Hoodlum

Clarine (Scenesys ID: 1305)
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Quote
"The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering." -Bruce Lee
Profile
Full Name:	Clarine Zarves
Gender:	Female
Species:	Human
Theme:	Original (OC)
Occupation:	Student
Citizenship:	United States
Residence:	East Harlem
Education:	Some College
Status:	Shelved
Groups:	{{{Groups}}}
Other Information
Apparent Age:	20	Actual Age:	20
Date of Birth	19 February 2005	Actor:	Erika Ervin
Height:	203 cm	Weight:	105 kg
Hair Color:	Blonde	Eye Color:	Green
Theme Song:	"Princes of the Universe" - Queen

Profile

A transtastic immortal twenty something young woman who is trying to figure the whole life, vigilante, and college thing in one go. This would be hard enough dealing with her inbuilt identity issues, except she is easily mistaken for an Amazon, and has also had several hundred years worth of other peoples' lives jammed in her head. So... she has to sort that out too. Yeah. On the upside, dressing up in her favorite hoodie and sunglasses and going out to fight crime has done WONDERS for her stress.

Sheet

Description

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She's tall. Noticeably so. Towering over most people, she's got the sort of build which usually manages to achieve awkwardness more than anything else. Her hair is a near-platinum blonde color, usually tied back in a simple tail or french braid of sorts. Her eyes are a vibrant, emerald green, and her complexion clear. High, carefully plucked and arched eyebrows, blue lipstick and a progression of rings up the side of her right ear and through her labret hint at a whimsical nature. For all that, though, her face is a little too angular, a little too square in the jaw to be considered conventionally attractive.

One could easily mistake her for an amazon thanks to her height and muscularity as she puts for the appearance of a very athletic young woman. She usually goes about wearing a grey hoodie over a band shirt of one type or another, with a multitude of black bracelets and alternating dark blue and bright yellow fingernails. Skinny blue jeans and combat boots, as well as braided black leather belt are otherwise the order of the day.

History

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For most of her life, young Clarine had a relatively unremarkable set of years, much of it interrupted frequently by the disconnect between her unusual size and her gender identity. It dogged her pretty much until she left High School, where she began to bloom. Sure, her parents had been supportive, her grades good, but in the end, it's no excuse for having friends. Awkward as she tended to be, she didn't really tend to do social situations.

College changed all that. Sure, she was still seen as a bit odd, but it was generally more important how she did in class. With an interest in medicine (as doctors were a consistent factor in her life), and a desire to give back a little, she was exceptionally studious. A love of biology or a desire for success governed pretty much anyone who didn't wash out in the sophomore year, leaving more serious-minded students. From these resulting study groups, she forges some pretty solid friendships. She even started dating a little.

Her first death came not at the hands of some immortal plot, or some sort Hunters, but at the hands of a garden variety mugger in Central Park. He just too nervous, and she moved to grab her wallet too quickly. Shot in the chest, he dumped her in the reservoir, and carried on his way. She woke up the next morning, shivering, cold, and stumbled home.

In the days that followed, she felt better than she'd ever remembered feeling. Still, several times, there was this buzzing, tingling sensation at the back of her head followed by a sense of unease, and pain. She did not know that she was now be watched by other immortals. Still, she had not had a long life and had taken no quickenings. With her youth and newness, it was not valuable to take her head, for most of them.

In time, a man by the name of Jason Nvos found her, another immortal, who was pleasant willing to help her even the score against the other immortals who cared little for anything more than killing. After all, there were some among them who would 'harvest' a new immortal as a matter of course, driven more by the urges of the Gathering than any real practicality or need for greater power or skill. She had to throttle back on college (but then, she hardly needed the time, suddenly, with the prospect of forever stretching out in front of her).

Going to school part time, 'subsidized' by her master, life suddenly got more easy in some ways, and nightmarishly awful in others. Not the least of which was having to contemplate not just the fact that others were going to try to cut her head off, but that to save her life she might just have to cut other peoples' heads off. Which was sort of the opposite of doctoring. Suffice to say, she wanted nothing to do with it, even if she was smart enough to know she might not get a chance to do otherwise.

A former Viking, Jason taught her to fight, with his favorite hatchet and sword combo. It fit her reach and strength rather well, and if she was honest with herself, it was rather cathartic. Still, in time, things had to change. She couldn't remain in this bubble of training, learning about history, about her new life forever. And spending all this time around another immortal made her skin prickle in a manner she never did find anything less than unpleasant.

It was a fine time for her, after all. Seeing the swell of heroes rolling around in the world, and being told she was virtually immortal made her feel bold. She even tried her hand at vigilantism. She ruined more than a few hoodies while jumping in on armed robberies. She died a false death several times over trying to get it right, and in the end stopped crime more by the surprise of the criminals than because of any real talent as such. At this point, she was barely any different from an ordinary mortal human.

It was nearly year before she got in her first real fight with another immortal. Aaron Marquez, a former Spanish conquistador who had been in the Americas almost since they were discovered. He was one of the more rapacious immortals the Watchers had on record, and the Hunters had even taken a few swipes at him. At one time, he was even slated for a spot in the Sanctuary, but was deemed too dangerous to approach as he seemed to enjoy killing mortals almost as much as he liked decapitating his fellow immortals.

Marquez was no easy prey. Over six hundred years old, not counting the numerous quickenings he'd taken in that time, he also had years of violence, soldiering, and survival behind his belt. When she heard he was in town from her master, she was scared. When she heard he knew of her and was looking for a nice easy kill, she was utterly terrified for her life. She wanted to go find the nearest church and hole up in it.

In fact, she had resolved to do just that, and was on her way to the Subway, but just after clearing the turnstile, the man set upon her as he was accustomed to, for while he loved slaughter, he still had caution in him. For all her youth, she had a large advantage in reach and leverage and even if he was confident in his skill, power, and experience? He wanted to minimize danger to himself.

Ironically, his caution proved to be both warranted, and too little at the same time. She shouldn't have won. Not really. However, Jason had crossed swords with Marquez once upon a time, and while he hadn't won, he had remembered and mulled on the fight. He knew some of the man's favorite moves, knew how he favored one of his legs, and unlike Marquez, had made sure to train his pupil specifically to take advantage of those things, even if she had intended to hide rather than fight. The combat that followed would certainly have elevated the terror she felt at knowing he hunted her to the single most terrifying moment of her life, were it not what came after the fight. He chased her into the subway tunnels proper, trying to find a quiet, private place to cut her head off.

They did battle there, dancing over the rails, and it was everything she could do, even with all the specialized training, to actually hold her own. She received several vicious cuts, stabs, and wounds and probably lost enough blood on the tracks to bleed to death. For all that, though, her terror of dying caused her to fight back desperately. All she needed was the right moment, and with enough distraction, she planned to flee. It came when his footing was shaken by the vibration of the rail from an approaching train. Seeing him unbalanced, she USED that leverage to shove him onto the third rail and dive away.

Stunned by electrical shock, he was hit by the oncoming train, losing his head in the process, and bequeathing his quickening to her, as a result. Centuries of experience, of the various quickenings Marquez had taken poured into her mind. The battles, the clashes with other dangerous immortals. The violence, the cruelty, the darkness. His skill, and strength, his power. All bequeathed to her in one long exquisite moment of light and arcing electricity.

One might think it brought peace, confidence, a sense of safety. With all this, though, she also gained knowledge of such dangerous creatures as 'Methos', 'The Kurgan', and Duncan. Knowing such beings existed were a fresh new hell. Indeed, their presence in the world and by extension, her life, meant that she now had far more terrifying things than Marquez ever was to worry about. With all his vast collected experiences, he had been nothing next to the danger of the Kurgan, a threat so far above her understanding, she didn't even know how to deal with it.

Still, it did much to make her realize one simple fact. Frightened or not, there would always be one more big fish to deal with. And eventually, her number would come up, more likely than not. Out of all the immortals on the planet, why would she think herself more 'fit' than any of the others to win 'The Prize'. After all, the lore is clear: There can be only one. This revelation was oddly freeing. It didn't lessen her fear. Only its hold on her. With that gone, perhaps she could do some good in this world. Still, she's learned something every young hero wanna-be should: There are always bigger fish.

Personality

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She now has a dozen or more centuries of life bundled into her head. Memories of skills and experiences that never belonged to her, but are as familiar as the ones she actually lived through. And yet, she still feels as young, most of the time, as she is chronologically. She's not as fearless as she portrays in dealing with danger, but she has a certain fatalistic courage in overcoming that fear born out of a solid belief that she can't really stop true death from coming.

The whole thing's rather disorienting for her, since vigilantism makes her feel better about herself. At the same time, most of her memories came from a murderous, evil man, finding herself remembering faces of people she never met and memories of depredations she never actually committed. The way her hands can move through tasks familiarly despite never having done them before.

Perhaps the most jarring thing is how she has essentially become a killer. She was frightened of the idea of having to kill, at one time, but since taking Marquez's head, it has become almost dull in some ways. Then again, centuries of murdering one's way across the planet certainly has a way of inuring one to such things. That's not to say she revels in it, though, as her basic personality remains unchanged. These days, having accepted that she will one day die, she has focused more and more on helping others.

Abilities

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HEALING
It's all about the neck! Pretty much anything that doesn't kill her is healable. The speed and efficacy is related however to both its severity and proximity to her neck. Cuts directly to the neck, for example, have a nasty habit of scarring up, though they will heal. It can take days or weeks in such a case. Small cuts and bruises to the limbs heal in seconds, while a destroyed 'kidney' for example could take HOURS to heal. A false death takes the better part of an hour to get the better of her.

HOLDOUT BROADSWORD
Most Highlanders show an uncanny ability to hide their weapons in a way that seems to contradict standard notions of time and space. While it seems to only work with their personal blades, they are able to hide or secret away their weapons in a manner that makes it virtually impossible to find no matter how they're searched. Metal detectors won't go off, x-rays won't reveal them, pat-downs are useless.

IMMORTAL VIGOR
Being immortal provides a few side-benefits as well, like unusual endurance. In most cases, anything that can injure a human can injure an immortal. Bullets, poisons, alcohol, etc. There are notable exceptions, though. For one, they don't particularly need to breath, and are totally immune to disease. What's more, by ignoring their body's protests and damage, they tend to be able to move, run, and fight with more intensity than most flesh and blood. It's not that they don't get tired. There's just no real lasting consequence for demanding more from their body than it can safely give. They are NOT however bulletproof, knife-proof, or even 'punch'-proof, and can even starve to (temporary) death. What's more, their base 'appearance' is set after their first death. Subsequent exercise and the like can benefit them, but without regular maintenance, they'll just end up back where they started.

KIND OF IMMORTAL
It's not quite true immortality, but it's pretty close. Clarine does not age or really physically change much at all, and is exceptionally difficult to kill. Really, anything that doesn't separate her head from her shoulders is incapable of putting her down permanently. That being said, MOST things, with a few exceptions, capable of killing a human will cause a 'false' death. Her heart will stop beating, blood will stop pumping. About six to eight hours later, she will awaken in pain and exhausted, but otherwise healed and able to stumble off.

QUICKENING CHANNELING
While not powerhouses like some of the more well-known superhumans, Immortals tend to display greater speed and strength than is necessarily human, as well as other things when channeling their quickening. This is proportionate to the amount of quickening one has absorbed, allowing many like Clarine to dent steel doors with a full-force punch or cut chains with the swipe of a blade. Snatching an arrow out of the air or dueling at speeds that seem a blur to human eyes are relatively 'common' feats for immortals with sufficient power. Another such feat is channeling it into one's weapon, thusly making it virtually unbreakable, one must immortals understand how to do instinctively. Some immortals (though not Clarine herself) have even shown the ability to grasp glimpses of the future, project illusions, or even mesmerize their targets.

QUICKENING MEMORY
Though it is little spoken of, Highlanders hold their memories buried in the Quickening that keeps them alive. Though time may take the sting from some painful memories, and perspective can be gained to ease old, painful memories, the quickening ensures that the memory stays sharp. Faces, names, old betrayals and friendships can bring a rush of long buried memories that feel almost as new as the day they unfolded.

THE QUICKENING
Inside of every immortal exists a mystical force that contains their life, their energy, their memories, and their power inviolate. When they are decapitated, it flows into the nearest immortal, usually the one that killed them, granting their knowledge and power. This makes the power of any given immortal difficult to gauge as the number of quickenings they've taken can greatly skew whether or not their chronological age and experience even matters. When passing another immortal (even one who has not died their first death), they can feel a sort of buzzing sensation alerting them to the presence, though not exact location of another of their kind.

When a quickening is taken, this tends to cause electromagnetic phenomenon. Lightning arcs, electronic devices rupture and explode as their body is limned in shining light. It looks very dangerous, but feels like ecstasy. If a mortal manages to kill an immortal, however, the quickening is generally lost.

Skills

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LANGUAGES
The collected experiences of the immortals that came before her means that she knows most modern non-mystical earthly languages that aren't so obscure as to be nearly impossible to learn, such as Ancient Sumerian, or a number of languages that were dead and gone before they were ever recorded a few thousand years ago.

SELF-DEFENSE
While chronologically, Clarine has two and a half decades to her name, she literally has centuries of fighting crammed into her brain from Marquez AND the immortals he's killed. Her main experience with fighting of course revolves around blades, and she is exceptionally good at it. Better in fact, than most given mortal humans could expect to be in their limited lifetimes. The same is true to a lesser degree for unarmed fighting, the usage of most more common types of guns, bows, and arrows.

SURVIVAL
Marquez and his many victims often had to make do with less than ideal living conditions. While hunger and exposure can't permanently fell her, it's extremely uncomfortable and can consume a lot of time to boot. Finding food, shelter, and navigating with only her hands and her wits in most terrestrial environments are possible for her.

Resources

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MENTOR
Clarine has a mentor who is teaching her ways of being an immortal. Not just survival, but its culture and rules. He makes sure her rent ant tuition is paid, and more than occasionally gives her the sort of advice hundreds of years of life can bring. Having taken Marquez's head, the difference in experience is narrowed considerably. Still, having another immortal she can relatively rely on to be her ally is priceless when one is looking at a possibly very long life.

Weaknesses

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HOLY GROUND
There is also one rule that NO immortal breaks. Even the black-hearted. No fighting on holy ground. The universe is pretty solid about this one. Any ground that is held religiously sacred by any given people will do. Sparring, exercising, etc. are all fine. Actual fighting, even against mortals, is a no-no, for immortals. If a fight breaks out, ground may rumble, the sky may cloud up and grow stormy. The first time an immortal tries to strike a blow, bad things happen. A sword may shatter on skin. A bolt of lightning may strike the immortal right before he strikes. If they persist, the whole building/area could be brought down on them. Continued aggression is likely to end in their deaths. As a result, immortals almost never break the rule because it is nearly impossible to break. This does NOT protect immortals from mortals who try to kill them on holy ground.

LASSITUDE
As ecstatic as it is, the quickening has another problem. Directly following it, and for hours afterward, the immortal in question is weakened, exhausted, affected by lassitude. It's confusing assimilating hundreds of years of memories that feel as if they are yours (including seeing yourself decapitate yourself). When like this, they're all too easy a target for decapitation.

POWERFUL QUICKENINGS
There's always a chance that an immortal is so strong, so powerful of will, and so old, that when killed, their quickening will wreak a change in their killers personality. Known as Dark and Light Quickenings, a dark quickening can turn a good-hearted man or woman into a bloodthirsty violent savage. A Light Quickening can turn a serial killer into a Saint, conversely. Unless one has the will and power of their own to match such personalities, even the taking of another's head carries risk.

THE GATHERING
A sort of mystical twist of fate, the Immortals who fight and kill call the whole process 'The Game'. Supposedly the reward for this, called 'the Prize' grants unimaginable power, when there is only one immortal left. With so few immortals left, the 'Gathering' has begun. It's twists of fate, aberrations in luck and destiny that inevitable ends up pitting immortals against one another through warped circumstance, in order to engineer the death of all but one. It makes living a true, isolated life of peace impossible, in the long run, no matter how hard one tries.

THE HUNTERS
A band of renegade Watchers only loosely organized, they're dangerous for a very specific reason. They have all the same knowledge and repositories of The Watchers, but they've forsworn the 'no interference' rule entirely. They actively hunt Immortals, often on holy ground for the purpose of ensuring that mortal society stays free of them.

THE KURGAN
The Kurgan is the bogeyman of every existing immortal. As far as any can tell, he's either the oldest immortal currently in existence, or the most bloodthirsty. He's taken hundreds, maybe thousands of heads in his lifetime. All of the memories she has, even those of Marquez himself, view him with exactly one reaction: fear. To stand before him, for most immortals, is to lose one's head.

THE RULES
There are several rules in immortal society, such as it is, that only the most black hearted immortals would break. Melee weapons only. Fights are always one-on-one. Never allow mortals to see. And if you die publically, you move on.

THE WATCHERS
A shadowy organization, the watchers have dedicated themselves to watching and recording the deeds of immortals throughout time, rarely interfering. They catalogue which are still active, where and when they were born and died, how many and which heads they are believed to have taken, and more. They are all identified by a tattoo on their forearms, and take a vow to not interfere. That said, they DO operate 'The Sanctuary', a place where dangerous or 'retired' immortals are heavily drugged and interred on holy ground, to keep immortals from 'taking over'. Of course, not all watchers keep their vows...

Logs

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Title	Date	Scene Summary
College Life, Amirite	October 29th, 2017	Summary needed
In Which Things Happen, Followed By Stuff	October 28th, 2017	Summary needed
Beetlemania	October 7th, 2017	The Blue Beetle expands his get-rich-quick schemes to rock and roll. It doesn't go so well.
Cape, Please!	October 3rd, 2017	Laura happens by a pair of LGBTQs+ etc', misunderstandings ensue, as Laura learns of a new Weapon-X ally in the hunt against her.
The Doom That Came to New Utrecht	September 30th, 2017	Several heroes respond to the possibility of a monster lurking in the shadows of New Utrecht during the Apokoliptian invasion.
Feed the Birds, Tuppance a Bag	September 24th, 2017	Summary needed
A Grifting We Will Go	September 22nd, 2017	Summary needed
Dancing with the Stars(	September 22nd, 2017	A night on the town at Club Zed is in order. And the stars are out. Well, depending on who you ask.
Book Fair Equals Cheese	September 22nd, 2017	Summary needed
A Welfare Call	September 18th, 2017	Breath checks up on the out of contact LGBT centers in the area. Her and Vorn assist Clarine with the aftermath of a battle with invaders.

Cutscenes

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Gallery

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