Toxin week, day 7

“Oh, y’think I’m silly? With m’green skin, icky haih, and funny accent? I’ll have ya know I’m still a scientist! I’m prolly way smahtah than you, or yuh grandma!”

Name: Rae Arleigh

Alias: (The) Toxin

Birthday/Age: November 21, 37

Height/Weight: 5’8”, 166 lbs.

Relatives: by extension, her coworkers Otto Angelo, Edmund Coli, and Keith Sparks

Occupation: ex-ecologist, current ecological terrorist

Interests: the environment, robotics, horror movies

Powers/Equipment: resistance to poisons, acidic qualities in her skin, hair, and blood, mechanical gauntlets that house homemade weaponry such as sludge guns, prototype robotic drones controlled by her gauntlet remote

Weaknesses: fire, clean air, storms

Bio: Rae Arleigh was once a respected ecologist hailing from Boston, who was part of a team that was trying to control pollution. She and her three coworkers worked steadfastly on the project, eventually coming up with a strange chemical that acted as a “poison to poisons,” so to speak—the substance was a poison in and of itself, but, when combined with other toxic chemicals, it would neutralize both their negative effects. It was, essentially, a hyper-cleaning agent.

This sounds all good and well, but there was always a subtle undercurrent of tension among the ecologists. Rae was not the most liked among her peers, and she was often taunted for her amusing New England accent. Otto Angelo, especially, seemed to go out of his way to make work harder for her, and considering that he was the head of the project, she couldn’t object to him, lest she risk her job.

The conflicts reached their breaking point near Christmastime, when the “miracle chemical” had been tested to be consistently successful. The lab was closed early for the scientists to celebrate a well-needed vacation and enjoy the holiday season with their families, and Rae was given the task of locking up. Behind her back, Otto poured some of the chemical in the lunch Rae had brought with her, and considering how it was odorless and colorless, she didn’t suspect a thing until it was too late. Alone, she accidentally ingested it, and went out cold.

Otto had been intending to kill her, but when the ecologists got back, they were met with something much worse. Rae had been completely unconscious up until they got back and saw her on the floor—now with green skin and odd, sludge-like hair. In their shock and confusion, they disturbed her, but her mind was too chaotic from all the changes to make much sense of her situation. She lashed out at them, throwing things and trashing the lab, even going so far as to strangle Keith to death. She slowly became aware of her situation, and reeled back in horror, fleeing the lab, but not before setting it on fire to destroy all evidence of the chemical experiment. Edmund escaped, but not without injury, and Otto hasn’t been heard from since.

Rae made her way into a nearby forest and eventually took over a small shack near a pond. Though not considering herself a “supervillain” just yet, she began to call herself the Toxin and sold hazardous chemicals on the black market as a way to keep herself going. One day, she noticed the rather prolific Mike Quovis gallivanting with criminals there, and decided to approach her. Through a few negotiations, Toxin became the first villain under Mike’s wing.

It’s been five years since the lab accident, and Toxin’s settled into her antagonistic role well. Her body’s become a little more unstable, primarily when it comes to breathing; she fashioned a rebreather for herself, as clean air would make her choke. But unlike some people she knows (Arc, Noir, and Volt, for starters), she doesn’t have qualms with carrying out evil deeds, and even gets a kick out of the hero-villain rivalry. It’s almost a game to her, but hey—anything to keep her from potentially snapping again.

Character History: Toxin doesn’t have as distinct an origin as other characters. She was created for that old rp verse that characters like Gabe and Eli started in, as a member of a species that developed powers according to what their environment was like. She grew up in a polluted port city, thus she got powers pertaining to poison and smog. This was all awesome, but I hardly used her, sad to say, because that rp verse had too many characters anyway. I got better over time when it came to regulating how many I made.

She had a few redesigns here and there, but still she was never fleshed out besides “crazy pollution woman.” However, when the superhero rp verse came along, she was a perfect fit for a lab accident-type character. As cliché as that kind of backstory is, it was one of my favorites, so through the Toxin, I’ve created an homage to mad science, and it fleshed out her character immensely as well.

She has some inspiration from Batman’s Mr. Freeze, too. In the rp verse, her structure became unstable over time, leading her to make a sort of mech suit for herself to contain her body, as a way to homage him even more. Her II design incorporates elements of both her simple hazmat suit, and the mech look; she looks kinda like a Megaman robot master though, which is weird, because that was supposed to be Arc’s look. Oh well!

I also realize that Marvel comics has its own Toxin, but I didn’t know that when I made her (I’m more a DC person). If this ever became “real” and I had to change her name, she’d probably simply be made into the Toxicant or something.

Next week: culicidae culex!