Marcia Joan Lewis
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Marcia Joan Lewis | |
| Player: @SPTrashcan | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Corruptor |
| Threat Level: | n/a |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Anthrocyton lewisii |
| Known Aliases: | Lucy Edwards, Chantelle Cooke, Magrid Danforth, many others |
| Species: | Cancer |
| Age: | 38 |
| Height: | varies |
| Weight: | varies |
| Eye Color: | varies |
| Hair Color: | varies |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | USA |
| Occupation: | varies |
| Place of Birth: | Rhode Island |
| Base of Operations: | varies |
| Marital Status: | varies |
| Known Relatives: | none |
| Known Powers | |
| Spore miasma, toxic paralysis | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Infectious, psi-net, rapid gestation | |
| Equipment | |
| varies | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Affiliations
Traces of MJL cells have been found in the presence of members of Familia Tenebrae Amor and Foxtrot Company, among others.
Personality
Marcia Joan Lewis has no true personality. Active queens have a false personality created from elements of the personalities of infected individuals, chosen for best adaptation to the situation. However, these personalities are not real and cannot be relied on. The only reliable fact about Marcia Joan Lewis is that it will always act in what it perceives as its own best interest.
Powers
Spore Miasma
The most immediately obvious power of the queens is their miasma of dead MJL cells. As circumstances require, queens can generate massive quantities of specialized spores which they exhale or release through their skins. The spores have a variety of effects, from deadly toxins to grasping slime puddles to nutrients and stimulants that promote healing.
Toxic Paralysis
Miasma cells cannot infect a host after leaving a host's body, but they can remain alive inside the brain for some time. On a psychic command from a queen, these cells will attack the brain, inducing tremors or paralysis.
Additional Powers
Abilities
Infectious
MJL cells are a blood-borne pathogen, and can be transmitted through blood transfusion or other direct blood-to-blood vectors. It takes a significant quantity of MJL cells to successfully infect a potential host. Initial symptoms are a slight cough and fever, which disappears in 1 to 2 weeks, and an elevated sex drive which persists as long as the infection remains. Most hosts do not realize they carry the MJL cells and are likely to spread the infection to others via sexual contact.
Rapid Gestation
Under certain circumstances, the MJL infection will go through a rapid and violent second stage. The MJL cells multiply at a phenomenal rate inside the body, gathering around and inside the skeleton. They then undergo a process of differentiation, transforming from identical cancerous cells to various body tissues. As the host body degrades, this new body emerges from inside the victim. The entire process takes less than a second and results in the violent explosion of the host, who is replaced by a juvenile queen. As a side effect, anyone standing near the host is showered with toxin-laden degrading tissues, sickening and blinding them. The queen is initially quite weak after this process, but will develop into a full queen within the space of a minute.
Psi-Net
All MJL cells are slightly psychic and form a constant psychic network among all infected individuals. Queens form the hubs of this network, as their brains are more than 25% MJL cells; their right frontal lobe is solid MJL cell and their right eyes are replaced by focusing organs for psychic signals.
Weaknesses and Limitations
As diseases go, MJL is neither very infectious nor easily transmissible. Fewer than 10 percent of exposed individuals become infected, and most metahumans are entirely immune. Further, the queens are no tougher than ordinary humans, and their miasma powers take a long time to kill their victims. Finally, for reasons speculated to involve the complexity of maintaining a cohesive networked mind, no more than five queens are ever active at the same time.
Equipment
The only item queens consistently carry is one or more sharp knives. These can be used as thrown weapons, but are more often employed to slice open the queen's skin, releasing toxin-laden blood.
Character History
Is too long to fit reasonably into this space. Please see Marcia_Joan_Lewis/Vectors.
Retired
The MJL queens appear to have gone dormant. Whether this is because the conditions are not right for MJL's further propagation, or because the MJL infection is now so widespread that it no longer needs assistance, is unknown.
