For better or worse…and it's generally for worse, Penance is a very shy and reserved being, especially when dealing with strangers, or someone who a friend doesn't vouch for. She works very hard to be quiet and unobtrusive, staying out of sight, or in the background whenever she can.
While she is a shy and reserved person, Penance is also a very curious individual. Much of her life isn't really consciously accessable to her…there's enough of her there for her to -know- that she's been changed, and what she's lost…but she can't really access what she's lost. Because of this, she's much like a very young child…she's curious about almost everything, and it's that, more than anything else, that's likely to draw her out of her shell and get her to associate with the people around her.
Ultimately, Penance is a very feral individual. She has a natural defensiveness and exhibits definate territorial behavior. Once she finds a territory that she considers her own, she will fight off anyone she feels to be intruding on it…and given her innately dangerous nature, this is likely to end with the demise of the intruder. She is likely to exhibit this same possessiveness over people or things that she considers "hers", as well. Much like a dog might defend its owners or growl if someone goes after their favorite toy, Penance is likely to get rather bloodthirsty if someone goes after something that belongs to her…at least in her mind.
When pursued or cornered, Penance's "fight" reaction is a frightening one. Her current condition makes her exceptionally fatal should she choose to attack someone with intent to kill, and she will attack as an animal does; using 100 of her resources, without holding back in the slightest, and with full intent to kill. When in these states, she will attack not only the person who has evoked this reaction, but will also vent her anger on the inanimate objects of the area, becoming a frenzy of slashing destruction.
| Density |
Penance's primary "power" is the young woman's incredible density. Her body tissues are literally as hard as diamonds, making her almost impossible to injure in a physical sense (although things that could damage diamond, like some lasers, adamantium, or other extreme forces, are capable of harming her).
Most physical attacks will have primarily concussive effect…while she won't be cut or bruised, the sheer concussive force can knock her out. Her same density and lack of any combustible hair makes her harder to set aflame, but energy attacks overall can have a more serious effect upon her. |
| Razor Skin |
| Penance's mutation and her incredible density actually causes her skin to have an abrasive effect, similar to the skin of a shark. Her natural skin is razor sharp, able to cause serious injury to anyone who touches her. While this makes her more dangerous in a combat situation, it also dooms her to a life without being able to touch another. |
| Natural Weaponry |
| Penance's hands and feet are both rather altered, being designed for digging or slashing. Her fingers and toes are both easily three times that of a normal person, and are somewhat flattened and less flexible than normal human digits. But when employed combatatively, her natural claws and density combine to make her a fearsome fighter. Her hair can be used as razor-wire lashes, and even contacting her skin can result in serious damage to someone who touches her. Her entire condition is designed to cause harm, and because of this, it's almost impossible for her not to. |
| Mental Static |
Penance's mutationalso prohibits anyone from reaching her mentally and communicating with her in that vein. She projects a field of psionic static that makes it almost impossible to communicate with her mentally…it would take someone on par with Charles Xavier to reach the girl. Moreover, the static causes a sort of telepathic backlash that can stun anyone attempting mental contact with her.
It should be noted that this static will only prevent communication, and fine telepathic features (mental editing or control). Good old-fashioned psychic attacks are as capable of affecting her as anyone else, knocking her out or doing more serious harm, being only slightly slightly slowed by the static. |
| Enhanced Strength |
| Penance is also possessed of a level of superstrength, the byproduct of her high levels of density. While her strength is less than many superhuman entities, she can nonetheless lift weights on the order of a half-ton with maximum exertion. This is accomplished through her density; there's no sign of her strength externally. |
| Digging |
| Penance's claws are well-suited to digging and burrowing. Penance has used this ability on several occasions to bury herself, hiding under the very earth itself. She can't dig quickly enough to use it as a method of travel, but she can use it to dig tunnels through most anything less dense than she is (which is to say, most anything) given enough time. |
| Stealth |
| Penance is very good at being quiet and sneaky. She's generally barefoot, and moves in a natural low crouch, which helps to make her hard to see. In addition, her natural coloration is dark enough that she doesn't reflect light easily enough to be an obvious target. Given her overall shyness and desire not to be seen, she's had plenty of practice at this, to add to a natural ability. |
| Survival |
| A skill that Penance seems to possess, though whether from instinct, training, or simple necessity is not known. She is excellent at surviving in the wild, whether that be the actual jungle, or the urban jungles of the cities. Her senses, while no more sharp than that of a normal person, are nonetheless more focused on the small changes in her environment…subtleties that a normal person would tend to disregard. She is skilled at finding shelter, and seems to have a good knowledge of how to hunt small animals and to determine what plants are safe to eat. |
| Fighting |
| Penance has displayed a knack for combat…like most of the rest of her "skills", this is less something that she's trained and more a natural, animal-like skill at using her own natural weaponry. Her fighting is of the all-out, slash and rip style…there is no finesse to her technique, only sheer viciousness and an animal cunning. This would generally lead to an easy defeat, but her innate density prevents her from being easily harmed in the natural counterstrikes that come from her fast-and-direct style. |
| Athletics |
| Not so much a learned skill as a natural ability…Penance's strength and overall agility allow her to be quite apt at most athletic tasks. She is an an excellent climber, especially given her claws, but she is also adept at leaping, able to jump in excess of 20 feet at a time with her enhanced strength, and also being very nimble and agile, able to evade a wide range of attacks. This is, as mentioned, less a trained skill than a natural animalistic ability, not unlike that of a great cat. |
| Bodysuit |
| Penance's sole resource is her bodysuit. A garment composed primarily of numerous straps and buckles, it covers her entire body except her head, hands, and feet. Made of a tough, synthetic fiber, it is strong enough to resist the abrasive nature of the girl's skin. The suit has no special properties…it is simply the only clothing she has which can resist the cutting properties of her body. |
| Feral |
In her current state, Penance has a mental state much more like that of a wild animal than that of the human girl she was. She tends to react to things on an instinctual level rather than a rational one, and much of what she -did- know about has since been lost through long disuse. She reacts as an animal might, to most things…she can be lured out by treats, scared by loud noises, bright sounds, or sudden motion.
This can mean that she can be hard to relate to in a human fashion…she is easily distracted by some things, and often doesn't focus on things that fail to interest her. It can also mean that, like an animal, she tends to react in a "fight or flight" manner…if pressed, she'll often flee…if she can't do that, she tends to react by attacking. |
| Claustrophobia |
| Penance displays a mild case of claustrophobia. This primarily manifests as an unwillingness to enter buildings or vehicles. This has as much to do with her overall animalistic behavior, as it does with an actual phobia. However, the greater way in which this manifests is as a total unwillingness to endure restraint of any kind. Should she be physically restrained, she will go into a total frenzy as she seeks to escape. It would be possible for her to overcome the former aspect of it, if she were coaxed into a building by someone she trusts, but the fear of restraint is deeply integrated into her. |
| Manual Dexterity |
| Penance's hands have been reformed to be well-suited to slashing or digging…her fingers still have joints, but they are curved, elongated, and more flattened than normal fingers, and only minimally flexible. This means that while she's a wonderful living weapon, her manual dexterity is almost non-existant. She can handle large objects, but manipulation of fine controls, working buttons or buckles, or anything delicate is virtually impossible. This is without even taking into consideration the sharpness of the blades and the general destructiveness of her body…very few things can endure being handled by Penance long enough for her to do anything with it, in any case. |
| Mute |
| Penance is completely and totally mute. This isn't something that she can be taught to overcome; her muteness is physical, caused by the hyper-dense nature of her vocal cords. This same problem renders her even less communicative than an ordinary mute…most mutes can still make -some- sounds, whether those be gutteral grunts, screams, or other inarticulate sounds. But Penance seems unable to manage any sounds at all…possibly she could be taught to whistle, but any sounds requiring vocal cords or tongue seem to be beyond her, thanks to the dense and inflexible nature of those structures. |
| Obvious Mutant |
| Penance is obviously alien…from her reshaped hands and feet, the blood-red hue of her skin, the quills that serve her for hair, her solid blue eyes…she's completely non-human in her appearance, in such a way that cannot be easily concealed (with the blades of her hands and feet, she cannot wear gloves or shoes, and the quills of her hair would easily slice through anything like a hat). This means that she's pretty much incapable of hiding her unusual condition…indeed, if she even understands that she should. |
| Density |
| Penance's density is both a blessing and a curse. While it gives her an extreme level of invulnerability, it also prevents her from ever touching anything without destroying it…prevents her from being touched, for to do so would harm the very one trying to touch her. The same density is what renders her mute, leaving her isolated from everyone around her. Like the mutant Rogue, she lives forever unable to have physical contact with another person. |
| Altered Comprehension |
| Penance has great difficulty comprehending certain things and concepts. She literally no longer processes information in the same way a normal person does. Because of this, she may not be -able- to understand the things around her…especially not through normal means of teaching, and this is likely to frustrate her even more. |
|
![width="180"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images/cast:penance/width="180"/medium.jpg)
