Overview[]




Name:	Zahra Shamoun
AKA:
Codename:	Sirocco
Age:	19
Race:	Immortal
Role:	Hero
Type:	OC
Registration:	Registered Real Name

Sirocco

Zahra Shamoun is a newly-transfered student at NYU, studying Business with a minor in Gender Studies. Sirocco is the newest heroine on the scene - with air powers and perhaps a little bit of rookie over-eagerness.

Sheet[]

Abilities: Power

Air Manipulation: 8, Breath Stealing: 6, Exposure Resistance: 8, Flight: 3, Only the Wind: 7, Unaging, Whirlwind: 7

Abilities: Skill

Accounting: 3, Dancing: 3, Egyptology: 5, Self Defense: 2, Writing: 3

Advantages: Shu's Favor

Flaws: Buried, Dedicated to Shu, Inexperienced, Mystic Beacon, Past

Languages: Arabic, Egyptian, and English

Abilities

Power: Air Manipulation (8)

Sirocco's primary ability is the manipulation of elemental air. This allows her to generate winds of considerable strength...or to calm existing winds (although this is harder and takes more energy and concentration). She can use her winds to knock an object or a person down or lift them into the air, or just to pick up small items around a person or group of people to create a distraction. Note that her winds tend to be warmer than the surrounding air by several degrees, making it quite noticeable that they are unnatural in nature even to the non-mystical. She can also do stunts such as holding a door closed, powering a sailboat, etc. The maximum speed of her wind is limited to what is possible in nature, namely 250 mph, but her level of control over it is substantial.

Power: Breath Stealing (6)

With concentration, Sirocco can pull the air out of an area. If she does so around a person, she can "steal the breath from their lungs," which can cause them to pass out. However, she uses this ability rarely - she's worried about messing up and killing somebody. Needless to say, it doesn't work on beings who don't need to breath, beings who can hold their breath for extended periods of time, etc.

Power: Exposure Resistance (8)

Sirocco does not particularly feel the effects of exposure to the elements, be it cold or heat. She is quite happy to walk naked through a blizzard and might have to be reminded to remove her jacket. Note that this only refers to natural temperature variance and the like.

Power: Flight (3)

Sirocco can use her winds to take to the air. She can fly without any of the normal limitations of winged flight - however, she can only travel as fast as the wind can take her, topping out at about 250mph. She could not fly outside an atmosphere, although she could fly on other planets (with possible increase or decrease in top speed, depending on local conditions).

Power: Only the Wind (7)

For short periods of time, Sirocco can move as if she was simply part of the wind. While in this state, she cannot be damaged by attacks, but she also cannot manipulate anything except as the wind (i.e., no fine manipulation or control), speak or otherwise communicate except via telepathy, or do anything the wind could not do. Although she can't be seen, she can be felt, and as mentioned, her winds are noticeably warmer. She also cannot sustain this state for more than a few minutes at a time - it's handy for slipping by somebody, but could not be sustained for an entire fight.

Power: Unaging

Although she doesn't know it yet, Sirocco's body is designed not to age or experience any of the affects of aging, including natural disease.

Power: Whirlwind (7)

Sirocco can tighten the winds around her to form a dervish-like whirlwind, that provides her with some protection against attacks, especially physical projectiles (bullets, arrows, etc). Such will tend to be diverted around her. Assailants who intend to punch her will have to get through the winds to reach her. Energy weapons and energy powers, however, will get straight through - against these, she will have to rely on dodging or taking cover. The whirlwind will move with her. She can extend it outwards to a point, but this weakens it to 5-6, and she can probably shield one other person (who doesn't mind being friendly).

Skill: Accounting (3)

Zahra is studying business and accounting. She's got quite the knack for the latter (and doesn't find it as boring as most people). It's probably the best way for her to earn a living, once she's got the qualifications she needs.

Skill: Dancing (3)

Zahra loves dancing - especially now she has a body she actually likes. She's also good at it, and if she has nothing important to do can often be found in clubs making people jealous.

Skill: Egyptology (5)

Her upbringing - her parents' obsessions and her own interests - and more recent dedication have made Sirocco quite the expert on ancient Egyptian culture and religion. Which might be partly responsible for her current situation, but she's certainly not going to complain.

Skill: Self Defense (2)

Sirocco hasn't been in the business long enough to have picked up good combat training yet. She has, though, taken quite a few self defense classes. It helps, in a pinch.

Skill: Writing (3)

Sirocco also has some writing talent, and keeps a regular blog about gender issues, LGBT stuff, and the like. She's vaguely considered going into journalism.

Advantages

Advantage: Shu's Favor

Sirocco is the chosen champion of the Egyptian god Shu, the peaceful god of the winds. Although he's one of the nicest of the Egyptian pantheon, he still has a temper few would wish to cross. Because of this, her soul is marked as "taken," which gives her some protection from possession, soul-affecting magic, etc, unless she's facing a being more powerful than Shu (which certainly do exist) or who simply doesn't care who they piss off.

Flaws

Flaw: Buried

Sirocco needs to have some connection to the wind to be able to use her powers. This means that if she's in a sealed building, a basement, buried underground, on a spaceship or otherwise completely cut off from the natural environment, she can't use her powers. Sometimes this is easy to fix (opening a window). Other times it's going to be a real challenge.

Flaw: Dedicated to Shu

Belonging to a god has its downsides. You can't afford to piss him off, he might decide he needs you to run an errand for him at the most inconvenient moments. Oh, and everyone with mystical senses can tell by looking at you. There are definite downsides to her status...while she might make friends because of it, she might also make some quite dangerous enemies.

Flaw: Inexperienced

She hasn't had these powers very long, and while she got some good instruction from her boss, what she doesn't have is practice. Or great combat and tactics skills. Sometimes she might lose her concentration...or her confidence. Or screw up in some spectacular way. Or just get her butt handed to her by somebody who doesn't even have powers - how embarrassing!

Flaw: Mystic Beacon

Being empowered by a god, Zahra stands out, whether she's in "Sirocco" mode or not. Mages, shamans, gods and others with mystical senses are likely to notice her right away. And while this can sometimes be a good thing, it makes the secret identity thing very hard (She's long given up on a normal life).

Flaw: Past

Zahra Shamoun used to be Zaid Shamoun. Until Shu offered to "fix" that for her. While bringing her back from the dead. She's transferred to New York from the west coast to get away from people who knew Zaid, her parents are not handling this thing well (they weren't handling this, in their thoughts, "wanting to be a girl" thing well even before that), she doesn't like to talk about her past. And while there's no way to tell she was ever in a male body, she's always worried somebody will, well, notice somehow.

History[]

Zahra Shamoun was born Zaid Shamoun in Los Angeles in 1995, the child of two first generation Egyptian immigrants. Nominally Christian, her parents had a secret attachment to the ancient gods of Egypt, and raised Zaid to honor them. However, they were still caught up in Arab culture and when Zaid calmly informed them when he was five that she was really a girl, they did their best to squash these tendencies in her. She spent a miserable childhood forced to pretend to be a boy, all through high school. Then she went to college in San Francisco, and as soon as her parents were out of sight and out of mind, she tried the life she really wanted. She changed her hairstyle, knowing she'd have to cut it again by Christmas, started calling herself Zahra, and spent every penny she had on flowing skirts and feminine clothing. For the first time, she started to be happy. This double life, though, having to leave Zahra at college and become Zaid at home wore on her. She tried again to convince her parents. They were having none of it, but tried to reward her for appropriate behavior with a trip to Egypt. Which she loved. It was her heritage, even if she did have to see it as a boy. Then it happened - a low level metahuman tried to take their tour group hostage, and then started shooting. Zahra tackled him and stopped him, but was shot several times in the progress. She fell into death...where she encountered Shu, who informed her he had chosen her and told her to go back and kick butt. She beat up the meta in her new form, but her parents did not even recognize her. Without a passport that resembled her, getting back to the US was a challenge. And still somewhat estranged, she legally changed her name and transferred to NYU, where nobody knows who she was before. And where there are lots of heroes who might be able to give her some tips.

Logs[]

The following logs feature Zahra Shamoun:

News[]

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Associations[]

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Wanted[]

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Zahra Shamoun's Wanted List