<strong>Name: </strong>Arcadia Mitchell, aka Cade, Kade, Kady, K.D.<br/><strong>Codename: </strong>Bramble<br/><br/><strong>Power: </strong>A personal transformation/transmutation into a form composed entirely of an exotic ferrofluid substance.  This inorganic form is then controlled by manipulating magnetic and intermolecular forces within the material.  A certain amount of control over the molecular structure is also present, allowing access to different isomers, chiralities, polarizations, polymerizations, and even crystal structures.<br/><br/>This degree of control is responsible for enhanced strength, speed, and toughness, the ability to stretch and shape the form, and a variety of movement modes.  Other known effects include the signature "brambles", a constantly shifting mass of surface spikes and ridges that shred anything in close contact with the ferrofluid surface.  A manipulation of the surface chemistry can also render the entire ferrofluid an accurate photosensor, providing some enhanced senses.  It is presumed that other effects might also be produced through different manipulations.<br/><br/><strong>Features:</strong>Height - 1.74 m | Weight - 71 kg | Age - 27 years | Hair - Black | Eyes - Brown<br/><br/><strong>Description:</strong>Most people would describe Arcadia's appearance as striking rather than beautiful.  Her face is a little too round, her shoulders a little too broad, and her physique a little too solidly muscled for her to fit into the category of "conventionally pretty".  That said, failing to be conventionally pretty still sets her quite far from unattractive.  She has a slim, athletic form which is accentuated by her exceedingly good posture and the grace with which she carries herself.  Her skin is darkly tanned but clear and free of blemishes.  Her eyes are large, or seem so, and could be alluring.  It wouldn't take much effort for her to turn some heads.  But it's obvious she doesn't usually care to make that effort.  Her hair is worn in a loose ponytail that keeps it mostly out of her way, and doesn't flatter the shape of her face.   Her clothes always look as though she just came from the gym (she frequently has) and she never bothers with cosmetics of any kind.<br/><br/>When she shifts into her ferrofluid form, she becomes a smooth, uniform mass of reflective black liquid.  When the form moves or shifts, the surface ripples, but more slowly than you might expect, causing an odd disorientation as the ripples catch the light in alternating bands of light and darkness.  By default, the ferrofluid form appears as a rough humanoid figure about Arcadia's size, or as a puddle on the ground.  However, it can stretch and bend itself into all kinds of unusual shapes, piling itself up into columns or extending tendrils out and away.  The lustrous black color of the fluid never changes.<br/><br/><strong>Costume: </strong>Arcadia typically declines to wear any official costume; her transformation doesn't extend to her clothing and it can be inconvenient or impossible to carry clothing around in her ferrofluid form, depending on circumstances.  When the Atlanta chapter of the United Heroes required her to log a standard costume and kit, she just logged the outfit she most frequently wears.  A dark gray sleeveless shirt and black martial-arts training pants, formfitting about the waist and loose and straight all the way through the leg for maximum mobility.<br/><br/><strong>Background:</strong>Arcadia grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, surrounded by most of her extended family.  The Mitchell clan was presided over by her great-grandfather, Anthony Mitchell, and the family was a powerful force at the heart of the community.  Most of the Mitchells had careers dedicated to heroic service to the greater good, in the military or police force, as paramedics or firefighters.  Approximately half of the clan were also Larsenites, members of a semi-religious organization that is now more widely known as an anti-metahuman lobbying group.  While this characterization isn't entirely correct, it is true that most of the Mitchells view the existence of metahumans (villain, hero, or otherwise) as an unfortunate circumstance, on the whole causing more problems than it solves.  They prefer to find inspiring heroes from among the unpowered populace, and are proud to hold this belief.<br/><br/>This made things a little awkward when, at the age of 16, Arcadia became the first Mitchell to manifest.  This occurred during a promotion test at her uncle's martial arts school, when she flowed out of shoulder-lock during a counter-grappling drill.  She immediately shifted back, apologized, and submitted to the lock again to properly demonstrate the escape technique.  There were several members of the Mitchell family in attendance for this portion of the promotion, who were shocked.  Arcadia mostly just wanted to complete the test before dealing with the manifestation.  Her uncle, being similarly levelheaded, proceeded without comment.<br/><br/>Afterward, the family was rather sharply divided, with some feeling that Arcadia should leave well enough alone and continue her normal life without letting her manifestation change things.  Others thought that Arcadia ought to make the best use of all the new opportunities this offered her.  Sharing her mother's Larsenite sympathies, and having had a bad experience with a metahuman jerk early in her high school career, she decided to leave the powers alone for a while.  She continued training with her uncle, and left it at that.<br/><br/>Two years later, while visiting Atlanta, she ran afoul of some low-powered metahuman thugs.  Not particularly powerful or disciplined, they didn't pose much of a threat to a martial artist as skilled as Arcadia.  That said, they did outnumber her, and were tougher than the average gangbanger.  Arcadia ended up having to use her power a few times during the fight, and threw one of her assailants through a store window.  The incident shouldn't have meant anything; Arcadia had only used her power defensively, never even completing a full transformation, and had relied on her martial arts training instead to win.  If anything, it should have been a PR victory for her uncle's school.<br/><br/>But some of her mother's political opponents caught wind of the incident, and produced something of a local media circus around the event, calling out the hypocrisy of Renee Mitchell, who agitated for stronger regulation of metahuman activity while her powered daughter was getting into super-brawls in the streets of Atlanta.  Eventually there were even lawsuits brought.  Ridiculous.  Under this circumstance, Arcadia thought it would be best for her family if she accepted a position in the Atlanta branch of the United Heroes.  This allowed the family to benefit from the UH's legal support and to defuse a lot of the public tension.<br/><br/>Though she'd done this for her family, Arcadia had only solved on problem by creating another; the Larsenites in her family were disappointed in Arcadia's decision to "heedlessly embrace the lure of power and status without care for the consequences to the world".  This was a difficult time for her, despite the external benefits.  After a couple of successful years as the hero Bramble, Arcadia left the UH to return to her position as an instructor at uncle's school.<br/><br/>But things are never simple, and her history followed her here.  The students would either disregard or disrespect her because she was a young woman, or elevate her toward idol-worship and unfairly value her judgment over that of other instructors because she had been Bramble.  Either way, not at all helpful to successful training.  Her uncle tried moving Arcadia to a different part of his business, conducting seminars and master-classes for specialized military and law-enforcement personnel, but even here those prejudices and inclinations got in the way.  Feeling dissatisfied enough with her current position to want a big change, Arcadia answered the call when Severance asked for people to come to New Sorea.<br/>-------------------------------<br/>For reference, those of you who aren't familiar with modern ferrofluids:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XUz1ZI-w6LQ#t=57s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XUz1ZI-w6LQ#t=57s)<br/><br/>It demonstrates some of the neat properties of ferrofluids and the sorts of things we can make them do without bringing superhero logic into it.  I'm imagining Bramble's substance to look kind of like that and to behave like an expansion of those capabilities in addition to those exhibited by tunable molecular machines and nanomaterials as imagined by various people in science and science fiction.  Introductory post soon to follow.