Ekaterina Vespucci
Ekaterina Vespucci (Scenesys ID: 1849) | |||
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Quote | |||
"Alcuni dicono che è meglio essere temuti che essere amati. Posso avere entrambi? O è anche questo Sado masocistico?" | |||
Profile | |||
Full Name: | Engelberga of Parma | ||
Gender: | Female | ||
Species: | Mutant (External) | ||
Theme: | Original (OC) | ||
Occupation: | Businesswoman / Crimelord | ||
Citizenship: | United States of America | ||
Residence: | New York City | ||
Education: | Ph.D equivalent (Art History, Linguistices and Finance) | ||
Status: | Shelved | ||
Groups: | {{{Groups}}} | ||
Other Information | |||
Apparent Age: | {{{PAge}}} | Actual Age: | 1205 |
Date of Birth | 9 March 826 | Actor: | Emily Rudd |
Height: | 156 cm (5'1") | Weight: | 50 kg (110 lb) |
Hair Color: | Black | Eye Color: | Blue |
Theme Song: | "Gasoline" by Halsey |
Profile
Contessa Ekaterina Vespucci is a 1200 year old immortal External breed of mutant masquerading as disarmingly pretty late teen to early twenties girl. All Externals have a portfolio or abstraction that they represent. Ekaterina's is 'Artifice' or "Intrigue".
Over the years despite her best intentions she has been on the wrong side of history causing innumerable disasters. In other words she is not very good at her Artificing job. But this has been a source of amusement for the more jaded of her observers. She has set up shop as a middling crimelord player in the New York underground. She tends to stray away from some of the more extreme activities of her competitors making it difficult to win their respect and turn a profit (though she has no real want for money). Oh and she's an artist but she doesn't like modern art. She's a brilliant Renaissance style artist in both paint and sculpture with a very photorealistic eye when it comes to making art. To this end she owns a number of commercial Art galleries.
Current Character Approved: Not Available for Application
Sheet
Description
Ekaterina is an old world beauty with large cornflower blue eyes, shoulder length straight black hair, naturally red thick lips, cute button upturned nose and a porcelain or off white complexion. Her face is marked by a pleasant amount of puppy fat as is her build placing her apparent age as somewhere in the late teens or early twenties. It is her face which is her most striking feature though the rest of her is not to be discounted. Her face is terribly expressive marked with a great deal of youthful innocent humanity. One can tell and be affected by her mood quite easily. Many describe it as that of an angel.
History
Born around 830 A.D. as the daughter of a prominent Count Ekaterina began her life under the moniker Engelberga. She was by birth a member of one of the most powerful families in Italy indeed in Europe in that early era. Even for her high born status it could be said that she married well winding up married to a monarch in the Holy Roman Empire. She gave birth to three children one of whom died but two of whom went on to greater glory. Engelberga's first foray into politics came when she attempted to intervene on behalf of a friend and ally ArchBishop in his conflict with the Pope. This proved unsuccessful and he had to go into exile but Ekaterina was learning. Her next foray into politics was when a congregation of Archbishops annulled the marriage of her husband's brother and her brother in law. The pope excommunicated the Bishops and Engelberga/Ekaterina deciding to intervene on their behalf this time conspiring with her husband who besieged the Holy See. She learned here that you can get farther with a gun and a kind word than just with a kind word. The negotiations went more smoothly this time and the Bishops were forgiven. Her fortunes changed quite dramatically after her husband died in 875 A.D. She was kidnapped by a King who had been elected to replace her husband. Her only daughter was forced to marry this man. The scant written history that exists detailing her eventual fate says that she died sometime around 890 A.D history in this instance lied.
At some stage early in her life Ekaterina was poisoned by her families rivals just after the birth of birth of her children which she had quite young. The motive was likely to replace her as the wife of her important husband. The poisoning had quite the opposite effect. While Kat became extremely unwell she did not die at least not in any permanent sense. When she came back to life she was an awakened External mutant. She had no idea what she truly was save for the fact that she had ceased to age and began to be able to read the thoughts of others. As well as some telekinesis and teleportation abilities. Her Catholicism caused her to believe that she was bedevilled and had become some sort of witch. This idea was only disabused when she encountered Apocalypse. Discovering she was some form of divergent branch of the family tree so to speak. Apocalypse did not make this seem appealing in fact she was appalled with him. She fled soon after their first couple of encounters and hoped to avoid him for the rest of forever. Her well preserved beauty across her lifespan was a significant complication to her role as a high ranking noble woman so her eventual staged 'death' was more of a relief to her than anything else. Being a high profile political player was a burden to Ekaterina and she was only halfway successful in this role. Letting go of it to enter into relative obscurity was not such a gruelling prospect. She very soon made the acquaintance of more of the powerful Mutantkind as well as other creatures of similar power. She found most of them jaded and distasteful. Though perhaps not outright cruel many of the External mutants took on values that could best be described as alien in nature. She withdrew from their society for the most part preferring to play politics in the human arena from the shadows.
She watched with fascination at the birth of the age of reason. She felt somewhat smug given her ostensibly supernatural nature and it's conflict with many of these foundational ideas. Perhaps that is why when the Fascist and Socialist movements ravaged Europe she hopped on board. Nietzsche's prediction that there would be a tremendous bloodletting as a result of the Age of Reason appeared to be vindicated. When the wheels fell off this disaster she fled to America. Her failed endeavors pushed Kat into a Classical Liberal mode of thought more compatible with traditional American reasoning and ironically old English protestant rather than Catholic reasoning. She became partially involved with the Mob during the 1950s as a result of having to keep her business endeavors underground (it being hard to explain one's immortality to the IRS). This involvement grew and Kat fostered a relationship with other organisations in New York and around the country as a mediator in various underworld disputes. She technically does not have a 'family' per se being unable to procreate since her turning. When the age of heroes began with a proliferation of costumed vigilantes and villains Kat watched with a mixture of horror and amusement. The present era is Gauche beyond belief to the Renaissance loving Dark Age born girl. It is as if the entire world had become some form of Lucha Libre match. She has kept as low a profile as possible but how long this will persist for one can only guess.
Personality
Abilities
ACUTE SENSES
One of the benefits of her mutation. Average human's can see accurately up to around 5km or three miles. Kat can read footnotes at this distance and can see as acutely as a normal human would at 5km at around 50km or 30 miles. She can also do this in the complete dark just as perfectly. Her extended binocular vision also achieves a high degree of up close magnification up to ten times again what can be regarded as normal human eyesight. This helps with her painting and sculpture obviously. Her hearing is also exceptionally acute beyond that of even a canine. She can hear beyond the human range of 20-20000Hz her own range being from around 10-100000Hz approximately. She also has the ability to shut this off if she chooses. Her tactile senses are also very sharp as is her sense of taste. This along with her effective Immortality has produced some unpleasant side effects see weaknesses.
CAN KILL EXTERNALS
As an External Kat can kill another of her otherwise unkillable kind by removing said External's heart. Not that Kat has any inclination to do so. Murdering another immortal no matter how vile the person may be is an utterly undesirable notion to her.
EIDETIC MEMORY
Kat can remember things very precisely. Words, text, events and people she can resummon in her mind with photographic accuracy. She uses and some would say wastes this ability on the production and appreciation of her art.
IMMORTALITY
Ekaterina is immortal. She does not age and is practically unkillable, able to regenerate from a highly disintegrated state. Even by External Mutant standards her rate of regeneration is fast when it comes to quite devastating injuries. Upon complete vivisection her regeneration is from the neck down with her central nervous system regenerating first which causes her acute pain (see weaknesses). In the instance of her head being destroyed she will regenerate from her spine or the largest part or her. This follows a master molecule principle so that cutting Kat in two will not produce a duplicate. Fortunately Kat has never been through injuries so severe as to require such extensive regeneration. She has been 'killed' a half dozen times though and come right back to life within minutes. She has the weakness also of all externals of being able to be killed by having her heart removed by another External (cf weakneses).
QUOD SANGUIS VITAE
Kat's blood has certain properties that she does not for obvious reasons want to be exposed to the public. If injected directly into the blood of a mortal or mutant it allows them temporary access to her self regenerative capabilities. It cannot simply be drunk for this to happen (for ordinary people at least). This is an agent she could use to cure a great many who are on deaths door but she would prefer not to become a blood cow of some sort. Her blood's properties seem more to be a result of her immortality rather than the source of it as she has lost almost all of it on previous misadventures and is still alive. It has diminishing usefulness and can only really help a single individual twice. It is also difficult to store requiring refrigeration and decaying at a rate much faster than ordinary blood under optimal conditions (ordinary blood being stored for 35 days approx. Hers only lasting about a week). The effect it would have on some form of sanguivore like a vampire is variable. It is poisonous and harmful to fully turned vampires but partially turned ones may benefit the same as ordinary humans. This ability she carefully hides.
TELEKINESIS
Kat can move objects around within a couple of standard city blocks up to around 100kg in weight and with a reasonable amount of force. She again is no top tier telepath able to stop cars or the like. She can slow people down but not stop them entirely or lift them unless they are below the aforementioned benchmark weight. Where she really shines is in fine motor operations. Moving small objects like keys, cards even pills around with great accuracy. Given her small frame and weight one would think Kat would be able to move herself around. Fly as it were. But for some reason she is unable to do this.
TELEPATHY
Kat is no Professor X but she can read the surface thoughts of others this manifests as a bizarrely accurate form of cold reading of people in her social dealings. As for probing people's minds for specific information her accuracy is greatly diminished here. If specifically, a person is thinking about the subject she is trying to glean information about then it becomes much easier. There is a proactive psychoprojective element to Kat's telepathy that causes her emotions to manifest or be felt strongly in others when she is under duress. This is not enough to paralyze or inhibit anyone but it can be rather unsettling. Note this power will only be used with consent.
TELEPORT
Skills
ARTISTIC
Kat even though she was born five centuries before the Renaissance is a renaissance girl at heart. This is the era when she really found herself both as a patron of the arts and an artist herself. She favours photorealistic paintings and sculptures. She can work in marble stone and clay for sculpting purposes and prefers oil based paints for her portraiture and still lifes. Her skills are supplemented with her Mutant enhanced senses producing works of unparalleled acuity and quality.
FENCING
Kat's a lover not a fighter but she did pick up a few choice pointers in European style martial disciplines over the years. She is quite adept with a blade but she is no master. She prefers basket hilted swords and rapiers to other forms of blade.
FINANCE
Kat was there for the rise of the banking system as it has come to be known. She saw the fall of mercantilism and the death of innumerable social and economic orders. Her ability to survive and thrive commercially in these environments has been something of a constant. She has had enough expertise to keep her well in the money for the duration of her unnaturally extended life thus far.
HISTORY
She's lived history and aye indeed she is history herself. It makes sense that she would know a great deal about it - including where it has been misrepresented and mis recorded.
LINGUISTICS
For the most part Kat spent her days in Europe thus there are few European languages that she is not familiar with. Italian (of course), Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, Polish, Russian and of course English are all on the list of languages that she speaks with relative fluency. She also picked up a fair bit of Arabic during the crusades but despises the language in its modern vowel free state. Being classically educated she is familiar with ancient Greek and Latin. The list of languages she speaks are more defined by exceptions rather than exclusions. She never made it to the far east so has no practical experience with East Asian languages. She has extremely limited experience in Europe with Celtic languages despite being a contemporary of the Celts for many years.
POLITICS
Kat has been a player all her long unlife and even before when she was mortal. For the most part she engages as a shadowy figure in the background sponsoring puppets and using persuasion to get her way. But she is capable of stepping out into the front of any initiate she wishes to undertake as well. She is a convincing speaker educated and eloquent as well as charismatic.
SEDUCTION
Resources
BUSINESSES
Kat owns a club, a private security firm, a restaurant and several commercial galleries. She also fronts money to a number of charitable NGO's working with the homeless, orphans and the disabled.
EXCELLENT ART COLLECTION
She needs this to fill her galleries. Kat has made some choice purchases. She also produces a great deal of material herself in her underground studio. Despite her best efforts she has not been able to get ahold of the embarrassing nude that Sandro Botticelli painted of her in one of her less sensible moments.
NERD COLLECTION
Kat has all the classic Star Wars figurines dating back to the 80's only half of which are still in their packs. The other half have somewhat embarrassingly ben removed from their cases and played with. She also has a lot of star trek memorabilia. And a lot of B movie paraphernalia. She is a first order nerd something that connects her to the present unlike many other immortals.
PRIVATE ARMY
Kat has a small but effective group of loyal henchmen. Most of them seem to see her as something of a little sister figure. She handpicked a lot of them saving them from difficult situations they were in such as finding them legal representation to avoid jail time. She actually employs these men and women in her private security firm and sells security back to her other businesses as a sort of sleight of hand. There would be no more than forty people in her employ here. Not enough to challenge some of her larger rivals but she has no real intention of doing this anyway.
SWORD COLLECTION
She has some facility with blades and has a number of Spanish Toledos in basket hilt and rapier styles. Probably about twenty good swords all in all.
WEALTH
Weaknesses
ACHILLES' HEEL
Kat is practically but not totally immortal and can be permanently killed. Apart from heart removal by another External another way in which this can be done involves the poison that triggered her initial abilities. The likelihood of this coming about by chance or at all is very low however thanks to the relative obscurity of the event and the scarcity of the compound involved. A small amount may not kill her and simply depower her for a couple of weeks. Kat does not know about this weakness.
CURSE OF ARTIFICE
Kat is a shrewd political manipulator and has been all her life generally trying to improve rather than make things appreciably worse for the average person in her domain of influence. She has to this end a very 50 50 record of success. Many of her initiatives are spectacular failures such as her flirtation with Italian Fascism and Benito Mussolini or her backing of the Spanish Armada against England. She is doomed to repeat initiatives that cause spectacular failures all of which weigh heavily on her conscience. It's almost like an addiction. Whilst Kat is nowhere near psychologically evil as defined by Itzhak Fried (in fact she is quite the opposite really sweet and nice) her actions have had catastrophic effects. The phrase Kat-tastrophe has become popular amongst those that know her. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt even killed and people frequently do in large numbers thanks to her manipulations. So technically in this respect at least she is a villain. Just a very well meaning one.
EXTERNAL
As an external another External can effectively kill Kat by removing her heart.
INSANE
Closely related to the Curse of Artifice Kat is ever so slightly unhinged. Because of her heightened senses she can become enraptured with things that are particularly interesting or pretty when there are more significant things happening. Despite her heightened senses she might not notice looming disaster or miss something important someone is telling her. That's one dimension to her insanity. Another relates to her immortality. She cannot bear pain as a part of her form of immortality so every time she dies she loses a little bit more of herself. Her body may be unassailable save for inflicting temporary damage but her mind is much less so. She breaks down psychologically for periods after she comes back from a particularly bad case of being killed. Her symptoms resembling a form or temporary psychosis. She's not violent during these episodes but they are frightening for those who know her.
NOT INVINCIBLE
Kat's immortality places her beyond the ability of most everyone to permanently destroy but she is not invincible. She is in fact vulnerable on so many fronts that the prospect of confronting her is not at all that daunting. This is more of an umbrella weakness that encompasses a large number of things to be enumerated below.
SENSITIZATION
Kat has highly attuned senses that enable her to see and hear and feel much more than others. She can enjoy certain things a lot more than ordinary people but this comes at a heavy price. She is extremely vulnerable to pain feeling it much more intensely than your average human. In short she has something akin to the mortal condition of Central Sensitization. A paper cut is a nightmare for her let alone a bullet wound. This is linked to other weaknesses that she has enumerated herein. Fortunately for Kat she had her children before she awakened as a mutant with enhanced senses. If she were to give birth today that would likely damage her sanity more than it has already been afflicted.
SOFT HEARTED
This particular trait could prove the most fatal. Kat has always been one for the more sentimental causes. She is often without protection working at a soup kitchen somewhere in NYC or running some sort of charitable event. She has had in the past heroic tendencies as well that expose her abilities and hence her nature so that the hunters out there decide to target her. She is not in any way ruthless when she fights choosing to leave her enemies intact. Her soft heartedness means that she is an easy target for manipulation.
WEAK
Logs
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Title | Date | Scene Summary |
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A slower night at the club. | July 31st, 2023 | Is Sam an External??? |
A Shark in the Pond | March 7th, 2020 | Great White Shark brokers a deal with the Contessa, for a sniper rifle to assassinate a British ambassador. The plan, is complex, but simple, and of unusual origin. |
Dean meets a Contessa | February 18th, 2020 | Summary needed |
Welcome to Aeterna | February 13th, 2020 | nifty |
Somebody call the Piper | February 4th, 2020 | Piper goes to Kat's club, eats cheese/bacon balls and drinks soda, and discusses history |
Canine Capers | January 26th, 2020 | Summary needed |
One cup of hot art | June 28th, 2019 | Selene runs into Kat in a cafe. Art is drawn. Deals are made. |
A slow night at Aeterna. | June 9th, 2019 | Summary needed |
Aeterna the Icecreamery | May 25th, 2019 | Summary needed |
A Contessa and a Ninja walk into a bar | April 26th, 2019 | Summary needed |
Caffeine and Vigilantism | March 2nd, 2019 | Summary needed |
The Job that needs hazzard Pay | February 15th, 2019 | Summary needed |
Shenanigans at the Bean | February 9th, 2019 | Summary needed |
Mayan Secrets: The Contessa | February 7th, 2019 | T'Challa seeks the current location of an ancient artifact once in Contessa's possession |
Immortal Visitations | February 2nd, 2019 | Summary needed |
Art and other sundries | January 11th, 2019 | Summary needed |
Strange Charity | January 1st, 2019 | Summary needed |
Scenes from Manhatten | December 22nd, 2018 | Summary needed |
What Has Become of Midgard | December 9th, 2018 | Summary needed |
An Unexpected Visit | December 4th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Central Park Snowfest 2026 | December 1st, 2018 | The festival of snow and nice and kids screaming as super powered people push them down snowy hills on sleds! |
The Contessa's Date. | November 28th, 2018 | Tim and Kat have a date. |
Information Exchange | November 26th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Canary Songs | November 22nd, 2018 | Queen Consolidated hosts a charity event at the Blue Lady in Manhatten, several personalities mingle. |
Not So Incognito | November 21st, 2018 | Summary needed |
Harley and Kat meet | November 21st, 2018 | Summary needed |
What do we do with a problem like, Mordana | November 20th, 2018 | Thor frees the Dark Elf Assassin |
What happens -outside- of Starbucks | November 20th, 2018 | Summary needed |
THERE'S BLOOD IN MY COFFEE VEIN!!! | November 20th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Old Treasures | November 17th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Shopping for trouble | November 16th, 2018 | Thor and Vintridr apprehend one of Malekith's remaining assassins, with some help from Midgard's lesser known heroes. |
Business... strictly business | November 11th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Park Charity for the Children | November 10th, 2018 | Tim and Kat meet at an outdoor Charity event in central park |
Memory Is The Thing You Forget With | November 8th, 2018 | Bruce remembers an enigmatic visitor to Wayne Manor from many years ago. |
Rooftops and 'rillas | November 4th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Ancient History | October 29th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Spartans, Gods, and Italians, Oh my! | October 23rd, 2018 | Summary needed |
An Immortal meets an immortal | October 20th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Where To Not Hold Discussions | October 18th, 2018 | Summary needed |
An Angel, a Winchester and a mutant walked into a Cafe and.... | October 17th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Charitable enterprises | October 16th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Contessa's Car Trouble | October 15th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Battleborn and Kat in NYC | October 9th, 2018 | Kat meets Helena in a coffee shop. |
Tea and biscuits with Kat and friends | October 7th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Aeterna is Spiff | October 2nd, 2018 | Kat and Deadpool meet about one of Deadpool's targets. |
Incident in Central Park | September 30th, 2018 | Summary needed |
External Communications | September 29th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Confession is Good for the Soul | September 28th, 2018 | Kat comes clean to Matt about her interesting past and her dangerous 'family'. Plans are made. |
Some Stuff's Happening | September 27th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Intruder in the Garden | September 27th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Frank checks up on Kat | September 27th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Ghost Stories | September 26th, 2018 | America has a lot of stories to tell. Also the Death Dealer rules. |
Boilermakers | September 26th, 2018 | Drinks at McAnally's. Plays on words abound! |
FLAGGED:AUTOFAC Keyword Log 675-5397-FPK | September 25th, 2018 | A gathering of immortals as the Warlord Crule is contacted by his centuries-lost sister, Ekaterina Vespucci, and SHIELD is on the line. |
FLAGGED: AUTOFAC Keyword Log 657-5309-FPK | September 24th, 2018 | A call between Ekaterina Vespucci, international arms dealer, and Makosi Onyango, sales rep for DRC, a high-tech arms manufacturer, is flagged by SHIELD AI systems.
A FLASHPOINT KENYA scene. |
Do NOT Go In There. | September 24th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Kat meets the King (hail to him) | September 23rd, 2018 | Summary needed |
Ladies night at club Aeterna | September 22nd, 2018 | Summary needed |
Kat in Gotham again (with Amarok) | September 19th, 2018 | Summary needed |
The Contessa and the Killer | September 19th, 2018 | Frank witnesses Ekaterina being viciously murdered in front of him only to have her fully recover within about 5 minutes. |
A Night at Josie's | September 19th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Rorschach meets Lady Artifice | September 18th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Caught in Traffic | September 17th, 2018 | Thanks to a tip from Kat, Frank is able to stop a human traffic deal and manages to save a few lives in the process. |
A Speedster meets an Immortal | September 16th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Matthew Murdock for the Defense | September 15th, 2018 | The infamous Contessa comes to Nelson and Murdock for legal help and Matt accepts, if only to find out more about the strangest crimelord he's ever met. |
Checking The Agents | September 15th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Frosty Investigations | September 14th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Cooking up Crime | September 14th, 2018 | Shredder meets with Contessa about the possibility of some joint ventures in consolidating the power in New York City. And...the world? |
The Kat and the Bat | September 12th, 2018 | Summary needed |
A cat meets Kat | September 11th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Coffee By the Sea | September 10th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Fite nite | September 10th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Super rescue for a Contessa | September 9th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Rooftop StarGazers | September 8th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Bad Medicine: Beginning | September 8th, 2018 | Summary needed |
A New Acquaintance | September 7th, 2018 | Kat fills Frank in on a human trafficking plot going down in the next few days and invites him to intervene. |
Two Gals and a Goddess Drinking Coffee | September 6th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Red Rescue | September 6th, 2018 | Red Robin saves Ekatrina from some Thugs and learns about her idea to open a Gallery. |
Externals - Duck Soup | September 4th, 2018 | Summary needed |
Where The Neon Lights End | September 3rd, 2018 | Summary needed |
Grand Opening - New Hope Shelter | September 2nd, 2018 | Summary needed |
A Live Studio Audience | September 1st, 2018 | In an effort to learn more about The Contessa and her operation, Frank is stunned to find out the girl appears to be much younger than any criminal mastermind should be. |
Cutscenes
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Title | Date | Scene Summary |
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