Post by Nina Stenet on Nov 4, 2010 2:42:43 GMT -5
Real Name: Doctor Nina Stenet
Alias: N/A
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Occupation: Microbiologist and chemist who often branches out to related fields. Self-employed.
Current Status: Heartbroken
Hero, Villain, Civilian: Civilian
Alignment: Neutral Good, leaning even more Neutral
Costumed Identity Known By Their Enemies? N/A
Costumed Identity Known By The General Public? N/A
Real Identity Known By Their Enemies? Yes
Real Identity Known By The General Public? Yes - she's very well-known within the scientific and medical community, though her powers are largely a secret
Abilities/Skills:
Weaknesses:
Appearance:
She has long, dark brown hair that is naturally curly and hazel eyes. Most of the time her appearance is that of a professional woman who doesn't care much about how she looks - she's rarely not wearing a lab coat and seldom lets her hair loose. She stands at about 5'6" and weighs about 140 lbs. - neither thin nor fat. When not at work she tends to wear slacks and a blouse, seemingly unable to lose that professional look even when she's out just to buy groceries. However, on occasions where she actually makes an effort to look pretty there's a beautiful woman underneath all of that.
Personality:
In a word: obsessive. She's not very sociable, but not because she's shy at all. Actually, it's more that people have a tendency to keep out of her way because the only thing that seems to matter to her is her research. However, that's just the facade, as she's actually rather kind and compassionate - her work helps people, and if you impede her work you're stopping her from helping people. And though she tells herself that because her research does so much that she doesn't need to worry about the individual people she runs into, in practice she can hardly help herself when she sees someone she could help. She also has a very strong independent streak that is tempered only by her overall desire to obey the law and do good things.
Background:
Nina was born to middle-class parents and had a rather unremarkable childhood. While it was fairly obvious that she was a rather smart little girl, it wasn't to such a degree that she attracted a lot of attention so she was merely the girl who got good grades and had a small circle of friends because the other kids thought that she was a geek. It was during this time she developed her very characteristic sense of altruism: after being teased and bullied herself, she found herself unable to respond in kind because she couldn't forget what it felt like and didn't want to inflict the same on someone else. Though she had a few struggles growing up, in the end she turned out to be a very well adjusted and independent young lady.
However, in high school she discovered something that changed things. To begin with she thought that she merely had trouble keeping the slide still whenever they brought out the microscopes, but she soon realized that the problem was that she was actually able to move things of that size around with her mind. Though this was naturally very confusing, she decided not to tell anyone about it because first she was worried about being branded a freak, then she was worried about becoming the object of scientific scrutiny, and once she gained better control of her gift she became worried that if others knew what she was able to do with it, there'd be a never-ending list of people wanting her help.
Her gift allowed her to more easily learn about very small things, and that combined with her own curiosity about herself led her to study medicine in college. When she mastered microbiology and chemistry with apparent ease, she quickly gained notoriety in those fields and was paired with the best teachers. She had an apparent intuitive understanding of those subjects, though it was really because very small things are not at all abstract to her. She had no trouble securing enough scholarships to allow her to fly through getting her doctorate. It was during this time that she discovered a small abnormality in her brain that seems to be the source of her gift. She's still trying to figure out why it's there - whether she has a genetic mutation or whether it was caused by something else - but she has experimented with trying to stimulate that part of her brain to encourage it to grow, with some positive results.
She also realized just how powerful her gift could be. Some of the things she can do are nothing short of miraculous, but she still carries her worries of what would happen if others knew. The secrecy tends to leave her feel rather guilty - as if she's withholding something that could help a lot of people - but she justifies this to herself by instead using her gift to help with her work, hoping that instead of being one person doing what she can she'll instead advance the whole field of medical science far enough that she'll end up helping more people than she would be able to individually.
Because of these altruistic ideals, she originally never considered using her gift for anything else. But shortly before she finished school, she was mugged on her way home from the lab one night and, though she wasn't hurt and only lost a few valuables, it robbed her of her sense of security. Some people might have started taking martial arts classes; she taught herself to use her gift to kill by destroying the part of the brain that tells the heart to keep beating, using rats from the lab as test subjects. However, after her initial fear was over she realized that not only was she very uncertain whether or not she could bring herself to kill another human being if it came down to it, but also that her gift meant that she had a whole host of non-lethal options if she needed to use them, and so she began to practice those instead. Fortunately, she'd only had to use that a few times since.
After graduating, she was offered and quickly accepted a job at Wayne Enterprises. But it was rocky at first since she has a bit of an independent streak, and she had to threaten to quit several times before they gave her the freedom to do as she pleases. It turned out to be a good deal for them anyways as she's a very prolific researcher and simply letting her do what she wanted was usually quite profitable. In fact she's made quite a name for herself as being an all-around expert in microbiology and most scientists within the field know who she is and know that her work is solid.
But her simple life was thrown for a loop the day she witnessed the Riddler robbing a museum. Her calmness in the face of the danger presented by him sparked his curiosity and led him to the decision to kidnap her and test her with one of his riddles. Not only did she survive, but in the process she admitted that she had feelings for him and sparked a few feelings in him. These led him to feeling some concern for her safety, and he resolved to convince her to leave Gotham. However, in one of these attempts he accidentally managed to simultaneously anger Lex Luthor reveal that he had a connection to her. This resulted in Lex Luthor arranging to have Nina killed. Fortunately, Nina managed to incapacitate her attacker, and she helped the Riddler fake a successful murder so that she could go into hiding with nobody the wiser.
She hid in the Riddler's protection for a month, and during that time their feelings for each other grew even more. All was not well, however, as Nina's inherent goodness naturally led the Riddler to not trust her. This came to a head one evening when he finally had enough and decided to tell her to leave. An argument ensued, finally ending with him nearly killing her. Naturally she felt the need to sever all ties with him at that point, but it was only then that he fully realized his feelings for her and when she saw how much he cared she couldn't help but see if they couldn't reconcile what had gone wrong between them. Somehow they managed to do so and give their relationship another chance.
Of course, a bond between two such dissimilar people is bound to be strained at times, so in spite of this new resolution their disagreements continued. The Riddler continued to doubt that she wouldn't eventually side with her morals and turn him in, while Nina balked at his attempts to interfere with what she considered to be her own business. But that problem was thrust into the background when she suddenly found herself in the middle of yet another major problem. The FBI invaded Gotham, and Nina was arrested based on their suspicions that she was a terrorist. She was shot twice in the knee by Agent Tiff when she refused to answer questions, but she was rescued by the Question and managed to get herself back in the Riddler's protection.
While in hiding and waiting for her knee to mend, she realized that the injury gave her an opportunity, so she took it. While the Riddler was distracted by his own plan for leaving Gotham, she came up with one of her own. She managed to cause her knee to heal more quickly, making it just strong enough for her to walk in an apparently normal fashion for several minutes, and used that time to give a recording to Commissioner Gordon of her telling her side of the story about what happened with Agent Tiff and then burning her lab to the ground. Both she did while wearing a simple costume and calling herself 'Inexplicable', though she hasn't had need to use that identity since and doesn't know if she'll use it again. After that, she was satisfied and remained in quiet hiding with the Riddler, going with him to China where he put into motion his own scheme to start a war between China and the United States. However, he was stopped and captured by Batman - much to Nina's relief and dismay, respectively.
On her own, she waited for the F.B.I. to leave Gotham before returning. And as she was able to resolve her lingering legal issues quite easily at that point, as the government seemed eager to sweep the whole fiasco in Gotham under the rug. However, when she decided to pay the Riddler a visit in Arkham Asylum, he told her that he'd grown bored of her and that he didn't want to see her anymore. Shocked and devastated by this sudden shift in his feelings, she's thrown herself back into her work. However, her relationship with the Riddler continues to have consequences even though it's officially over.
Current Associates:
Shannon "Shawty" Morrison (NPC) - Her extremely loyal assistant and bodyguard.
Selina Kyle/Catwoman - They met in China and are quickly becoming friends.
Current Enemies:
Lex Luthor - He tried to have her killed. 'nuff said.
Other Relationships:
Batman - Naturally, he's keeping a very careful eye on her at this point.
Edward Nigma/Riddler - She still loves him, even though he no longer returns that feeling.
Commissioner Gordon - She gave him some help with the FBI and tricked him into thinking she wasn't herself.
Mr. Freeze - She helped him with Nora once, and is thus on his 'do not kill' list.
Ventriloquist - As far as she knows, he's been warned off and there's no hard feelings...
RP Sample:
Since discarding the crossword, Nina gave the issue of The Riddler as little thought as possible. Which certainly isn't none - she'd felt the possible threat nagging at the back of her mind and knew it wouldn't quit until she knew for sure whether or not she was his next target. But she wouldn't let that come between herself and her work. No, the decision she'd made when she tossed out the crossword was a decision that she applied to the rest of her situation - there were some things that were much more important than The Riddler, and they got priority.
Of course, every decision has its consequences, and the consequence of tossing out the crossword is that Nina is caught quite off-guard by what she sees when she opens the door to her apartment. Surprise, dismay, anger, relief, frustration, and resignation seem to compete as the dominant expression on her face for a moment as she freezes in the doorway and takes in The Riddler sitting so casually on her couch and the boy looking in her direction. But with surprising quickness and a sharp exhale her expression becomes composed and she sounds just a little disappointed when she quietly asks, "Can't resist poking the dragon just to see what it does, can you?"
Oh, how she'd hoped that she'd seen the last of him at the museum! If Nina had known that it would instead come to this she probably would have chosen to do something more there, but though she had her suspicions she'd still had that hope. Given her luck lately, she should have known better. But she does know better than to assume that this situation is only what it appears to be - having observed him in action at the museum, she has to assume instead that he's very prepared for this. At the very least he thinks he has the situation under control, and that would take more than just himself and the boy unless he's excessively underestimating her even more than she dares hope.
Uncertain what she's just gotten herself into, Nina remains exactly where she is in the doorway; she'd rather not have to make any hasty decisions until she knows more about the situation, and in the meantime she might as well give The Riddler every opportunity to get the impression that he indeed is in control. Already she can see several gaping holes that she can exploit if she feels that she really has to, even without knowing what else he may have planned. But as long as those holes require too much of a show of her power and don't seem absolutely necessary, she'll note them but not act on them; already she fears what may happen if she meets him a third or fourth time if this doesn't go well.
Alias: N/A
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Occupation: Microbiologist and chemist who often branches out to related fields. Self-employed.
Current Status: Heartbroken
Hero, Villain, Civilian: Civilian
Alignment: Neutral Good, leaning even more Neutral
Costumed Identity Known By Their Enemies? N/A
Costumed Identity Known By The General Public? N/A
Real Identity Known By Their Enemies? Yes
Real Identity Known By The General Public? Yes - she's very well-known within the scientific and medical community, though her powers are largely a secret
Abilities/Skills:
- Microtelekinesis - In short, she is able to move very small objects with her mind. She's also able to mentally 'feel' what she is moving, or feel something without actually moving it.
- Spotting Weaknesses - Because of her experience manipulating things on such a small level, she's learned a particular knack for finding and exploiting the weak point not just of objects she can use her gift on, but anything else for that matter.
- Intelligence - She's smart, but not quite at the extreme end. She actually has a reputation for being more intelligent than she actually is because others assume that what she knows because of her gift comes from her intellect.
- Emotional Intelligence - She's very emotionally robust, able to cope with difficult situations much better than most. She also knows herself really well, and is usually able to directly understand her own thoughts and actions.
- Medical Skills - As focused as she's been, she has all the standard skills of a medical doctor thanks to her many years at college and work as a researcher but doesn't have many skills that don't apply to that.
Weaknesses:
- Specialized Power - Her gift may give her many abilities, but there are also many limitations to it, especially when it comes to manipulating things that she's not familiar with. She's currently trying to expand upon what she knows how to manipulate, however.
- Empathy - Though it may seem to be a good thing, her tendency toward altruism is actually more likely to cause problems for her. If someone needs help and she can provide it - especially if it's help that she knows only she is able to provide - she can't not help, regardless of who it is. She sees such people as patients first and as vigilantes or criminals second, and she'd even go so far as to not turn someone in since that could discourage them from getting help.
- Passion for her Work - Another double-edged problem is that she overvalues knowledge. She could be convinced to do some pretty unethical things if it was the only way to study something that she knew would be very valuable to one of her other projects and she felt that the potential benefit greatly outweighed what she was asked.
Appearance:
She has long, dark brown hair that is naturally curly and hazel eyes. Most of the time her appearance is that of a professional woman who doesn't care much about how she looks - she's rarely not wearing a lab coat and seldom lets her hair loose. She stands at about 5'6" and weighs about 140 lbs. - neither thin nor fat. When not at work she tends to wear slacks and a blouse, seemingly unable to lose that professional look even when she's out just to buy groceries. However, on occasions where she actually makes an effort to look pretty there's a beautiful woman underneath all of that.
Personality:
In a word: obsessive. She's not very sociable, but not because she's shy at all. Actually, it's more that people have a tendency to keep out of her way because the only thing that seems to matter to her is her research. However, that's just the facade, as she's actually rather kind and compassionate - her work helps people, and if you impede her work you're stopping her from helping people. And though she tells herself that because her research does so much that she doesn't need to worry about the individual people she runs into, in practice she can hardly help herself when she sees someone she could help. She also has a very strong independent streak that is tempered only by her overall desire to obey the law and do good things.
Background:
Nina was born to middle-class parents and had a rather unremarkable childhood. While it was fairly obvious that she was a rather smart little girl, it wasn't to such a degree that she attracted a lot of attention so she was merely the girl who got good grades and had a small circle of friends because the other kids thought that she was a geek. It was during this time she developed her very characteristic sense of altruism: after being teased and bullied herself, she found herself unable to respond in kind because she couldn't forget what it felt like and didn't want to inflict the same on someone else. Though she had a few struggles growing up, in the end she turned out to be a very well adjusted and independent young lady.
However, in high school she discovered something that changed things. To begin with she thought that she merely had trouble keeping the slide still whenever they brought out the microscopes, but she soon realized that the problem was that she was actually able to move things of that size around with her mind. Though this was naturally very confusing, she decided not to tell anyone about it because first she was worried about being branded a freak, then she was worried about becoming the object of scientific scrutiny, and once she gained better control of her gift she became worried that if others knew what she was able to do with it, there'd be a never-ending list of people wanting her help.
Her gift allowed her to more easily learn about very small things, and that combined with her own curiosity about herself led her to study medicine in college. When she mastered microbiology and chemistry with apparent ease, she quickly gained notoriety in those fields and was paired with the best teachers. She had an apparent intuitive understanding of those subjects, though it was really because very small things are not at all abstract to her. She had no trouble securing enough scholarships to allow her to fly through getting her doctorate. It was during this time that she discovered a small abnormality in her brain that seems to be the source of her gift. She's still trying to figure out why it's there - whether she has a genetic mutation or whether it was caused by something else - but she has experimented with trying to stimulate that part of her brain to encourage it to grow, with some positive results.
She also realized just how powerful her gift could be. Some of the things she can do are nothing short of miraculous, but she still carries her worries of what would happen if others knew. The secrecy tends to leave her feel rather guilty - as if she's withholding something that could help a lot of people - but she justifies this to herself by instead using her gift to help with her work, hoping that instead of being one person doing what she can she'll instead advance the whole field of medical science far enough that she'll end up helping more people than she would be able to individually.
Because of these altruistic ideals, she originally never considered using her gift for anything else. But shortly before she finished school, she was mugged on her way home from the lab one night and, though she wasn't hurt and only lost a few valuables, it robbed her of her sense of security. Some people might have started taking martial arts classes; she taught herself to use her gift to kill by destroying the part of the brain that tells the heart to keep beating, using rats from the lab as test subjects. However, after her initial fear was over she realized that not only was she very uncertain whether or not she could bring herself to kill another human being if it came down to it, but also that her gift meant that she had a whole host of non-lethal options if she needed to use them, and so she began to practice those instead. Fortunately, she'd only had to use that a few times since.
After graduating, she was offered and quickly accepted a job at Wayne Enterprises. But it was rocky at first since she has a bit of an independent streak, and she had to threaten to quit several times before they gave her the freedom to do as she pleases. It turned out to be a good deal for them anyways as she's a very prolific researcher and simply letting her do what she wanted was usually quite profitable. In fact she's made quite a name for herself as being an all-around expert in microbiology and most scientists within the field know who she is and know that her work is solid.
But her simple life was thrown for a loop the day she witnessed the Riddler robbing a museum. Her calmness in the face of the danger presented by him sparked his curiosity and led him to the decision to kidnap her and test her with one of his riddles. Not only did she survive, but in the process she admitted that she had feelings for him and sparked a few feelings in him. These led him to feeling some concern for her safety, and he resolved to convince her to leave Gotham. However, in one of these attempts he accidentally managed to simultaneously anger Lex Luthor reveal that he had a connection to her. This resulted in Lex Luthor arranging to have Nina killed. Fortunately, Nina managed to incapacitate her attacker, and she helped the Riddler fake a successful murder so that she could go into hiding with nobody the wiser.
She hid in the Riddler's protection for a month, and during that time their feelings for each other grew even more. All was not well, however, as Nina's inherent goodness naturally led the Riddler to not trust her. This came to a head one evening when he finally had enough and decided to tell her to leave. An argument ensued, finally ending with him nearly killing her. Naturally she felt the need to sever all ties with him at that point, but it was only then that he fully realized his feelings for her and when she saw how much he cared she couldn't help but see if they couldn't reconcile what had gone wrong between them. Somehow they managed to do so and give their relationship another chance.
Of course, a bond between two such dissimilar people is bound to be strained at times, so in spite of this new resolution their disagreements continued. The Riddler continued to doubt that she wouldn't eventually side with her morals and turn him in, while Nina balked at his attempts to interfere with what she considered to be her own business. But that problem was thrust into the background when she suddenly found herself in the middle of yet another major problem. The FBI invaded Gotham, and Nina was arrested based on their suspicions that she was a terrorist. She was shot twice in the knee by Agent Tiff when she refused to answer questions, but she was rescued by the Question and managed to get herself back in the Riddler's protection.
While in hiding and waiting for her knee to mend, she realized that the injury gave her an opportunity, so she took it. While the Riddler was distracted by his own plan for leaving Gotham, she came up with one of her own. She managed to cause her knee to heal more quickly, making it just strong enough for her to walk in an apparently normal fashion for several minutes, and used that time to give a recording to Commissioner Gordon of her telling her side of the story about what happened with Agent Tiff and then burning her lab to the ground. Both she did while wearing a simple costume and calling herself 'Inexplicable', though she hasn't had need to use that identity since and doesn't know if she'll use it again. After that, she was satisfied and remained in quiet hiding with the Riddler, going with him to China where he put into motion his own scheme to start a war between China and the United States. However, he was stopped and captured by Batman - much to Nina's relief and dismay, respectively.
On her own, she waited for the F.B.I. to leave Gotham before returning. And as she was able to resolve her lingering legal issues quite easily at that point, as the government seemed eager to sweep the whole fiasco in Gotham under the rug. However, when she decided to pay the Riddler a visit in Arkham Asylum, he told her that he'd grown bored of her and that he didn't want to see her anymore. Shocked and devastated by this sudden shift in his feelings, she's thrown herself back into her work. However, her relationship with the Riddler continues to have consequences even though it's officially over.
Current Associates:
Shannon "Shawty" Morrison (NPC) - Her extremely loyal assistant and bodyguard.
Selina Kyle/Catwoman - They met in China and are quickly becoming friends.
Current Enemies:
Lex Luthor - He tried to have her killed. 'nuff said.
Other Relationships:
Batman - Naturally, he's keeping a very careful eye on her at this point.
Edward Nigma/Riddler - She still loves him, even though he no longer returns that feeling.
Commissioner Gordon - She gave him some help with the FBI and tricked him into thinking she wasn't herself.
Mr. Freeze - She helped him with Nora once, and is thus on his 'do not kill' list.
Ventriloquist - As far as she knows, he's been warned off and there's no hard feelings...
RP Sample:
Since discarding the crossword, Nina gave the issue of The Riddler as little thought as possible. Which certainly isn't none - she'd felt the possible threat nagging at the back of her mind and knew it wouldn't quit until she knew for sure whether or not she was his next target. But she wouldn't let that come between herself and her work. No, the decision she'd made when she tossed out the crossword was a decision that she applied to the rest of her situation - there were some things that were much more important than The Riddler, and they got priority.
Of course, every decision has its consequences, and the consequence of tossing out the crossword is that Nina is caught quite off-guard by what she sees when she opens the door to her apartment. Surprise, dismay, anger, relief, frustration, and resignation seem to compete as the dominant expression on her face for a moment as she freezes in the doorway and takes in The Riddler sitting so casually on her couch and the boy looking in her direction. But with surprising quickness and a sharp exhale her expression becomes composed and she sounds just a little disappointed when she quietly asks, "Can't resist poking the dragon just to see what it does, can you?"
Oh, how she'd hoped that she'd seen the last of him at the museum! If Nina had known that it would instead come to this she probably would have chosen to do something more there, but though she had her suspicions she'd still had that hope. Given her luck lately, she should have known better. But she does know better than to assume that this situation is only what it appears to be - having observed him in action at the museum, she has to assume instead that he's very prepared for this. At the very least he thinks he has the situation under control, and that would take more than just himself and the boy unless he's excessively underestimating her even more than she dares hope.
Uncertain what she's just gotten herself into, Nina remains exactly where she is in the doorway; she'd rather not have to make any hasty decisions until she knows more about the situation, and in the meantime she might as well give The Riddler every opportunity to get the impression that he indeed is in control. Already she can see several gaping holes that she can exploit if she feels that she really has to, even without knowing what else he may have planned. But as long as those holes require too much of a show of her power and don't seem absolutely necessary, she'll note them but not act on them; already she fears what may happen if she meets him a third or fourth time if this doesn't go well.