Post by Wanda Maximoff on Aug 23, 2006 5:47:38 GMT
Name: Wanda Maximoff
Codename: Scarlet Witch
(she hasn't used this name yet, but when asked for a codename that's what she'll use)
Age: At least 50, but physically appears to be in her late teens or early 20s.
Mutation:
Wanda has the mutant ability to manipulate probability, causing extremely improbable (though not impossible) events to occur. She is generally a lucky woman in ways that aren't obviously paranormal, as well as having more obvious powers.
Most commonly, her power manifests defensively, causing attacks directed at her to misfire, strike other targets, be intercepted by falling debris, or otherwise fail. She has to be aware of the attack, at least marginally, for this to function.
She can also use it offensively to cause destructive "accidents" to occur to people and objects. The details and intensity aren't under her control... she just concentrates on wanting something bad to happen to the target, and eventually it does. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of hours, depending on the situation (in general, the longer it takes the worse the effect), and can easily end up killing someone without her meaning to.
Finally, she has studied the occult for many years, and is able to cast spells to summon or avoid specific things. It's unclear whether what she harnesses is "real" magic (she believes it is) or if her spells merely provide focus for her mutant powers, but either way it works. For example, she can cast a spell to locate a specific object or person, and she will later find that object or person. She can cast a spell to conceal herself and walk through a crowded room with nobody looking in her general direction. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Although spellcasting gives her significantly more control over the specific effects she creates, it requires time and ritual and absolute concentration, and is not nearly as reliable as her more innate powers. Also, even her innate powers can sometimes "backfire" if she is distracted or exhausted or overextends them, causing bad things to happen to her.
Physical Description:
Wanda is a moderately attractive pale-skinned woman with long curly reddish-brown hair, tall and thin and apparently in her late teens or early 20s. (She is actually well over 50 years old, but under the influence of a spell of Eternal Youth which she renews periodically.)
She almost always dresses in red and black, generally in provocative, outrageous, impractical clothing, more like a costume than real clothes. A typical outfit involves a one-piece swimsuit, shoulder-length evening gloves, high-heeled boots, fishnet stockings, a cloak, and a tiara all made of red silk and black leather, topped off with black lipstick and red eyeliner.
She is frequently found traveling on motorcycles or in sportscars, generally stolen, which she drives at extremely dangerous velocities without a helmet and without very much skill.
Personality:
Wanda is supremely confident, serene, almost regal, with the air of someone who knows everything will work out in her favor because it always has. She isn't snooty about it, though, and doesn't act condescending to people unless they piss her off. She does, however, have a knack for finding people's buttons and pressing them when she wants to.
Though her confidence is entirely real, it's also very shallow. She has limited experience of failure, and when things start going badly for her she can overreact horribly or fall apart altogether. Relatedly, she isn't very good at sticking to anything or developing real skills, tending to rely instead on luck. The last thing she really _studied_ was magic, and that was in her youth. She tends to avoid battles unless she has some specific goal of her own to achieve in them.
She is happy to help people she likes, as long as doing so doesn't inconvenience her. By the same token, she does not forgive a slight easily, does not tolerate being balked, and has never heard of the notion of "proportional response."
Wanda does not think of herself as "good" or "evil," "villain" or "hero", "terrorist" or "criminal" or "law-abiding," "mutant" or "human." She doesn't categorize herself at all... she is, and always has been, a singular being in a class by herself. She's not much of a joiner, though she is perfectly willing to ally herself with groups if it suits her purposes.
Background:
Wanda and her twin brother Pietro were born shortly after WWII and orphaned shortly after that, raised by gypsies who adopted them. When her powers began manifesting she was assigned to the clan's witch as an apprentice, and became one of the most potent witches they ever saw. Eventually she left the clan to get more experience of the outside world. She wandered more or less randomly, trying her hand at a variety of experiences, changing identities as her youth became noticable. She has largely ignored recent political events.
She does not know who her birth-parents are, but she has a locket with a picture of a man, supposedly her father, supposedly a gift from him to her mother. It is inscribed "To my beloved Magda -- Magnus." When Magneto was arrested after the Liberty Island Incident, she saw his face on news coverage and noted the similarities... and the common middle name... and concluded he was her father. She set out to find him, more out of curiosity than anything else, but by the time she reached his prison he'd already broken free. Also, he turned out to be hard to find, even for her.
She knows she's getting close, though.
Current Affiliation
Unaffiliated - My intention is for her to hang out a lot with both the Brotherhood and the X-Men but never formally ally with either. We'll see how it actually works out in play.
Sample:
The truck to her left tries to cut her off, which is her first sign that she's allowed the Traveller's Ward to lapse. She veers out of its way, fortunately avoiding the car to her right as well, before regaining control of her bike.
She extends her middle finger towards the truck, a charming local gesture that works just as well to focus the imprecations she mutters under her breath as the more elaborate gestures she learned as a child. She feels the hex build up, then release itself as four of the trucks tires blow at once, sending it careening into the concrete divider. She waves pleasantly at the ashen-faced driver as she heads by.
She's been riding for too long, she realizes. The vibration of the cycle between her legs, the wind blowing her hair and cloak behind her, the rush of weaving through gaps in traffic not much wider than the bike itself... none of that is exciting anymore, merely tedious. It's time to stop, find someplace to spend the night.
Even with the Ward's lapse, though, the siren that starts up when she takes the next exit is a surprise. Oh well, she thinks... let's see what he's got. She grins and accelerates, not trying to lose the cop so much as give him an interesting ride, and ten minutes later she grows bored and allows the chase to end on an isolated, badly lit side-road. She considers simply causing the police car to crash into a tree or something, but on a whim she turns off the bike engine and straddles it, waiting.
The officer is young and fit, and even those absurd mirrored sunglasses can't conceal the way he stares at her breasts as he approaches. She grins, realizing this is not a failure of her traveller's fortune, but quite the contrary a stroke of luck.
"I'm sorry, officer... was I going too fast?" she croons, in the husky Gypsy accent she knows has the same effect on men as her breasts, and those outrageous stockings, and her absurd pose with one foot on the ground and one stretched out on the bike's handlebars. "I really can't afford a ticket... isn't there some kind of arrangement we can come to?"
The next morning, she wakes up refreshed and lets him make her breakfast. His performance was no more than adequate,, she muses as she straddles her bike again and drives off, but still far superior to the shabby motels they have along the highways.
WESTCHESTER
Codename: Scarlet Witch
(she hasn't used this name yet, but when asked for a codename that's what she'll use)
Age: At least 50, but physically appears to be in her late teens or early 20s.
Mutation:
Wanda has the mutant ability to manipulate probability, causing extremely improbable (though not impossible) events to occur. She is generally a lucky woman in ways that aren't obviously paranormal, as well as having more obvious powers.
Most commonly, her power manifests defensively, causing attacks directed at her to misfire, strike other targets, be intercepted by falling debris, or otherwise fail. She has to be aware of the attack, at least marginally, for this to function.
She can also use it offensively to cause destructive "accidents" to occur to people and objects. The details and intensity aren't under her control... she just concentrates on wanting something bad to happen to the target, and eventually it does. This can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of hours, depending on the situation (in general, the longer it takes the worse the effect), and can easily end up killing someone without her meaning to.
Finally, she has studied the occult for many years, and is able to cast spells to summon or avoid specific things. It's unclear whether what she harnesses is "real" magic (she believes it is) or if her spells merely provide focus for her mutant powers, but either way it works. For example, she can cast a spell to locate a specific object or person, and she will later find that object or person. She can cast a spell to conceal herself and walk through a crowded room with nobody looking in her general direction. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Although spellcasting gives her significantly more control over the specific effects she creates, it requires time and ritual and absolute concentration, and is not nearly as reliable as her more innate powers. Also, even her innate powers can sometimes "backfire" if she is distracted or exhausted or overextends them, causing bad things to happen to her.
Physical Description:
Wanda is a moderately attractive pale-skinned woman with long curly reddish-brown hair, tall and thin and apparently in her late teens or early 20s. (She is actually well over 50 years old, but under the influence of a spell of Eternal Youth which she renews periodically.)
She almost always dresses in red and black, generally in provocative, outrageous, impractical clothing, more like a costume than real clothes. A typical outfit involves a one-piece swimsuit, shoulder-length evening gloves, high-heeled boots, fishnet stockings, a cloak, and a tiara all made of red silk and black leather, topped off with black lipstick and red eyeliner.
She is frequently found traveling on motorcycles or in sportscars, generally stolen, which she drives at extremely dangerous velocities without a helmet and without very much skill.
Personality:
Wanda is supremely confident, serene, almost regal, with the air of someone who knows everything will work out in her favor because it always has. She isn't snooty about it, though, and doesn't act condescending to people unless they piss her off. She does, however, have a knack for finding people's buttons and pressing them when she wants to.
Though her confidence is entirely real, it's also very shallow. She has limited experience of failure, and when things start going badly for her she can overreact horribly or fall apart altogether. Relatedly, she isn't very good at sticking to anything or developing real skills, tending to rely instead on luck. The last thing she really _studied_ was magic, and that was in her youth. She tends to avoid battles unless she has some specific goal of her own to achieve in them.
She is happy to help people she likes, as long as doing so doesn't inconvenience her. By the same token, she does not forgive a slight easily, does not tolerate being balked, and has never heard of the notion of "proportional response."
Wanda does not think of herself as "good" or "evil," "villain" or "hero", "terrorist" or "criminal" or "law-abiding," "mutant" or "human." She doesn't categorize herself at all... she is, and always has been, a singular being in a class by herself. She's not much of a joiner, though she is perfectly willing to ally herself with groups if it suits her purposes.
Background:
Wanda and her twin brother Pietro were born shortly after WWII and orphaned shortly after that, raised by gypsies who adopted them. When her powers began manifesting she was assigned to the clan's witch as an apprentice, and became one of the most potent witches they ever saw. Eventually she left the clan to get more experience of the outside world. She wandered more or less randomly, trying her hand at a variety of experiences, changing identities as her youth became noticable. She has largely ignored recent political events.
She does not know who her birth-parents are, but she has a locket with a picture of a man, supposedly her father, supposedly a gift from him to her mother. It is inscribed "To my beloved Magda -- Magnus." When Magneto was arrested after the Liberty Island Incident, she saw his face on news coverage and noted the similarities... and the common middle name... and concluded he was her father. She set out to find him, more out of curiosity than anything else, but by the time she reached his prison he'd already broken free. Also, he turned out to be hard to find, even for her.
She knows she's getting close, though.
Current Affiliation
Unaffiliated - My intention is for her to hang out a lot with both the Brotherhood and the X-Men but never formally ally with either. We'll see how it actually works out in play.
Sample:
The truck to her left tries to cut her off, which is her first sign that she's allowed the Traveller's Ward to lapse. She veers out of its way, fortunately avoiding the car to her right as well, before regaining control of her bike.
She extends her middle finger towards the truck, a charming local gesture that works just as well to focus the imprecations she mutters under her breath as the more elaborate gestures she learned as a child. She feels the hex build up, then release itself as four of the trucks tires blow at once, sending it careening into the concrete divider. She waves pleasantly at the ashen-faced driver as she heads by.
She's been riding for too long, she realizes. The vibration of the cycle between her legs, the wind blowing her hair and cloak behind her, the rush of weaving through gaps in traffic not much wider than the bike itself... none of that is exciting anymore, merely tedious. It's time to stop, find someplace to spend the night.
Even with the Ward's lapse, though, the siren that starts up when she takes the next exit is a surprise. Oh well, she thinks... let's see what he's got. She grins and accelerates, not trying to lose the cop so much as give him an interesting ride, and ten minutes later she grows bored and allows the chase to end on an isolated, badly lit side-road. She considers simply causing the police car to crash into a tree or something, but on a whim she turns off the bike engine and straddles it, waiting.
The officer is young and fit, and even those absurd mirrored sunglasses can't conceal the way he stares at her breasts as he approaches. She grins, realizing this is not a failure of her traveller's fortune, but quite the contrary a stroke of luck.
"I'm sorry, officer... was I going too fast?" she croons, in the husky Gypsy accent she knows has the same effect on men as her breasts, and those outrageous stockings, and her absurd pose with one foot on the ground and one stretched out on the bike's handlebars. "I really can't afford a ticket... isn't there some kind of arrangement we can come to?"
The next morning, she wakes up refreshed and lets him make her breakfast. His performance was no more than adequate,, she muses as she straddles her bike again and drives off, but still far superior to the shabby motels they have along the highways.
WESTCHESTER
Excellent applic, especially the personality section, and as for the affiliation *thumbs up* Should be fun to have a Wanda on the site, finally, since she's one of my faves. 