Nikki is a student at NYU and a teacher at Xavier's School.
- Biographical Info
- RP Notes
- Powers
- Event Involvement
- Storyline
- Social Circles
- Wanted
- Links
Biography
- Name: Nicole Weaver
- Alias: Nikki Vibe
- Age: 18
- Family: Nikki ran away from home to protect her parents from the social repercussions of having a mutant in the family. She makes no secret of the fact that they live in Georgia, where once-hidden currents of historical racism have been thrust to the fore by the appearance of mutants.
Only after several months in New York did Nikki have the courage to contact her parents directly and explain her situation. Far from being angry, her parents were intensely relieved. At their strenuous request, she took a semester off from Xavier's School. After getting some perspective on her school experience, she returned to finish high school at Xavier's. She's currently enrolled at NYU, majoring in music theory.
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RP Notes
- RP with Nikki is all about variety. If it weren't, I would get bored. Mostly she's fun and funny; snarky irreverence and a love of the absurd are the cornerstones of her sense of humor. She also can be angsty at times, but she has the decency to feel self-conscious about it and do her best to get over it. It's tough to get her really mad, but if you do manage to rouse her ire, I warn you, she gets very intense and headstrong.
- On that subject, here are a few things I can think of that will really set her off (for you to avoid or pounce on, depending on the sort of RP you're after (I'm looking at you, John. ;p)):
- Dismiss her opinion without taking the time to logically refute it. She doesn't mind being wrong but she hates being ignored.
- Threaten her friends or the stability of her social environment. She's like a mother bear about this kind of thing.
- Accuse her of being aggressive or willfully destructive. Let's just say this is a one-way ticket to DEEP-SEATED PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES. Nikki's powers can cause a lot of property damage, and she's got a lot of guilt about having them.
- I'm not generally one of those competitive RP'ers, but I do tend to play Nikki as "more musical than thou" unless there's a really good reason not to. She's been playing and singing since she was a little kid, she's been a major player in a locally successful band, she's a deft multi-instrumentalist, and she's done fairly serious touring of the Southeast. If your character is that serious about it and has that much experience, be sure to let me know so I can RP accordingly. If not, I promise she's not excellent at much else, and if your character has expertise in any other area you can probably blow her out of the water.
- Nikki is a teenager, and sometimes uses speech patterns that I, personally, would find embarrassing. Don't let it fool you: she's quite bright.
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Powers
Nikki can generate sound using intense, high-speed vibrations in her limbs. She can produce a vast range of frequencies, including the subsonic, the hypersonic, and an incredible diversity of audible sound. By combining intense vibration with certain motions or poses, she can produce concussive compression effects.
At the moment, she can use a directional blast of concussive force that sounds like a clap of thunder and sends others sprawling. She can control the power of these blasts by adjusting the volume of the thunderclap. Additional concussive effects will have to be discovered through either experimentation and luck or careful acoustic calculations Nikki herself isn't capable of.
Nikki can also play complex chords and melodies with her powers, and she often uses this as accompaniment to singing or playing an instrument.
If Nikki is emotionally agitated, her power tends to manifest in discordant, grating noise that she has difficulty getting under control. Since she started at Xavier's this effect has diminished, both as she learns to rein in her powers and as she becomes accustomed to stressful situations. Living as a human with her parents for a semester gave her a lot of practice restraining her powers.
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Event Involvement
- Nikki confronted the Shadow Monsters during their attack on Times Square in Shadowplay Pt. 1. She blasted several of them off of Buck?, at which point the shadows seemed to be forced out of their hosts.
- Nikki and Saga? joined up with Shane and Bill? to see what happened to the Sea Creature after it attacked at the Mermaid Parade?.
- Nikki got a group of friends together to explore a warehouse that burned down. On the top floor, she discovered something shocking and mysterious that she still hasn't been able to explain.
- Nikki performed at the opening of the Dark Facade nightclub before thugs showed up and tried to turn it into a bloodbath. They got their wish, thanks to Felix? and Durante, but Nikki and Caitlin were too busy keeping Barbara from being trampled to either help take down the thugs or try to stop the other mutants' rampage.
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Storyline
Nikki's powers manifested at a high-pressure New York gig where her band hoped to impress talent scouts from indie and national labels. She generated a concussive explosion of sound that destroyed a lot of equipment and broke both her arms. Nikki healed at the hospital, but left without leaving word for her parents. Using the pseudonym "Nikki Vibe," she began searching for work and a place to stay.
The suburban musician's first days of homelessness went about as well as you'd expect. After a chance encounter turned violent, she was left with vivid memories of receiving injuries she clearly didn't have. Despondent, penniless, and doubting her own sanity, Nikki accidentally revealed her mutancy to several other teenagers. Mutants themselves, they took pity on Nikki and introduced her to Mercedes, who allowed her to stay at the Dream House Youth Center.
With this new anchor of stability, Nikki was able to get a job at Steve's Musical Instruments? and start supporting herself. However, a chance encounter brought some ghosts back to haunt her, and Nikki's tenuous self-control crumbled. Caitlin, a recent acquaintance familiar with Xavier's School, contacted the school about Nikki's case.
While waiting for Caitlin's mysterious connections to come into play, Nikki met and struck an odd friendship with Jace. In the violent, uncontrollably destructive mutant boy, Nikki saw one possible outcome of her own internal struggle. Shortly afterward, Jean Grey? ended up bringing both to Xavier's School.
Until his disappearance several weeks later, Jace and Nikki were almost inseparable. Nikki made it her duty to temper the boy's mood swings and head off his violent outbursts. Jace was reaching toward a deeper relationship, which Nikki refused unless he could learn self-control. One day, Jace simply vanished. Nikki avoids talking about him, due to a misplaced sense of guilt. She wonders if, by rebuffing Jace's affections, she drove him away.
Fortunately, competing in the field days events helped Nikki move on by bonding with others. During the events, Nikki grew closer to Rahne, engaged in some healthy competition with Adam, and became more generous in her attitude toward Simon?. Around the same time, she also struck up a strong, sisterly friendship with Sally, a fun-loving teacher.
However, she did have notable discipline problems. Her feuds with Faith? and John were so high-profile that Xavier himself got involved. Unsurprisingly, Nikki disagreed with the punishments the headmaster chose for her. She has since gotten a reputation for treating the professor with a measure of skepticism rare among those at the school.
Around this time, Nikki finally contacted her parents. They were relieved that she had been staying somewhere safe, but still missed her enough that they wanted her to return to Georgia and stay with them. When they visited her in January, Nikki agreed to take a semester off from Xavier's. With the return of summer, Nikki came back to New York and has resumed boarding at the school.
Since her return, Nikki is pursuing a record deal with a startup indie label. This has taken a lot longer than she expected it to, as the label people dither on whether they're going to actually sign her or not.
When the fall semester began, Nikki was appointed squad monitor for the Deviants. She isn't sure what to make of this display of confidence in her, but she's determined to do the best job possible for the kids she's been assigned.
That determination was put to the test at the opening of the Dark Facade nightclub. Nikki was only there to perform, but a panic caused by a bloody fracas between armed thugs and mutants meant that she spent most of her night working with Caitlin to help keep Barbara safe. Nikki was appalled at the way Felix? handled the situation, and wasn't sorry to see him leave the school.
After getting her diploma, Nikki enrolled at NYU. She had a hard time deciding whether or not to sign up with the Xavier Institute: on the one hand, she didn't want to have to leave the mansion; on the other, she knew she'd eventually have to live among normal people, and that the sooner she got used to it, the better. Finally, Xavier made the decision easier by offering her a job as a music teacher, allowing her to bridge the gap between her ties to the school and an independent life in the city.
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Social Circles
(several casual acquaintances and have been left off the list because it's ridiculously long)
Students
- Barbara: After Nikki helped protect her when she collapsed at the Dark Facade opening?, the two seem to have bonded. Nikki wants to be a good influence, but worries about the younger girl's impetuousness.
- Bernie: Nikki's closest friend at Xavier's School. A marvel at detecting and staving off Nikki's emo moments.
- Betsy: Seemed to have a crush on Nikki, which has been carefully redirected into friendship.
- Bobby?: Has managed to look past Nikki's tendency to demolish his finest ice sculptures.
- Damia: Nikki met her through Caitlin and Jace, and as a result was sent to invite her to join the school.
- Faith?: Went from a potential friend, to a minor annoyance, to Nikki's number one threat to national security. Nikki reacted nastily to what she saw as Faith endangering the network of friendships she has built at Xavier's. It's still unclear whether this feud will continue after Nikki's hiatus.
- Jace: Came to the school with Nikki. Wanted a romantic relationship, but was refused for his lack of self-control. Subsequently disappeared, causing Nikki great distress, then reappeared much later, causing greater distress.
- Kisha?: The first person at the school to meet Nikki in her new 'teacher' role.
- Michael: A fellow student who shares Nikki's dilemma of a power with both artistic and destructive aspects.
- Rahne: In need of an older sister figure, which Nikki tries to provide. Although her study habits prevent them from seeing each other often, Nikki does her best to offer sound (?) advice on romance and other growing pains.
- Ralph: A social butterfly who's stuck in the pupal stage, Nikki has decided. Amiably suffers through her near-manic attempts to get him to open up.
- Simon?: His crude sense of humor offends Nikki's sensibilities ("only witty penis jokes, please"), but she tries not to let it get to her.
- Wesley: A good friend but a shameless flirt. Nikki agreed to an hour or two of Anime evangelism in exchange for exposing him to indie rock. This did not go well.
Teachers
- Basset: Not quite the cruel taskmaster everyone seems to think she is, Nikki is certain. Well, mostly certain.
- Brianna: Though Nikki's general rebelliousness has caused a few awkward moments, the two have bonded over their mutual love of performing.
- Felix?: It was bad enough that his response to danger at Dark Facade was to put everyone in more danger by charging the stage in lion form and escalating the panic. Nikki was even feeling bad for him after he got shot. But once Barbara started getting eyefuls of the carnage lion-boy left behind, Nikki's sympathy vanished. As far as she's concerned, there is absolutely nothing heroic in killing people.
- Jean Grey?: Brought Nikki to Xavier's School. Also helped Nikki trespass on a crime scene in order to search for a missing friend. This elevated her to hero status in Nikki's eyes.
- Kurt: Nikki finds him delightful company, and once mistook his tail for... oh, never mind. His fencing club was one of her favorite school activities.
- Sally: Nikki's favorite comedic foil. Just as close a friend as Bernie, but both feign a formal teacher/student relationship whenever the Professor's around.
- Xavier: After he took her in and helped her overcome her traumatic encounters with Donnie, Nikki's attitude toward Xavier was unbridled awe. She hasn't always agreed with his decisions, though, and in response to others' faith in the Professor, she sometimes plays devil's advocate. However, with the perspective of some time away from the school gave her, she has realized what a huge difference his work made in her life.
City
- Adam: The two aren't as close as they were before Adam graduated, and a lot of what Nikki hears about him these days has her worried.
- Caitlin: Convinced Nikki not to skip town and made teachers at Xavier's School aware of her case. Since realizing that the girl is a mutant, Nikki has come to trust her as someone ready to use her gifts to help and protect others.
- Chikako?: The first mutant to out herself to Nikki. Changed a pencil lead into a diamond, which Nikki fashioned into a pendant.
- Durante: Like Felix, a primary participant in the bloodbath? at Dark Facade. Unlike Felix, when Nikki voiced her disgust at his actions, Durante admitted to his own horror at what he had done. As if this didn't leave Nikki conflicted enough, he turns out to be an acquaintance of hers from many years ago. Though she's certainly wary of him, she wonders if by befriending him, she might be able to influence him in a positive way.
- Emma: Nikki wasn't in town during Emma's worst time in the spotlight, so when they became friends, she was unaware of her mutation or her wealthy background. Since being brought up to speed, Nikki has tried to continue their friendship in the same vein as before.
- Pietro: A kindred spirit, though he studies at a different school of rock.
- Zachary: Nikki became his friend after discovering he was a fellow mutant without a support network. At one point, Nikki also discovered that Zachary was trying to sabotage her fictional relationship with Tyson, which she'd faked to avoid a relationship with Zachary.
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Wanted
Any opportunities for plot or investigation entanglement! Nikki loves to snoop around where she isn't wanted, she's dedicated to helping friends in need, and I as a player am totally open to discussing hooks that could bring her into your character's plot-related activities.
Music students or mutant power trainees are always welcome!
Any XS grads who want to live in the city (or new players who want to play former XS students) should ask about being Nikki's roommate. There are three available slots, and all are background NPCs at the moment. Keep in mind this is an alternative to joining the Xavier Institute; at the moment, you can't be part of that program without boarding at the school.
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Links
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