marilyn elaine d’arcy

the basics

full name ♦ Marilyn Elaine D'Arcy
nicknames ♦ Mary, Dr. D
age ♦ thirty-six
birthday ♦ October 17, 1982
occupation ♦ Head Psychiatrist at Monroeville Asylum
school ♦ where they are now, or have been previously
species ♦ human
ability/power ♦ Adoptive Muscle Memory with Advanced Reflexes
how the ability works ♦ Anything Marilyn sees someone do with her own eyes, she can mimic it. This does not include other people's abilities/powers. Marilyn has an eidetic memory, so whatever she sees is stored up in her brain forever. However, she can't expand upon her powers - she can mimic a concert pianist at any time of the day, but if she were to sit down in front of a piano and try to come up with something by herself, she wouldn't know where to start because she's never learned piano. In tandem with her mimicry, Marilyn has advanced reflexes. (She can't stop a bus or anything, but when adrenaline is pumping through her, she finds she is exceptionally faster, stronger, etc for that split second than most humans).
gender ♦ Female – she/her
sexuality ♦ Heterosexual

the appearance

face claim ♦ Abigail Spencer
height and weight ♦ 5'5" and 130lbs
identifying features ♦ no identifying features
overall appearance ♦ Marilyn is petite and thin. She knows she doesn't eat nearly as much as she should. When not dressed for work, Marilyn doesn't have much care for her outer appearance - more often than not she would be found in sweat pants and an over sized t-shirt. Though thin, Marilyn spends quite a bit of her downtime working out, so she is toned. In a crowd, you wouldn't notice her, as she tries to make herself small and as unobservable as possible. She blends in.

the personality

likes ♦ gin, reading, violin, sappy romance movies
dislikes ♦ loud noises/music, horror, painting (it reminds her of her mother), working at Monroeville
strengths ♦ eidetic memory, physically very fit
weaknesses ♦ weak willed, scared of pretty much everything
dreams ♦ finally doing something to save the kids in Monroeville/giving a giant 'screw you' to the board
fears ♦ that she will never amount to more than anything than her powers let her - she will always be 'just as good as' someone else. She can never strive to be the best;; without her powers, she fears that she is also nothing.
overall personality ♦ Marilyn is bright and kind, but incredibly weak willed. As infinitely smart as she is, Marilyn never learned how to stand up for herself. She's a very mousy, 'do as you're told' type. She doesn't have anything to stand up for.

Marilyn is very grounded - she doesn't believe in anything she can't see. In a life of chasing knowledge, she's found her comfort in science - tangible evidence of the things surrounding her. The only time Marilyn is ever really comfortable and at peace is when she's curled up in her home reading the newest study cases the scientific world has to offer. She loves learning.

From her bumpy past, Marilyn is quite the pessimist. She doesn't believe the world is inherently good anymore. Nothing is looking out for her, and the shit that happens is a direct result of shit people. 

the history

father ♦ Chris Wyatt, 53, occupation unknown
mother ♦ Anne D'Arcy, would be 52, nurse, deceased.
siblings ♦ n/a
important people ♦ n/a
hometown ♦ Boston, Massachusetts
overall history ♦ Marilyn D'Arcy was born to Chris and Anne when they were 17 and 16, respectively. While Chris pressured Anne to give up the baby, Anne was stubborn and decided to keep the baby, even if it meant no one would help her. And no one did. Anne grew up in a strict Catholic household, when she refused to give little Mary up for adoption, her parents all but excommunicated her. Chris, the man who had promised her that he would be by her side no matter Anne's decision, also left. Anne dropped out of school and took on whatever job she could to help Marilyn grow up in a decent home.

Within a few years, Anne knew she had made the right decision. Marilyn was smart. Now every parent seems to be under the impression that their kid is special, and is going to go places in life or whatever. But Marilyn was different. This child, this sweet little girl that almost never existed, was brilliant.

When Marilyn was eight, she helped her mother return to school and attain her GED. Anne thought, if her child could help her get a GED, then why couldn't she get one herself? Within no time, Mary graduated high school and was well on her way to attaining her first of many college degrees. Nearly all of Marilyn's schooling was paid for by scholarships she had won throughout her lifetime. Whenever she needed more money, she would just apply for another scholarship, which 9 times out of 10, she would win. Marilyn had almost no need for her mother anymore.

It was one day while Marilyn was nine that she began to understand what her powers truly were. It was a weekend, Anne was out grocery shopping, and Mary was left to herself and some old goofy karate movies she had rented from the movie store down the street. When Anne got home she found Marilyn performing ridiculous stunts (that would generally take years to master) move for move. It wasn't until Marilyn did a full on back hand spring before Mary thought any of it strange.

That night Marilyn was extensively questioned by her mother, where did you learn to do that, how long have you been taking lessons without her knowing, etcetera, etcetera. It wasn't until Mary broke down into tears that her mother realized she was telling the truth. Mary just... Did it.

The following years Anne began sneakily "testing" her daughter. She would show her videos of world class pianists and two weeks later would ask Mary to recreate the music when they passed by a piano in a music store. After watching the Olympics, Anne would take her daughter to the local pool, just to be proven right again. Marilyn would flawlessly perform whatever task she had seen.

Marilyn soon found out about her mother's 'tests' on her, and while she was irritated by the fact that Anne hadn't told her anything about it, she was excited to try more. To test her limits. Could this advanced muscle memory thing be expanded? Could she go above and beyond what she had seen, to create something of her own? The next several years Marilyn dedicated herself to find out that answer.

There were several phases of tests that Marilyn put herself through. For a solid three months when she was twelve, Marilyn did nothing but watch Bob Ross videos and fill their entire house with impeccable paintings that looked like they came straight from the man himself, but never anything above or beyond that. It took two months for Marilyn to learn that she could recreate any violinist's composition that she physically saw, but when it came time to play something for herself, she was a wreck. Marilyn was fastly approaching the fact that while she was brilliant, with this amazing gift, she couldn't do anything for her own. She would always be just as good as someone else. Never better. There was no room for evolution. For learning. She would always be as is.

At fifteen she abandoned her silly little experiments and returned full time to her schooling. Marilyn was coming up for her first doctorate and she had no time to spend on silly, menial tasks. At least this was something she was good at, all on her own. Marilyn spent months writing and editing her thesis Genetic Mutation. She delved into the science of geneticism to 'hypothetically' explain the possibility of genetically mutated 'super humans'. Little did she know, this is what put her on the map.

A few weeks had passed since Marilyn had been awarded her doctorate, and a peculiar letter had ended up amongst the D'Arcy's mail. It was addressed to Marilyn, from some Primrose Academy in Louisiana. Marilyn scoffed at the idea of it. Why on earth was some high school sending her a letter? Were they confused? Did they not know who she was? She checked again. It was addressed to Dr. Marilyn D'Arcy. That was certainly strange. It was a formal invitation, asking her to be a student.

A student?

She scoffed at the idea. Like hell she would be subjected to high school for a second time. Marilyn crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it away without even reading the rest of the letter.

Several years had passed since the letter. It was barely a blip on Marilyn's radar, just a funny story to tell to her colleagues on certain occasions. Marilyn was 19 when her mother had been diagnosed with leukemia. It was July - the doctor's had given Anne maybe a few months to live. Marilyn did the only thing she knew to do - she threw herself into work. Studies upon studies, walls of graphs and charts, and all the money and grants that Marilyn could scrounge to throw at her personal cancer research. She knew she could cure cancer. If anyone could it would be Marilyn D'Arcy. Perhaps it was that arrogance that blinded her. 

Before she knew it, Anne was all but completely crumpled before her eyes. It was mid-December. Marilyn is by her mother's bedside at Boston Medical Center. Anne was succumbing to the leukemia, and even with all of Marilyn's extensive studies, connections, and money, she couldn't do about it. Never before in her life, has she felt so helpless. Her mother couldn't speak much anymore. With the little strength she could muster, Anne wanted her daughter to know how proud she was of her. How she wouldn't have changed anything. Hours later, Anne silently passed away.

After the death of her mother, Marilyn quickly spiraled out of control. Without her moral compass to guide her, she felt lost. She had never really been on her own before, how was she supposed to cope?



Marilyn managed to scrape by, though the road she chose was probably less than desirable. Most nights she would go to bed drunk, and during the day she would just sit around the house doing nothing.

Several months had passed when some suits had showed up at the mourning woman's door. They were from some Monroeville Hospital in Louisiana. They had been following D'Arcy's research ever since she had published her dissertation for her first Doctorate. They were offering a job, and looking for someone like Marilyn. Someone special.

The woman knew she couldn't sit and mourn forever. As much as she wanted to, the money was running out. Maybe this shift would be what she needed. Marilyn accepted and moved to Louisiana, not even bothering to read the job description left for her.

She was shocked to find that they had hired her as a psychologist and researcher for a hospital full of super-powered humans. She had been right - super humans were real and no longer just a doubt in her mind. This drew Marilyn out of her depressive state (for a little while at least) and she once again threw herself into her work. Learning new things and about new powers was invigorating, and reassuring that she wasn't a total quack. 

On the surface, everything was perfect. Marilyn had a good job, helping people. Her research into super humans was being funded, and well. It was great. Until Marilyn glimpsed the belly of the beast. Strange and terrible experiments were being performed on the patients in Monroeville. If anyone protested, they were silenced. If they weren't silenced, they mysteriously 'disappeared.' Fear struck deep into Marilyn. She never said anything, but the air changed around Monroeville that day. They knew.

Sometime later Marilyn was summoned by the board. Through thorough questioning they found out what all she knew. Out of fear, Marilyn chose to stay, and turn a blind eye to their experimentation. She tried her best to keep her wards out of trouble, tried to keep them safe. But sometimes...

Marilyn is thirty-six now. Through the years she had moved up in her position in the hospital. Her blind spot towards experiments got harder and harder to ignore. Now Marilyn oversees them. With the passage of time she's nearly convinced herself that these experiments are helping. That what they discover here will help all of humanity in the long run. At night, when it's quiet and Marilyn is alone with her thoughts, she knows she's wrong.

the role player

alias ♦ aspen the potato queen
age ♦ 1 million
pronouns ♦ she/her/supreme overlord
code ♦ ADMIN EDIT
other characters ♦ @wren