Nicole Avifana: Platani

Real Name: Nicole Avifana
Hero Name: Platani
Title: The Gifted Mind
Alignment: Lawful Good
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Hair: Thick, Long, and Dark with a series of colorful dye at the end, the colors metallic in nature
Eyes: A very normal green
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 125 lbs.
Blood type: B+



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Nicole is not anyone you'd consider to be a 'leader.' She's never seemed like the take charge kind of person-- optimistic and altruistic, sure, but she's always been the type of person to think first, do later. She is a headstrong go-getter, and if she decides that she's going to do something, she's going to do it right. Some call her naïve or even childish, others say she's got a heart of gold. She's a classic 'law abiding citizen,' who, like most citizens, has a hard time standing her ground on most occasions. She's a bit of a pushover, socially, and tends to let others lead the conversation. She has a deep love and interest in biology, and was considered rather bright for her age-- even now, she's considered one of the brightest minds in her field of study. She's certainly eccentric, and despite her disbelief-- dorky. She's prideful of her home country, and takes honor in just about all the work she does. Within her identity and within the mask, she feels much freer to be a lot more confident-- even borderline cocky, but she tries to keep it in check. She's a lot more open with expressing her opinions and her certainty in herself whilst wearing the mask, a big change to her pushover demeanor. She can even be a bit temperamental whenever she feels free to fully express her feelings like this, leading to some small oversights that can screw her over in the long run. Patience is a virtue, however-- and she has worked plenty on making herself extremely patient.

Nicole Avifana grew up next to the Luzon rainforest in the Philippines, the shining star of her class. Her skills in science and mathematics were second best to none, and it showed in her work. She stayed dedicated to school, dreaming to become a biologist-- she wanted to explore the Luzon in it's entirety, as the forest had always fascinated her. Earning a plethora of scholarships through hard work and got herself sent to study abroad in the USA, becoming a Biology Major at Barnard University in NYC. She kept herself entrenched in her studies, and eventually became head assistant to her teacher, Dr. Austin Yang, who's work is dedicated to learning more about the rainforests and how to preserve them. Which, of course, with some pleading on her end, lead to the team setting out to explore the Luzon rainforest. While entrenched in the forest, Nicole ended up separated and lost from her compatriots. Upon trying to retrace her steps and find them once more, she stumbled upon what had seemed to be poachers, trying to capture and kill an unidentified species of bird to get to it's nesting place, which was also the strangest, most beautiful, tree she'd ever seen. Refusing to let this crime against both the bird, science, and morality go unspoken, she hid and plotted how to lure the poachers away and knock them out, so that she could help the bird and report these poachers to the proper authority. After setting up a temporary trap, a few feet away from the bird's nesting place, she used herself as a distraction to the poachers, running them headfirst into the trap. With that problem temporarily solved, she rushed back to free the bird of it's beaks bindings and try to figure out whether it needs help in healing. Imagine her surprise, then, when the bird begins to sing and she finds the bird both healing itself and putting her to sleep. Upon waking up, much later, she finds herself resting against the tree with the poachers turned to stone in front of her. Absolutely scared shitless, she went to run, until she heard the bird speak. It, in return for her kindness, has both spared her her life and bestowed seven gifts upon her, so that she may continue helping those who need it, when they need it.  

She wandered through the jungle, eventually finding her way out, bewildered and unsure if anything she'd experienced had actually happened. She spent a year just trying to forget it, but with strange happenstances and shenanigans constantly happening due to these 'gifts,' she decided she couldn't ignore it any longer. Putting a pause on her job, she spent 3 years trying to learn the limits and explanations of these powers, and the basics of hand to hand combat. After she figured out her abilities, she took up the mantle of "Platani," figuring the world could always use more heroes. She also, thank her lucky stars, was reinstated as an assistant to Dr. Yangs work, and currently is living in NYC.

1. Agility
2. Reaction
3. Endurance
4. Strength



Permanent Gifts:
These are the gifts given to her that she cannot choose to use, and are simply now active, and apart of her all the time.
           Increased Agility- She can swerve and move much like a bird can fly in air, or fish swim in water (provided she's on the ground). Her ability to move and sheer flexibility are much better than the average humans, but not impressive enough to be considered super speed. Simply put, she's agile and fast enough to be put on an Olympic track team, and could also be a pro dancer, with her flexibility in mind.
          Danger Sense- She can sense just when things are about to go south within sixty feet of her, in a radius. She cannot tell where the danger is, or what, or how severe-- she just knows for a fact that something bad is happening, within that radius. The alert sounds like a little bird song in her ear, and it ceases when either the danger has passed, or if she's found it. Up to two 'alerts' can go off at once.
          Feather Feet- If she's making an effort to sneak, hearing the sound of her feet is next to impossible. She's still visible, and her clothing and just about anything else can be heard, but her footfall is absolutely silent, until she stops trying to sneak.
          Twittering- She can communicate with birds.

Useable Gifts:
These gifts can only be used once a day, per each gift. Trying to over extend herself and call one of these gifts up twice is extremely harmful to her vocal cords, and makes her extremely exhausted.
         Sleep Song- If she hums at a very specific pitch, those within range of hearing (excluding herself) will find the temptation to fall asleep, and become extremely groggy. This effect wears off in between thirty minutes to an hour, depending on the individuals endurance.
         Adarna's Prayer- Upon touching an individuals wound and humming at this prayer's pitch, she can heal any physical wound.
         Adarna's Trick- Upon placing her hand on anothers neck, and humming at the trick's particular pitch, she can freeze an individual in place for 2 minutes max, if the other isn't resisting stillness. Most of the time, the freeze only lasts a minute, and can be broken in only 30 seconds if the others endurance is strong.

Increased Agility- Despite being an elite runner, now, and despite her flexibility being through the roof, this power doesn't grant her any coordination, whatsoever. She also doesn't have the same longevity that runners who trained to be proffessional athletes have, and can become tired out from long distance sprinting quite easily. The same goes for her flexibility-- she can make and unmake whatever shapes she needs with her body (within human reason), but in doing so she'll become super sore if she misuses her body.
Danger Sense- The cap on what is considered 'danger' is extremely low. The bird song could be for a horrible supervillain taking over the city, or it could be for a cat aggressively scratching it's owner. The little bird song is also super annoying, and she's extremely aware and sensitive to the sound. There is also a very particular frequency one can make to alert her Danger Senses falsely.
Feather Feet- The ability doesn't negate things like clothing shuffling, and despite her footfall being next to silent-- it isn't. With advanced hearing equipment or super hearing, you can hear her footfall just as if she was walking whilst sneaking.
Twittering- Birds aren't the smartest or always the most compatible and willing to help. It can also be hard to understand what they're saying if more than 2 birds are speaking at a time.
Sleep Song- She cannot prevent allies from falling victim to her lullaby, and stopping her voice about or before halfway through her humming, effectively stops her song whilst wasting it for the day. Furthermore, she has to be able to get through ten seconds of straight humming without taking a breath for it to work effectively. Five seconds and above it works, still, but is severely less potent than a full ten seconds of humming. If she hits the wrong pitch, she can either do absolutely nothing or waste a different gift entirely due to her mistake. If you record her humming and play it back to her, she is also susceptible to sleep.
Adarna's Prayer- She can only heal what she is touching, and taking a breath ceases the healing. She can only heal for as long as she hums-- the larger, deeper, of a flesh wound or a bruise, the harder it is for her to heal it completely. It also falls prey to the fact she can miss it's pitch, and potentially use a different gift or waste time humming the wrong thing. The more stressful and high stakes a situation is, the more likely she is to miss her pitch.
Adarna's Trick- She can only freeze the person she's in contact with, and the contact must be firm-- it doesn't count if she's gently touching their pinky, it has to be a main body part, like the torso, head, arms, and legs. Or, the grasp has to be extremely firm, like if she's holding someone's hand or wrist. This gift also hits the ten second rule, except if the other breaks away or stops her voice it's an automatic miss. It also falls prey to the same worry of missing pitch, and potentially doing nothing or wasting a gift.

As someone who hasn't had any proffessional vocal training, taking a straight 10 seconds of humming the same exact pitch all throughout is harder for her than those who maybe took choir in high school. Stringing together a series of Useable gifts is tricky and hard to do. It becomes even harder the more high stakes situations she's put in.


She keeps practical things in her utility belt-- some gauze and alcohol incase people get hurt, 2 twin pairs of hunting knives, about 20 feet of rope, a pair of bolas, a small mobile hacking device, 10 bobbypins, and 15 Smoke Pellets. Her weapon of choice is her fists and a steel staff.

Mini Mic- It's a tiny little microphone that she can use to amplify her voice. It has a tiny notch on the spot in her ear, and turning the volume to 0 turns it off. The microphone can last about 2 hours before losing power. It has to be recharged for 4 hours.


N/A. If anything, she's more likely to be the helper than she is to be asking for help.


Nicole gets unreasonably angry at incorrect animal anatomy in kids movies. Her favorite flowers are petunia's, and her birthday is August 22nd. She's scared of heights (ironically, given she got her powers from a bird.) She refuses to kill anyone.

Nicole stretches, extending her arms outward with a loud yawn. Alongside her lackadaisical yawn, she arches her back, eyelashes fluttering as she comes to, looking around. Awh, shit-- had she just fallen asleep? She was working on her research paper for tropical botany! Shoot! Puffing her cheeks out, the woman shifts in her chair, and then readjusts her pajama's as she gets back to typing. That trip to Brazil was very fun, and knowledgeable, too! She's lucky to have had such a friendly tour guide, really.  But now, back to living in the noisy, noisy, noisy NYC. If her skills weren't so needed here she'd go and live somewhere nice and sunny like that, again. However, her skills are needed in big hubs like these-- not her skills in biology, of course, even though sometimes she wishes it was just that-- it was her gifts. The gifts given to her by the bird.

She sounds absolutely crazy when she thinks of it like that. She promises she's not. Out of all the people in the world, she was given superpowers? By a mind talking bird?? All because she distracted a few poachers? Admittedly, she did want to be rewarded for her good deed then, but she didn't think the reward would be in the form of superpowers. It's still kind of an out of body experience for her, honestly. But, regardless- reality waits for no one, and she's willing to accept what it is for what it is, now. She didn't want to sit around and do nothing with this ability of hers, especially after that bird asked her to help others with these gifts. It's the right thing to do, after all. She couldn't just have these powers and not use them for the best good she can give.

As she idly types up the button on this report, she hears a little tweet in her ears. Her eyes widen, and she quickly looks around, before rushing over to the window, and throwing the curtain open. Two men in masks enter the restraunt, and-- welp. She found the danger, she supposes. Shaking her head free of longing to be back in bed, she rushes to get dressed, pulling her hair up and finishing with the gentle placement of her mask. It's time to do her best, now.