Nocturne
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| Nocturne | ||||||||||
| Player: @Aerostream | ||||||||||
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| "Not everyone has reason to fear the shadows..." | ||||||||||
| Biographical Data | ||||||||||
| Real Name: | Nyx Haley | |||||||||
| Known Aliases: | Night Witch, Tenebrae, Creepy Lady | |||||||||
| Gender: | Female | |||||||||
| Species: | Shade (Native) | |||||||||
| Ethnicity: | Caucasian | |||||||||
| Place of Birth: | Millennium City, Michigan, USA | |||||||||
| Base of Operations: | Millennium City | |||||||||
| Relatives: | Veronica Roy (adoptive mother), Natasha Roy (adoptive mother), May Whitefield (adoptive sister) | |||||||||
| Characteristics | ||||||||||
| Age: | 19 | |||||||||
| Height: | 5'8" | |||||||||
| Weight: | 122 lbs. | |||||||||
| Eyes: | Brown | |||||||||
| Hair: | Black | |||||||||
| Complexion: | Pale | |||||||||
| Physical Build: | Curvy, thin | |||||||||
| Physical Features: | Flawless skin | |||||||||
| Status | ||||||||||
| Fame: |
Local | |||||||||
| Alignment: |
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| Identity: | Secret | |||||||||
| Years Active: | 5 | |||||||||
| Citizenship: | U.S. | |||||||||
| Occupation: | Professional Model | |||||||||
| Education: | None | |||||||||
| Marital Status: | Single | |||||||||
| Known Powers and Abilities | ||||||||||
| Shadow Manipulation | ||||||||||
| Equipment and Paraphernalia | ||||||||||
| None | ||||||||||
| Physical Attributes | |||||||||
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Reflexes |
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| Combat |
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Regeneration |
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| Non-Physical Attributes | |||||||||
| Energy |
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Psionics |
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| Telepathy |
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Willpower |
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Technology |
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| Intelligence |
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Knowledge |
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Bravery |
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| MaekadaBox created by @Maekada | |||||||||
Contents
Background
Early Years
The details behind Nyx's birth have remained a mystery as long as she's been alive, with likely only her parents and anyone who's met them knowing the specifics; what can be inferred comes from what Nyx herself has learned.
As a newborn, Nyx was raised by an older man who apparently didn't care much for her, as he left her to fend for herself once she was capable of doing so at the young age of 3 years old. What little he left her was a series of notes inside an abandoned building that is a part of what is now her territory in Westside; they did her little good as she grew up, as she didn't know how to read or write for much of her life. However, it's unlikely the knowledge would have made much difference to her.
Growing up, Nyx soon learned she had the ability to hide inside and travel via the many, many shadows that could be found around Milennium City, as well as how hard and difficult life was on the streets of Westside. Theft and murder were common in the slums near where she made her home, and she made very few friends that didn't intend to exploit her powers and backstab her after they were done with her.
It was these circumstances that helped teach her the other main ability she uses to this day; that she could not just travel via shadows, but also manipulate them. She often hid this ability to keep others from using the knowledge to her advantage, usually brutally murdering people by manipulating the shadows inside their bodies when she found an access point through some other form of injury. Nyx would repeat this bloody cycle many times until a local superhero caught her in the middle of exploding another poor sap who tried to exploit her at the age of 11. While she could handle simple thugs at the time, she wasn't skilled enough with her powers to defeat a superpowered foe. As a result, she was captured, held in a brightly-lit room, and observed 24/7.
Change of Heart
While most others would likely attempt to find ways to escape, Nyx stayed in captivity for 2 years with no attempts to escape or acts of hostility, even when she was made to visit a child psychologist after her first year in Juvenile Hall. While some attributed this to her feeling helpless towards her situation, in truth she was in awe of what she had seen before getting captured.
As a young woman growing up in the slums of Westside, selfish people out only for themselves were commonplace. Even the people who didn't outright exploit others didn't lend a helping hand to people who needed it, either for fear of retribution from those who threatened them or out of a sense of survival or selfishness. So, when she saw the superhero who captured her making an effort to protect others and their property from her wild attacks, it was something Nyx couldn't even comprehend. To her, he was a beacon in the constant darkness of Westside, something that was oddly soothing to someone who practically lived in the shadows.
Her sentence passed, Nyx emerged from juvie a new girl; 13 years old and inspired to do good for the first time in her life. While her sessions with her psychologist only slightly curbed her violent tendencies, Nyx was no longer simply a survivor; she was determined to live her life being a shadowy beacon for others, helping those who needed help from the types of people she spent most of her life slaughtering.
A Future Destroyed
It only took a few months for Nyx to realize she had given more than she had.
Giving food to the hungry, taking shots for the helpless, and taxing herself for the weak had taken its fair share on her body. She collapsed one day without the strength to stand, let alone help others. Regretting that she had only done so much in the few short months she did compared to her previous life, she awaited some psychopath to come by and take what she had, possibly even rape her, and then kill her off. When a car pulled up, she gently closed her eyes to pass out rather than stay conscious for what she believed was going to happen.
She definitely didn't expect to wake up, let alone on a couch with a blanket covering her and a pillow under her head. She soon learned that a young man by the name of Blake had rescued her in a rare act of kindness in Westside, as a way of repaying her for what she had done for not just him, but many others. More months passed as Blake helped Nyx regain her strength, and she not only turned 14, but slowly fell for the young man who saved her life, and he for her. When the time came for her to head out, Nyx instead confessed her feelings for him, and that night he not only took her virginity, but impregnated her with his child.
Time passed, and Nyx returned to her vigilante ways, before stopping as her pregnancy became more obvious. When Blake was able to get Nyx to an OBGYN, it was revealed that she was pregnant with a baby boy - a boy whom they decided to name Dominick. Unfortunately, there was no happy ending for the family-to-be.
One of the enemies Nyx had made while crimefighting survived his confrontation with her, and had sworn revenge. He spent months stalking her, finding out where she lived and who she contacted. In the end, he decided his best revenge would be to hurt her emotionally, and while she was out, he broke into Blake's home and murdered him, leaving a note on the wall for Nyx to find in Blake's own blood. Upon discovering this note, Nyx left in a fit of rage to find Blake's murderer and exact her own revenge.
It didn't take long for Nyx to locate the murderer, and she immediately made out to make the man pay for his transgressions. In her rage, however, Nyx left an opening that the man immediately took; he struck her in the midsection, which, while it injured her, didn't keep her down as he had hoped, and Nyx promptly tore the man apart in her fury. Months later, the injury revealed to have killed Nyx's unborn child, forcing a miscarriage. In a single day, that one man took everything away from Nyx that she had built.
The Night Witch
It's hard to say what kept Nyx going for the next few years after she lost Blake and Dominick. Even she isn't entirely sure; all she knows (or is willing to diverge) is that what was originally a slightly off-balance young woman became even more off-kilter, turning her into the strange, creepy, and rather perverted Nyx she is today, and that it drove her even further to better herself.
Nyx began to practice more with her powers, eventually mastering their basic abilities and adding her Shadow Sewing to her arsenal. She began to take note of her strengths and weaknesses and experimented to determine what made her constructs do what and why. She began to travel the city to practically map out every possible shadow that she could jump between.
While she strengthened herself, she began to forge allies and help the less fortunate onto their feet. Many of her civilian friends today are people who were formerly homeless and made a living for themselves with her help. What food didn't go towards satiating her own hunger was gifted to those who needed it, learning from her previous mistakes.
But most of all, she learned to move on. The grow stronger. To never stop walking. To do more in place of those who weren't able to.
Personality
On the surface, it's fairly easy to see that Nyx is a highly unusual person. Her foremost and most likely first-noticed trait is that she is an unabashed pervert. She has a tendency to find innuendos in even the most innocent phrases and has a tendency to include double entendres in everyday speech just for kicks; she even sometimes peeps on people she finds attractive while they change or shower with her powers unless she fears their retribution or otherwise respects that they are in a relationship. While she may not make advances towards these people, they aren't free from her perverted mannerisms.
Outside of the perversion, Nyx is a rather complex and strange individual, likely stemming from her extraplanar heritage. She is a highly-emotional person, using her instincts for much of her decision-making and often times speaking her mind freely, though she seems to know when to keep her mouth closed. Due to this, she can come across as somewhat ditzy to a few, but most definitely creepy to many, as her thought processes are far from normal.
Despite this rather twisted and creepy thought process, Nyx is very optimistic and cheerful; when Nyx isn't smiling, you know things have gotten serious. She almost always finds a way to see the bright side of a situation, and even in the cases where she does get upset or sad, often times the most minor positive thing can change her mood back to the way it usually is. It isn't unusual to see Nyx in a slump for some reason, only for a cheerful greeting or a hug to turn her mood around in a total 180.
Even though Nyx is a rather optimistic individual, her other emotions can still get the better of her, and often do so in an intense way; when she gets angry, she becomes infuriated. When she gets sad, she often enters a somewhat depressed state. Some believe that her optimism is a way to keep herself mentally healthy (for her), as falling into extreme cases of negative emotions could end up being destructive to her permanent state of mind. Or, perhaps, it's more of an effect than a cause; maybe she's optimistic because she constantly made herself happy to the point where it had an effect on her mental health? Who knows but Nyx? And maybe even she doesn't know.
Powers and Abilities
Darkness Manipulation
Nyx's main ability is the power to manipulate nearby darkness and shadows. She is capable of turning them into controlled constructs with either a physical or non-physical form. With a physical form, these constructs act like what they were fashioned to resemble, although their physical strength and durability is dependent on the intensity of the darkness they were sourced from. A barely-visible shadow may have the strength of a small child while pitch-black darkness will yield a construct with superhuman strength and durability.
When the shadows lack a physical form, they possess almost no way to influence the physical world; while this may seem at first glance to be a disadvantage, the construct's actions will still have a proper sensation associated with their action - often pain, as Nyx rarely uses them outside of battle applications in this form. This also has the added benefit of being less taxing on Nyx as she wastes less energy on giving them a physical form.
Nyx's most common manifestation of shadows is in the form of black, rubbery tentacles. This shape is one of the easiest for Nyx to maintain, as it is sleek, flexible, and still maintains an excellent ability to control its surroundings, making it possible for her to maintain multiple tentacles without requiring too much focus. Also, she's one hell of a pervert. However, her "ultimate" construct is much, much more complex...
Umbral Beast
The Umbral Beast is a massive shadow construct that Nyx can create with enough shadows, resembling an enormous monster of unidentified origins. It is compromised of an insectoid-like head, featuring multiple eyes, a maw filled with multiple razor-sharp teeth, and two large, deadly mandibles on either side of its face. However, the beast stands hunched over on two hock-jointed legs at around 15 feet tall, with long, gangly, but powerful arms, each with a five-fingered hand, with wicked, scythe-like claws.
When forming the Umbral Beast, the construct envelops Nyx and functions as a sort of mobile armor, with Nyx moving around inside of the creature to avoid being struck. However, the main weakness of the Umbral Beast lies in Nyx, herself; as the creature is massive and complex, utilizing it requires immense amounts of focus on Nyx's part, effectively rendering her unconscious while the Beast itself runs on instinct alone. It is capable of recognizing allies, luckily, but will otherwise run rampant until Nyx exhausts herself, is struck from the Beast's body, or the Beast is destroyed.
Shadow Possession
Using the inherent magic in her shadow constructs, Nyx can use her shadows to "possess" inanimate objects or corpses and temporarily animate them. There are a few advantages to using this method over simply creating a replica construct; first, possessing an object allows Nyx to use more complex shapes and figures with only a fraction of the focus, allowing her to control more at once. Second, shadows possessing objects are no longer subject to the simple weakness of intense lights, making it a valuable asset against foes with such an advantage.
Shadow Sewing
An extesion of her shadow manipulation, a technique Nyx has dubbed "Shadow Sewing" is an ability that allows her to create threads of physical shadow and literally sew togeter pieces of material before the shadows mimic and eventually meld with the origin material, whether living or inanimate. This allows Nyx to patch up almost any wound or broken object. As a requisite, the threads must first "taste" the origin material, as Nyx says, requiring her to actually thread the shadows through it, which creates a rather painful experience for living creatures. Unlike many forms of healing magic, the fix created by Nyx's threads is immediate and restores the material back to full capacity, though it doesn't allow a person's body to build upon itself, unlike most other forms of healing. This makes the long-term viability of Nyx's shadow sewing very poor.
Shadow Jumping
Another extension of Nyx's shadow manipulation is her ability to "Shadow Jump". Nyx can create portals between any shadow anywhere in the world, but unless she has familiarized with the shadow and knows exactly where it is, travel between each shadow takes as much time as it would travelling normally by foot. Between familiar shadows, however, Nyx can jump between them in only a few seconds' time due to the interspatial anomaly that is the realm inside her shadows. Inside, only Nyx seems to be able to survive for an indefinite amount of time, as any other living creature will not only be affected by an ever-growing sense of dread, they will also find themselves unable to breathe and will eventually suffocate if left too long inside the realm.
Shadow Duplication
A more recent ability of Nyx's, she has learned to take a person's shadow and use its mystic connection to its host to effectively duplicate the person in question. The shadow double only possesses roughly two-thirds of the host's original power, but otherwise possesses all of their normal abilities. knowledge, and personality, but none of their normal weaknesses, instead trading those for the universal weakness to intense light all of Nyx's shadows have. As a result, a shadow duplicate will act as its host would, but must still respond to Nyx's orders, and occupies a moderate amount of her focus to maintain.
Resilient Biology
Despite Nyx's common claims that she is a "squishy wizard", she is actually more resistant to physical trauma than is first apparent. While she isn't explicitly difficult to harm like individuals with invulnerability, Nyx's body is incredibly resistant to the shock of physical damage. Whenever she loses a limb or takes greivous physical harm, her nervous system does not go into shock like a normal human's, but rather only causes a moment or two of cognitive daze before she regains her mental faculties, allowing her to quickly replace, re-attach, or heal the damage done. In fact, Nyx's body is so resilient that she can survive losing internal organs - should almost any organ be lost or heavily-damaged, Nyx's body can continue to operate, albeit at a lower ability. This is because her nature as a Shade allows her body to instinctively use the shadows inside her own body to replicate the effects of the lost organ until it is replaced or repaired. The only organ that cannot be explicitly replaced is her brain; should her brain be destroyed or damaged beyond repair, Nyx will die. However, she can survive (for a period) with her head separated from its body, as long as the brain remains intact. This also allows a low amount of consciousness on her part so she can repair the damage done before she loses focus and dies.
Blood Magic
Delving into the origins of her powers, Nyx discovered that, though magical in nature, she possessed zero latent ability in any forms of magic save two - Shadow Magic and Blood Magic. Her most common usage of her blood magic is to empower her shadow constructs with her own blood, greatly reducing their weakness to intense light and strengthening them. However, she is ultimately capable of manipulating blood and using it as a catalyst for a number of spells that would otherwise be classified in other schools, such as divination and transmutation.
Equipment
Twilight
The katana named "Twilight" is a sword crafted by Marina Kobayashi with a 62 cm (approx. 2 ft.) long blade, the steel tinted a darker shade than normal. While crafted in a supernatural forge, the blade itself is completely mundane, its only striking feature being the exceptional craftsmanship put into the sword itself. So far, Nyx has only occasionally been seen with the katana, mostly in her "Survivor" vigilante persona.
N3 Combat Armor
Combat armor manufactured by Myrymma Selxin'drae, the N3 Combat Armor is state-of-the-art kendrium armor with shock absorbers and minor kinetic barriers installed to prevent as much damage from gunfire in the field, and shaped to lower the damage from melee weapons of various kinds, in response to each type of weapon's common targets. She solely wears this armor in her "Survivor" vigilante persona.
Various Gear
In her "Survivor" persona, Nyx obtained various field gear from her adoptive mother Veronica. Ranging from smoke grenades, a grappling gun, and bolas, Nyx has also received training in a number of the more complex tools to facilitate her use of them in actual combat scenarios.
Relationships
Friends
Anarchy / Veronica Roy - A fellow former-street-rat-turned-vigilante, Veronica is someone Nyx can relate to in many a way, both knowing how hard growing up on the street is and the difficulties of learning to move forward. Not to mention both are a bit fucked up in the head, but that tends to come with the territory. Nyx has grown to trust Veronica as one of her good friends and only accepted her offer to house Nyx because she understands that, were she in Vica's position, she'd do the same thing. Due to Nyx's minor status, she was officially adopted by Veronica, giving her a mother figure to look up to, despite their relatively close ages.
Divael / Natasha Roy - Nyx's mentor in the Eternals' Rising Star program, Nyx was first attracted to Nat's body, then found a friend and teacher in her, before ending with an installed and almost reflexive fear after watching her shift from caring healer to pissed-off heroine during a mission. It's thanks to Natasha's aid that Nyx learned of her extraplanar heritage and the source of her powers, although she is still relying on the elven woman to instruct her in the ways of magic so that she can develop her powers even further.
Allies
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Enemies
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Miscellaneous
Themes
Main Theme (Nyx): Justice For Saint Mary - Diablo Swing Orchestra
Main Theme 2 (Nocturne): The Night - Voltaire
Main Theme 3 (Survivor): Give A Reason (English Cover) - Slayers NEXT
Casual Theme: Crazy Chicks - Ken Ashcorp
Battle Theme: The Skullgirl ~ Vs. Bloody Marie - Skullgirls
Strong Enemy: The Horde's Festival - Castlevania: Harmony of Despair
Arrival: Objection! Cadenza 2001 remix - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Tropes
General
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass - Sometimes, it's hard to take her seriously.
Femme Fatale - A rare, good variant.
Ms. Fanservice - She likes to show off her... assets.
Obfuscating Stupidity - She may seem dumb and uneducated, but she's actually learned a fair lot from other sources and is rather clever.
The Peeping Tom - An unabashed pervert through and through.
Shameless Fanservice Girl - She's sexy and she knows it~
Combat
Black Magic - What her powers are generally considered.
Combat Medic - With her ability to both hurt and heal, she can technically count as this.
Combat Sadomasochist - Oh my, yes.
Combat Tentacles - Her most common shadow manipulation.
Functional Magic - Of the Inherent kind.
Healing Factor - An odd variant. She heals her injuries with a conscious effort, but she can do so even without an available source of shadows - it is pitch-dark inside the human body, after all...
Personality
Berserk Button - Never. Ever. Threaten children. So help dog, if you hurt them? She will tear you limb from limb.
For Happiness - Her main motivation behind her crimefighting.
Inhuman Emotion - She often speaks her mind and usually lets emotion and instinct rule her decisions. The times you see her stop and think are likely few and far-between. All of this is despite the Plane of Shadow (her home plane) being a realm of apathy and lack of emotion.
Appearance
Beauty is Never Tarnished - She often heals herself too quick to cause any scars.
Dark Is Not Evil - Far from it.
Trivia
IC
- While it's not hard to figure out that Nyx is a heavy masochist, few people know that she's also slightly sadistic, though this only really shows when she gets the chance to toy with criminals and the like - she doesn't enjoy hurting people who she feels don't deserve it.
- Despite not needing sleep, Nyx still has perpetual bags under her eyes, even if she ends up getting multiple nights of sleep due to cloud cover preventing her from getting moonlight.
- Nyx's favorite color is forest green, she claims her favorite food is bananas (in reality, it's baked beans), and she has a taste for techno music. This all despite what many might view as something of an emo or goth girl.
OOC
- My direct inspiration to create Nyx was Tharja from Fire Emblem: Awakening, but she's technically inspired by black/dark mages in general with no real influence on her personality.
- Despite having a very similar ability to many other characters in-game, I've done my best to work on ways to develop her powers so that they deviate from others', in my hopes that she doesn't become a stereotypical shadow-user.
- Nyx's original incarnation appeared in a cyberpunk Shadowrun-styled RP; here, she was far more sadistic than masochistic (in a sort of balance of the two), less cheery, and much more powerful due to being older with more experience and having been raised without as much hardship to send her so far down pessimistic that she winds up on optimistic, like this Nyx has.
Comments & Opinions
Have something to say about Nyx? Put it here!
"Don't let first impressions fool you. I know that she can come across as creepy and weird sometimes...well, she is, but in a cool way. She's a good friend that anyone would be lucky to have." ~ Limerick
"Nyx is one of my best friends, period. Oh man, we have gotten into some trouble, but it was worth it. While she is a bit extreme and a lot of fun, don't let that make you shy away. She is a great girl and an amazing hero for the community, whether in tights or jeans. Keep up the good work, Nyx." - Moonlighter
*Blushing Deeply* "She is n-nice and -uh- cute... v-very friendly even i-if in a d-different way from mine" - Pulsar
Gallery
Nyx & Nocturne Pixel Art
