Post by anoverworkedangel on Sept 12, 2018 16:21:42 GMT
Name: Mikana Dawn
Alias: Us
Gender: Female
Age: 31
Affiliation: Rebel
Physical Appearance: Mikana is tall and incredibly thin - dangerously thin, really. Her limbs are lanky, and far too long for her body, and she’s got a surprising amount of scars for one person. Her skin is pale, many of her bones show, and her eyes are a dull brown. Her hair is a rat’s nest of tangles, once soft and beautiful golden blonde hair turned to ragged edges and greasy knots. Her clothes never fit, they’re always too baggy - her favorite thing to wear seems to be a silk blouse and matching pants, items that would look gorgeous on any other woman, but somehow look so wrong on her it’s unsettling. She wears a full-facial mask, hiding a hot-iron brand beneath it that covers half of her face. Overall, everything about Mikana is simply wrong. She exists in an uncanny valley, despite being completely human as far as anyone knows. Her blood is dark, but still red in appearance, and she spills it often from getting cut up by the latest good guy trying to stop her.
Personality: Like her appearance, Mikana’s personality is incredibly unsettling. She never talks, but it is apparent that she hears quite a bit. She isn’t one to fight on her own, but has no issue talking or fighting through the Myriad (more on them later). Her low weight allows her to be light-footed and silent, concealing her presence until she’s right beside someone as long as they aren’t looking at her. She has no cloaking device, but often seems to pop up out of nowhere anyways, unseen and unheard, and has gotten the jump on a number of people from that alone. Aside from that, she has shown herself to be quite bookish and skittish, preferring the quiet stillness of a library over anywhere else.
History: Mikana was brought into the world a healthy girl, nothing like the lanky, awkward-looking pseudo human she is now. She was born into a loving family, growing up happy and full of life. She played outside, got mud in her hair, played pirate with her friends, and generally had a good time. Her parents, while not necessarily wealthy, had enough to get by and live in some leisure, as her father worked as a professor for a local university, teaching math and engineering. Mikana’s mother, while somewhat absent minded, loved her very much, and was willing to do anything for her. She seemed to have everything going for her - she was intelligent, loved, and incredibly friendly.
When she was around five, she discovered her power completely by accident. When a new neighbor family moved in, and they had a daughter Mikana’s age. When they met for the first time, they exchanged introductions, and when Mikana repeated the other girl’s name, she appeared to fall into a trance. When Mikana realized after a couple of days that she was the one with control over her friend, she began to panic, trying to undo it, and being unable to. She decided to hide it, instructing her friend to do normal everyday things with her family and trying to keep things in check. It seemed to work, but the Myriad had begun to form.
In first grade, she had gotten the brilliant idea to sneak up on her mother while she was cooking. Her mother was cutting up meat as she cooked it, not really realizing that she had been supposed to do it beforehand and was just ruining her pan, but to her it didn’t matter much. When Mikana startled her, she whipped around in fright, and mistakenly hit Mikana across the face with the flat end of the knife. Despite rushing the child to the hospital, the marking became a brand that she still has to this day. Her mother felt terrible about the incident, but there was nothing that could be done to remove the marking, and the doctors seemed to understand that it had been just a cooking accident. When she went to school, however, her teachers had other ideas. Child protective services was called, and despite swearing up and down from Mikana, her mother, and her father that it was no more than an accident, Mikana was taken from her family, and her mother was imprisoned. Her guilt about the incident driving her insane, her mother committed suicide soon after her false conviction.
Mikana spent the rest of her childhood years in and out of various orphanages and foster homes. While none of her foster homes were physically abusive, the emotional and mental toll was too much on her. She was a broken girl, and nobody wanted a broken girl. Sometimes a farmer would take her only to get free labor on the farm and return her when the work was done. Sometimes people would try and help her, but she couldn’t pull herself out of the state she was in. Some people just didn’t realize in the orphanage how broken she really was. By the time she turned twelve she had become selectively mute, tormented by other children because of her brand, because she couldn’t get a real home, because she couldn’t seem to do anything the normal children could. She had become stunted to an extent, and while she had the potential physically to be strong, she gave up on herself. Mikana started not eating for extended periods of time, she isolated herself from everyone, she compounded her own problems through a lack of understanding how to deal with them. Her father fought to get custody of her again, but the courts wouldn’t allow it. By the time Mikana turned eighteen, he had died of congestive heart failure that had gone unchecked. Alone in the world, she began to wander it, wearing a mask to hide her brand.
Power: Mikana has the ability to assimilate people into a hive minded group called, for a lack of better term, The Myriad. She can indoctrinate people into the Myriad by simply learning their real name, at which point, much like fae in folk tales, they are subject to being a potential victim to the Myriad. She can choose who to use this power on by means of whose name she repeats - repeating the name in their presence is what draws them into the Myriad.
As of writing, 53 people have been indoctrinated into the Myriad. An astonishing 41 of those are male, and the final 12 are female. These people have been marked as missing persons cases, and most of the time do not show up again on public record. Everyone in the Myriad seems to use Mikana’s full name as their own, speak on her accord, and have a tendency to do things in unison when together, though Mikana keeps them separated. It is unknown the reasoning why she is amassing people, but they all seem to be relocated to her hometown or nearby. Many of her male victims share the similarity of being fit and strong, though the age does not seem to matter. It is easy to tell if someone is a member of the Myriad - their irises will change to a striking copper-brown with streaks of gold, and they seem incapable of expressing emotion. There is currently no known way to extract someone from the Myriad.
Drawback: In order to indoctrinate someone into the Myriad, Mikana must learn their real name, say it aloud in their presence, and have them hear it. As such, she cannot indoctrinate deaf people, people who give her a nickname or false name, or people who have changed their name as it must be their original birth name. Direct familial link also protects someone from being indoctrinated into the Myriad. Strong-willed people can resist the call of the Myriad and potentially resist joining it, although men are more susceptible than women to indoctrination. Additionally, the name must be repeated aloud in the presence of the victim within three days of first learning the name, otherwise they are unable to be indoctrinated.
Strengths/Weaknesses: Mikana is more a psychological threat than a physical one. She will easily go down in a fight, but will direct a member of the Myriad to fight if one is close enough. She hides the fact that false names will not work in assimilation, and uses it to taunt people who threaten her. This can easily be turned against her though, and especially if she’s too far to practically call one of the Myriad. Any measure of brute strength is likely to take her out of a battle, and she relies mostly on evasion tactics.
Likes/Dislikes: Likes books, quiet, being alone, knowledge, and baking as well as most single-person calm activities. Dislikes anything involving other people, to the point where she will actively avoid leaving her house if she can help it. Honestly, it’s a miracle she has the amount of people in the Myriad that she does.
Fears: Crowds, enclosed spaces, and knives/blades.
Style Points: 0
Alias: Us
Gender: Female
Age: 31
Affiliation: Rebel
Physical Appearance: Mikana is tall and incredibly thin - dangerously thin, really. Her limbs are lanky, and far too long for her body, and she’s got a surprising amount of scars for one person. Her skin is pale, many of her bones show, and her eyes are a dull brown. Her hair is a rat’s nest of tangles, once soft and beautiful golden blonde hair turned to ragged edges and greasy knots. Her clothes never fit, they’re always too baggy - her favorite thing to wear seems to be a silk blouse and matching pants, items that would look gorgeous on any other woman, but somehow look so wrong on her it’s unsettling. She wears a full-facial mask, hiding a hot-iron brand beneath it that covers half of her face. Overall, everything about Mikana is simply wrong. She exists in an uncanny valley, despite being completely human as far as anyone knows. Her blood is dark, but still red in appearance, and she spills it often from getting cut up by the latest good guy trying to stop her.
Personality: Like her appearance, Mikana’s personality is incredibly unsettling. She never talks, but it is apparent that she hears quite a bit. She isn’t one to fight on her own, but has no issue talking or fighting through the Myriad (more on them later). Her low weight allows her to be light-footed and silent, concealing her presence until she’s right beside someone as long as they aren’t looking at her. She has no cloaking device, but often seems to pop up out of nowhere anyways, unseen and unheard, and has gotten the jump on a number of people from that alone. Aside from that, she has shown herself to be quite bookish and skittish, preferring the quiet stillness of a library over anywhere else.
History: Mikana was brought into the world a healthy girl, nothing like the lanky, awkward-looking pseudo human she is now. She was born into a loving family, growing up happy and full of life. She played outside, got mud in her hair, played pirate with her friends, and generally had a good time. Her parents, while not necessarily wealthy, had enough to get by and live in some leisure, as her father worked as a professor for a local university, teaching math and engineering. Mikana’s mother, while somewhat absent minded, loved her very much, and was willing to do anything for her. She seemed to have everything going for her - she was intelligent, loved, and incredibly friendly.
When she was around five, she discovered her power completely by accident. When a new neighbor family moved in, and they had a daughter Mikana’s age. When they met for the first time, they exchanged introductions, and when Mikana repeated the other girl’s name, she appeared to fall into a trance. When Mikana realized after a couple of days that she was the one with control over her friend, she began to panic, trying to undo it, and being unable to. She decided to hide it, instructing her friend to do normal everyday things with her family and trying to keep things in check. It seemed to work, but the Myriad had begun to form.
In first grade, she had gotten the brilliant idea to sneak up on her mother while she was cooking. Her mother was cutting up meat as she cooked it, not really realizing that she had been supposed to do it beforehand and was just ruining her pan, but to her it didn’t matter much. When Mikana startled her, she whipped around in fright, and mistakenly hit Mikana across the face with the flat end of the knife. Despite rushing the child to the hospital, the marking became a brand that she still has to this day. Her mother felt terrible about the incident, but there was nothing that could be done to remove the marking, and the doctors seemed to understand that it had been just a cooking accident. When she went to school, however, her teachers had other ideas. Child protective services was called, and despite swearing up and down from Mikana, her mother, and her father that it was no more than an accident, Mikana was taken from her family, and her mother was imprisoned. Her guilt about the incident driving her insane, her mother committed suicide soon after her false conviction.
Mikana spent the rest of her childhood years in and out of various orphanages and foster homes. While none of her foster homes were physically abusive, the emotional and mental toll was too much on her. She was a broken girl, and nobody wanted a broken girl. Sometimes a farmer would take her only to get free labor on the farm and return her when the work was done. Sometimes people would try and help her, but she couldn’t pull herself out of the state she was in. Some people just didn’t realize in the orphanage how broken she really was. By the time she turned twelve she had become selectively mute, tormented by other children because of her brand, because she couldn’t get a real home, because she couldn’t seem to do anything the normal children could. She had become stunted to an extent, and while she had the potential physically to be strong, she gave up on herself. Mikana started not eating for extended periods of time, she isolated herself from everyone, she compounded her own problems through a lack of understanding how to deal with them. Her father fought to get custody of her again, but the courts wouldn’t allow it. By the time Mikana turned eighteen, he had died of congestive heart failure that had gone unchecked. Alone in the world, she began to wander it, wearing a mask to hide her brand.
Power: Mikana has the ability to assimilate people into a hive minded group called, for a lack of better term, The Myriad. She can indoctrinate people into the Myriad by simply learning their real name, at which point, much like fae in folk tales, they are subject to being a potential victim to the Myriad. She can choose who to use this power on by means of whose name she repeats - repeating the name in their presence is what draws them into the Myriad.
As of writing, 53 people have been indoctrinated into the Myriad. An astonishing 41 of those are male, and the final 12 are female. These people have been marked as missing persons cases, and most of the time do not show up again on public record. Everyone in the Myriad seems to use Mikana’s full name as their own, speak on her accord, and have a tendency to do things in unison when together, though Mikana keeps them separated. It is unknown the reasoning why she is amassing people, but they all seem to be relocated to her hometown or nearby. Many of her male victims share the similarity of being fit and strong, though the age does not seem to matter. It is easy to tell if someone is a member of the Myriad - their irises will change to a striking copper-brown with streaks of gold, and they seem incapable of expressing emotion. There is currently no known way to extract someone from the Myriad.
Drawback: In order to indoctrinate someone into the Myriad, Mikana must learn their real name, say it aloud in their presence, and have them hear it. As such, she cannot indoctrinate deaf people, people who give her a nickname or false name, or people who have changed their name as it must be their original birth name. Direct familial link also protects someone from being indoctrinated into the Myriad. Strong-willed people can resist the call of the Myriad and potentially resist joining it, although men are more susceptible than women to indoctrination. Additionally, the name must be repeated aloud in the presence of the victim within three days of first learning the name, otherwise they are unable to be indoctrinated.
Strengths/Weaknesses: Mikana is more a psychological threat than a physical one. She will easily go down in a fight, but will direct a member of the Myriad to fight if one is close enough. She hides the fact that false names will not work in assimilation, and uses it to taunt people who threaten her. This can easily be turned against her though, and especially if she’s too far to practically call one of the Myriad. Any measure of brute strength is likely to take her out of a battle, and she relies mostly on evasion tactics.
Likes/Dislikes: Likes books, quiet, being alone, knowledge, and baking as well as most single-person calm activities. Dislikes anything involving other people, to the point where she will actively avoid leaving her house if she can help it. Honestly, it’s a miracle she has the amount of people in the Myriad that she does.
Fears: Crowds, enclosed spaces, and knives/blades.
Style Points: 0