POWER DESCRIPTIONS

POWER NEGATION. Des naturally generates an anti-power field around herself as long as she's conscious, regardless of whether she wants to or not. Anyone possessing supernatural abilities within the field will not be able to activate them nor make use of any passive abilities, any active abilities which enter the field will be reverted (supernaturally created objects vanish, supernatural control is dispelled, supernatural objects become mundane), and any object, organism, or aura even partially within the field cannot be the target of abilities. Although she has some control over the field's area, its minimum distance from her body is an inch, and its maximum somewhere around 50ft when focused in one direction. Unfortunately, the field does not discriminate against what powers it blocks (with the singular exception of Des' other abilities), so Des can never benefit from buffs, healing, seals, or other well-meaning powers while it's active. On the other hand, she's completely undefended while unconcious. All or nothing.

VOODOO. As someone who developed a strong affinity for voodoo at a young age and has since practiced rigorously, Des isn't someone who should be taken lightly. Her ability requires an effigy or model with similar shape and rigidity to what she wants to control. This can be anything from a doll, a twig, or even her own body. She then creates a link between the model and her intended targets. She must either know her target's location or have a part of the target (hair, skin, etc.) incorporated into the model for this link to be established. Having a part of the target in the model will additionally allow Des to vaguely perceive the target's surroundings to more effectively navigate it. Once established, when Des (and only Des) moves, bends, throws, breaks, or otherwise alters the model, her targets will do the same. With a single model, she can induce a synchronized set of actions on any number of targets. These targets need not be human, or even living organisms -- they just need to be similar enough to the model for a link to be established. Although only physical aspects of the target can be influenced, this ability is otherwise rather versatile, with its primary weaknesses being its requirement of a suitable model. [As an ooc note, Des will not be killing or permanently disfiguring any player characters without their player's permission]

APPEARANCE

With the appearance of someone deeply involved in the tattoo and body mod business, it's a wonder how Des ever got hired as a legitimate professor. Her lightly tanned skin is inked with a medley of images, symbols, and numbers stretching from her core out to her neck and the tips of her extremities. There are even a few on the sides of her head, where her hair is kept shaved. The remainder of her hair, dyed black, is long enough to be kept tied up. She isn't against wearing makeup or jewelry, and has a number of piercings in her ears, having a preference for ear cuffs. Her clothes prioritize mobility, functionality, and durability over aesthetics. Even most of her accessories, especially the standard small pouch of Guatemalan worry dolls, can double as a model for her voodoo powers. Speaking of which, when using her own body as a model for these powers, the pupils of her eyes appear to consume her iris (usually a dark brown) and sclera, though her eyesight is not altered. Not one to rely on supernatural abilities, however, her 5'8" mesomorph figure is fairly well built, retaining all sorts of scars intermingling with her tattoos as testament to its use. 

PERSONALITY

Des' body language is controlled, composed, and generally more frigid than a glacier. It's not easy to approach her, much less to become close to her. Though she has valid enough reasons, her unwillingness to open up emotionally approaches genuine paranoia. She's tough as nails, and doesn't take shit from anyone. She does not like being lied to. Although she keeps any overt anger she may have in check, she can be incredibly malicious when wronged, and does not forgive easily. Possessing a cynical worldview, she's tough on her students, but only because she knows that there's people out there who are as powerful as herself, but far less well-meaning. It's known that she has some morbid hobbies -- most notably making art pieces out of dead things, animal and human alike. Bones she's carved are what she'll show to people who barely know her, but she also uses skin and internal organs in bizarre body-horror-esque taxidermy pieces. 

BIOGRAPHY

Des' first kill was her mother. It wasn't intentional. Infants don't get any training in how to properly exit a womb, after all. Push or scratch something with too much force and the mother-to-be just bleeds right out. Des hadn't meant to. She hadn't wanted it. Regardless, she couldn't remember a time when she wasn't aware of her sin, as her father saw fit to remind her of it regularly.

Des doesn't know what her father was like before her mother's death. It's not something she particularly enjoys pondering. The man, if anyone could call him that, she'd known was someone whom she would have much rather been without. He was sick in all manner but medically, and Des, being the murderer she was (as he claimed, and as she was raised to believe), was the target for most of his wrath and frustrations. His control over her was both intrusive and unnatural, sadistic and perverse. Possessing powers of voodoo and dream manipulation, he could directly control her body, her actions, and her subconscious thoughts. She could not act against him; she could not even think to do so.

Oftentimes, abused children don't understand the full gravity or wrongness of their situation since their situation is all they know. Des, however, was made to understand that this was punishment. She was meant to suffer. She was not human, but a doll -- undeserving of autonomy. 

Eventually, not long before reaching puberty, Des' powers manifested. Her father was furious about being unable to supernaturally manipulate her while awake, making her nightmares worsen and his punishments more traditional and intimate. She was aware that she could use voodoo as well, but believed turning it against her father would just result in more punishment. He was infallible in her mind. Immortal.

It'd be at least another full year before the drugs he injected into her combined with the fear of the cold blade slicing through her flesh made her take control of her father's hand, forcing that same knife to plunge through his own neck. It didn't quite feel real, and she didn't know what to do now that it'd been done. She spent the next few days completing her chores as she normally did, sidestepping the limp body atop the bloodstained carpet and trying to ignore the stench of rot.

Looking back, she wished she had killed him sooner and fled. That would have been the sane thing to do. At the time, though, it hadn't felt like an option.

Official records would claim that, after police found her, the stabbing was deemed self-defense, she would be quickly adopted, and later in life take a military career. However, the police did not find her first. Powerful voodoo coming from an undetectable source is rare indeed, and was quite desirable to certain groups of gifted individuals.

Unlearning her victim mentality took some time, but her teachers were thorough in her re-education. The other things she was expected to do, though...

well, she was a murderer already.

She now teaches a variety of classes at Aurora Academy mainly involving combat, anatomy, and sculpture.

> MASS EFFECT; JACK <