Character: Annabelle "Nancy" Blackwood
*Affiliation: Independent, hero w/ no current affiliation
Codename: Baby
Powers: She has extreme animal empathy and telepathy and can manipulate them in any way she chooses, extreme slowed aging (almost non existent), undeveloped human empathy
History: Nancy was born to an English colonel and his Indian bride in 1878 in the jungles of India. Her father, Col. Jules Mandrake, was a strict man who enjoy hunting and collecting various types of animals as pets. Her mother, Rohana, looked to be about the age of 12 when Nancy was born. In actuality, Rohana was 27.
Nancy seemed normal until the age of 11. Then, she started to hear her father's exotic pets talking to her. She even learned that the animals would obey her every command, without even physically speaking to them. Excited by this new development, she secretly cared for the mistreated animals and even released some. When she was found, out, she was severely punished by her father. Nancy never told him why she released the animals.
Things went on normally for a few years, and then, when Nancy was 14, her mother died during childbirth with her youngest sister, Julia. The grief made her a near recluse in her own home. Her father tried to comfort her, but she refused. She stayed in solitude for nearly 3 years. Then, she finally emerged, as she had overcome her depression.
She was 17 years old and she looked exactly like she did when she started her hysterics. No one really thought of this as abnormal, as many women on her mother's side of her family appeared much younger than they actually were. Life continued on its merry way, and Nancy became engaged to marry one of her father's most trusted captains, Hilary Blackwood. She married Hilary at the age of 20, still looking like a 14 year old. Nancy had three children by the age of 26, Richard, Sidney, and Alice (none of whom inherited her mutant gifts.) Domestic life was unsatisfying for Nancy, and she longed for adventure. She begged her husband to take them to England, but her refused. Disappointed, she fell back into her depressed ways, not even caring for her children.
Years passed, and Nancy still looked like a young girl. At the age of 37, she grew fed up and left her entire family. She went to South Africa and tried to get work as a nurse, but no one would hire a child to be their doctor.
Alone is a strange new land, she rediscovered her animal telepathy and went out to the wilds on her own. With the animals protecting her, she was able to come to terms with her body.
She stayed in Africa until about 1927, when she was 49 years old. She decided it was high time to see America. She took what little she had and went to the US.
Nancy spent then next several decades living throughout the USA. She spent time living in New York City, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Chicago, Texas, Louisiana, and California among other places. But she felt most comforatble in the Deep South. She spent great amounts of time in New Orleans (working at a brothel) and in Atlanta, doing much of the same. Her justification for her actions being that she was a consenting adult. That the costumers didn't know this was not her fault.
She'd been living in relative peace in Atlanta, Georgia for several years when she was raped by a serial rapist named Lloyd Geoffries Dunn. Dunn was a known anti-mutant terrorist who targeted women he suspected as mutants. Scared for her life, she fled Atlanta for New York City, pregnant at the age of 96. Alone, she gave birth to her son, Hadrian in 1974. Social workers found her and took her as a teen runaway and tried to take her baby. To protect hew newborn son, she commanded the street rats and other street animals to attack and protect her.
Nancy and Hadrian have been living in various places ever since. Hadrian is a mutant with medium powers (communication with the dead.) Recently, Hadrian went missing and cannot be found.
Height: Approx. 4'11"
Weight: 88lbs
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Blue
Other distinguishing physical features: She is extremely tiny for her "age". She is not so much weak
as small. She is sensitive about her dark skin, which was seen as hedonistic when she was a child, and
the fact that she is so young looking. When her telepathy is in use, her eyes glow violet and a deep
purple light surrounds her.
Personality: Nancy is very protective of her son, even though he is an adult. She also keeps the fact that she is his mother a secret from strangers. She gets extremely angry when taunted about her "age". However, she has learned to use the "Lolita" factor to her advantage and often has a fun time trying to seduce "older" men. She has an eye for military placement, thanks to her father and husband.
**Other: She speaks several languages, including English, Hindi, Afrikaans, and French. It can also be noted that she speaks with an accent that most people cannot trace (Queen's English, with mixed Hindi and South African dialects.) She is also known to add in slang terms she has picked up over the years, from the various places she has lived.
Nancy is trained in fencing. She is an accomplished liar.
Nancy has an extreme phobia of physically growing old. Once, that was all she desired, to have a body that matched her true age. But now that she is over 100 years old, she is freightened by what might happen if her mutation was counter-acted.
And, although there are other mutants older than she, she feels none can really understand the experience she has had, being in the body of a girl.
