[hider=Operative File] [center][img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/46/fd/2d/46fd2d2918970685afa8c4ed22b31820.jpg[/img] [color=gold][b][E S R A B I R K A N] [27] | [FEMALE] | [5’6”] | [AB+][/b][/color][/center] [color=gold][h3][i]General Information[/i][/h3][/color] [b]NAME:[/b] Esra E. Birkan [b]PSEUDONYM:[/b] Tallulah Bernhardt [b]APPEARANCE:[/b] Esra is of Iranian descent with black, straight shoulder-length hair and dark eyes. She has the compact, muscular body of a ballerina and a dark olive skin tone with a smattering of freckles. Her left arm is covered with a sleeve of flower tattoos interconnected with leaves and lace. Esra has wide, wandering eyes and a sly, confident smirk, as if her observations are constantly keeping her amused. She dresses in an aggressive, artsy fashion, favoring bright, bold colors and outright weird design choices that make her pop out like a peacock—the more ridiculous the outfit, the better. Esra moves with a kind of graceful flamboyancy and speaks in a slightly hoarse and very rushed voice, as if every thought must be forced out of her before she breathes. [b]OCCUPATION:[/b] Esra is a lover of theater and acting, and has several uncredited roles starring in friends’ college film projects, community theater productions, and as an extra in a movie that was released directly to streaming. She dreams of working on Broadway one day—Hollywood is just [i]soooo [/i]corrupt—and has gotten a few callbacks off of off-Broadway productions but never landed a named role, let alone a paying one. She did manage to land a serving job at a high-end restaurant on Broadway, so technically her dream came true. [color=gold][h3][i]Psychological Profile[/i][/h3][/color] [center][b]Warm | Romantic | Observant | Flippant | Lonely | Disappointed[/b][/center] [b]VIRTUE:[/b] Affable Esra is a woman who thrives on interacting with other people. She can draw the most retreating person out of their shell and charm the hell out of even the biggest sourpuss. She may never have made it to celebrity status, but she still carries that kind of energy that just pulls people in. It’s not a put-on, either. Esra is just naturally charming, friendly, and so easy to talk to that she can feel like an old friend to a total stranger. She can make just about any environment into a welcoming one through her warmth, and feels like it is her duty to keep people entertained. If she’s capable of feeling awkward, then she most certainly doesn’t show it. [b]VICE:[/b] Dishonest That part about it not being a put-on? Yeah, that was probably bullshit. Life’s easier if people like you, and the quickest way to get someone to warm up to you is to feed them whatever nonsense they want to hear. In all honesty, Esra believes that lying is usually nicer than being honest—better to say that their stupid hat looks nice instead of pointing out that it’s clear they’re hiding a bald spot. Besides, boil acting down to its most basest form and it’s really just pretending to be someone else. Therefore, lying so much that it’s practically compulsive is just practicing her passion. Really. It’s totally harmless, and she’s really fricking good at it. Except that’s also a bunch of crap. Esra doesn’t just tell harmless white lies, and sometimes one lie leads into another. She has to pretend to her parents that she’s engaged to her ex-boyfriend who dumped her six months ago and pretend to her work that her parents are dead because she already used all of her grandparents and step-grandparents “deaths” as an excuse to miss a shift. It’s a good thing that Esra can easily make someone her friend, because she’s absolutely gone through a number of them by spreading rumors about them and lying straight to their face. Big or small, almost every one of her lies are told to either make people pity her or make people respect her, but either way it is all about her. [b]PERSONAL GOALS:[/b] Besides the never-ending, unachievable pursuit of happiness? Esra simply wants to have some kind of validation. Originally she figured that the joy a crowd would experience from viewing her in a theater performance would achieve that goal, but things haven’t worked out for her. She knows she’s a nobody and is powerless to force some major change of the status quo—nor does she consider herself radical enough to want some kind of extreme revolution. Still, she seeks to be a part of something that gives her a sense of self-worth. She’s tried activism, charities, and volunteering, but her efforts still leave her feeling hollow, mostly because she’s only doing that shit to have someone tell her that she is such a good person. [b]PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY:[/b] Esra believes that the world is a cruel and uncaring place, and it’s the responsibility of everyone to make it a little less hateful. She enjoys being friendly and goes out of her way to make things hospitable for others. She can find purpose in anything as long as it also benefits someone else (and assuming they recognize her herculean efforts and shower her with adoration). Small, little good deeds add a bit of positivity into the world, and while it may suck, perhaps it will eventually balance out the negativity. She believes most people are ultimately morally good, but the problem with that idea is the word [i]most[/i]. A single asshole can ruin everything, but as long as the asshole isn’t her (or can’t be proven to be her) that means she is doing the right thing. [b]FEARS:[/b] [color=gold]►[/color]Loneliness [color=gold]►[/color]Failure [b]LIKES:[/b] [color=gold]►[/color]Dancing [color=gold]►[/color]Musicals [color=gold]►[/color]True Crime [color=gold]►[/color]Selfies [color=gold]►[/color]Good Tippers [color=gold]►[/color]Trivia [color=gold]►[/color]Hard Seltzer [color=gold]►[/color]Bagel Sandwiches [b]DISLIKES:[/b] [color=gold]►[/color]Public Transportation [color=gold]►[/color]Romeo & Juliet [color=gold]►[/color]Soft Rock [color=gold]►[/color]Cilantro [color=gold]►[/color]Beer [color=gold]►[/color]Cats [b]QUIRKS:[/b] [color=gold]►[/color]Esra is almost physically unable to stay still. She managed to screw up being a tree in an elementary school play. [color=gold]►[/color]She tends to have a particularly aggravating habit of humming or quietly singing show tunes and Disney hits to fill silence. [color=gold][h3][i]Background Information[/i][/h3][/color] [i]”Well if they wanted me to root for the protagonist then why give the bad guy such an absolute banger?”[/i] Esra spent the first twenty-some years of her life growing up near Cincinnati, Ohio, and had a fairly typical early childhood. She served her time at school, avoided being killed by her older sister, watched Dad move out and Mom’s new friend Steve move in, and attended dance class. She had friends and summer jobs and really, really big life changing moments that were only big and life changing because she was in high school and are actually quite banal. The only thing about her early life that really shaped who she is as a person now is her love of theater and how she acted in just about any school play she could. Well, that and how she managed to get her stupid Mom to break up with Steve after lying about him intentionally walking in on her in the shower. Boy, was that a fun fight to listen in on. It had almost been too easy. After graduation, Esra attended the University of Cincinnati for Performing Arts, splitting her time between acting lessons and dance classes. Actually, well, perhaps it was more like splitting her time between getting stoned, getting drunk, getting laid, and getting up at noon—well after most of her classes. Yet despite this productive lifestyle, she still somehow managed to fail out of school. However, none of that mattered to Esra. Acting wasn’t something you learned how to do in a book, it was something that had to be experienced, lived, breathed, and whatever other bullshit she could come up with to stop her Mom from freaking out about the considerable student loan that had been wasted. Like, she had to live in the scene, not listen to some English teacher explain to her the intricati...the intrica...the dumb shit about Shakespeare. Besides, Shakespeare didn’t go to college! At least as far as Esra knew he didn’t go to college; she never attended that class about him. Anyway the point being was that she [i]had[/i] to move to New York, because that was where the acting scene lived. She hoped in a van with her boyfriend and headed to New York City, which looked a lot like New Jersey because it was New Jersey since NYC was too expensive. Esra took to joining improv groups and trying out for plays while he took to mostly playing Xbox and smoking weed. Neither of them were making money, so she took up a part-time waitressing gig and he, well, got really good at first person shooters until they got evicted. They broke up, she moved in with a couple of girls she knew from an improv group, and it was finally time to make it big in NYC. Then that didn’t happen. Esra doesn’t know how things fell apart. Callbacks were never made, or when she got offered a role it was so far beneath her talents and the pay was below even that. It was absolutely boggling. This wasn’t how things went in the movie. At some point the girl was supposed to make her big break and have all of her dreams come true, or at least meet a really rich guy who could pay for her shit and she could pretend to like. She wasn’t supposed to be waiting tables and playing make-believe with a bunch of losers. What gives? Esra felt defeated, but she never let others know that. Prospects were coming along, she had talked to a couple of producers, and things were in the works, or so she said. And they stayed in the works. As creeping doubt began to fill her head, Esra started branching out from the stage—clearly, it was all a bunch of people playing favorites when it came to casting. She had no shot unless she got down on her knees and well anyway she started to look for different outlets. The best part of acting was the applause, after all, so if she couldn’t get lauded there she’d get lauded elsewhere. Esra began volunteering, doing this and that to put some good karma out there for herself in hopes of getting some cosmic reward. She mostly got scared by the weird people in the soup kitchen. Meanwhile, she did manage to get a better serving job at a nicer restaurant. Things weren’t ideal but she was doing okay money-wise. Eventually, everything just sort of settled into a routine. She acted and danced in community shows, worked most evenings, did the occasional volunteer work, and drank just about every night. Her New York dream was now just her New York life and it was a bit of a grind but ultimately she could pretend that it was okay. And then June 6th happened, and Esra screwed up. She found herself huddled in the corner of a coffee shop with a good view of the TV when the news broke. Still sore from her latest breakup and desperate for some attention, she pulled out her phone like she was on autopilot and tweeted: “Trapped in #TheBeacon. Safe, but scared. I love you all.” She thought nothing of it, turned back to the TV, and caught the subtitles just in time to read the part about how no information had come from anyone inside of the Beacon since it had gone into lockdown. She felt a knot twist in her stomach as she turned her attention to her phone; the number of retweets and messages were staggering. Several of them were from news outlets. Feeling sick, she quickly deleted the message, skipped work, and spent the rest of the day with her phone off. However, people who knew her had seen the tweet. The next day at work she was bombarded with questions about what happened at the Beacon, ones she answered with cagey lies about how she still hasn’t even begun to process it and really doesn’t want to think about that. People from her life that she thought had completely burnt their bridge with her reached out to make sure that she was okay. Even her mom called her up—the first time they had talked in years. She enjoyed her little fifteen minutes of absolutely unearned and totally fabricated fame, spinning more and more lies constructed out of whatever information she could get from the media. Even a couple of strangers recognized her. It was totally cool. She was like a mini-celebrity, on they showered her with pity instead of love. Still, better than being alone. Maybe that’s why she didn’t pretend to not speak English when an older guy with a cane came and sat down beside her at some bar one night and began talking about the Beacon. At first, she thought he had come over there to tell her how incredibly brave and amazingly strong she was like the rest of the schmucks. That wasn’t the case, and Esra was about to up and leave before he bought her a topshelf cocktail. She stayed for that drink, and then another, although by the second she was already hooked in to what he was saying. Liquor bribes weren’t necessary, but they were appreciated and helped her swallow up his conspiracy theories. She was thoroughly drunk by the time he tried to convince Esra to join his cause to take down some shadowy corp. “Wait,” she said, waving her hands in front of her face as if to clear away the drunken haze as the man began to leave. She stared at her befuddled reflection in the bar mirror and then cocked an eyebrow over at the man. “What’s your name?” “Gage.” Then he was gone, and Esra was left with a bunch of questions and woke up the next morning with a sugary hangover from hell. Her life continued, but she even though she was drunk off of her ass she still remembered bits and pieces of her conversation with Gage. She could spot a bullshitter—it was easy to see her own kind—and he didn’t seem like one. Still, she was about to write the whole thing off when an unmarked letter arrived for her, or rather, it arrived for Tallulah Bernhardt and that lady was getting paid bank. However, it wasn’t just the money that convinced Esra that maybe she should check out Gage’s little project. The best thing that had happened to her recently was pretending to be in a hostage situation, and even Esra was willing to admit that was sad and pathetic. Maybe this would fill that void growing inside of her. And even if they cocked it up, at least she’d be famous. [color=gold][h3][i]Operative Information[/i][/h3][/color] [center][b][color=gold][T H E C H A M E L E O N][/color][/b][/center] [b]ROLE DESCRIPTION:[/b] Esra’s observant and extroverted nature allows her to get a deeper understanding of how certain people behavior, and when coupled with her years of amateur acting experience it allows for her to become the Chameleon. She excels at playing roles that allow her to get into advantageous positions to assist the group. Not only does she have a variety of “disguises” purchased courtesy of the thrift shop and the chops to rift up a new persona, she also connects so deeply with that fake individual that, much like a method actor, she just about becomes them. Therefore, Esra can serve the group in a number of ways, like scouting ahead to give them a sitrep or infiltrating an off-limits area. However, pretending to be someone she isn’t is sometimes a risky move, and having her cover blown can be absolutely devastating to a plan. Fortunately, Esra’s completely duplicitous nature can actually be a bit of a boon during these times. Her commitment to a failed character, glibness, and argumentative attitude might just be enough to coerce a person into leaving her alone, or at the very least buy the others some valuable time to pull off something grand. [b]POSSESSIONS:[/b] [color=gold]►[/color]Makeup Kit, Extensive Wardrobe, and Wigs. [b]SKILLS:[/b] [color=gold]►[/color]Character Actor Although she never made it, Esra is actually a really talented actor. She can play a wide-range of parts, easily changing subtle things about herself like her posture, her gait, or her facial expressions to better fulfill that role. Likewise, she can adapt a number of accents that all sound fairly genuine. Years spent memorizing a bunch of lines in a hurry has helped improve her short-term memory, making it easy for her to craft some truths into the total lies she’s going to be giving the people around her when she is in character. [color=gold]►[/color]Community Theater Esra’s stage talents doesn’t just end at being able to walk different and talk differently. Thanks to her no-budget community theater background, she’s also pretty handy with wardrobe, makeup, and styling. While perhaps some of the group could use a bit of a makeover, it’s really more useful with helping to craft a disguise to keep everyone incognito. [color=gold]►[/color]Dance Number Esra has been doing ballet and other forms of dance for nearly as long as she has been pursuing acting. While it would be delightful if everything could be settled in a dance off between her and the head of Pyramid Microsystems, the chances of that happening are only middling. Still, ballet has given her an incredible balance, extreme flexibility, and a surprising amount of strength for someone her size. [b]FLAWS:[/b] [color=gold]►[/color]Fatigued A lot of energy gets spent on other people or just being exuberant for the sake of exuberance. Then there is her job, her acting passion, her volunteer work, the fact that she hardly gets a full night of sleep, and now the part where she joined a super secret group hell bent on destroying some kind of Neo-Illuminati. Face it, Esra is flipping tired, and she’s on the fasttrack to burning out. [color=gold]►[/color]Jealous Esra can pretend to be happy for the success of others. She can also put her hand in a blender, but you don’t see her making any fist protein shakes. Even if she can muster a lie to congratulate someone for getting what they most certainly did not earn her face can completely betray her feelings. [color=gold]►[/color]Needy Esra doesn’t have to always be the center of attention, but she does need to get a spotlight shined her way on a rather frequent basis. God forbid the squad get a couple of walkies; she’ll be buzzing in every minute. [color=gold]►[/color]Suspicious For some reason, Esra believes that most people are usually lying. Sincerity is strange to her, and the more adamant someone is about a thing the less likely she is to believe them. [b]SECRET COUNT:[/b] [b]NOTES:[/b] Esra’s tweet got some mild media coverage before it was deleted, but her story was pretty much lost under the current of ones about the actual victims of June 6th following the raid. [hider=Relationship Table Template] [table=bordered][row][cell][color=gold][b]Character name[/b][/color][/cell] [cell][i][color=gold][b]Relationship[/b][/color][/i][/cell][/row] [row][cell][Name of other character][/cell][cell][i][/i][/cell][/row] [/table][/hider][/hider] [@Opposition]Hera ya go, boss.