Vandellia
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Ness, who would be no doubt thrilled to know that her image had been published. | |
| Vandellia | |
| Player: @Vandellia | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Security Level: | Confidential |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Vanessa Tremaine |
| Known Aliases: | ' |
| Species: | Mutated human |
| Age: | early twenties |
| Height: | Confidential |
| Weight: | Confidential |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Pale blue |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | English (Cornish) |
| Occupation: | Superhero, accidental billionaire |
| Place of Birth: | Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK |
| Base of Operations: | Boscastle, Cornwall, UK |
| Marital Status: | Taken |
| Known Relatives: | Janus Tremaine, Kevin Cane, "Big Bad" Ron Weekes |
| Known Powers | |
| Regeneration and stabbing people with bones | |
| Known Abilities | |
| ' | |
| Equipment | |
| ' | |
| No additional information available. | |
She's friendly and generally well adjusted, although she has a tendency to withdraw from the world when things start to get to her. Can come off as being completely laconic at times, particularly when she's feeling worn down.
On the whole she's calm and level headed, and has a rare talent for not taking things personally. She sees being shot at, stabbed and set up as part of her job and generally isn't particularly concerned when it does happen.
Beneath her shell, Ness can be insecure and lonely, but is also diplomatic, loyal and puts her family and friends above everything else.
She's a vegetarian, who believes that all life is precious - which probably explains just about everything about Ness, even if she does constantly despair of the morality of the people currently paddling around the gene pool.
Ness is a conflicted person, determined to do the right thing and trying desperatley to ignore the part of her that suspects that the right thing doesn't always make that much of a difference. She sees her role in Paragon as helping those who need it, rounding up criminals and trusting that Justice will prevail. For her, heroing is about the act, not the publicity and generally avoids press and any form of self-promotion.
She believes that violence brings more violence and that the circle of hatred and death has to end somewhere, so it might as well be with her.
Ness' powers are a result of her mutation, although she does ocassionally use a magickal rune stone to fling electricity around. Her skills with this are somewhat haphazard.
Her body is her primary weapon (Spines/Regen scrapper) - Vanessa's physiology has radically altered from the human norm. She can 'will' her bones grow to an abnormally large size and protrude from her skin. These bones can be blade-shaped and she is proficient at using these blades as throwing weapons. She can also 'burst' the bones out of her skin and into people, however they only travel a very short distance. The bones are also laced with a 'toxin', which sends the victims nervous system into chaos, burns like hell and is generally disorientating. Vanessa's entire skeleton has enhanced durability, giving her some degree of physical protection and enhanced self healing. A SERAPH implant prevents her feeling pain when she burst her bones out of her skin and her healing factor patches her up as quickly as she can do herself any physical damage.
While she does have a certain degree of athleticism and some basic martial arts training, Ness is no stronger than the average hero and relies on her pointy-toxin-stabbiness to keep her alive.
Ness has good control over her powers, but it does require some concentration on her part to stop the bones from constantly pushing out of her skin. When she is tired, drunk, angry or just can't be bothered she can loose her control of them and they tend to stick out through her skin haphazardly.
Ness has got a pretty good aim, and does her hardest not to maim anyone too badly when she's fighting. She has extensive knowledge of the human anatomy and knows exactly where she can stab, without killing.
A recent shift in her mutation has enabled her to share her regenerative qualities with those in close physical proximity to her. She's been working hard, trying to use this new aspect of her powers rather than being entirely reliant on her bone armoury. Since sharing her regeneration with others leaves her unable to use her bones (which are essentially an extension of her regeneration) as weaponry, so she's been using the magickal stone given to her by Asper to hurl electricity at those who get too close while she's healing her team mates and poisoning the bad guys. (Rad (toxin for RP purposes)/Elec Defender)
• One magickal runestone, capable of converting energy into electricity.
• Also, although it's not really equipment as such, Vanessa inherited firstly the SDI building and it's A.I, Pastoral, then SDI Ltd following the death of Samiel Dayne. The company has $21 billion in assets.
• Vanessa is currently the joint C.E.O of SDI Ltd in-between heroing. She also owns a homicidal ball of fluff called Evil, who despite being a cute fuzzy kitten, believes he is actually a Sabre tooth tiger, and is being stalked by a Clockwork that she's given a rather crude name to.
• Ness has telepathic shields in her head, to around level 43.
• Ness has the ability to fly, but is terrified of heights. Flight is her favourite method of transport, which means she's generally flying along just a few feet off the ground unless she's forced to make a run for it. Then someone'll have to scrape her off the roof of the nearest building, which she'll be clinging onto as much as is humanely possible.
• Speaks Cornish - an old Gaelic language - which her mother taught her and she tends to lapse into it when she's absurdly happy or angry.
"People drain me, even the closest of friends, and I find loneliness to be the best state in the union to live in." - Margaret Cho
Ness has managed to break out of her self-imposed isolation and loneliness, but has a tendancy to be guarded. She has problems opening up to people, believing that she has to be strong at all times. Although she trusts people, she's convinced that they won't trust her if they have a reason to believe she has doubts, concerns or problems of her own.
As you'd probably expect, pushing bones out from your skeleton through muscle and skin is fairly painful. As such, SERAPH have placed a small implant in the back of her neck which stops her from feeling that pain. If any bright spark were to take it out of her neck, using her mutation would cause her crippling pain.
She's also terrified of heights.
"You punch me, I punch back. I do not believe it's good for ones self-respect to be a punching bag." ~ Edward Koch
Ness came to Paragon City - and eventually, the New Porter Institute for Psychical Research - after a brief and largely unsuccesful stay with her biological father, 'Big Bad' Ron Weekes, following the death of her mother.
She remained largely on the fringes at the school, making only a few friends and never feeling entirely certain that she fitted in. However, while at the school she began her heroic career, working mostly with Samiel Dayne, a teacher at the school who took her under his wing and declared himself her 'big brother'.
The pair were often seen patrolling Paragon together, with her wrongly billed as his sidekick, much to her horror.
During her time at the NPI, Ness found herself attending a number of funerals - mostly those of the few people she had come to know well. Following the death of Project Alice her younger 'sister', Jack Garrett and Samiel Dayne, Ness became convinced that she was responsible for the deaths around her and began to withdraw from the school entirely.
However there was some hope in the shape of a villain calling himself Asper (who later changed his name to Janus Tremaine), who had struck up an uneasy friendship with the teenager. As she sought to close herself off from the world entirely, he ensured that she did not, and eventually confessed that she had become a daughter to him. Over time, he began to leave the dark side, assisting his adopted daughter in her work and started to look in danger of becoming one of the good guys.
Her heart was broken by her boyfriend Leonardo di Meo, who went on to become a villain and launch a campaign of harrassment and violence against her and other students at the Institute. She attempted to rebuild her life with the help of the few people she had remained in touch with, Anom, love interest Cale Reynard and his sister Ellie Reynard. When when one of Leo's actions resulted in the school being forced to close it's doors, Ness blamed herself and felt unable to join the Templars of the Abbey, where most of her fellow students had gone.
Instead, she remained in the SDI building in Skyway City, heroing in an unaffiliated capacity. For unknown reasons her attention seemed to be on Crey Industries and the Freakshow during this time.
6 months following the death of Samiel Dayne, Daniel Liebowitz - a long term friend and business associate of Sam - visited Vanessa in Paragon to explain that Sam had left her SDI Ltd and all it's assets.
Her first act as CEO (after a cigarette and a bit of a lie-down) was to set up a full-time, superheroing department, which was named Wolfcry Division and is based out of the business's Skyway City offices. Although Ness will admit that running the group has sometimes driven her to the edge of insanity, on the whole she is proud of everything that the group has achieved, although she frequently worries that the memories of Jack Garrett and Samiel Dayne will be tarnished by their actions.
All too aware that she may need to bawl out some of the members of the group, Ness tends to keep them at arms length whereever possible - something which makes her feel lonely and has caused some offense to certain members of the team at times.
When her partner, Cale Reynard went missing in action, Ness became more and more solitary, finding any interaction with her team mates simply enforced how isolated she has become. She began to descend into a barely disguise depression that lasted almost 18 months, despite the efforts of her father and friends.
However, after 18 months of isolation and trying to carry the weight of SDI by herself, Ness began to open up a little. Thanks to the support of her father, Janus.
The new outlook bought with it a renewed belief in the work she did in the city - Ness has put herself back into the driving seat of Wolfcry and she's driving it /hard/. And, despite herself, is loving every minute of it."In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." ~Albert Schweitzer
• Janus - Her adopted father, Janus Tremaine may have been a villain when he met her, but he is her hero and she loves him with everything she has.
• Leah Drayden - Ness' closest female friend and her father's girlfriend. It leads to some interesting girl-talk, most of which Ness would rather not hear.
• Emerald Razor - Teek. Ness' oldest friend, confidant, and a source of much barely-concealed neuroticism.
•Anom - Her adopted little brother.
•Fire Arm - Ness thinks that this ex-Hellion has a heart of gold, and at one point believed she was developing a crush on him.
•'Mystery Man'/The Boy - He's handsome. He's charming. He treats her like a princess. She did everything she could to keep him at a distance, but he literally, whisked her off her feet. She's taking this one slow - at a glacial pace, she says. And as such, she's keeping this one under wraps, for now.
•Kevin Cane - Ness wasn't entirely sure what to make of having a half-brother, but she's thrilled to have a blood-relative and horrified that he's sorta emo.
•Diamond - Ness' sorority sister, and one of the few people from NPI she stayed in touch with.
•Burning bright - She tried really hard not to get involved with the catgirl, but Beth wasn't having any of it and is now a frequent visitor to Ness' apartment for Buffy DVDs and popcorn.
•Light Rave - A never-ending source of support, loyalty and friendship to her, who somehow manages to see past the mask she shows the world, to see her.
•Dego Minomori - What began as a chance meeting outside Pocket D and a recruitment into Wolfcry has become something she didn't really expect - a genuine friendship. In the absense of her father, Dego has become Ness' rock, the closest thing she has to a confidant and quickly rose to the ranks to take on the role of the team's co-leader. Often seen helping her interview or search for new members of the team, Dego is one of her closest friends, trusted allies and she finds it hard to believe there was ever a time when he was not in her life.
•Frost Device - Ness STILL doesn't really know what Frost is, but she knows it's got something to do with dragons. The girl's a hard worker with an innate goodness that gives her hope for the universe, and someone Ness considers a friend.
•Wolf Larsen - initially, she was wary of this new recruit, but she's found herself growing fond of this guy with his gentle mannerisms, wicked laugh, twinkle in his eye and the beast he works so hard to keep chained up. She's got a lot of time for him.
•Kody - Teek's brother and a man she seriously considered dating at one point. She thinks the world of the guy, but again, feels like she's let him down by not being able to find his brother.
•Pastoral - SDI's AI has provided a soothing voice and logical approach when she thinks she's running out of options. That, and lasers.
•Assessment - Finally! A Product in the SDI building. Grace never fails to put a smile on Ness' face and a spring in her step.
•Lady_Lightblade - SDI's resident science lady, often a worried face at the end of a request for new equipment, but often a good friend, fighting at her side.
•Shock Factory - Ness has a lot of time for Ricky, respecting his loyalty, honesty and easy going nature.
•Ionic-Man - a newish member to Wolfcry, Ness considers herself lucky if she understands 15% of what he says. She knows he's really, really clever and kicks serious amount of arse, though.
•Mar-Cos - An android recently taken on by Wolfcry. Ness thoroughly approves of his stoic nature and toned abs.
•Monster Slayer - Alex is new to SDI, but already she's finding she has a little more in common than she was expecting.
•Van-Os - Mar-cos's 'brother', Ness finds this rather chatty, but naive robot surprisingly refreshing to hang around with.
•Volt Vigilante - One of the youngest members of her team, and one with a temper that makes her uncertain. She hopes he can keep himself in check.
