Diamondback

Diamondback by E. E. Nalley

Bunches of this appear to have been seeded by Joe Gunnarson; not 2005 bible, Joe contributed her in 2007.

Diamondback (Sandra Carter, born Ryan Carter) is a member of the Class of 2010, and is 15 in September 2006. She's known Jericho since they were in diapers; just like Jericho she was born in Kilgore, Texas.

MID

MID as of 2006-12-12:

Mutant Identification Card
Code name	DIAMONDBACK
Ratings	Exemplar 4, Esper 2, Wiz 1, GSD (Severe)
Techniques	Constrictor, Venomous bite, Venom-spitter, Distracting wave, Bogeyman, Doppleganger, Healing Hands
Weak vs	Unknown
Backup / Team Affiliation	Outcast Corner

General Description

Diamondback is a highly intelligent and shy girl. She has good people skills and a wicked sense of humor, but has been driven into her shell because she considers herself a freak among freaks, an unfortunately common mindset among the more monstrous appearing kids at Whateley. She's a good person but tends to lash out when backed into a corner. She is terrified of the idea that she might not be able to make friends, but equally terrified of trying to talk to people. This is reinforced frequently by a lot of the other students.

When someone actually cracks her defenses she is intelligent, thoughtful and sharp as a whip. Her humor tends to the more dry, ironic than blatant, and very often people never even realize she took a potshot. She's prone to speaking negatively about her body, and making jokes about it, often coming across like she believes all the lousy things the other students pile on her. But until they break through and she gets to know them she is standoffish, and suspicious as a result of numerous times getting burned by some of the school's more socially vicious students as well as her interactions with baseline humans.

Sandra started out as a boy, and that change still haunts her. She doesn't really know how to be a girl and she's terrified of anyone finding out her secret. She also has no clue that Poe cottage has kids of the "alternate sexuality" slant there. She has a crush on a boy who goes by Firelight, and she doesn't know how to reconcile this with her old life. She doesn't know if it's right, wrong or what. She's just very confused. It doesn't help that her family's pastor was definitely of the anti-mutant bent, one of his favorite sermons likening mutants to the snake in the garden of Eden. Her transformation brought a severe and nearly murderous backlash from the folks around town, and she was forced to take refuge with Jericho and his family to hide from the lynch mob until she and he were both transferred to Whateley. The fact that her parents are Humanity First! members doesn't help. She no longer considers herself a Baptist, having become a Wiccan (alongside her twin Matthew) even before manifesting.

She loves music and dancing and singing. She is a dedicated pagan, and although she doesn't actually have any natural, raw talent for it, she goes to the magic classes and has picked up on quite a few useful bits of knowledge. She's a voracious reader, and has a rather wicked character on GEO. She prefers to take things easy and isn't accustomed to conflict, even though she's somewhat built for it.

Diamondback is aware of Fey and Chaka's changeling nature due to actions by Tempest, and challenged Tempest to an arena match as punishment for outing people. Her reactions to the rest of Team Kimba and Poe imply that she's not aware of anybody else's secrets besides Fey and Chaka. Well, there's Phase, but that hardly counts as a secret.

Appearance

Sandra's 5'8" plus her 13-foot tail, for a total body length of about 19 feet, and weighs a half-ton if not more (although she refuses to tell anybody her weight). From the waist up she is a trim, athletic young woman who would otherwise be on the Whateley list of "beautiful people" if it weren't for the scales that completely cover her skin, ranging from flesh tones on her chest and belly and on the underside of her arms, to an iridescent green color along her backside and the top of her arms with black diamond patterns on her back reminiscent of a Diamondback snake, hence the nickname. Her hips merge and legs fuse into a long, snakelike trunk that tapers off some thirteen feet behind her when she is "standing" upright. She moves by slithering on her snake tail, and is surprisingly agile, and able to mimic the movements of a sidewinder.

Her eyes are ice-blue, with reptilian slit pupils. Her hair is deep brown with a red tint that hangs loosely to her waist, with the bangs obscuring her face. Sandra has a long and decently attractive face with light, flesh-colored scales covering the skin. These scales darken to a pale green at the edges of her face. Her tongue is forked, and she has two hollow fangs that are fixed, and about twice as long as her other teeth. Unlike what people expect she does talk normally unless she wants to add a sibilant edge to her speech.

For the sims she wears a robe and death mask; she feels this is silly, there's no way of concealing who she is, but them's the rules.

Despite her reptilian appearance, she's still warm-blooded.

Powers

Exemplar 4 (GSD afflicted), Wiz 1 (potential to become a force to be reckoned with), Esper 2 (rec-empath), Severe GSD

Diamondback's mutation left her with a much higher level of intelligence than most others. She hides it well, but it's nearly impossible to confuse or stump her intellectually. She also has a knack for empathy, able to pick out strong emotions from individuals, but not normal or low key ones. It allows her to live vicariously through others when they are making out around campus. Direct skin contact enhances the empathic ability, allowing her to sense all of a people's emotions.

Physically she's a lot stronger and tougher than a normal human. She has reflexes that would make some speedsters jealous, able to dodge bullets. She's not any faster than a normal person though. Her snake-tail can be used to wrap up, restrain or crush anything in her coils and she can lay down a phenomenal amount of force. She can also use it to strike something with the sides of her body or whip something with her tailtip. Her Exemplar package give her some additional resistance to temperature extremes.

She has fangs that let out a poison which will cause paralysis and death in a normal person if not treated. She has to make do with the normal human bite though, she can't stretch her jaw. Her last innate dirty trick is spitting said venom. If she can get them in the eyes, mouth or an open wound it is as if she bit them. She worries about accidentally harming other people, and therefore routinely carries syringes with antivenom with her. One additional peculiarity is that the antivenom, if administered by itself, is also highly toxic.

Her tongue, like a snake's, give her a very acute sense of smell when she sticks it out of her mouth and brings it back in. The downside is that she can also strongly sense disagreeable smells, so she takes care to keep her tongue in in places like bathrooms.

As far as her talents in magic, she's fairly adept at minor effects and illusions, and she is expected to grow in power with study and effort, as any normal mage would progress. She has some talent with healing spells and can usually heal normal injuries in herself and others fairly quickly. She's not good enough to heal much more than cuts and scrapes. Massive trauma wounds are, as yet, beyond her.

Besides her more widely known powers, the Dream Team suspects her of being an Astral Exemplar, capable of seeing simultaneously into the real world and into the Astral plane. Due to the danger in which the instability of her power put her and others, Anno Domani asked Weaver to bind her powers to give her a chance of stabilizing. The bindings eventually gave way and she appears to have wakened to her power.

Skills

Sandra's natural agility and serpentine grace lend her well to dancing, and she excels in that class. She is also a very good singer, having been brought up in various boys' choirs before her change. She has passing knowledge of sports, but as most of those require legs she gives it a miss. She is a phenomenal swimmer, and has an easy time moving through the water. She is also a veritable font of useless trivia about a lot of things, mostly picked up from her reading skills. She has also become moderately proficient with American and Australian Sign Language, due to her association with Jericho and Razorback.

Personality

Sandra's personality is very much introverted and shy. She has a wide cynical streak that only vanishes around close friends. Whether she realizes it her actions and mannerisms are very much female, and she tends to act and react as such, even if her mind is very torn over the change. She also tends to stick to friends very closely, and will go with them in more or less anything. This gets her in trouble because she tends to be easily manipulated into doing things that are not in her benefit for her so-called "friends."

Weaknesses

Besides her physical changes Sandra is more or less a normal person. She doesn't have any real resistance to harm than would be provided by thin scales. She can't stand the smell or taste of artificial cleaning agents and disinfectants (her tongue can taste air like a snake can) and plant matter makes her ill, so she is a dedicated carnivore. She doesn't have to eat the food raw or live, so she can at least eat somewhat normally. The problem is that her food intake is very high, with only bricks and energizers needing more than her to sustain her body mass.

Her biggest weakness, and strength is that under the skin of a monster, she is still human, with all that carries.

End of seeded information.

Appearances

She helps deal with the fight between Bannockburn and Hela.

She and her roommate, Psydoe, are terminally not getting along.

Jericho asks her to vet the contracts Ayla Goodkind provides.

She hangs with Jericho's family when they come to Parents' Day.

Bloodwolf's Ultraviolents try to dry gulch her.

During Christmas Vacation she was in Australia with the rest of the Outcasts. While there she took a small part in the Rager's Night memorial, helped suppress a robbery and out-of-control "hero" team, and protected the fighting retreat of a large group of civilians to shelter during Doctor Reaper's attack.

She's reunited with her brother (now her sister) at the beginning of Winter term.

She's in Team Tactics, so she shows up a lot.

She speculates about Ayla's foodie connections with the Chefs.

She gets to play Red Team, and rumbles the Power Cats.

She plays the heavy with Jericho about Ayla's party; he should go.

Ayla selects her as part of a negotiating team between him and Jobe.

She helps Fey plan a surprise party for Ayla, planning how to make it a surprise requiring devious minds.

She wins on the bets she laid about Boston; multiple fights, and they'd win. The bookies wonder if she'd be a good bet for Whitman bookie, if they could talk her into it.

Mentions

• Under Pressure!, Part 1 "a rather impressive naga girl"

Classes

Fall 2006

• Basic Martial Arts First Period
• Introduction to Magic Theory Third Period
• Magic Lab Fourth Period
• Dance Evening

Winter 2007

• Team Tactics I

Spring 2007

• Aikido II Fourth Period

Associations

• Carter family (birth family)
  • Mr. Carter (estranged father, Humanity First! activist)
  • Caroline Carter (estranged mother, Humanity First! activist)
  • Matthew/Monica Carter (twin brother/sister)
• Turner family (foster family)
  • Nathan Turner (foster father)
  • Edith Turner (foster mother)
  • Joseph Turner (best friend/foster brother)
  • Zachary Turner (foster brother)
• Whitman Cottage
  • Psydoe roommate, 2006/2007 year (they don't get along very well)
  • Deimos roommate, 2007/2008 year
• Outcast Corner
  • Jericho
  • Razorback
  • Eldritch
  • Deimos
  • Anomaly
• Phobos
• Underdogs
• Wild Bunch Security Auxiliary
• Phase
• Whateley Science department (campus job as lab assistant)