Post by renarde on May 2, 2012 3:01:51 GMT -5
Basics: Renard, Cynthia. Firestorm.
Full Name: Cynthia Kirkland Renard.
Codename: Firestorm.
Nicknames: Cindy, Lady of Fire, Renarde, la Châtelaine de Mont Noir -- "Lady of Black Mountain Castle", la Renarde d'Auvergne -- "Vixen of Auvergne" (latter two in France).
Type: Original.
Gender: Female.
Species: Homo superior
Age: 34
Date of Birth: August 1
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Current Residence: New York City, New York.
Loyalty: Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
Occupation: Organist/terrorist.
Hair Colour: Dark red
Eye Colour: Blue
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 170 lbs.
Body Type: Fit and flawless.
Typical Style: Casual.
Distinguishing Features: Her hair, which she wears down to her waist, with a profusion of well-kept bangs framing her forehead and her face; and her eyes, which are constantly lit from within.
Physical Mutations: Her eyes; her cellular structure and internal organs, notably digestive and respiratory systems.
Uniform: Understandably, Cynthia's uniform was made of a special fireproof fibre. Except, that is, for a gilded fillet which holds a gem of blue zirconia in place on her forehead, framed neatly by her bangs. For the rest, she wears a pair of tights, black in colour, and a matching bodysuit. Over this goes a sleeveless dress that reaches her ankles. For the most part it is deep blue as well, but around her shoulders is a raised section, in black, that flares out a little above her shoulders and features a two-inch collar. Resembling leather, it is divided from the "fabric" by a strip of gold that traces her collarbone. The dress is gathered in at her waist, and she wears a black belt over this: below the waistline the skirt is divided down the front, although this is not normally apparent as the edges overlap. The hem of the skirt is edged in black. Her legs are further sheathed in thigh-high black boots. Her arms, likewise, sport black opera gloves, made to resemble silk. Her upper arms are bare.
Personality: Cynthia is assertive, sometimes to the point of being aggressive. At times it can come off as playfulness -- she has a keen sense of humour, and a surprisingly light touch with sarcasm. However, she was brought up to fight: for what she wants, for what she believes in; and she has long since lost any qualms about using violence against those who oppose her. Nor is she adverse to a bit of manipulation, should sheer strength not be suited to the task.
There is a large protective streak in her nature. With children -- even human children -- this often comes out as a maternal instinct (she sometimes wishes she had children of her own). In general, however, the best defense is a good offense for her, and for many years what she has been defending are mutants. By now she has fully embraced the idea of mutant supremacy, in the flavor of mutants ruling humans -- she has no hatred for humankind in general, nor for that matter an indiscriminate love of mutants. Moreover, she has really come to enjoy using her powers to take what she wants, and dominate humans (and even less powerful mutants); she would love to go on to conquer the world and officially rule over a chunk of it.
Despite her powers, Cynthia is typically a calm woman, in control of herself if not her surroundings. This is not to say she is reserved; quite the contrary, she tends to speak her mind, unless it would be overly rude. Even when she does become angry, she rarely yells, but she does become crueler in her humour, and more vicious and intense in her attacks if she is engaging an opponent. Such moods are not, alas, rare, but they do not define her. She prefers making music or spending time with her friends than wreaking devastation, fun as that is.
Family:
- Apostol Popov; maternal grandfather; farm worker and former Soviet agent; deceased
- Alfred Carlton Renard; father; banker; 62
- Anastasia Renard, née Popov; mother; 59
- Nicholas Carlton Renard; older brother; singer; 38
- Anastasia "Annie" Popov Poe, née Renard; older sister; waitress; 36
- Lieutenant Louis Valentine Renard; younger brother; discharged veteran, now secretary; 32
History: Cynthia's grandfather was a Russian Communist agent, who, after falling in love with an Amercian girl and defecting, retained one thing from his training: the determination to fight tooth and nail for what one believes in, regardless of cost. He never saw eye-to-eye with the man his third daughter married, but they had this in common, as well as a love for the United States and its ideological foundations of justice and freedom. Both men would play an important role in her early life, never mind her mother, who after all had been willing to stand up to her father to marry the man she loved.
Rather paradoxically, Mr. Alfred Renard, champion of democracy and capitalism, was nearly obsessed with his family's reputed roots in the French aristocracy. Being a man of means, he and his family would therefore spend their summers in an obscure village in Auvergne, in a house built on what he claimed to have been the ancient seat of the Renards. These "vacations" began when Cynthia was about a year old; for all she knows, they continue to this day. They were not pure idleness, however, as Mr. Renard saw to it that his children learnt to appreciate the French language, French cooking, and French martial arts.
Cynthia first manifested pyrokinesis when she was thirteen. At first she got into trouble -- her parents thought she was playing with matches, they even feared that she had pyromania. She, of course, denied this -- she was doing it accidentally, and in time managed to get enough control to demonstrate to her parents her ability. This eventually alleviated their fears, but left them with a certain reservation. What does one do with a girl who controls fire, anyway? They talked to her about discipline, and responsibility, and being careful; she listened, and chafed, and wondered if they really loved her.
Grandpapa Apostol came to the rescue. He got her to see her mutation as an extension of her spirit, and helped her to focus it through martial arts. And not just savate and fencing (which he viewed with suspicion, like everything else connected with her father); he instructed her as best he could in the combat techniques he had learned in Russia. Tempered by his example, she forged ahead with her life. Sadly, his support was withdrawn from her in her sixteenth year -- he died in August, the family having to cut short their stay in France to return home to his funeral.
After that, she became somewhat more rebellious. She began to chafe not only against her parents but against society in general, placing such absurd restrictions on, for instance, drinking. She had been drinking practically all her life; why shouldn't she do it in public? Of particular interest to her, though, were other mutants, and especially those from backgrounds less genial than hers. When she was seventeen, she fell in love with one such mutant. Taylor Watts was a nice boy: he was also a "werewolf" and therefore practically an outcast at the high school.
When her father found out, he forbade her from speaking to him again. Controlling fire (and no visible mutations besides pretty glowing eyes) was one thing. Shaggy hair and bestial features, never mind instincts, were quite another, and Mr. Renard would not have his blood polluted by such a union. Cynthia, naturally, would not hear her beau described in such terms, and the two had a tremendous row. Her father threatened to kick her out; she threatened to leave and good riddance. After the two parted, Mrs. Renard talked, more reasonably, with her daughter. The upshot of it was, that while Anastasia did not approve of the match either, she believed in letting her children choose for themselves.
In what seemed like a miracle, Taylor landed a job after graduating high school. It was in Wyoming, with a local facility of Lobo Technologies. He promised to wait for her, while she finished high school in Portland. Then, over her father's objections but with her mother's tacit approval, she moved out to Wyoming, planning to marry him there.
He had remained faithful. Something else, however, had changed. She had never guessed, from his letters, just what was going on in his mind in relation to his workplace, and his employer. Said employer was Maximus Lobo, and he had solicited Taylor specifically because of his mutation. Lobo believed that werewolves were naturally superior to all other life; yes, even to other mutants. Playing on Taylor's bitterness, he had drawn the young man into sharing the belief. Taylor explained all this to Cynthia, expecting her to be thrilled.
She was not. They had met in a small restaurant on the evening of her arrival, and there she told him in no uncertain terms what she thought of the idea of the "Dominant Species". The argument rivaled the one she had had with her father, and by the end of it small flames were flickering in the air and on the table and chair. Taylor hardly seemed to notice, but the proprietor did. After the wolfman stormed off, and Cynthia, abashed, was absorbing the fire before it could do more than char, he approached her. She expected to be asked to leave, perhaps to never come back. To her surprise, he asked if she had a job.
Mr. Tavistock was quite a daring entrepreneur. Within a few days the mutants' quarrel was the talk of the town, and everyone wanted to come to the restaurant and see the Fire Lady, as she was quickly dubbed. She initially worked as a waitress, but he expanded the restaurant to include a stage, and there he ahd her perform, with fire and sword. It kept her in good condition, and it broke the ice between her and the townsfolk. She eventually also landed a position as organist at the local church, and so was relatively well-off. Taylor, meanwhile, stayed in the background, and eventually left the area with the other employees of Lobo when the facility shut down, moving to the corporate headquarters in White Horse.
She did not communicate with her parents until after she had settled in (and received a letter from her mother). When he found out, Mr. Renard was not so much smug as anxious to have her "get her life back on track". There was further outrage and debate, expressed over the telephone, when she refused to seek a college education. At that point, he disinherited her, and said he would regard her as dead. This did not prevent her from continuing to exchange letters with her mother and siblings, however; her father simply pretended the correspondence did not exist.
Cynthia settled in, and had all gone well might have lived out her life there. It was not mean to be, however. Her fame attracted people from all around the state, including anti-mutants. When she was twenty-two, the church she worked for got a new pastor, one more concerned with preaching hatred of mutants than love of God and neighbour. Her first conflict with him came early on, when a man with strong physical mutations came into town, inspired by her story. He was set upon by a mob, which Cynthia chased off. She then brought him to the church for charity, which the pastor refused to give. After several weeks of supporting the man herself, and taking all kinds of flak, he moved on, grateful but not wanting to put her to any more trouble. Neither she nor the pastor forgave each other for this.
The next clash would be far more serious; fatal, in different ways, for them both. One night, two years later, Cynthia found a mob knocking on her door. She tried facing them down, but guns were pulled. Injured, she lashed out with her flames. That killed several and dispersed the rest.
The next day she was arrested for murder, and to her disgust faced a jury made up of her attackers. No lawyer would take her case; the one appointed to her for the sake of the law was obviously not interested in defending her. Faced with no hope of a fair trial, she decided, in a literal white-hot fury, that she had had enough. She burnt down the courthouse, killing the judge and as many of the jurors as she could; then she hunted down the pastor and killed him as well. His rhetoric had turned the town -- the entire county -- into a hotbed of bigotry, and he paid with his life.
She was tempted to burn the church building and the rest of the town into the bargain, but spared them for old times' sake. The malefactor was dead, but her own life was ruined. She wandered off into the hills, and cried. That was when the Brotherhood found her. They had been watching her from afar, and when she had been arrested an agent came to the area. Now he offered her a new life. She accepted after only minor hesitation.
Her training was intensive. The skills she had developed as a youth were rusty; they were polished and sharpened to lethal perfection. Just as importantly, she was indoctrinated in the vision of a world where mutants, as superior beings who ruled over humanity. She embraced it all willingly, letting go of any regret for her actions or fear of what she might do in the future. Nothing could be worse than the evil she had witnessed during those four years.
Soon enough, she was undertaking real missions. She stuck with Magneto's ideals through thick and thin, even though he abandoned the team. She split off from the Brotherhood, forming her own splinter group and moving to France. She set up her headquarters in the ruins of a castle near her family's summer home, taking the codename "Châtelaine" and adopting a new uniform as she worked to advance her cause in France, Switzerland, Monaco and Andorra.
She had made a name for herself but little headway when she heard that Magneto had been given control of Genosha. She took her band south to renew her loyalty to him. She helped him in the civil war, then following the United Nations' treachery she was sent back to France to lay the groundwork for his invasion. That never came, however, as Genosha was reduced to ruins once more. Following that, she went to ground.
Making her way back to America, her former allies gone, she found work at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City as an organist. Once more she chafed, waiting for a real leader to show up. When Magneto returned and restored the Brotherhood she was at first suspicious, but when she heard of Sublime's death she was convinced that this was the real Magneto and rejoined the Brotherhood. She resumed her old codename of "Firestorm" as well as her old uniform. Now, a month later, she just waits for an order to strike down this new form of tyranny.
Classification: Alpha
Powers:
- Pyrokinesis: The basic ability to generate and control flames. In Cynthia's case, they are generated from energy stored in her body, able to manifest from her flesh or in a three-inch sheath around her; or in any material that is hot enough, up to a radius of seven feet from her heart. Due to long experience, she has excellent control over this manifestation; and all the fire she generates burns a pure blue. She can also control any fire within a hundred yards. She normally directs fire with her movements, but these are really an aid, as her control over flames is mental (almost empathic: any flames she exerts control over she feels as extensions of herself). She need not bother with somatic direction, although she must focus if she dispenses with gestures.
- Sublimation: This power has two related, but very different functions. First, in an action similar to meditating, Cynthia can run a "purifying flame" through her body, purging out all foreign influences and imperfections, such as bacteria, viruses, poison, scar tissue, and undigested food. While she is doing this she is sheathed in an aura of her blue flame; the purged matter escapes from her pores in the form of vapour. The process leaves her feeling tired but renewed. On the other hand, she can use the same process on an external object by touching it; the object rapidly heats from within, the heat being contained, until it is transmuted into blue flame and vapour (or in some cases, liquid). It takes about a minute to consume a twenty-pound object, using both hands, in this fashion; while using it, both her hands and the effected object are bathed in the fiery blue aura.
- Thermophagy: Cynthia constantly absorbs heat energy as a passive ability. This is now her main source of energy; food is merely a supplement to this (though a necessary one if she wants to use the energy for something other than life-support). Her respiratory system has also been altered; breathing has become semi-optional, serving mainly to remove byproducts of her new internal chemistry, which can also be accomplished through Sublimation. She can also choose to actively draw heat to herself; the closer the heat is to her the faster it is drawn in, while her farthest range is a hundred yards. Living bodies cannot have the heat sucked out of them in this fashion however. Her cellular structure has been modified to enable her to hold a good deal of energy in reserve: she can use this to fuel her body in place of direct heat or food, to keep her temperature up, to speed natural healing, to jumpstart her pyrokinesis when there is no external fuel, or just expel it to rapidly increase the ambient temperature (she has been able to hit 2999 F within a foot of her skin).
These reserves do take time to build up though (or exposure to extreme heat, or gorging). And the downside to this is, that if deprived of an external heat source, she will have to start burning her reserves to stay healthy -- she needs to be constantly absorbing heat to maintain homeostasis. Should the temperature fall below 70 degrees, she will begin burning her reserves; should it fall below 60 degrees, she will begin emitting heat. If her reserves are used up, or if her core temperature drops below 115 (her normal temperature is 120), she will begin evincing symptoms of both starvation and hypothermia. In short, she has a marked vulnerability to cold.
Skills: - Martial Arts: Having studied from childhood, made a living by exhibitions, and fought for her life, Cynthia is no mean martial artist. Her basic style is savate, and fencing, but she does mix other things in as well.
- French: Cynthia is fluent in French, having learned it as a child and used it quite often.
- Music: Cynthia is a flutist, organist, and pianist. And she can sing: she's a contralto. These are hobbies, but she also makes a living as the organist at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
- Domestic: Cynthia is a respectable cook, housekeeper, and seamstress.
Weaponry: Rapier.
Role Play Sample: Firestorm leaned on the railing of the balcony of her hotel room. Her uniform was hidden, but that did not stop her from standing out, since the concealing garment was a black cloak leaned with white fur. Her normal gloves had been replaced with fur-trimmed ones to match. Flamboyant, and also a little odd for early autumn, even in Minnesota; but it was cold to her. Not so cold, though, that she had the hood up; she was enjoying the breeze as it stirred her hair.
Nobody was really around to notice her anyway. For whatever whimsy of architect or city planning, the hotel overlooked a public park, the only denizens of which were children. Yes, it was a small enough town that people still let kids play unattended. It reminded her of her sojourn in Wyoming, and she smiled. She also felt a brief pity for these kids, untouched by the horrors that plagued the larger world. This evening was going to shatter their innocence.
At least none of them are personally involved.[/color] She was here to assassinate an anti-mutant senator, currently stumping his state as part of his reelection campaign. She meant to do that this evening, at the town hall where he was giving his speech. She could kill him now while he napped -- he had the room just below hers -- but what fun would that be? He was here to make a public statement, and she wouldn't want to rob him of that.
Besides, it'll give the kids some excitement. And when they're old, they can tell their grandkids that a battle for mutant supremacy was fought right here in their hometown.[/color] She continued to smile down at them, brushing a stand of hair from her face.
Your Name: Flam, Fox, Incultus.
Other Characters: Foxcraft and Magneto.
Full Name: Cynthia Kirkland Renard.
Codename: Firestorm.
Nicknames: Cindy, Lady of Fire, Renarde, la Châtelaine de Mont Noir -- "Lady of Black Mountain Castle", la Renarde d'Auvergne -- "Vixen of Auvergne" (latter two in France).
Type: Original.
Gender: Female.
Species: Homo superior
Age: 34
Date of Birth: August 1
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Current Residence: New York City, New York.
Loyalty: Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
Occupation: Organist/terrorist.
Hair Colour: Dark red
Eye Colour: Blue
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 170 lbs.
Body Type: Fit and flawless.
Typical Style: Casual.
Distinguishing Features: Her hair, which she wears down to her waist, with a profusion of well-kept bangs framing her forehead and her face; and her eyes, which are constantly lit from within.
Physical Mutations: Her eyes; her cellular structure and internal organs, notably digestive and respiratory systems.
Uniform: Understandably, Cynthia's uniform was made of a special fireproof fibre. Except, that is, for a gilded fillet which holds a gem of blue zirconia in place on her forehead, framed neatly by her bangs. For the rest, she wears a pair of tights, black in colour, and a matching bodysuit. Over this goes a sleeveless dress that reaches her ankles. For the most part it is deep blue as well, but around her shoulders is a raised section, in black, that flares out a little above her shoulders and features a two-inch collar. Resembling leather, it is divided from the "fabric" by a strip of gold that traces her collarbone. The dress is gathered in at her waist, and she wears a black belt over this: below the waistline the skirt is divided down the front, although this is not normally apparent as the edges overlap. The hem of the skirt is edged in black. Her legs are further sheathed in thigh-high black boots. Her arms, likewise, sport black opera gloves, made to resemble silk. Her upper arms are bare.
Personality: Cynthia is assertive, sometimes to the point of being aggressive. At times it can come off as playfulness -- she has a keen sense of humour, and a surprisingly light touch with sarcasm. However, she was brought up to fight: for what she wants, for what she believes in; and she has long since lost any qualms about using violence against those who oppose her. Nor is she adverse to a bit of manipulation, should sheer strength not be suited to the task.
There is a large protective streak in her nature. With children -- even human children -- this often comes out as a maternal instinct (she sometimes wishes she had children of her own). In general, however, the best defense is a good offense for her, and for many years what she has been defending are mutants. By now she has fully embraced the idea of mutant supremacy, in the flavor of mutants ruling humans -- she has no hatred for humankind in general, nor for that matter an indiscriminate love of mutants. Moreover, she has really come to enjoy using her powers to take what she wants, and dominate humans (and even less powerful mutants); she would love to go on to conquer the world and officially rule over a chunk of it.
Despite her powers, Cynthia is typically a calm woman, in control of herself if not her surroundings. This is not to say she is reserved; quite the contrary, she tends to speak her mind, unless it would be overly rude. Even when she does become angry, she rarely yells, but she does become crueler in her humour, and more vicious and intense in her attacks if she is engaging an opponent. Such moods are not, alas, rare, but they do not define her. She prefers making music or spending time with her friends than wreaking devastation, fun as that is.
Family:
- Apostol Popov; maternal grandfather; farm worker and former Soviet agent; deceased
- Alfred Carlton Renard; father; banker; 62
- Anastasia Renard, née Popov; mother; 59
- Nicholas Carlton Renard; older brother; singer; 38
- Anastasia "Annie" Popov Poe, née Renard; older sister; waitress; 36
- Lieutenant Louis Valentine Renard; younger brother; discharged veteran, now secretary; 32
History: Cynthia's grandfather was a Russian Communist agent, who, after falling in love with an Amercian girl and defecting, retained one thing from his training: the determination to fight tooth and nail for what one believes in, regardless of cost. He never saw eye-to-eye with the man his third daughter married, but they had this in common, as well as a love for the United States and its ideological foundations of justice and freedom. Both men would play an important role in her early life, never mind her mother, who after all had been willing to stand up to her father to marry the man she loved.
Rather paradoxically, Mr. Alfred Renard, champion of democracy and capitalism, was nearly obsessed with his family's reputed roots in the French aristocracy. Being a man of means, he and his family would therefore spend their summers in an obscure village in Auvergne, in a house built on what he claimed to have been the ancient seat of the Renards. These "vacations" began when Cynthia was about a year old; for all she knows, they continue to this day. They were not pure idleness, however, as Mr. Renard saw to it that his children learnt to appreciate the French language, French cooking, and French martial arts.
Cynthia first manifested pyrokinesis when she was thirteen. At first she got into trouble -- her parents thought she was playing with matches, they even feared that she had pyromania. She, of course, denied this -- she was doing it accidentally, and in time managed to get enough control to demonstrate to her parents her ability. This eventually alleviated their fears, but left them with a certain reservation. What does one do with a girl who controls fire, anyway? They talked to her about discipline, and responsibility, and being careful; she listened, and chafed, and wondered if they really loved her.
Grandpapa Apostol came to the rescue. He got her to see her mutation as an extension of her spirit, and helped her to focus it through martial arts. And not just savate and fencing (which he viewed with suspicion, like everything else connected with her father); he instructed her as best he could in the combat techniques he had learned in Russia. Tempered by his example, she forged ahead with her life. Sadly, his support was withdrawn from her in her sixteenth year -- he died in August, the family having to cut short their stay in France to return home to his funeral.
After that, she became somewhat more rebellious. She began to chafe not only against her parents but against society in general, placing such absurd restrictions on, for instance, drinking. She had been drinking practically all her life; why shouldn't she do it in public? Of particular interest to her, though, were other mutants, and especially those from backgrounds less genial than hers. When she was seventeen, she fell in love with one such mutant. Taylor Watts was a nice boy: he was also a "werewolf" and therefore practically an outcast at the high school.
When her father found out, he forbade her from speaking to him again. Controlling fire (and no visible mutations besides pretty glowing eyes) was one thing. Shaggy hair and bestial features, never mind instincts, were quite another, and Mr. Renard would not have his blood polluted by such a union. Cynthia, naturally, would not hear her beau described in such terms, and the two had a tremendous row. Her father threatened to kick her out; she threatened to leave and good riddance. After the two parted, Mrs. Renard talked, more reasonably, with her daughter. The upshot of it was, that while Anastasia did not approve of the match either, she believed in letting her children choose for themselves.
In what seemed like a miracle, Taylor landed a job after graduating high school. It was in Wyoming, with a local facility of Lobo Technologies. He promised to wait for her, while she finished high school in Portland. Then, over her father's objections but with her mother's tacit approval, she moved out to Wyoming, planning to marry him there.
He had remained faithful. Something else, however, had changed. She had never guessed, from his letters, just what was going on in his mind in relation to his workplace, and his employer. Said employer was Maximus Lobo, and he had solicited Taylor specifically because of his mutation. Lobo believed that werewolves were naturally superior to all other life; yes, even to other mutants. Playing on Taylor's bitterness, he had drawn the young man into sharing the belief. Taylor explained all this to Cynthia, expecting her to be thrilled.
She was not. They had met in a small restaurant on the evening of her arrival, and there she told him in no uncertain terms what she thought of the idea of the "Dominant Species". The argument rivaled the one she had had with her father, and by the end of it small flames were flickering in the air and on the table and chair. Taylor hardly seemed to notice, but the proprietor did. After the wolfman stormed off, and Cynthia, abashed, was absorbing the fire before it could do more than char, he approached her. She expected to be asked to leave, perhaps to never come back. To her surprise, he asked if she had a job.
Mr. Tavistock was quite a daring entrepreneur. Within a few days the mutants' quarrel was the talk of the town, and everyone wanted to come to the restaurant and see the Fire Lady, as she was quickly dubbed. She initially worked as a waitress, but he expanded the restaurant to include a stage, and there he ahd her perform, with fire and sword. It kept her in good condition, and it broke the ice between her and the townsfolk. She eventually also landed a position as organist at the local church, and so was relatively well-off. Taylor, meanwhile, stayed in the background, and eventually left the area with the other employees of Lobo when the facility shut down, moving to the corporate headquarters in White Horse.
She did not communicate with her parents until after she had settled in (and received a letter from her mother). When he found out, Mr. Renard was not so much smug as anxious to have her "get her life back on track". There was further outrage and debate, expressed over the telephone, when she refused to seek a college education. At that point, he disinherited her, and said he would regard her as dead. This did not prevent her from continuing to exchange letters with her mother and siblings, however; her father simply pretended the correspondence did not exist.
Cynthia settled in, and had all gone well might have lived out her life there. It was not mean to be, however. Her fame attracted people from all around the state, including anti-mutants. When she was twenty-two, the church she worked for got a new pastor, one more concerned with preaching hatred of mutants than love of God and neighbour. Her first conflict with him came early on, when a man with strong physical mutations came into town, inspired by her story. He was set upon by a mob, which Cynthia chased off. She then brought him to the church for charity, which the pastor refused to give. After several weeks of supporting the man herself, and taking all kinds of flak, he moved on, grateful but not wanting to put her to any more trouble. Neither she nor the pastor forgave each other for this.
The next clash would be far more serious; fatal, in different ways, for them both. One night, two years later, Cynthia found a mob knocking on her door. She tried facing them down, but guns were pulled. Injured, she lashed out with her flames. That killed several and dispersed the rest.
The next day she was arrested for murder, and to her disgust faced a jury made up of her attackers. No lawyer would take her case; the one appointed to her for the sake of the law was obviously not interested in defending her. Faced with no hope of a fair trial, she decided, in a literal white-hot fury, that she had had enough. She burnt down the courthouse, killing the judge and as many of the jurors as she could; then she hunted down the pastor and killed him as well. His rhetoric had turned the town -- the entire county -- into a hotbed of bigotry, and he paid with his life.
She was tempted to burn the church building and the rest of the town into the bargain, but spared them for old times' sake. The malefactor was dead, but her own life was ruined. She wandered off into the hills, and cried. That was when the Brotherhood found her. They had been watching her from afar, and when she had been arrested an agent came to the area. Now he offered her a new life. She accepted after only minor hesitation.
Her training was intensive. The skills she had developed as a youth were rusty; they were polished and sharpened to lethal perfection. Just as importantly, she was indoctrinated in the vision of a world where mutants, as superior beings who ruled over humanity. She embraced it all willingly, letting go of any regret for her actions or fear of what she might do in the future. Nothing could be worse than the evil she had witnessed during those four years.
Soon enough, she was undertaking real missions. She stuck with Magneto's ideals through thick and thin, even though he abandoned the team. She split off from the Brotherhood, forming her own splinter group and moving to France. She set up her headquarters in the ruins of a castle near her family's summer home, taking the codename "Châtelaine" and adopting a new uniform as she worked to advance her cause in France, Switzerland, Monaco and Andorra.
She had made a name for herself but little headway when she heard that Magneto had been given control of Genosha. She took her band south to renew her loyalty to him. She helped him in the civil war, then following the United Nations' treachery she was sent back to France to lay the groundwork for his invasion. That never came, however, as Genosha was reduced to ruins once more. Following that, she went to ground.
Making her way back to America, her former allies gone, she found work at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City as an organist. Once more she chafed, waiting for a real leader to show up. When Magneto returned and restored the Brotherhood she was at first suspicious, but when she heard of Sublime's death she was convinced that this was the real Magneto and rejoined the Brotherhood. She resumed her old codename of "Firestorm" as well as her old uniform. Now, a month later, she just waits for an order to strike down this new form of tyranny.
Classification: Alpha
Powers:
- Pyrokinesis: The basic ability to generate and control flames. In Cynthia's case, they are generated from energy stored in her body, able to manifest from her flesh or in a three-inch sheath around her; or in any material that is hot enough, up to a radius of seven feet from her heart. Due to long experience, she has excellent control over this manifestation; and all the fire she generates burns a pure blue. She can also control any fire within a hundred yards. She normally directs fire with her movements, but these are really an aid, as her control over flames is mental (almost empathic: any flames she exerts control over she feels as extensions of herself). She need not bother with somatic direction, although she must focus if she dispenses with gestures.
- Sublimation: This power has two related, but very different functions. First, in an action similar to meditating, Cynthia can run a "purifying flame" through her body, purging out all foreign influences and imperfections, such as bacteria, viruses, poison, scar tissue, and undigested food. While she is doing this she is sheathed in an aura of her blue flame; the purged matter escapes from her pores in the form of vapour. The process leaves her feeling tired but renewed. On the other hand, she can use the same process on an external object by touching it; the object rapidly heats from within, the heat being contained, until it is transmuted into blue flame and vapour (or in some cases, liquid). It takes about a minute to consume a twenty-pound object, using both hands, in this fashion; while using it, both her hands and the effected object are bathed in the fiery blue aura.
- Thermophagy: Cynthia constantly absorbs heat energy as a passive ability. This is now her main source of energy; food is merely a supplement to this (though a necessary one if she wants to use the energy for something other than life-support). Her respiratory system has also been altered; breathing has become semi-optional, serving mainly to remove byproducts of her new internal chemistry, which can also be accomplished through Sublimation. She can also choose to actively draw heat to herself; the closer the heat is to her the faster it is drawn in, while her farthest range is a hundred yards. Living bodies cannot have the heat sucked out of them in this fashion however. Her cellular structure has been modified to enable her to hold a good deal of energy in reserve: she can use this to fuel her body in place of direct heat or food, to keep her temperature up, to speed natural healing, to jumpstart her pyrokinesis when there is no external fuel, or just expel it to rapidly increase the ambient temperature (she has been able to hit 2999 F within a foot of her skin).
These reserves do take time to build up though (or exposure to extreme heat, or gorging). And the downside to this is, that if deprived of an external heat source, she will have to start burning her reserves to stay healthy -- she needs to be constantly absorbing heat to maintain homeostasis. Should the temperature fall below 70 degrees, she will begin burning her reserves; should it fall below 60 degrees, she will begin emitting heat. If her reserves are used up, or if her core temperature drops below 115 (her normal temperature is 120), she will begin evincing symptoms of both starvation and hypothermia. In short, she has a marked vulnerability to cold.
Skills: - Martial Arts: Having studied from childhood, made a living by exhibitions, and fought for her life, Cynthia is no mean martial artist. Her basic style is savate, and fencing, but she does mix other things in as well.
- French: Cynthia is fluent in French, having learned it as a child and used it quite often.
- Music: Cynthia is a flutist, organist, and pianist. And she can sing: she's a contralto. These are hobbies, but she also makes a living as the organist at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
- Domestic: Cynthia is a respectable cook, housekeeper, and seamstress.
Weaponry: Rapier.
Role Play Sample: Firestorm leaned on the railing of the balcony of her hotel room. Her uniform was hidden, but that did not stop her from standing out, since the concealing garment was a black cloak leaned with white fur. Her normal gloves had been replaced with fur-trimmed ones to match. Flamboyant, and also a little odd for early autumn, even in Minnesota; but it was cold to her. Not so cold, though, that she had the hood up; she was enjoying the breeze as it stirred her hair.
Nobody was really around to notice her anyway. For whatever whimsy of architect or city planning, the hotel overlooked a public park, the only denizens of which were children. Yes, it was a small enough town that people still let kids play unattended. It reminded her of her sojourn in Wyoming, and she smiled. She also felt a brief pity for these kids, untouched by the horrors that plagued the larger world. This evening was going to shatter their innocence.
At least none of them are personally involved.[/color] She was here to assassinate an anti-mutant senator, currently stumping his state as part of his reelection campaign. She meant to do that this evening, at the town hall where he was giving his speech. She could kill him now while he napped -- he had the room just below hers -- but what fun would that be? He was here to make a public statement, and she wouldn't want to rob him of that.
Besides, it'll give the kids some excitement. And when they're old, they can tell their grandkids that a battle for mutant supremacy was fought right here in their hometown.[/color] She continued to smile down at them, brushing a stand of hair from her face.
Your Name: Flam, Fox, Incultus.
Other Characters: Foxcraft and Magneto.