Obscene Symphony — Roleplayer Guild

Name:
Eliza Marks

Alias:
"Marks"

Sex:
Female

Age:
19

Experiment Tier:
Test Subject 

Enhanced Trait 1:
Speed. Eliza’s tendons, ligaments and muscles were augmented to handle moving at an alarming rate. She can reach running speeds of up to 65 kilometres an hour (roughly 40mph) although this was her fastest speed ever recorded and occurred during a life-or-death situation. It also left her nearly immobile with soreness for a week. She generally won’t exceed 55km/h, though she works herself hard in an effort condition and train herself to go even faster. In fact, she's raised her top comfortable speed by 5 kilometres since her escape, and has improved greatly upon her agility. Aside from running, Eliza can also move the rest of her body abnormally quickly, which becomes very useful for balance and reaction time. 

Enhanced Trait 1 Downside:
Amputated legs. This augmentation of speed required that her legs be amputated just above the knee. (Unbeknownst to Eliza: During initial testing of her speed, it was discovered that while her muscles and tendons were fine, her flesh and bones were not strong enough for such speed and force. Her first test runs resulted in essentially grinding the bones in her feet and lower legs into sludge.) While her prosthetics are cool, they leave her unable to swim or climb ladders with any efficiency. Hardware malfunctions are becoming increasingly common; her artificial knees require maintenance that, while she does do her best to take care of them, need specialized attention.
 Ice is her worst enemy, and tile is a close second. Another important downside to her prosthetics: They make her extremely easy to spot, to the point where any venture onto the surface is an extremely risky one. As they are one-of-a-kind and designed specifically for her abilities, every SWAT or Seeker out there knows that where they find the legs, they find the girl. And as they are impossible to hide beneath pant legs, her only options are long, billowing skirts (which tend to get caught in the sharp tips of her "toe" and make running difficult) or to try and stay out of sight. As a result, any and every venture into the public eye is incredibly risky. 

Enhanced Trait 2:
Enhanced processing. In order to handle all that speed, Eliza’s brain needed to be able to process her sensory information fast enough to keep up. In this way, when she runs, one could say she sees things as if she is moving normally and everything else is very slow (of course when asked, Eliza says she notices little difference; she feels as if no more time has passed. She really can't put the sensation into words). This helps her make quick decisions and dodge attacks that would otherwise be difficult to avoid. This also grants her the ability to make very quick decisions, a skill which lends itself well to strategy and improvisation. 

Enhanced Trait 2 Downside:
Corner-cutting. To allow for this processing, her brain ignores things like colour and sound in favour of processing important signals such as simple sight of objects and movement. For example, while she stands still, she perceives the world normally. While running, her vision fades to black and white and her senses of hearing, taste and smell shut down entirely. However, she will see objects and movement very clearly, and can even read words on the go. (This effect can be considered the same as a human under extreme stress. This commonly happens to police officers, firefighters, soldiers, and regular people experiencing things like a shooting or a car accident. It is the brain's way of protecting itself - sacrificing unnecessary senses to put that power toward processing important ones faster. Normal humans would only experience this for a few seconds, and their judgement would be heavily impaired and instinctual; Eliza's has little effect on judgement, but a lot on sensory reception.) 
This augmentation also lends itself to over-stimulation issues such as frequent headaches and disorientation. Think of moderate-to-severe ADHD that comes and goes at random. For example, at high speeds, taking in information all at once is useful; during a conversation, it can be very difficult to understand the other person when the brain is trying to drink in every ounce of information in the room. 
Another fun side effect is insomnia! 

Faction:
POLTAVA

Appearance:
Weighing 100lbs (likely closer to 120 if her legs were still attached) and standing at 5'10 with the help of her prosthetics, Eliza has what one could call a dancer's or a runner's body, slim with understated power. Her biological legs are firm and clearly powerful, and her core and arms are strong and well-defined. She has a defined face with high cheekbones and sharp features, a pair of burning grey eyes becoming the focal point. Her skin is pale, but clear, with some blemishes such as twin scars along her palms and outer forearms (wide with rough edges, reminiscent of large scrapes or burns) and a number "5" tattooed on the back of her neck, under the hair. She suspects these to be remnants of her time in testing. 

Clothing:
Eliza keeps her clothing simple, light, and streamlined; all in an effort to maximize her speed and comfort while running. She wears snug athletic spandex pants, cut short where her legs give way to prosthetics. The fabric is thick enough to act less like leggings and more like proper pants. Her shirts are generally sleeveless and snug. She tries to stick to neutral, background colours. She chooses snug-fitting clothes because they do not flap in the wind while she runs. 
Eliza can often be found in light sweaters for colder weather (she avoids heavy clothing because her speed tends to keep her temperature up) along with dark sunglasses. On trips to the surface she sometimes dons a long, loose skirt, a too-large windbreaker (making her look much heavier than she is) and a scarf. 
No shoes to speak of - she doesn't need them. 

Personality:
At first glance, many find Eliza to be rather cold. That's because she is - she has no patience for foolishness, pity, or uselessness. She's the type who will volunteer to teach someone, but slap them on the head for not trying hard enough. Though her methods are brutal, she's not entirely heartless; she just has a difficult time showing it. 
A brilliant strategist and negotiator with confidence and know-how to spare, it's no surprise that Eliza has become a kind of ambassador for her group. In fact, natural leadership qualities, high standards and a certain ruthlessness have made her a trustworthy figure within Poltava, and one of its influential members and few "leaders". Despite her cold nature, she has taken on an almost maternal attitude toward her faction members and protects her people like a mother bear. No one messes with Poltava without hearing from her. 

Weapons:
Mainly, her state-of-the-art aluminum running prosthetics (longer than pictured), complete with rubber pads on the bottoms for grip, wicked-sharp edges and thin rapier blades running vertically down their length, able to extend and retract seemingly at will. She also carries a crowbar, a folding knife and a length of thin, strong wire tied between two wooden dowels. While at normal speed, such a thing could be used to strangle someone, at high speeds it is effective enough to cut flesh and score bone. 

Eliza’s legs were designed by the testing facility specifically to fit her needs. They are extremely strong and resilient, yet flexible enough to give a significant bounce (similar to walking on a trampoline) which helps to increase her speed and jump height/distance. This elasticity also helps ease the strain put on her skeleton while running. 
While her original height was 5’6, the legs bring her up to 5’10, giving her legs an oddly-proportioned look with high knees. The legs were amputated above the knee because researchers found that the lowest amputation point that would still support her speed was her femur.


Equipment:
Essentially, a small one-shoulder backpack containing:
- A collapsible plastic water bottle
- A few non-perishable food items (bars, dried food, occasionally a canned good or two; these she needs to keep up her energy for all that running)
- A small first-aid kit with bandages, disinfectant and gauze
- A kit of small tools (miniature screwdriver and pliers, an assortment of pins, etc. Useful for emergency repairs and occasionally persuading a lock or two)
- A small bottle of painkillers (packed with tissue to prevent the pills from rattling)

Bio:
Elixa's memory of her past is dodgy at best, but it's enough to go on. She was an only child, born to parents with high standards. All her life, they pushed their daughter to improve, to achieve perfection. Her grades were great, and what time wasn't spent studying was spent in one of her two other activities: Dance and track. She was a track star and a natural dancer - combine that with her parents' constant pressure to be better and the resulting girl was near-militarily disciplined. Nothing in her life was ever out of place, nothing fell into disarray.  
Between this childhood and the present is, like all escapees, a blank. She can't recall her age when she was taken, but she's quite sure that she was an early bloomer and her capture came in the middle of puberty. 
During the escape, Eliza used her speed to seek out an escape route, marking it with nondescript chalk symbols and resulting in her new name: Marks. When she'd done that, she returned in an attempt to escort the other, younger escapees to safety. With her speed and her legs - a weapon where most others had none - she was able to fend off SWAT members and security long enough to get a good chunk of girls out. Ever since, she has been respected amongst her peers, often looked toward in difficult times. 

Other:
Speed must be sustained, and as such, Eliza is almost always hungry. She also gets frequent muscle spasms in her legs. 
Everyone in Poltava would either know her or know of her. She tries to meet everyone and know them to some extent.
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