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Styx

NAME:

Ellen "Ellie" Cromwell

CHARACTER INFO:

Ellie is a mutant with a power not commonly associated with petite girls like herself: she appears to be completely invulnerable to harm. The extent of this immunity to damage hasn't, in the few years since her powers have manifested, been thoroughly explored, but she's suffered quite a bit of abuse already, and has thus far come through completely unscathed.

Needless to say, this development has led to her being rather reckless, and provides little motivation for her to improve upon her clumsy lack of coordination, and her poor balance.

She tends to display a happy-go-lucky, cutesy, perpetually optimistic and almost childish personality; seeming to want to pretend as though she is as imperturbable emotionally as she is physically. Ironically, however, she's actually a rather fragile soul, and her incapacity, or unwillingness, to deal with her pain is a source of much inner turmoil.

This psychological instability seems to stem from a childhood of severe parental abuse and continuous bullying from her peers, followed by expulsion from her childhood home after her mutation became impossible not to notice. This period of her life, and the long period of homelessness afterwards, is seldom discussed; ever-hidden behind a vacuous smile - you really have to drag it out of her.

Her preferred manner of dress is extremely practical and simple, with a definite bias toward durable materials, given the inevitable wear-and-tear her wardrobe has to suffer through. Ellie's greatest frustration is the glasses she's (somewhat) required to wear, being unable to get laser-treatment for her myopia and constantly damaging her eye-wear with risky shenanigans. She often opts to just go without, but this only adds to her already embarrassing lack of coordination.

A curious side-effect of her power is that her hair (and fingernails) have ceased to grow, leaving her with a rather messy and poorly styled 'do. Still, given that no scissor could cut it, this is probably for the best.

Lastly, her self-given codename is derived from the infamous river of the underworld out of Greek mythology, immersion in which was said to grant invulnerability, as it did to Achilles.

AGE:

17

STRENGTHS:

Thus far, nothing has been able to physically damage this young mutant. Her inability to feel pain, and her immunity to damaging factors such as radiation or temparature, furthermore, allow her to operate as normal in the most hostile environments. She doesn't seem to experience fatigue, and can casually go without food or water for extensive periods of time, suggesting her mutation involves more than just a very tough exterior. These abilities make this young female a formidable, natural survivor, and allows her to complete tasks that would prove deadly to others.

WEAKNESSES:

Apart from her immunity to harm, Ellie is otherwise a normal, human teenager. She is nowhere near peak physical condition, and has no fighting skills to speak of. As such, her offensive capabilities, particularly given super-powered adversaries, are extremely limited. She's likely to only ever be able to serve a defensive role, unless put to some clever, tactical use.

Furthermore, being small and skinny even for her age, and lacking super-strength, many forms of attack may still incapacitate her. After all, while she might be able to survive the impact of, say, a direct hit by a tank shell, she is still going to be flung back by the explosion, running a very real risk of being buried in debris she herself cannot hope to lift. Her reckless nature makes occurences like this depressingly likely.

Combined with her utter inexperience as a team-player, she is currently not a very effective combatant, unless she gets a chance to simply wear her opponent out through sheer perseverance.

It is at this point unknown how her abilities fare against more exotic attacks (magic, psionics, etc.), materials generally also deemed virtually indestructible (adamantium, vibranium, etc.), or even such mundane hazard as viral and bacterial infections. It also remains to be seen whether prolonged deprivation of neccesary conditions for life - oxygen, food, sleep - have any detrimental effects on her in the long run.

SKILLS

Ellie isn't actually very skillful, though not entirely without potential. She's been forced to do household chores for most of her childhood, and is somewhat proficient at cleaning and cooking, but her intense loathing of such tasks means she's unlikely to (willingly) engage in them. She does have quite a knack for the repair of clothing, having been forced to patch up her own outfit myriad times.

In terms of sports, mostly she engages in made-up, ridiculously hazardous "extreme sports" involving activities pretty much only she, or others of similarly indestructibility, could hope to participate in. And if she messes up - which is frequently - well.. no harm, no foul.

WEAPONS

None. And no sane person would ever give her any, as she'll have someone's eye out in mere seconds.

Sample RP:

A short shock of hair languidly dances around her head, as the teenage girl sits, cross-legged, and watches all the people in bathing suits floating around, several meters above her. She likes it down here: it's quiet. Not even a single bubble rises up from her mouth as another minute passes, and Styx - as she calls herself - continues to sulk at the bottom of the public pool. Nobody sees her. Other dive underwater, of course, but few can bear to keep their eyes open for long in these heavily chlorinated waters.

She SO could've pulled off that double salto mortale, she repeats bitterly to herself, if only that stupid diving board hadn't been in the way. All the boys she'd hoped to impress had laughed. And the girl with them? Twice as hard.. Probably moreso because of her stupid, shabby one-piece bathing suit, which, admittedly, she'd found in a garbage can. There'd been some screaming, too, but that was probably only because of the way her head had collided with the board mid-flip.

It really wasn't fair.

Frowning, the young mutant suddenly notices the guy who's supposed to be watching the pool - or so she guesses - diving down towards her; confusion (and some relief) visible in his expression, as the girl he'd been sure must be knocked out and drowning simply sat there, staring at him blankly. He floats aimlessly for a moment, wondering if he still ought to rescue her - or perhaps escort her out of the pool, given his boss's clear no-dirty-mutants policy - but he decides against it.

Something in the girl's eyes..

What sort of growth potential do you see for your character?

In terms of combat, as well as social skills, there's a lot for Styx to learn. Her basic education has also suffered, given that she's been living on the streets.

Her power, meanwhile, is entirely automatic and poorly understood, even by herself; though it seems to function on the molecular level. It isn't clear if there's any form of conscious control she could exert over it and, if so, what possible use this could have apart from 'switching off' long enough to, for example, cut her hair.

How often do you think you will rp?

Fairly frequently.