Samantha Cooper

[shade]

The Basics

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Name: Samantha Emily Cooper
Nicknames: Shade (alias) or Sam (childhood friends)
Age: seventeen, born February 2nd, 1993
Orientation: heterosexual
Desired Rank/Job: student
Powers:

• Shadow Manipulation - When Shade listens, the shadows speak to her. They reach out to her. They call to her. When she lets her emotions loose, they get rowdy. They dance and flicker like a flame. When she reaches for them, they jump, crossing to the void to become a thick matter. In both that state and in their normal state, Shade can control them. Doing it isn't the hard part. Keeping control is. Even in everyday life, her emotions become a play on the shadows around her. When she calls them out into the dimensional world, they become toxic to all organic matter but her. If they slip out of her grasp, they can do plenty of damage. They can be slippery, so control is paramount. The physical effects of her powers and the explanation of her resistance is covered under her general appearance.
  
• Shadow Shifting - Along with being able to draw shadows into a three dimensional form, Shade can flatten her own body into a shadow. In that form, she can go through even the smallest crack and damage is reduced to her. Getting kicked tickles, though a lightning bolt will still kill her. She is also faster, capable of keeping up with a slow moving car. However, it is easy for her to be disoriented, a fact that is alarmingly dangerous. If she loses herself, she doesn't come back. She also cannot speak while in her shadow form and cannot carry anything made out of organic matter. If she's holding or wearing anything organic when she shifts, it disintegrates. This generally applies to clothing. She already has reappeared naked on several previous occasions.

Play By: Arlenis Sosa

The Details

Hair Color: black
Eye Color: black
Piercings: none
Tattoos: none
Scars: most on arms and hands, some on back
General Appearance:

If one is prepared for Shade, one might find her striking. However, for the most part, running into her is a culture shock. She's black from head to toe. We're not talking black as in of the racial profile of black. That's what she looked like when she was a kid. We're talking Crayola crayon black. What keeps her safe from her toxic powers is a specialized pigment that is synthesized by her skin and deposited in all major tissues of her body. Her hair looks blacker than ever with it there and her eyes have no true whites anymore. Her pupils have expanded, giving her excellent night vision but also severe colorblindness, though she thankfully has avoided photophobic effects, and the rest of her eye contains a well of the same pigment as the rest of her. It makes it very hard to tell where she's looking, a fact she enjoys. However, her unique appearance tends to make her stick out. She doesn't sunburn.

Even without the basic oddities of her appearance, Shade has a definite look. She is tiny, coming in at just over five feet, though her manifestation gives some small hope that she might grow a little more. She's slender in design, far from willowy or curvy. Bearing little fat, she holds an impressive amount of wiry muscle. She's easy to knock over, but she's quick and knows how to hit. Scars, from burns and fights, dot her hands, arms, and back. Her hair goes from long to short throughout the year, but she always keeps it out of the way and she always cuts it roughly. She generally dressed in dark colors before she manifested and now hardly cares what she wears, as colors beyond black and white largely escape her. Jeans, cargo pants, T-shirts, and tank tops make up the entirety of her wardrobe. She isn't one for dresses.

Personality:

Shade, as she generally insists on being called, is wary. She doesn't trust others easily and she knows how to hold her tongue. When she first meets someone, she is watchful. She speaks carefully and hides her emotions. She isn't the queen of subtlety or deceit, but she knows how to lie and she knows when to lie. She isn't what most would call a genius, but she knows the secrets of the world and keeps them close. Not a perfect liar herself, she's better at seeing the tells others give. She holds strangers back with a ten foot pole because she finds she's often proven right. In her opinion, most people have issues and she really doesn't need friends if that's what people are. She has enough problems of her own. She prefers to be closed off to others.

Beneath her careful exterior, Shade has a flashy temper and a stubborn attitude. When she forms an opinion, it sticks. She feels no need to argue with you, so if she thinks you're wrong and you won't shut up, she'll probably sock you and be done with it. Violence might not solve everything, but it works for her. Most individuals irk her in some way. If she isn't neutral towards you, she's probably angry. She holds grudges easily and isn't the forgiving type. If she trusts you and then you screw up, you won't get a second chance. Trusting once is hard enough for her; she doesn't do it often.

Underneath all of the harshness and coldness, Shade isn't much of a good soul, but she's something. She doesn't have many morals, but she believes in what she chooses to believe. If she becomes your friend, she'll be loyal until the end. Maybe not openly affectionate or friendly, but loyal. She doesn't handle children well, but she'll stand up for weaker parties, so long as no is going to bother her for doing it. She doesn't believe in frivolity, because she knows better than that. She's seen the the dark side of the world and nothing can change that. Mistrust and abandonment lurks about her soul, but she's learned to work despite that. Survival comes first. She can and will protect herself.

Your Vices

Likes:

• running
  
• night
  
• warmth
  
• rain
  
• spring
  
• dogs

Dislikes:

• televisions
  
• colds
  
• pumpkins
  
• colors
  
• winter
  
• manners

Strengths:

• Extremely good at hand-to-hand combat.
  
• Street smart, street sly, and street confident.

Weaknesses:

• Reading and academics in general.
  
• Has serious trust issues towards others.

Fears:

• Having to go back to her parents.
  
• Having to spend an extended period in jail.
  
• Never having anyone to care about.

Secrets:

• The details of her past, especially her early life.
  
• For the most part, her feelings and problems.

Family Ties

Father: Jason Riley Cooper
Mother: Lillian Emily Cooper
Siblings: none
Any Other Important People: none

History

Shade was Shade before she ever became a meta-human. Shade was always Shade. When she was born, she put a giant hole in an already shaky marriage. Both of her parents were Caucasian and she was born with dark skin. It would all make a whole lot more sense later; the melanin was setting it up for everything else. Back then, it meant her mom was a cheater. It meant that her dad could smack her around. It meant that he was doing her a favor by staying around. The abuse never turned towards little Samantha, but growing up in a broken home wasn't easy.

At first, young Sam did alright in school. However, by the time she was nine, her attention wandered. She picked fights. She got in trouble. The name Shade started then. It fit. She didn't mind it. In many ways, she preferred it. Little Sam started to disappear. By the time she was starting high school, home was as bad as ever and she was in with the wrong crowd. It wasn't drugs or smoking that got her. She never went there. It was fights and betting. It was stealing and violence. Hard life made sense to her and she'd long ago given up on school, her reading and writing ability far below most. Her parents had never wanted her, no matter how much they pretended. She was walking a fine line and then she slipped, tumbling down through the cracks.

Two days after her sixteenth birthday, Shade ran away from her broken life. She'd been born and raised in Logan, Utah, but it had never really mattered before. It did a bit after that. She went east. Hitchhiking suited her just fine. She stole on occasion, but her criminal record already had a few petty crimes on it, so it hardly mattered. No one caught her. After a year, she reached New York City. She fell in with a bunch of ragamuffins with no place to go and that became her life. It was pretty crime, street fighting when she could find it, and little else. It seemed better than home to her.

Then her powers manifested. It was late November and late in life, but they came. She woke up with skin black as night, no ability to see colors, and shadows whispering in her ears. Shade became a living nightmare. She only burned one person, thankfully not fatally, when she accidentally summoned up a bit of gloom. Then she phased and fled into the city. That's where a recruiter found her. She wasn't very pleased that they did. It was a disagreeable start.

Roleplay Example

No color. It was a world without color. It didn't feel different, but it all looked different. Shade saw the world in shades of gray. She'd always done that, she supposed, but then it had become something more than a take on life. There was no green, red, or blue. There was only darker gray and lighter gray. Where had all the colors gone? It was a childish question to consider and she harshly pushed it out of her mind.

Shade walked down the street at a sedate pace, feet finding footing with ease. She watched the sidewalk in front of her, keeping her head down so no one could see her eyes or too much of her skin. In her ribcage, her heart beat a mile a minute, but she felt an icy calm over top of that. Something was wrong, but she couldn't fix it. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but panic wouldn't do her any good.

The shadows on the street corner up ahead flickered. Shade heard their whispers and gritted her teeth. She didn't know what was going on, but she kept her hands in her pockets and kept on walking. Maybe she was going crazy. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. She doubted it, but it was possible. Either way, she wanted the colors back. She didn't grit her teeth to bear it. She gritted them quiet the urge to bite.

What About You?

Name: _____ but call me Blankie
Age: late teens
Experience: seven or eight years
How Did You Find Us? Caution
Ready To Play? you better believe it

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[Mads ♥]

Accepted!

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Congratulations! <3 Go hit the claims, then have fun![/blockquote][/center]