Serrah Delany (Dropped)

As a result of various factors, Serrah is a dhampir, a supernatural being touched by the darkness associated with having formerly been a vampire. In Serrah's case, this mostly means that she's immortal and unaging, and her life can run perpetually if she isn't killed. She's also stronger, faster, and more durable than baseline humans, though not to the same extent as a full vampire. When she was a human, Serrah was already a scrappy fighter, with a penchant for throwing baseballs into the mix; these vampiric and post-vampiric abilities were essentially just an extension of her existing fighting style. The main addition to her repertoire is rapidfire punches. (She may or may not be able to sustain herself by drinking blood, but there's no sign that doing so is in any way mandatory, and she isn't interested in finding out.)

A typical ability of many magical beings in the world of Hartford is that they can float or fly the way they can walk or run. This is barely even seen as a magical ability; supernatural beings who can't fly are more unusual. Dhampirs and vampires in particular can walk up walls or on ceilings, sort of like a spider (though with vampires it's mostly as if they've decided that gravity is going to do things *their* way for now).

As a result of the dark forces which Vincent applied towards turning her into a vampire, Serrah randomly gained the ability to stop time. When time resumes, it takes her a moment before she can use it again. The subjective length of time it lasts depends on her actions, and runs out faster the more she moves: if she's just chilling out, it can be several minutes on the inside, but in the middle of a fight, it will usually last less than ten seconds. If she moves too close too quickly to a living or sentient being, or tries to hit or otherwise attack them, time resumes. If someone is already touching her, or she's under the effect of their magic or can otherwise be said to be "in contact" with them (i.e. if someone is using a mind-reading ability on Serrah and another person, this applies to both of the other two), they'll be able to perceive and move in her stopped time as well; their own actions contribute to how quickly the stopped time runs out. If she uses it around someone else with time-stopping powers, they'll be able to perceive her stopped time, but must activate their own ability in order to move; the reverse is also true. By expending Edge, she can extend the subjective length.

When Serrah is injured, she can recover much more quickly than a human, and from more severe harm. The exception to this is divine/purification/Light powers, which cause the sensation of a burning pain even if it's a passive ability rather than an attack, and outright wounds from them heal at a normal human rate. This doesn't prevent her from dying from anything which would be instantly or quickly fatal to a human.

Vampires have somewhat advanced shapeshifting powers -- into an animal, or into a liquid or gaseous shadow -- but for Serrah, this has been reduced to adjusting things like hair color and hairstyle, turning into a black silhouette, and changing her clothes. This is entirely cosmetic, and has no effect on her actual abilities. (Don't ask where the old clothes go or where the new clothes come from.)

Due to her part in the permanent death of Duke Vincent D'Ambrosio who turned her into a vampire, she has to stay away from her homeworld for the time being to avoid the press and to avoid unofficial stigma from the nobility and the people around her. She's rather annoyed about this, and it's kind of a mood-killer.

Any sort of magical detection will ping Serrah as some sort of creature of darkness, even if it's not a very strong sense compared to a vampire. This is not going to give a good first impression to anyone for whom this is a problem, which is kind of a sore subject for Serrah; she might get grumpy and depressed if someone is afraid of her, even if it's a mercenary she was fighting at that exact minute. It also gives her an instinctive, vague fear of divinities and other creatures of the Light. Even worse is that many kinds of healing magic, if they're specifically "light"- or "purification"-based, will be painful-but-effective at best and actively harmful at worst.

When Serrah was a vampire, killing someone had direct, tangible negative effect, and it is unlikely she would have become a human if she had ever done so. Since killing her sire (and only her sire) and being resurrected, she simply hasn't kicked the habit of not killing people. This was slightly exacerbated when she encountered a spirit who conjured shades-of-those-you've-killed, and met a copy of Vincent again. It isn't a moral thing; she won't stop anyone else she works with from killing anyone. She just won't do it herself.

Serrah has some weaknesses left over from when she was a vampire. Chiefly, garlic makes her flinch back as if it was a minor phobia and she finds the smell distracting, though she can overcome this and even eat it if she's prepared and focuses herself. Holy symbols have the same result if held by a true believer (which is why a vampire can run through a graveyard full of crosses without any problem). Sunlight is also uncomfortable but not particularly harmful; as a result, her sleep schedule is kind of a disaster.

Serrah's relationship with authority figures and rules is somewhere between a raised middle finger, a shrug of indifference, and outright hostility. She doesn't like following rules and absolutely hates following orders, especially when she thinks they're arbitrary. This attitude only became worse when Vincent D'Ambrosio made himself the most prominent authority figure in her life, and remains even though he's gone. However, it isn't entirely reflexive: if she can immediately see how breaking a rule will endanger, annoy, or inconvenience herself or others, she's perfectly capable of leaving well enough alone.

One of Serrah's problems is that she's more afraid of dying than the average person. If she thinks it's reasonably likely she might get killed, she might become even more reckless than usual in an attempt to avoid it, or panic, or simply getting irrational about it. Another problem is becoming permanently mentally corrupted or mind-controlled, or going insane in any other sense; if anything, she feels as though that's an even worse possibility than dying.

Serrah just wants to chill and have fun. Getting caught up in some sort of heroic struggle would just crimp on her style, y'know? The problem is, if she does find herself faced with good-guys-versus-bad-guys conflict, she can't help herself. If none of her friends have a personal stake, she'll usually complain at least once. But she'll still do it!

Serrah lives life in the moment; planning too far ahead simply isn't one of her skills. When things heat up, particularly emotionally, this tends to become an even bigger problem; she becomes impulsive and impetuous, following pretty much the first idea that enters her head.