Questions on first character application

[Adam Deulane]

Hello, I've just joined Hammel and I'm looking to submit my first character application. I would like to have a non-powered (math) teacher at the school who has a younger, powered sibling that is currently enrolled. I would be submitting the teacher's application first, but his sibling's power is pretty relevant to his back story. Since there is a waiting period between applications, is there any way that I can get the sibling's power cleared so that I can include it in the teacher's application?

Also, I see that actors are the norm for character pictures, but I can draw pretty well. Are hand-drawn pictures an option for these?

Thanks!

E

[Dryope *]

Hi!, E!

For the power, you can either PM Sean (the staff power expert) or post here to clear it.

For character pictures (play bys or face claims as we refer to them) we only use celebrity picture on this particular forum. If you need help you can pop into the site chat and ask (some of our members are great at this) or check out hollow-art.com and see if there is anyone who matches what you want. You can search by characteristics on hollow art, which is nice. But of course they don't have everyone. Don't forget to check our face claim to make sure the person you want isn't listed, though!

If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask!

Yours,
Dryope

[Adam Deulane]

Thanks! I'll PM Sean right away.

[Adam Deulane]

I sent a message to Sean, but I suppose I might as well copy-paste this thing here for other opinions.

The younger sibling is named Nora Marie, and she can accelerate radioactive decay as well as detect the presence and strength of any nearby radioactive elements (think built-in Geiger counter). Most of the time, this is completely useless, since unstable isotopes of different atoms are around us all the time but in such microscopically tiny amounts that they might as well not be there at all.

Small chemistry lesson here I suppose, just to make things clear. A radioactive element is a normal element that for some reason has an unstable nucleus. The most common example is Potassium-40. Most Potassium atoms have a nucleus with a weight of 39, but a very small percentage (0.012%) of potassium atoms have a nucleus with a weight of 40, which is unstable. Over time, Potassium-40 will convert to Calcium-40 (a different element with a normal weight of 40), and in the process of doing so it will release a small amount of radiation (think a single radiation particle. REALLY small). There are many elements that are like this, most of them occurring in even tinier amounts than 0.012%.

Nora Marie's ability is to cause the decay of elements like Potassium-40, which usually takes a few hundred thousand years to break down, to accelerate. Depending on how close she is to the material, she can make it break down twice, four times, or even eight times faster. This means that a material she is breaking down at octuple-speed is emitting eight times as much radiation as it normally would. Most of the time, this amounts to the ability to make sitting next to one banana as dangerous as sitting next to eight bananas. Neverthless, she wears a small, highly-sensitive Geiger counter at all times that starts to beep if levels of background radiation begin to rise to protect herself and others.

Radioactivity is so rare in nature that Nora Marie's abilities only cause any discernible effect if you go out of your way to make them so. Given access to a quantity of refined uranium, for example, would change the game a bit. Highly radioactive, unstable elements decay much faster, and accelerating the decay rate can cause them to emit dangerous levels of radiation or even explode.

Nora Marie has some resistance to radiation sickness, but around finals her hair has a tendency to start falling out, and excessive use of her powers will cause nausea, light-headedness, and fainting whether she is being directly exposed to the radiation or not. She is just as vulnerable to high doses of radiation and explosions as anyone else, and since she must be very close to a radioactive element to cause it to decay at top speed, any serious application to an element like uranium or plutonium would likely kill her. Her future risk for cancer is also considerably higher than normal.

So, how does it look? Thanks for your time!