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Individual

Character's full name: Roxanne “Roxie” Rose
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Metropolis
Gender: Female
Age: 30
Date of Birth: March 24, 1988
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Olympia, Washington
Nationality: American / French
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Algerian / French


Appearance


Hair color and style: Long, raven black, straight as a board. Watch out if she pulls it back into a ponytail, that usually means you’re about to get your butt handed to you.
Skin Tone: A toasty almond skin color carrying a few scars from incidents that she would like to not remember.
Eye Color: Dark brown, unless she’s angry, then they always appear black.
Height: 5’6
Build: Lilthe and yet muscular due to her extensive training regiments.
Visible mutation: Palms of her hands and pads of her feet are both thick, black, and rough, resembling and consistent with asphalt. This often requires her to wear gloves so she doesn't scratch anything and will more often either op for flip-flops or no shoes entirely.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: A few scars from when she was a kid, standard stuff that occurred before her mutation kicked in. Recently there is a chunk of asphalt missing from the palm of her left hand due to her stopping a bullet.
Other features: Roxy has a tattoo of a pigeon roosting on the back of her left shoulder. She also has an intricately colored rose on the inside of her right forearm. These were both received when she was 16 and 17 respectively.

Everyday clothing style: Roxie usually goes for form fitting comfort. This can range from yoga pants to tight jeans, crop tops to t-shirts. Roxie is always thinking about comfort more than anything else.
Uniform: Whatever is acceptable for her jobs. As a bartender she tends to wear tight jeans and low-cut shirts (helps with the tips). As a bouncer, she usually wearing heavier clothing, including a leather jacket or suit if the situation calls for it.
Sleepwear: Tank top and boy-cut shorts if it’s hot, t-shirt and pajama bottoms if it’s cold.
Miscellaneous clothing: Roxie has a series of faux-fur lined, faux-leather gloves that she always keeps on her hands whenever she is out in public. This prevents her from hurting anyone she shakes hands with, or damaging glass and bottles when she working.

Character

Personality: Because of her life, she is a wary and cautious person, rarely letting people get too close to her outside of anything casual. This goes both for friends and lovers. Friends tend to be people that she meets at her jobs, will occasionally hang out with, but will never invite to her home. Lovers are a bit more sensitive of a subject as she prefers to keep things casual as to prevent herself from getting too attached. However, even she eventually begins to develop feelings and that usually signals that she will be breaking things off before they get serious.

On the flip side of that, Roxie can sometimes come off as a little “rough” around the edges. She drinks, she’s crude, she will easily take on someone twice her height without backing down, and can sometimes be quick to temper, especially when she knows that she’s wrong (don’t ask, it’s a quirk). This behavior often earns her the reputation of being a ‘bitch’ or a ‘badass’, depending on which side of her personality you’re on. Either way, it’s good to just smile and be nice to her.

However, despite her perchance for sleeping around and getting into fights, Roxie is actually just trying to make some kind of difference in her life. She gave up on her dreams of being a dancer, she watched her own parents die, and those are things she doesn’t want anyone else to have to experience. She not a vigilante, per say, but she isn’t going to stand by when someone is being mugged or she sees an apartment building on fire.

At the end of the day, Roxie is a good person, shaped by good people, but life has seen it fit to constantly throw curveballs at her.


Hobbies/ Interests: Music, Alcohol, Dancing (specifically ballet), protecting innocent people, Sex (essentially using it as a distraction)
Job or part time job and description: Splits her time bartending and being a bouncer
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Roxie does have an overlying fear of death. Given that she has lost both her mother and father, she fears what is in store for her at the end. This is especially driven home by the fact that her mutation puts her near death if she so much as steps out of a city limit so it tends to be something she doesn’t like to think about. If she finds her thoughts turning in that direction, that can trigger her anxiety, causing seek any form of distraction.

She definitely has a fear of commitment. She doesn’t allow a lot of people into her inner circle, believing that anyway who does get that close to her will simply end up dead like her parents. So she keeps people at arms’ length, keeps most relationships superficial, and really doesn’t seek to get close to anybody.

Special talents: Roxie was actually training for years in dance before her mutant abilities kicked in. She still practices from time-to-time, in private but to no one else.

To make up for her lack of ballet, Roxie did take up parkour. When added with her mutation, she can easily run across rooftops and structures throughout the city.

Lastly is fairly skilled at mixing drinks, hence her years working as a bartender.


Morality

Good/ bad/ neutral/ other: Neutral-Good: She does what she can to make a difference in the world but she fine with breaking some laws to make it happen.


Mutations

Mutation description: Urban-Based Physiology (i.e., the Urban Antibody) – A lot of people don’t know this but a city, a township, an urban sprawl, they are very symbolic of a living organism. Yes, they are made of stone and glass, but they grow and evolve as much as any living being over time. However, because cities are, essentially, living entities, they too can come under attack. People, mutants, neglect, there are a variety of reasons as to why a city begins to wither and die. But, like any living being, the city has a means of defending itself when threatened. Roxie is that defense system.

In essence, whenever the city area is threatened, Roxie becomes something akin to an antibody, tasked with protecting the city from further harm. Her unique gifts are a product of her surroundings. Based on the state of the surrounding cityscape, her physical qualities are greatly enhanced. Strength and durability reach beyond superhuman levels, making her the antidote for whatever physically threatens her city. But these gifts also have some very strict guidelines. Based on the state of the city within a 1 block radius around her, Roxie can either be a juggernaut or near comatose.

• Metropolitan (Clean, well-maintained infrastructure) = Superhuman Levels of Strength (Lift upwards of 23,000 lbs), Durability (Comparable to steel girder) .
• Slums (Below sustainable standards, weakened infrastructure) = Peak Levels of Strength (Lift upwards of 7,000 lbs), Durability (Comparable to a brick wall)
• Countryside Town (Basic standards, basic infrastructure) = Regular Levels of Strength (Average), Durability (Average)
• Open Country (No buildings, no infrastructure) = Sickly levels of Strength (No strength), Durability (easily bruised and split skin).

Strengths:

• Increase Physicality- When Roxie is in the middle of a Metropolitan area, her physicality is increased to superhuman levels. She can lift vehicles, take bullets to the chest, and leap to high heights. She is clearly a person who you should not get on the wrong side of.
• Cities Are Everywhere- Human population continues to rise which means that more cities and towns are sprouting up everywhere. Though Roxie needs to always be in a city, or face death, she certainly is lucky that cities are pretty much everywhere across the globe. So long as she avoids certain areas, she should be fine.
• Asphalt Hands and Feet- No matter her strength level (Metropolitan - Open Country), Roxie always has the bio-asphalt material on her hands and feet. They retain their strength and composition so no matter how weak she is.
• CIty Sense Tingling- Because her physicality is connected to the city around her, Roxie has developed a secondary sense. When damage is being done to her city within a 1 block radius, Roxie can feel it like a tingle in her skin. She doesn’t know WHAT is happening, but she knows that SOMETHING is happening. This compels her to search it out. Sadly this also happens when something as innocent as a building is being knocked down, the street is being torn up, etc. Needless to say it’s both a blessing and a curse.

Weaknesses and Limitations:

• Destruction of Public Property- Though Roxie’s powers are based on the structures that surround her, that can also be a limit in the face of battle. The more that is destroyed (walls broken in, glass shattered, homes fallen) the weaker that Roxie begins to get. She can engage in a quick fight but the longer it is drawn out, the more around her that is destroyed, the weaker she risks making herself.
• Asphalt Hands and Feet- A side effect of her mutation are the layers of biological-like asphalt covering the palms of her hands and the bottoms of her feet. This layer of skin has the same consistency as asphalt, is just as hard and rough, and yet she still has the sensation of touch through them. However they do make wearing shoes impossible as she essentially grinds through the material with every step. The most that she’ll wear is flip-flops or go barefoot. The same goes for her hands. She has to wear gloves to keep from shaking someone’s hand and painfully scraping up their skin.
• Vigilant Awareness- Because of her increased strength and durability, and the fact that her powers could fluctuate passing from one street to another, she needs to be careful when she handles things. She could easily crush a mug in her hand without realizing it, or break someone’s shoulder by accidentally bumping into them. Through the years have given her a lot of practice in being vigilant, she still needs to be mindful.
• City Connection- While Roxie’s powers are fairly amazing, there are a lot of nuances that she is still discovering. One thing that she has learned is that the longer she spends in a city, the quicker and more powerful her abilities are. For example, she has spent years and years of her life in New York City, therefore her connection is strong and her powers are at their peak. If she were to back to Olympia, she has a connection, but it has been a number of years since she lived in the actual city so her powers would not be at their peak, and just above a level of a Slum rating. Same goes for a town that she has never been in before. She has no connection, thus her abilities would be at around a Slum rating and risk dropping to average.
• Feet on the Ground
• Need a Prince Charming!- The greatest flaw in Roxie’s powers is that she has to essentially always be within a 1 block radius of a cluster of buildings. If she goes out of one, and into the country, she can only be out of it for a maximum of twenty-four hours or she will fall into a coma. This make something as simple as traveling through the middle of Central Park almost impossible for her. Starting at the twelve-hour mark, Roxie will begin to feel ill and weak. If she is still not in a cityscape, she will continue to deteriorate until she is skeletal and unable to move. A minute longer than twenty-four hours and Roxie fall into a coma. This can only be reversed if she is returned to a city.

Physical Abilities
General Physical Capabilities: These all depend on her proximity to a city, its size and its infrastructure. The more in care and advanced the community is, the stronger and more durable she is. The less well-maintained or the more destroyed, the weaker she gets. If she isn’t in a city, all her physical capabilities drop to significantly to the point where she is in danger of losing her life.

Aside from these strength levels, Roxie does practice parkour, which essentially stays with her no matter what her strength level is (unless she’s near dying). She can easily maneuver and race through a city unimpeded.

Fighting Style: Basic Brawler. Roxie is, essentially, a street fighter. She has no formal training but her father did teach her how to throw a punch or two. Because of that, she does depend more on her abilities than anything these.

Fighting Style Pros/Cons:
Pros:

• +She packs a punch. With her added strength, she could easily break someone’s bones or punch through a brick wall.
• +It’s not really a style, but still she has been fighting like this for quite awhile thanks to her part-time work as a bouncer.

Cons:

• -Anyone more skilled could easily figure a way to take her down (so long as they can work around or match her strength)
• -Depending on if she is fighting in a ghetto, a rural, or around an adapted, her dependency on her mutant abilities will certainly leave her weak.

History Of Your Character
Life is supposed to be normal. It’s supposed to be uneventful. It’s supposed to go the way that you dreamed that it would go. However it seemed that it was too much to ask for one Roxie Rose. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start at the beginning.

Born to one Gregory Rose (a journalist) and Yasmine Massi (a college student), Roxie grew up in Olympia, Washington, a short two years after her parents met. For the most part, Roxie’s life started out really well. Her parents loved her and, though they didn’t have a lot of money, always made sure that she was fed, clothed, and there was enough in the bank for emergencies. A clear sign of their excellent parenting skills was how much they wanted to encourage Roxie in all of her endeavors.

Early on, Roxie developed a passion for dance. Her mother was in school for dance and her passion for music and movement passed on to her daughter. Beforelong, her parents were enrolling her in dance school, and were focused on her dream of being a ballerina. However, life is cruel and tends to take away those things most important to us.

No one saw the accident coming. A jackknife in the freeway, pinning one out of hundreds of cars that had gone flying by that evening. Said car just so happened to be the one carrying Roxie’s mother. At thirteen, Roxie no longer had a mother and her dream was on shaking ground. Her father began to drink heavily, lost in his lamentations and sadness. Bills piling up, sense of life seeping out of her father, Roxie did her best to pull him out until, finally her words sunk in just before he hit rock bottom.

The two of them started to rebuild. Buying a small home out in the open lands on the outskirts of Olympia, they tried to start anew. Gregory got sober, Roxie started to focus on her school and dance again, it seemed like they were going to make it. But, again, life had other plans.

It was a simple trip into the city to pick up some paperwork that her father needed. At eighteen, Roxie was already a rather beautiful young woman but terribly shy. Her years of dancing had done her well and she was already earmarked for a position in a prestigious dance school out of state. She was going to be set, that is until she was crossing the street with her father and a person trying to beat a red light spun out and flew directly at them.

A split second. That was all it took. Roxie screamed, fell to the ground, feeling her palm push down against the asphalt, she couldn’t think of anything in that moment; no life flashed before her eyes, no prayers towards an all-knowing God, all she heard was silence and all she saw was the car hurtling towards her. And then there was darkness mixed with the sound of screeching metal and shattering glass. In the seconds that followed, and she realized that this wasn’t death, her mind slowly recognized something odd -- she was fine.

It took effort but she managed to push herself out of the twisted mess of metal, only to find that aside from her clothes being ripped and torn, she was absolutely fine. It was a miracle, it had to be! But when she turned to check on her father, she found that he had not been as lucky. It was a truly a terrible sight and one that she still carries with her to this day.

After a short stay in the hospital, Roxie discovered that what had happened was not going to be an isolated incident. Her body, it was strong. Doctors couldn’t penetrate her skin with needles and she could easily crush metal with her bare hands. But that wouldn’t be the only change. The palms of her hands and the pads of her feet grew rough, thick, and black. They carried with them the appearance and texture of asphalt. Hard and rough, and yet she still had some sense of feeling through the odd layers. Truly it wasn’t a good sight, but worse would happen upon being released to return home.

She felt odd when she returned back to the country, settling into her home. Now utterly alone in the world, Roxie felt sick to her stomach. But the sickness kept getting worse with every passing hour. It was to the point that, near twenty-four hours after returning home, that she was barely able to contact emergency services. They would find her passed out on the floor, thin and skeletal, in a coma.

The ambulance drove fast, not knowing what was wrong with her. However, upon arriving at the hospital in the center of town, paramedics were shocked to find that Roxie was actually looking better. It was to the point that they actually questioned if they had actually seen what they had seen. Upon awakening, though, even Roxie had to question it. Thanking them for their efforts, she returned home, but this time, she was able to sense when odd sensation settled upon her again. With patience and thought, she eventually figured out what the issue was -- she needed to be in the middle of a town to just feel normal, and in a city, she was so much more than that.

Years had passed since those days. Roxie gave up on her dreams dancing, knowing how much travel that would entail. Unsure of her mutation and its effects with travel, Roxie instead used her college savings to pack up her life in Washington and move into the middle of a metropolis. She wasn’t going to be caught that weak again.

Since twenty-one, Roxie has been living in New York City. She doesn’t outright announce that she is a mutant but she isn’t really embarrassed by it either. Currently she splits her time between bartending and working as a freelance bouncer, just trying to get by with her life, helping out where she can, never wanting anyone to feel like she did when she lost her parents.


Roleplay
What’s your OOC alias?: Jorge
Where did you learn about this site?: Jorge
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: Jorge Cervantes
(...also Belladonna Honey & Booker B. Bookman)

Sample RP:
It had been another slow night at the bar. She hated slow nights. Not only were the tips bad but it afforded her time to “think”, something which she had hated. Almost always her thoughts were turn back to her eighteen year old self, watching either her father die or judging her for the woman she was turning out to be. Eighteen year-old Roxie could be a real judgmental b****. There had been one person who took a swing at her when she started to drag him out of the bar, but the crunch of his knuckles against her cheek was enough to silence any further protest he could have.

But that was early, around when her shift first started. The rest of the night following that had been quiet and with barely a customer. That was why the thoughts started, why the memories began to sneak back into her head. She did her best to ignore them, to find glasses to clean, to check in with the few barflys that were still hanging around, but in the end it proved to be of no avail. The thoughts had settled in and she was now in need of a distraction.

For tonight that distraction’s name just happened to be Brick (stupid name). He had come into the bar a few times in the past and threw a few cheesy one-liners at her. Roxie usually teased him, for the better tips, but she really had no intention of ever taking him up on his offer. However, when she spotted him tonight it seemed like it was almost kismet. Near the end of her shift, she approached, whispered in his ear, and the two of them were back to his place.

He was a capable distraction, one that kept Roxie up half the night, though his name was still stupid. Once exhaustion set in and the two finally fell into the comforting embrace of sleep, Roxie was glad that, even if it was momentary, she wasn’t thinking about her past, only about the vague, beer scented sheets she was curled up on top of. The scent filled her nostrils as she drifted off into the darkness.



Roxie awoke the next morning to a new scent filling the air. Bacon, coffee, pancakes, it seemed that Brick (judging by his off-key singing) was thoroughly pleased after last night and was hoping to further impression the bartender with breakfast fit for a queen. However, by the time that Brick returned into the bedroom, a foot tray in his hands laden with scrumptious meal, he was surprised to find Roxie was already up, dressed, and pulling on her boots.

“Babe?” he asked, almost meekly. “What’s going on?”

“Time to go,” she said nonchalantly. “Thanks for last night.”

“Um. Okay…” Brick looked at her a little confused. “...I made breakfast?” He said, watching her as she continued to gather her things. “Figured we could eat, watch something on TV, then maybe hang out tod--”

“No thanks,” she said. She moved past him but stopped, grabbing a slice bacon from the plate. Bacon strip in mouth, she continued to adjust her gloves as she walked out of the bedroom and towards the front door. Only her voice remained as she called back to him. “Catch you around.”

With that the door closed and Roxie was off to begin her day anew.