Post by Miriam Valentine on Aug 23, 2012 17:47:43 GMT -6
| [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width, 500px] [atrb=style,border-top: 10px solid #4477aa;background-color: #222222;] MIRIAM CALYPSO VALENTINE.    TWENTY-SIX ✖ FEMALE ✖ HETEROSEXUAL ✖ HUMAN ✖Power/Ability As a human, Miri has no “super powers” to speak of; however she does have certain skills that are at a level above that of a “normal” individual, due to her upbringing and through personal choice of practice. Skills of note, listed in order of aptitude, include: ✖ Personality Positive Traits |
-Red or White Roses
-Antique/Designer “Medieval” Weaponry (Not just the ones she is proficient in; she is a collector)
-Red Wine
-Expensive Perfume and Jewelry
-Being Associated with “High Status”
-Success/Victory – regardless of the arena or circumstance
-Glass Elevators
-Presents/Gifts
Dislikes[/u]
-Hard Liquor/”Street” Drugs/Alcoholics/Addicts
-Losing/Being “One-Upped”
-Objects That are Poorly Manufactured
-Counterfeits (Mainly directed at the things she collects)
-Being Referred to as a “Queen” or “Princess” (something her father, his associates, and her former schoolmates were apt to doing)
-Cooking/Cleaning
-Mutants (as a whole; this dislike may potentially be overcome on an individual basis)
-Low Class/Low Income/Homeless People/Beggars/People Without “Social Training” (see Mutants above)
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✖ History
As the only child (as far as she knows) of the founder and chief operator of the “Guardian Network” (internally referred to as the “Guardian Trinity”, due to the structure of leadership and the operational decision making process), Miriam has always lead a triple life.
To the public (in particular, the city of Endonia, though she spent one year of her childhood attending an “Etiquette and Beauty” school in the United Kingdom), she has traditionally been seen as the “stuck-up daughter” and heiress apparent of the man that owned “The Palace at Versailles”, Endonia’s premier casino/nightclub. She was always considered “hands off/don’t you dare touch”, completed her primary education at the most expensive private Endonia academy (a Catholic all-girls private school, to add some detail), and was almost never seen “out and about” at any public social gathering. Those who knew her at school found that she was a teacher’s pet, but a particularly cold-hearted and dangerous one, known to be quick to throw punches when rubbed the wrong way (and out of the sight of faculty and staff) and quick to sabotage any rivals she found herself dealing with when it came to academic standing. Hateful in practice and spiteful to a fault towards her peers, Miriam seemed determined to stay as aloof from social interaction as she could in school, while utterly dominating the scholastic standings by her own studying (and forced tutoring), the aforementioned sabotage, and, ultimately, the fear of the “Ice Queen’s” reprisal, should any of the other girls dare challenge her. This reputation was, of course, carried outside of school, so on the rare occasion that she was spotted in public (such as, being chauffeured to the mall in a white stretch limousine) no one bothered to approach. And Miriam would not have had it any other way – she couldn’t afford to. Additionally, her reputation preceded her when she, immediately following graduation from high school, began attending Endonia University. She was the “overly dressed” (and by that, meaning much too high collared/high class for the environment), cold-as-ice young lady that sat in the front row of the classroom and who wouldn’t give the time of day to anyone other than the professor. Her core classes went as her primary school had gone – but after her sophomore year, she unexpectedly dropped out and disappeared from the public eye. The only exception to her sudden “ghosting”, as far as the public was concerned, was her appearance, soon after her college drop-out, at the preliminaries to and the actual Summer Olympics – as a fencer. The short version of that story is as follows: she was unstoppable all the way through the finals, however, she would receive no medal. In fact, the United States and French teams were, post-finals, disqualified for alleged match-fixing perpetuated by the coaches of the two teams, thereby wiping out all three medals – they were subsequently awarded to the 4th, 5th, and 6th place contestants. Though the participants themselves were ultimately cleared of any wrong-doing, the tarnishing of reputation caused Miriam to withdrawal from any other kind of public competition… … and the coaches responsible for the scandal met highly suspicious ends over the next few years, although investigations into the events could find nothing out of the ordinary.
In the private business setting, Miriam was something quite different. Polite, eloquent, exceptionally well-read, beautiful, border-line charming (her “prim and properness” was the reported barrier to complete charm), and sharp as a tack, even as a teenager she was not only accepted at the various “behind closed doors” meetings (at her father’s side), she was actually welcomed. The reason for this? She appeared, despite being the offspring of one of the involved parties, completely neutral and quite willing to object to certain cards played, even by her father, if things were “unfair.” This was, of course, an elaborate setup – for she always seemed to be absent from the table when the “real cards” for business deals were played. Her prior interjections, well-received by the others and seemingly damaging to her father, were all scripted to prompt the “end game” play from competitors, only after they had, unbeknownst to them, been backed into a corner for her father’s final play. It was a game for her, and, per her father’s design, part of her “on-the-job” training to, eventually, replace him. Additionally, she was present on the various floors of the extravagant casino-club, rarely interacting but always observing the clientele. Technically, she shouldn’t have been allowed to be on the floors, due to her age, but she was always “collected” prior to the appearance of any officials that cared. Because of these appearances and interactions, her “business” reputation was, generally, favorable among “important and well-informed individuals”, including members of the government, although the “future hope” amongst many was that, once she took over, she would ultimately be less-successful and more easily manipulated than her father. To date, that has not been the case.
In the true private setting (the “home” setting, if you will), she was her father’s protégé and successor. This is where all of her training (blades, guns, ect.) took place in great detail and without care for expense – or, for that matter, the girl’s fatigue level. Aside from the general training, Miriam was, of course, intertwined into the “Guardian” network itself, and to appreciate that, a discussion on the “Trinity” follows:
As mentioned in Cassidy’s profile, “Guardian”, as generally known in hushed whispers in the public, is known to be “an individual, or group of individuals, that funds or facilitates the protection and escape of mutants from those who would knowingly and maliciously do them harm.” While, technically, this is not incorrect, it only explains one-third of the true “Network.” The truth of the matter is that the “Guardian” network is effectively “neutral”, playing both sides of the “mutant” coin. The “avatar” known to those who have contacted or been contacted by it as “Guardian” is the representative of the “pro-mutant” side of that coin. “Guardian” – which is the role that Miriam’s father (who was a mutant, powers not to be described here) fulfilled, acts as the benefactor for mutants-in-need, who are determined to be “relatively harmless and innocent (or naïve) enough to, at the time of “grace”, be protected from discovery or given the aid of flight, insomuch that manpower is available and a satisfactory profit can be made by such acts.” There is, of course, the anti-mutant side of the coin, and the “avatar” that represents it is known as “Guardian: Calypso” – and, as an obvious side note, it is this “third” of the “Trinity” that Miriam was named after and was the role that she became when her father “retired.” “Calypso” is a known, always encrypted, contact withall mutant hunting groups, including the DNCS and other government groups that, for a price (whether money, information, resources or a combination thereof) provides locations and identities of mutants that “are considered, by this designation, to be of unquestionable danger to social stability, based on their power, personality, personal resources, criminal history or activity, or any other such concern that may be identified by the Trinity.” The final “third” of the “Trinity” is the “avatar” known as “Guardian: Judgment” and is an entity that only interacts with the other members of the “Trinity.” “Judgment”’s role was that of the “tie-breaker” in disputes over which “side of the coin” to play for any given identified mutant. While there are a handful of other, lesser members charged primarily with intelligence-gathering, the bulk of “manpower” that the “Network” was ever able to produce came in the form of mercenaries. As a rule, the “Trinity” preferred to be “hands off”, and the only real concern for the “Network” was that of “maintaining the (profitable) balance between pro- and anti-mutant contingencies.”
For the many years of Miriam’s father’s tenure as “Guardian”, the “Network” functioned with beautiful balance and exceptional profitability. The “change of regime”, however, was anything but smooth. Miriam’s father’s “retirement” was abrupt and, generally, unannounced. The circumstances surrounding it are unknown, even to her, other than the fact that it happened in her 21st year and she has had no contact with the man since he disappeared. Regardless, what occurred was a restructuring of the “Trinity”, with the original “Calypso” being replaced (by means also unknown to Miriam) so that Miri could take over that role – after all, she had “been trained” to be in opposition to her father’s business interests, more or less. While the individual acting as “Judgment” remained the same, a new individual was brought in to become “Guardian.” The reason the balance was not maintained was two-fold. For one, Miriam – the offspring of a mutant – never manifested any powers of her own. Though identified, by in-house blood testing, to be a “carrier”, she was “merely” a human and this fact created in her a potent jealousy for those with powers she felt she, herself, should have been gifted. As such, her determination of “threat” when it came to identified mutants was overly harsh and hardly objective – something that, today, she recognizes, though the jealousy still lingers beneath the surface. On the other hand, and probably as a purposeful move (that ultimately backfired) by her father, the individual that took over as “Guardian” was exceptionally pro-mutant. The direct opposition between the two sides disrupted the “Network” as a whole, as objectivity was largely thrown out of the window. As time passed, the individual acting as “Guardian” somehow compromised the neutrality of the one acting as “Judgment” and, approximately one year prior to Miriam’s in-game appearance, a coup was staged.
The particulars of the event are known only to Miriam herself, however, what is known to the city of Endonia is that a “terrorist attack” occurred on the top floor (i.e., Miriam’s living quarters) of “The Palace at Versailles” that resulted in the abrupt closing of the casino-club and, allegedly, the “life-threatening injury” to its proprietor (i.e. Miriam herself.) News reports state that security was compromised by helicopter, whereby combatants infiltrated the building and, upon establishing a foothold on the top floor, set detonation charges. In the end, security forces were able to contain the infiltrators and, in an act of “suicidal defiance”, they detonated the charges in hopes of bringing the tower down. No specific “goals” for the “terrorist group” were ever given, though rumors have stated that they were “mutant in origin.” All individuals on the floor were killed by the detonation, though the report states that Miriam managed to escape with her life by the “brave acts” of her personal security forces and an extremely lucky set of circumstances involving “fail safes” built into the elevators in the casino. While “The Palace” was being renovated and rebuilt, Miriam was reportedly “out of the country to recover from injuries sustained.”
While this is a nice story, the facts are a little different. The coup attempt was not a surprise to her and the physical assault on her “home” was in direct response to her initial actions in response to the demand that she “turn over all control” of the “Network” to “Guardian” and “Judgment.” As central control to the information network and financial resources were located within the tower, upon this demand Miriam did the exact opposite – she cut the other two completely off, severing their connection to the “Network Grid.” Expecting retaliation, Miri quickly moved all “important resources” off-site, and then utterly booby trapped her own home and waited. Because of their “prior relationship”, “Judgment” physically came to “The Palace”, with an armed force, to “persuade” Miriam to concede to the demand to turn over the “Network.” Instead, “Judgment” and his entire force, walked into chemical hell – stricken, first, with the hallucinogenic “Scarecrow”, the infiltrating force initially turned on each other. The survivors of that bloodbath were hit with the other chemical formulas, including “Deep Nocturne.” When they awoke, they found themselves bound in the central area of the top floor – literally, Miriam’s living room. “Judgment” had survived, and was unfortunate enough to experience Miriam’s true cruel side. Once she had extracted the information she required – “Guardian’s” location – she left. She was en route to the “other traitor” when the top floor of “The Palace” exploded; a remote detonation that she, herself, activated. “Guardian” was dispatched more “personally” – on the point of Miriam’s rapier.
Since then, Miriam has been operating the “Guardian Network” by herself – an undertaking that she quickly realized she was not capable of maintaining. Because of this, the activity of the “Network” has significantly reduced, and while that has not had an obvious impact on pro-mutant contingencies, it has lead the anti-mutant ones, including the DNCS, to wonder if they will soon be forced to find other sources of information and assistance. Due to the coup itself and due to Miriam’s forced requirement to act “as the balance” for the “Network”, her own anti-mutant feelings have significantly mellowed. She has returned to Endonia to re-establish the “Guardian” base of operations and to re-open “The Palace at Versailles” for the “benefit of the public.” Reclaiming her original home also coincides with three other significant decisions Miriam has made: 1) She must find suitable replacements for “Guardian” and “Guardian: Judgment” so that the “Trinity” may be restored and so that she may retake the mantle of “Calypso” and fulfill her father’s wishes, 2) She must re-enroll at Endonia University, pursuing a degree in business, both for her own benefit and as a convenient extra cover for her “Guardian” identity, and 3)She must take a more “hands on” approach to the situation – that is, her battle experience during the coup has awakened a “need” to directly intervene in things and, as such, she will be roaming the city of Endonia as a “vigilante”, becoming “Guardian” or “Calypso” as the situations dictate.
✖ Example
See Leann.
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This character is played by [LAZARUS].
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