently in his final year of high school at the Mansion, and looking to graduate this spring, at the age of 22. No thanks to that annoying Adapted guidance counselor.

Backstory History (original history):
Well, the old man is a professional stock market investor. Invested in private defense firms and got filthy rich, with many thanks to folks like me and you. Are you like me? I’m saying an awful lot to you if you aren’t. Just—no calling the cops, ‘kay? Anywho, the old man is filthy rich, the young lady who me and my sister fondly labeled “Mother Roman Numeral Two” is an arm ornament, and my sister is my sister. My older sister. She’s very... older sistery.

I think they all suspected that I am—well, that I am what I am. About the time my sister bought me an encyclopedia of the animal kingdom (she has a delicate way of addressing sensitive issues, my sister) I decided that I might maybe should probably potentially have a talk with my father. My sister disentangled the tumorous growth—Mother Roman Numeral Two—from his arm long enough for me to get him alone. It went great. He actually smiled when I told him—said, “That’s great, son.” I think he was afraid I was something dangerous, like the rest of you. He approved strongly of me not being able to read minds or light people on fire at will. He clapped me on the back and we had a good laugh and a warm father-and-son talk—I told him how I’d been getting better control, how I even knew how to almost-sure-fire turn back into a human in a timely fashion, now; he told me how proud he was of my confiding in him—said, “I disown you, son.”

It was just a formality, though—a show for his brandy buddies and golf partners. It’s fine to make money off of our existence, but no sane human can have one of us in the family. They just can’t. I know the old man loves me. He gave me three days to pack and never once called the SWAT team on me. I always knew he wasn't prejudiced against—well, against people like me and you.

In any case, that was two years ago. I’ve mostly been waltzing between families. I have mentioned that I’ve been catting since I left, haven’t I? It’s easier than pretending to be human. So I’ve been staying here, staying there, escaping from animal shelters as needed, and moving on. It’s not good to stay in one place for too long. They start getting attached to me. People are mostly quite nice, and the mean ones are mostly recognizable by their squinty eyes and herd of lackeys. But then, people tend to think I’m a cat. I get the impression that they wouldn’t like me as a human. It’s okay—it really is just easier to be a cat.

I do miss pants, though.

Roleplay
Where did you learn about this site?: The amazing pink text created a suction effect that wind-tunneled me through that rectangular search box on the Google main page—that HURT, thank you very much—and deposited me, with much malice, at 9.8 meters a second onto your most wonderful site. Bet you didn’t know pink text could do that. Ah, well. At least it isn’t neon green.
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: Slate, Rupert, Maxine
Sample RP:
I was stretched out on a first-floor window ledge at the NYPD station again. It was cozy and Detective Cassandra gives me donuts.

“Would you stop feeding that cat? I swear to God I’m calling Animal Control.” Detective The-Feeling-Is-Mutual started up our morning niceties. He glared and threatened me; I yawned and daintily groomed powdered sugar out of my whiskers.

“Have you read this?” Detective Cassandra asked, tapping the report in her hands.

“That can’t even be healthy for it. Try giving it a carrot stick, or something.” I’ve always gotten the impression that Detective The-Feeling-Is-Mutual doesn’t know much about cats. He was still staring down at me suspiciously as he pushed buttons on his coffee maker. Nothing happened. He turned to stare at the machine. “Come on, baby, don’t be broken.” I started purring.

“What the hell are the mutants thinking?” Detective Cassandra looked like she wanted to maul something.

“You say that like they think.” He stooped down and peered under the table. “What the-?” Yeah, that’s right, sucker—I unplugged it. And then I mauled the cord. My generous Detective Cassandra got her coffee from the gourmet shop down the street: she didn’t need your cat-hater-owned coffee maker. “We’ve got to tell somebody about these mice.” He said, staring forlornly at the cord in his hand.

Detective Cassandra stared at him over her file. “Can I get a little bit of your attention span directed this way? Thank you.”

He dropped the cord and tried to look professional holding an empty mug of coffee. “So what’d they do this time?”

“Had a brawl in the middle of Central Park, that’s what. Took down a lot of the old-growth trees and did everything but salt the earth after they were done. It looks like a blizzard went through.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I swear to God, it’s like they’re not even trying to hide anymore.” My little catty ears were perked. Powered sugar donuts, cozy perches, and the chance to vandalize Detective The-Feeling-Is-Mutual’s private property were all well and good, but this was what I really came for: if there was a mutant-related report, it was bound to end up in Detective Cassandra’s hands. A stop by here every morning told me exactly what areas I needed to be avoiding.

“Again: you say that like they’re thinking.” Detective The-Feeling-Is-Mutual tsked. “About the time they start pulling blizzards out of their back pocket is about the time I stop pretending they’re human. Don’t know about you.” Oh, Detective The-Feeling-Is-Mutual, I keep forgetting what a nice guy you really are. My tail twitches: tomorrow morning, methinks, I shall helpfully misplace your coffee cup into a dumpster for you. Surely that will help ease your mourning for your coffee maker.

“Don’t be such a Xenophob.” Detective Cassandra scolded. I love her so much.

“See—you know you think it, too. You can’t be a Xenophob without another species involved.” I think I’m going to borrow all of his stationary, too. And the pen and pencil set his father gave him when he made Detective.

Detective Cassandra had that priceless look on her face again. The same one I always looked at Detective The-Feeling-Is-Mutual with. “I’m getting you a dictionary for your birthday.”

Detective The-Feeling-Is-Mutual started trying to defend himself. I hopped down from the window ledge; avoid Central Park: got it. That’s all I needed to know. See you tomorrow.

Especially you, coffee cup.

---

Mastered Animal Forms (Calley can turn your character into anything on this list)

[/url])
Bird (male English sparrow, female red hawk, male pink parakeet, male mallard duck, male American crow)
Cat, domestic ("Kitten"/black and white tom, "Sinatra"/ginger tom, black tom kitten, gray queen, "Central Cat"/arthritic old brown and black tabby tom)
Cat, wild (male black panther/jaguar, large male Bengal tiger)
Dog (male Rottweiler, male Great Dane puppy, male Irish Wolfhound, male American Pitbull Terrier)
Fox (female Artic Fox, male Red Fox kit and eight adults in varying shades of red, brown, and black)
Heartworms (in various stages of development; x300)
Horse (male Black Arabian)
Lobster (orange/red male Maine lobster)
Rodent (male house mouse, male snowshoe hare)
Rhino (male adult white rhino)
Seal (adult female harp seal)
Skunk (large adult female striped skunk)
Toad (male Colorado River Toad)
Tortoise (Giant Galapagos Tortoise; specifically, Lonesome George)
Wolf (female black-morph Gray wolf)[/ul]

Chimera Forms

[/i]
[/ul]

Want:
(*** = have copied, need to master)

[/i]

Red-Handed Tamarin
Great Snipe (60 - 90 mph cruise, sustained over 4,200 miles)
Pit viper (infrared)
Fossa
Bat

Functional/Combat, Terrain, etc:

African Elephant
Camel
Wandering Albatross (drink salt water, 50 mph)
Octopus (mimic, North Pacific Giant, etc)
Light producer (vampire squid, etc)

Cool:

Blue Whale***
Impala (35-45 mph, 12 feet high/30 long jumps)
Otter/Giant, River, Sea, etc
Dolphin
Electric Eel
Moose
Bear


Low Priority:

Sailfish (68 mph), Martin
Platypus
Peregrine Falcon (200 mph dive, 50 cruise) ***
Long-Earred Jerboa
Capybara
Snow Leopard
Tarsier (night vision, catch birds in midair)
Komodo dragon
Narwhal
Sperm Whale
Giant Squid/Colossal Squid
Mantis Shrimp
Lion***
Porcupine***
Sugar Glider
Sloth
Giant Anteater
[/ul]

Future Profile

(Used for the Future Plot, in Fall 2008 - Spring 2009)

Individual

Character's full name: Caleb Swartz
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: (Calley is deceased); Central Cat; Hawk; Sparrow; Pigeon; Duke; the King Mouse
Gender: Male, thank you. No matter the current anatomics.
Age: Irrelevant.
Birthday: April 13, 1990
Nationality/ Ethnicity: American, with Italian, Hungarian, Irish, and German blood—in that order.
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Newark, New Jersey. A good town to catch a plane through.

Appearance

Hair color and style: Heh. Umm, variable, to say the least.
Eyes: Likewise.
Height: Well these are fun questions, aren't they? Next they're going to ask about build.
Build: Told you. *fans whiskers smugly*
Visible mutation: Ha! That's cute. That's real cute.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: None, none, and none.

Everyday clothing style: Generally speaking, just fur. Or feathers. Scales, sometimes. Clothes are for suckers who still look somewhat human.
Uniform: No thank you.
Sleepwear: If someone buys him those stupid pet clothes and calls them pajamas, he cannot be held responsible for his actions.

Character

Personality: The Central Cat sits at its monitors all day, running the other splinters as spies; it is content with that. Information is all there is.
Hobbies/ Interests: Information gathering.
Job or part time job and description: Kabal spy(ies).
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Power outages that leave his screens blank.
Special talents: Patience.

Morality

Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: If a mentally handicapped human is capable of being such, then bad. Very bad.

Mutations

Description of ability: The same shifting, chimeraing, and splintering as in the present, though the splintering has been taken to an extreme.
Weakness of ability: Same. It should be noted that they no longer have their human form, since Slate is in possession of it; the Central Cat took their human vocal chords for itself, though, and that is all they need.

Fighting Style

Explanation: Run; if you are in a fight, your cover is gone. Run, re-shift, and re-infiltrate.

Faction Allegiance
The Kabal.

History Of Your Character
In 2009, Calley learned to splinter. He ditched Slate shortly thereafter, and began merrily training to populate the city with his own army of spies. It didn't matter that Slate took their telepathy with him--who needs telepathy, when you've got Doc Jimmy's mini-microphones and spy cams?

He quickly discovered that his splinters were even immune to death--as long as another part of him got to the scene quickly enough to reabsorb the dead splinter's mind, of course. This lead to even more bold actions on his part, and quite a fun hair-raising and post-traumatic-purr-inducing close-calls.

Then, in 2011, the splinter Calley was in died for the first time. Without the central leadership of his personality, his other selves were slow to respond--when the first of them, sparrow, reached his body, it was nearly cold. Sparrow was able to reabsorb most of the splinter's mind. He could not find that part of them that was called "Calley", though.

For seven years, Calley's splinters have been run by the Central Cat. He sits in Mondragon Labs, guiding the others--it is a rare day when he emerges. Sparrow, hawk, pigeon, the cat named Duke (formerly known as Kitten), and the King Mouse are still at large in the city, though, and still actively pursuing missions and gathering information for the glory of Hunter Antonescu. As an added bonus for Hunter, he no longer has to deal with Calley: the Central Cat does lives only to serve. Or, rather, to gather information. What more is there to life?

Updated to include that lovely collar Hunter put on me. *scratches at collar uncomfortably*

It suits you Calley

...

Listen to the triple dots of my blank stare, Scary Boss Man. Listen.

...

Updated to include the Slate personality. Who was, as a matter of record, born in "Learning to Heal".

Powers updated to be more readable, both for Calley and Slate.

Also added in Slate's new power, which is still in development.

Updated Slate's power section to include a power extension (healing/breaking of others) and a new ability (sending and receiving messages telepathically).

Reminder to newer players: make sure to get your power growths approved by the Mods!

FP profile posted separate from main profile for ease of reading; "IC History" section added to main profile; power section updated for clarity.

Remember, get any changes made to the powers section of your profile approved by a Mod.

Update: Power growth! (will come on screen this summer)

Calley can now shift other people. That's right: look for Abyssmice and Kat-cats in the near future. Other-shifts will come in "you keep your powers" and "your powers are sealed" flavors. Mmmm...

I like your explanations of the basic stuff. It's pretty funny.

I had all kinds of fun writin' this, back in the day. And it has lead to all kinds of fun, since.

*cookies for Tulelo!*

Weakness and Splintering update: due to Luke unjustly sonar blasting Calley's mind, the victimized Calley was unfairly dealt minor brain damage. New weaknesses added, due to instant-de-powering. Big mean blind man. Mainly: he's now stuck in a form completely until he masters it, as opposed to when he gains basic control. This could take awhile... On a related note: most of his library of forms was lost in the same attack.

Splintering system entirely redone. Max five forms, now. More mobile. Less cannibalism potential.

Inserted a "jist" section in the power description, so people don't have to wade through the two-and-a-jillion pages of the full power description.

Mutation Description: Multi-shifting! Calley can turn himself (and you!) into anything in the animal kingdom. He can also chimera (mix parts) and splinter (split himself into a few different forms).

The jist:

Strengths: Can be your pet Kitten, your neighbor’s dog, or a pigeon in the park. Injuries do not transfer between forms. Chimeras impress the ladies. Splinters allow him to be in more than one place at a time. When he shifts others, he can choose to seal their powers into the body of a normal animal (True shift), or let their powers and physical characteristics bend the form (Warped shift).

Weaknesses: Max of twenty shifts per day. He gets trapped in basic forms until he masters them (can take a few days). Chimeras take planning and testing (can take a few weeks). Max of five splinters, and max of a few blocks range—the more splinters, the less range, until they have to be literally touching to live. To turn you into an animal, he needs physical contact; if the shift is done unwillingly, it only lasts 30 – 60 minutes (if voluntary, 3 – 5 hours).

Remember to get changes to your powers section all nice and Mod-approved, everybody.