► info

CELLAR
SPIDER

age 26 height 5'11" (1.80m) gender she/her (trans) pb hunter schafer voice link orientation pansexual hair blonde eyes blue zodiac leo (aug 19)

BLOOD

PACT

Some would call her a story, others a deity; to the Institute, she's an Unauthorized Passenger. Raíz is what she calls herself, and she's a multidimensional entity that pops over to our reality every now and then to see how she can mess with its fabric. It's a bit like checking on an ant farm, except she can talk like the ants, look like them, and then tell them to go poke holes and/or survive against another multidimensional being's magnifying glass in the sun.

It's simple — she finds someone with big dreams and makes it possible for them at the end of a hundred year blood pact. Work for her in that time, and once it's up, that great impossible thing you wished for will be all yours! We could give you examples, but the people who get into these blood pacts proceed to forget what they asked for, and won't remember until time's up. You're just going to have to trust her — and your past self.

Whatever age you're at when you agree to make the pact, that's where you're staying for the duration of the contract. Temporary agelessness can be prolonged through 'infractions', which range from breaking rules or just doing something that makes Raíz (semi-affectionately and semi-sarcastically called 'Mom') sad, or immediately revoked if she thinks you really fucked up. If revoked, your body instantly matches your chronological age, and chances are it'll be extremely painful or extremely deadly.

The people she signs into her little group get new names and neat super powers so facilitate fulfilling their 'missions'. What are these missions? Whatever she feels like sending you off to do, which can be mundane or battling monsters, if not something grander, possibly world-ending. There's something for everyone, but there's also a lot of downtime. That's why there's a nice boarding school by and for the obscenely rich style house where they can live, train and bicker together. You don't have to, but if Mom is in town from reality-hopping and wants to gather all her kids for dinner, you better show up and have fun. It's another infraction if you don't, and she'll just show up wherever you are and bring you over, be it from down the street or on the other side of the world.

Raíz likes to think of herself as a cool benefactor, that she's nice and fun, but the power dynamic is demonstrably horrendous and condescending, not least of all because she assigns her subjects new names and thought it'd be appropriate if they were always based on animals. (Using your real name makes her sad, by the way. You know what that means by now.)

The Institute, which specializes in capturing, researching and controlling all kinds of anomalies they consider a threat to humanity, though they'd prefer to use them as weapons instead. They've been trying to catch Raíz and her subjects for a while; sometimes they succeed with the latter, but she eventually shows up and yoinks her pets from their cells to sit them down at the dinner table again, so it all works out.

CELLAR

SPIDER

Mila Singer knew who she was from a young age. Born to an upper middle class, relatively progressive family, supportive parents helped her start her transition throughout high school, both social and medical. Even with all the local resources made available to her, an online network of forums and social media were crucial to her formative years and self-confidence as a queer teenager, especially when Mila still struggled with being in a place where she couldn't quite fit in with her 'real life' friends. Moving away for college made all the difference, and she may or may not have chosen it based on how many of her online friends lived nearby.

Such a huge change was daunting, but meeting people with common interests and outlooks in life was a breath of fresh air. Parties, relationships, pulling all-nighters, working at coffeeshops, Mila continued to grow into her own person, but halfway through her degree in social sciences, decided she wanted more. She was so sure of it, in fact, that she got the attention of a multidimensional entity that specialized in picking up people's dreams and making them a reality. All she needed was to make a blood pact and work for Raíz for a hundred years, and what Mila aspired for so passionately would be hers at the other end of the rainbow.

Unfortunately, the moment that blood pact was sealed, she would no longer remember what she asked for. She also wouldn't just be Mila anymore, but Cellar Spider. Raíz assigned her this name along with her new powers, and made it very clear that Mila — Cellar — was expected to stick to it.

This time her life took a second turn that thrust her into a YA novel, complete with moving in with a bunch of people in her situation at a boarding school-esque mansion she thought only existed in movies. There was a variety in ages among other agents, both physical and chronological, and few had the patience to welcome the newbies. Great Dane was her guide and mentor for the first couple of years, but she's got a lot of work to do to catch up with those nearing on a century of service.

Cellar's been to different continents to snatch artifacts, met up with non-humans to deliver messages, battled monsters, was captured by The Institute, was rescued from The Institute, fucked up a few times and added years to her contract (oops) and is pretty sure she's seen it all. She hasn't, but there'll be an apocalypse around the corner to complete that bingo card any day now.

As for her parents? Well, they don't seem to mind that their daughter hasn't shown up in a long while. Surely Raíz had nothing to do with that!

POWERS

& ABILITIES

SHADOWS AS SOLID MATTER. - Imagine a 3D printer and the material is any projected shadow that's close enough to her, which means she can create any object that she can imagine, theoretically of any size, so long as it's reasonably proportional to the size of the projected shadow. (Tools, accessories, weapons, walls, appendages, shields, etc.) She can make these constructs disappear when she wants.

Umbrakinesis. - She can make these constructs float, move, attack, etc. They're extensions of her and cannot move on their own unless she's actively making them move, similar to regular telekinesis. Shadows do not gain a life or mind of their own.

Properties. - Cellar's constructs are easy to identify: they're smooth/textureless, do not reflect light and do not project a shadow of their own. They are virtually indestructible but depend on Cellar being alive to exist.

limitations.

Proximity. She must be close enough to see the projected shadow to be able to manipulate it. Cellar cannot 'sense' shadows, either.

Light source. It has to be a projected shadow. No light source = no projected shadows = nothing for Cellar to manipulate. She's essentially depowered in a pitch black environment.

Status. If Cellar dies, all the shadow constructs she has not destroyed will cease to exist.

Single use. Because her constructs do not project shadows, she cannot create a shadow construct out of another construct.

SKILLS. - Fighting, self-defense. Handling firearms, edged weapons (mainly butterfly knives), some coding because she wanted to be a game dev. Strength, resistance and stamina built up from regular exercise. Chess.

OTHER

INFORMATION

The Institute. - A shady organization™ that had its hand in many things. They're largely responsible for the Unauthorized Passengers' breach into our world. Among other things, they also bring in human 'anomalies' to study and control them by making use of their powers. Corrupt governments, unethical experiments, research into the occult, kidnapping and brainwashing people: you name it, they've done it.

Unauthorized Passengers. - Otherworldly beings that have found their way to our dimension, be it through entropy or the Institute's experiments. Sometimes a combination of both. Agrigorid, Baptiste, Gene, Djibirhachvorsna and So, in addition to Raíz, are examples of Unauthorized Passengers.

NAVIGATION