Katherine Starr ((WIP))

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Karl the Mad
 

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Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:27 am
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Katherine Starr ((WIP))

Post by Karl the Mad »

Name: Katherine Miranda Starr
Age: 81
Gender: Female
Species: Human

Strengths:
Katherine's most important assets lie in her mind, which is razor sharp and akin to a steel bear trap in terms of memory. She is one of the most adversarial corporate lawyers to ever pass the Bar, and she specializes in international law and the prosecution of immortals. This despite being largely mortal herself! Having Aldergard Kuhn as a backer helps a bit too, of course. As a consequence she also knows her way around money and financial matters, having adapted quite well to the Digital Age; she can't match Travis for electronic savvy, of course, but given time she could untangle any money trail whether physical or not.

What makes her dangerous to many are her powers, although she is vaguely uncomfortable thinking of them as powers. These manifest most concretely as a form of Mentalism, albeit one that focuses on people and beings rather than objects and the environment; when she focuses her mind, all the countless tics and signs people give off without knowing come into stark contrast, and years of experience allow her to pick them apart with uncanny ease. Coupled with an acute awareness of people and a nigh-empathic ability to see through most lies, falsehoods and misdirections even without her unnatural prowess, and one may begin to understand what an asset she can be. And what a monumental thorn as well.

She is not blind to the dangers of her chosen path, nor to the fact that very rarely, Law is insufficient to fully enact Justice. Given the choice between adhering to Law or seeing Justice go cold she'd rather serve Justice; to this end she is quite adept in martial skills, and though she is no commando by any means she can definitely hold her own as part of a team.

She is also an accomplished linguist, necessary for the world stage she so often fights in. Her abilities give her an edge in communication and help in picking up new tongues; it would be easier to list the languages she doesn't know! These aren't many: obscure dialects and remote tribal tongues, of course, and basically any she has not been exposed to or that the human tongue can't force itself about. Finally, her lungs, liver and kidneys have recently been replaced with cutting-edge prosthetics due to the damage they've taken over the years from her drug habits, and so that she can keep up with Kuhn at the rare party they attend.

-Intimate knowledge of international corporate law and its application to immortals
-Working knowledge of classical and immortal finance
-Advanced marksmanship and CQC
-Unique telepathic "truthseeking" powers
-Multilingual

Weaknesses:
In her younger days, Katherine could not find adequate training for her powers; they were as much a curse as anything, and in her desperation she turned to whatever means she could to shut out the hyper-awareness of her surroundings. The most readily available means were drugs, from simple pot to military surplus morphine; these days she has curbed it down to medical marijuana, "for her nerves" she says with a shrug and a rueful grin, though she still dabbles in slightly stronger stuff after stressful days at work. Never anything nasty like meth or cocaine, though.

Related to her drug use, she wasn't always the straight-laced career woman she is now. Thorough digging would reveal that no trace of any Katherine Miranda Starr existed before the mid 1960s; suffice to say that it took a lot of work to bury her past, and traces of it still remain in the dank and shitty corners of Germany for those willing to put in a lot more work toward digging it back up. Alternately one could simply bull their way past security and put a bullet in her skull if one really wanted her gone; she's only human, after all.

Finally, much like her draconian savior Aldergard, she does not tolerate failure very well, either in herself or in others. This is despite the countless classes and counseling she's taken to mellow her out, many of them right alongside Kuhn. She might not show it on the surface or in front of others, but her screaming matches with "Aldy" over even the smallest missteps would be the stuff of legends if they ever got out; no amount of rage or yelling would diminish the strength of her feelings for the old dragon, something they're both aware of even while they're too prideful to admit it openly.

-Addiction to "light" recreational drugs
-Mortal, easily killable despite martial skills
-Sordid and embarrassing past; though well hidden, could be dug up and used for blackmail
-Privy to Aldergard Kuhn and Cody Tanner's true identities as dragons
-Cannot deal well with failure despite years of counseling

Appearance:
Katherine stands just a hair under six feet even and maintains her weight between one fifty-five and one seventy. From an aesthetic standpoint she exemplifies the old Germanic ideals of beauty; great height, long thick hair like a cascade of golden wheat, blazing blue eyes like a hot summer sky, and a figure that a lingerie model would be jealous of. Her face is angular and disarmingly open, with full lips habitually turned up in an expression that could be a smirk or a sneer depending on who she's looking at. Only a few small wrinkles around her eyes and mouth serve to indicate her true age, and even those can be sponged away with the right makeup; put the wrinkles aside and she could still pass for being in her late thirties, even if she needs a few extra minutes to get about in the morning.

As far as clothing is concerned she has a marked preference for subdued, professional office wear, minimal cosmetics and makeup, tight buns and braids to keep that wild golden mane in check. Dark gray and navy blue, for the most part, all very trim and proper and irreproachable, although she knows the effects a few undone buttons and a stray lock or two of hair can have on juries, or opposing counsels. She is no stranger to high heels, of course, and if it's sure to be a quiet day at the office she might wear a shorter skirt and tighter blouse with little lacy nothings underneath to tease her dear Aldergard with. At home she'll let her hair down and lounge about in a tank top and either sweats or shorts, good for going over reports and briefs or drowsing with her hookah on the patio.

Regarding jewelry she tends toward conservatism, with simple diamond studs in each ear; her belly button is also pierced, but she normally leaves that bare unless it's a free weekend. In the small of her back is a simplistic black tattoo, vaguely tribal in its flowing lines; a "tramp stamp" in the modern parlance, if you will. Very few people have seen it in decades, and honestly she prefers it that way.

-Passing resemblance to Diane Kruger; tall, athletic, attractive, blue eyes and blond hair
-Prefers formal office wear, tries to avoid actively using her femininity; gray, white, navy blue, other subdued colors, minimal makeup and cosmetics
-Small birthmark behind left ear, shape of a star
-single piercings on both ears and belly button, prefers conservative jewelry
-Black "tribal" tattoo on lower back, almost always hidden

Behavior:
Katherine is a dedicated and highly driven woman, with a mind as sharp as her tongue and an attitude to match. Always aware of her surroundings and the people who occupy them, she is equally ready with a disarming joke or a disarming shoulder lock, as circumstances demand. It is next to impossible to lie to her, not directly at least; one could lie through proxies provided one can convince one's proxies that what they're spouting is the truth, although this is a troublesome and roundabout means of fooling a single woman. She knows how to play to the crowd, and has directed her share of press interviews and PR meetings during her stint as Wyvern's spokeswoman.

Beneath the courtesy and the coolness, though, is a ruthless and demanding spitfire, with a one-track mind focused on answers, on results, on seeing to it that Law & Order prevail and that Justice is satisfied. She is no stranger to personal "interviews", and can be inordinately scary when the cameras are off; nothing excites her more than being on the scent of the truth, of slashing through webs of lies to drag the hidden secrets and bloody crimes kicking and screaming into the light. One thing she won't do is lie, or cheat, or stand on the wrong side; if she is defending a guilty client, or prosecuting an innocent one, her integrity will demand she drop the case and deliver whatever damning confessions or exonerating proof she might have to the proper authorities.

Once the day is over, though, she is only too happy to race home, throw all her clothes off, put some heavy classical on (Music to Invade Poland To, some may call it) kick back and light up her hookah, or a joint. One cannot be around Aldergard Kuhn for long without learning how to party hard, how to drink to shame the devil and sing to the skies. It is therefore privately galling that she still can't match him at the bar, let alone beat him, even with a replacement liver and such, but that doesn't stop her from cutting loose!

On the flipside she has a rather... off-putting sense of humor. As in, her idea of a Halloween costume is full Nazi SS regalia, in black, complete with authentic medals and a genuine gold-hilted officer's saber (which isn't just for show, either; the steel is supple and the edge is deadly, and she is well-versed in its proper and murderous use). As in, her idea of office feng shui is to have everything slightly off center; to have a stark black and white picture of the Gates of Auschwitz hanging above and behind her desk; a framed piece of orchestral sheet music, the opening chords of The Imperial March, signed and authenticated by John Williams himself; to have a large glossy graduation photo, Katherine herself, smile too wide and teeth too white, just enough extraneous color to subtly and distractingly suggest retouching. Why she does such things, she can't quite say; perhaps it is a form of rebellion against an entire nation drowning in shame at a sordid chapter of their history, or perhaps a way of showing others that Hitler and his Nazi ideology doesn't need to be taken quite so fucking seriously all the damn time. Or perhaps she's just crazy!

Regarding her past, she has by and large made peace with it and left it behind, although even to this day she'll freeze up if she hears the wrong words in the wrong accent, or wake up in cold sweats shivering uncontrollably. When that happens she'll smoke herself into a dark funk that lasts for roughly a day or so, and she'll be crass and irritable if she has to work and can't sneak a few drags, but she gets over these fugues fairly quickly. She has no choice but to get over them; the world needs her too badly.

-Professional, courteous, highly driven to succeed, with a ruthless streak a mile wide
-Is not easily fooled; skilled at reading others even without mental abilities
-Likes to relax with a hookah and some German music after work; may smoke a joint if day was stressful
-Cunning interrogator, skilled at getting the truth out; not adverse to "Jack Bauer" tactics when the cameras are off
-Often serves as liaison between Kuhn and Tanner, and Shield when necessary
Goals:
Katherine is devoted to Aldergard Kuhn, and would do anything for him. Mostly this involves PR and smoothing over feelings hurt or ruffled by his archaic ways, and in turn acting as a balance and anchor for the old Wyrm to hang on to in these fast-paced modern times. She in turn hangs on to him, sometimes for dear life.

On paper she's employed by Wyvern Securities' legal department, acting as the face for their cases and capable of both defense and prosecution. Everyone knows she's way too close to the Big Boss to be just another company shark, though; indeed she's often in charge of press releases and interviews, and often forgets she has underlings now for mundane gophering like research or poking about crime scenes.

History:

-Born December 1944 to a young German girl Nina, named her Katja; father was a fugitive Russian soldier, left after a week of hiding in her bedroom
-Nina did her best to raise her daughter, but was confounded; Katja learned too fast, saw too much, cried at strangers too easily; Nina couldn't deal and gave her up for adoption
-Two-year old Katja disappeared quickly into the system; post-war Germany had little time for orphans, let alone unusual ones; taught to read and write, basic math, then shunted from orphanage to orphanage, city to city, ended up on the streets of Lübeck near the East-West Border in 1949
-Quickly became very adept at stealing to keep herself fed; could always tell which marks were good for picking and which to avoid; had no way of accounting for this awareness, slowly grew apart from her fellow vagrants (not that she could stand their lying ways anyway)
-One day came up with some red pills; took one out of curiosity, spent two hours in a doped-up trance laughing at how blissfully quiet everything was; thus began her descent into drugs and addiction
-Lübeck being a port town, there were many languages being spoken all over; Kat grew fluent in English and Russian out of necessity, Italian and French by association
-Turned to prostitution almost as soon as she had breasts, soon figured out that men who lusted for "underage" girls were somehow "evil", realized blackmailing or stealing from them was better than expecting to be paid; after a few too many rough customers and sore mornings, figured it was easier just to cut their throats and leave with all their valuables; added birth control to her list of pills
-Ended up in Bremen in 1961, spent more time doped to the gills than sober; hung around the university a lot, since it had more drugs, absorbed a random and eclectic education from the students she slept with
-June 1962 found her at a lecture with one Aldergard Kuhn speaking, is transfixed by Kuhn himself; doesn't hear a word he's saying, just the sound of his voice and the sight of one of the most savage and yet composed men she's ever seen; follows him afterward, tries to pick his pockets, gets caught, and for reasons beyond her he takes an interest in her
-Locked in a clinic for a week; goes insane from withdrawal and the full-bore return of the "sensitivity"; Kuhn realizes she's a Mentalist, arranges for "light" drugs and essentially forces her into proper college classes
-Somehow manages to detox and survive the first semester, finds a surprisingly capable woman beneath the filth of years (much to her own surprise); realizes how much she owes Kuhn; decides to go into both Business Law and International Finance
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