Overview[]
Iam Shark
"human why are you in cage" 
Vanessa is a human guinea pig for an experimental device that awakens psychic abilities -- specifically with an emphasis on telepathy (though it wound up giving her the ability to transfer her consciousness as well, though the scientists don't know it). Though she remains isolated in an oceanic laboratory off the coast of New York City, she secretly makes trips out into the world by transferring her mind into various non-sapient animals that come within range. This is usually sea life, particularly a shark with a radio transmitter (originally for tracking purposes) that Vanessa has bonded with. With her lack of knowledge about the world outside, she explores the ocean, occasionally the skies when a bird gets close enough, and naively attempts to help people in trouble while in the guise of the cleverly named "Iam Shark" -- unaware that not everyone thinks sharks are cute and friendly.
Sheet[]
Character Sheet
Abilities: Power
Psychic Possession: 6, Telepathy: 1
Advantages:
Iam Shark
Flaws:
Double Secret, Exhaustion, Locked Up, Sheltered, Weakling
Languages: English
Abilities
Power: Psychic Possession (6)
Limitation: Vanessa can not presently switch betweens animals without returning to her own real body first and the longer she stays in a body that is not her own the more tired she will be when she leaves such. She often falls asleep on the spot if she has been out for a long time. This ability does not work on magical, genetically-engineered, alien, or in any other way "special" animals and does not work on any form of sapient life (such as humans, martians, whatever).
Vanessa is able to possess non-sapient animals by transferring her consciousness into their bodies as long as they are within about a 5 mile range of her. She can only transfer into one animal at a time, but after the initial transference she can remain in an animal almost indefinitely (taking into account her own real body needs sustenance and so on), and her maximum control range is about 100 miles. She is most proficient with sea creatures and animals that live near the ocean, but Vanessa could hypothetically transfer into almost any mundane, earthly animal that entered her range.
Power: Telepathy (1)
Vanessa can telepathically communicate with animals that she can clearly see (with her own eyes or borrowed ones) at a range of about half a mile, in simple terms. 'Danger', 'Go there', 'Don't go there', 'Stay back', 'Food', 'Let's play!', etc. They will not necessarily do as she says and may not be very friendly towards her in the case of a predator that sees her as food, but she can understand an animal's intent, at least, and vice versa, regardless of how it chooses to act.
Advantages
Advantage: Iam Shark
Iam Shark is a great white shark that was tagged with a radio transmitter for tracking purposes by the same oceanic institute where Vanessa is kept. Vanessa has bonded with the shark and uses his body to explore the ocean and rescue people in trouble under the codename "Iam Shark". Iam Shark has all the abilities of a shark, but with human intelligence guiding him. Iam Shark also has all the weaknesses of a shark, and Vanessa's ignorance of the world and naivety tend to hamper any clever plans she comes up with. If necessary, the heroic Iam Shark can bite something to inflict about Arsenal 2 or MAYBE Arsenal 3 damage if he gets to grind his jaw back and forth to saw through something, like sharks tend to do. Other than that, he can swim in speed bursts a bit less than 30 mph (Speed 1), has great resistant to ocean depths, and has the normal chemo-receptors, magnetic field detection, lateral lines, and other senses and abilities of a great white shark. The radio transmitter on Iam Shark was altered by Vanessa through the clever use of other animals so that she can transmit her thoughts while in Iam Shark's body. Though technically telepathic in nature, it only travel as far as the sense of hearing of an average human and 'sounds' like it's speech. Sadly, the speech tends to get mangled because Vanessa is not an engineer and her modifications to the radio are kind of sketchy at best.
File:Motivational Speaker Shark.jpg
Flaws
Flaw: Double Secret
While Vanessa's abilities and the experiments being done on her are a secret from the public, she is keeping the fact that she can mentally leave the building whenever she wants or even has the ability to possess animals a secret from the scientists. While she doesn't think ill of them, she has enough experience with them thus far to know that if they found out they'd want her to do even more tests and would be much more carefuly about keeping her from psychically wandering around the ocean saving people in shark form.
Flaw: Exhaustion
Vanessa suffers from physical fatigue after possessing an animal for an extended period of time. On top of that she tends to lose track of time readily when she's out having fun in the ocean or flying through the sky as a seagull or similar. This means she is frequently tired, hindering her ability to rest and then go back out again due to over-exertion. On top of this, her real body has normal biological needs to take care of, such as eating and drinking. While it's unlikely she'd be allowed to starve or die of thirst with all the scientists running tests on her around, they aren't watching her every second and she has to make sure to take care of herself or they might start to suspect something is up or keep a closer eye on her -- preventing her from going out exploring anymore.
Flaw: Locked Up
Vanessa's real body is physically isolated from most other people and the world at large in a secure oceanic research facility where some questionable research in human augmentation is being conducted. She is not allowed to leave the laboratory, limiting who she can interact with at this point in time.
Flaw: Sheltered
Vanessa is, to put it mildly, rather sheltered. She has little understanding of human culture in general due to her limited interactions with other people, and the specifics of life are out of her experience. While she often tries to do what she thinks is the "right thing" or what is "good" she fails to consider how it appears to others, might not understand the nature of the problem in general, or even be able to conceive of alternative explanations or that someone might not think a shark carrying them to safety in its mouth is comforting. Math any more difficult than what she can count on her fingers, reading, and forget about computers, physics, and so forth, are all completely out of her experience.
Flaw: Weakling
Vanessa doesn't get much exercise due to her confinement. She is physically weak, not very fast, and she has to take her time to exhibit normal levels of coordination and manual dexterity due to the strain involved in handling objects. While she's kept healthy nutrient-wise, she just isn't as physically capable as a normal girl her age. She wouldn't be able to run away if she had to, and would quickly tire in the water if she attempted to swim. Obviously this also hinders attempts at self-defense. She has the equivalent of Strength 0 (25 lbs) and Dexterity 1 (below average reflexes and dexterity).
History[]
Vanessa's background is unknown even to her. All she knows is she has been raised in the oceanic laboratory and has -- to the best of her knowledge -- never stepped outside of it. There are other children like her in the lab who have had other tests and experiments done on them to attempt to artificially induce psychic powers, but she hasn't gotten to meet any of them in all the years she has lived there. When her powers awoke, her mental projections were so powerful she found herself possessing an lab mouse when she was only attempting to communicate with it. Since then she has learned to throttle back on her mental energy, reducing it to mere telepathic contact. But she has also practiced and advanced her consciousness transferal and has an impressive control range of 100 miles once she has taken over the body of an animal in her relatively smaller "possession range" of 5 miles. She thinks sharks are cool and cute and friendly, so the body she inhabits most regularly is a great white shark that was originally tagged with a radio transmitter (which has been slightly altered in a really haphazard fashion to let her "talk" to people when she is in the shark's body). She keeps this possession ability a secret, so that she can continue to explore the world and help people as the heroic Iam Shark.
Logs[]
The following logs feature Vanessa:
News[]
The following news stories feature Vanessa:
No news stories currently listed.
Associations[]
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Lorena Marquez Aquagirl met Vanessa in the form of Iam Shark and is interested in helping the girl escape from the laboratory where she is being kept. She has been dubbed her "big sister". |
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Aquatic Iam Shark is a member of the Aquatic special interest group by virtue of being a shark. |
Wanted[]
| Vanessa's Wanted List |
