InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Let's fold scarves!"

master of a nothing place : susan ash : (endinbloodshed) wrote,
@ 2008-05-06 20:03:00

ooc. bio.

"We are flesh and blood disintegrate, with no more to hate."

ic information;
NAME: Susan Elaine Ash.
ALIAS(ES): Suze, when she's working, perhaps obviously, she is addressed as Nurse Ash.
AGE: 30.
RACE: Mutant.
AWARE OF MUTATION: No.
POWERS: Regeneration. An exponentially increased rate of cell regeneration allows Susan to recover from any injury almost instantaneously. The female's body will heal almost any wound in under a minute, stab wounds, impact trauma, lacerations, broken bones, burnt flesh from fire or electricity, falls and impact trauma even bullets - which she generally coughs up at a later time - none of them will stop her for very long on their own. This will occur provided that two relatively simple criteria are adhered to. Firstly blade or any other foreign object remains in the wounds, bullet tracts may heal as the bullet only occupies a small area of her body, but other such objects must be removed before her cells can rejuvenate and until they do she will continue to bleed/be hindered in her movements by the injury. Secondly all organs and limbs, including skin, must still be attached to/within her body for them to be restored. Additionally she is more resilient when it comes to most toxins and poisons; it would take something well over the amount considered an overdose of any drug to render her immobile or unconscious. Allowing her to remain conscious even after severe trauma, her threshold for pain is also inordinately higher than a normal human's, she feels pain like any normal person, but can withstand a great deal more because of her base level of resilience. Up to a certain point Susan is more or less indestructible, she will get up time after time from being knocked down, resetting her own jaw of she has to, coughing blood and spitting teeth, but after a point her toughness will wear off, once the maximum amount of damage has been done to her. After this point she is like any normal human woman and can be killed just as easily, of course after that the secondary part of her mutation kicks in.

Reanimation. When her body suffers a major amount of trauma, enough to exhaust her regenerative capabilities Susan dies, just like any normal human being. During this time though, in the dead state, her cells effectively reset themselves, her body reboots and eventually restarts. The time it takes this to occur is directionally proportional to the amount of damage done to her body. It can range from a few minutes for something like a bullet to the heart to up to an hour for all over body trauma and blood loss. Arguably her greatest physical weaknesses are also do with her powers though, if all of the criteria for regeneration are not met and she is effectively dead she is venerable unable to defend herself in any way against further damage and once she is dead. Once all foreign objects are removed from her body regeneration will commence once again, even brain damage as a result of death and the beginnings of blood coagulation and tissue decay would be reversed. Leaving a blade or bullet in a vital organ such as her heart, brain or spinal column will put her in a "dead" state which can be permanent if her body is left untouched; anything that would be fatal to a human has this effect on Susan. When her body 'resets' it returns to something not unlike a default setting; her brain produces huge amounts of adrenaline and cortisol, drugs that fire through her blood stream in order to kick starts her internal organs into life. For some time after the reset her heart rate and pulse are elevated, her body temperature spikes, pupils dilate, sometimes she might get sweaty palms, or even mild cases of vertigo, shakes or full blown convulsions, often times she suffers severe headaches and prolonged chest pains. The mental side effects of this process are equally as confusing and awkward and painful for Susan; memories, thoughts and feelings are jumbled for a time, rational thought can fly out of the window and for a while she relies heavily on instinct and her body's natural reactions to situations such as the fight-or-flight mechanism. How long these mental and physical states last for is directly proportionate to how long she spends dead. A few minutes of death can last up to an hour afterwards, a full day could be anything up to fifty-two hours, a week or more could have permanent side effects.

In addition Susan is completely unable to control her abilities in any way; she cannot speed up the process with concentration, nor even cease its occurrence, she has no extra strength, speed or agility as a result of her body's regenerative properties either, the only thing that is enhanced for a time is her resilience. What she feels is the greatest failing of her mutation is that she absolutely cannot transfer her healing abilities to another person; they only work on her own body though due to the fact that her mutation is based on regeneration on the cellular level, there is the possibility that Susan may develop other physical mutations further down the line.

OCCUPATION: Nurse; Medlabs. Susan is the Chief Resident Nurse at the Medlabs, she is in charge of several administrative duties on top of her regular ones.

APPEARANCE: Standing at 5'8", Susan is neither overly tall, or particularly short and while rather lean she has what someone might call 'defined' curves that she neither particularly goes out of her way to either emphasize or to cover up. With a pale complexion, green eyes that tend to look much darker in low lighting, and blonde hair with a natural wave and hangs just below her shoulders, she could be striking if she wasn't constantly make-up-less and slightly haggard looking due to long hours at a stressful job, but that is neither here nor there. While working at the Medlabs Susan wears scrubs like every other nurse, loose fitting and comfortable to work in usually in blues or pastel shades of purple and salmon, mostly due to the weather she also wears long sleeved sweaters under her shirts, with the elbows pushed up when she's dealing with patients directly, to provide an extra bit of warmth. Trainers or flat pumps are the best attire for her feet as she often work long hours, she keeps her snow boots in her locker. When she's off the clock, like most people nowadays, her choice of wardrobe is sort of restricted by the climate that the Complex exists in, and by the way the world has changed. Slacks or jeans are the staple now, none of them particularly fancy or items that she would be upset over losing to hard wear, she tends towards plain shirts and sweaters that are easily replaceable if necessary.

PERSONALITY: Susan lives her life with a solid set of morals, the sort of 'treat others as you would like to be treated' ideal, without ramming her personal ethics down other's throats Susan will stand up for what she thinks and feels and if she considers it to be of great importance she is willing to rock the boat and make waves to make her voice heard. Empathy and compassion are huge parts of her personality. The thought of someone being in pain be it emotional or physical breaks her heart and Susan is liable to rush to the aid of anyone she sees in such a state with little thought to her own well being. She has a great capacity to love and cares about her friends and co-workers deeply, they are the glue that holds her together and she is always ready to do them a favour without a thought as to receiving anything in return. She has a smooth, kindly bedside manner and both at work and in her personal life is as upbeat as anyone considering the current state of the world. Which is not to say she doesn't have her bad days, she simply tries to get through each one as it comes when she feels down; she is a classic Good Samaritan and takes in strays left right and centre whether they are people or animals.

Somehow this has made her stubborn, and once she has reached a decision about what she wants to do or say there is very little than can dissuade her. The combination of her caring so overtly for others and her backbone tend to make her come of as a bit self-righteous; what's right is right, and what's wrong is wrong and Susan really doesn't like it when people try to inform her otherwise. It's not that she's closed minded per se, as a nurse before the war she was expected, and willing, to treat patients from all demographics and walks of life, but when it comes to her moral compass she expects everyone to respect the fact that she is stalwart and not about to buckle or change her mind just because someone is pressuring her to. Caring so much for people does have obvious, if cheesy, downsides; in emotionally intense situations she can sometimes be quick to act, without enough thought to her own well being, physical or emotional. Perhaps one reason she has never thought of taking a leap from nurse to doctor is the fact that she can't help but see her patients as people, she can't help but sympathise with them and get wrapped up in their lives and problems. It's an exhausting way of living, but really, Susan doesn't want to try and live any other way. The world after the war lacks so much compassion and care, and she feels that if she can give a little bit of that back then maybe she's doing something more important than just slapping band aids on boo boos and pushing pills.

On top of that? Susan trusts easily. It's not that she's particularly naive, she's seen a lot of the worst of people over her years as a nurse, but she always wants to give people the benefit of the doubt; she will give people she knows a second chance, then a third and a fourth, if they apologise to her, she can't just cut people out of her life for making mistakes, and given the fact that today, living in the Complex, she really doesn't have the luxury of distancing herself from people anyway. Tying into this is the fact that Susan really does trust Horizon implicitly they provide the Complex with medical supplies after all, and in a way, in the way that is similar to everyone in the complex, she works for the company. They saved the human race from complete annihilation, and Susan Ash - like many others - is eternally grateful for that.

SKILLS: Susan is a fully trained and qualified nurse and the Chief RN at the Medlabs, with this comes a specific skill set; she is cool under pressure, able to employ a logical, linear way of thinking, looking at 'the big picture', as the Chief Nurse of the Medlabs, she takes a lot of responsibility onto her shoulders and needs to think outside of situations that are immediate to her. More practically, she has a comprehensive knowledge of human anatomy, something like this, teamed with her medical training, knowledge of medications and drugs could potentially be very useful in a wider context than that of effectively being a healer. Whilst she is not creative in the more common ways, not being able to draw, or being particularly musical - though she did play the recorder as a child and dabble in the piano in her early teens - Susan is medically creative and very resourceful, having spent a time living in the ruins of New York, treating the sick and the dying she and her colleagues had to make do with what they could find or salvage and that is a learned life skill that will probably never leave her. Having been brought up in the bilingual province of Nova Scotia, Susan also speaks fluent French, not that she generally gets the opportunity to now, but it's still as skill that she has an odd amount of affection for.

LIMITATIONS: Susan is much more adversely affected by seeing someone else in pain than experiencing it herself, mainly as a result of her mutant abilities combined with the sympathetic qualities that make her a good nurse. She would be willing to do almost anything to prevent someone else being hurt before her eyes; this is extremely easy to exploit. As a care giver she feels she is honour bound to protect anyone who needs it and to give medical aid to any person, irrespective of following or race which could be seen as both a good and bad thing. It could potentially put her at risk. On a more private, personal level, Susan suffers from the occasional post-traumatic stress related nightmare. While she sleeps she often relives the bloodier moments of her life; attempting to pump life back into her mother's cold, dead heart. The hours she spent at Hospitals surrounded by the wails of the dying, covered in their blood and bile. In the dark hours her conscience eats away at her from the inside and more often than not she awakes in a cold sweat, sheets tangled around her and her heart beating as if it were making to break free from her chest.

HISTORY: Susan Ash was born in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, along with her brother Edward, to Gene and Elaine Ash. For the first few chapters of their lives there was absolutely nothing exceptional about either of the siblings. Edward, perhaps because he was older, was something of a bullying big brother, and he and Susan was were constantly sniping at each other. Even then it was obvious to anyone how close they were; if either one was in trouble or injured in any way the other was there in an instant. Though they didn't grow up in the lap of luxury both children were always well looked after by their parents. They were bratty to one another but on the whole compassionate, kind children and teenagers, with a strong desire to help the people around them and a drive to succeed that was encouraged by their parents. Despite Susan's obvious smarts though, it was ultimately her quick wits and kind-hearted personality that lead her into nursing.

By contrast, something often joked about in the family, Edward found himself pursuing a career in advertising. It ultimately led him to the United States of America, and more specifically New York. Susan moved to Toronto to study at nursing college and for several years as the siblings worked through their final years of schooling, the Ash family was split across the continent.

The war robbed Susan of her family, just in the same way it did for many others. When the war hit they were still divided by hundreds of miles; Susan and Edward conversed on the phone when the bombs started to fly, air strikes were taking out all the major cities, reducing them to little more than smoke and ash in some places and they decided that they would all be safest if they made their ways back to Lunenburg and tried to ride the war out as a family there, hoping that with it being such a small, coastal town, it might be over looked. Susan made it home and was reunited with her parents, but Edward was trapped in New York city, by the time they had decided to regroup in Nova Scotia, the US had closed its borders. They received a message from Edward to that effect, he told them that he would stay in New York, ride out the rest of the war and then migrate up to Canada at the first opportunity; he told Susan to take care of their parents until then. Naturally, she tried to do just that, but every one of the Ash family joined the ailing masses early on, even Edward down in New York, cut off from his family fell ill. One after the other they began to die. Gene was the first, followed soon by his wife. By that time communications between Canada and the States were cut off. The world was in total turmoil, nuclear weapons were flying across the Atlantic and Susan just wanted to be with her only remaining family member. If he was alive.

Unable to entertain the notion that he wasn't, Susan spent weeks working on getting down to America, though the borders were closed, the government had bigger problems to deal with than Canadians making their way south and ultimately she managed to make the arduous journey, finding her way to New York with relative ease once she had actually crossed the border. There she was reunited with Edward. It was something of a miracle that she managed to find him at all, going form his address, following the note he'd left, as if knowing that his baby sister would be looking for him. As it turned out he had taken shelter in the reinforced basement of an office building with his colleagues. The blonde nurse had been there for mere hours when the next wave of explosions rocked the city and the building they were cowered under gave a dangerous, ominous shudder. Susan grabbed her brother as the building started to collapse above them around them, trying to drag him to the exit with her. They bolted up the staircase, the ragtag group of survivors following in behind them and were almost clear when the building was reduced to rubble, crushing or killing most of them instantly. Susan was unconscious for an indeterminate period of time and was roused by one of the other survivors saying her name repeatedly. When she came to she was concussed and winded, her ribs cracked to hell, but panic took over before the pain could get a hold on her. Edward.

After frantically scrabbling through the rubble she found him, half buried, and with the help of the others, she uncovered his body. There was nothing she could and somewhere in her mind she knew that her brother was already dead. There was no hope. He was a mess. Crushed ribs caused his every breath to wheeze when he heaved in air with dying torture. One of his lungs was punctured, his right femur was snapped like bamboo and both his wrists were shattered, seemingly from putting his arms up to defend himself from flying debris. It seemed to Susan that every inch of Edward's skin was either burnt or torn and bleeding. Still she tried every life saving technique she knew. Hands plunged into his shredded chest cavity, gloveless and desperate and Susan pumped her brother's heart for him. It wasn't until the EMTs arrived at literally dragged the nurse off the corpse that she stopped. Much like many people who lost their families in the war, her grief had to be short lived. In the destruction, all but one of the Hospitals had been hit in the city, razed to the ground, and as one of few surviving medically trained humans left, she had to throw herself into working almost immediately.

Susan was recruited to the last standing Hospital in New York city, tossed down into the Emergency Room, where medical aid was most needed, she treated the sick and the dying, they lined the halls and the floors in places, there weren't enough beds, there weren't enough resources and the injuries were horrific; shrapnel disfigurements, electrical and fire based burns as well as varying levels of radiation burns, arms and legs literally blown off in explosions, there was even a spate of premature labours brought on by stress and panic. Susan thought she was in hell, the grief she felt for her brother and her parents was pushed down and away, she all but lived at the Hospital, like most of the staff there, sleeping when and if she could and just trying to hold onto as many lives as she could. After the nukes fell, obliterating most of what was left after the initial strikes, and people began to succumb to the radiation sickness it got too much. Wearing bloodied scrubs, dirty from the lack of time or facilities to shower in, exhausted form the lack or opportunity for sleep, Susan wandered out of the doors of the ER and just sat down on the curb. Grief overcame her, and for a while she sank into a heavy, all consuming depression. It was then that she herself fell sick. Fatigued beyond belief, suffering migraines and nausea and bleeding from her gums and fingernails, Susan knew she was dying, just knew it and for a time she welcomed the thought. Not only would she finally find some peace after the horrors of the Third World War, but she would, she believed, be with her family again.

However, Susan was among those few who survived the high levels of radiation. Like most she assumed it was thanks to the immunisation offered by Horizon Technologies, the company that had swept in to fill the void left by the government of the United States. At first she had assumed it would be too late for her, that her symptoms had reached such a severe level, leaving her bed ridden and in constant pain, that she ought to have died, but she wasn't about to sniff at her 'good fortune'.

Horizon announced that they were rebuilding the human race. Word spread quickly that they were constructing something called a Complex at the centre of the city and while the survivors struggled to survive in the rubble, the company provided aid to them, food and water, temporary shelters and, most importantly to Susan, medical supplies. The medical staff had been ravaged by the radiation sickness, and Susan was the most senior medical professional in the crippled hospital; Horizon approached her in person, a representative from the Magistrate - the person she learned would be in charge of the Complex upon its completion - and explained to her that they had built a 'Medlab' within the limits of their secure Complex. They offered to make her the Chief Nurse, and extended her their aid in transferring what patients were still clinging on to life, the ones that Susan and he very small, exhausted staff that had survived were working day and night to keep alive. Naturally Susan accepted and she was among one of the first survivors to move into the Complex permanently, taking up her role with ease and a metaphorical sigh of relief. The Medlabs were clean, they were stocked with medications, it had clean sheets. Susan could have cried at the contrast between the conditions she had been trying to work in and the ones that Horizon provided.

In her mind, Susan owes everything to Horizon, they provided medical aid that saved her life and the lives of so many others, they provided her with the facilities she needs to care for people in the Complex and she feels very passionately about her work; whilst she may not be a doctor, she has seen more 'front line' atrocities than most and she approaches her work in the Medlab very seriously and very emotionally; they're rebuilding the human race after all, they can't afford to do things by half.

ooc;
NAME: Hezy.
EMAIL: Heather.Esq@gmail.com
YIM: hezyfaerie
TIMEZONE: GMT.
PB: Melissa George.
LOG: #000000.