Individual Character's full name: Lydia Cécile Renard
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Lyd, Dia
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Date of Birth: December 21, 1992
Nationality/ Ethnicity: 75% French, 25% Greek
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA.
Appearance
Hair color and style: Loose, warm brown waves that extend an inch or two past her shoulders.
Eyes: Sapphire blue
blended with a bright green. They’re almost always ringed with heavy dark eyeliner.
Height: 5'5"
Build: Lithe and slim from regular exercise and the shallow necessity to stay thin.
Visible mutation: When her mutation is activated, her skin changes into different solid textures.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: Two cartilage piercings on each of her ears, in addition to regular lobe piercings. She also has a tattoo of her parents initials (A.R. & O.R.) on the inside of her left wrist.
Other features: Lydia has a smattering of light freckles across the bridge of her nose and cheekbones.
Everyday clothing style: Being a foster child, she has limited/sporadic access to money and new clothes. Therefore, she is usually sporting whatever she can find at thrift stores that semi-suits her tastes and fits her body, such as a basic v-neck and tattered jeans. However, she does have an assortment of club and night-time wear.
Uniform: None.
Sleepwear: A regular cotton t-shirt and shorts.
Miscellaneous clothing: A simple silver chain with a single
champagne topaz on it, given to her by her late parents, which she keeps either on her neck, or wrapped around her ankle or wrist.
CharacterPersonality: Lydia is bittersweet and sarcastic, and likes to think that she’s been “toughened up” from living in rough neighborhoods. She is careless about the rules, and at times resorts to thievery for money. She gets nervous when she is in cars, and will absolutely refuse to get in one with someone under the age of eighteen (explained in History). She knows how to sweet-talk and flirt with someone, and has subsequently had a string of boyfriends ever since she turned fourteen. Lydia is kind to strangers, especially mutant strangers, and is fiercely loyal to her friends and would never betray them. She also secretly has a weakness for romantic comedies and chocolate eggs, and keeps a memorial for her parents through the topaz necklace she wears.
Hobbies/ Interests: Partying, loud music, playing cards, skipping school, hanging out, etc.
Job or part time job and description: Cashier at Full Circle.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: She’s afraid of forgetting her parents.
Special talents: Pick-pocketing, running (away from street brawlers), and smooth-talking cashiers into give her some cigarettes when she’s not carrying around her fake ID. She can also speak a little French that she learned from her parents.
MoralityGood/ bad/ neutral/ other: Neutral, with a little bad. Lydia’s a rule-breaking wild child who participates in underage drinking and smoking, parties until dawn, and ditches school to the point where teachers don’t even know her name. However, she’s still growing up and maturing and learning her place in the world as a mutant, and as a person.
MutationsMutation description: Lydia can change her skin to mimic all of the physical properties of any non-living, non-metallic solid material/texture. She must be touching (skin contact) the texture to begin shifting her skin into it, but once she has started the shift contact is no longer required. This only changes her epidermis, but the rest of her body will accommodate the changes accompanied by the shift in skin, such as changes in weight and flexibility. It takes approximately ten minutes for her to fully shift her skin, and it starts from her hands out to the rest of her body. It is the same for when she changes her skin back to normal. Lydia can shift her skin at a maximum of three times per day before she passes out from exhaustion. She can only change into one texture at a time.
Strengths: Different materials have differently useful attributes, such as rubber’s flexibility and wood’s sturdiness. The more often she shifts into a specific texture, the easier (not less time, just less concentration) it becomes for her to change her skin into it. While it takes concentration to start shifting, it doesn’t require much to continue shifting as Lydia has no control over pausing or stopping the change after it has already started. The more invulnerable the material Lydia shifts her skin into, the less damage she will sustain when taking hits.
Weaknesses: When she uses her mutation, she cannot stop until all of her skin has changed, and depending on the material, her clothes can sometimes be affected. She cannot shift into a texture unless she is in skin-contact with it. Because her skin copies every single physical aspect of a material, including color, she can be forced to stick out when she wants to stay hidden. She can only hold a changed form for up to one hour, although going up to that maximum causes great strain on her body. Consecutive shifting with no rest will also have the same body-damaging effect. Lydia can feel pain when she is shifted, although the severity of that pain will depend on the invulnerability of her changed skin. The weaker/softer the material Lydia shifts her skin into, the greater the damage she will sustain when taking hits. Injuries existing before she shifts stay with her after she shifts (ex: if she gets a gash in her knee while in her normal skin, she’ll still have that gash after she shifts).
Secondary mutation description:Strengths:Weaknesses:Fighting StyleExplanation: Stun and run! She’s learned to throw a proper punch or two, but when it comes down to fight or flight, she’ll choose flight…unless her brawl-savvy buddies are around.
Pros for fighting style: Allies in battle are always a plus. And distracting your opponent with a surprise strike to the jaw is helpful if you’re going to run away.
Cons for fighting style: What if you’re alone and can’t escape? Ouch.
Faction AllegianceThe X-men/ The Order/ The Kabal/ Other/
UnaffiliatedHistory Of Your CharacterLydia Renard was born in Los Angeles, California to two French immigrants, Arthur and Olivie Renard. She grew up comfortably in a middle-class home in the suburbs of LA. Her father was the source of household income, with a steady job at a well-paying firm, and spent a lot of time at work. Her mother was a homemaker, and Lydia subsequently grew very close to her. She was loved and taken care of, and was well-adjusted despite a slight rebellious streak she sometimes had trouble stifling.
When she was ten, Lydia’s parents were involved in a terrible car accident with an underage, inexperienced teenaged driver, and she was left an orphan. Ever since that day, she has always avoided riding in cars, especially those not driven by adults. It took a few days for her to fully grasp what happened, and she almost threw a tantrum at her parents’ funeral because she couldn’t believe it. She was forced to, however, when Child Services placed her in foster care. All that was left after the funeral was the fact that her parents had not left a will behind.
Their money went to Lydia’s new foster parents (who said they were going to adopt her), who quickly used it up and threw her away after a year of emotional neglect and apathy. She was then moved to a couple living in a more run-down portion of the city. This couple was kind, and did the best they could despite their inexperience with kids. They tried to get Lydia to open up to them, as she had grown hardened and withdrawn after her parents’ accident and her horrendous first year of foster care. Their efforts stopped abruptly, however, when Lydia woke up one day with topaz, just like the champagne topaz she wore around her neck, instead of skin.
Her mutant gene had finally been activated at the age of twelve. She screamed for her foster parents when she saw her reflection in the mirror, and started crying when she touched her face and felt the smooth, crystalline gem. Lydia’s foster parents’ reactions to her new demeanor made the situation even worse. Their faces and words portrayed fear and disgust, instead of the kindness and support she had expected and desired. They bolted from her room, her foster mother in tears. She tried to get her regular body back for an hour, wishing and praying and trying to rip off her “skin,” until she grew so strained she passed out on her bedroom floor. When she came to (still on the floor) an hour later, she almost cried with relief when she saw that her skin was back to normal. She was passing it off as a dreadful nightmare until her foster parents came back into her room with a suitcase and started packing up her things. They didn’t want a mutant in their house, and she was soon moved to another foster home. She felt betrayed, and loathed herself as a mutant. This marked the beginning of a radical, rebellious change in her behavior.
She moved around to eleven different foster homes over the course of two years, some foster families taking her in half-heartedly because the word “mutant” was stamped on her file, and all of them eventually kicking her out because of her constant rebelliousness. She was the epitome of a teenager with a bad attitude and an uncontrollable mutation. She was fourteen and alone, until she met a mutant-crew-of-sorts. They were a family of rule-breaking foster kids, and they offered Lydia the one thing she craved the most: real, unconditional acceptance. They helped her come to terms with her mutation, as they all had with theirs, and she even grew comfortable enough to experiment a bit with her powers. At the same time, however, she grew an appetite for wild nights out and various illegal, underage activities and let go of whatever traces of civility she had left.
Life was more-or-less content for Lydia for the next three years. She continued to hop around foster homes and did her best to stay in trouble with her friends. Eventually, though, she grew tired of the system and felt bored in the city she loved. Lydia decided to take a break from her home and see other places. One of her older friends who had left town for New York returned, after six months, and told her all kinds of stories about the mutants there. What really got her intrigued about the Big Apple was what she was told about a place called the Sanctuary. Golden doors, all kinds of mutants under one roof, and a training facility for mutant powers…? Intéressant.
Promising her friends she would be back as soon as possible, Lydia bought a one-way bus ticket to New York City with one specific place to go in mind.
RoleplayWhere did you learn about this site?: Where else? Google!
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: None yet.
Sample RP:She ran, panting but still going strong. A playful laugh escaped her breathless lips. “Hurry your butt up!” She called out behind her in a teasing tone. The young man chasing after her replied silently with a grin. The setting sun beat down on the backs of the young man and woman, and the smell of sea salt wafted into their noses. Lydia slowed down her pace to let her companion catch up, and soaked in the warmth of the sun’s disappearing rays.
“Gosh Phil, you really gotta work on your cardio, don’t ya? Guess you didn’t work out much in New York.” The sound of waves crashing grew louder as the pair came closer to the beach. “I’m not even out of breath yet, Dia,” he bantered, passing where Lydia was waiting for him, and pushing ahead. “Hey!” The pink-cheeked girl exclaimed as she quickened her pace again, the petite topaz around her neck bouncing up and down loosely. Phil’s tousled head turned around to face her, and this time they both slowed down. “So tell me more about this place…the Sanctuary?”
“Well, I only stayed there for a few nights, so there’s not too much I can tell you. I mean, besides some of the rumors that went around about that place…but those were rumors,” he started, combing his hand through his dirty blonde hair. “When I first got there, there was a secretary who greeted me and gave me kind of an intro about the place. She told me about how it was a ‘home for lost mutants.’ Then she asked some other residents to show me around, and they gave me a room. There are all sorts of mutants there, let me tell ya. Some of them were only kids, like eleven- or twelve-years-old, while others looked like senior citizens.”
“What about that training place you mentioned before?” Lyd asked as she leaned against the wooden rails of the small bridge they were standing on. She turned towards the ocean water, and her eyes glimmered in the fire-red light of the sunset. “It’s a place to train your powers, basically. It’s supposedly high-tech and has different types of exercise programs. I guess it would be good for someone like you who has trouble controlling their mutation.” She winced a little at his response. She didn’t like it when her flimsy control was mentioned. “Do you think I’d like it there?” Her voice grew quieter as her question tapered. “Where? The Sanctuary? I dunno, Dia. You could stay there for as long as you wanted, but New York is New York. There are tons of places to stay, and things to see,” the older boy replied, also turning to face the water, “I guess it would be a good experience.”
“Hey can you give me a light?” Dia asked the older mutant, taking out her box of cigs. Phil snapped his fingers, producing a small flame coming from his thumb. She would never grow tired of that. After a drag, she spoke again, “I think I’m going, Phillip.” “Oh,” he replied, “well that’s cool I guess. I mean, I was hoping we’d get to spend some time together since I just got back...” She felt a twinge of guilt as he spoke, but it wasn’t like she was planning on being gone forever. “I won’t be gone long, I don’t think. Just a little vacay...” And it was already settled in Lydia’s mind. She was going to New York.
