Karen Wu [404]

[KarenWu]

Player Nickname: Kitani or KarenWu

Name: Karen Wu
Codename: 404
Age: 26
Date of Birth: October 22nd, 1988

Height: 5'4
Weight: 182 lbs
Hair Color: Varies
Eye Color: Varies
Place of Origin: China
Nationality/Race: Chinese
Classification/Origin of Powers: Mutant/Technological

Status: Resident (Possibly student)
Occupation: Self-Employed Computer/Electronics Repair/Consulting

Personality Profile: Generally a decent person. She doesn't like to bring harm to those that don't
actually deserve it. Past events have made her feel weak, or like she was on the wrong path, so she strives for
self-improvement to best of her ability.

Physical Description: Karen's body is not exactly as unique or individualistic as other people. She
is, physically speaking, a robot. Her technological form mirrors her former appearance to the best of it's
designer's ability, and she has made tweaks over the last couple of years to make it a bit more convenient. The
important thing to note here is that her usual robotic body is not, in fact, her actual form.

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Powerset: Karen's former abilities did not go away when she was ravaged by the disease that destroyed
her old biological form. She retained the technology manipulating talents she's always had. The posession of her
robotic body has given her a few distinct advantages above and beyond her original skill set.

Ability One: Electronic Manipulation (Technopathy) - Karen has the ability to manipulate or 'read' any
object or device that runs on an electric current. This is much easier if she can recognize and understand the
target of this ability. Manipulating something she already knows how to use is as simple as a quick thought to
make it do what she wants. Something she is not familiar with, such as a new invention or supertechnology takes a
lot more effort and experimentation. Karen needs to first see the object or device she wishes to manipulate
before using this ability. Once line-of-sight has been established at least once, she can then look away or hide
behind something while maintaining a connection. She is, however, limited by distance. The larger an object or
device is, the easier it is to make a connection with. The closer Karen is to an object/device, the easier it is
to manipulate. An example of the approximate range required for a connection is as follows.

Less than one cubic foot: 10 feet
1-5 cubic feet: 20 feet
6-10 cubic feet: 50 feet
10-25 cubic feet: 75 feet
25 cubic feet and larger: 100 feet.


Ability Two: Electronic Transferance - If Karen chooses, she can concentrate and focus her
manipulation upon a single target within 10 feet to effectively "project" her digital self into the object. This
takes absolute concentration, and after a few moments transfers herself into the new "vessel". While posessing an
electronic object or device like this, it becomes her new "body" until she chooses to leave (or if the
object/device has a will of it's own, it can try to force her out, or even destroy her entirely!). Once in
control (or an object/device's own sentience relents to her posession) of the target object or device, her
subconcious swiftly reaches out to gain absolute control. However, tricky or hidden functionalities still need to
be discovered to be of any real use. If the posessed object has access to the vast world wide internet, via wired
or wireless connection, she could also in theory transfer herself into that sort of network.

Ability Three: Robotic Body - Karen's physical body (the only one she currently owns, anyway) was
built by a dear mutant friend of hers a few years ago. It was built for athleticism, endurance, and longevity.
The power core can last for two to three days of normal use, one week of light activity, or two full weeks in a
near 'hybernation' state. Extreme physical activity drains the battery quicker, and must be monitored. The
structure of the body itself is one-of-a-kind, invented and created entirely by an old friend of Karen's. A
durable damage-resistant skeleton was wrapped in a dense layer of carbon-fiber muscle tissue, wrapped up in a
pretty little shell of synthetic skin (silicone base, with micro-fiber hair implants and a sub-dermal nerve
layer). With reinforced joints and carefully calibrated reaction times, Karen's robotic body is at the effective
level of peak adult human potential.

Drawbacks & Weaknesses: Karen's physical body is subject to the limitations of any battery-powered
device. The more features it's using, the faster the battery drains. The more active it is, the faster the
battery drains. There is nothing to stop the body from 'dying' at low power (aside from a simple feature that
prevents the battery from going 100% dead, it sticks to around 5% and hybernates automaticly to preserve
harddrive integrity).

While transfering herself so deeply into an object with Transferance, there is nothing stopping anybody from
disabling her physical body once she's left it.


Skills: Karen is both a skilled computer programmer/hacker and practicing free-runner.

Her computer programming and hacking skills are top-notch. While there are others out there with more
skill and creativity than her when it comes to raw code, she more than makes up for it with the overwhelming
speed with which she can access and command a computer.

Since her first year at Cobalt, near-death experiences made her re-think her lazy habits. Before she was
forced into a robotic form, she trained her body quite dedicatedly to be quick and precise. This training has
made her mentally prepared to undertake many athletic tasks. Her favorite of which being free-running.

Background: Karen actually got to lead a perfectly normal childhood. Well, sorry... normal for a
mutant. She was born into a family of scientists. Her mother was a biologist specializing in the new phenomena of
Mutant DNA; and her father was a computer engineering specialist who worked on designing new and innovative
computer technology. Logically, Karen grew up with all the new cool toys. Nintendo, Playstation, X-Box, all the
variants thereof... Karen learned to talk along with Mario ("It's a me! Maaario!") before she ever learned her
parents' names! This lead to a somewhat sheltered childhood, as her parents nurtered and protected her from the
evils of the outside world. They prefered she had the chance to battle the evils of the gaming world, like
Ganondorf, Bowser, Mother Brain, or Hitler's Nazi army. At least then, they could control what evils she was
subject to.

Alas, as she grew up, and got some schooling (she went to a private school, by the way. Expensive and fancy, with
the "best" education possible), Karen started to wonder if she wasn't missing something of the outside world. Of
course, she really was, and she knew that, since she was frequently online, browsing, chatting, doing normal kid
and teen stuff. But then she started to -see- it. She started hanging out with friends, and doing sleepovers and
stuff.. Her best friends were ravers and weird kids. She only watched movies that the cool kids were too snobby
to see. She actually tried to duplicate the Matrix! She failed, mind you, but it was a damn good try. Eventually,
she just got bored, and started thinking...

Over the course of a year, she managed to record and construct a duplicate of herself, good enough to fool even
her parents. It was crude, and simple, but in the middle of the night, without turning the light on, it worked!
She started sneaking around to all sorts of places that she shouldn't go, like raves, weird makeout parties, LAN
parties held over a couple of days. She was being exposed to the other side. The unsheltered side. Eventually she
was caught. Her father's best security hardware tracked her down, and he took her home. Thus, her first
punishment at a much-too-late age of 15. He took her games away. He took her computer away. He took her life
away, making her stay in her room untill supper, and bed time for her shower and whatnot. She didn't even get to
go to school, since her mother hired a private tutor and had him teach her through conferance calls with her
parents in the room. Her life, as she saw it, was over.

This drove her a bit... crazy. Crazy meaning rebellious, in this case, as she suddenly discovered the fact that
she could do stuff with computers and games under her parents' noses, just by thinking about it! It was weird,
but to her it was perfectly normal. Others could do this stuff, right? Why not? If she could, why couldn't
others? Well, that reality was shattered when her mother caught her one time, when she made a mistake and turned
on a moniter from across the room, and didn't notice while she continued to chat. At first, her mother was
suspicious about some small device, but through extensive investigation, she found it to be a mutant gene in her
beloved daughter. A mutant, something she worked on for a living, was right in her home! She wasn't bothered,
no... but it was humbling and even a little bit frightening when it was in your own home, in your own flesh and
blood even! Father was also freaked out! His own daughter had something technology-based that he would never
have, and it bugged him. He was proud, in a twisted sort of way, but in the same sense, he was jealous. Thus,
through much discussion, after about two or three years of arguing, and procrastination... Karen was sent to the
Academy.

Her time under the Cobalt banner has not been easy. Hearbreak, tragedy, personal loss, body-melting disease. It's
taken it's toll on Karen. Yet she continues to return. The school is a home she never had before, where she was
(at least by the staff) accepted for what she was, and who she would become.

Criminal Record: Karen does indeed have a record! Several small charges and fines for everything from
disturbing the peace to breaking and entering. A few theft charges that did not lead to any convictions. One
charge of posession of controlled substances, and an accompanying Posession with Intent to Sell which never got a
conviction (She was extremely misguided in her childhood. The past three years have been clean for her though.

Quirks, Extras, Random Character Facts:
- She's had a spare body for a long time, even before her natural body was destroyed. After a while she felt
bad for the lifeless shell, and over the course of a few years created and developed an AI to control it. Her
robo-sidekick's name is Miyu (A play on the idea that "it used to be me, now it's you!"), and has a very similar
exterior appearance to Karen's primary body, as they use the same base model. The robot itself is much less
advanced and is only really useful for mundane tasks and light lifting befitting of a frail girl of it's general size.
- Since she no longer has a physical, biological body, she technically no longer qualifies for basic
rights and freedoms! But she won't tell anyone that.
- She hates guns, but owns one that she's only ever fired once!
- She strongly believes in the anonymity of the internet and freedom of online expression, but can't help
but nose around in other peoples' computers!
- She owns a motorbike, but automotive mechanics is just about the only technology she can't be bothered
to learn!
- She identifies as gay, but in secret does still appreciate special kinds of guys!