[b]Name:[/b] Emily Whitehall ("Em," sometimes)

[b]Birthday:[/b] 07 August

[b]Height:[/b] 1.68 meters (5 feet, 6 inches)

[b]Appearance:[/b]

(using hiders because giant images, be warned)
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[hider=Hat!][img]http://s2.goodfon.ru/image/522333-1680x1050.jpg[/img][/hider]

Emily is in good physical condition, certainly up to Academy standards, but she's not the fittest of the group; she doesn't really enjoy exercise and she's got a curvy build. She dresses with what she considers to be style - and it is stylish, even if it's mostly the fashions of another time. She likes long dresses, skirts and hats, and she's got quite a collection of the latter. When she's training, or has to be out-of-uniform but expects action, she dresses for flexibility and comfort, preferring tank tops and pants which give her freedom of motion, even if they don't provide much protection (see [url=http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18qfezyy7u2enjpg/original.jpg ]Mirror's Edge runners[/url] as an example). Her voice is a calm, melodic alto that gets deeper and throatier when she's upset, higher and breathier when she's excited. 

Emily's hair grows in light blonde, almost white, in some places, and black in others. To make it look less patchy, she's developed a routine for dyeing her hair which makes it more uniformly blonde on top, black underneath. Emily was self-conscious about her unusual coloring for many years, but doesn't really mind it now that's she's managed to develop a look she likes. 

[b]Personality:[/b] Stubbornness and arrogance may be unpleasant traits, but in the face of the impossible, they might be the only way to remain sane. Emily is intelligent and thoughtful, but since finding her spirits (whom she refers to as the Others), taking those qualities to their extremes has been the only way she's survived. Though she's nice enough to most (and can be downright charming when she needs to be), Emily behaves externally as though she's incredibly self-assured: She's judgmental, she insists on doing things her way, and she's always made up her mind on a subject before she brings it up with anyone else. She maintains this demeanor because she has to in order to cope: Internally, Emily is plagued by constant doubt and fear, punctuated by episodes of depression and all-encompassing uncertainty. Her experiences with the spirits has certainly contributed to this mental binary, but it was well-formed long before she had any contact with them. She's always wanted to be seen as powerful, capable, and in control, and perhaps she believes that if others see her that way, it will become true. 

To be fair, Emily's temerity does make her a good leader. She's decisive, and she knows how to delegate responsibility. Perhaps the reason she was never tapped for more command-oriented work at the Academy, then, has to do with her priorities: Nobody's quite sure what she wants or what she cares about. To be fair, Emily doesn't really know, either - having powerful spirit beings from a timeless void appear to you and then proceed to show you the absolute unimportance of your existence on a universal level tends to do that to a person. When Emily gained spirits, everything became relative. She couldn't find anything worth saving, because reality would destroy it all anyway, given enough time. Emily hasn't responded particularly well to this revelation (as if anyone would), but she's slowly coming to terms with it. For now, she's decided, she will invest in the people who are important to her. She'll care about those who care about her, and leave the rest of creation to tend to itself. It's not the most complete or reasonable ideology, she knows, but it feels relatively comfortable, and it gives her some solid ground from which to start.

It's also easy, because Emily doesn't have particularly many friends. While she gets along fine in superficial relationships, and isn't incapable of being sociable, she has a very small inner circle. People don't become fast friends with her often, probably you really get to know her, she's not the easiest to get along with. She has a unique way of steering things towards argument, and she feels incapable of backing down or compromising, even when she knows she ought to. Plus, most of the activities you do with other people are less interesting to her then the ones you do alone. She's always reading, writing, drawing or painting, and she prefers to do all these things in absolute solitude. She rarely shares her work, even when she's proud of it; she doesn't want the real world intruding on her private time any more than absolutely necessary. That said, she puts the people who are really her friends above everyone else - she sticks to the priorities she's established for herself. 

Emily's personality puts her at odds with other people who behave similarly; she's far from being the only strong-willed person in the world, after all. She comforts herself with the belief that, unlike others, she really has no [i]choice[/i]; she has to believe in herself if she's going to survive in a world that doesn't care about her (or anyone). But faith in oneself doesn't necessarily demand compliance from others. Emily will come into her own for real if she can learn to acquiesce and compromise, to accept the rightness of others, even if she doesn't care for them. Real confidence is not born from arrogance or assertiveness, so Emily will have to reconcile that within herself if she's ever going to change. 

[b]Biography:[/b] Emily was always an unusually serious child. Her parents chalked this up to intellect - she learned fast, no matter what the subject, and she always wanted more. She was their only child, so she was more than a little doted on. Her family was middle-class but mostly financially secure, at least before the war, so Emily mostly got whatever she wanted. Her mother died during, though not as a result of, the First Contact War, and Emily grew incredibly attached to her dad as a result. He kept both of them safe for the remainder of the conflict, and the two were inseparable for many years after. He didn't agree with Emily's decision to enter the Academy, and never really understood the nature of the pain she endured as a result of her contact with the spirits, try as she might to explain it. He did accept it, though, and has cautiously accepted that the Academy is a path Emily feels she has to follow, even if he's terrified at the idea of losing his only remaining family. She, in turn worried about leaving him alone, but their relationship has mostly come through the experience intact, and even if they're a bit farther apart (mentally and spatially), they stay in contact as much as possible. 

At the Academy, Emily performed extremely well, excelling in nearly all her classes. Though she's not the fittest, strongest, or fastest of her classmates and friends, her force of will and persistence have granted her incredible skill, as well as control of and familiarity with her spirits, despite her mixed feelings about them. The one area that's been most difficult for her has been social; she's still got few friends, and has had even fewer romantic relationships - something she feels she should correct, but isn't sure how. Even though she's graduated, Emily doesn't feel like an adult, not really. She looks at her peers - some are getting married, some have children, some already have missions and accomplishments under their belts. Emily still harbors fears that she might be inadequate compared to the others, that she might be unprepared for the real world in so many ways - not all of them related to "the job." Even though her training has prepared her for at least some of what's to come, she's not certain she's ready to face it. 

Weapon: Emily eschews the more common swords and knives in exchange for a bo staff fashioned from two collapsible batons (inspired by [url=http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5213/5hek.jpg ]Arrow's Black Canary[/url]). She fights extremely effectively with the staff, but is also proficient using the two batons separately. Her fighting style is a combination of a variety of martial arts; she doesn't adhere to a specific one, but will use whatever techniques she's found to work. Emily took up the bo primarily because of its relative disuse at the Academy. Learning to use it instead of some other weapon got her a lot more one-on-one training time, which in turn made her a much better fighter. She's absolutely no less deadly than any other properly-trained Academy student, and probably much moreso than many, especially those who aren't familiar with the way she fights.To facilitate her abilities with the bow, Emily also trained heavily in hand-to-hand combat (you might say she double-majored). Even without the staff, or with only one of the batons, she's a force to be reckoned with. 

In combat, Emily tends to be defensive but pragmatic, dodging and ducking continuously and striking only at opportune moments. Her goal is generally to disorient and confuse her opponent until she can strike with her spirits, at which point, the problem will ideally take care of itself. In situations where this is impractical, however, she's likely to focus on quickly disabling as many opponents as possible - not because she's unwilling to go in for kills, but because it's easier to deal with someone however you like once they're on the ground. Though she purports to disapprove of flashy fighting, she's not above showing off a little on occasion, and her unusual weapons and style make it pretty impressive. 

[b]Limit Break:[/b] [b]Wrath of the Void.[/b] Emily uses her connection to the Others to draw a bit of their malign irreality into our world, warping the fabric of our universe within a certain area. The Wrath is not just an attack Emily can command at any time; its severity and effects vary depending on her desperation and mental state. If circumstances are sufficiently dire, [i]and[/i] she's extremely angry, scared, or (emotionally) hurt, she may invoke the Others in order to forcibly overcome whatever obstacle is causing her trouble. While theoretically, the Wrath could be invoked at any time, it would have no effect if Emily did not need an effect - at best, it would draw unwanted attention from creatures best left unprovoked (think of it like dialing 9-1-1 because someone looked at you funny from across the street versus calling because you just saw a triple homicide; which would have a bigger response?). The exact size and description of the attack's effects vary based upon Emily's needs, but The Wrath is a uniformly devastating attack, and merely witnessing it is enough to drain Emily physically and mentally for days or even weeks, though she always emerges apparently unscathed. Emily has never performed the Wrath twice in the same place, for fear of what would happen if she did, and generally refuses to do it at all unless she has no other choice. Though she discusses it with no one, her memories of previous attempts haunt her dreams (and sometimes even her waking hours) and fuel her fears about the nature of the spirits she commands. 

[b]Spirits:[/b] 
 
While many think of their spirits as inanimate powers, unthinking things drawing on the properties of the world as it was formed post-Calamity, Emily doesn't truck with that notion. She believes her spirits are very alive, and very intelligent, albeit in ways that are incredibly far removed from anything humans might understand. She refers to them as the "Others," and while there are many of them, they're all cut from similar cloth. They all draw from the raw, untarnished power of some ancient, eldritch void - a world outside and wholly unlike our own. Their aims, if they have any, are impossible to understand, their preferences likewise. What Emily did to engender their interest is completely beyond her. Perhaps it was very substantial indeed, or perhaps it was nothing, and their attentions are merely the whimsical manifestations of something too ancient, too powerful to care whom it helps or harms. They first manifested as whispers and false shadows, echoing in the darkest corner's of Emily's mind and invading her dreams to make themselves heard, where they showed her terrifying vistas of reality, likely beyond anything anyone could interpert in their waking hours. Emily believed the dreams were real, believed the lessons they seemed to be teaching - that the universe is vast, empty, and uncaring - but didn't know how or why she was receiving them. For months, she believed she was sick, or perhaps insane, until her powers manifested, and she realized what was really happening. 
 
These creatures, she decided, couldn't be allowed to control her. No, if she was going to survive, she had to be the one in charge. That was why she joined the Academy, against her father's objections and in spite of having no real desire to fight. Fortunately for her, the Academy was well-prepared to help her. Her control over her abilities is formidable, while the Others themselves seem to resign themselves to incomprehensible whispers and occasional dream-visions. For the first time since she originally possessed them, Emily feels more or less at peace with the Others, but the pain their arrival inflicted on her has left its mark on her behavior and beliefs. 
 
The spirit-manifestations Emily calls the Others are mostly distinct from the powers she draws from them. All of her abilities have the designation "Cosmic/Eldritch," whichever you prefer. 
 
[b]Crawling Chaos[/b] - Waves of hallucination-inducing power emanate from Emily, affecting the vision and mental function of anyone or anything they meet (this affects humans, animals, and all forms of creature). In the eyes of those affected, the world is horrifically twisted. Trees and plants become writhing columns of intestine and tentacle. Blood pours from every wall and door; pain wracks the body and clouds the mind. Originally, Emily's mental state helped dictate what the visions were and how powerful they became, but training at the Academy has allowed her to control them regardless of her current thought process (provided she isn't too unstable). All manner of eldritch vision is possible, as well as more mundane hallucinations - Emily can direct the purpose and behavior of the hallucination to some extent by focusing on her intentions in creating it (i. e., to make herself seem more powerful then she is, to make someone believe they are under attack, or are trapped, etc.), but she doesn't control the exact vision itself. Regardless of the intent, the visions are nearly always horrifying, though Emily can also temper their power to some extent. At lower strengths, the visions are merely disturbing and unpleasant. More powerful visions can cause serious mental trauma and might be very difficult to fight off (through disbelief or simply acting without regard or ones' senses). At their most powerful, they can cause lasting madness or mental instability that persists long after the onslaught has stopped. 
 
[b]Alien Geometries[/b] - Unlike the Chaos, this ability manipulates the physical world. Emily can make limited, one-time alterations to geometry or space-time in a given location. For example, she can make a door lead to a different room, or create an unending staircase. These effects persist for as much time as she can concentrate to maintain them, and are limited by physical size (she can't affect an area larger than a few meters in any direction) and the complexity of the violation - for example, creating a ceiling you can stand on as if it were a floor is less complex then altering a room so that you can walk upright on any surface, or, a door between two places close together is easier than a door between two far-away places. This power requires intuition based on Emily's own spatial sense, and therefore can't be applied to physical effects humans don't instinctively understand (for example, she can't produce ionizing radiation). Emily primarily uses the geometries to obstruct enemy's paths and create distractions to facilitate her escape or their capture, but with a little imagination, there are many other uses for this power.

[b]Curse of Life[/b] - The spirits within Emily are heavily invested in her survival, and will do their utmost to protect her from harm. The Curse allows Emily to weather attacks that would kill or severely injure a normal human with relative impunity; her strength, her threshold for pain and injury increases significantly. The Curse can prevent Emily from dying of mortal wounds, provided they are relatively slow - so a gunshot to the head would still kill her instantly, but a stab to the gut might heal itself before she bleeds out. Emily can't control or activate the Curse directly, but it's dormant most of the time. Its activation corresponds roughly to Emily's natural fight-or-flight response, which means it may activate at any time she's feeling anxious or stressed - but may not even activate in combat if she's caught off-guard (at least until she gets her bearings). 

Though the Curse doesn't affect Emily's mental faculties, she cannot escape the feeling that it's a symbol of the spirits' increasing control over her mind and body, and its presence terrifies her even as it protects her. The Curse is purely an internal effect and cannot be used to heal others. Further, it is caused by spirits and doesn't reside in Emily's DNA, blood, or any other material part; rather, it lives in the "scab" above her heart: pulsating, tumorous flesh above the fatal wound given to her by the Caudata. While she'll have to be analyzed somehow to discover this, the "scab" cannot be removed without killing her, as it's what's keeping her alive at all (and it will fights attempts to remove it).