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Classic Marauders April Fools prank: Convince Whiplash Smile she was pregnant, fake the test, pay off the poor gynecologist, even sneakily slip her emetics for fake morning sickness. It was, to say the least, pretty damn funny. Everyone had a good laugh, after Whippy finished smacking around the responsible culprits. Long time ago, those were the days. Old joke, because of course succubi aren't supposed to be able to get "in the family way" for obvious reasons. And then Whippy got knocked up for real. New joke. And like a lot of jokes, it wasn't nearly as funny the second time around. Depending on the situation, trying to pry for information on the father would send the person asking out of the room via window or wall, or send Whiplash herself into a fit of sobbing that was even more disturbing than her anger. Because that was another thing that wasn't supposed to happen. Khazan at large wondered at the peculiar thinning of the Marauder's ranks over nine months. No one told of the pregnancy, but living through the hell of a hormonal Whiplash Smile proved to be too much for nearly everyone. At times the population of the Mansion dwindled to two or three - even Fastest Pussycat had to take off for a weekend occasionaly. When the date arrived it was summer. A humid front broke over the city, the skies opened, and rain poured down. Thunder rolled gently over the landscape. It's said the doctor and two nurses who were brought in to assist with the delivery went mad and tore their own throats open barehanded, a succubus giving birth being more than a mind could stand. But after six hours, Whiplash Smile found herself holding her new baby girl. She cradled the child in her arms, still unnamed, and exactly what she saw will remain unknown for all time. But the day after the birth, there was no child to be seen. Though they occassionaly would whisper of it amongst themselves, none of the Marauders ever spoke to Whiplash of the child again.
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Exactly how the baby who would become Elyssia wound up on the steps of the SLJ headquarters is just one more mystery for the ages. There were a lot of jokes about the stork dropping her off, probably thanks to the feathers lining the box in which she was left. Broad daylight, two in the afternoon, you see, and no one saw anything. Whatever the case, the SLJ being the SLJ, they took in the child. They gave her a physical, getting set to transfer her to an orphanage, but when the results came back she wound up in the SLJ's permanent care. It's hard to say whether they wanted to bring her up themselves, or simply keep an eye on her, but by the time the girl was in her teens they'd long confirmed their suspicions. Unbelievable, but true nonetheless. And what of Elyssia? I guess you might say she was a strange girl. For every inch she was her mother's daughter, she was just the opposite. Strikingly beautiful even at a young age, the various SLJ regulars who cared for her, schooled her, and raised her found the effect grew more intense with each passing year. Imagine being a young girl when everyone thinks you may grow up to be an embodiment of sin, and people can't look at you without shivering. She grew up, and it's true she grew up from a strange little girl to strange woman. There was an innocence in her that somehow went beyond personality and was never broken. And there was something of the peculiar in her, a sort of fetishistic interest in clothes, in presentation, maybe a little of the "hemline neurosis" described by Richard Calder. She jarred with herself, she contradicted, and that only made her mesmerizing aura stronger. The SLJ raised her, and taught her, and as unexpected as it seemed to them, she belonged. She was no corrupturer, but simply beautiful, and in that unique way of beauty she was true. She's been with the SLJ through it all, through the underground, and during its return to legitimacy.
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Can't Breathe
 Paralysis: Superior
Ever feel like you're being watched? Well, let me tell you about it. Let me tell you about what it's like when the most beautiful woman you've ever seen notices you're looking at her. Wait. No, let me go back. Because "the most beautiful woman you've ever seen" might give you the wrong idea. You see, there's two kinds of beauty. Okay, probably more than two, but it's one thing to see an attractive woman, and a whole different idea to see a woman that's beautiful. You follow? It's not just about sex, when you see Elyssia. It's about seeing a creature that catches your breath in your throat, when Elyssia sees you. It's not just that both women and men are struck by her, I've seen silicon-based aliens stare at her. I've seen her literally stop traffic, stalling out cars with a glance. So I just want to be sure we're on the same page from the start. Physical? Yeah, it's physical all right, and she's pretty, but I've seen pictures. It's not the same at all. It's physical, and it's more than physical. You can't be near her, it just sends a chill down your spine. I guess it could be awestruck, but that's not quite it either. Like I already said, it's beauty. It's beauty pure and unadulterated, and I find myself helpless before her.
Can't Think
 Psychic Vampire: Supreme
Now I want you to think about the times when you've seen something that was more beautiful than anything you'd ever seen before. I want to explain this to you, but sometimes I haven't got the words for it. Being near her, seeing her, I just... I can't explain it. I reach for words when she's near, and oh God if I could just talk to her, if I could tell her everything I'm telling you. But I can't. She comes close, and whatever I was thinking is gone. I don't know if she even knows she does it. Is she as pure as she seems, or is that just the illusion of her beauty? Her eyes, it's true, her eyes have a strange innocence in her pictures, and it seems out of step with the world. It's nothing compared to her stare. She stares and it's as if everything you are - mind, body, and soul - fades into the background. You can't move. I know, I know, I've already said that but... I haven't got the words. You have to meet her for yourself. I could lose myself in her eyes, it's more than not being able to move or think. It's like by the time she's looking at me I don't *want* to move or think any more.
Nervosa
 Vibration: Superior
She makes your heart pound, your breath comes shallowly, your blood rushes to your temples, and you can hear your own pulse. Your blood is all you can hear. That's when she sees you across the room. Yes, I wonder about her innocence. It could be the clothes, the PVC, the leather, anything shiny and clinging, the hemline neurosis. I've never seen her in anything else, and sometimes, when her eyes aren't on me, I realize that she's more than skin deep. Her eyes are innoncent, but even the innocent aren't without a mind of their own, subject to the same strange vagaries as the rest of us mortals. So I've seen her step close to others, and I've seen them stare at her. I've felt the shakes, my knees get weak around her sometimes, and my stomach thrums. Well, I guess that's one thing she's learned to control, almost. Yeah. Some people who get close, they get the shakes a lot worse. They bleed, if they're human. I don't want to think about what happens inside them. She does it just being near, like an aura... I've been on the edge of it I think, and I felt all the muscles in my body shake. She knocked me over with just her presence.
Her Touch Is...
 Bio Vampire: Standard
There's beauty in art, and that's closer to Elyssia than beauty in living creatures. But there's a uniqueness to beauty that lives and breathes and thinks. Maybe, I don't know, but maybe it's that we think we can possess it somehow. Or maybe it's that we can't ever know it. I can't say, but I can tell you this. Art can't touch you. Not physically, I mean, not like she can touch you. I've never touched her. I doubt she even knows my name, but I've seen her get close to some people, and they bleed. And then I've seen her touch people and it just makes them worse. Shaking to death, unable to think or move or breathe seems like a pretty bad way to go, but some of them died smiling. You could say that such beauty was never meant to be known by mortal men, but then why isn't its effect limited to just mortals or men? Well, I suppose I haven't got much in the way of usefull answers at all, but I told you before. It's a physical thing, and more than a physical thing. It's beauty, and I guess she's just what living beauty is.
Her Eyes
 Environmental Awareness: Ultimate
- Weakness: Not usable in terrain - Steel Cage
Have you ever walked into a room in an art gallery and, as you begin to turn in one direction, something catches the corner of your eye? You find yourself drawn to one painting out of all the others. I've always found that strange, when it happens, how some detail I wasn't aware of snagged some deeper part of my mind. She walks into a room, and all the hair on the back of my neck stands up. Everyone has a different reaction, save one thing. We all have to look. She knows it, she can't stop it from happening, and when she's somewhere else I wonder how it feels to know that eyes are always on you. She draws the attention, implacably, a constant song to the tune of innocence and beauty. I can cover my eyes, I can close my ears, and I can still feel her in the room. When she's near, my whole body feels numb, and when I look up expecting to see her strange eyes falling on me with a questioning look, she's sitting off in the corner reading. Then I look around again, if I'm not alone, and I see everyone else doing the same thing. It's a different experience for everyone, but I can read their faces, and they've all felt her eyes. When I see a beautiful work of art, eventually I can turn and walk away. And when I look on a work of art, a painting perhaps, the painting never looks back at me.
Gentle Soul
 Healing: Supreme
Everyone has a purpose in life... Don't they? Sometimes I feel like that, like everyone has a purpose but me. Sometimes, it's late, or it's early, and I'm by myself, and I wonder what I was put here for. I know, it's silly. I shouldn't write in my journal when I'm acting so silly. But then writing seems so frivolous, I only write when I feel the same way... I guess I don't understand. I don't like people being unhappy, hurt, oh boy that sounds so ridiculous. Like I can just make all the bad things in this world go away by wishing them away. Like all problems could just be solved by people deciding to be happy and nice. Stupid... I'm sorry, why am I apologizing to myself? There's no one to talk to around here, and no one can look at me. I mean, you know what I mean, I've only written about it a million other times. It's hard to do the right thing sometimes... What's right? What feels right, I guess, what makes me feel good about myself, even if no one'll look at me...
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Hall Of Fame!
Survival - 9 Wins!
Brutal - 1 Fatalities
