Atropos Belladonna, Nightshade
Atropos Belladonna
Age: 16 years
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Hair: Long, straight, shiny black hair, with an indigo streak on her right.
Eyes: Violet
Weight: 131 lbs
Height: 5'9''
Weapons: Atropos usually uses either telekinesis or her Black Matter skills for combat purposes, but she does have one real weapon. This weapon is called the "abhorred shears" and is a long (about one foot long) pair of sharp shears (scissors.) The shears are enchanted in such a way that they drain energy from anything they touch. She carries the shears in the right side of her left shoe.
Also see Black Weapons under techniques.
Armor: Atropos doesn't wear any actual armor, usually. See Black Armor under techniques.
Strengths: One of Atropos' biggest strengths is the great variety in her fighting methods. She can perform telekinesis, she can use her shears, and her Black Matter skill gives her several combat useful methods. Atropos likes to have the elements of surprise and fear on her side, which is why she'll sometimes distort her appearance to look frightening. Atropos can defend against quite a few blows, can leap fairly great distances, and can sustain a long drop without injury, due to psychokinesis. When she is harmed, many of her wounds can be healed rather quickly with her blood.
A notable side-effect of her mental disorders is the fact that her mind is hard for mind-readers to read, or at least for them to understand.
Weaknesses: Atropos sometimes suffers from rather disorganized or irrational thinking, due to mental problems. Strategy and logic are not her strong points, and sometimes she'll act impulsively. Even though she can heal wounds faster than normal, it's not instantaneous and she can still be killed by any normally fatal blow. Also, Atropos isn't a physically strong person. She normally relies on telekinesis for any lifting and pushing and such she has to do.
Skills/Magic: Atropos has three particular skills. She can control these unusual substances called "Black Matter" and "White Matter," her blood is toxic and at the same time can heal her, and she has the ability of psychokinesis.
Black Matter (Constructive)-
Black Matter is a pitch black strange substance that Atropos can control and spontaneously generate from her skin. She can shape it into practically any form. She can control the consistency of the Black Matter from being a slightly sticky viscous liquid to being as hard as steel. It should be noted that Black Matter's liquid nature can allow it to pass through Atropos' clothing.
White Matter (Destructive)-
White Matter is a porcelain white caustic substance that Atropos can control and spontaneously generate from her skin. White Matter is highly corrosive and can eat through almost any material (although depending on the density of the material, it could take a while to do so.) She can control the consistency of the White Matter from being a slightly sticky viscous liquid to being a vaporous gas. She can also control the corrosiveness from being a slight irritant, to causing serious burns and blindness. Also, White Matter is alkaline (a chemical base) and thus reacts violently with acids. Acids happen to neutralize White Matter, just as bases neutralize acids. It should be noted that White Matter deteriorates as it corrodes, and to be effective to burn through thick objects should be constantly applied.
--Gaseous-
In its gaseous form, White Matter is slightly irritating but not extremely powerful due to it's being diluted with the air around it. It can cause burns and temporary blindness.
--Liquid-
In its liquid form, White Matter is more corrosive than its gaseous form, and can burn (however slowly, based on how much matter is used) through steel. If enough White Matter comes in contact with a person, and is not removed promptly, it will burn through their flesh and even their bones eventually.
Toxic Blood-
Atropos' blood contains a deadly toxin in it, which she can use to her advantage. She can inject it into a target via small retractable claw-like extensions under her fingernails. She can control exactly how much toxin is injected and therefore how deadly it is. A small amount will lead to things like hallucinations, losing balance, blurry vision, dry throat and skin, and the feeling of being suffocated; along with just general confusion. A larger, more deadly, dosage will include all the above, along with a severe thickening of the victim's blood, which eventually leads to death.
If the blood is not injected into the victim's blood, the effects are much more minor. If it touches the skin, it simply causes the skin to dry out. If it is ingested, it would cause a stomach ache, and a headache, and possibly lead the victim to vomit.
Her blood also has a few other interesting properties. For one thing, rather than being colored red, it's a darker purple color. Also, her blood causes flesh wounds to herself to heal much faster than normal.
Psychokinesis-
This is the most...familiar skill that Atropos has. Basically it means that she is able to move things with her mind (psycho- = mind, kinesis- = movement.) A synonymous term would be telekinesis (tele- = distant.) Using psychokinesis, Atropos can move several objects at once, even if she cannot see them, as long as she knows where they are.
Techniques: Atropos' above skills can be commonly used in the following manners.
Black Weaponry-
Black Matter can be formed into any shape and solidity, and hence into useful weapons. She can form swords, spears, axes, etc. very easily. She can also form weapons with more varied solidity and flexibility, such as a bow. Since a bow requires precise flexibility and elasticity, it takes much longer to make one.
Black Armor-
Since Black Matter can be made very hard, as hard as steel even, and since it is generated from her skin, she uses it as armor occasionally. She simply covers her skin with it and hardens it. Of course, this is rather encumbering, and it takes a little longer to make flexible joints.
Black Illusions-
For the sake of invoking fear into opponents, she can use Black Matter to make her look more hostile. For instance, one of her more common techniques is to form intimidating black wings on her back. Any of the various "illusions" she can create are usually effectively useless, save for being scary (for instance, the wings don't actually enable her to fly; although, with an autokinetic leap she could have that illusion.)
Autokinesis-
Or, self-movement. Atropos can use her psychokinesis to move herself, as well as other objects. While one would expect that this would enable her to fly, or levitate, she can't actually do that. Instead, she uses autokinesis to leap very high and very far distances (usually a few yards.) She can also use autokinesis to soften otherwise hard landings, by neutralizing some of the kinetic energy from falling by directing psychokinesis in the opposite direction.
Reflexive Action-
Atropos can use her skills in reflex, much as people regularly do with other, more commonplace abilities. For instance, when falling great distances, she automatically absorbs much of the fall with autokinesis. Objects moving very quickly toward her she might automatically stop or redirect with telekinesis, which is easier than dodging. However, she will autokinetically dodge (hence, leap out of the way with aforementioned autokinesis) should the object happen be very large (for example, a moving vehicle.)
Appearance: Atropos has dark black hair, which goes down past her shoulders. Her hair has an indigo streak in it, which is to the front and right side of her head. She has light skin, and a slim physique. She normally wears black denim jeans, and a black and indigo hooded sweatshirt, which she usually wears unzipped and with the hood down, revealing whatever shirt she wears underneath it, which will usually be a dark colored shirt. She wears black boots that go up halfway up to her knees, and keeps her shears inside the left boot. She also wears fingerless black gloves, and on her head a black knit cap.
Personality: One important thing to know is that she was diagnosed as having a mental disorder, either psychosis or schizophrenia, and possibly psychopathy. Thus she sometimes acts somewhat strangely. She has no qualms with violence, or even murder for that matter. She can kill without any scruples, and sometimes does so without even giving a second thought, although it really depends on her mood. Despite this, she wouldn't consider herself "evil" (nor "good") by the definition of the word.
Her personality can waver between two extremes, possibly a sign of a minor case of multiple personality disorder.
On one hand is her quiet mood, in which she is rather calm, even to the point of staying in one spot for several hours. She typically tends to ignore other people in this mood, or at least quietly watches and inspects them. On occasion it appears almost as if she doesn't even know that other people are there. She typically will talk out loud to herself, or mumble under her breath. Her eyes are especially violet-gray in these occasions.
On the other hand is her hostile mood, in which she is prone to lash out violently against other people. She might suddenly attack someone who she gets a negative feeling from, or she might otherwise act spontaneously, including shouting for no given reason. Her eyes seem to grow especially red in these situations.
She usually, however, spends most of her time between these two moods, in which she acts more or less like a normal person. She tends to be quiet and keep to herself, not talking very often and spending her time alone. It is in this median mood that she shows her true feelings and sometimes regrets her actions.
Biography: (Note: The following biography contains a few violent, and somewhat bloody scenes.)
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...
Atropos Belladonna stared at the face of the clock, watching the second hand as it made yet another revolution around the circular land that it continuously journeyed. She was counting under her breath, for every second that she had seen pass since she'd started watching the clock.
"One thousand seven hundred forty four, One thousand seven hundred forty five, One thousand seven hundred forty six..."
In her right hand she held a long pair of scissors, which she occasionally spun around her index and middle fingers. She also often looked over her left shoulder, even though there was never anything interesting to see there, just the open door and the green-carpeted corridor beyond.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...
She was slowly waiting, as she had been for the past twenty nine minutes. The hour hand and the minute hand were both in the same place, on the small little mark right before the large number 12. She was too busy counting to figure out what time that represented though.
"One thousand seven hundred fifty nine, One thousand seven hundred sixty, One thousand seven hundred sixty one..."
Although she wasn't listening hard enough to know what was being said, she could hear people talking in the other room. Or maybe just one person, speaking into the telephone, she wasn't listening enough to know for sure. Nor did she really care anyway.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...
The second hand continued along its cycled path, rounding the 6, and then the 7. She heard movement nearby, and looked over her shoulder again, to see a person walk by, looking somewhat distressed. Atropos looked back at the face of the clock and continued counting.
"One thousand seven hundred seventy eight, One thousand seven hundred seventy nine, One thousand seven hundred eighty..."
She was looking now less at the clock face and more at her own face, reflected in the glass pane that kept the elements and curious fingers away from the clock's hands. She saw her dark hair, her light skin, and her counting mouth. Mostly, though, she saw her eyes, her strange violet eyes. They were more red than violet at this point, she noticed.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-
"One thousand seven hundred ninety seven, One thousand seven hundred ninety eight, One thousand seven hundred ninety nine-"
She clenched the scissors in her hand, gripping them tight. She watched impatiently, her eyes becoming completely red at this point. Yet the second hand didn't want to continue. It had ceased moving right at the fifty-nine mark. With a shout she thrust the shears into the face of the clock, puncturing clockwork, shattering the glass, and jamming the hands into the gears that moved them.
"Enough of this!" she said to herself. She walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her telekinetically. For a moment she looked back at it, surprised she'd actually moved the door that time instead of some other object in the room as she was used to doing. She was getting better at that.
She descended the stairs, the voices in the other room getting louder; but the voices in her head drowning them out. She entered the living room, where two adults were standing, looking stressed. One of them held a phone, but wasn't talking into it, instead talking to the other person.
When they saw Atropos their first reaction looked almost like relief, but then that changed to a sudden fear. Atropos walked up to the person with the phone, a woman, and stabbed her in the chest with the scissors, with hardly a grunt. The man screamed, first leaping out of the way in fear, but then changing his mind he tackled Atropos, pulling her off the woman.
It was too late though. She was dead, her spilt blood soaking into the floor and turning the carpet brown. Atropos pushed the man off of her with a burst of telekinesis, sending him flying into the ceiling, where he bounced off and hit the floor, instantly breaking his neck on the piano bench he landed on.
Atropos Belladonna got up off the floor, and wiped her shears off on her shirt, careful to get all the blood out of the hinge so that it didn't rust and get stuck. When she was done, her eyes slowly dimmed back to a light violet gray color, and she began to realize what she had done. She sat down at the aforementioned piano, and began to play a sad requiem.
~ # ~ # ~
As a child, Atropos grew up as a normal little girl. It wasn't until the age of ten, when Nyxia and Erek Belladonna, Atropos' parents, noticed some...interesting things. Occasionally something would move unexpectedly, without anyone touching it. At first they would ignore it, saying it was caused by the wind, or gravity. Eventually though, it became too obvious that something supernatural was occurring.
Atropos also started to act strangely. It started simply with a tendency to be antisocial, and soon became sociopathy. She often talked or mumbled to herself. Her mood seemed to swing from being very quiet and preoccupied, to being very irritable and sometimes even violent.
It was at the age of thirteen that a very strange thing happened, one that lead Atropos' parents to call a doctor. They found her staring at the face of her clock, and there she stayed for twenty minutes, counting. No matter how much they tried, Nyxia and Erek couldn't get her to stop, and thus they called a doctor, specifically looking for a psychiatrist.
Eleven minutes later they were both dead.
~ # ~ # ~
Neither guilty nor innocent, Atropos was deemed clinically insane. Which was why she was now in a mental clinic. Insane asylum, mental institution, psychiatric hospital. Jail, essentially.
Locked up in her metal cell for two years, she'd learned a few new tricks. At first it had frightened her, but now she was able to control it; a strange black substance that she could generate from her skin. She could also make a similar white substance, which acted quite differently.
The strangest thing yet, however, was the small little claws she could extend from under her nails. All she knew was that she could inject her own blood from them, and that her blood was unusually darker than she remembered it being.
She had plenty of time to master these skills. Two life sentences, in fact. How she would manage to account for both was beyond her. Then again, she wasn't planning on accounting for either of them.
She made a net from sticky black vines, and stuck it up on the ceiling, forming a sort of spiderweb she could use to hang over the door unseen. She didn't really make any real plans for escape, she figured she'd just work it out as she went along.
Using psychokinesis, she shattered the long fluorescent light tubes that lit her cell, engulfing the room in darkness. Then she waited for someone to bring her next meal, which would be in a few hours.
Those few hours passed by slowly, but eventually she heard footsteps outside. They stopped at every occupied cell, sliding a tray of food into a small opening in the door. Eventually they stopped at her door. There was two people, she could tell because they were talking.
"Hey, isn't there supposed to be somebody in this one?" one guy asked.
"I thought so...maybe the light burned out. Shine your flashlight in there," the other guy said. A beam of light illuminated the room. The person holding the light leaned in close to the barred opening in the door, trying to get a good look at the whole room.
Suddenly, from the darkness came several sticky black tentacles, which latched onto the person's face, wringing his neck and killing him, dropping the almost decapitated body on the floor, where the blood drained from it to form a crimson puddle. The other man shouted in shock, and started to run away, but was pulled back by some invisible force, knocking him onto the floor. The tentacles grabbed him as well, and started to bash his face against the door, before twisting his neck as well, and throwing the corpse against the far wall.
The shouts of course attracted more people, who saw the bloody corpses and called for help. Soon a group of armed guards was outside the door.
"Patient 613! Walk up to the back wall and put your hands against it!" someone said.
Instead she just started making more black matter, vines and webs of it now covering all the walls.
"Patient 613! We're coming in! We will shoot if you don't comply!" Somebody unlocked the door, and it swung open outwards. Five men entered, all holding out pistols and flashlights. They looked to the wall that couldn't be seen from outside first, and saw the black vines.
Instantly, all the black vines turned into a thick, sticky liquid, which leaped from the walls to cover the men. Tentacles reached down from the ceiling, grabbing two of the men and throwing one of them outside through the door, where he smashed against the wall, dead. The men were trying desperately and pointlessly to fire their weapons, which had become clogged and useless with the black substance.
The other man that Atropos had grabbed she brought up to him and stabbed him with the shears, killing him. She threw the body at one of the other guards, knocking him over. She threw a ball of white liquid at his face, and he ran out of the room screaming, his face burning. He fell over in the hall outside, dead.
A witness outside quickly came and shut the door, locking it to prevent the monster inside from escaping. One of the guards still inside ran up to the door and begged the man to open it, but Atropos showed up behind him, and pierced her small claws into the side of his face, injecting it with her blood. His veins became black as the venom spread from the point of injection, spreading all over his face. When it reached his eyes the blood vessels there burst, filling his eyes with blackened blood, which began to drip down his face like tears. The blood also began to come out of his nose, and when the toxin reached his chest it also came out of his mouth.
Atropos dropped the body, and the man outside the door backed away quickly, tripping over his own feet trying to run. Atropos was attacked from behind, suddenly, by the last guard. She telekinetically threw him into the wall, breaking his spine. Using copious amounts of the white liquid, she was able to form a hole in her cell door.
Knocking over everyone she passed with telekinesis, she casually walked out the front door.
