Shivani Sadana Background

Name: Shivani Sadana
Street Name: Vacant/Vacancy
Song: My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade

Height: 6'10"
Weight: 320lbs

--Description--

Shivani is of Indian descent, and that's reflected in her dark skin tone. She's imposingly tall at six feet, ten inches, and possesses a strong, lean physique from her days as a soldier. Her torso is rife with scars, some small marks from shrapnel and longer, twisting ones from reconstructive surgery.

Due to her accident, Shivani's skull, neck, arms, and portions of her shoulders have been replaced with cybernetics. Her face is made up of rubberized material that shines like bronze, looking perfectly metallic until it moves. She's quite pretty, and while it makes her Indian heritage clear, it's devoid of the signature orkish tusks she had before her accident. In fact, someone knowledgeable about cybernetics might notice her face is built from presets instead of custom molding. Her face ends in a clear seam past her cheeks. Beyond that, the rest of her head is angular plates and machinery of matte black steel. Her "Hair" is rubberized material, something that looks like thin neon blue dreadlocks that descend just past her shoulders.

Her arms are both cyberlimbs plated with shining, polished bronze. Servos and other flexible areas are covered with black rubber and kevlar. Both are thick and heavily armored despite their sleek bronze-like plates. Her hands are wider than normal, and her fingers each have an extra joint. Along the lower edge of each palm are a row of three short serrated blades, curved toward her wrist. They can move and shift slightly in addition to retracting.

She has a clear love of bondage and leather aesthetic that reflects in her clothes. She often wears dark clothes, and her pants are often thick leather or dark black canvas. She's also fairly fond of anything that leaves her arms free like tank tops, simply for comfort. Even on bad days she still has her old fashion sense, so on non-running days she often wears clothes that show off her figure. She will wear jewelry once in a while, usually silver in traditional Indian designs.

--Background--

Shivani Sadana grew up a military brat in a large family, with her mother, father and most of her brothers and sisters serving in the UCAS military in some fashion. She went to public school and excelled in sports, though most teams she only got into because of her father's influence. On her own time(gained by ducking her helicopter parents) she got into playing bass for a goth band, though one that didn't get beyond the stage of playing bars and other small venues. Other time in her youth was spent in live music concerts and performances and sneaking into clubs.

Being one of two ork siblings among six, her parents prized her size and strength and pushed her to join the Marines after graduation. She initially wanted anything except a military career for herself. However, her friends weren't as ambitious as her and she was a decent bassist, but not spectacular. Hesitantly, she applied. Boot camp was simple(and similar to her home life) and she only really needed help with written and knowledge exams. She kept with playing and listening to music in her off time, ending up hiding a bass guitar from her CO at one point. After being accepted into the Marines, her father pulled a few strings and had her placed on a heavy weapons team.

Life was dull for several years. She was happy and bonded rapidly with her small team, which was almost entirely metahuman. Most of her assignments were dull such as guarding the wall of the Chicago Exclusion Zone, but occasionally her team was called upon to secretly mop up "messes" the UCAS government needed to solve. One such mess was a Humanis Policlub militia seizing a small town in Kansas and killing many of its metahuman residents. Shivani's team as well as several others were called upon to siege the loosely organized militia and brutalize them as a show of force.

Unfortunately, UCAS intelligence was mistaken and the militia had anti-vehicle weapons. The team's armored jeep was hit with an anti-vehicular rocket while on route and disabled. The driver was killed instantly. Shivani was in the passenger seat and received the second worst wounds of the group. Her left arm was obliterated, her skull was badly burned, and her right arm was badly injured. The remaining members of her team were able to overcome the ambush and get Shivani life-flighted to safety.

It isn't that the UCAS doctor was dispassionate. She was given the best care possible, with cybernetic replacements and reconstruction to her arms, shoulders and skull. Her 'ware was top of the line, well armored, and aesthetics were hand-picked by her team. However, her face was created using stock presets instead of anything approximating her actual face. There was no way to properly mold one, and the only picture on file was out of date and its resolution was too poor for scanning. The doctor reasoned Shivani could make permanent decisions once she was better.

Physical therapy went well. Initial psychological testing even seemed positive. Cyberpsychosis began to set in while Shivani was still confined to a UCAS Military owned medical facility. Her low essence, mental trauma from the accident, and the shock of seeing her cyberskull all converged upon her. Even after she got used to the sight, it still wasn't her face. Psychological tests took a nose-dive after roughly a month, with Shivani starting to talk about herself as though she died in the rocket blast. She would waver between questioning her humanity on her good days and claiming to be a drone replacement on her bad ones. The UCAS government faced a choice: Admit fault, or make Shivani disappear.

Officially, the story is that she committed suicide. Her SIN was closed out and she was given a purple heart "posthumously". She was quietly dumped into a high security mental institution, with agents placed to monitor her for improvement. She was earmarked as a potential UCAS asset for shadow operations, then largely forgotten about. UCAS military barely noted when she was sprung from the facility years later by the remnants of her fire team, all of which have been either disavowed like her or forced into honorable discharge. Whether the government's inaction was due to low funds, Shivani's case slipping through the cracks, or a government agent's long-term plan is anyone's guess. Shivani certainly has no idea.

A small silver lining might be that, thanks to the advanced wide-set design of her cybernetic hands, she's better than ever at the bass.

--Notes on Shivani's Mental State--

Shivani's decisions and feelings are often one step removed. Imagine spending a day, a week, or a month trying your best to emulate someone. You'd try to act how you know them to act, eat the food they like, wear the clothes they prefer, and so on. Now imagine that person you're emulating is you. This is how Shivani thinks most days. She gets close to normal on her good days, and can't be convinced she's even alive on her bad ones. On some level her decisions are sincere, but cyberpsychosis severely disconnects the individual. She's often dissociative or passive, and puts other("living") people before her.