Saint Joseph School

Hello guys, my name is Valerie Bower, otherwise known as Queen Cobra in the hero community. I'm here to explain how I became a, you know, snake-thing. It all started when I was 16, living in a shabby apartment on Mercy Island. Mercy Island is the ugliest, dirtiest place in the entire Rogue Isles. My parents had insisted on living here because it is where our entire generation has lived, except for my uncle, but that's a whole other story. During my time on Mercy Island, I was harassed constantly by the occupying Arachnos forces, until I joined an underground rebel resistance group with strong ties to Longbow. Our goal was to raid Arachnos bases and cause as much damage as possible, eventually trying to get Arachnos the hell out of our home. During one raid, however, we found a conference in which Arachnos and the Snakes were negotiating. Our raid failed, and as a part of their strange bargain, the Snakes kidnapped me. I was to be their "virgin sacrifice" to their demented god, Stheno. This was when the weird started happening.


I was indeed sacrificed, in a horrible and mutalitating way I shall not reveal... but I wasn't sacrificed to Stheno! Another god, Thesba, the female Snake godess of wisdom, saved me from death. She defeated my captors and gave me a new lease on life. You see, Thesba and her followers have been squabbling with Stheno and his followers, so the two are mortal enemies. Before I left, Thesba begged that I let her use by body as a "mortal tether". She said she couldn't exist for very long without a human body to live in, and she offered her vast sorcery and inharent Snake powers for me to house her. I accepted. I accepted for one reason only: to have the power to stop those who harrassed weaker people than themselves. I accepted to help families who don't know if one of their members will come home or simply be executed by a cowardly Arachnos soldier. Anyways, with these new powers came the transformation of a lifetime. With my symbiosis with Thesba came an akward translation between us, resulting in a half-human half-snake body. Okay, i'll admit, I freaked out at first. It wasn't until I was running through the streets crying that I heard a cry for help. An elderly lady was being mugged by a member of the Skulls. Using my powers, I released a lil' anger on him. Realized I had just saved an innocent life, I approached the nearest Arachnos base in fury. I stormed in and with my powers, hoped to shut it down. I was subdued in minutes. So, with a little mind-pep talk with Thesba, I teleported out and approached the ferry. I was to go to Paragon City and learn to be a hero. Only after I hone my powers will I return and dispatch of villainy in the Rogue Isles.

Full Name: Valerie Bower
Current Age: 17
Powers: Inharent Tough Skin, Inharent Sonic Attacks, Dark Manipulation, Teleportation, Minor Telepathy.

I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you on the Isles, Valerie.

My name is Bryan, or Gravwarp, whichever. I hope you like it here at St. Joe's if you need anything, just give me a shout. I'm alsways happy to lend a hand.

Gravwarp wrote:I'm sorry to hear about what happened to you on the Isles, Valerie.

My name is Bryan, or Gravwarp, whichever. I hope you like it here at St. Joe's if you need anything, just give me a shout. I'm alsways happy to lend a hand.

Thanks! St. Joe's has put all this pain behind me, i've accepted my appearance.

... I stormed in and with my powers, hoped to shut it down. I was subdued in minutes.

[ oh BRAVO! BRAVISSIMO! i LOVE this, Valerie. so many students try so hard to immediately set themselves up as incredibly powerful beings, or at the very least to have feet of gold and a chiseled chin. its so awesome that you had to be picked up, dusted off, given a stern talking to and then shipped off to boot camp with instructions not to return until you knew which end of the rifle to hold. i applaud! i so applaud this! ]

...and heyla from me too! And I'm sorry about the thing on the comm, you know. I just heard something from somebody and I was totally curious and said it before I thought about it. I didn't meant to weird you out or anything. I mean, we got blue kids and green kids and kids with spots and kids with stripes - I'm about the only normal looking one of the bunch it seems sometimes!

So.. uh. Yeah. Welcome to St Joseph's. If you know what's good for you, stay out of the cafeteria. No matter what metabolism you got, its bad news.

Yeah, welcome to St. Joe's, Valerie! And what Stasi about the cafeteria? I haven't seen it yet, but I hear the salad moves...

It really does, I've actually seen a tetacle come out and move it one time!

Heyas, Val. Hope SJS is everything you could want and more! And yeah, salad in the cafeteria...just make sure it's not moving before you dig in.

*sighs* dont listen to them i eat in the cafeteria ALL the time and look at me? Geeesh... the tuna surprise is really good and know what... i been here over a year and im still waiting to find out what the big surprise is!
oh i almost forgot!
* hands you a goody bag containing an open granola bar , a 20 oz bottle of coke and a orange post it note that reads SJS rules!*

See ya in class!

((OOC post, i10 update, yadda-yadda))

Valerie was undercover on Mercy Island as an Arachnos Fortunata during the beginning of the Rikti invasion, and returned after a failed sabotage of Arachnos resulting in the death of her parents. Upon returning, she was shaken by the thoughts of her fellow classmates dying and disappearing while she was serving her own personal vendetta on the Rogue Isles. She set aside her grudges against Arachnos and started to help her classmates against the Rikti, but after a week of fighting, she has been disallusioned with fighting, and, her own powers in general. Currently, she is traveling America soul-searching and refusing to use her powers until she has a better grasp of them.

I'm trying to connect her IC with letters posted in the Thread Stories subforum, and will keep in touch until she returns.

((OOC i11 update, etc.))

After returning from her journey across America, Val is a very different girl. She has gone through a transformation of sorts from purifying herself. She no longer has the snake goddess Thesba inside her, but she still retains her snakelike appearance. She has much the same powers, but she has adopted a very strong resistance to harm through careful regeneration. As well as delving deeper into her Snake persona, she is also becoming more attuned to magic. She has better control over it now, able to control the magical energy going to and from people; monsters, and even some robots. She is much more carefree, but agressive at the same time; she'll get angry very easily, and unlike before, she can back up her insults now. She doesn't have many friends, but she is very close to the few she has. She prefers to be isolated, and she has the way of thinking that the less people she holds in her heart, the less people in danger.

((OOC 2008 update))

As of January 1st, Val is a very happy girl. Although the winter season chills her cold-blooded body, and she has to sleep in several heat blankets to stay warm, she is a much nicer, happier person. She has many new friends, like Kierin, Ayima, Ty Cloud, and Noah, and is still very good friends with Jessiy and Kat. She also has a boyfriend, Ashton Prescott, a Bloovine student who she adores. She has become much more snake-like from expelling Thesba from her body, gaining serious mastery of the dark arts and her sonic powers. Her powers have developed so much that she recently defeated another one of SJS's students, Rocco Ritchie, in a one-on-one fight. She has developed resilience to extreme tempuratures, and the experts of G.I.F.T. say that she theoretically has a venomous bite and minor pheromone manipulation. She has come out of her shell drastically and is much more comfortable to life at SJS.

((Update! Val's uncle is no longer Gordon Bower, mayor of Croatoa, but he is Martin Bower, Gordon's cousin and professor of occult studies at the Croatoa University campus. Retconned, so that Val has some family still left in Croatoa. She is under the custody of Martin Bower. Martin Bower is an intelligent, stressed man. He rarely has time for Valerie and always seems to be working. She only manages to eat a formal dinner with him twice a month, and she looks foward to these occasions.))