Nailbiter

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Nailbiter</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

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<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox> Nailbiter is a former resident of the Birdcage making the most of her second chance.

Personality

She had a violent history as a cape, villainous enough to be imprisoned in the Birdcage.<ref name="5.2 e2">I had worries, but they were ones I’d rather not voice aloud. Nailbiter had a history that had seen her arrested and sentenced harshly, without much delay. Post-Gold Morning, she’d settled back into her role as a violent cape, serving as what might have been Beast of Burden’s second in command.

She was calmer than she’d been reported to be in the one article I’d been able to dig out of my boxes of notes, part of an article from a magazine, listing the Birdcage’s residents at the time. The last page of the article, annoyingly, hadn’t been preserved. I’d pulled the page out for whatever article or image was on the other side.

Either way, violent, as might have been expected for an ex-con with rusty nails instead of teeth. Prison and nine years might have changed her a bit from the person described in the article, but I doubted Colt was in good hands.

“Okay,” I said. “We don’t want to ignore this. I’ll make some calls later. I’ll see what I can find on Nailbiter. She was from North Carolina, I think, and some of their capes are still around. I’d have to track down a veteran. We’ll see what we’re up against. If I get a chance, I’ll have a conversation with her.” - Excerpt from Shadow 5.2</ref> She may have mellowed out since then.

She has killers instinct.

Appearance

Appearance

She is a thin women<ref>Kenzie glanced at it and hit a key. Windows popped up, with three-dimensional models of each face, mask included. A young woman with a purple hood with nascent antlers sticking up through it, a skinny woman with rusty nails instead of teeth, and a woman in a white jacket with a doctor’s face mask.

I named them. “Velvet and Nailbiter. That might be Bitter Pill, but she hasn’t shown her face or been photographed any for the files. - Excerpt form Shade 4.1</ref> with mocha colored skin.<ref name="I6">Lung walked with confidence to the ‘hole’, a word with double meaning, as it referred to the actual hole in the wall, as well as the more vulgar term for why many in the men’s half of the Birdcage went there – it was the sole route into the women’s prison.

A group of women were on guard on the other side of the hole, standing or sitting at various vantage points there.

“Who’re you?” one of the women asked him. She was a striking woman with coffee colored skin and a mouthful of teeth that looked like knife blades.

“I am Lung.”

“You’re new?”

“Yes.” - Excerpt from Interlude 6</ref> What sets her apart are the sharp metal spikes crammed into her mouth in place of teeth.

She is able to speak clearly despite the change but her speech does have a slight whistle,<ref name="5.2 e1">“She decides,” Nailbiter’s voice had a slight whistle around the words. “I’m losing patience, Colt. If I walk away from here without you, I’m not bringing you along again.”
[...]
“I’ll be by next week to collect,” Nailbiter said. “See you then.”

Another whistle on the ‘s’ of ‘see.’ - Excerpt from Shadow 5.2</ref> not unlike someone who has a cleft palate.

Changer Form

Invoking her changer form causes the appendage to become long and black.<ref name="5.3 e1"/>

Abilities and Powers

Her cape name is extremely literal, having rusty nails for teeth,<ref>Shadow 5.2</ref> yet it is also misleading. Her power is to extend any part of her body into a sharp brittle implement.<ref name="5.3 e4">I turned to look the other way, and saw Love Lost with one clawed hand resting on a crouching Nailbiter’s fingers, guiding them. Nailbiter had both hands together, fingers pointed at me, and the fingers were extended out.

Enhanced strength, and the ability to extend any part of her body, making that part rigid and thinner.

She moved her hand, and two fingers pressed me against a wall, needle thin bars against my throat and thighs. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.3</ref> Usually this means he arms and legs but it also means her torso, fingers and toes, this makes them razor sharp.<ref name="5.3 e3">I started forward as Nailbiter reached out. Her arm extended, long, thin, and rigid, fingers doing the same as they became points so fine and far away I couldn’t even make them out. Spright kicked out and brought an arm up to deflect the piercing fingers with the armor there. He landed on the roof, and an intervening building meant I couldn’t see where he went from there. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.3</ref> She can even weaponize her tongue.<ref name="5.3 e5">Her mouth opened. I didn’t see her do anything, but I threw up my shield all the same, the moment I felt it was ready. I pushed out, hard, and the wretch did the same, gripping and pushing the finger bars that had trapped me. A foot from my face, her tongue struck hard against an invisible surface. It would have gone right through me if it had connected.- Excerpt from Shadow 5.3</ref>

She can expand her face to something more like a crocodile so that she can bite people.<ref name="5.3 e1"/> This interferes with her ability to speak, to do so she needs to pull her face back into a more human shape.<ref name="5.3 e77">Nailbiter pulled her face back together, the features drawing shorter.

“You aren’t Cedar Point.” There was a whistling ‘s’ sound on Cedar. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.3</ref>

It also gives her a certain amount of strength and speed, though this seems to only apply in her Changer form,<ref name="5.3 e4"/> able to cover a good distance with her stride.<ref name="5.3 e1">Love Lost had joined the chase, running alongside Nailbiter, who had extended her limbs. They made a racket as they ran. Love Lost’s claws scraped the road and kicked up sparks, and she was faster than an ordinary person.

Nailbiter, though, had extended her limbs, but they got narrower as they grew longer, and had become black and gnarled in the process. Her jaw hung low, the joints on either side extended, her jawbone made longer and narrower, and the teeth extended further.

She looked like something half-crocodile, half-scarecrow.

She had no problem with mobility or strength, apparently, as she took strides that were fifteen feet long. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.3</ref>

History

Background

One does not get sent to the birdcage by being nice.<ref>“Do you want me to deal with her?” Nailbiter asked, her words whistling through her teeth.

“No,” Prancer said.

“Why am I here then?”

“Because I think you and her are similar. You respect strength, you know how power works. You’ve dealt with scary customers. If we end up interacting with her more, and especially if she moves into the neighborhood, I think we want you to be on point, interacting with her more.”

 Shade 4.1</ref> In her case it was five years ago.

Story Start

Was one of the guards at the guards at the bridge between the men and women's wings of the Birdcage. She challenged Lung when he was crossing to visit his former lieutenant Bakuda but let him pass when he provided an adequate explanation to the Watch leader.<ref name="I6"/>

Gold Morning

As she was not part of the original Birdcage releash she was likely taken from the prison by Khepri.

Early-Ward

Roughly nine years since her imprisonment<ref name="5.2 e2"/> she had settled back into life as a villain, working with Beast of Burden. She found herself at the Lodge when Prancer made his pitch to the villains there.<ref>Interlude 1 II</ref>

Was brought to hoolow point with Beast of Burden.

Tapped by Prancer to deal with Damsel of Distress II.

Trivia

• Usually a nail biter is someone who chews on their fingernails, often as a way to cope with anxiety.
• It is assumed that Nailbiter appeared unnamed in based on the Law of Conservation of Detail

References

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