Sharlisse
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Sharlisse | |
| Player: @sharlisse | |
| Origin: | Natural |
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| Archetype: | Scrapper, tank |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Sharlisse (no last name) |
| Known Aliases: | Shar, Sharli, Lisse |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | Early 20's |
| Height: | 5' 11" |
| Weight: | Confidential |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Blonde |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Presumed American |
| Occupation: | Superheroine, musician |
| Place of Birth: | New York City |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, RI |
| Marital Status: | Engaged |
| Known Relatives: | Katherine (mother), James (father) |
| Known Powers | |
| Natural and Tech based - see below | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Martial artist | |
| Equipment | |
| Energy blades, sai, swords, body armor, rocket boots, more | |
| ' | |
Contents |
Overview
Almost everybody gets a different "first impression" of Sharlisse than the next person. She can be the cheerful, blonde "girl next door" who's far too full of energy, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, or she can be the quietly aloof beauty in a "little black dress" who smiles quickly and automatically as her gaze flicks coolly past. She can look like a typical 20-something musician, laughing and talking music in her ripped jeans and a well-loved tour t-shirt, or she can be one of her superheroine selves -- the serious one, or the protective one, or (generally) the laughing, upbeat one who loves her job. She's usually cheerful, sometimes moody, occasionally distracted or lost in thought, and always herself.
Childhood
Sharlisse often jokes that her childhood was "pretty normal, considering." Her mother, Katherine Fischer-Lang, the editor-in-chief of Style: Paris magazine, and her father, James Lang, CEO of Eagle-Tech Industries, are both highly driven and successful businesspeople who have a rather nontraditional marriage. Her father spends much of his time in Houston, Texas and abroad; her mother spends much of her time in Paris overseeing the magazine, and traveling to the major fashion capitals of the world. In addition to homes in Houston and Paris, they have a penthouse in New York City, and Sharlisse spent much of her childhood on airplanes. Still, her parents strived to provide as much of a "normal childhood" as they could, spending much of their time in New York. Looking back, Sharlisse laughingly admits that "being raised by a one and a half parents at a time, and a nanny, and grandparents, in four homes and traveling constantly wasn't "normal" by any stretch of the imagination. Still, it was all I knew, and I got to see and experience a LOT of places and things that most other kids don't. So it was definitely a learning experience!"
Modelling
At 15, between her mother's contacts and her urging, Sharlisse embarked upon a runway modeling career. "Rather than tall and gawky, I was lucky to be tall and sort of graceful, due in part to mom and martial arts," she explained. Choosing at that early age to forgo the family name(s) in order to "make it or not on my own", she became simply "Sharlisse" and had a relatively successful, though hardly illustrious career modeling designer clothes on runways. "I can't really call it "hard work" per se, compared to a lot of other jobs that people do," she said in the same interview. "On the other hand, a runway career certainly isn't the life of a supermodel, either. You keep weird hours, you travel a lot and wind up crammed in a hotel room with other teenage girls, you deal with angst and drama and girls who are on their own for the first time at a really young age -- some of whom discover alcohol and drugs and some weird diet ideas -- and after four years I was getting a little too old for the job and a little too tired of playing "mom." Still, it was a great time, even if I never really became famous at it -- I got to travel more, see new places, and meet all kinds of people."
Musician
One of the people that she met was Lars O'Reilly, another transplanted New Yorker who was traveling through Europe with a British thrash metal band, the Bombinators. ""Ohmygawd!!" he said. "You play the BASS? And you're pretty hot. What kind of bass? Okay, yeah, Gibsons are sweet. How tall ARE you, anyhow?" It was an interesting, if disjointed first meeting!" A year later, when she returned to New York, she met O'Reilly after his new band Caketown performed one night. ""We've got a lead guitarist who's just...I mean, he SHREDS," he said, "and a drummer who's not half bad. I've been looking for a bass player for about a month and now here you are! This is totally awesome! Hey -- are you any GOOD on the bass?" And then he threw up on my shoes." Still, that incident illustrates the random and lucky nature of Caketown, much like the way their 2007 hit "Thailand Overture in E Minor" was inspired by a "60 Minutes" story. ("Thailand Overture" went on to spend 5 weeks in Billboard's Metal Top 40, and sold a respectable 400,000 copies, mostly through iTunes.) The band bills itself as a cross between speed metal and punk rock, often blazing through classic punk rock tunes in record time behind the frenzied playing of lead guitarist Todd Burnside.
Today
Superheroine
During the second Rikti invasion of 2007, Sharlisse was constantly amazed by media coverage of the selfless heroes who fought back against the invaders. "It sounds, and is kind of corny, but at some point that summer I realized that I was a "taker" and not a "giver." I was taking people's money and all I was doing was playing music, and before that I was taking people's money for wearing their clothes. I wasn't really giving anything BACK, and I wanted to make a difference. When I first came to Paragon City and applied for my hero license, I told the guy that I was pretty good at martial arts and had a few years of practice, and that maybe I could help out against lesser threats like street gangs and free up the real heroes to battle the Rikti. I had NO idea that I'd go on to become a Hero of the City -- twice!" (After achieving Hero of the City as a scrapper (officially) and part-time tank, Sharlisse proceeded to do the same thing as a tank (officially) and part-time scrapper.) "People become heroes and vigilantes for various reasons, but "altruism" isn't one of the most common."
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Skills
As one of Paragon City's "non-super" superheroines, Sharlisse relies on her skills as a martial artist rather than superpowers. While she studied karate for a few years, it was kobudo that seized her attention and passion when she first saw it. Okinawan kobudo is popularly believed to be a fighting system designed around traditional farming implements, but many of the weapons can be historically traced back -- as weapons -- to China. Regardless of the origin, she's an expert with sai, and since arriving in Paragon City, she has added short swords and Talsorian energy blades (both used in pairs like sai) to her arsenal of close-quarter weapons.
"Powers"
While they're not "powers" per se, Sharlisse has augmented her skills with technological gadgets, or "toys" as she sometimes refers to them. These include various forms of body armor, though she's been using an upgraded model of Vanguard's impervium armor for approximately a year. Rocket boots enable her to fly and to engage in another of her adrenaline fueled hobbies -- "rocket boot bungee jumping", where the wearer cuts the power at altitude and freefalls, only to recover from the dive at the last second. In addition, she generally carries or uses a defensive drone she's testing for Vanguard, a universal translator she received from ELITE, a multi-channel radio with police and other frequencies, and a standard-issue medical monitor/teleportation device.
Friends
Best friend, lover, and fiancée, Luna Nocturna is a fierce warrior and talented artist from an alternate dimension. While she has lived in Paragon City for a few years now, Luna is still a sort of "small town girl" next to Sharlisse's "REALLY big city girl" personality. Of the two, Sharlisse is the loud, boisterous, impulsive one whereas Luna is generally the quiet, softspoken, thoughtful, pensive half of the pair. Luna is the smarter of the two, in Sharlisse's opinion, having read countless books about everything relevant to her new home. Sharlisse still isn't quite sure why the sometimes shy Luna introduced herself at a party shortly after Sharlisse arrived in town, then proceeded to become an informal mentor, but she's very glad that Luna did!
Another of the first people she met upon arrival in Paragon City, Sharlisse became friends with Mobius Knight from hanging around Pocket D. While Kyle may (sometimes) appear to be the dark, grim, not-quite-brooding solo hero, he's also an all-around great guy with a dry sense of humor. Through him, she's also met quite a few of his friends and coworkers, with whom she also gets along well.
Mobius Knight's wife Terra Skye is an upbeat, positive and friendly magic user and superheroine. Just as Luna is the counterpoint to Sharlisse, Terra is the light that counterbalances Kyle's occasional darkness. Through Terra, Sharlisse has also met quite a few interesting people around "the D."
Emerie Waters is Kyle and Terra's adopted daughter, and is from another dimension similar to Paragon City's. The two met shortly after Emerie's arrival in Paragon City, Emerie reminded Sharlisse of herself at that age. While Sharlisse loves Emerie like a little sister, she's also aware that Emerie's grown up quite a bit since they've met. Sharlisse also sometimes wonders if she's setting a good example with some of her behaviors.
Another of the regular hangers-out at Pocket D, Sharlisse first met XM Radio when he was tending bar, or perhaps it was the other way around. Regardless, Xeno is as upbeat and cheerful as anyone you're likely to meet at the D, albeit a bit goofy at times. The two can (and do) just hang out for hours making small talk and making jokes about anything that comes to mind.
Long awaited update: 2012
Since arriving in Paragon City, Sharlisse has juggled several other roles as well as that of superhero: she invested in the rebuilding of New Overbrook and now owns two apartment buildings in the northeast section, though she was quick to delegate managerial and maintenance duties to better qualified individuals. Through her father's advice and suggestions, she has begun to demonstrate quite a bit of business expertise, and set about financing two different new supergroups via multiple government grants and business partnerships in the private sector. Thanks to her fundraising efforts (and minimal personal investment) both supergroups now enjoy rather elaborate bases for such relatively small supergroups. She has also demonstrated a knack for investments and has been building a rather substantial portfolio of her own.
Despite those two moderately successful attempts to help found new supergroups, after several years in Paragon City Sharlisse finally found a home with another supergroup: The Pariah Project, thanks to her friend XM Radio and their mutual friend Dynamistress, who is one of the Project's co-founders. While Sharlisse still holds a controlling interest of stock shares of both Epicenter and MIST, her role in those two supergroups is largely administrative in nature these days, as she spends most of her time working under the Pariah Project's banner.
Most significantly, Sharlisse is a little uncomfortable explaining some of the different abilities she's picked up since arriving in Paragon City. While many of these new abilities are from some of the various martial arts styles she's learned since her arrival, and others are obviously based in new technologies, she's also learned other skills that aren't so easily explained. Through Luna Nocturna, Sharlisse has begun to learn to tap and channel the negative energy that Luna herself wields, though her efforts are still comparatively clumsy. Most importantly, she has developed a rather remarkable "combat sense" that now allows her to dodge and deflect enemy's attacks with a MUCH higher level of skill than when she first arrived, or even than she had when she first became a "Hero of the City."
However, she's rather modest about these new-found abilities, and just as quick to deflect conversation away from them as she is to deflect and dodge attacks in combat! Still, she's secretly pleased that her combat prowess now keeps her out of Paragon's hospitals for weeks at a time, despite her adrenaline-fueled efforts to fight increasingly stronger foes.
"I'm a bit of a workaholic," she said in a recent interview in the Paragon City Times, "which is obviously something I learned from both of my parents. But I'm constantly trying to learn and improve as I fight crime, and I just keep raising the bar higher and higher to see what I can accomplish!"
Lastly, after several years of planning and discussion, Sharlisse and her fiancée Luna are finally planning on being married in autumn 2012 in New York City. While the two of them would (probably) be just as happy eloping, Sharlisse's parents have helped organize a rather large and lavish wedding that promises to be part wedding and part social and business event.
OOC notes
[OOC notes: Since Sharlisse isn't exactly "world famous", the information in this wiki entry might or might not be known by other characters upon first meeting her, but could easily be looked up in 15 minutes with Google. In her 18 months in Paragon City, she's done a few newspaper and magazine interviews, including one early in her superheroine career, "quoted" below.]
[Since most people don't like "godmoding," or being told what their characters know/think/feel, that's exactly why Sharlisse is simply in "a band" and was simply "a runway model." The band had a sort-of hit in 2007, she's not the lead singer nor "the face of the band," and the captions of most runway pictures simply say things like "linen dress by (designer), spring '06 collection" and don't mention the model's name. As it used to say in her in-game profiles, there's really only a small chance that another character has ever seen her from "before," a smaller chance of remembering where or in what context, and a smaller chance still of actually recalling her name. While she's NOT world-famous, she does still occasionally hear "have I seen you somewhere before, maybe?" The possibility is there in case someone wants an easy way to start an RP conversation, but please don't feel obligated to do so! And while she's also a "Hero Of the City" -- that doesn't exactly make her famous in the "City of Heroes." Speaking of "Hero of the City", she's accomplished that feat twice -- as a DB/WP scrapper, and as a WP/DB tank named "Sharlisse." (Yes, that's S-h-a-r-big "i"-little "i"-s-s-e. And no, I really can't justify two VV pages! Subject to editing as whims or in-game events strike.]
Completely OOC: Playing the Game
Since CoH is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, the player behind Sharlisse also enjoys pushing the boundaries of the game itself when not busy roleplaying. Thanks to lots of practice (4000+ hours on scrapper Sharlisse alone), Mid's Hero Planner and the Invention Origin system, Sharlise has completed the "Triple Crown of Stupid Scrapper Tricks".
First there was the "old" RWZ Challenge -- go find a spawn of level 54 Rikti, which must include three bosses. Defeat them without using temporary powers, "kiting" or inspirations -- just stand there and slug it out!
Then there was the "RWZ Pylon Challenge" -- go find a Rikti Pylon and defeat it -- solo. With "only" a tier 3 Alpha slot, Sharlisse was able to do so in 12 minutes, 45 seconds for a sustained average of 177.9 damage per second, which was somewhere in the middle of the non-super reflexes dual blade scrappers who attempted and completed the task. After Judgement, Interface, and especially after Lore pets were introduced, the times for the challenge dropped to ridiculous levels as damage per second soared. On her last attempt before dismissing the challenge as "now trivial," with a combination of tier 3 and tier 4 Incarnate slots, Shar defeated a pylon in only 2 minutes 30 seconds for an average of 383.45 DPS. [Shar should really attempt it now since all of her Incarnate slots are at tier 4, but the challenge really IS trivial now with that sort of firepower.]
Most recently Sharlisse completed the SOLO Imperious Task Force, at 0/8 difficulty. While the first and third missions were relative walks in the park -- and barely used any Incarnate powers besides Alpha and Interface -- Sharlisse wound up failing in her bid for a "Master of" run in the second mission thanks to stacked debuffs in close quarters and hampered maneuverability. The last and final mission proved to be the most difficult, involving multiple hospital trips while working out the best strategy for defeating Romulus and his nictus "minions." Ultimately, completing the last mission required reloading the inspiration tray after defeating each of Romulus' nicti, along with two applications of Warworks Lore pets. Still, there aren't that many scrappers who have attempted the ITF solo, let alone completed it. [All it takes to solo a task force is the minimum number of people required to start it normally -- then the person who's attempting it AND ONE OTHER PERSON simply log off, while the other players can "quit TF" normally and get on with their lives. As long as the second person is still technically part of the TF and hasn't "quit", the taskforce will continue but with only one person fighting through it.]
While not necessarily a "Crazy Scrapper Trick," Sharlisse and XM Radio successfully attacked the Rikti Mothership on 3/1/12 as a two person team/league. It took them only 26 minutes to defeat all the pylons, and three tries to pull U'kon out of the middle and defeat him! (Shar also wants to try it again to prove that she can learn from her mistakes, like the one setting her bomb, as well as "pulling" U'kon with a little more strategy and a little less adrenaline and enthusiasm.)
This all relates to Sharlisse's roleplaying since, as mentioned above, Sharlisse the character is more than a little amazed at some of the feats that she can pull off, especially as a "natural" origin superhero. She is tougher than some tanks, which she credits to her skill AS a tank and dual Hero of the City awards. "I just got lucky, I guess!" is another excuse that she uses when more experienced teammates faceplant while she keeps on fighting. Some of her "luck" IS due to Luna and other heroes' training, but she can't help but wonder sometimes if all of those trips through the Terra Volta reactor might not be doing SOMETHING else to her.... *cue ominous music, fade to black*
