InsaneJournal

NAME: Iliana Eris Van Der Witt
NICKNAMES: Ili, Li, Liana, Ana
AGE/DOB: 25 / 11th June

MARITAL STATUS: TBA
SEXUALITY: Heteroflexible

CITIZEN STATUS: Haven born
SOCIAL CLASS: Upper class

OCCUPATION: Criminal Defense Lawyer
RESIDENCE: Apartment in North District

HEIGHT: 5'7"
WEIGHT: 61kgs
HAIR: Brown
EYES: Brown

FATHER: Victor James Van Der Witt
MOTHER: Elisa Isabella Rivers
STEPFATHER: Henry Patrick Knox
STEPBROTHER: William Knox
HALF SIBLINGS: OPEN

The mix of her parents has blessed Iliana with her even golden skin tone, warm brown eyes and hair, and slightly exotic looks. She stands at a fairly tall 5’7, with a slim frame, tempered by slight curves. Iliana is very happy to have boobs that she thinks neither too small or too large for her frame, but does sometimes think she could do with slightly more curves in her natural build.

When it comes to clothing and personal style, Iliana has a tendency to adapt as needed, but when left to her own devices and preferences she prefers dresses, skirts, heels, put together and preferably showing off her legs.

Power transference: The ability to take someone's powers away from them and transfer them to someone else.


- Can't use the powers she takes for herself, instead acting almost just like a vessel for them.
- Has to be physically touching the person she takes the powers from in order to take them, and the same to place them in the other person.
- For maximum ease she prefers to be able to touch both people at the same time so the transfer happens almost straight away.
- Holding them for too long first gives her headaches that get worse the longer she holds them, and then she starts to experience the side effects of the powers she holds, getting stronger until she rids herself of the power.
- The closer together her uses of power, the stronger the negative effects.
- Can't hold more than one power at a time unless she is directly switching them for each other.
- Power switches wear off as the person she takes them from starts to recover, times varying depending on the victim. For the most part this ranges from 1-12 hours.

A beautiful swan, that's the image she'd like to portray. Smooth, serene, with a hint of danger if you upset her, Iliana appears to glide through life, flirting, charming people, getting what she wants. In reality it's more of a duck picture, while everything is smooth on top, underneath she is scrabbling around in an attempt to stay in control, constantly thinking about every move, worrying about how to handle things, what people think, what comes next.

Iliana is more than capable of acting like a reasonable human being, well adjusted, polite, friendly to clients, co-workers and those around her on a day to day basis. Know her a little better and you know she's not as innocent as she appears, hints of seeing her flirt with married men, a little blackmail on behalf of her clients or herself, but hey, she's young and a lawyer, you can't expect a complete angel can you? They don't need to know she actively enjoys trying to cause trouble, stealing away the men who actually seem to care for the women they are matched with, sparking a little tension between people with seemingly innocent comments or leaked secrets she was 'sure you already knew' and is 'so sorry about saying the wrong thing' about. Only those closest know that.

No-one gets all the way inside though. No-one is meant to be able to see the parts underneath, the way she cringes ever so slightly at her stepfather's voice, but forever tries to cover it, the fact she sometimes sits in her apartment feeling utterly alone, or beats herself up when she fails to achieve what she wanted. Iliana's childhood has no doubt screwed her up to an extent, no matter how much she tells herself it doesn't matter. She is constantly striving to keep herself in control of situations, sees her body as a currency and tool, and gets a thrill from people noticing her. She believes love is a weakness and if it gets exploited that is your own fault, yet somewhere deep down she wishes there was some mythical person who'd love her and not let her down.

Special Skills/Abilities: Iliana is a very talented pianist, which is known to many around her. What is kept more secretive is that she occasionally writes songs and sings too.

Personal Weaknesses:
Cynical - Life hasn't given Iliana much reason to believe good things are just going to appear and happen for no reason. She looks at everything with a healthy dose of cynicism.

Closed off - Opening yourself up to others is asking to be hurt, and nothing scares Iliana more than letting someone in.

Unburdened by strong morals - Iliana doesn't believe in the greater good, she believes in what works best for her. She has no problems using her powers to better her own position or helping someone she believes is guilty get free.

Nightmares - Although not as frequent as they were in her teen years, Iliana occasionally suffers from nightmares of her stepfather that keep her awake almost all night.

Escapism - Whether it's from nightmares, her job, memories, or her own mind, Iliana relies on various methods to escape her mind. Medication, alcohol, parties, men, whatever works. Of course, the more she uses them the more she relies on them.


Personal Strengths:
Determined - Once her mind is set on something, Iliana will do almost anything to achieve it.

Observant - Part of being able to manipulate, she pays attention to the cracks, weaknesses, loopholes to be exploited, what makes a person tick.

Sociable - Iliana loves being the center of attention, and so she is quite often found in social situations.

Born the only child to Victor and Elisa Van Der Witt, a young high class couple, Iliana had a good start in life. Her father was part of Haven's military, his powers, which so closely resembled what his daughter's would grow into, were a useful and convenient weapon for them. Sometimes convenience makes people reckless though. Iliana was five when her father was killed, a victim of the wrong powers getting to the wrong person.

Within the year Elisa was matched and quickly re-married, still being relatively young and more than capable of bearing more children. Henry Knox entered their lives, something Iliana cursed often enough in the years to come. He was mean, manipulative, abusive, and Elisa never tried to keep any of that from being directed at her young daughter. At first Iliana's survival mechanism was to stay out of the way of the both of them as much as possible. It was clear, at least in her mind, that her mother didn't care about her, moving on so quickly with Henry as they tried for a new baby that it seemed like she'd forgotten she already had a child. Who needed them anyway? She had her piano, and even at 6 years old, music was her escape from the world around her.

As she got older, staying out of the way stopped working so well. Henry took notice of her anyway, started paying more attention. He liked what he saw, and Iliana wasn't the first woman, barely or not, to learn that when he wanted something, he got it one way or another, and it was safest to just cooperate. She played the game inside the house, learning how to manipulate things to make it easier on herself, and outside the house she used that same manipulation to make herself feel more strongly in control.

Secrets and her body became a strong currency that helped ease her through her teen years and beyond as comfortably as possible in a succession of parties, illicit substances, and men. Getting caught brought a risk of getting in trouble with her stepfather, and as much as she enjoyed the feeling of adrenaline she got from many of her pursuits, she had no interest in making that risk any higher than it had to be, so in turn she got good at hiding things, lying, distraction, doing whatever it took. It was during these years she ended up involved in using her powers as a tool in getting what she wanted too, falling in with some darker parts of the city as she sold the use of her powers to whoever could make it worth her while.

With all that in mind, law probably wasn't where most people saw Iliana asking to be placed, but the more she learned of the career path her older stepbrother, William, had taken, the more interested she became. It was a position of power, at least that was how she saw it, her performance potentially the difference between whether someone was found guilty or not. It was manipulation of others, and being encouraged to do just that, plus it gave her the means to better protect herself. Iliana studied and worked hard to make it through her training, finally becoming a fully certified lawyer at the end of the Summer after she turned 25. It didn't hurt that it put off the inevitable marriage and subsequent trying for children for quite a few years too...