Nightingale
| Nightingale | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reputation |
| ||||||
| Author | unknownmercury (capes) | ||||||
| Pronouns | She/Her | ||||||
| Civilian name | Ashanti Powell | ||||||
| Alignment | Villain | ||||||
| Affiliation | None (Denver) | ||||||
| Age | 22 | ||||||
| Status | Active | ||||||
| Nationality | American | ||||||
| Approver | Magos_Nashoid | ||||||
| Trigger Type | Single Trigger | ||||||
Publicly Available Information
Nightingale is a public menace, known for taking what she wants and hurting or killing anyone who gets in her way. She seems to want to form a gang of her own to carry out protection rackets, drug trafficking, and other crimes.
PRT / Government Information
Nightingale first popped up in Denver, and is tied to the extermination of the gang who called themselves the Untamed. Since her appearance, she’s been responsible for numerous crimes, each carried out in a violent manner.
Costume Appearance
Purple fabric that covers the entire body, with black accents along the sides and on the mask. The mask covers the entire face, and has glowing red eyes. Thick gloves with steel claws in the fingertips allow for extra damage in hand-to-hand combat. A black cape billows from her shoulders and seems to move even when there’s no wind.
Civilian Appearance
Ashanti stands at 5’4, with dark brown skin, hair, and eyes. Her hair is usually in braids or corn rows. Has one eyebrow pierced, both ears have multiple piercings, and has a single snake bite on the lower right of her mouth. She has muscle, but is not bulky.
Mentality
Believing it’s better to be feared than loved, Ashanti has no problem in enacting violence on people if given the slightest reason to do so. Even before gaining powers she was always getting into fights at the drop of a hat. She believes that the strong should rule the weak, and that any authority is inherently based around that idea.
In costume, she comes across as very cold and unflappable despite her violent nature. While she answers to provocation, she never seems to do so out of anger. Instead, she does it merely to assert her strength and dominance over someone. She tends to speak in short sentences, and hardly raises her voice.
Out of costume, she’s loud and abrasive, and will make her emotions known to everyone in the vicinity. Still violent, but in a much less controlled sort of way.
Skills & Training
- Basics of various martial arts
- Skilled mechanic
- Proficient with handguns
- Proficient in first aid
- Skilled driver
- Proficient seamstress
Resources & Wealth
- Nice apartment
- Decent car
- Banking job provides decent money
- Cell phone
Equipment & Gear
- Steel-tipped claws
- Two knives
- Smoke bombs
Parahuman Power
Nightingale has the power to control shadows within roughly 100 feet of herself, allowing her to condense them or lengthen them based on the area of the shadow. The shadows move at her will and act as both a weapon and barrier for her. When striking, the shadows are sharp and act like a buzzsaw that can grind through most materials within a few minutes. A foot of wood would hardly slow the shadows down, a foot of concrete would take about a minute and a half, and a foot of steel would take around five minutes. These constructs work perfectly in total darkness.
As a barrier, the shadows are immune to regular physical attacks, moderately resistant to physical attacks with esoteric components, moderately protective against energy that doesn’t create light, and completely fail against light-based attacks such as lasers and fire. Any sort of high powered light source causes failure in the darkness, including sunlight, spotlights, or floodlights.
In addition, she can use the shadows to grapple onto things and either pull them towards her or reel herself in, allowing for quick movement around the battlefield. They are able to pull and lift objects up to 300 pounds. Due to the nature of her power, she has perfect night-vision, able to see in the dark as well as she could in the day.
Background & Trigger
Ashanti grew up in a neighborhood where cops didn’t go because of the high gang activity. No powers, but a lot of people with guns and chips on their shoulders. Heroes who patrolled the neighborhood tended to be more violent, because a peaceful hero who stepped onto the street might get shot, beaten, or stabbed.
She fell in with a gang at a young age and grew up at war with others in the area. She pushed drugs, beat people for money, lifted tires. She eventually became a lieutenant in the gang, overseeing her own group as they did business and helping plan things like raids and deals.
Shortly after that, someone started spilling secrets. Rival gangs were ready for them when they shouldn’t have been, and capes started busting up deals they shouldn’t have known about. People started pointing fingers, and most of them pointed at Shanti as the new lieutenant.
Her boss had her stuffed in a wooden box and buried her alive. While lying in the dark, feeling the sting of betrayal and hatred, she triggered. She carved her way up from the ground and went after her old gang. She tore them to pieces with her newfound power, and left none of her former comrades alive. She then skipped town, ready to take on greener pastures.
She had power, and she was going to take what she wanted with it.