Luminous Beings

Portwood Institute for Talented Youths (PITY)

Forget I said anything, writing all this out helped fix my indecision. Sheet is in the works currently!

Portwood Institute for Talented Youths (PITY)

Color me interested. Still room?

Portwood Institute for Talented Youths (PITY) - Super-School Interest Check

Color me interested. Still room?

Hell On Earth: A DC Comics Inspired RP [Interest Check]

Haven't read very many comics but this seems like an interesting premise.

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Selena Wodan Chilver

"Christ," Selena muttered. "You people can't even walk without me around. Get up, c'mon." Selena walked over and extended an arm to help the lizard, helping him upright with a grunt. "And orifice? You already forgotten how people work? This is a mouth, not an orifice." Selena waggled her lips. "These are feet." Selena shook one of her booted feet. "These are fists." The same for her hand. "Pray neither of them get anywhere near your scaly ass."

The banter was, of course, good natured. She and Henry enjoyed a pretty solid friendship, founded on mutual respect-they'd crossed paths a while back in Black Fall, and Henry was one of the few NEST agents who didn't make Selena consider illegal thoughts. Decent guy. Let being a musclebound freak get to his head sometimes. Selena figured her trash talk was probably helpful in the long run-even amongst metas, there was a bit of hesitation around Godzilla, Jr. Somebody being abrupt to him was a refreshing change of pace-or so imagined Miss Chilver. She wasn't the best when it came to emotional stuff. Selena was a problem-solver, a fighter. Not a thinker. If there was a problem, she fixed it. Nuances be damned. The bags were starting to wear on Selena's shoulders a bit-the girl was tough, but the load was heavy and duffel bags weren't exactly optimal hiking gear. Her steel-toed boots fell near-silently on the tile floors as Henry walked her towards her room, wherever that was. Selena had a pretty intuitive knack for directions and learning the lay of the land-wherever she went, she felt a kind of...ease with the surroundings. A sanctum invocation with each footstep. A day or two and she'd have the layout of the Academy down pretty well, an advantage of relying on all her senses equally as opposed to simple sight. The smell and sounds and feel of a place helped cement it into memory much more quickly, and made finding her way back around a lot easier.

"Glad to see you're doing well, though. Looks like you've lost weight, I guess you shed or whatever." Selena shifted one of the bags as she jogged up a flight of stairs. "So gimme the deal on these monstrosity things. I-" She paused and subtly glanced around to make sure there were no meddling kids around. No brats to be found. "I'm guessing at least one of them bit the bullet to merit a NEST agent-well, make that two-being sent out here. From what I remember of those pictures-real professonal, by the way, Skypeing that stuff. Glad to see you're not letting NEST turn you into some dead-eyed loser-these things look tough. Unnatural." She paused as a girl ran out of a nearby wall, going perpendicular across the hall until she phased through the wall opposite. "...but there's a lot of that going around. My gut says lab rats. I mean, shit, if I was going to genetically engineer some shit, I'd do it here. Somebody gets 86'ed and you pass it off on some kid who's too poor to pay for a lawyer. But I'm sure NEST would never do that. Either that or we've got some little asshat who can mess with stuff. Like Eva, but...malignant. I can help with whatever you'd prefer, killing them or bagging them. I brought some toys-" Selena nodded her head towards the bag over her right shoulder, which had the amusing side effect of making her hair flop over to the side before she righted it. "To keep them busy. Don't think it'll be anything we can't handle. Or me solo if you don't have ass-kicking clearance or whatever. I don't get how this works."

They arrived at Selena's room and Selena nodded her thanks as Henry opened the door for her. Selena favored boots to tap shoes and jeans to skirts, but there was no point in getting up in arms over polite gestures. Selena threw her stuff down on the bed and unpacked pretty quickly-her clothes got organized into dressers (while Selena was generally messy, she took her work and gear seriously, and this was a mixture of both) before she moved onto to the fun part.

"You need me to help run security or anything, lemme know. If someone is engineering these things, they're stupid to do it in the middle of summer. I'd have waited until winter, picked off the ones who slip outside. No, wait, that's why they're doing it. Constant daylight, people lose track of the time. Wander outside at 3 in the morning thinking it's evening. More tired they realize. Hmm. Smart. Assuming it is a person doing this. Hell, I'm talking to a giant lizard, I wouldn't bat an eye if these things just turned up out of the blue." Selena pulled her bow out of the bag and checked it for damage-once it had passed her brief but thorough exam, she laid it on the bed along with a Mongolian horde's worth of arrows. The tips were barbed, wicked curves and razor edges. Selena didn't fuck around. "If I can get you one I'm sure you can science it and figure out what it's deal is. I dunno enough about that to be of any help there, but I'll let you know anything I see from observing them. I can go out and track a few later if you need me to." Next out of the bag came a shotgun, a Benelli. Selena ran her hands across the weapon for a moment, inspecting it. The barrel was illegally short, the stock entirely removed. No serial numbers, and a black, military-issue strap for carrying it. "Heh. Your friends at NEST? I requested this stuff, I think they're worried this shit might get traced back to them, eh? Selena Chilver, a PR nightmare. Tsk tsk." She laid the shotgun down, barrel facing the outer wall and placed the box of shells next to it. "Got some specialty orders. Rock salt, ball chain, a few dragon's breath. Don't know if any of it will slow them down but I've yet to run across anything that doesn't squeal like a little bitch with ten ounces of salt under its skin." She continued perusing the bag, pulling out several of her knives-a few unassuming blades that featured prominently in the nightmares of many a rabbit. "We'll figure out what pisses them off, have a little fun." She out a bright orange, plastic device. "Flaregun's in here, good. And the bear spray." She paused, looking over the canister. "Damn. NEST doesn't fuck around. They issue us some, in Denali, but this shit's...actually, I'm confident like half of this is illegal. They may be trying to frame me. God I hope they're trying to frame me. My life's gotten boring lately." Selena rolled up the duffel bags and tossed them at the foot of her bed. "Can you get me in with the school's security team? I'd prefer a vest or something to strap all this to, but I can go without if necessary."

She paused, mentally running through all her belongings, making sure everything was in place. Abruptly she whipped around, a mischievous grin lighting up her bronze features. "So....when we heading out?"

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Selena Wodan Chilver

"Ma'am. Ma'am. Ma'am!"

Selena turned her head slightly, looking up at the NEST representative. Mid-thirties. Starting to bald. No ring on his hand, but a tan line to match. Smelled like prey. "You...you have to get off the bike eventually, ma'am."

"Yeah, I know." Selena swung up and over the motorcycle, almost hearing a faint whine of protest as she turned it off. She handed the keys to the guy and began loading herself up with her belongings. Selena generally traveled light, but there was no sense in going unprepared-no sense at all. The man swatted at a small swarm of mosquitoes, but they didn't seem to bother Selena. "I'd tell you the usual bullshit about 'not one scratch!' but you've probably heard it before. You've got work exemptions carried away?"

The man nodded, flipping through a clipboard. "Yup. Wasn't tough, you work for a national park, just a temporary reassignment. You are aware of the terms of your deputization, Miss Chilver?"

"Yeah, no illegal shit, no making any PR nightmares, I can't fuck any of the kids..."

There was a very pregnant pause.

"What?"

"I..." the man sighed, resigned to his fate. "Yeah. Don't...do any of those things."

"They're kids, not things."

"No I meant...okay, we have the gear you requested." The man moved over to his car and pulled out a duffel bag, which Selena swung over her other shoulder-with two strapped across her back and chest, she now looked like some eldritch butterfly who had caterpillars growing out of her spine instead of wings. However, this was still better than the NEST agent, who just looked like some eldritch bitch. "Should all be in there. If not, the school's got a security team, they can probably hook you up with about anything you need. And you'll receive your payment when you get back."

"Whoa, I'm getting paid?" Selena asked, her eyes lighting up behind her sunglasses. A dreadlock had fallen over her face and she casually flipped her hair to get it back into position-she'd tie it back once she got on the boat. If her luggage was straining her, it certainly didn't show-she was standing just as confidently and casually as she had been before, worn boots digging into the asphalt of the Anchorage docks. Alaska's eternal sunlight had taken some getting used to-she'd be really in her element once winter rolled around, but Selena was nothing if not adaptable. There was the comforting feeling of being watched, a subtle, had-to-focus-or-you'd-forget-all-about-it itch where the moon was lingering out of sight. "Even better. I was just hoping for the chance to kill some lab rats you let loose."

"NEST has not-"

"Yeah, I'm sure they're the next form of evolution for the groundhog or something, that'll be the official reason. Remember, you called me in. Let's roll with the punches a little better."

There was a deep, deep breath taken by the NEST representative, who was probably reminding himself of phrases such as "25 to life" and "suspended without pay pending the investigation". "Ah...okay. Fine. Just...go. You'll miss your boat."

"And you'll miss me!" Selena said with annoying, put-on cheeriness. She turned and walked swiftly towards the boat, fumbling a bit to pull her wallet out (Selena sure as hell didn't carry a purse) and flipping out her ID. There was a new NEST ID tucked above her old driver's license (which, very possibly, had expired) and the ID very clearly emphasized that Miss Chilver was not a permanent operative for the agency. She'd been genuinely surprised they even let her along-she had a track record of attempting to casually disrupt whatever they were doing, and needlessly creating paperwork. Selena wasn't too fond of regulation of any kind-it pained her to have to work for the government, but the perks of being a park ranger greatly outweighed it. Besides, there wasn't a whole lot of the Man's interference with things-aside from budgetary crap and other pencil-pushing issues, they were fairly autonomous. Alaska as a whole felt that way, and it was how Selena preferred it. Long ways from Black Fall-and Eva. Eh. Her little sister could take care of herself.

Selena didn't bother loading her stuff into anywhere-the ride would take a few hours, maximum, and she was happy to stay out on the deck and watch the waves. Tucking her duffel bags under the seats, she sprawled out across the open deck (even in the summer, the open waters wicked away the heat, and Selena was one of the few dressed for the occasion). The freezing air was...refreshing. Selena spent most of the journey just watching, occasionally putting her hair back in place after the winds slapped it out of position again. Selena wasn't one to fret over her hair very much-it was generally a bit of a mess, and the bastardization of wavy locks and dreads made it...an interesting look if nothing else. She added another dread for each meaningful hunt.

She expected to have a few more by the time she got back on the boat.

A few small infinities later, the boat pulled up at the Academy's docks. "This it?" Selena asked.

The driver stared at her.

"Yeah, kind of a dumb question. Thanks for the ride, Cap'n."

The driver sighed. Selena had this effect on most people.

Selena double-checked to make sure she had everything, although she realized it would've made a bit more sense to check before she left. Yeah, everything seemed to be in place. She didn't know how long she'd be staying, so she'd brought a week's worth of clothes-which basically boiled down to enough socks to keep her from getting foot rot. Selena stepped off the boat and surveyed the Academy. So this is where they sent those metahuman teenagers, eh? She was surprised the place was still around. Leave a room full of teenagers alone and they'd burn it down just cause. Leave a room full of teenagers who can piss hurricanes alone and they'd take out half the continent. She wasn't planning on sleeping with any of the kids-firstly, because half of them were like twelve, and secondly because Selena was never much in the seduction department-but she did want to slap the shit out of one or two of the little runts. Give a thirteen year old superhuman abilities and see how quick their ego inflates. Selena generally thought therapists and psychologists were a bit...useless...but she figured they were probably in high demand here.

"Well, time to find the lizard who can't do anything for himself," Selena muttered. "Hey, you," Selena barked at a passing student. They flinched and double-taked between her bags and hair. "You seen a big-ass lizard walking around?"

"....no?"

"Figures. Doing this the old-fashioned way, then." Selena took a deep breath in, closing her eyes for a moment. The scent of teenager had settled into about everything-neurotic stress and unchecked hormones and potential and fear lingered over everything. There were a half dozen different trails of cologne and perfume, managing to keep their foothold even this close to the windy shores. And just barely, she picked up on the trace of the cold-blooded bastard himself-it was faint. It had been about a week ago he'd given her that call, and she figured he probably hadn't been past by the docks since then. Readjusting the bags over her shoulders, Selena casually walked through the Academy's sidewalks, admiring the buildings. Whole lot of money went into this place. She figured NEST had some...well...nest egg that they kept replenishing. Maybe they found a meta who could turn water into oil or something. That'd explain it. Selena followed the scent trail, stopping every now and then when she got into crowded areas or the breeze picked up, but it wasn't too terribly difficult. Lizardman was big and not the sneakiest. Well, he could be sneaky. But not Selena sneaky.

The labs. Figures. The scale-covered nerd probably hadn't left there, looking at blood samples under microscopes or some boring shit like that. Selena knocked twice and then opened up the door, the lizard's scent far more easy to track amidst the sterilized floor and backdrop of cleaning solutions. "Knock knock," she announced as she walked into the room, scanning her surroundings. "You guys have a pretty dope set-up here. You could pull a Walter White and make a killing." Selena had a put on laugh. "Oh wait, I can't discuss illegal things any more. Because I," She pulled out her wallet, flipping out her NEST ID, "Aaaaam a deputy for you, Mr. Henry Olin. I would've called you about it but I figured you were too proud. I can read between the lines. Monsters show up, you need somebody to kick ass and hold your han-claw. It's what I do." Selena took off her sunglasses and tucked them into her pocket, realizing she still had them on. "Hey, who are your doctor friends? Selena Chilver, NEST deputy as of, like, two hours ago." If the octopus tries to shake my hand we're gonna have some problems. "Henry, hook me up with a room and then I'm ready to go kill these damned things whenever you are. Or...bring them back in for studying or whatever you guys do, I don't really know."

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Selena Wodan Chilver

Basic Information

Name:

Selena Wodan Chilver

Nickname/Alias/Etc:

Artemis

Gender:

Female

Age:

26

Height:

5'8

Weight:

160

Type:

Staff Member.

Appearance

Hair Color:

Platinum blonde or a dark hazel. Yeah, I'll get to it later.

Eye Color:

Brown.

Ethnicity:

She is 1/4th Greek, 1/4th Italian, and 1/2 Cherokee.

Physical Appearance:

To address the immediate question-how the hell is someone of Selena's lineage platinum blonde-I will address that later.

Selena's a visibly tough girl. She's pretty, but tough. Consider a whitewater river, coursing with too much force to possibly try and raft down. Or a mother bear eviscerating the dumbass tourist who wanted a picture of her cub. This is Selena. Magnificent to behold, terrifying to be held by. She's in excellent shape-she's not bulky enough to be a bodybuilder but not thin enough to be a runner. Selena's athletic, and while she's not butch or masculine, she has a firm physique and some visible muscle. She moves calmly and with focus-as strange as that may sound, it aptly describes her. She walks with the poise of someone who's entirely relaxed but ready for what's coming-as if she's expecting trouble to come her way, but not necessarily afraid of it. Selena tends to move in a way that may be considered self-assured or arrogant-she's fond of holding eye contact when she speaks, and her general posture and mannerisms almost seem to subtly suggest she considers herself to be dominant or superior. Selena has a nice smile, but she doesn't show it off very frequently-she prefers a faint grin, just a notch or two above absolute calm. Selena's hands are callused, with a fair amount of faint scars and nicks on her knuckles and one or two on her arms. She's not one to use much makeup, and has a fair amount of natural beauty-if she put a bit of work towards it, she could be gorgeous, but as is, she's a diamond that's still in the rough. Her face is heart shaped, with a small round chin and slightly higher, slightly prominent cheekbones. Her skin tone is a blend of a Mediterranean olive tone, the more reddish complexion of her Cherokee heritage, and the tan of many an hour spent outside. Suffice to say she sunburns very rarely. Her eyebrows are angled a bit sharply and thin, a dark color (that lightens slightly, in sync with her hair, but not very much). Her eyes are a warm brown and seem to have a few speckles of green. Her forehead is average sized, perhaps a bit small. Her mouth is a little small but her lips are full, a light pink.

Selena's voice is a bit breathy, a tiny bit raspy-nothing so severe as "I used to be a smoker" commercials, but she doesn't have the higher pitches that most girls have. It's nothing close to butch or gruff, but she's a few notes lower than most of her teenage girl compatriots. She's also not one to laugh often-you'll normally get a bemused grin out of her, or perhaps a chuckle. When she does laugh all the way, it's an uncontrollable belly laugh, a very unladylike guffaw. Her anger, however, is far more quick to surface. Well, perhaps anger isn't the right word-she gets a fire in her eyes and her posture shifts-chin juts out a bit, the same grin a shark gives a slow fish appears on her lips, and she normally goes through a handful of routine tics. Her fingers dance and curl up into fists then relax a few times. She rolls her wrists around. Trigger fingers twitch. Casually stretching out the hamstrings for a sprint.

Her hair is also interesting-it's in sync with the phases of the moon. At a new moon, her hair is dark hazel. The closer it gets to being full, the lighter it turns, becoming platinum blonde and then glowing a faint silver during the nights of a full moon-after which it begins to dim back to brown. The cycle repeats. Her hair is about shoulder length and she has several dreadlocks-neat, well-maintained ones, not like nappy fat ones. When hunting or doing physical activities she normally pins it back in a ponytail to keep it clear and out of the way.

Attire:

Selena dresses pragmatically. She's more used to colder, woodsy environments, so she prefers utility and durability over fashion. You can normally count on several shirts for layering, normally earth tones. She's fond of camouflage jackets or a rugged, leather/shearling coat. Jeans or khaki-style jeans tucked into scuffed and scarred boots normally do the trick. She likes comfy wool socks and this nice leather belt she got for Christmas a couple of years back-it's etched out with a lot of different scenes you can't really see without an up-close look, and if you did that, Selena would probably slap you for sticking your face in her lady area. Tsk tsk. A little class goes a long way, friend.

Personality

Innate & Outward Personality:

Selena is a huntress. This encompasses all aspects of her psyche-she is honorable, competitive, territorial, fierce, assertive, and reliable. Selena is by no means a bad person-she is a little lacking in social graces, which can often convey the impression of her being a bitch, and her difficulty in walking away from a challenge tends to make enemies, but she's not malicious. She's had her fair share of misinterpreted comments, and her lack of fashion sense can often cause her to butt heads with those who are more socially aware/stylistically inclined. Selena's somewhat judgmental-rather harshly, she doesn't tend to forgive easily, and someone who acts like a douche or lies very rarely regains any sort of respect in her eyes. She has burned a fair amount of bridges in the past this way.

Selena's competitive, as mentioned before. Proud, Selena enjoys friendly competition and especially winning. However, that being said, honor is another component of her personality-she is not only a terrible liar, she's averse to it. To Selena, there is no joy in cheating to secure a victory or lying to secure a happiness. Selena's abruptness and upfrontness often lead her to not understanding the nuances of social scenarios or the intricacies of situations-she can very easily miss subtleties that extroverts notice with no effort at all. Her pride and honor often make her squirm when forced to be quiet about something-Selena's never one to back down from a challenge, and often has trouble picking her battles. She has trouble allowing short-term losses for long-term successes.

Selena's an outdoorsy sort. She loves nature in any form-rock climbing, hiking, hunting, swimming, boating, mountain biking. The wild calls to her, and she can only tolerate being stuck inside a classroom or building for so long. Her eyes wander, and she always sits next to the window, always finds the balcony or way to the roof of a building first. Not to say Selena doesn't have a more mellow side to her-secretly, she has a few passions that she's rather embarassed to be public about. She's pretty good with yarn and enjoys making scarves and whatnot. Selena also likes to write poetry, as well as do sketches. She also loves bubble baths but will never admit this to anyone, under pain of death.

Selena's rather harsh on herself. Ambitious and headstrong, she has trouble admitting when she's gotten herself in too deep and isn't one to ask for help very often. She detests apologizing as well, even when she knows she's wrong. However, her desire to set things right normally outweighs her shame. Selena can more readily admit when she's been beaten-while she doesn't like losing, she has a very healthy respect for competition and her rivals (whom, oftentimes, don't realize they are her rivals). Selena's also somewhat hindered in the romance department-she understands fighting and competing and all but is at a total loss with flirting. Watching Selena try to flirt in comparison to her running a race or hunting something is almost hysterical-she's got no clue what she's doing and not very sure how to act on it. There are usually two extremes with this-Selena is hilariously. She often winds up "friendzoning" herself, and her physical prowess and competitive nature tend to scare off most guys. She can be rather lonely, and yearns for friendship and relationships more than she lets on.

Hobbies/Interests:

Anything outdoors. Hunting, fishing, falconry, whittling, sketches, poetry. She likes hiking and wandering around exploring places. Any form of physical activities. Challenges and competitions.

Skills/Talents:

She's an excellent huntress. Selena is a skilled tracker and pretty adept at most wildernessy, survivaly activities. Most people who know her think of her whenever that "who would you want to be stuck on a desert island with" question comes around. She's very good at moving about quietly and camouflaging herself. Selena's a skilled markswoman, whether with a long rifle or bow (she's not quite as good with handguns). She has no martial arts training, but has been in a few scuffles and knows how to handle herself in a fight. Selena's also quite good with animals, and able to sniff out a liar fairly easily. She's in excellent condition physically and has a high pain threshold.

Prized Possession:

Selena's not a materialistic person, overall. However, she has a small retinue of items that she treasures dearly. These include her leather coat I mentioned earlier, her bow, her boots, and her knife. She loves her motorcycle Also, her teddy bear. Shhh

Quote(s):

(Selena clamps her hand over your mouth as you ask for a quote and points at a nightingale that just fluttered down and landed nearby. She forgets about you and watches it curiously for a little while.

History/Bio:

Selena's mother left at an early age-her childhood was spent in-between her uncle who lived in Wyoming and her father, who lived in North Carolina. Her father's work on an oil rig kept him away for a month or two at a time. As an only child, Selena never had much in the way of a strong female figure in her life, and as such had to learn a few lessons about femininity-more basic ones such as bra shopping and periods and more complex ones such as how to deal with guys and not hate oneself more or less on her own. She had a varying degree of success with all of these, and her negligible fashion sense is also a result of her upbringing. Suffice to say Dad wears crocs and socks.

She, however, did have a few male cousins with whom she spent a fair amount of time. As such, Selena spent most of her time doing the sorts of boyish hobbies most girls her age got too involved in-and her ability to keep pace with her cousins physically kept things interesting. The events of her mother's absence were never really delved into-however, secretly, childishly, Selena always clung onto the idea that she was the daughter of the old goddess Artemis, that the little fairy tale a denial-ridden dad had told her about how her mother was waiting for her up in the night sky was true. Selena still fancies this idea but would never, ever, EVER admit it to anyone. She, underneath the gruffness she developed to deal with the cousins who treated her as a little sister (complete with pranking and constant teasing), had a pretty big hole in her heart, and never really moved past it.

In school, Selena was an average student. She liked certain stuff but wasn't really phenomenal at anything. She wanted to be a veterinarian-Selena, stemming from her time spent outdoors, loved animals, but figured she didn't have good enough grades for it. Her life was fairly uneventful otherwise-she had no major disasters, no unforeseen trauma.

Following school, Selena explored a variety of fields. She had a brief stint in law enforcement before deciding the thrill of the hunt did not make up for the bullshit of bureaucracy. Very quickly left that job. Used her on-paper experience to get a job as a park ranger for a while, and has been going steady as a ranger for a few years-she's shifted parks a few times, and done several search and rescue msisions.

Family:

Some lame-ass sister, who knows.

Relationships
| | | "" |

Henry Olin / Good / Friend, Rival / Tough bastard. Good guy. Fun to kick his ass around sometimes.

Abilities

Power Class:

Super System

Power:

The Huntress Selena has an innate predator's drive. This is nothing so cruel as, say, the Dresdenverse's mantle of the Winter Knight, but she has an edge for bloodlust and passion. Selena, I should clarify, is not bloodthirsty, feels no senseless cruelty. However, she's got a rush she only feels when she's stalking her prey, when she's lunging in for the kill-in whatever form that may take. She feels the same rush at winning a race, at killing a deer, at beating someone in wrestling-at securing her position as apex, queen of the jungle. To this end, her body is more capable than the average person. Her strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, and senses are all enhanced-particularly the latter two. She is not able to pick up cars or sprint like the Flash-however, if she continues to develop, she could easily be an Olympic athlete (in several categories) later on in life. She's able to, by more fully embracing her predatorial, instinctual side, become more powerful, however in doing so her rational thought and levelheadedness begins to ebb. This is by no means permanent, but if she moves and operates fully on instinct, she becomes a force to be reckoned with. Her senses make her a keen hunter-she is able to track scents, move near-silently, and function without much impairment at night. Her abilities are more powerful as the moon is fuller. Additionally, she can camouflage herself rather easily-this applies to muffling her scent, noise, and presence as much as it does her appearance.

Queen of the Wild Hunt. For centuries, legends have existed of the Wild Hunt, a cavalcade of beasts and hunters that stormed the skies of Europe and took prey wherever they so desired. Now giving Selena this kind of power would be ridiculously OP, but she does hold sway over wild beasts. She cannot directly control animals, but they are more inclined to obey her-particularly predators (prey animals are mostly scared by her presence). She doesn't have to fear being attacked by wild animals and can normally communicate with them to a crude extent. She's also able to sense disturbances in nature around her, and has a natural gauge for life around her. This effect is more pronounced when she's outdoors, or in the wilderness-in a concrete building,it's greatly muffled. She's also got an edge against any animal-based metahumans-as Queen of the Wild Hunt, their abilities are not as effective against her, and a natural fear and reverence (usually subconscious, something they can't put their finger/claw on but can't ignore) is present there. This is not to say that she is immune to them-however, they may have more trouble picking up on her scent, may be more shaken by her threats, more wounded by her attacks, etc.

The Daughter of Artemis. Legendary markswoman that she was, Selena is an excellent markswoman. This applies to rifles and bows mostly-she's got very little with pistols (unless they're scoped, but who does that). This is nothing really supernatural-she can't, for instance, hit a fly with an arrow or anything ridiculous. However, she is a peerless shot, especially with a bow. As the moon grows more full, her skill increases. Her arrows are capable of dealing slightly disproportionate damage-especially during the full moon, they gain an armor-piercing quality that tends to cut through most supernatural defenses. During the new moon, they still pack a punch, but aren't quite as damaging.

Actaeon's Hound. According to myth, Artemis was gifted by the god of nature, Pan, with the seven finest hunting hounds in all the world. During the full moon, Selena is capable of giving in entirely to her predator's side and transforming into a wolf. While in wolf form, she's not capable of much but instinct-based action. She can't transform back until the moon's light has left the sky-this, predictably, can leave her in a somewhat vulnerable state if she's up against enemies who have any modicum of intelligence. If she embraces the Wild Hunt/transforms into the wolf, prey will flee before her. It doesn't really do much but it's funny as hell to watch.

Limits/Weaknesses/Drawbacks:

Other:

First and foremost, the moon. While the moon is new, during the day, she's more or less your average human, albeit in great shape and with a considerable amount of training (in the form of many years spent hunting). Direct daylight hampers her abilities somewhat, and she's not quite as sharp. Her ability favors the long, drawn-out nature of a slow hunt-stalking her prey for weeks until the opportune moment to strike.

Her ability also plays a lot with predatorial instincts, and to what extent it affects her. Her territorial/aggressive nature is passively affected by this. The more she draws upon her powers, the more Selena slips into that mindset. If she's drawing upon her powers fully, she'll be fully obsessed with the hunt, with the kill, with catching her prey. Predators' eyes are focused in the center, on the prey before them. Selena can be lured into traps, outmaneuvered, and defeated more easily when she develops this tunnel vision. She also becomes more aggressive and willing to take risks, as well as more...base? Challenges will not go unanswered, and threats will not be taken lightly. These can be turned against her easily. Primal desires are more prominent over complex ones.

She is, innately, the Queen of the Wild Hunt. Whenever she is bested, however, this mantle may briefly flicker to another individual. If Selena's let her predator side take over while fighting, then she may have difficulty shaking it-establishing your status as a predator above her may result in Selena acknowledging defeat and falling into the pack underneath the new alpha until she regains her senses.

Selena's also prone to suffering the fallout of her actions. If she pushes herself too far, she can deal with anything from soreness to torn ligaments as a result of her overexertion. She prefers the slow, drawn-out hunt-exhausting her prey and then lunging in for the kill when it's weak. In an outright battle, head-on, she runs the risk of tiring herself out. Predators don't normally like confrontations where they don't have the advantage-if the tables turn, Selena may leave to lick her wounds and return another day rather than risk being bested. Her pride, however, can interfere with this.

Additionally, her powers leave her more prone to psychic attacks than most others would be. She's also, as a result of her inexperience in the romance department, a little more easily swayed by infatuation based powers or emotional powers than most others would be. Selena has a weakness to solar-based powers as well, and is not as potent within very urbanized areas.

The smell and taste of blood will also cause Selena to become somewhat riled up. In large quantities, it can trigger her more predatorial side to take over, and cause needlessly aggressive actions and reckless decisions. Think a shark near a bloodied fish. She generally prefers long-range, relatively clean kills to avoid this. Curiously, if the creature is dead-or the hunt over-this effect isn't anywhere near as strong. She can skin and clean her game with minimal adverse effects, but if she's wounded it? Its blood calls to her, an irresistible trail on the ground as it flees from her, beckoning to be bested, to be slain...

The wolf thing is meant to be a one time gig. She's never done it before and is totally unaware that she can. Her active resistance to fully "going over" and the fact she'd be completely drained for the next day or two means it's not something she can do frequently at all-it's an ultimate last resort tactic.

Sample Post:

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Selena Wodan Chilver

Basic Information

Name:

Selena Wodan Chilver

Nickname/Alias/Etc:

Artemis

Gender:

Female

Age:

26

Height:

5'8

Weight:

160

Type:

Staff Member.

Appearance

Hair Color:

Platinum blonde or a dark hazel. Yeah, I'll get to it later.

Eye Color:

Brown.

Ethnicity:

She is 1/4th Greek, 1/4th Italian, and 1/2 Cherokee.

Physical Appearance:

To address the immediate question-how the hell is someone of Selena's lineage platinum blonde-I will address that later.

Selena's a visibly tough girl. She's pretty, but tough. Consider a whitewater river, coursing with too much force to possibly try and raft down. Or a mother bear eviscerating the dumbass tourist who wanted a picture of her cub. This is Selena. Magnificent to behold, terrifying to be held by. She's in excellent shape-she's not bulky enough to be a bodybuilder but not thin enough to be a runner. Selena's athletic, and while she's not butch or masculine, she has a firm physique and some visible muscle. She moves calmly and with focus-as strange as that may sound, it aptly describes her. She walks with the poise of someone who's entirely relaxed but ready for what's coming-as if she's expecting trouble to come her way, but not necessarily afraid of it. Selena tends to move in a way that may be considered self-assured or arrogant-she's fond of holding eye contact when she speaks, and her general posture and mannerisms almost seem to subtly suggest she considers herself to be dominant or superior. Selena has a nice smile, but she doesn't show it off very frequently-she prefers a faint grin, just a notch or two above absolute calm. Selena's hands are callused, with a fair amount of faint scars and nicks on her knuckles and one or two on her arms. She's not one to use much makeup, and has a fair amount of natural beauty-if she put a bit of work towards it, she could be gorgeous, but as is, she's a diamond that's still in the rough. Her face is heart shaped, with a small round chin and slightly higher, slightly prominent cheekbones. Her skin tone is a blend of a Mediterranean olive tone, the more reddish complexion of her Cherokee heritage, and the tan of many an hour spent outside. Suffice to say she sunburns very rarely. Her eyebrows are angled a bit sharply and thin, a dark color (that lightens slightly, in sync with her hair, but not very much). Her eyes are a warm brown and seem to have a few speckles of green. Her forehead is average sized, perhaps a bit small. Her mouth is a little small but her lips are full, a light pink.

Selena's voice is a bit breathy, a tiny bit raspy-nothing so severe as "I used to be a smoker" commercials, but she doesn't have the higher pitches that most girls have. It's nothing close to butch or gruff, but she's a few notes lower than most of her teenage girl compatriots. She's also not one to laugh often-you'll normally get a bemused grin out of her, or perhaps a chuckle. When she does laugh all the way, it's an uncontrollable belly laugh, a very unladylike guffaw. Her anger, however, is far more quick to surface. Well, perhaps anger isn't the right word-she gets a fire in her eyes and her posture shifts-chin juts out a bit, the same grin a shark gives a slow fish appears on her lips, and she normally goes through a handful of routine tics. Her fingers dance and curl up into fists then relax a few times. She rolls her wrists around. Trigger fingers twitch. Casually stretching out the hamstrings for a sprint.

Her hair is also interesting-it's in sync with the phases of the moon. At a new moon, her hair is dark hazel. The closer it gets to being full, the lighter it turns, becoming platinum blonde and then glowing a faint silver during the nights of a full moon-after which it begins to dim back to brown. The cycle repeats. Her hair is about shoulder length and she has several dreadlocks-neat, well-maintained ones, not like nappy fat ones. When hunting or doing physical activities she normally pins it back in a ponytail to keep it clear and out of the way.

Attire:

Selena dresses pragmatically. She's more used to colder, woodsy environments, so she prefers utility and durability over fashion. You can normally count on several shirts for layering, normally earth tones. She's fond of camouflage jackets or a rugged, leather/shearling coat. Jeans or khaki-style jeans tucked into scuffed and scarred boots normally do the trick. She likes comfy wool socks and this nice leather belt she got for Christmas a couple of years back-it's etched out with a lot of different scenes you can't really see without an up-close look, and if you did that, Selena would probably slap you for sticking your face in her lady area. Tsk tsk. A little class goes a long way, friend.

Personality

Innate & Outward Personality:

Selena is a huntress. This encompasses all aspects of her psyche-she is honorable, competitive, territorial, fierce, assertive, and reliable. Selena is by no means a bad person-she is a little lacking in social graces, which can often convey the impression of her being a bitch, and her difficulty in walking away from a challenge tends to make enemies, but she's not malicious. She's had her fair share of misinterpreted comments, and her lack of fashion sense can often cause her to butt heads with those who are more socially aware/stylistically inclined. Selena's somewhat judgmental-rather harshly, she doesn't tend to forgive easily, and someone who acts like a douche or lies very rarely regains any sort of respect in her eyes. She has burned a fair amount of bridges in the past this way.

Selena's competitive, as mentioned before. Proud, Selena enjoys friendly competition and especially winning. However, that being said, honor is another component of her personality-she is not only a terrible liar, she's averse to it. To Selena, there is no joy in cheating to secure a victory or lying to secure a happiness. Selena's abruptness and upfrontness often lead her to not understanding the nuances of social scenarios or the intricacies of situations-she can very easily miss subtleties that extroverts notice with no effort at all. Her pride and honor often make her squirm when forced to be quiet about something-Selena's never one to back down from a challenge, and often has trouble picking her battles. She has trouble allowing short-term losses for long-term successes.

Selena's an outdoorsy sort. She loves nature in any form-rock climbing, hiking, hunting, swimming, boating, mountain biking. The wild calls to her, and she can only tolerate being stuck inside a classroom or building for so long. Her eyes wander, and she always sits next to the window, always finds the balcony or way to the roof of a building first. Not to say Selena doesn't have a more mellow side to her-secretly, she has a few passions that she's rather embarassed to be public about. She's pretty good with yarn and enjoys making scarves and whatnot. Selena also likes to write poetry, as well as do sketches. She also loves bubble baths but will never admit this to anyone, under pain of death.

Selena's rather harsh on herself. Ambitious and headstrong, she has trouble admitting when she's gotten herself in too deep and isn't one to ask for help very often. She detests apologizing as well, even when she knows she's wrong. However, her desire to set things right normally outweighs her shame. Selena can more readily admit when she's been beaten-while she doesn't like losing, she has a very healthy respect for competition and her rivals (whom, oftentimes, don't realize they are her rivals). Selena's also somewhat hindered in the romance department-she understands fighting and competing and all but is at a total loss with flirting. Watching Selena try to flirt in comparison to her running a race or hunting something is almost hysterical-she's got no clue what she's doing and not very sure how to act on it. There are usually two extremes with this-Selena is hilariously. She often winds up "friendzoning" herself, and her physical prowess and competitive nature tend to scare off most guys. She can be rather lonely, and yearns for friendship and relationships more than she lets on.

Hobbies/Interests:

Anything outdoors. Hunting, fishing, falconry, whittling, sketches, poetry. She likes hiking and wandering around exploring places. Any form of physical activities. Challenges and competitions.

Skills/Talents:

She's an excellent huntress. Selena is a skilled tracker and pretty adept at most wildernessy, survivaly activities. Most people who know her think of her whenever that "who would you want to be stuck on a desert island with" question comes around. She's very good at moving about quietly and camouflaging herself. Selena's a skilled markswoman, whether with a long rifle or bow (she's not quite as good with handguns). She has no martial arts training, but has been in a few scuffles and knows how to handle herself in a fight. Selena's also quite good with animals, and able to sniff out a liar fairly easily. She's in excellent condition physically and has a high pain threshold.

Prized Possession:

Selena's not a materialistic person, overall. However, she has a small retinue of items that she treasures dearly. These include her leather coat I mentioned earlier, her bow, her boots, and her knife. She loves her motorcycle Also, her teddy bear. Shhh

Quote(s):

(Selena clamps her hand over your mouth as you ask for a quote and points at a nightingale that just fluttered down and landed nearby. She forgets about you and watches it curiously for a little while.

History/Bio:

Selena's mother left at an early age-her childhood was spent in-between her uncle who lived in Wyoming and her father, who lived in North Carolina. Her father's work on an oil rig kept him away for a month or two at a time. As an only child, Selena never had much in the way of a strong female figure in her life, and as such had to learn a few lessons about femininity-more basic ones such as bra shopping and periods and more complex ones such as how to deal with guys and not hate oneself more or less on her own. She had a varying degree of success with all of these, and her negligible fashion sense is also a result of her upbringing. Suffice to say Dad wears crocs and socks.

She, however, did have a few male cousins with whom she spent a fair amount of time. As such, Selena spent most of her time doing the sorts of boyish hobbies most girls her age got too involved in-and her ability to keep pace with her cousins physically kept things interesting. The events of her mother's absence were never really delved into-however, secretly, childishly, Selena always clung onto the idea that she was the daughter of the old goddess Artemis, that the little fairy tale a denial-ridden dad had told her about how her mother was waiting for her up in the night sky was true. Selena still fancies this idea but would never, ever, EVER admit it to anyone. She, underneath the gruffness she developed to deal with the cousins who treated her as a little sister (complete with pranking and constant teasing), had a pretty big hole in her heart, and never really moved past it.

In school, Selena was an average student. She liked certain stuff but wasn't really phenomenal at anything. She wanted to be a veterinarian-Selena, stemming from her time spent outdoors, loved animals, but figured she didn't have good enough grades for it. Her life was fairly uneventful otherwise-she had no major disasters, no unforeseen trauma.

Following school, Selena explored a variety of fields. She had a brief stint in law enforcement before deciding the thrill of the hunt did not make up for the bullshit of bureaucracy. Very quickly left that job. Used her on-paper experience to get a job as a park ranger for a while, and has been going steady as a ranger for a few years-she's shifted parks a few times, and done several search and rescue msisions.

Family:

Some lame-ass sister, who knows.

Relationships
| | | "" |

Henry Olin / Good / Friend, Rival / Tough bastard. Good guy. Fun to kick his ass around sometimes.

Abilities

Power Class:

Super System

Power:

The Huntress Selena has an innate predator's drive. This is nothing so cruel as, say, the Dresdenverse's mantle of the Winter Knight, but she has an edge for bloodlust and passion. Selena, I should clarify, is not bloodthirsty, feels no senseless cruelty. However, she's got a rush she only feels when she's stalking her prey, when she's lunging in for the kill-in whatever form that may take. She feels the same rush at winning a race, at killing a deer, at beating someone in wrestling-at securing her position as apex, queen of the jungle. To this end, her body is more capable than the average person. Her strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, and senses are all enhanced-particularly the latter two. She is not able to pick up cars or sprint like the Flash-however, if she continues to develop, she could easily be an Olympic athlete (in several categories) later on in life. She's able to, by more fully embracing her predatorial, instinctual side, become more powerful, however in doing so her rational thought and levelheadedness begins to ebb. This is by no means permanent, but if she moves and operates fully on instinct, she becomes a force to be reckoned with. Her senses make her a keen hunter-she is able to track scents, move near-silently, and function without much impairment at night. Her abilities are more powerful as the moon is fuller. Additionally, she can camouflage herself rather easily-this applies to muffling her scent, noise, and presence as much as it does her appearance.

Queen of the Wild Hunt. For centuries, legends have existed of the Wild Hunt, a cavalcade of beasts and hunters that stormed the skies of Europe and took prey wherever they so desired. Now giving Selena this kind of power would be ridiculously OP, but she does hold sway over wild beasts. She cannot directly control animals, but they are more inclined to obey her-particularly predators (prey animals are mostly scared by her presence). She doesn't have to fear being attacked by wild animals and can normally communicate with them to a crude extent. She's also able to sense disturbances in nature around her, and has a natural gauge for life around her. This effect is more pronounced when she's outdoors, or in the wilderness-in a concrete building,it's greatly muffled. She's also got an edge against any animal-based metahumans-as Queen of the Wild Hunt, their abilities are not as effective against her, and a natural fear and reverence (usually subconscious, something they can't put their finger/claw on but can't ignore) is present there. This is not to say that she is immune to them-however, they may have more trouble picking up on her scent, may be more shaken by her threats, more wounded by her attacks, etc.

The Daughter of Artemis. Legendary markswoman that she was, Selena is an excellent markswoman. This applies to rifles and bows mostly-she's got very little with pistols (unless they're scoped, but who does that). This is nothing really supernatural-she can't, for instance, hit a fly with an arrow or anything ridiculous. However, she is a peerless shot, especially with a bow. As the moon grows more full, her skill increases. Her arrows are capable of dealing slightly disproportionate damage-especially during the full moon, they gain an armor-piercing quality that tends to cut through most supernatural defenses. During the new moon, they still pack a punch, but aren't quite as damaging.

Actaeon's Hound. According to myth, Artemis was gifted by the god of nature, Pan, with the seven finest hunting hounds in all the world. During the full moon, Selena is capable of giving in entirely to her predator's side and transforming into a wolf. While in wolf form, she's not capable of much but instinct-based action. She can't transform back until the moon's light has left the sky-this, predictably, can leave her in a somewhat vulnerable state if she's up against enemies who have any modicum of intelligence. If she embraces the Wild Hunt/transforms into the wolf, prey will flee before her. It doesn't really do much but it's funny as hell to watch.

Limits/Weaknesses/Drawbacks:

Other:

First and foremost, the moon. While the moon is new, during the day, she's more or less your average human, albeit in great shape and with a considerable amount of training (in the form of many years spent hunting). Direct daylight hampers her abilities somewhat, and she's not quite as sharp. Her ability favors the long, drawn-out nature of a slow hunt-stalking her prey for weeks until the opportune moment to strike.

Her ability also plays a lot with predatorial instincts, and to what extent it affects her. Her territorial/aggressive nature is passively affected by this. The more she draws upon her powers, the more Selena slips into that mindset. If she's drawing upon her powers fully, she'll be fully obsessed with the hunt, with the kill, with catching her prey. Predators' eyes are focused in the center, on the prey before them. Selena can be lured into traps, outmaneuvered, and defeated more easily when she develops this tunnel vision. She also becomes more aggressive and willing to take risks, as well as more...base? Challenges will not go unanswered, and threats will not be taken lightly. These can be turned against her easily. Primal desires are more prominent over complex ones.

She is, innately, the Queen of the Wild Hunt. Whenever she is bested, however, this mantle may briefly flicker to another individual. If Selena's let her predator side take over while fighting, then she may have difficulty shaking it-establishing your status as a predator above her may result in Selena acknowledging defeat and falling into the pack underneath the new alpha until she regains her senses.

Selena's also prone to suffering the fallout of her actions. If she pushes herself too far, she can deal with anything from soreness to torn ligaments as a result of her overexertion. She prefers the slow, drawn-out hunt-exhausting her prey and then lunging in for the kill when it's weak. In an outright battle, head-on, she runs the risk of tiring herself out. Predators don't normally like confrontations where they don't have the advantage-if the tables turn, Selena may leave to lick her wounds and return another day rather than risk being bested. Her pride, however, can interfere with this.

Additionally, her powers leave her more prone to psychic attacks than most others would be. She's also, as a result of her inexperience in the romance department, a little more easily swayed by infatuation based powers or emotional powers than most others would be. Selena has a weakness to solar-based powers as well, and is not as potent within very urbanized areas.

The smell and taste of blood will also cause Selena to become somewhat riled up. In large quantities, it can trigger her more predatorial side to take over, and cause needlessly aggressive actions and reckless decisions. Think a shark near a bloodied fish. She generally prefers long-range, relatively clean kills to avoid this. Curiously, if the creature is dead-or the hunt over-this effect isn't anywhere near as strong. She can skin and clean her game with minimal adverse effects, but if she's wounded it? Its blood calls to her, an irresistible trail on the ground as it flees from her, beckoning to be bested, to be slain...

The wolf thing is meant to be a one time gig. She's never done it before and is totally unaware that she can. Her active resistance to fully "going over" and the fact she'd be completely drained for the next day or two means it's not something she can do frequently at all-it's an ultimate last resort tactic.

Sample Post:

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Cassidy Lynn Daniels

"Showing off? But, love, my clothes are still on."

Cassidy leaned forward in the chair, and, in one fluid motion, hopped up, gliding a step or two before she resumed her normal gait and removed the cards from the target. She shuffled them (did she? they wound back up in perfect order) and tucked them back into her coat, presumably into an inside pocket. She walked a bit closer and observed the arena pit from a cautious distance-she'd seen the fire Diego slung around, the little lightshow Lupe let out, and she wasn't too keen on being posthumously known as "Collateral damage". "Oh, this is all quite true, Miss Belasquez. Think I've got enough scars, eh?" She folded her arms across her chest, which was an infrequent pose for the girl-she generally preferred one hand clutching the coat, ready for a quick getaway. Perhaps she was genuinely interested in the fight. Perhaps she was more at ease with the others. Perhaps she forgot.

Diego and Titus duking it out. How curious. She knew Titus' raw size didn't matter-well, didn't matter much, anyways. That beast in the halls (Cassidy blinked and for a moment there was some unnatural thing snapping Titus' femur like a hurricane snaps saplings) had been a rather big kitty, and they'd taken it down all the same. Powers were an equalizer-Cassidy had watched that fight of the century in her dorm, and vaguely wondered how she'd fare against a few of those haymakers. The problem, of course, was the small space-less room for Diego to sidestep the brute's punches. Main reason that Cassidy wasn't stepping in the ring-she'd rather dance them to death than sit and trade blows. Getting suckerpunched by the Scot with no room to dart away? Not her style. Not her style at all. Not to mention there wasn't very much flammable, not a lot of metal to work with...Cassidy always found this sort of fight to be...boring. So prototypically male. Fencing taught her the easy part was landing a touch-the footwork, the environment, that was tricksy. Reading body language, simultaneously remembering where your feet stood and where your enemies were...kept her sharp, at any rate. There were a lot of toys in this room to play with-if she had to fight, she'd try and kill the lights pretty early on. A few playing cards at each one would do the trick. Diego or Lupe lights up, and there's the target. If she had a bit more time, she could have some fun with the weights and the jump ropes, rig something up. Confining herself to a roped in square was...less than ideal. Entirely less than ideal. No such thing as fighting fair. If Cass had to throw down, it was going to be something serious-life or death, and there was no reason to give quarter on such an occasion.

All in all? Arena fighting seemed...entirely unnecessary. But these silly geese wanted to break each other part, so she'd happily watch and take bets. A future bookie was Cassidy Lynn Daniels. "If either of you get carried away and go on to that great Academy in the sky...I'll be happy to loot your corpses before the EMTs get here."

Academy 218: Still looking for new people to join - now is the primetime.

Cassidy Lynn Daniels

Oooh, the musclehead wanted to measure dicks-of course, he doesn't come out and say this, but "training", well, what else could it mean? Everyone wanted to see what everyone could do. The curious thing, Cassidy had noticed, about meta humans was that their supernatural abilities were a wonderful equalizer to the normal boundaries. There were eleven year old girls who thrashed grown men in fights, bored kids who could dabble in fields with more expertise than seasoned veterans.

It was lovely. Kept you on your toes, kept you guessing. Watching a chemistry teacher get show up by the boy who sees at the molecular level? So wonderful. Cassidy, of course, was being careful to keep her cards close to the chest-primarily, because she enjoyed a healthy amount of secrecy. And secondly, because when your cards are up against your skin, it's a lot easier to switch 'em out for a better hand.

Cass slid into her longcoat, which is really not the most accurate term-it barely came halfway down her thighs-and tied it up. It was well-fitted, and it was clear she was rather fond of the garment-Cassidy Lynn dressed nicely, if for no other reason than to add a little flair to the doldrums of high school. Even with superhumans running the gauntlet of puberty, high school was still high school. Things got dull, and if a splash of purple in her hair or a suit kept her grinning, she didn't mind spending money on it. Cassidy absentmindedly flipped the dime (wait...) down into her palm and clenched her fingers around it, opening her fingers a few moments later to reveal empty air. "Training, mmm? Can't imagine what we'd need that for. School seems pretty safe."

The training room was quite interesting-much as she would have preferred to test her limits all by her lonesome, away from prying eyes, there were some neat things in here-she well couldn't resist. A wide range of stuff, too-she saw weights and bikes and treadmills for the more mundane gifts, and a little arena for bashing each other's skulls in. Wonderful. Well, she wouldn't be stepping into the ring anytime soon-Cassidy didn't expect she'd be fighting any of these fine individuals in the future, but the girl was, at the end of the day, a teenage girl-for all her gifts, there was still an element of fear of...the real world. Against Titus, Diego? She'd need every edge she could get to stay alive if they came for her head. In the real world, the stakes were not quite as serious-but Cassidy had her suspicions about what had truly occurred a week ago, and her faith in the school's justice system was not...without its reservations.

"I can understand not wanting shots to the hair," Cassidy mused, "But none to the face? They go crazy over that, Lupes." Cassidy removed her coat and slung it over her shoulder, an act very vaguely reminiscent of Linus' blanket. She rolled a penny over in her hand and stared at one of the targets, meandering over to examine it more closely. She rapped it with her knuckles. Hmm. Foam. Probably for arrows or knives or spikes or something. Cassidy reached into her pocket and drew out a deck of cards, taking a few steps back from the target. No, that wouldn't do. Cassidy pulled up a chair and reclined back, feeling the strain in her core as she leaned back.

A lazy flick of the wrist. Bullseye. The Queen of Diamonds embedded perfectly into the target. She wasn't too terribly far out, but it was a decent shot nonetheless. "I'm happy to referee your brawl," Cassidy announced. "But I'm afraid my insurance doesn't cover every bone in my body breaking," Titus "...a foot-shaped burn within my ass..." Diego "...sudden and perhaps irreversible blindness..." Lupe "...or being bitchslapped by God's little walking Taser." Beth There. A bit of flattery ought to placate them-and assuming all of them wanted to test their mettle, they'd be squared off even now-two against two. Cassidy would judge or referee or whatever it was. That was more her style-watching from the sidelines, teasing them. No sense showing your hand until there was a nice jackpot in front of you, none at all. She was more than willing to play the weakling until then.

A paper tiger in a house of smoke and mirrors. Cassidy flicked another card into the target. "Hurry up and start thrashing each other. Solitaire's getting dull."