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User Name: [Ms. Steel]

Character name: Dr. Marianne DiBiasio.

Mutant Name: Arcadia.

Abilities/powers: Marianne's abilities lie in empathy, reverse empathy and persuasion-cum- subliminal suggestion. Concerning her empathic power, wherein she not only is psychically attuned to the emotions of those around her, she can also knowingly and consciously project a feeling or mood upon another individual, either verbally or nonverbally. Her ability to persuade is via verbal prompts, although it's implanted into the subject's mind. For instance, if Marianne said, 'I don't think you want to eat that sixth doughnut,' the subject would hear it, but it would compute as, 'I don't want to eat that sixth doughnut.'

While she is honest about the scope of her abilities, she's not prone to tout the fact that reverse empathy, persuasion and suggestion fall under her umbrella of her capabilities, since it tends to breed mistrust, but does so when full disclosure is necessary. She is not ashamed of her powers, but she does understand why people doubt her trustworthiness if she could just be feeding them a line for her own means.

Sex: Female.

Age/Date of Birth: 39; June 9th.

General appearance: Standing at 5'4" with a pear-shaped body, Marianne appears to be a little soft around the edges. Her hair is dyed burgundy and cut into a shoulder-length side-parted blunt bob that frames a friendly, youthful, roundish face with soulful, dark brown eyes, full lips and rosy cheeks.

Additional Appearance: The empath's wardrobe cuts a professional figure, with tailored suits and blouses, minimal but tasteful jewelry, sensible, mid-heeled shoes and little in the way of make-up.

Personality: Nurturing and even-tempered are words frequently used to describe Marianne. She's a patient, caring individual who enjoys helping people, mutant and human alike, work through their problems, and she is an excellent listener, which comes in handy in her profession for obvious reasons.

She's also perceived as a calming presence, whether or not she's flexing her mutant muscle, which she tries not to do unless necessary, and even then, hers is a light touch, as, in most circumstances, she has no desire to actually alter a person's mood or perception in most given circumstances.

Special Skills: N/A.

Place of birth: Rosemont, Illinois.

Weapon(s) of choice: If necessary, she can usually disarm people mentally, eliminating the need for a physical weapon.

Medical information: N/A.

Brief History: Marianne had a fairly unassuming childhood, growing-up in a suburb of Chicago with her parents and siblings in a ranch home on a quarter acre of land. She was the middle child, but never seemed to carry any of the associated stigma with the position in her family, and she and her siblings were close, and got along together with only the usual rivalries occasionally getting in the way. Both of her parents were physicians; her Mother an OBGYN and her Father a pediatrician, which influenced Marianne's choice to follow in her parents' doctoral footsteps, although she took the path of the mental as opposed to the physical well-being., and it could be said that it was her mutation that helped make her final career decision, whether for better or for worse.

Around the age of thirteen, there was a subtle progression of emotional aptitude that alerted Marianne to her abilities, although she’d always been considered an empathic individual in the clinical sense of the word. Gradually, she realized that she was, with great accuracy, sensing people’s emotions, and that not only could she tell what a person was feeling, but that she could assert certain moods upon an individual simply by thinking it. Afraid of the tertiary aspect of her power, which was slowly manifesting itself as some sort of subliminal vocal suggestion, she initially kept it under wraps but presented her empathic abilities to her parents, whose main concern was that she, like other mutants, might be persecuted for what they considered a gift. It was revealed that there were known X-gene-possessing predecessors on Paulina’s side of the family, including Marianne’s grandmother.

Eventually, she graduated with her PhD in Psychology, and, during her course of study, met and married her husband, Carl, and the result of their union was a beautiful baby girl, whom they name Annabelle after Marianne’s mutant maternal grandmother. Unfortunately, she was understandably, but perhaps unwisely, not forthcoming with the entirety of her mutation, which she had only partially disclosed to her husband, who was under the impression that she could only read people’s emotions. He didn’t care about that initial aspect, but after a seemingly innocent comment made in jest over a family dinner at Marianne’s sister’s house, Carl’s suspicions eventually got the better of him, and he confronted her about what it was she could actually do. She finally admitted the entire scope of her powers to him, but swore up-and-down that their relationship was based on true emotion and nothing fabricated, but he still felt duped, however unfounded and irrational the accusations were, and still thought that she’d somehow tricked him into their marriage. Feeling that her hands were tied, and as Marianne didn’t want to be guilty of the very thing he’d accused her of, their marriage ended in divorce with her husband gaining custody of the now two-year-old Annabelle after an unfortunately rancorous battle in court.

In an attempt to move on, Marianne relocated a couple of times, and at some point passed-through Wyoming, where she met the accomplished Dr. Elijah Nowak and a young, troubled Luloah Esther Akins while doing a stint with the Foster and Adoptive Services of Natrona County. She’s currently living in Glendale, Arizona, employed at a children’s hospital.

Relatives: Mother—Paulina; Father—Richard; Older sister— Georgia ; Younger brother— Richard Jr. ; 11-year-old daughter— Annabelle in the custody of her ex-husband, Carl DiBiasio.

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Mutatis Mutandis