Post by Natalie Zhao on Sept 24, 2015 19:17:55 GMT -5
Basics
Name:
Natalie Zhao (Zhào, Xiǎolì 赵晓莉)
Nicknames:
Nat, Xiǎolì (晓莉)
Age:
18
Birthday:
December 20th (year of the tiger)
Grade:
11
Power:
Pressure Manipulation (major)
Not to be confused with the much more powerful gravity manipulation, Natalie can manipulate pressure and use it to do things such as empower her attacks or to send out as 'projectiles'. This leads to mainly mental fatigue. There are many different applications for this power.
- Natalie has a range of about thirty-five feet in which she can use her power. Beyond that point, she cannot do anything.
- Natalie is able to increase the force she exerts on others by increasing the pressure of the air between her fist and them, giving her more power in her punches or kicks (almost like Enhanced Strength but temporary and it has nothing to do with her own muscles).
- She can attack a target from within her thirty-five foot radius using a 'pressure strike'. She can generate a wave of pressure and shove it towards someone, causing impact similar to if the opponent was hit with a large fist. She can vary the size of this strike greatly, but the larger the size, the weaker the force. This is her only long-ranged attack that she has, but it allows her to get up close as it can kick people off their feet or, if she has a long enough charge period, send them flying backwards into a nearby wall.
- She can use a similar 'pressure strike' technique in an area of effect attack surrounding her, shoving everyone within a small radius of her away. She doesn't use this often, as she's more of a close-combat individual, but she will occasionally use it to get someone off of her.
- Natalie can form a sort of invisible 'wall' with this power by increasing the pressure in an area within her thirty foot radius. This can obviously be travelled through, but it makes other's attacks significantly weaker and it can be extremely difficult to push through (there's a lot of resistance). If anything, it'll slow one's movement to the point where Natalie can simply move out of the way in time without an issue, or trap opponents to be unable to move quickly in one direction. On the other hand, though, it means she's limited because she can't really go through the 'wall' either without completely shutting it down. However, this is good for allowing her to get up close because she can put a wall behind an individual and they will not see it but become ensnared if they try to run in that direction. The larger the wall she makes, the weaker it is.
- Natalie can do a form of matter change, as she can apply large amounts of pressure around an area and compress the molecules or remove a lot of pressure around an area and cause the molecules to spread out, causing it to either become 'more solid' or 'less solid' respectively. She can barely do this though, and can only influence the 'object' one level up or down on the scale (gas <-> fluid <-> solid). Natalie can only form an object about the size of a water bottle but it tends to be quite week. The inverse of this means that she can only make a water-bottle sized solid into a liquid or a water-bottled 'size' liquid into a gas. Natalie must keep focused on keeping the pressure as strong as it is around the solidified/'melted' object the whole time, and this is her most tiring ability. She can only do this for about a minute at a time, meaning that if she did make an object it's likely to be completely useless in a long fight anyways.
- To be able to move more quickly, Natalie tends to lessen the pressure of the air in the direction she's moving and increase the pressure on the area she's leaving. This gives a sort of 'push' effect, forcing her in directions much more easily. This allows her to move with much more ease and much more quickly than average, and it's something that isn't extremely difficult for her and has become almost instinct. She can also do this with objects and move them, by increasing the pressure below them and decreasing the pressure above them. She's not able to do this with large objects, yet, but she has taken to floating stones. The weight of the object, however, does not impact this skill, but rather how large it is. The thinner the object, the less pressure she needs to manipulate to push it up or down or to the side. If the object is very wide, it is very difficult for her to move it up or down because of the sheer amount she needs to move it.
- Natalie has begun to learn a new skill from this power - basic equilibrium distortion. With this, she must focus a lot and it's a very precise skill (the more people move, the less capable she is of doing this). To create a sense of disorientation, she can make the pressure on the fluid of her ears massive and make the pressure on the other much weaker then continuously alternate or apply varying amounts of pressure on each ear. This may give a small sense of vertigo and cause continuous popping of the ears. However, this takes a lot of focus out of the girl and she cannot do it if the opponent moves. It also takes her longer than a minute or so to figure out where to begin. She cannot affect other parts of the body, and can only use the pressure on the inner ear because it is so close to the external body.
- The more she uses this power, the more mentally drained she is. She may start feeling tired, have slower reactions, and start thinking more illogically or more slowly. It's not like a wave that hits all at once, she instead gets continuously more and more tired as time goes on. To counteract this, Natalie commonly drinks coffee and/or tea which allows her to think more quickly and have more energy.
Body Temperature Manipulation (major)
Thermal manipulation is, in essence, the ability to either increase or decrease the movement of particles which creates either coldness or warmth. Natalie is limited to doing this to her own body, though.
- Natalie can change her temperature by about +/- 15°C. This means she can make her skin reach about either 52°C or 22°C. 52°C may cause burns. The severity of the burn depends on how long the individual has been touched for, with about four minutes being the time period before they get third degree burns.
- Natalie does, therefore, have an increased resistance to heat. Of course, she can't stand in a fire for fifteen minutes and be OK, but she's much stronger than most other individuals and won't get burned as easily.
- Despite all of this, this power can hurt Natalie if she keeps it up for too long. If she keeps it going at the extreme for longer than ten minutes, she may start suffering burns on her skin. If she keeps it up beyond 20 minutes, she risks permanent damage (but the pain would be constant and almost excruciating beyond 12 or 13 minutes, like being constantly burned all over). This limits her greatly, because her power can be just as detrimental as it is useful. On the other hand, making herself much colder for lengthy periods of time doesn't do as much but it does cause the obvious normal effects to being cold, like difficulty in making decisions, shivering, confusion, drowsiness, and lack of coordination.
- However, this does not apply if she heats up or cools her body by a smaller amount. She commonly does this subconsciously to keep herself the perfect temperature.
Air Absorption (minor)
This power allows Natalie to passively absorb air through her pores at a steady rate, and she also has the ability to absorb a relatively large amount of air to empower her own attacks.
- As mentioned previously, Natalie absorbs air naturally through both her pores and her lungs (duh). This means she brings more oxygen into her body and her muscles can last about three times as long as they otherwise should, giving her overall more stamina. This is passive, meaning that she has no control over it and it simply occurs without her knowledge or control.
- Natalie can also consciously absorb a relatively large amount of air at once use it to empower herself or her attacks. This means she could use it to make herself stronger physically, able to use more powerful pressure attacks and give her muscles more explosive/sudden energy (she moves more quickly).
- This gives her an inherent immunity to air attacks.
- However, makes her more susceptible to a few things. Her body has adapted and grown used to the increased oxygen, and this means that if she's smothered or surrounded by a smoke of some sort, it's possible she'll suffocate if she doesn't get out (she can use her pressure manip to move the smoke away, too). This, however, also means she can't dive for very long, and overall swimming is a bad idea for her. She will drown if she swims longer than two minutes, so she really doesn't do it often.
Member Group:
Prefect (Beta team).
Canon or not:
Non-canon.
Appearance:
The most amazing part of Natalie is possibly her face. The bone structure in it looks almost intentionally sculpted to give a permanently serious look to her thin face, giving her an appearance of maturity beyond her years. Her eyebrows are thin and neatly-kept that gives her the same pointed look that unifies her entire face (and personality). Accompanied with this, she has striking ocean-blue eyes that stand out against her normally unsaturated colour choices. Her hair is mid-length, reaching to her lower neck when she straightens it (which she always does) but it stays out of her eyes the majority of the time, which is good because otherwise she'd get rid of it all. It is a silky silver, kept that way through constant hair dying or it would grow out a pale blonde, and it is done that way both out of habit and as a reminder of what she once went through. Overall, she has a clearly structured face with accentuated eyes and hair, giving her a mature look.
Natalie is an average-height Caucasian (about 5"5') with a strong, lean figure from years of being hardened on the street and having little to eat. Her legs are long and slender and make up quite a lot of her height, but they're not as delicate as they may appear. She has a relatively large bone structure that causes her to weigh a bit more than one may expect from her, and also means she's never suffered a broken bone before. Her body shows some permanent burn marks accompanied with the occasional scar, but nothing different from the average teenager. Her natural skin colour is a milky white that tans easily in the sun, although the badly burnt parts of her skin are permanently white (from overambitious use of her body temperature manipulation). Nothing else about her body is especially spectacular or marvellous as she is mostly average-sized, but she does not appear at all frail or weak once one takes a quick look at her strong muscles.
Natalie's clothing choices tend to be relatively dark, but not quite as professional as you would guess. She normally wears jeans and a dark hoodie, avoiding bright colours and going for the darker blues, greys, and browns. Her favourite hoodie is an oversized black one that hangs down below her waist with no zipper and white strings that remain loose. She tends to wear modest clothes and never wears anything promiscuous, although she will wear short-shorts in hot weather but without any intention to draw any eyes. She doesn't believe that's the right way of getting attention. Additionally, she hates clothes that cling tight to her skin since they restrict her pores from breathing.
Personality
Use at least six positive and negative characteristics and give a one sentence explanation. Also include at least one strength and one weakness.[/b]- Natalie has a very mature outlook on a lot of things and this tends to give her a certain level of respect from people (especially those who are similar to her). She's comparable to an adult in this sense and seems both serious wise beyond her years, enjoying to think more so about deep things rather than the daily gossip. This also gives her a certain degree of fairness - she tries to look at things from an unbiased perspective and makes decisions based on that.
Positive:
* Responsible- No matter the consequence for her actions, Natalie will gladly take responsibility for what she has done and she's very honest and upfront about it. She has a strong sense of justice and would never let someone take the blame for her, making her very trustworthy and reliable.
* Determined- If you give Natalie a task and a timeframe to complete it, you can bet that she'll do everything in her power to meet (if not exceed) your expectations for that task. She's not one who'll distract easily from her job and she puts a lot of pressure on herself to finish these things as fast as she can.
* Strong- Natalie is very, very powerful muscular-wise as well as athletically inclined. After spending a lot of time on the streets she has become very muscular and she can (and will) fight dirty. Although she's never taken any specific martial arts courses, she knows how to fight people extremely well and she's not one to hesitate from doing so.
* Caring- Even though she doesn't show it much, Natalie really does care about other people and she's very quick to help anyone. She hates to admit this as she sees it as a vulnerability, but it's helped her be successful as a prefect due to her genuine care for the people of the school.
* Careful- Natalie plans most of her actions: she does not just do things for the sake of doing things. She has reasons for most (if not all) things she does and she does everything with precision. It's very rare for people to complain about the quality of her finished tasks.
* Level-headed- It's very rare for Natalie to yell or scream, and she instead always keep a somewhat calm exterior appearance. Obviously, she may show some signs of irritation but she makes a huge effort not to take it out on people.[/ul]
Negative:
* Very Basic Knowledge- Natalie didn't go to school for very long - most of her knowledge comes from cheap, badly-written textbooks and her language skills are especially lacking. She has a certain level of fluency in both Mandarin and English, but neither of those languages are very strong and a lot of her Mandarin is slang. This means that if you ask her about history or high school math it's unlikely she'll know it, although she does make an effort to learn when she can through the resources around her. Also, she's limited in her English language to relatively simple words.
* Pride- Natalie has a strong sense of pride, but this doesn't manifest in her personality much other than her hatred of admitting that she needs help sometimes. She tries to figure out everything for herself, and if she can't, she hates asking other people. She doesn't want to seem stupid or ridiculous to other people, and therefore she avoids asking anything when she can. However, she still likes to learn, and she'd rather have people inform her of her mistakes when she makes them (unless they're obnoxious about it).
* Impersonal- It's tough to get Natalie to like someone or talk to someone as if they were more than just some business client. This is not to say she has any experience with anything of the sort and her language consists of quite a bit of slang, but she doesn't share much about herself or offer any kindness until she gains a lot of respect for the other individual. This respect can be gained through hard-work and determination, which is something Natalie adores in others, but even then it's very rare for her to crack a huge grin or laugh.
* Social Outcast- Natalie isn't much of a group person. If you stick her with a bunch of people and expect her to laugh and smile along with them, you'll be disappointed. She 'clams up' around large groups of people (unless it's a work environment), meaning she's likely to immediately shut up when around a certain number of people that make her uncomfortable. Despite this, she does care quite a bit about what people think about her and this means she's quick to apologize for things that aren't even her fault.
* Demanding- Natalie does have a certain level of expectations for other people, mainly because she has so many set out for herself and she wants others to be the same. This means she can be a little bossy and order people to do things that may cause them extreme stress, and if they don't complete the tasks she'll be disgusted with their 'incompetence'.
* Unimaginative- In some senses, Natalie is very unimaginative. She's not at all artistically inclined and she has difficulties doing things in unconventional ways - instead, she follows instructions to the point.[/ul]
Likes:
* Outdoors
* Order/organization
* Approval
* Leadership[/ul]
Dislikes:
* Incompetence
* Laziness
* Uncleanliness
* Smoking
* Swimming[/ul]
[/blockquote]
History
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Family Members/guardians:
Justin Vermont Forman
Clairisa Cindy Forman
Younger Sibling
History:
Natalie was born under the name of Natalie Forman to a happily married American family. Her father's occupation was that of a doctor, while Clairisa was an electrical engineer: they'd been high-school sweethearts that had stuck together for many many years before having Natalie. Both of them earned quite a lot, and after retirement they were avid tourists who loved visiting different countries. Natalie always came along with, and was homeschooled relatively often while travelling with her family. They visited many places, ranging from the far north of Canada to India and the like. Even further proof of their happiness was that they had another child after Natalie, making up the whole family that Natalie might be able to remember if asked.
The most influential vacation they went on was when Natalie was about eight or nine years old. It was her summer break and her parents had taken her and her younger sibling to China for a tourism trip. They spent most of their time in Beijing, wandering the markets and the temples as a family. However, this didn't last long. One day, on the train in Beijing, the family had allowed Natalie to sit down on one of the only open spots. It was one of the times where Natalie had decided she wanted to proclaim her independence as a child and she would get angry at her parents if they checked on her. In other words, she was a grumpy, spoiled kid at the time, and her parents thought she'd be fine if they looked away for a few seconds (they travelled a lot and they thought she would be careful enough). However, she'd caught the eye of some Chinese gang members: she was American with blue eyes and blonde hair...something that most Asians seem to adore.
In China in the poorer areas, it's unfortunately sad that it's common for kidnapping such as these to happen. Children are often taken so that they can be used for begging purposes - as it's more likely for tourists and Asian people alike to donate money to an adorable young child than an older man or woman. When her family got off the train with Natalie's little sibling's hand in theirs, they hadn't realized that Natalie hadn't gotten off of the train. Instead, some of the gang members came over and had made a blockade in front of Natalie so that she couldn't see her parents were leaving.
It wasn't long after that that Natalie found out something was wrong. She couldn't see her parents among the crowd, and the people around her (the gang members) hadn't seemed to move in ages. She began to panic, before a twenty-three year old boy approached her when she was in tears. Little did she know, he was leading the scout group - and also conveniently one of the few that could speak some English. His name was Chan Ming and he wiped her tears away and told her that he'd take her safely back to her home - in some very broken sentences. Natalie, with far too much faith in the stranger, nodded and unwittingly exited the train with him with the rest of the gang scouts in pursuit.
Obviously, Chan Ming wasn't quite true to his words. He took her with them and lead her back to the 'base', which was just a couple cheap rooms in an apartment complex (they didn't even have showers), where her fate was argued angrily. The leader, Xiulan Zhao, was a strong female who argued, strictly in Chinese, with Chan Ming about Natalie's parents. Little did Natalie know, Xiulan was angry and upset that the group hadn't gotten some way of contacting Natalie's parents (or giving her parents a way of contacting her) as she believed that the ransom payment for her would've been better than just getting the kid. This led to Chan Ming getting punished, and Natalie had a lot of sympathy for him - he seemed to be the only one would cared about her and who she could partly communicate with in her first language. She hadn't quite understood that Chan Ming was the main reason she ended up without her parents. Besides, the big scary girl (Xiulan) seemed easy to antagonize to a young girl who could only see "good" and "evil" with no inbetween.
This adoration for Chan Ming only grew. His name for Natalie's became Xiǎolì: it is one of the more common female Mandarin names and it had a sweet meaning to it (morning jasmine). This eventually also became her name among the gang. Chan Ming was the only one Natalie felt close to, though. He spoke to her often, although it mainly consisted of short (normally incorrect) phrases such as: "you eyes is very beautiful" and "it is very pretty today". This meant that Natalie couldn't exactly love him for his wit, but she was separated from a lot of the other young children who were kidnapped due to a huge language barrier. She had no friends or anyone to talk to so she quickly became very introverted, only showing any sign of care or emotion when she saw her best friend.
Natalie's job was simple. She would go out on the streets, watched closely by other gang members, and beg for money from passerbys. She'd have to get a certain amount each day or she would be punished by either being physically beat, rejected food, or simply isolated for lengthy periods of time. Often, she would try to go above and beyond and get more money than what was required of her, but she also sometimes didn't. Not just this, but there were common 'fighting circles' in the gang that she was forced to participate, as the leader, Xiulan, believed it was important to learn combat to use on the street. Their gang wasn't always peaceful, and they did experience some conflict with other groups of people over the years that Natalie spent there, so her training did not go unused.
Unexpectedly, things only seemed to get worse as Natalie spent more time there. She did become more fluent in Mandarin and she was able to communicate with most people who were willing to talk slowly, so at least she was less isolated. But, as she grew older, people thought she was less and less cute and she started getting punished more often for not bringing back enough money. The men in the gang became more and more interested in her as she matured. A few of the stronger ones even forced themselves upon her, but wouldn't get too far before Xiulan would notice. Fortunately, Xiulan saw a lot of herself beginning to grow in Natalie, as Natalie was hardened, unloving, and determined after all that had occurred. That's why the older girl felt the need to protect her from the others, and the gang members soon figured this out and stopped trying. This, however, also led to the leader showing extreme bias towards her. Xiulan wanted Natalie to eventually become the leader of the gang and she started asking Natalie to talk with her all the time, and eventually she was even given her own apartment on the floor (paid for by everyone else's begging and robbing). Xiulan even forced upon Natalie her own last name, which was a symbol of great respect to the young girl. This may be seen as good: her efforts were being appreciated and the leader liked her, but this meant that everyone else disliked her. Once again, she became isolated and just as lonely as the young girl stuck on the train.
Eventually, something happened that ruined everything for Natalie. Even as a 15 year old child, she respected and adored Chan Ming, as he had never left her side before, through thick and thin. However, one day he just didn't come to the gang meetings anymore. He seemed to vanish off the face of the earth, and everyone became worried and concerned. Most of the gang proclaimed he'd left the gang and tried to start working, and many threatened to even try to find where he now lived and kill him for his insolence. However, he was never found, no matter how much the people tried.
This was the last straw for Natalie: she realized she would never become anything if she stayed in the gang. It was a rude awakening and she regretted never having said goodbye to her good friend, but she figured out the importance of finding her own life for herself. So,not long after, she took her few belongings and packed them in a bag, and found herself running out of the apartment complex and never looking back. She bleached her hair white and tried to clean herself up with a sink in a public restroom, getting rid of the grime and filth that layered over her skin and scalp. Being so paranoid, she walked across the whole city (avoiding the trains, for that was a common place for them to be) and stayed away from the gang's 'territory'. She eventually found herself a job at a coffee shop, as they were impressed by her ability to speak basic English (and mainly tourists go to Starbucks) and she managed to rent a place even more pathetic than where her gang had lived. However, she was free. She ripped away her title of Xiǎolì, although she still will respond to it, and returned as 'Natalie' once more. She does still have a certain level of love for her Chinese name, as it reminds her of Chan Ming who she still cannot help but miss. Yet, she kept the name, 'Zhao' only because she had no recollection of her original English name, and even if she did it wouldn't fit who she was any longer.
Now, no doubt, she put her work ethic to good use. She worked nearly every second she could, even trying to find a second job so that she could earn more, as she was determined to work herself out of her poverty. This continued for about a year and a half, Natalie barely having enough sleep or food, but her perseverance shone through. However, it's expected that she would be eventually found. And, she was. One of the people who passed Starbucks one day was Xiulan.
She was angry. She'd put all of her faith into this girl and she'd ended up leaving the gang, and Xiulan felt the need to make an example out of her. Her switchblade was out and she made her way over to the young girl, who found herself panicking. Without her own knowledge of it, Natalie's skin began to heat up so that the moment Xiulan tried to grab her, she had to retract her hand from the sudden heat. Natalie's street instincts kicked in at this point, and it wasn't second before Xiulan was on the ground yelling profanities in Chinese...but Natalie hadn't touched her. Her powers had kicked in in the moment of extreme stress, and everything would've probably been fine if there hadn't been the whole store of customers there to witness it.
Evidently, she was reported to government officials as she was performing 'supernatural' activities. She was treated with more professionalism than she could've ever expected, as she'd only ever been around a large group of organized hooligans, and she grew to enjoy the respect she was shown. Her powers were researched and she began to excel in performing manoeuvres with them, seeing them as a gift that she'd been given. However, because of her past and her unpredictability of her powers under stress that she displayed with Xiulan, she was assigned to the Ashford Academy Project rather than anything 'serious' on the field, where she has been put in Beta team due to her strong powers and determination to keep things in order.
Behind the Character
Name:
Silver/Fivvy
Chatango Name:
Fivvy
RP Experience:
4-ish years, probably.
How did you find us?:
Sunny.
RP Sample:
See Joshua Strasser.
