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Character's full name: Lacey Candice Smith
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Raven
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Date of Birth: (10/20/1985)
Nationality/ Ethnicity: Caucasian American
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Maine, USA
Appearance
Hair color and style: Long, straight black hair down to her waist, usually kept free.
Eyes: Golden
Height: 5’8
Build: Athletic
Visible mutation: None
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: Pierced ears
Other features:
Everyday clothing style: Raven has a very unusual sense of fashion. She tends towards a combination of whatever’s practical and comfortable combined with having lots of pockets and pouches and a myriad of colourful bits of fabric and baubles.
Uniform: (if applicable)
Sleepwear: Usually whatever she’s wearing at the time is good enough to sleep in.
Miscellaneous clothing: While working, Raven wears full on gypsy clothes, complete with multi coloured skirts and lots of bracelets and other jewelry.
Character
Personality: In many ways Raven’s mind is half raven. She has an insatiable curiosity, little concept of risk and consequence when it comes to pursuing that curiosity and has a rather unusual sense regarding the value of physical objects. She has the instincts of an opportunistic scavenger, taking advantage of any situation at a moment’s notice. Unfortunately her opportunistic nature has also made her something of a compulsive thief, not only stealing because she must but, at times, simply because an easy opportunity presents itself and she is unable to resist its allure.
Raven has little in the way of self control. When she decides that she wants something, she goes for it without considering present circumstances or potential results of such an action. She pursues a goal with relentless fervor, so long as she doesn’t have to put herself in any significant risk, at least until something else captures her attention. She is very single minded, almost entirely unable to plan ahead in any significant manner and finding it very difficult to multitask. When an idea takes hold in her mind that is the only idea that exists at that time and when another idea takes hold, that idea replaces the previous one completely.
Despite Raven’s tendency to go from idea to idea, she has excellent skills in concentration. She can sit at an activity for hours without complaint, just so long as she remains interested in that activity. However, she has a horrible memory and as a consequence keeps a notepad with her at all times to remind her of various appointments and other responsibilities in her life. She does not tend to skitter from interest to interest, but will rather fixate on an idea and pursue it obsessively until bored with it, whether or not there is any actual resolution.
Hobbies/ Interests: People watching, petty theft
Job or part time job and description: Professional psychic. Despite being in no way actually psychic, Raven has been working as a professional psychic on and off for years, offering such services as divination, crystal healing and chakra training. Her skill at reading people have allowed her some success in her chosen profession and the constant stream of differing people from all walks of life have served to keep her from getting bored.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Severe claustrophobia, Blackwing dying.
Special talents: Raven is very good at reading people. She is also a reasonably skilled thief.
Morality
Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: Neutral. Raven looks at herself as a good person and tries to do good things. Unfortunately she has difficulties resisting her compulsions, especially her compulsion of taking things that don’t belong to her. Some might even consider her a con artist due to her career as a charlatan psychic.
Mutations
Mutation description: Raven Familiar. Raven was born, in a sense, with an incomplete mind. The minds of most are closed circuits, completely self contained within themselves. Raven’s mind has always been different, although the difference did not make itself apparent until much later in life. Her mind was never completely self-contained, instead allowing for the possibility of bonding with another mind. Her mutation opened the door to the unique psychic bonding that she now shares with her familiar, Blackwing, however before the bonding occurred it could have been with anything that was young enough and whose mind was receptive enough to creating such a bond. Once the bond was formed, however, the circuit was closed and the her mind, alongside the mind of her raven, became complete. The connection is so strong and so all-consuming of both herself and Blackwing that it goes beyond the merely mental, literally also affecting physical changes in the both of them.
Raven has a close psychic bond with her raven, Blackwing. Blackwing is a Corvus corax or common raven. The bond itself has several unique properties. First, it allows for psychic communication and sensing between herself and Blackwing, with a range 10 miles. The connection is a two way connection allowing both Raven and Blackwing to sense each other’s thoughts and emotions and communicate with one another freely. In fact, the connection is so intense that the thoughts and emotions of one are constantly open to the other. One of the consequences of the connection is that each can call the other in times of need. While the connection does not allow Raven to literally see through the eyes of Blackwing, it does allow for Blackwing to project what he sees into her mind.
The connection between Raven and Blackwing is so intense that it has literally resulted in physical and psychological changes in both individuals. First, Raven has senses close to the potency of a natural raven, her hearing and eyesight both being far superior to that of a human. Second, Raven’s mind is not longer entirely human, the connection between herself and Blackwing having imprinted many of the instincts and tendencies of a raven’s mind upon her own. Third, her vocal chords have become altered in such a way as to allow both human and raven sounds to be produced.
Blackwing has also been altered from the connection with Raven. His mind is different from that of all other ravens, having boosted intelligence and a basic understanding of human language and motivations. Although natural ravens are considered to be highly intelligent, Blackwing is more intelligent than even a natural raven, his mind being roughly equivalent to that of a 5 year old child. He can understand speech so long as its kept simple, although he has no way to actually reply to that speech and he is unable to read. In addition, he is larger than a natural raven, with a wingspan of 66 inches.
Strengths: Raven is never truly alone. Even when Blackwing is miles away, he is always with her in her mind. If things get desperate, she always has an ally she can call on. In addition, she has enhanced senses and Blackwing himself is no common raven, being far smarter and larger than any natural raven.
Weaknesses: First, the connection between Raven and Blackwing is always on. Whether she wants to share her thoughts and emotions or not and whether or not she wants to receive the thoughts and emotions of her familiar, she doesn’t have a choice in the matter. This can be very distracting at times. In addition, due to the nature of the connection, mutant powers that work through touch only have to touch one or the other of the pair to affect them both. Although regular damage does not follow through the connection, damage and other effects based on mutant powers does.
The connection has a limit of 10 miles, beyond which point Raven and Blackwing lose all contact with one another. This does not erase the permanent effects that the long term connection has created in both of them.
Raven's own raven-like mind is a bane all on its own. She has the same instincts of a natural raven, the strong inclination to flee from danger, no matter if it’s the best course of action or not, difficulties multi tasking and a single mindedness when an object has caught her attention. It is also extremely difficult for her to resist temptation or compulsion. These instincts can sometimes be suppressed, but suppressing them takes a great deal of effort and the effect is only partial and temporary.
While Blackwing may be smarter and larger than a natural raven, he is still just a raven. His intelligence is only that of a five year old and thus complex problems will elude him. His instincts remain those of a raven, he is still most likely to flee from danger, be attracted to enticing smells or shiny objects, and be generally playful and distractable.
Because of Raven’s enhanced sense of sight and hearing, loud noises are physically shocking and painful to her. Similarly, abrupt flashes of bright light are particularly blinding.
Secondary mutation description: Raven and Crow Communication. Raven can physically speak to other ravens and crows.
Strengths: Raven has all sorts of potential allies in both the city and the country. Crows are everywhere all the time. With the correct enticements, they could potentially be made to do all sorts of useful things, from attacking enemies to spying, to simply divulging useful bits of information.
Weaknesses: Raven has no way to actually mentally compel a raven or a crow to do anything. If she wants something done, it comes down to whether or not the bird in question feels like doing it and convincing it to do something usually comes down to some sort of bribery or negotiation.
Ravens and crows are notoriously easily distractible and attracted by shiny objects. Even if Raven does manage to bribe a crow to do something for her, if the task is in any way long or complicated, there’s a good chance her minion might get distracted half way through the task and simply forget about it.
Ravens tend to be a little better at concentrating and a little smarter than crows but crows, especially in the city, are much easier to find.
Fighting Style
Explanation: Raven doesn’t fight, she runs away. Blackwing, however, has sharp claws and a beak for a reason. If escape isn’t possible, Raven will either send Blackwing at her enemy or try to entice a mob of crows to defend her.
Pros for fighting style: Little personal risk.
Cons for fighting style: What if the crows just don’t feel like working for her that day?
Faction Allegiance
Unaffiliated
History Of Your Character:
Raven was born in the small town of Winter Harbor in Maine, USA. Her father was out of the picture before she was born but her mother always took good care of her. Her mother, Janice Smith, was a nurse in the local clinic and did what she could to keep Raven well taken care of. Raven never had much interest in school, doing well enough to pass her courses but little better than that.
The town, being as small as it was, was one of those places where everyone knew everyone else and everyone knew the dirt on everyone else. Raven and her mother lived on a few acres of land just outside the main portion of the town, but so did most of the students at the school she went to. She got along reasonably well with most of the other students but didn’t have many close friends. Elementary school was just about as normal as it could be for a girl in a single parent household living in the country.
When Raven turned 13 she first met Blackwing. She had always been fond of nature, spending hours outside exploring the area surrounding her property. She knew most of her neighbors anyway and most of their children and they didn’t really mind her going onto their property, so long as she didn’t do any harm. It was on one of her expeditions that she met the bird. She found it on the ground, sick and dying and, over the course of the next several weeks, nursed the poor creature back to health. She never mentioned the bird to her mother.
Although the connection between Raven and Blackwing was close right from the beginning, she initially assumed it was because she had found it as a chick and helped to nurse it back to life. In the months that followed, however, it gradually became apparent that it was far more than that. It began with a sense of the bird’s location and emotions. She would be able to point in exactly the direction Blackwing was and tell what state of mind he was in. As time progressed, however, she began receiving flashes of his mind, images of the world from above or smells from enticing food. Then came the actual thoughts, words and forming within Blackwing’s mind. Gradually the flashes became constant and within a year of meeting Blackwing, she was in constant connection with the bird’s mind.
Life, after the connection to her raven was fully formed, became more complicated for Raven after that. Gradually her mind began to change and many human concerns became less concerning. She began to spend more and more time alone in the woods and began stealing from the other students and teachers. It wasn’t that she needed extra pens or change, she just couldn’t seem to help herself. More than once she got caught doing just that and finally, at the age of 16, she was expelled for it. She felt terrible about it, cried and expressed her remorse but the decision was, apparently, final.
After she was expelled, Raven knew that it was time to leave her little town. Everyone knew too much about her and she simply couldn’t stay. After a teary good bye to her mother and a promise to keep in touch all the time, she left and never returned, although she did keep her promise (mostly, at least when she remembered).
Over the course of the next several years of her life, Raven took of the trade of the psychic, learning how to better read people, to read tarot cards, cast runes, and do crystal healing and chakra work. She traveled from city to city, plying her trade on whoever was gullible enough to believe her. Life went from being relatively good and stable to living on the streets and back again in a dime, as her single-minded distractible nature took over. For months at a time she would live in a particular city, making money as a professional psychic and renting an apartment and then, only days later, she would stop going to work, stop making money, and start living on the streets. Usually that was her cue that it was time to move onto the next town or city. Most recently, Raven has made her way to New York City.
Roleplay
Where did you learn about this site?: It was so long ago I honestly don’t remember. Probably Google.
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: Meld, Amber
Sample RP: Raven stood, staring up at a tree currently housing about 10 crows. She began crowing and cawing, moving her arms expressively and expansively. Several brightly coloured streamers on her shirt blew in the gentle wind and the crows watched, staring down at her. Once she quieted a moment passed and one of the crows responded, cawing back at her. Nodding her head, Raven put her hand into one of her many pockets coming out with 3 shiny pennies, 2 paperclips and a half eaten piece of fish, just starting to go rancid, in a plastic bag. Displaying her stash of goodies back at the crows, she began cawing again. The crows responded and one came down to take the piece of fish. Another few caws from Raven and she told the birds that they wouldn’t get the shiny trinkets until they had completed their part of the bargain. One final crowed response from the crows and the whole group of them flew off in a flock.
Raven stood and watched her crow friends go to work. 20 ft away there was a rather nice little restaurant and, it being a summer day, many of the patrons were currently eating outside. About the last thing any of them expected was for a small murder of crows to begin dive bombing them and stealing their food but that was exactly what was presently happening. With a mischievous smile to herself, Raven knew that now was the time to act. Crows made wonderful distractions but they were like little children, rarely paying attention to any one thing for long and it wouldn’t take long for them to get bored of their current game.
Taking advantage of the fact that everyone on the small patio was currently fleeing from the suddenly wild and apparently rabid crows, Raven calmly walked onto patio and began dumping plates of food into a large plastic bucket she had acquired earlier. Just as her crows were begin to fly away, one by one, she finished her little task, taking her bucket, now filled with food, and walking calmly away. She would eat a feast tonight and maybe even tomorrow as well, sharing her bounty with Blackwing. Any night in which she got to eat this well was a good night in her books.
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I can't wait to play with this one. Congrats and *Patience cookies are now magically transformed into Welcome cookies!*
Anyway, congrats!!! She's awesome!