Priscilla Varm
| Priscilla Varm (Scenesys ID: 4849) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Profile | |||
| Name: | Priscilla Varm | ||
| Superalias: | None | ||
| Gender: | Female | ||
| Species: | Human | ||
| Occupation: | Infectious Disease Researcher | ||
| Citizenship: | United States | ||
| Residence: | Gotham City | ||
| Education: | Medical Doctor | ||
| Theme: | Original (OC) | ||
| Groups: | |||
| Details | |||
| Apparent Age: | 34 | Actual Age: | 34 |
| Date of Birth | 22 Oct 1988 | Played By | Ksenia Solo |
| Height: | 5'4" | Weight: | 115 lbs |
| Hair Color: | Black | Eye Color: | Light-Blue |
| Twitter: | @RealDoctorVarm | ||
| Theme Song: | Halsey - Control: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so8V5dAli-Q | ||
Contents
Character Info
Profile
Doctor Priscilla Varm is an Infectious Disease Researcher with the World Health Organization (WHO). She also has a keen interest in cancer research and anything that could prove useful in fighting or curing it. She specializes in virology, which is what helped tip her off to the fact that an unknown illness has begun to spread through her body after being bitten by a stranger while she was working overseas. Though she doesn't want to think it, she is beginning to accept that the possibility exists she is turning into a vampire. If that's the case, she's racing against time to cure one of the oldest, most virulent, and least-understood plagues on Earth. The whole time, she also keeps being drawn into the intrigues and dark underbelly of Gotham City as she tries to find answers about what she's becoming and the possibility there are more like her right under her nose.
Timeline
Timeline:
* 1988: Priscilla Varm is born to Sophia Varm and Saul Herrero. Saul didn't remain in Priscilla's life, and she has never met him.
* 1996: Priscilla's mother is diagnosed with cancer on Priscilla's 8th birthday.
* 2000: After a painful struggle with her illness, Sophia Varm passes away on Priscilla's 12th birthday. Priscilla never celebrates her birthday from then on, viewing it as a cursed date.
* 2005: Priscilla has dedicated herself to the task of finding a cure for cancer, and has been studying near-obsessively since before her mother's passing. She is prepping for medical school, and the more she learns about the awful disease that took her only parent from her, the more she realizes the uphill battle she has ahead of her.
* 2010: Priss attends Gotham University for four years after graduating high school, and then begins her undergraduate program.
* 2021: After finishing four years of an undergraduate program, four years of medical school, and then another three years of residency studying in her specialty of virology (a deviation from her original plan to study cancer), Doctor Priscilla Varm joins a World Health Organization team heading to South Africa to help fight the spread of diseases like HIV and Ebola. Priscilla still keeps an eye on any research that could support her hypothesis that retroviruses can be used to eliminate cancer cells.
* 15 Dec 2022: Priscilla is attacked in the shower by a crazed individual who bites her on the neck. He is interrupted during his attack and driven off by fellow researchers and locals. There is a lot of superstitious talk about the nature of the attacker, but Priss and her colleagues are more concerned with tending to her wounds and making sure she hasn't caught whatever was driving her assailant to such hostile behavior. Rabies is a serious worry.
* 05 Jan 2023: All tests possible with the available equipment have been performed. To rule out rabies, Priss has to be extracted and sent to a better-equipped facility. She is kept quarantined the entire time, leaving her to stew in anxiety while trying to keep a cool head about things.
* 30 Jan 2023: It has been determined that Doctor Varm is not infected with rabies, though there are still other tests to perform to make sure she is okay. She is at least cleared to return to the U.S. The last thing that Priscilla wants to do is become a vector for spreading infectious diseases. That would be against everything she has worked for.
*05 Feb 2023: Priscilla spends time in New York City with further check-ups, researching the symptoms her attacker displayed, and worrying about strange irregularities in her health that have no obvious cause. She tries to ignore the fact that her senses have become sharper as just an illusion caused by stressed nerves.
*14 Feb 2023: Despite her protests, Priss is asked to take leave from her WHO assignments and focus on herself for a while. She sets about finding an apartment in Gotham City and finding some sort of work to do there while she waits out her leave notice. During this time, her health irregularities become harder to ignore, and additional physical and mental strangeness seems to be taking place. Frustrated with the inability to get back to her 'real' job, and the inconclusive results of her own self-examinations, the growing stress seems to only be exacerbating her condition.
*01 Mar 2023: Priscilla Varm is out for a walk when she sees a movie poster for a classic horror movie. It's about vampires. Though her scientific mind rejects the idea that briefly flits across her consciousness, the stories told by the locals overseas and the mythology surrounding vampires clicks together with what seems to be happening to her and what she could tell about her bitey-attacker. Doctor Priscilla Varm starts to consider some more... Unconventional answers to what she is becoming.
Timeline2:
*22 Mar 2023: Priscilla's condition has worsened to the point that she is doubting her sanity. Now that she is looking for something specific, the infection of her cells by an unknown pathogen becomes evident. Driven by desperation, she begins experimenting with various medicinal agents, anti-biotics, steroids, and even the anti-cancer retrovirus she has been working on all these years. Something she does seems to have worked because her symptom progression halts, and her head feels clear for the first time in months.
*Mar 2023 through May 2023: Priss has been refining the serum containing the retrovirus that allows her to retain control and forestall her physical changes. It still doesn't seem entirely real. But then she becomes aware of the fact there are others like her in Gotham City. Not >Exactly< like her, but rather 'full vampires'. Fighting her own infection and now trying to learn what she can about the existing vampire underground, Priscilla may be one of the few people in a position to stop the undead plague from spreading out of control in her own hometown.
*01 Jun 2023: Priscilla has learned more about the things she can do now, and equips herself with her tools and instruments, and sets out to observe the vampire menace and stop them from hurting innocent people.
IC Journal
{{{ICJournal}}}
Personality
Brave:
To rush into danger without a care is foolishness. To be ruled by fear is cowardice. Being able to move forward despite one's fear, or even to use that fear as a motivator to succeed, is bravery. Not everyone has it. Plenty of people may think themselves brave or heroic, but having the will to go into danger or even risk their life, is a rare trait for a reason: heroes tend to die young. That said, whatever this quality is that verges on a form of madness, Priscilla has 'it'. Her body will practically move on its own to help or save someone, especially children, regardless of the risk to herself. Even if it might expose her true nature or identity, she will advance into flames, flood waters, or the cross-fire between rivals to accomplish her goal.
Compassionate:
Priscilla wants to help everyone, even if that's physically impossible. She hurts when others hurt, and she will put herself through hell to make another person's life better. While she's savvy to the worse side of humanity, she still retains naive optimism and hope that lead her to reach out to those who are hurting, even if they don't want said help.
Patient:
It takes a great deal of patience to devote oneself to studying, learning, and mastering the medicinal sciences sufficiently to become a doctor. Even more so to keep trying to push forwards the boundaries of scientific understanding, rigorously test an idea, try an experiment over and over to make sure the results are reliable, and to just keep persisting calmly and methodically. Priscilla has this trait in spades, and generally takes the time to carefully analyze a situation and wait for an opportune moment to act. Even in a crisis, when she goes into danger, she looks for the route that will let her get in and out, figures out what she has to do to increase her chances of success, and THEN lets her bravery carry her forward.
Character Sheet
Powers
Inherited Behavior:
While still human, some of the instincts of a vampire have manifested in Priscilla's psychology, much to her displeasure. She can instinctively climb and scale walls, and even cling to ceilings. Her claws help her get a grip on most surfaces. She also has 'hunting instincts' that allow her to passively move stealthily to the extent that normal people may not even notice her if she is standing partially or completely in shadow. This applies most strongly at night or deep darkness, but even in daylight she produces little noise with her movements and her 'presence' is suppressed, allowing her to be overlooked by casual observers (but not alert guards or someone actively looking for her).
Morphology:
Priscilla has some minor shapeshifting abilities, such as full vampires have, but they are restricted to extending and hardening her fingernails into claws suitable for use as bladed weapons, and extending or retracting her canine teeth. They've become sharper of late. She cannot turn into a bat, wolf, mist, or any of that. Her eyes don't even change when she uses her vampiric traits, though some of her instinctive hunger somehow comes through in her eyes if stared at for an extended period.
Sanguinary Vampirism:
Priscilla has been infected with the vampire plague, and is balancing perilously on the edge between human and some sort of half-vampire or even becoming a full undead menace. Despite her not wanting them, this state comes with some perks.
* Strength: Priscilla has sufficient strength to lift and throw a 300 lb dirtbike about 15 feet, and to smash through hardened wood or dent steel barehanded.
* Reaction Time: When her adrenaline response kicks in, Priscilla shifts into a heightened reaction state that allows her to react quickly enough to predict and evade bullets. She does this by analyzing the trajectory of a bullet, and by reading the muscle movements, skin tension, and other signs of someone preparing to fire a gun. Even with a gun a foot away from her face, she is difficult to shoot, and the more precise the shooter the easier it is for her predict. That being said, if she can't see her attacker or the moment they fire, then she can be shot like anyone else.
* Resilience: She can endure punches from strong but normal humans, being hit with boards and metal bars, and falls from 50 feet up without breaking bones or suffering life-threatening injury, though she can still be injured from these things, and her body can't stop a knife or other bladed weapon.
* Speed: Pricilla can keep pace with a sports bike at top speed (34.5 mph on flat terrain), and sprint at up to 45 mph for ten minutes or so before becoming exhausted and unable to run again until she has rested.
* Agility: Priscilla can jump higher and further than a normal human with her build and fitness level, reaching a third story window from street level with relative ease, and performing parkour-like movements instinctively when pursuing someone or trying to escape.
Skills
Languages:
Priscilla Varm can speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Afrikaans, French, Swahili, Creole, Hebrew, Arabic, some Polish, conversational Japanese, and some German. She has a lot on her plate, so learning more languages has been on hold, but she wants to make sure she can communicate clearly with any patient and any individual who has information that could prove relevant to her work.
Medical Doctor:
Priscilla Varm is a fully-qualified professional M.D. Even if her specialty lies in research, she can provide medical care if needed. Doctors and nurses more focused on medical care are better suited to the task.
Virology:
Priscilla Varm is an infection disease researcher and focuses her studies on viruses and bacteria that can infect and spread. Her thesis was on retroviruses and their potential use as custom-made agents for attacking other forms of disease. She can recognize, test for, diagnose, and treat a wide variety of viruses. She is also, due to her background, very familiar with many different types of cancer, their symptoms, and potential treatments. She has a sufficient degeree of expertise in virology to attempt to tinker with and engineer viral and anti-viral agents by herself, as long as she has adequate materials.
Resources
Hospital Access:
As a medical doctor, Priscilla can enter even many sensitive areas of a hospital as long as she talks to reception. She works at a hospital near her apartment just to help out since they are often overloaded and understaffed. This also means she has access to research materials, lab equipment, and other instruments she needs for pursuing her specialized profession.
Money:
Doctor Varm isn't in one of the higher-paying medical professions like cosmetic surgery, but she still makes a decent amount. She can afford her own place, moderately nice things, and luxuries. She just generally doesn't spend on those when so little of her time is spent on relaxing or worrying about her appearance. As a result, she has quite the retirement fund building up in the bank.
Reputation:
While not famous by any means, Doctor Priscilla Varm has a very positive reputation among various groups of people, especially in the medical community. She may be able to get information or ask for favors sometimes, and generally receives a receptive response when she interacts with a colleague. Her research into fighting cancer in particular is reasonably well-known.
Weaknesses
Guilt:
Priscilla is driven by her guilt over not being able to save her mother from cancer. Every additional life she doesn't save adds to that burden of guilt, pushing her to do more, to learn faster, and to keep taking on more and more work. She doesn't take care of herself like she should, and is on her way to becoming a workaholic. She can rarely relax for long before feeling guilty for not burning herself out when there's people suffering and dying in the world and she feels she could do something about it (even if she actually can't do anything about it). This leads to her not being at one-hundred percent most of the time, relying on coffee and energy drinks to stay active and focused. Eventually, she'll crash. Then the cycle will start all over again.
Hunger:
Though she can keep it in the back of her mind, there's a distinct feeling of need, emptiness, and hunger that steadily grows. Her serum takes the edge off, but it's always there, like background static. She knows it's the desire for blood, but she also knows she is going to fight that hunger for as long as she can. That will become harder and the consequences of starvation worse for her whenever her transformation continues.
Sensitivity:
Priscilla's eyes have become more light sensitive of late. She can be temmporarily blinded or at least have her vision impaired through much less sunlight than others, even if it's indirect. She also picks up the smell of blood more clearly and becomes agitated by it, and she is developing an aversion to fire that has her standing well away from an open flame. She also has an allergic response to silver, causing blisters to form where she is exposed to it.
Vampiric Infection:
Priscilla is gradually turning into a vampire, though she is doing what she can to slow or stop the transformation through science and her understanding of infectious diseases. While injections of a retrovirus is stalling the progression of 'Sanguinary Vampirism', it isn't a cure in and of itself. Further, she doesn't know how long this stop-gap measure will remain effective. If she goes without regular doses, or gives into her instinctive hunger for blood, she will very quickly advance towards a complete vampire state.
Role-Play
Logs
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Priscilla Varm has
1 finished logs.
| Title | Date | Scene Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Is That A Vampire In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Glad to See Me | June 11th, 2023 | One and a half vampires walk into an alleyway... Lydia and Priscilla meet in an unlikely place, and have a peculiar similarity that will require a more lengthy discussion. |
Cutscenes
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Priscilla Varm has
1 finished logs.
| Title | Date | Scene Summary |
|---|---|---|
| No logs submitted yet. | ||
Entertainment Credits
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Priscilla Varm has been credited in
0 shows.
| Title | Date | Scene Summary |
|---|---|---|
| No shows submitted yet. | ||
Priscilla Varm has been credited in
0 albums.
| Title | Release Date | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| No music submitted yet. | ||
Priscilla Varm has authored
0 books.
| Title | Release Date | Synopsis |
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| No books submitted yet. | ||
