Notes and Sketches

Character’s Full Name: Eliana Suri Pasternack
Codename: None
Aliases/Nicknames: Euphoria
Species: Homo Sapiens Superior
Gender: Female
Age: 23(Birthday: March 22)
Alignment: Chaotic Good

Origin: Miami, Florida (parents emigrated from Israel, are of Ashkenazi descent)
Powers: Eliana has the ability to expel an odorless, colorless, tasteless gas that makes people who inhale it feel elated, exhilarated, and ecstatic. To put it simply, she makes people feel good. The gas travels through Eliana’s bloodstream and has the potential of stretching out in a twelve foot radius at full concentration, with a concentric sphere extending half that distance again wherein which the gas fades to nothing. Of course, when Eliana is moving or there is a breeze, the reach of the gas alters accordingly. The gas is emitted when her blood pumps at a faster rate than normal (her resting heart rate), the gas in the blood vessels closest to her skin is pushed out through her pores, much like carbon dioxide. When in the gas, one becomes subject to symptoms/effects similar to what one would feel if one had taken Ecstasy. These effects may include: increased positive emotion/decreased negative emotion, increased sense of well being, increased sociability and feelings of closeness or connection with other people, reduced defensiveness and fear of emotional injury, a sense of increased insightfulness/introspection, pupil dilation, involuntary rhythmic eye movement, general restlessness, loss of appetite, increased heart rate and blood pressure, decrease in fatigue, and dehydration. (Effects taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) Standing closer to Eliana while the gas is active constitutes a stronger “dose” even if not much is being released, whereas standing on the edge of the gas’s range is a smaller dose, which would take longer to affect said person. It is possible for the gas to become addictive and given enough “doses” will have the same long-term effects as excessive Ecstasy use. How the gas affects a character (within reason and the effects listed above) is up to that player. Feel free to ask questions!

History: Eliana’s parents, Avram and Ilana, were both born and raised in Israel. Their respective parents moved to Israel from Poland in 1967, settling in Gush Katif on the Gaza Strip. Avram and Ilana grew up only a few houses apart from each other. Both attended Tel Aviv University and studied biomedical engineering. The pair married and came to the United States to pursue graduate degrees at University of Miami. In 1984, while Avram and Ilana were teaching and working on their masters, Eliana was born. Ilana did not go on to pursue her PhD like Avram did, but instead remained an associate professor so that she could spend more time with Eliana. While Ilana taught, Avram obtained his doctorate and went on to be a prominent member of the biotech community.

While never exorbitantly rich, the Pasternack family never went without. They lived within their means, and Eliana knew little discomfort growing up. She attended private schools, and though she was not at the top of her class, Eliana did well. In high school, Eliana fell in with the “partying crowd,” but never did anything heavy. Her mutation manifested during puberty, and though there were a few minor, inexplicable episodes while she was in middle school, her first real “show” of her abilities came while at a party. The only “illegal” substance present was alcohol. Eliana exerted herself through dancing and general horseplay, and as her blood vessels widened as a result, the gas in her bloodstream came out in quantities that Eliana had never released before. Unaffected by the gas, the sophomore was puzzled as to why her friends were acting so strangely. The party, held at one of Eliana’s classmate’s houses while his parents were out of town, was raided by the police. Eliana’s blood continued to pump quickly as she paniced, but those around her only continued behaving in that same, if not moreso, strange manner. They were all taken into the station so that their irate or eye-rolling parents could come to take them home. Eliana fought with her parents, like many of her friends did, insisting that she had not taken any drugs. They, like many of the others, had Eliana tested the next day. When the tests results came back negative for Eliana and some of the others not affected by the gas, they were met with apologetic parents. Those who had positive test results weren’t so lucky, but none suffered anything worse than a revoking of privileges and grounding. But Eliana’s relief in her parents’ admission wasn’t enough to make her feel totally at ease. Something had happened at that party. The others who had been tested and proven right in their claims weren’t anywhere near Eliana, while those who were all tested negative. But Eliana knew that no one had anything other than alcohol. The idea that it could have been something that she had done took awhile to form, but after it entered her mind, Eliana proceeded to experiment over the next few months on her dog, a Labrador retriever named Hillel. She was able to determine how she produced the gas, and that she was immune to it. Hillel suffered little, as Eliana was as careful as she could be. Already elderly, the dog’s senility only appeared to be more severe before he finally died of old age.

Eliana was accepted to New York University, where she, much to the chagrin of her scientifically minded parents, earned a Bachelors of Arts in Creative Writing with a minor in Journalism (picked up to assure her parents she would not starve). In her college years, Eliana would sneak into clubs using a combination of her decent looks and a fake ID courtesy of a computer science major. There, Eliana would hone her abilities amongst ravers, studying them to determine their reactions. While in the various clubs, Eliana went by the name “Euphoria” in order to avoid any potential consequences for her subtle actions. After hitting a club, Eliana would go to a diner to record her findings in a composition notebook. Eliana filled three of these notebooks while in school. Through her experiments, observations, careful documentation, and research, Eliana determined just what it was she did to people and came up with a general, but nowhere near exact, idea of how she did it.

Even though she was unable to get a job or the attention of any publishers with her work after graduating, Eliana stayed in New York City. She works as a waitress at Tavern on the Green in order to support herself and her cat, a stray she rescued and named Maimonides.

Personality: Eliana is a bookworm, but it applies to nonfiction as well as fiction. If she doesn’t know something, she wastes no time in finding out more. She is impatient when it comes to conversation, and while she likes idle chit-chat fine, any long pauses in a conversation easily grate on Eliana’s nerves. She keeps her status as a mutant guarded, and still has not told her parents, nor her co-workers. Because of the way in which she secretes the gas, Eliana is careful to keep her life generally stress free so she can keep it under control. Having been acclimated to the club culture in college, Eliana still enjoys that scene, but is usually one hanging out with a small group of friends or coworkers at a table or alone at the bar. Eliana is a stickler for good grammar, both in writing and speech, and is known to correct people without thinking – no matter her relationship with them. She avoids cabs for this reason, preferring her bicycle as a means of transportation.

Miscellaneous: Always looking for fodder for a new story or other literary work, Eliana carries a Moleskine notebook with her wherever she goes, usually tucked in the back pocket of her jeans. Eliana speaks fluent Hebrew in addition to English. She does not, however, keep her parents up to speed on her life, and dreads their weekly phone calls. Eliana practices Reconstructionist Judaism, and is concerned more with the culture than the belief system.