Individual
Character's full name: Celestina Isabel De Ward
Nickname: Celeste, Rads (although she hates that nickname.)
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Date of Birth: 08/30/1999
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Nationality: Dual Canadian (mother)/American (father) citizenship
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: European, primarily German/Latvian
Appearance
Hair color and style: Blonde, typically in a loose bun but with bangs over her forehead (see pictured links below.)
Skin Tone: Caucasian, pale
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5'8"
Build: Petite, average
Visible Mutation: When she is preparing to release any type of flare, you can see the white (like spraying Lysol in the air, in front of a lamp) sparkle from her arms/hands and/or body. After the flare is released, it becomes very hard to see in less than 5 seconds. Otherwise, no visible mutation.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: She has several scars on her upper left shoulder – mainly from several bites and several claw marks from a wolf attack when she was 11 years old.
Other features: N/A
Everyday clothing style: Most days, she wears a variety of spring dresses (with different designs) with mid cone heels. On those more lazy days, wears a simple button up shirt with regular faded blue jeans and sneakers.
Uniform: N/A
Sleepwear: Very large shirt that covers her body to her knees
Miscellaneous clothing: She carries a small purse, primarily with slip on running shoes in the event that she needs to ditch her heels. She also has earrings that are shaped like little axes that she wears daily (except during formal events:)
Character
Personality: Celestina is a kind, sweet but nervous, and shy individual. She is a very understandable person and strives to avoid conflict. She is usually more passive unless angered, in which case she can quickly become loud and stubborn. As such, she often avoids initiating conversation with individuals unless they confront her directly & is usually slightly awkward – part of this could be due to her lack of regular sleep. She will do her best to help people if asked, so long as it doesn’t interfere too much with her already scheduled plans.
Celestina primary hobby is reading. Especially news, international relations, and how the international economy is going. She is a bit of a nerd in these subjects – although, often times it can depress her. She also loves to learn new languages – she has mastered English, advanced in French & Spanish, intermediate Latvian, and beginner in Russian. She often reads countries news with the respective language to help her understand more of the language. She also loves visiting museums and having deep discussions. This can range from the impact of climate change to the varieties of religious views. Celestina hopes to become a radiographer, and/or work in nuclear fallout cleanup, once she’s older, utilizing her mutant powers to help reduce radiation exposure.
Hobbies/ Interests: International relations, economy, climate change, animal conservation, reading, learning new languages, singing & music, video games, movies, food junky, hiking, running, visiting museums, and spirituality/theology
Job or part time job and description: Previously a Starbucks Barista, but currently unemployed/student.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Oneirophobia (fear of dreams,) hypnophobia (fear of sleep,) chorophobia (fear of dancing, specifically around others.)
Special talents: Singing
Morality
Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: Relatively good. She would never intentionally harm anyone, even a relatively bad person unless threatened/another person is being threatened. However, she has been known to bend rules if it helps her agenda.
While her general outlook on life is fairly pessimistic, she sees the good in humanity and mutants.
Mutations
Mutation description:
Ionizing radiation. Celestina releases OR absorbs the three types of ionizing radiation from her body, primarily focused in her hands/arms. These are alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. While her radiation flares are usually penetrating (ie, can reach internal organs,) for acute radiation sickness (ARS) to occur it usually has to cover the entire body, which minimizes her ability to harm the individuals – the larger the area she has to send the burst, the less focused & the less rads is released. Individuals can see a white, particle like substance (Lysol being sprayed) when she charges her flare. This is the radiation. If it is a single flare, it can only be seen on her hands and arms. If it is a body flare, it can be seen along her entire body. After the flare is released, it is very hard to see the radiation after 5 seconds.
Releasing Radiation; single flare: She releases radiation from her hands/arms, but can do an entire body flare. Typically, she will have to flare from her hands, and then wave over the target to actually give them enough dosage to give them ARS. A single flare usually sends about 75-85 rads. The flare will cause sudden vomiting, nausea, and lack of appetite. This can also create blistering, itching and reddening of the skin. This is due to the sudden death of bone marrow. In some individuals, it can create severe gastrointestinal distress (such as severe vomiting, cramps, lack of appetite.)
Releasing Radiation; body flare: In this case, she will release the radiation from her entire body in a single flare. It can only go about 50 feet around her, and maxes out at 350 rads.
Important Note: After she is about 800-900 feet away, individuals who were hit by any of her flares typically begin to recover. It is not entirely known why this happens. It could be that the radiation she releases seems to have a much shorter half-life than regular radiation, allowing most people’s bodies to begin recovery after she leaves. It can also be theorized that the radiation leaves them and is drawn back into her body. While the recovery time of the target depends on their body to an extent, healthy individuals usually recover within 45 minutes to 1 hour after she is out of the 800-900 feet range. If they have a larger dosage (multiple flares, for example,) it can take upwards of 4-6 hours after she is out of the 800-900 feet range. Due to this, it is also theorized that the individual typically will not have a higher risk of cancer in the future as it essentially “cures” them ARS.
Absorbing Radiation, passive: Her body naturally absorbs the radiation around her, sometimes absorbing as much as 200-250 rads a day.
Absorbing Radiation, active: She can also absorb the radiation directly from someone or an object – she has to have physical contact via her hand, however, to do so. In this situation, she can absorb up to 2500 rads. The radiation seems to go internally. Internally, her radiation dosage is well over 5000 rads (in a human, this would result in death within 3 or less days.) However, externally, she only has a slightly higher than average radiation per a Geiger counter.
Strengths:
She is a great immobilizer – if you need to get someone to stop doing something, she can make them extremely nauseous and sick for hours due to the radiation, presuming she stays within 800-900 feet. She can quickly immobilize someone for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or up to 4-6 hours if she releases more than one flare into someone. This countdown usually begins after she is about 800-900 feet away from the target, as the radiation will quickly leave their bodies & they begin recovering.
She can also help someone who has been exposed to radiation, by absorbing. She can also help with radiation clean ups by absorbing the background but also taking it from wildlife, plants, etc.
She also carries with her a small Taser, a couple throwing daggers, and a knife for close range combat but is extremely inexperienced in using any of them.
Weaknesses and Limitations:
Releasing Radiation, single flare: She can rarely send more than 85 rads in a single pulse, and typically requires a cool down of about 5 minutes before sending another flare. It usually takes about 30 seconds to 1 minute for her to charge a flare. Her range is only about 90 feet in front of her. She can currently only release up to 1500-1750 rads without having at least a 18-36 hour cool down.
Due to the flares containing alpha, beta particles and gamma rays, the dosage can vary downwards depending on the type of armor/clothing the target has on.
Releasing Radiation, body flare: Her body flare is much less penetrative than a single flare. For example, if someone is wearing heavy armor, most likely they will only be minimally exposed & most likely will not have any effects. The body flare has a much less range, capping at around 50 feet. At best, it might cause about 4-5 people immediately around her to begin vomiting for a few minutes but they would quickly recover.
In both powers, while she can control the initial blast, she cannot control it after it is out of her. She aims it and then it flies in that direction – (if someone gets in the way, for example, they’ll absorb the radiation, not the intended target.) It is similar to shooting a bullet. Both powers can be lethal in certain circumstances but it is very rare, depending on the person (someone with HIV/AIDS, have compromised immune systems, or pregnant will have much worse symptoms than an average adult, for example.)
If she goes over 1500 rads in a flare release OR if she charges a flare too long (say, 4 minutes and she release 200 rads instead of the usual 1 minute, 75 rad), she will begin having severe vomiting, severe cramps, and have nosebleeds. If she releases more than 2500 rads within 12 hours, she will begin having seizures, massive nosebleeds, and loss of consciousness. While not fatal, she is usually weak for a couple weeks.
Absorbing radiation, passive & active: If she begins to absorb more than 2500 rads within 4 hours, this includes the background radiation she naturally picks up, she will begin having severe vomiting, severe cramps, and have nosebleeds. If she absorbs more than 5000 rads in 4 hours, she will begin having seizures, massive nosebleeds, and loss of consciousness. While not fatal, she is usually weak for a couple weeks.
Other Weaknesses: Due to the radiation, she is commonly nauseous and takes prescription anti-nausea medication daily. She also keeps several bottles of potassium iodide with her, (which protects the thyroid gland,) in the event that she hits someone else, has a sudden flare, etc.
She also has severe fears of dreams and sleeping, often getting less than 4-5 hours of sleep. This has created a chronic fatigue in her, which has given some brain fog & slower reaction speeds.
Physical Abilities
General Physical Capabilities: She has below average strength, but has higher speed & stamina due to her hit and run approach to her powers. Her reflexes are a bit slow, due to her lack of sleep.
Fighting Style: None really – she has a Taser, throwing daggers, & a knife for close range combat but she is very inexperienced & has never actually used them.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons: N/A
History Of Your Character
Celestina was born to an older man and a younger woman. Her father’s name was Jacob and her mother’s name was Maria. They met in Regina, Canada while Jacob was on a vacation from his work town of Williston, North Dakota. They married quickly, and had Celestina only 1 year after this marriage.
Celestina had a fairly nice childhood, all things considered. Her dad worked in the oil fields of North Dakota & in Canada. He would only be home on the weekends, though. Her mother was a nurse at the local hospital in Regina, usually working 12 hour shifts 5, sometimes 6 days a week. Her parents fed her, clothed her, and kept her safe as best as they could. Celestina spent her afternoons reading a variety of books, mainly fantasy, daydreaming of some far off place. Her life felt very routine.
When she was 11, she and her mother were at a local flower store. Maria was looking to buy some new plants for the new house they had just purchased. Celestina was busy focusing on a Venus fly trap, watching a couple flies actually fly into the plants mouth. And then bam. The plant got them. This was the first time she felt the tingles in her hands and arms and she saw that white color sprinkle from her arms. She shivered and ran up to her mother.
It was later that year that her powers fully manifested. She was outside playing in the yard, making a snowman, when a lone, very hungry, wolf began stalking her. She was too focused playing in the snow to really care or see. After all, she was in her backyard, not too far from the door. It was only a few minutes later that the dog leaped behind her, gnawing down onto her shoulder and clawing her back. Celestina let out a very high pitched scream, and blasted a powerful flare into the wolf, causing it to actually stumble back, and began to experience severe radiation poisoning. By then, her mother was outside with a shotgun and shot it into the air. The wolf took off, running.
She rushed Celestina to the emergency room, where they began to administer the rabies vaccine. It was a few weeks later that Celestina told her mother about her powers, which made Maria take her back to the hospital. After a few blood tests, a Geiger counter, and a dosimeter, they found out Celestina had well over 1000 rads of radiation – but with no symptoms. The doctors had her shoot a flare out and they measured it with a Geiger counter – a measly 20 rads shot out. From there, it was confirmed that she was a mutant.
Her mother and her father didn’t know what to do or how to handle it. Both blamed the rabies vaccine for triggering her mutation. Neither of them were very supportive of mutant equality, and now that their daughter turned out to be one, they seemed to be even more against them. Soon afterwards, Maria gave birth to another baby, and tried her best to simply ignore Celestina. Celestina’s father tried but eventually shut down to her as well. They would barely make eye contact with her, would not talk to her. Finally, at 17, Celestina knew she had enough. Unfortunately, she was unable to finish her high school diploma, needing 1 more year. She took the 3,123.00 USD her parents had stored. She left a note on the kitchen table, bought a flip phone in case her parents ever wanted to contact her, and left the number. They never called.
From there, Celestina ended up in New York a few months later. This is where her story will really begin.
Roleplay
What’s your OOC alias?: amourmourant
Where did you learn about this site?: Google, “X-Men RP Forums”
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: None
Sample RP:
Staring at the computer screen, she slowly dragged her hands down her face, pulling at her eyelids. She was tired, annoyed, and her eyes burned. She had been in the library for the past three hours, just applying for jobs. McDonalds, Starbucks (again), Chipotle, Dollar Tree, CVS, Wal-Mart, just about any job she had a reasonable chance to get a call back on. Heck, maybe she could even do that janitor job she saw. She had been in New York for only a few weeks. She checked her bank account – only 923 dollars left.
Sometimes she would check into the crime pages of Regina, to see if her parents called the police on stealing the money from them. She felt so guilty, but what else could she do? But, so far, no reports. They could easily call her and track her through the flip phone she bought. But not a single call has gone through to her. It’s not like they’re going to miss ignoring her existence.
She glanced towards the kid’s reading section of the library. She watched some parents reading to their kids, even playing with some with toys. Life used to be like that for her. She smiled towards one of the small girls who timidly waved to her. But it was okay, whatever happens in this journey, she knew she would be able to get through it.
After she let out a quiet groan, she looked across the library. Maybe she could take a break, read a little… But then, less jobs, and she only has about one week left of money. The shady motel she had been staying in was… Well, shady. There were definitely some interesting… Dealings, going on there. She wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to afford an actual apartment, even with a job. “I’ll figure it out, though,” she thought aloud. Maybe she could get lucky and get 2 or 3 jobs. “I don’t really sleep that much, anyways…” she pondered to herself. Taking a deep breath, she decided it is best to continue her job hunt – except the librarian came over and informed her that her time at the computer station was over.
“Well, that is one way to get me to stop,” she grumbled. She finished writing down the numbers to a few of the stores she applied to in her notebook, then sealed it away in her book-bag. Time to head back to the Motel of Sketch. Taking a step outside; it was a beautiful, warm day. She soaked in the sun for a moment, taking a deep breath of the… Well, kind of… Fresh air, and walked towards the motel. With her brow furrowed, she wondered how long she’d be on her little flip phone tomorrow begging an employer, anyone to hire her.
